Search

Evaluating routine HIV testing and treatment and use of services for people who inject drugs (PWID) is critical to curb the ongoing HIV epidemic. We analyzed data from the 2018 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance of PWID aged 18 years or older, recruited using respondent-driven sampling and offered anonymous HIV testing after survey. We performed bivariate and multivariable analyses with log-linked Poisson regression of the generalized linear models to examine the associations between demographics and PWID service use, past-year HIV testing, and current antiretroviral therapy (ART) use. Among 10,311 HIV-negative PWID, 56% reported past-year HIV testing, and of the 553 HIV-positive PWID, 69% reported current ART use. Of the HIV-negative PWID, 64% (2874/4482) in drug treatment and 62% (3386/5440) who used syringe service programs (SSPs) reported past-year HIV testing. Among HIV-positive PWID, 75% (187/248) in drug treatment and 67% (200/298) SSP participants were on ART. In the adjusted multivariable model, past-year HIV testing was associated with drug use treatment (aPR 1.26, 95% CI 1.23–1.31) and SSP participation (aPR 1.19, 95% CI 1.13–1.26) among HIV-negative PWID. Current ART use was associated with drug use treatment (aPR 1.13, 95% CI 1.00–1.28) but the link was not significant probably due to small sample size. Findings support the expansion and improvement of PWID-targeted services, into comprehensive programs, including drug use treatment, SSP, and HIV testing and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal tools to avoid the potential disasters of climate change are already available, at least according to economists. Economists overwhelmingly prefer carbon pricing tools like carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs to combat climate change and guide the energy transition. Carbon pricing is more cost effective at lowering carbon and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) than other legal options such as efficiency standards, renewable portfolio standards, subsidies, and tax credits and deductions. Unlike those other options, carbon pricing targets both the supply of and the demand for GHG-emittingproducts and services; moreover, it gives firms and consumers flexibility in how best to respond to the tax or the cap, whether by conserving more or switching to alternatives. For the most part, however, U.S. lawmakers have eschewed carbon pricing in favor of the less-effective and more-costly non-pricing alternatives. The preference is due in large part to concerns over the distributive implications of carbon pricing, namely that it would result in an unjust energy transition. Many scholars, policymakers, and environmental justice advocates worry that since carbon pricing by design raises energy prices, it will disproportionately burden the poor, who spend a greater share of their budget on energy. They also worry that carbon pricing will disproportionately benefit the rich, such as through capital tax su)aps or grandfathered emissions permits. Numerous recent economic studies have addressed the distributional implications ofpricing and non-pricing climate policy instruments, yet those studies haue received limited attention from legal scholars . Nor hat)e economists compared and contrasted the distribution of pricing with non-pricing policies. This Article therefore surveys those economic analyses to show that ajust transition is possible with carbon pricing. First, the United States currently relies on nonpricing policies that are themselves unjust: performance standards add costs that impose a disproportionate burden on the poor while subsidies and tax expenditures primarily benefit the rich. Carbon pricing can displace many of these laws and thereby eliminate their unjust impact. Second, the cost burden and regressivie of carbon pricing are overstated, so the impact on the poor will likely be much lower than commonly assumedand might even be progressive for the poorest households because of the indexing of government transfers. Third, the ways in which revenues raised from carbon pricing are recycled play an important role: lowering other distortionary taxes like those on capital while allocating some money for government transfer programs and lump-sum rebates to the poorest households can balance efficiency and equity. This Article therefore argues that concerns over a just transition should not be a barrier to implementing carbon pricing, which is the most efficient and effective means for lowering GHGs and thus avoiding the harms of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1992, the American Bar Association released the MacCrate Report, which listed the ten skills and four professional values that all attorneys need and critiqued law schools and state bars for not doing enough to teach and encourage the development of these skills and values. In response, law schools have significantly increased the skills-based components in their curricula, and most state bar exams now include a performance test. Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) programs already provide substantial instruction in all of the skills and values described in the MacCrate Report; further, an education in TPC prepares graduates to excel in law school and on the bar exam. This knowledge offers opportunities for growth if educators, administrators, and scholars take steps to encourage students to consider not only writing for but also joining in the legal profession.

The first part of this article shows that research in the history of technical communication has increased in quantity and sophistication over the last 20 years. Scholarship that describes how to teach with that information, however, has not followed, even though teaching the history of the field is a need recognized by several scholars. The article provides and defends four guidelines as a foundation to study ways to incorporate history into classroom lessons: 1) maintain a continued research interest in teaching history; 2) limit to technical rather than scientific discourse; 3) focus on English-language texts; and 4) focus on American texts, authors, and practices. The second part of the essay works within the guidelines to show a lesson that contrasts technical texts by Benjamin Franklin and Herbert Hoover. The lesson can help students see the difference in technical writing before and after the Industrial Revolution, a difference that mirrors their own transition from the university to the workforce.

States that rhetorician Longinus advises writers to "transport" their readers by aligning readers' perspective with the writer's--methods for transport are five "fountains": high thought, emotional appeals, figures of speech, notable language, and arrangement. Develops a Longinian concept and methodology for technical communication. Applies this to two technical texts. Shows how technical writers achieve transport with stylistic elements. (PA)

Persons who inject drugs (PWID) and exchange sex face disproportionate HIV rates. We assessed prevalence of exchange sex (receiving money/drugs for sex from ≥ 1 male partner(s) during the past year) among cisgender PWID, separately for women and men with a history of sex with men (MSM). We examined factors associated with exchange sex, including sociodemographic characteristics, sexual and drug use behaviors, and healthcare access/utilization. Over one-third of the 4657 participants reported exchange sex (women: 36.2%; MSM: 34.8%). Women who exchanged sex (WES) were significantly more likely to test HIV-positive than other women. Men who exchanged sex with men (MESM) showed a similar trend. WES and MESM shared many characteristics, including being uninsured, experiencing recent homelessness, condomless sex, polydrug use, and receptive/distributive needle sharing. These findings highlight a need to strengthen prevention interventions and address structural determinants of HIV for WES and MESM, particularly PWID who exchange sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of corruption during the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, FIFA awarded the rights to the Qatar Football Association over the U.S. Soccer Federation. Economics studies Of European soccer show that, when a nation hosts a soccer mega-event, its Tier One professional soccer league has a signijicant boost in attendance in the years before and after that event. In prior articles, these authors applied those studies to argue that Major League Soccer could win and enforce a sizeable money judgment against the mastermind Of the corrupt 2022 bidding for lost profits and diminution in value related to the loss of a "World Cup bump" in attendance. Because of questions about the admissibility of econometric testimony that applies models of European soccer attendance to predict how American.fans would respond to a soccer mega-event, the authors gathered data about MLS and French Ligue 1 attendance in the years before and after the Copa America Centenario and European Championship, which in 2016 were hosted by the U.S. and France, respectively. Controlling for other factors that affect attendance, a statistical analysis reveals that the European Championship had a significant impact on Ligue 1 attendance both before and after the event while the Copa America had only a slight impact on MLS attendance before the event and none after. These results call into question the viability of an MLS lawsuit for money damages related to the 2022 World Cup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its laudable goals, sustainable development has been criticized for its discursive aspects. These include that the vagueness of the term combined with the lack of embodiment in law allow numerous private governance standards to support almost any company or project as "sustainable"; that the positive of bringing numerous stakeholders with divergent interests together becomes a negative because it is difficult to set and enact specific priorities; and that generalized agreement with the goals of sustainable development can mask the causes of problems and the potential for novel solutions. These criticisms suggest that commentators should explore discrete areas of law that have not yet been considered in the context of sustainable development. For example, no one has considered the role of money (and laws about money) despite the considerable attention paid to issues of finance and investing. This Article is therefore the first to survey money laws like gold and silver bans, relaxed usury laws and extensive government incentives for lenders to charge interest, fractional-reserve banking, legal tender, and functional currency. Collectively, these laws render money into inflationary governmental credit so that modern money itself is unsustainable and therefore contributes to harming the economy, environment, and society. The Article closes with recommendations for additional study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous critics have commented upon the significance of ritualistic acts in Moby Dick, particularly in the 'Quarterdeck,' 'Forge,' and 'Candles' chapters. Poet W. H. Auden writes that Ahab enacts 'every [...]

Although Kenneth Burke is the preeminent rhetorician of the modern era, and his theories have been applied to issues of social change and the environment (including by legal scholars), the role of "justice" and "law" in his critical method of dramatism have received only passing treatment. This Article is therefore the first in any discipline to consider what Burke means when he defines law as the "efficient codification of custom"-as the law develops, it moves farther away from material conditions by stretching concepts in ways that lead to abstract legal fictions. The legal system thereby directs attention toward dubious identifications between the government and the governed and emphasizes ways in which the needs of both are unified. This rhetorical compensation for disunity actually "mystifies" injustice in subtle ways that reinforce the social status quo to the detriment of racial minorities, indigenous people, and the poor. The Article shows this mystification by analyzing transnational and international law and global issues related to environmental justice before concluding with suggestions for further research on how dramatism can provide a theoretical basis for effective social (and legal) change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV rapid testing algorithms (RTAs) using any two orthogonal rapid tests (RTs) allow for on-site confirmation of infection. RTs vary in performance characteristics therefore the selection of RTs in an algorithm may affect identification of infection, particularly if acute. National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) assessed RTAs among men who have sex with men recruited using anonymous venue-based sampling. Different algorithms were evaluated among participants who self-reported never having received a positive HIV test result prior to the interview. NHBS project areas performed sequential or parallel RTs using whole blood. Participants with at least one reactive RT were offered anonymous linkage to care and provided a dried blood spot (DBS) for testing at CDC. Discordant results (RT-1 reactive/RT-2 non-reactive) were tested at CDC with lab protocols modified for DBS. DBS were also tested for HIV-1 RNA (VL) and antiretroviral (ARV) drug levels. Of 6500 RTAs, 238 were RT-1 reactive; of those, 97.1% (231/238) had concordant results (RT-1/RT-2 reactive) and 2.9% (7/238) had discordant results. Five DBS associated with discordant results were available for confirmation at CDC. Four had non-reactive confirmatory test results that implied RT-1 false reactivity; one had ambiguous confirmatory test results which was non-reactive in further testing. Regardless of order and type of RT used, RTAs demonstrated high concordant results in the population surveyed. Additional laboratory testing on DBS following discordant results confirmed no infection. Implementing RTAs in the context of anonymous venue-based HIV testing could be an option when laboratory follow-up is not practicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AN courtroom evidence must be legally relevant to be admissible. A consensus among contemporary economists is that econometric modeling has successjully created a vast web of interrelated causal inferences that collectively constitute "economic theory." Econometric models have become an important part of complex litigation involving employment, antitrust, and the measurement of damages, Although judicial opinions exhibit considerable inconsistency and incoherence with respect to the admissibility of this testimony under the Daubert trilogy, judges typically defer to professional consensus and jind the evidence relevant. Forms of economic testimony other than econometrics are almost nonexistent. However, the mainstream adulation among pro®ssional economists for "orthodox" econometric modeling conceals noteworthy. outlier, "heterodox" economists who reject econometrics as a valid method of scientific inquiry. Given outlier economists' disdain for the vast body of mainstream economic theory and inferences derived from econometrics, the proper processes for deciding which economic theories are legally relevant, and which are not, are far murkier than previously contemplated. Because scholars call Jor a conversation among diferent schools of economics, and jurors, in ascertaining truth, reason about the relevance of even conflicting expert testimony, this Article argues that judges should admit as legally relevant any proposed economic testimony-whether econometric or heterodox, Jzidges should, however, fashion jury instructions describing (but not advocating or criticizing) the witness's "type" or "camp" Oj economic beliefs to ensure the economic testimony's legal relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines a sense of equity in environmental justice litigation in the U.S. by presenting the cases Juliana v. U.S. and Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. Also cited are the justiciability doctrine, the duty of government under public trust doctrine, and the rhetoric of Chaim Perelman on how to analyze said litigation and the procedure for the adjudication of legal disputes.

When contemporary critics consider the symbolism in William Dean Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham, they cite the Beacon Street house that Lapham builds and accidentally destroys as the primary [...]

The article focuses on methodological scholarship to identify different types of assumptions in which realisticness does or does not affect the reliability of an economic model. Topics discussed include role of the jury in assessing evidence; model-based economics expert testimony; and purpose of the first-order assumption.

The article discusses the authors' views about how to prove harm and recover damages in corruption-based litigation involving Major League Soccer and the bidding process for the 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. U.S. indictments against officials from the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) are examined, along with alleged corruption by then-soccer executive Mohamen Bin Hammam in 2010. Tortious interference claims and New York's statute of limitations are assessed.

The article discusses a potential legal strategy for the U.S. Soccer Federation group to acquire hosting rights for the 2022 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup tournament in the wake of a corruption scandal involving the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup events in Russia and Qatar, and it mentions how corrupt acts that harm economic interests are unlawful under the Swiss Federal Act on Unfair Competition. Common law is assessed.

The article discusses a discusses a suit filed by science writer Paul Brodeur against the makers of motion picture "American Hustle." Topics discussed include the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case 'Hustler Magazine Inc. v. Falwell;' the anti strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) statutes in the U.S.; and the problems of satire in defamation suits.

The article explores the rhetorical genre theory for product instructions and warnings related liabilties. Topic discussed include treatments of the U.S. courts of product defects based upon instructions and warnings, the ways courts find genres rhetorical, and separate and distinct duties related to nonobvious dangers in their products.