An Offensive Mark on Offensive Lines: The Question of Violating the First Amendment through the Cancellation of the Washington Redskins\u27 Trademark

There is a contentious debate about whether it is the government\u27s place to determine whether offensive trademarks should receive legal protection. The Washington Redskins have been embroiled in a legal battle to protect the trademark for their team name. Currently, the cancellation of the Washington Redskins\u27 trademark will not go into effect until the appeals process has been exhausted. The United States Supreme Court\u27s decision on this issue will determine whether trademark owners will have the freedom to choose names without fear of losing legal protections. This Note will argue that though the Washington Redskins\u27 may be considered an offensive team name, Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which rejects the registration of disparaging marks, is unconstitutional because it restricts the expressive nature inherent in a team name, even if it is intertwined with aspects of commercial speech. This Note will also examine the history of offensive marks in American sports and analyze precedential cases, including In re Tam, and discuss how they may affect the Washington Redskins\u27 ongoing appeal

COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY FOR ANXIETY IN YOUTH WITH AUTISM: PAVING THE WAY TO EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE

Anxiety is one of the most common and debilitating conditions co-occurring with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as it occurs in up to 84% of individuals and can influence poor psychosocial adjustment, disruptions in individual, familial and school functioning, increased emotional and behavioral problems, self-injurious behavior(s), and an overall reduced quality of life (Meyer, Mundy, Van Hecke, & Durocher, 2006; Nadeau et al., 2011; Farrugia & Hudson, 2006; Kerns et al., 2015). To date, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), an evidence-based treatment for anxiety in neurotypical youth, has seen modest, yet limited, promise in treating anxiety in youth with ASD. With extant research lacking consistency, replication, and focus on the unique barriers impacting treatment in the ASD population, this study examines clinical experiences in conducting CBT for anxiety in these youths in hopes of identifying treatment limitations and modifications in need of future study (Selles & Storch, 2013; Vasa et al., 2014; Chalfant et al., 2007, Wood et al., 2009). Results indicate that the most common treatment barriers in this population include: (a) the severity and associated impairment of the anxiety, (b) the limited interpersonal, cognitive, perspective-taking, and executive functioning skills of the youth themselves, (c) the youth’s cognitive and behavioral rigidity, (d) a dysfunctional home environment, (e) lack of youth motivation for treatment, and (f) the time constraints associated with treating this population

The Kemeny Constant For Finite Homogeneous Ergodic Markov Chains

A quantity known as the Kemeny constant, which is used to measure the expected number of links that a surfer on the World Wide Web, located on a random web page, needs to follow before reaching his/her desired location, coincides with the more well known notion of the expected time to mixing, i.e., to reaching stationarity of an ergodic Markov chain. In this paper we present a new formula for the Kemeny constant and we develop several perturbation results for the constant, including conditions under which it is a convex function. Finally, for chains whose transition matrix has a certain directed graph structure we show that the Kemeny constant is dependent only on the common length of the cycles and the total number of vertices and not on the specific transition probabilities of the chain

Secular change in TTG compositions: Implications for the evolution of Archaean geodynamics

It is estimated that around three quarters of Earth's first generation continental crust had been produced by the end of the Archaean Eon, 2.5 billion years ago. This ancient continental crust is mostly composed of variably deformed and metamorphosed magmatic rocks of the tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) suite that formed by partial melting of hydrated mafic rocks. However, the geodynamic regime under which TTG magmas formed is a matter of ongoing debate. Using a filtered global geochemical dataset of 563 samples with ages ranging from the Eoarchaean to Neoarchaean (4.0–2.5 Ga), we interrogate the bulk rock major oxide and trace element composition of TTGs to assess evidence for secular change. Despite a high degree of scatter in the data, the concentrations or ratios of several key major oxides and trace elements show statistically significant trends that indicate maxima, minima and/or transitions in the interval 3.3–3.0 Ga. Importantly, a change point analysis of K2O/Na2O, Sr/Y and LaN/YbN demonstrates a statistically significant (>99% confidence) change during this 300 Ma period. These shifts may be linked to a fundamental change in geodynamic regime around the peak in upper mantle temperatures from one dominated by non-uniformitarian, deformable stagnant lid processes to another dominated by the emergence of global mobile lid or plate tectonic processes by the end of the Archaean. A notable change is also evident at 2.8–2.7 Ga that coincides with a major jump in the rate of survival of metamorphic rocks with contrasting thermal gradients, which may relate to the emergence of more potassic continental arc magmas and an increased preservation potential during collisional orogenesis. In many cases, the chemical composition of TTGs shows an increasing spread through the Archaean, reflecting the irreversible differentiation of the lithosphere

ORP3 splice variants and their expression in human tissues and hematopoietic cells

ORP3 is a member of the newly described family of oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP)-related proteins (ORPs). We previously demonstrated that this gene is highly expressed in CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells, and deduced that the &quot;full-length&quot; ORP3 gene comprises 23 exons and encodes a predicted protein of 887 amino acids with a C-terminal OSBP domain and an N-terminal pleckstrin homology domain. To further characterize the gene, we cloned ORP3 cDNA from PCR products and identified multiple splice variants. A total of eight isoforms were demonstrated with alternative splicing of exons 9, 12, and 15. Isoforms with an extension to exon 15 truncate the OSBP domain of the predicted protein sequence. In human tissues there was specific isoform distribution, with most tissues expressing varied levels of isoforms with the complete OSBP domain; while only whole brain, kidney, spleen, thymus, and thyroid expressed high levels of the isoforms associated with the truncated OSBP domain. Interestingly, the expression in cerebellum, heart, and liver of most isoforms was negligible. These data suggest that differential mRNA splicing may have resulted in functionally distinct forms of the ORP3 gene.<br /

Determination of Interface Atomic Structure and Its Impact on Spin Transport Using Z-Contrast Microscopy and Density-Functional Theory

We combine Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy with density-functional-theory calculations to determine the atomic structure of the Fe/AlGaAs interface in spin-polarized light-emitting diodes. A 44% increase in spin-injection efficiency occurs after a low-temperature anneal, which produces an ordered, coherent interface consisting of a single atomic plane of alternating Fe and As atoms. First-principles transport calculations indicate that the increase in spin-injection efficiency is due to the abruptness and coherency of the annealed interface.Comment: 16 pages (including cover), 4 figure

Planar Differential Growth Rates Initiate Precise Fold Positions in Complex Epithelia

Tissue folding is a fundamental process that shapes epithelia into complex 3D organs. The initial positioning of folds is the foundation for the emergence of correct tissue morphology. Mechanisms forming individual folds have been studied, but the precise positioning of folds in complex, multi-folded epithelia is less well-understood. We present a computational model of morphogenesis, encompassing local differential growth and tissue mechanics, to investigate tissue fold positioning. We use the Drosophila wing disc as our model system and show that there is spatial-temporal heterogeneity in its planar growth rates. This differential growth, especially at the early stages of development, is the main driver for fold positioning. Increased apical layer stiffness and confinement by the basement membrane drive fold formation but influence positioning to a lesser degree. The model successfully predicts the in vivo morphology of overgrowth clones and wingless mutants via perturbations solely on planar differential growth in silico