Disparate Claims Research Articles

Responding to Fiester’s Critique of a Bioethical Consensus Project

We respond to Autumn Fiester's critique that our proposed bioethical consensus project amounts to "ethical hegemony," and evaluate her claim that ethicists should restrict themselves to "mere process" recommendations. We argue that content recommendations are an inescapable aspect of clinical ethics consultation, and our primary concern is that, without standardization of bioethical consensus, our field will vacillate among appeals to the disparate claims in the 22 "Core References," unsustainable efforts to defend value-neutral process recommendations, or become a practice of Lone Ranger clinical ethicists. We contend that a consensus document that captures the basic moral commitments of patients and careproviders is the next step in the professional evolution of our field.

From Trade Secrecy to Seclusion

By all accounts, trade secret law is now recognized as one of the major categories of intellectual property law. Less recognized, however, is the degree to which private actors are pushing the law past its traditional, market-competitive boundaries towards an all-purpose seclusion doctrine. We argue that trade secret law today is increasingly functioning not merely as a tool to protect intellectual property against misappropriation, but often as a tool for open-ended concealment. The law is moving from trade secrecy to trade seclusion. This shift raises serious concerns, ultimately distorting the flow of information that should be available to the public. Confronting these disparate claims of trade secrecy or confidentiality – which can crop up in civil litigation, criminal law, open records disputes, and elsewhere requires, first of all, a common vocabulary. In this article, we collect and identity a variety of nontraditional cases to demonstrate the alarming extension of trade secrecy arguments in a host of different areas of law. We classify these scattered claims into three categories: investigatory concerns involving journalists and whistleblowers; delegative concerns where the government relies on private technologies, such as automated decision-making and artificial intelligence; and dignitary concerns where employers seek control over employee attributes, like diversity data and workplace harms, beyond the normal context of employer/employee trade secret lawsuits. In our final section, we present a range of solutions. Some suggest ways to recuperate trade secret law’s original architecture and thus pay heed to its intrinsic boundaries. As we argue, some nontraditional trade secrecy claims involve information that is not a trade secret at all. And, even where information qualifies as secret (or as confidential, in open-records parlance), we draw upon recent scholarly efforts to define doctrinal limits to trade secrecy and similar claims in both litigation and open records disputes where there is a pressing public interest. Finally, drawing from lessons from #MeToo and other workplace protection statutes, we examine potential legislative enactments in order to achieve an appropriate balance between secrecy and the public interest.

A computational science approach to understanding human conflict

We discuss how computational data science and agent-based modeling, are shedding new light on the age-old issue of human conflict. While social science approaches focus on individual cases, the recent proliferation of empirical data and complex systems thinking has opened up a computational approach based on identifying common statistical patterns and building generative but minimal agent-based models. We discuss a reconciliation for various disparate claims and results in the literature that stand in the way of a unified description and understanding of human wars and conflicts. We also discuss the unified interpretation of the origin of these power-law deviations in terms of dynamical processes. These findings show that a unified computational science framework can be used to understand and quantitatively describe collective human conflict.

Freedom Over Seas: Eileen Chang, Ernest Hemingway, and the Translation of Truth in the Cold War

Abstract This article examines Eileen Chang’s 1953 translation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea into Chinese as Cold War propaganda for the United States Information Service (USIS). It argues that this translation, meant to show the truth of democracy through its high modernist form, directly influenced the writing and translating of The Rice-Sprout Song (1955), the novel Chang wrote next for the USIS to expose the truth of famine in Communist China. I show that Chang’s translation practices connect US and Chinese literary modernisms in a showdown of literary forms and their disparate claims to the truth. Chang navigates political ideologies by eschewing linguistic equivalence to favor equivocation instead, ultimately transforming Hemingway’s modernist form via her own. It thus adds to transpacific studies and Cold War historiography by revealing the intimate relationship between political ideology and literary form, and their cross-fertilization in the process of translation.

Systemic distribution of medullary bone in the avian skeleton: ground truthing criteria for the identification of reproductive tissues in extinct Avemetatarsalia

BackgroundMedullary bone (MB) is an estrogen-dependent, sex-specific tissue produced by female birds during lay and inferred to be present in extinct avemetatarsalians (bird-line archosaurs). Although preliminary studies suggest that MB can be deposited within most skeletal elements, these are restricted to commercial layers or hormonally treated male pigeons, which are poor analogues for wild birds. By contrast, studies in wild bird species noted the presence of MB almost exclusively within limb bones, spurring the misconception that MB deposition is largely restricted to these regions. These disparate claims have cast doubt on the nature of MB-like tissues observed in some extinct avemetatarsalians because of their “unusual” anatomical locations. Furthermore, previous work reported that MB deposition is related to blood supply and pneumatization patterns, yet these hypotheses have not been tested widely in birds.To document the skeletal distribution of MB across Neornithes, reassess previous hypotheses pertaining to its deposition/distribution patterns, and refine the set of criteria by which to evaluate the nature of purported MB tissue in extinct avemetatarsalians, we CT-scanned skeletons of 40 female birds (38 species) that died during the egg-laying cycle, recorded presence or absence of MB in 19 skeletal regions, and assessed pneumatization of stylopods. Selected elements were destructively analyzed to ascertain the chemical and histological nature of observed endosteal bone tissues in contentious skeletal regions.ResultsAlthough its skeletal distribution varies interspecifically, we find MB to be a systemic tissue that can be deposited within virtually all skeletal regions, including cranial elements. We also provide evidence that the deposition of MB is dictated by skeletal distribution patterns of both pneumaticity and bone marrow; two factors linked to ecology (body size, foraging). Hence, skeletal distribution of MB can be extensive in small-bodied and diving birds, but more restricted in large-bodied species or efficient flyers.ConclusionsPreviously outlined anatomical locations of purported MB in extinct taxa are invalid criticisms against their potential reproductive nature. Moreover, the proposed homology of lung tissues between birds and some extinct avemetatarsalians permit us to derive a series of location-based predictions that can be used to critically evaluate MB-like tissues in fossil specimens.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy - confusion and controversies.

The term chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has recently entered public consciousness via media reports and even a Hollywood movie. However, in contrast to general impressions, the incidence of CTE is unknown, the clinical diagnostic criteria have not been agreed upon and the current neuropathological characterization of CTE is acknowledged as preliminary. Additionally, few studies have compared the pathologies of CTE with those of other neurodegenerative disorders or of age-matched controls. Consequently, disagreement continues about the neuropathological aspects that make CTE unique. Furthermore, CTE is widely considered to be a consequence of exposure to repeated head blows, but evidence suggests that a single moderate or severe traumatic brain injury can also induce progressive neuropathological changes. These unresolved aspects of CTE underlie disparate claims about its clinical and pathological features, leading to confusion among the public and health-care professionals alike.

Toward a Unified Understanding of Casualty Distributions in Human Conflict

We are able to unify various disparate claims and results in the literature, that stand in the way of a unified description and understanding of human conflict. First, we provide a reconciliation of the numerically different power-law exponent values for fatality distributions across entire wars and within single wars. Second, we explain how ignoring the details of how conflict datasets are compiled, can generate falsely negative evaluations from power-law distribution fitting. Third, we explain how a generative theory of human conflict is able to provide a quantitative explanation for why observed casualty distributions may follow approximate power laws and how and why they may deviate from a power law. In particular, it provides a unified mechanistic interpretation of the origin of deviations from a power law in terms of dynamical processes within the conflict. Taken together, our findings strengthen the notion that a unified framework can be used to understand and quantitatively describe human conflict.

Retranslating the Brazilian Imperial Project: O Novo Mundo’s Depictions of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition

As the first world’s fair held in the Americas, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia allowed the hemisphere’s nations to stake disparate claims to modernity through unequal displays of natural resources, new technologies, and art. Existing scholarship on the Centennial Exhibition and its importance for Brazil touches only briefly on how representations of Brazil at the fair were communicated to the Brazilian public. This article claims that Brazil’s participation at the fair created translations of the nation for a foreign public that were retranslated for Brazilian readers through O Novo Mundo, a periodical published in New York from 1870 to 1879. By reading O Novo Mundo alongside archival documentation and histories of the Centennial Exhibition, I contend that the periodical recognized Brazil’s desire for modernity, critiqued how Brazilian officials wanted the nation to be seen, and questioned how models of progress from the United States would unfold in Brazil.

Spor o malínský masakr. Dědictví mezietnického násilí a druhé světové války ve východní Evropě

On the morning of July 13, 1943, a German anti-partisan formation surrounded the small village of Malyn and its Czech and Ukrainian inhabitants. The soldiers gathered the entire village population in the town square and, after a document check, proceeded to lock them inside the town church, school and their homes. The soldiers then set fire to these buildings and shot them with machine guns. By the end of the day, Malyn ceased to exist. On the surface, the Malyn Massacre appears as just another ghastly crime committed by a brutal occupying force. Yet, a closer look at archival sources, popular discourse, and scholarly literature on Malyn reveals a much different picture – and a murkier one. In total, there are over fifteen different versions of what happened in Malyn that day. The ethnic identities of the units that accompanied the Germans vary from account to account, as do the details of the crime, the justification for the reprisal, and even the ethnicity of the victims. In analyzing materials from over ten archives in six countries and four historiographical-linguistic narratives, in addition to field research in Ukraine and the Czech Republic, this article explains why so many disparate claims about the Malyn massacre exist. I specify four discursive landscapes about Malyn (Soviet, Ukrainian, Polish, and Czech) and detail how and why each of these has come to construct their own version(s) of Malyn in relation to larger grand narratives about the war in the East. This microhistory also underscores how the trauma and legacy of wartime inter-ethnic violence casts a long shadow over the current understanding of the war and highlights the daunting task scholars face writing the history of this region and time period.

Contesting The Malyn Massacre: The Legacy Of Inter-Ethnic Violence And The Second World War In Eastern Europe

On the morning of July 13, 1943, a German anti-partisan formation surrounded the small village of Malyn and its Czech and Ukrainian inhabitants. The soldiers gathered the entire village population in the town square and, after a document check, proceeded to lock them inside the town church, school and their homes. The soldiers then set fire to these buildings and shot them with machine guns. By the end of the day, Malyn ceased to exist. On the surface, the Malyn Massacre appears as just another ghastly crime committed by a brutal occupying force. Yet, a closer look at archival sources, popular discourse, and scholarly literature on Malyn reveals a much different picture – and a murkier one. In total, there are over fifteen different versions of what happened in Malyn that day. The ethnic identities of the units that accompanied the Germans vary from account to account, as do the details of the crime, the justification for the reprisal, and even the ethnicity of the victims. In analyzing materials from over ten archives in six countries and four historiographical-linguistic narratives, in addition to field research in Ukraine and the Czech Republic, this article explains why so many disparate claims about the Malyn massacre exist. I specify four discursive landscapes about Malyn (Soviet, Ukrainian, Polish, and Czech) and detail how and why each of these has come to construct their own version(s) of Malyn in relation to larger grand narratives about the war in the East. This microhistory also underscores how the trauma and legacy of wartime inter-ethnic violence casts a long shadow over the current understanding of the war and highlights the daunting task scholars face writing the history of this region and time period.

Women in Academic Science

Much has been written in the past two decades about women in academic science careers, but this literature is contradictory. Many analyses have revealed a level playing field, with men and women faring equally, whereas other analyses have suggested numerous areas in which the playing field is not level. The only widely-agreed-upon conclusion is that women are underrepresented in college majors, graduate school programs, and the professoriate in those fields that are the most mathematically intensive, such as geoscience, engineering, economics, mathematics/computer science, and the physical sciences. In other scientific fields (psychology, life science, social science), women are found in much higher percentages. In this monograph, we undertake extensive life-course analyses comparing the trajectories of women and men in math-intensive fields with those of their counterparts in non-math-intensive fields in which women are close to parity with or even exceed the number of men. We begin by examining early-childhood differences in spatial processing and follow this through quantitative performance in middle childhood and adolescence, including high school coursework. We then focus on the transition of the sexes from high school to college major, then to graduate school, and, finally, to careers in academic science. The results of our myriad analyses reveal that early sex differences in spatial and mathematical reasoning need not stem from biological bases, that the gap between average female and male math ability is narrowing (suggesting strong environmental influences), and that sex differences in math ability at the right tail show variation over time and across nationalities, ethnicities, and other factors, indicating that the ratio of males to females at the right tail can and does change. We find that gender differences in attitudes toward and expectations about math careers and ability (controlling for actual ability) are evident by kindergarten and increase thereafter, leading to lower female propensities to major in math-intensive subjects in college but higher female propensities to major in non-math-intensive sciences, with overall science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors at 50% female for more than a decade. Post-college, although men with majors in math-intensive subjects have historically chosen and completed PhDs in these fields more often than women, the gap has recently narrowed by two thirds; among non-math-intensive STEM majors, women are more likely than men to go into health and other people-related occupations instead of pursuing PhDs. Importantly, of those who obtain doctorates in math-intensive fields, men and women entering the professoriate have equivalent access to tenure-track academic jobs in science, and they persist and are remunerated at comparable rates—with some caveats that we discuss. The transition from graduate programs to assistant professorships shows more pipeline leakage in the fields in which women are already very prevalent (psychology, life science, social science) than in the math-intensive fields in which they are underrepresented but in which the number of females holding assistant professorships is at least commensurate with (if not greater than) that of males. That is, invitations to interview for tenure-track positions in math-intensive fields—as well as actual employment offers—reveal that female PhD applicants fare at least as well as their male counterparts in math-intensive fields. Along these same lines, our analyses reveal that manuscript reviewing and grant funding are gender neutral: Male and female authors and principal investigators are equally likely to have their manuscripts accepted by journal editors and their grants funded, with only very occasional exceptions. There are no compelling sex differences in hours worked or average citations per publication, but there is an overall male advantage in productivity. We attempt to reconcile these results amid the disparate claims made regarding their causes, examining sex differences in citations, hours worked, and interests. We conclude by suggesting that although in the past, gender discrimination was an important cause of women’s underrepresentation in scientific academic careers, this claim has continued to be invoked after it has ceased being a valid cause of women’s underrepresentation in math-intensive fields. Consequently, current barriers to women’s full participation in mathematically intensive academic science fields are rooted in pre-college factors and the subsequent likelihood of majoring in these fields, and future research should focus on these barriers rather than misdirecting attention toward historical barriers that no longer account for women’s underrepresentation in academic science.

Innovation and firm performance in Korea and China: a cross-context test of mainstream theories

We investigate the relationship between innovation and firm performance in two divergent emerging economy contexts: Korea and China. Mainstream innovation theories make disparate claims for how (1) intensity of innovation, (2) scope of innovation and (3) spillovers impact firm performance. Using a comparative institutionalist approach we hypothesise how these relationships apply to firms in Korea and China. Analysis of 897 firm–year data points over a 4-year period provides broad support for our hypotheses. Intensity of innovation (patent intensity) is a strong cross-contextual argument. Scope and spillover arguments appear to be more context-sensitive. Firms with innovation depth in specific technological fields enjoy better performance in Korea, while diversified innovation is more beneficial for firms in China. Spillovers have a stronger impact in Korea than China. The findings underline the importance of incorporating change in institutional context when developing policy and theory relating to firm innovation and performance in emerging economies.

Melkites, Mutakallim?n and al-Ma’m?n: Depicting the Religious Other in Medieval Arabic Dialogues

The article describes a literary dialogue said to have occurred in 829/214 between the Arab Melkite Christian bishop Theodore Ab? Qurra, several Muslim scholars, and the caliph al-Ma’m?n. The text contains two types of dialogue: Ab? Qurra versus the Muslim scholars and Ab? Qurra with al-Ma’m?n. The former is distinguished by its antagonism on both sides, while the latter is noted for its polite discourse. The evidence indicates that the Muslim caliph al-Ma’m?n held an admired place in the Melkite Christian community’s memory. The author’s analysis concludes that the dialogue presupposes Christian Arab identity was integrated into the dominant Islamic culture in a symbiotic relationship that recognized the reality of religious pluralism and disparate truth claims. The author also argues that the text placed value on the dialogical approach as a process of identity formation by constructing boundaries with religious others while simultaneously internalizing these other religious worldviews.

Early Twentieth Century Racial Discrimination Cases in State Supreme Courts: An Empirical Analysis

Within the realm of scholarship on American civil rights and discrimination litigation, one aspect receiving scant attention, let alone empirical investigation, is the response of state supreme courts to discrimination claims in the early Twentieth Century. Yet, the topic warrants further study, not only to set the historical record straight, but because it represents a crucial time frame - the long, fairly settled range of years falling between the legal tumult of Reconstruction/Redemption and the mid-century breakthroughs in minority rights. Conventional wisdom suggests this period was a dismal one for plaintiffs seeking to challenge discrimination, but there is no systematic support for this assumption. Our knowledge of the numbers and types of cases being heard, as well as the decisional record, remains anecdotal. This investigation rectifies this gap by providing this record, as well as making an initial foray into the determinants of these decisions, on the assumption that there was some variation in outcomes. A few clues to what these likely determinants might be emerge from the broad literature on U.S. Supreme Court doctrine and general social trends in these years. After gathering, cataloging, and coding 65 state supreme court cases from 1907-1934, I utilize these factors - type of case, region, year of decision - in a regression analysis that tests whether any exerted an impact on the likelihood of a pro-plaintiff (anti-discrimination) decision. None proved significant, undermining the validity of conventional (although not always consistent) assumptions that decisions were more supportive of minority claims in the northern states, in the latter years of this period, and in regard to the few categories of cases where the U.S. Supreme Court had issued relatively pro-civil rights decisions. Still, the empirical approach proves valuable in illustrating exactly what was occurring in these years - in particular, the different sorts of cases that northern and southern judges were hearing and the small but notable variation in how they reacted to these disparate claims.

Complete mediastinal lymph node dissection—does it make a difference?

Thoracic surgeons have cataloged and categorized the intrathoracic lymph nodes of patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for the past five decades. The anatomic locations in which these lymph nodes were consistently found were labeled with letters or numbers. The currently accepted lymph node level definitions and the N category to which they are assigned [1] are based on the work of Naruke [2]. Since Cahan first described mediastinal lymph node dissection following pulmonary resection numerous techniques for assessing the intrathoracic lymph nodes have been detailed [3]. These range from simple biopsy of abnormal appearing lymph nodes to radical resection of all mediastinal and supraclavicular lymphatic tissue. Disparate claims have been made regarding the accuracy of these techniques in identifying mediastinal lymph node metastases and their effect on patient survival. The lack of uniform terminology has compounded the difficulty in assessing the efficacy of these techniques. The term sampling should be utilized when only those lymph nodes that were obviously abnormal to visual or tactile inspection were removed. Systematic sampling (SS) refers to routine biopsy of lymph nodes at levels specified by the author. Complete mediastinal lymph node dissection (CMLND) indicates that all ipsilateral lymph node-containing tissue was routinely removed at those levels indicated by the investigators. Radical lymph node dissection refers to resection of all ipsilateral mediastinal lymph nodes at those levels indicated by the investigators, as well as, contralateral mediastinal or supraclavicular nodal tissue. Why should CMLND be effective? It is likely that within the spectrum of NSCLC there exists a cohort of patients with metastatic disease that is truly limited to the regional lymph nodes. These are the patients who will benefit from aggressive resection of the intrathoracic lymph nodes. Wu and colleagues have produced an important contribution to the evaluation of CMLND [4]. The intraoperative details of this phase III trial were carefully designed and thoroughly documented. The data demonstrate significantly improved survival following CMLND for stages I and IIIa NSCLC and borderline significance in patients with stage II NSCLC. The authors failed to include information regarding perioperative therapy (neoadjuvant or adjuvant). However, the randomization process should equalize the effect (if any) of these treatments. Prior to the current publication only two randomized prospective trials have compared SS to CMLND. Izbicki randomized 201 with operable NSCLC to either SS or CMLND [5]. All patients found to have metastases to the N2 lymph nodes received adjuvant radiotherapy to the mediastinum. Patients with T3 or T4 tumors received adjuvant radiotherapy to the tumor bed. Thirty-two patients were excluded from the analysis because of residual tumor (n=12), N3 disease (n= 5), M1 disease (n=5), or small cell lung cancer (n=10). Analysis of the 169 remaining patients demonstrated both a disease free survival and overall survival advantage for the 46 patients with N1 and limited N2 disease who underwent CMLND. No survival difference was observed for patients with N0 disease. A retrospective survival analysis of 100 of these patients was conducted after determining the presence or absence of lymph node micrometastases utilizing the Ber-Ep4 antibody [6]. This immuno-histochemical technique detected the presence of micrometastases in an additional 23% of patients. When all 100 patients were analyzed as a group, no survival advantage was demon* Tel.: +1-718-920-7580. E-mail address: skeller@montefiore.org (S.M. Keller). 1 Current address: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Montefiore Medical Center, 3400 Bainbridge Ave., Bronx, New York, NY 10467, USA

Right Hemisphere Semantic Processing of Visual Words in an Aphasic Patient: An fMRI Study

This study was designed to identify the neural network supporting the semantic processing of visual words in a patient with large-scale damage to left-hemisphere (LH) language structures. Patient GP, and a control subject, RT, performed semantic and orthographic tasks while brain-activation patterns were recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In RT, the semantic-orthographic comparison activated LH perisylvian and extrasylvian temporal regions comparable to the network of areas activated by non-brain-damaged subjects in other neuroimaging studies of semantic discrimination. In GP, the same comparison activated homologous right-hemisphere regions, demonstrating the ability of the right hemisphere to subserve visual lexicosemantic processes. The results are discussed within the context of the normal right hemisphere's capacity for semantic processing of visual words. Examining results from functional neuroimaging studies on recovery in the context of innate hemispheric abilities may enable reconciliation of disparate claims about mechanisms supporting recovery from aphasia.

Decomposition of highly vibrationally excited CDCl3

Decomposition of highly vibrationally excited CDCl3 was studied in the time domain by measuring laser-induced fluorescence from one of the decomposition products CCl2 or by observing luminescence from CCl2 radical fragments produced in the Ã(1B1) state following IR excitation. It is shown that highly vibrationally excited CDCl3 can be made via two different routes: i/mple optical absorption of an incident 13CO2 laser pulse or through collision-moderated energy pooling coupled with photon absorption. Higher fluence measurements are consistent with the former and support previous claims that the infrared multiphoton decomposition probability for CDCl3 is pressure independent. At a lower fluence the vibrational up-pumping mechanism apparently relies heavily upon collisions, which supports other claims that the decomposition probability is pressure dependent. The results of the present work reconcile these previous disparate claims. Furthermore, there is an indication that the vibrational energy transferred during a collision could be much larger than collision-induced dipole selection rules would allow. In some of the experiments, electronically excited CCl2 fragments are created but only through post-laser-pulse collisions that appear to involve exchanges of very large amounts of vibrational energy. By contrast, no electronically excited CCl2 is produced following excitation with the CO2 laser alone. The experiments also corroborate an earlier prediction that the extent of reaction is governed by adiabatic expansion of the centrally heated zone, even at pressures as low as 0.66 kPa, rather than by diffusion, as is commonly believed.

The Chronicity of Poverty: Evidence from the PSID, 1968-1987

The Chronicity of Poverty: Evidence from the PSID, 1968-1987

Optimal Pooling in Claims Resolution Facilities

The various claims resolution facilities discussed in this symposium exhibit a number of distinctive qualities and governing principles. A common characteristic of many of these facilities, however, is an attempt to avoid the litigation costs of individualized proof of damages by channeling mass tort claims into rough categories for compensation. All claimants within a particular category receive similar compensation, even though they might be able to prove disparate damages through litigation. This article seeks to analyze the efficiency of pooling disparate claims through the categorical compensation of claims facilities.

Aging and depression.

The assumption that aging is associated with an increased risk of depression is a recurring theme in the gerontological literature. Yet empirical studies that have investigated the relation between aging and depression do not show consistent support for this assumption or hypothesis. Indeed, some investigators contend that the thrust of empirical evidence favors a view of elderly persons as relatively immune from depression, at least in contrast to their younger adult counterparts. The present article examines the empirical basis for these disparate claims in the context of a careful review of the growing body of research on the relation between aging and depression. The central conclusion of the review is that diverse measurement approaches, coupled with flaws in design and analysis, make it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions regarding the age-depression relation at this time. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future research.