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VEHEMENT VERN MILLER: A NARRATIVE APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING ANTI-DRUG POLICIES AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
No full textSubmitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors.This paper explores how the early War on Drugs, identified as 1965-1975 in this paper, played out at the local level by focusing on Kansas Attorney General Vern Miller and his campaign to crack down on drug use in Lawrence, Kansas, during the early 1970s. While Nixon framed the drug war as a unified, national effort, its impact varied widely from state to state. Lawrence—a college town known for its counterculture scene and diverse demographics—offers a revealing case study full of contingencies of how local politics, culture, and demographics shaped the enforcement of federal drug policy and emphasizes state power and local officials’ ability to interpret national policy. Miller’s extreme tactics show how state officials interpreted and adapted national drug policy to fit local concerns and conditions. By looking closely at the tensions between federal goals and local realities, this paper sheds light on how the early War on Drugs was not just a top-down campaign, but also a series of local battles that shaped the broader national story in ways that have often been overlooked
Ethically and Culturally Appropriate Applications of Buddhist Based Therapeutic Mindfulness in Professional Social Work Setting
No full textTherapeutic mindfulness practices have become very widespread in social work, mental health, education, and other human service settings (Canda & Warren, 2013; Dylan & Coates, 2016）. They are commonly employed in conjunction with evidence-based cognitive and stress management therapies, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy （DBT）（Bein, 2014; Haynes, Follete, & Linehan, 2004; McKay, Wood, & Brantley, 2007) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction （MBSR）（Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Wisner, Jones, & Gwin, 2010). Although
the mindfulness practices are rooted in Buddhist meditation traditions, they are typically removed from that context and applied by social work professionals to support therapeutic goals such as reduction of symptoms related to distress, pain, depression, anxiety, poor impulse control, and suicidal ideation （e.g., Baer, 2010; Coholic, 2011; Dylan & Coates, 2016; McBee, 2008; Siegel, 2010). Therapeutic mindfulness practices are also applied to social workers themselves to promote personal and professional development and to relieve stress and compassion fatigue (Lucas, 2017; Neff & Germer, 2018; Pyles, 2018). Therapeutic mindfulness is applied in many service contexts, including children and youth, schools, family therapy, immigration and refugee services, community and environmental activism, strengthening therapeutic relationship qualities, elder care, death and dying/hospice services, mental health recovery, and
medical social work （Canda & Warren, 2013; Hick, 2009; McBee, 2008). It can support clients to achieve their goals, reduce debilitating symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, and promote their well-being as well as broader social and ecological justice. These goals can be congruent with the Buddhist tradition’s goal of relieving suffering and promoting insights and enlightenment; however, there can also be losses of deeper spiritual/existential benefits and distortions of values associated with original Buddhist purposes and contexts for meditation. There is also the possibility of violating social work values related to social justice, culturally appropriate and humble practice, and cross-cultural misappropriation of helping practices (Canda, Furman, & Canda, 2020; Canda & Yellow Bird,
1996). Therefore, this chapter presents a concise reflection about these concerns and guidelines for social workers and other professional helpers to consider when engaging in therapeutic mindfulness practices
“Misogyny Was in the Atmosphere”: Feminist Perspectives on Social Media Use in the 2019 Algerian Pro-Democratic Demonstrations
No full textA grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Public and vocal calls by Algerian feminist groups to revise restrictive laws about women during the 2019 Hirak (“protest” in Arabic) were met with physical and online violence from both pro-government and reformist groups. Theories considering the role of public spaces in advancing democratic efforts differ on strategy and method for inclusion of marginalized voices. Through structured open-ended questionnaires with Algerian feminist demonstrators, this study probes the perceived efficacy of various democratic-advancing tactics. Findings show a reticence on the part of Algerian feminists in cultivating open social media spaces or efforts to assimilate into a single public and echo previous findings of those advocating for a more disputed perspective on democracy
"We Are Not What You Think": Hawaiian Cultural Memory, Group Identity and Resistance in Hula: A Novel
No full textThis is the paper from a presentation given at the MELUS 2025 conference held in Los Angeles, CA on 04/03/2025.Hula: A Novel by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes narrates the story of three generations of Naupaka family women between the 1960s and 1990s. I intend to analyze the ways in which the novel employs cultural memory as counter-myth to challenge exclusionary discourse about Hawaiian history, and the image of Hawai’i as tourist destination. The narrative reaffirms Hawaiian linguistic identity that is tied to place and memory, as the narrator transcends the individual and unites the people with Hawai’i as a place - a place that constitutes an entity and that roots the inhabitants of Hilo, HI. Thus, the role of Hawaiians as caretakers of the land, and the inextricable connections between land, culture, and its people, is emphasized. Hula negotiates the lasting effects of US imperialism and how it has compromised Hawaiian ways of life both materially and immaterially. The novel contributes to the formation of cultural memory by drawing on the tradition of hula performances and storytelling to represent Hawaiian identity, reemphasizing cultural understandings that differ from census categories and imposed “blood quantum” requirements. My analysis further highlights the connections between genre, narrative situation and cultural memory. I argue that the narrative situation contributes to turning the novel into counter-myth, as it inverts power structures, while reinforcing a sense of self and group identity. The narrative re-establishes a common shared foundation and exposes the hypocrisy of legislation, while establishing clear boundaries to outside groups
Assessment of Ultra-High Toughness Steel for Highway Bridges
No full textThe objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using ultra-high toughness (UHT) steel in bridges to improve the structural reliability for the fracture limit state. The work included literature review, identification of candidate UHT steels, initial material characterization of all candidate steels, in-depth material characterization of the most promising candidate steel, and life-cycle cost analyses to demonstrate the potential benefits of using UHT in realistic bridge structures. This report describes the research program and provides conclusions and suggestions for future work
NEGOTIATING A HYBRID JAPANESE AMERICAN IDENTITY: AN ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS IN INTERNMENT CAMP NEWSPAPERS
No full textSubmitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honorsOn February 19, 1942, two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal of people of Japanese descent from their homes along the West Coast to internment camps located further inland. Scholars estimate the United States incarcerated approximately 120,000 from 1942 to 1945. In 1942 the War Relocation Authority (WRA) was established to run the internment camps and regulate daily life within the camps. Specifically, the WRA required the internment camps to publish a newspaper publication that detailed news directly from the WRA but was also used to spread information about upcoming events to the community. I investigated the newspapers from three camps: Rohwer in McGehee, Arkansas; Granada in Amache, Colorado; and Topaz in Topaz, Utah. Japanese American editors published news articles of cultural events, celebrations, and festivals throughout their internment. During their internment, Japanese Americans demonstrated their loyalty as people of Japanese descent in the United States. Yet, at the same time, they found ways to celebrate their Japanese identity. I argue that Japanese Americans in internment camps strategically used both Japanese and American forms of cultural celebration to assert their right to a hybrid identity, despite government attempts to question their loyalty. My primary source research and analysis fills a gap in scholarly work on Japanese American internment camps by using direct examples of celebrations from the newspapers and addressing a Japanese American hybrid identity that was solidified during internment
A Practical Guide to Fund Development
No full textThis presentation was given on July 17, 2025 at the Kansas Health Foundation Grantee Summit, Building Power and Equity Partnership Meeting held in Wichita, Kansas.CPPR Executive Director Jared Barton and Research Associate Seniors Silke von Esenwein and Chris Tilden’s gave their presentation “A Practical Guide to Fund Development” at the Kansas Health Foundation’s (KHF) 2025 Partner Summit. Delivered to the Kansas Health Foundation (KHF) 2025 Partner Summit on July 17, the presentation explained systems change through the critical role of fund development and went through the why, how, and appropriate frameworks needed
International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Volume 6 Special Sectors (6th Revised Edition)
No full textThis book is Volume Six of an Eight-Volume set. All of the Volumes are available in KU ScholarWorks. Links to all eight volumes are available in the Abstracts file in this record.
About the Author:
Born in Toronto of Indian and Celtic heritage, Rakesh (Raj) Kumar Bhala is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen prominent in the fields of International Trade Law, Islamic Law (Sharī‘a), and Law and Literature. Raj is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, School of Law (KU Law). He is published widely world-wide – authoring over 100 scholarly articles and 13 books, including the International Trade Law Textbook, which has been used at over 100 law schools around the globe. Ingram’s Business Magazine designated him as one of “50 Kansans You Should Know.”
Raj has testified before the U.K. Parliament, House of Commons, International Trade Committee, on trade and human rights. Media frequently call upon Raj. Across 65 consecutive months (from January 2017-October 2022), “On Point” was his column on International Law and Economics, which Bloomberg Quint / BQ Prime (Mumbai) published and distributed to approximately 6.2 million readers globally.
Raj is a Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate (Cum Laude). As a Marshall Scholar, Raj earned two Master’s degrees, from the London School of Economics (LSE) in Economics, and from Oxford (Trinity College) in Management (Industrial Relations). His undergraduate degree is from Duke (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and double-majored in Economics and Sociology. After HLS, Raj practiced at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he twice won the President’s Award for Excellence thanks to his service as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), along with a Letter of Commendation from the U.S. Department of State. He is a member of the State Department’s Speaker Program.
Raj has served in officer positions at the International Bar Association (IBA) and Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), on the Executive Board of Directors of the Carriage Club of Kansas City (including as Treasurer), and been on the Alumni Association Board of the University School of Milwaukee (USM), his high school alma mater. He is grateful to his USM teachers for a liberal arts education that made all good things possible. Raj loves fitness training, has finished 115 marathons, including the “Big Five” of the “World’s Majors” (Boston twice, New York twice, Chicago twice, Berlin, and London). He enjoys studying Shakespeare and (especially since becoming Catholic at Easter Vigil 2001) Theology – and watching baseball.Every trading nation has “sensitive sectors.” They are the areas of economic endeavor a country desires to insulate from the competition of freely-traded exports. The sensitivities may be based on cultural legacies (think beef in Korea), political calculations (think dairy products in Canada), or economic consequences (think high-employment sectors in India). These sensitivities are the subject of Volume Six.
Part One covers the quintessential sensitive sector: agriculture. Though farm and farm- related endeavors employ a small fraction of the labor force in developed countries, the percentages are higher in developing and least developed countries. Moreover, agriculture is the one sector that effects every person – everyone must eat. So, this Part steers through the three legs of agricultural trade liberalization per the world’s first multilateral deal on cross-border transactions in this sector, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture: market access; domestic support; and export subsidies. Further, this Part deals with a closely related matter of concern from ancient to modern times – sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, which are the subject of the WTO SPS Agreement. Alas, many controversies remain in this sector, including reforms to the Green Box and (as India presses) public stockholding for food security, and improper invocations of SPS protections.
Part Two deals with the dominant economic sector in developed countries: services. It is in services where most of the labor force is employed in them, and migrating from agriculture- based to services-based economies is the goal of developing and developing countries. This Part explains how services are categorized in Sectors, Sub-Sectors, and Sub-Sub-Sectors, and how they are traded across borders through four Modes of delivery. Then, the rules of such trade – horizontal (general) obligations, and specific commitments and exceptions – under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are explained. Vitally, how to read a Services Schedule, and thus how to understand the multi-dimensional character of services trade liberalization negotiations, are spelled out, and the limited WTO jurisprudence is untangled.
Part Three is about a highly contentious sector in which rich countries seek to maintain a lead, and poor countries hope to develop a comparative advantage: patents, trademarks, and copyrights – that is, IPRs. The WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) is the focal point of this Part, both its textual provisions and WTO case law under it. So, too, are novel challenges, such as compulsory licensing and vaccine nationalism, some of which were highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And, as in any area of International Trade Law, there are problems of enforcement, hence this Part reviews how, why, and who is responsible for policing intellectual property rights (IPRs).
Part Four deals with the new frontier of sensitive sectors, namely, digital trade (including electronic commerce). What is digital trade? What is its relation to electronic (e-)commerce? Is it properly the subject of International Trade Law, or does it also implicate issues of antitrust (competition law), and cyber-security? What Digital Trade Agreements currently exist, and what do they say? Which countries incline toward free trade in digital services, and which champion barriers (e.g., data localization), and why? All such questions are in play in this Part.
Overall, Volume Six conveys the vital point that unabashed, across-the-board, laissez-faire free trade policy is a quixotic goal in the mind of an ideological economist. In truth, countries understandably need to balance their inclination to free trade against adjustment costs. Like the other seven Volumes of International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, this Volume is available Open Access, and thus freely, quickly downloadable
Integrating Targeted Proteomics and Ocular Pharmacokinetics to Support PBPK Modeling of Carboxylesterase-Mediated Drug Metabolism in the Eye: A Case Study with Latanoprost Ophthalmic Solution
No full textThis is the poster from a presentation given at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists 2025 PHarmsci 360 held in San Antonio, TX on 9/11/2025.Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling is increasingly used to support drug development and regulatory assessment. Yet, current ocular PBPK models primarily account for physicochemical and formulation properties of the drug and physiological characteristics of the eye, with limited consideration of local metabolic processes. Ocular tissues are enriched with hydrolases—particularly carboxylesterases (CESs)—that play critical roles in ocular local metabolism and activating ester prodrugs such as latanoprost.
This study aims to quantify CES protein expression across rabbit ocular sub-tissues and obtain ocular PK profiles of latanoprost following topical administration in rabbits. The resulting dataset will serve as a foundation for developing advanced ocular PBPK models incorporating CES- mediated metabolism, thereby enhancing the translational prediction of ocular drug disposition. Our study shows that signature peptide selection critically impacts CES quantification. RbCES1_pep2 yielded considerably higher and more reliable CES1 protein abundance than RbCES1_pep1, while RbCES2_pep1 produced higher CES2 levels than RbCES2_pep2. In rabbit ocular tissues, CES1 was most abundant in ICB, followed by cornea, RC, VH, and lens, and significantly lower in AH and tear film, aligns with human eye proteomics data.9 CES2 levels were generally lower than CES1, except in AH, highlighting tissue- specific CES isoforms expression across the rabbit ocular tissues. Correlation analysis suggested that CES1 is the primary enzyme responsible for latanoprost metabolism in rabbit liver, consistent with its small alcohol moiety. The in vivo ocular PK study revealed rapid corneal bioactivation of latanoprost to latanoprost acid, with the parent drug undetectable in AH. The high tear concentration of latanoprost acid despite low CES1 expression suggests additional enzymatic contribution or back-diffusion of the metabolite from the cornea.
Latanoprost acid showed a similar terminal half-life in both tear film and AH, suggesting a shared rate-limiting elimination process under our experimental conditions. This is likely due to reduced tear turnover and drainage in anesthetized rabbits, causing the entire anterior chamber to decline with the same apparent rate constant. Future study will focus on obtaining key kinetic parameters (such as the conversion rate in tear and cornea) to refine and validate the PBPK model integrating ocular metabolism and pharmacokinetics
A corticolimbic circuit driving partner-seeking in the prairie vole model of social loss.
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at the Neurobiology of Grief International Network held in Regensburg, Germany on 09/18/2025.Grief often involves a sense of “yearning” for a lost loved one, which can disrupt daily activities. Recent research looking at receptor expression and behavioral differences in the loss state suggests this preoccupation may be driven by a feedback circuit between the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). This hypothesis was explored here using the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) and pharmacological manipulation.
Voles were paired with an opposite-sex partner for one week, and bond status was assessed via a partner preference test (PPT). Pair-bonded animals were then separated from their partner for one week. After separation, subjects underwent an odor preference test (OPT) for partner vs. food scented bedding. Prior to OPT, voles were bilaterally and site-specifically infused with vehicle, nonspecific dopamine antagonist targeting the ACC or a glutamate NMDA receptor agonist targeting the VTA. Time spent in proximity and actively investigating scented bedding was analyzed. Results showed that pair-bonded loss animals spent significantly more time investigating partner odor compared to non-bonded loss and pair-bonded intact controls. Antagonism of dopamine receptors in these cortical structures eliminated this difference, significantly reducing partner odor investigation in pair-bonded loss males to control levels. Agonism of glutamate receptors also significantly reduced partner-seeking behaviors. This is the first study to demonstrate a causal link between corticolimbic signaling and increased partner-associated cue seeking during partner loss. Future research is needed to explore the molecular mechanisms behind this apparent dopamine signaling dysfunction in the loss state