Case Law On American Indians

An update on American Indian case law from September 2021-October 2022

Dewatering Trust Responsibility: The New Klamath River Hydroelectric and Restoration Agreements

In order to protect Indian property rights to water and fish that Indians rely on for subsistence and moderate income, the Interior Department Solicitor has construed federal statutes and case law to conclude that the Department must restrict irrigation in the Klamath River Basin of Oregon and Northern California. Draft legislation, prescribed by the February 18, 2010 Klamath River Hydroelectric Agreement and the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, would release the United States from its trust duty to protect the rights of Indian tribes in the Klamath River Basin. The agreements will also prolong the Clean Water Act Section 401 application process to prevent the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from issuing a properly-conditioned license for dams in the Klamath River that will protect the passage of vital fish populations. This article argues that the agreements prioritize the water rights of non-Indian irrigation districts and utility customers over first-in-time Indian water and fishing rights

Ecological and Economic Feasibility of Inductive Heating for Sustainable Press Hardening Processes

Press hardening is an established process for the production of high-strength lightweight structural automotive parts, like the B-pillar. While lightweight design is an important aspect of emission reduction during the use phase, emissions arising in other phases of the automotive lifecycle also need to be considered. Roller-hearth-furnaces, as used during the press hardening process, present a non-negligible source of greenhouse gas emissions in part production processes. Alternative heating methods, such as inductive heating, may pose a possibility to reduce emissions during the manufacturing process, while also offering additional advantages in high process flexibility, high energy efficiency and low space requirements. However, there are multiple challenges when it comes to inductive heating of sheet metal for industrial processes, such as homogeneity of heating and resulting material properties. Therefore, various investigation on the usability of inductive heating for press hardening process have been conducted. Recently, an inductive heating process utilizing a longitudinal field inductor for industrial press hardening has been developed, showing good results in regard to process homogeneity, heating times and material properties. This process is used as a baseline for an ecological and economical assessment of inductive heating for industrial press hardening processes in comparison to traditional gas-fired furnaces. The reference values for a comparison on cost and emission are based on a gas-fired conveyor furnace with constant speed used for the heating of sheet metal for press hardening. The share of furnace operation modes, like standby and production with varying good-mass flows, as well as resulting natural gas demands are provided. From this data, specific energy requirements of heated sheet metal can be derived for various material mass flows and utilization scenarios, which serve as a baseline for the cost and emission comparison.  The objective of this study is to determine the emissions and costs for inductive heating compared to conventional gas-fired roller-hearth furnaces for different parameter-set of boundary conditions like product mass flow, energy prices, emission factors depending on energy transition scenarios. Based on this evaluation matrix, break-even conditions favoring inductive heating can be identified.&nbs

High prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies in two metropolitan emergency departments in Germany : a prospective screening analysis of 28,809 patients

Background and Aims: The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies in Germany has been estimated to be in the range of 0.4–0.63%. Screening for HCV is recommended in patients with elevated ALT levels or significant risk factors for HCV transmission only. However, 15–30% of patients report no risk factors and ALT levels can be normal in up to 20–30% of patients with chronic HCV infection. The aim of this study was to assess the HCV seroprevalence in patients visiting two tertiary care emergency departments in Berlin and Frankfurt, respectively. Methods: Between May 2008 and March 2010, a total of 28,809 consecutive patients were screened for the presence of anti-HCV antibodies. Anti-HCV positive sera were subsequently tested for HCV-RNA. Results: The overall HCV seroprevalence was 2.6% (95% CI: 2.4–2.8; 2.4% in Berlin and 3.5% in Frankfurt). HCV-RNA was detectable in 68% of anti-HCV positive cases. Thus, the prevalence of chronic HCV infection in the overall study population was 1.6% (95% CI 1.5–1.8). The most commonly reported risk factor was former/current injection drug use (IDU; 31.2%) and those with IDU as the main risk factor were significantly younger than patients without IDU (p<0.001) and the male-to-female ratio was 72% (121 vs. 46 patients; p<0.001). Finally, 18.8% of contacted HCV-RNA positive patients had not been diagnosed previously. Conclusions: The HCV seroprevalence was more than four times higher compared to current estimates and almost one fifth of contacted HCV-RNA positive patients had not been diagnosed previously

True Lumen Stabilization to Overcome Malperfusion in Acute Type I Aortic Dissection.

Acute type I aortic dissection (AD) complicated by true lumen (TL) collapse and malperfusion downstream is associated with devastating prognosis. The study reports an institutional mid-term experience with TL stabilization by uncovered stents to restore perfusion as a supplement to proximal thoracic aortic surgery. Between January 2007 and May 2017, 181 out of 270 acute type A AD patients were operated on type I AD. Eighteen uncovered stents (10%) were used to expand the aortic TL in presence of visceral and/or peripheral malperfusion. The procedures took place in a hybrid operating room and were combined with proximal aortic surgery. During follow-up (mean ± standard deviation 3.44 ± 2.1 years), the fate of AD was evaluated by computed tomography. Indication for TL stenting included visceral (44%) or peripheral malperfusion (11%) or both (45%). Stenting of aortic branches followed in 33%. All patients underwent proximal repair and were combined with frozen elephant trunk (67%) or retrograde descending aorta stent grafting (11%). Thirty-day mortality was 16.7%. Two-year survival was 71.8%. The false lumen around the uncovered stents remained patent in 89% and the aortic diameter increased 0.1 cm/y. No intimal rupture or occlusion of arteries occurred. In 1 patient, the stented aortic lumen was visualized after 6.3 years and neointima ingrowth covering the nitinol frame was found. In acute type I AD, combined endovascular-surgical procedures in a hybrid operation room setting can be used safely to resolve distal malperfusion. Encapsulation of uncovered stents within the intimal wall provides a stable fundament for endovascular techniques to close entry tears and false lumen