Digital Commons Network^™

Utilization Of Sea Scallop (Placopecten Magellanicus Gmelin) Microsatellite Markers For Phylogenetic Applications In Bay Scallops (Argopecten Irradians Lamarck), Liliana E.J. Kim, James J. Campanella, Paul A.X. Bologna

RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences

In previous research, microsatellite markers have been used to geographically and phylogenetically characterize and identify populations of sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus Gmelin). Given that sea scallops are a closely related species to bay scallops (Argopecten irradians Lamarck), we have investigated whether the flanking DNA sequences of sea scallop microsatellite loci have been conserved in the bay scallop. We found that in all seven sets of published sea scallop PCR primers (Pma130, -132, -135, -180, -200, -212, and -275) that were tested with bay scallop DNA, there was sequence conservation and amplification of microsatellite regions. Our initial phylogenetic analyses, …

Estimation Of Heat Transfer Coefficients Of Cooked Boneless Ham, Kimberly Ryland, Lijun Wang, Alejandro Amézquita, Curtis L. Weller

RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences

Biological heat transfer depends on many factors; however it is necessary to understand the cooling process to design safe and efficient meat cooling techniques. For this reason the convective heat transfer coefficient h of a five pound processed boneless pork ham was evaluated by two methods using a similarly shaped aluminum block. A Lumped Parameter approach in which mass transfer was ignored resulted in a heat transfer coefficient value of 5.10 W/m²K. A second method, which included mass transfer, resulted in a value of 9.11 W/m²K. These values fell within the expected range of 5-20 W/m …

Free Exercise In The "Lobbying Nineties", Bradley P. Jacob

Nebraska Law Review

I. Introduction

II. A Simple Framework for Thinking About the Free Exercise of Religion

III. A Brief Overview of Free Exercise Case Law History

IV. The Lobbying Nineties

V . What Next? ...A. Constitutional Amendment ...B. Re-Enacting RFRA ...C. The Commerce and Spending Power ..1. Spending Power ...2. Commerce Power ...D. Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment ...E. Strengthening Free Exercise Using Smith ...1. Belief ... 2. Laws That Are Not Neutral and Generally Applicable ...3. Hybrid Rights .

VI. Conclusion

The Irrational Supreme Court, Michael I. Meyerson

Nebraska Law Review

I. Introduction

II. A [blunt?] Arrow Aimed at the Heart of the Supreme Court

III. The Irrationality Theorem ... A. Miller and Sex Discrimination ... B. Proof of the Irrationality Theorem ... C. When Will Irrationality Arise? ... D. The Irrationality Theorem in Action

IV. What Should be Done About Irrational Decisions? ... A. Bush v. Gore: A Case of Disingenuous Voting? ... B. The Limits of Disclosed Vote Switching ... C. The Futility of Changing Voting Protocols ... D. Irrational Solutions ... 1. Tinkering Around the Edges ... 2. Living with Irrationality

V . Conclusion

VI. Appendix: Additional Irrational …

Hydrologically Connected Ground Water, Section 858, And The Spear T Ranch Decision, Dave Aiken

Nebraska Law Review

Tributary ground water, the ground water that reaches a stream, is a major source of streamflow. The United States Geological Survey estimates that ground water is the source of nearly forty percent of all streamflow in the United States. This figure is higher in Nebraska. Ground water was the source of fifty-five percent of total streamflow in Nebraska in 1975 (fifty-one percent on average). This important, but largely unrecognized, fact has not been taken into account by Nebraska water policy makers. Despite the incontrovertible fact that ground water provides the baseflow for most Nebraska streams and is the most stable …

Small Town Establishment Of Religion In Aclu Of Nebraska Foundation V. City Of Plattsmouth, 419 F.3d 772 (8th Cir. 2005); Eagles Soaring In The Eighth Circuit, Keith T. Peters

Nebraska Law Review

This Note will examine the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Plattsmouth II in light of other cases which involved Eagles Ten Commandments monuments. This Note presents three assertions: first, the Eighth Circuit properly applied the Supreme Court's opinion in Van Orden and allowed Plattsmouth to keep its monument; second, Plattsmouth's monument should remain even under the Court's current analysis, first asserted in Lemon v. Kurtzman; and finally, the Supreme Court should interpret the Establishment Clause to allow all of the Eagles' monuments to remain on public property. In order to better understand the rocky terrain upon which the …

Table Of Contents, Vol. 84, No. 4

Nebraska Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Emergence Of Exacted Conservation Easements, Jessica Owley

Nebraska Law Review

This Article outlines reasons why exacted conservation easements emerged and why they are such a popular tool. This Article begins by looking at conservation easements generally and how they arose in the context of environmental law and property law. This emergence is most easily and correctly understood by examining the development of American environmental law and its subsequent rejection by many facets of society. What remains is a push-pull relationship: we still have environmental goals and values, but we dislike government regulation. Conservation easements become a way to protect the landscape without public intervention. With conservation easements, it may appear …

Lex-Praxis Of Education Informational Privacy For Public Schoolchildren, Susan P. Stuart

Nebraska Law Review

Starting with the premise that students' informational privacy is constitutionally protected, this Article will examine the federal statutes that purport to protect that privacy. Part II will sort through the current versions of federal statutes that regulate the collection, maintenance, and disclosure of student information and examine whether they actually protect student privacy interests. Part III will outline what information a local policy must constitutionally protect that the statutes really do not. Finally, Part IV will set out a plan for incorporating fair information practices into the framework of any local privacy policy and thereby set out a more coherent …

Accessing The Internet Through The Neighbor's Wireless Internet Connection: Physical Trespass In Virtual Reality, Ned Snow

Nebraska Law Review

The question of whether the common law permits a neighbor to joyride on a wireless network presents novel and complex issues of tort and property law. This Article addresses the question of whether the joyriding neighbor commits an actionable trespass against the Wi-Fi operator. Part II explains how a wireless network functions, and how a neighbor is able to access that network. Part III examines whether the neighbor's conduct satisfies the elements of trespass to chattel, identifying the chattel at issue as the Wi-Fi router. Part III concludes that the neighbor's conduct satisfies the elements of trespass to chattel. Part …

In Re Petition Of The Nebraska State Bar Association To Adopt Rules Of Professional Conduct Governing Attorneys, No. S-36-040001 (Neb. June 8, 2005): Changing The Rules—A Functional Analysis Of Nebraska's Newly Adopted Rules Of Professional Conduct, Joel Logsdon Wiegert

Nebraska Law Review

Regulation of lawyer conduct in the State of Nebraska. Upon the Nebraska Supreme Court's adoption of the Nebraska Rules of Professional Conduct ("Nebraska Rules") through its ruling on In re Petition of the Nebraska State Bar Association to Adopt Rules of Professional Conduct Governing Attorneys, the state shed its distinct position as one of only six jurisdictions not yet utilizing some form of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The new system represents the first complete revision of the professional ethical standards to which Nebraska lawyers are held accountable since the adoption of the Code of Professional Responsibility ("Nebraska …

Indexes To Volume 84

Nebraska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Volume 85, Issue 1: Table Of Contents

Nebraska Law Review

Lecture

Articles

Notes

Don't Worry, I'Ll Be Right Back: Temporary Absences Of Counsel During Criminal Trials And The Rule Of Automatic Reversal, David A. Moran

Nebraska Law Review

When the victim testified during Pamela Green's trial for kidnapping and gross sexual imposition, Green's lawyer, John Carlin, never asked her a single question.' In fact, it would have been impossible for Carlin to cross-examine the victim because he had left the courtroom to attend a hearing for a client in another case. After Green repeatedly complained about Carlin's absence and asked the judge to provide her with another attorney who might actually stay in the courtroom while the prosecution's principal witnesses testified, the judge not only rejected the request but also revoked Green's bond and remanded her to jail …

The Prophecy Of Poor Dick: The Nebraska Supreme Court Recognizes A Surface Water Appropriator's Claim Against A Hydrologically Connected Ground Water User In Spear T Ranch, Inc. V. Knaub, Joseph A. Kishiyama

Nebraska Law Review

Rex Nielsen, owner of the Spear T Ranch, sustained his livestock with water diverted from Pumpkin Creek for more than fifty years. Today he relies on something else--a backhoe. Pumpkin Creek has run dry, and he has resorted to digging pits to find water for his cattle. This curious ranching practice is the result of a gray area in the law. Nebraska water law embodies a dichotomy whereby ground water and surface water are governed by separate legal doctrines. By ignoring their incontrovertible hydrologic link, this dichotomy fails to address a conflict between a ground water user and a surface …

Making Sense Of Hybrid Rights: An Analysis Of The Nebraska Supreme Court's Approach To The Hybrid- Rights Exception In Douglas County V. Anaya, Benjamin I. Siminou

Nebraska Law Review

Supreme Court's infamous decision, Employment Division, Department of Human Resources v. Smith unexpectedly and dramatically altered the degree of protection available to religious observers under the Free Exercise Clause. Prior to Smith, the general consensus in the legal community was that even laws unintentionally burdening a claimant's right to free exercise of religion had to serve a compelling governmental interest to pass constitutional muster. Smith reversed this paradigm by characterizing prior free exercise jurisprudence as actually standing for the principal that a neutral law "of general applicability need not be justified by a compelling governmental interest" even where the …

Table Of Contents, Vol. 85, Issue 2

Nebraska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trouble In Fort Trumbull: Using Eminent Domain For Economic Development In Kelo V. City Of New London, Ryan J. Sevcik

Nebraska Law Review

A traveler passing through the Fort Trumbull area of New London, Connecticut, in recent years would likely not find it all that noteworthy. The area is not home to shiny skyscrapers or fancy hotels. There are few modern architectural designs at which to marvel. Instead, the area is dotted with seemingly "ordinary" single-family homes, apartments, and other structures. While the area may not be as aesthetically pleasing as wealthier or more modern neighborhoods, it is still home to many residents. Some local residents have lived in the same houses for decades. Others have only recently moved to the area but …

Hate Crime Law And The Limits Of Inculpation, Janine Young Kim

Nebraska Law Review

The enactment of hate crime law-law that enhances the punishment of those whose crimes are motivated by legislatively identified animus or bias ("hate motive")—is widespread in the United States. According to the Anti-Defamation League, almost every state has passed hate crime law in one form or another, whether the hate motive is treated as an element of a criminal offense or as an aggravating factor at sentencing. Notwithstanding its overwhelming popularity, hate crime law has always provoked and continues to provoke contentious debate within legal academia. This debate has proceeded mainly along three distinct, though not unrelated, strands of thought. …

The Doctrine Of Equivalents: Becoming A Derelict On The Waters Of Patent Law, Charles W. Adams

Nebraska Law Review

The doctrine of equivalents expands the scope of patent protection in some circumstances to cover variations of the invention that are not within the literal terms of the claims. While there is no statutory basis for the doctrine of equivalents, and it has been characterized as an anomaly, 12 the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed the doctrine over the past 150 years. Although the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts continue to recognize the doctrine of equivalents, they have not clearly defined the circumstances in which it is available, nor demarcated the extent to which it expands the scope …

Allocating The Risks Of Embezzlement By An Escrow Holder: Bio-Electronics V. C & J Partnership, 268 Neb. 252, 682 N.W.2d 248 (2004), Leigh M. Koehn

Nebraska Law Review

Determining which party should bear the loss when the funds are embezzled by the escrow holder is often a difficult and troublesome task. The one who is responsible for the hardship has typically either disappeared or become insolvent, so the two parties to the transaction are left to battle between themselves over the missing funds. An equitable remedy seems impossible in such a situation as both parties are generally innocent of any wrongdoing. The inevitable result is that one blameless party will suffer a substantial loss while the other will still reap the benefits of the deal. This unfortunate situation …

Judicial Independence: The Situation Of The U.S. Federal Judiciary, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Nebraska Law Review

Essential to the rule of law in any land is an independent judiciary, judges not under the thumb of other branches of Government, and therefore equipped to administer the law impartially. The U.S. Federal Judiciary has been a model for the world in that regard. Fortunately so, for we can promote the rule of law, administered fairly and fearlessly elsewhere--in Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Kosovo, Ukraine, for example--only by vigilantly practicing at home what we preach abroad. As recent experience confirms, however, judicial independence is vulnerable to assault; it can be shattered if the society law exists to serve does not …

Copyright And Open Access: Reconsidering University Ownership Of Faculty Research, Robert C. Denicola, Robert C. Denicola

Nebraska Law Review

In 2001, a group of prominent scientists urged a boycott of scholarly journals that refused to provide free online access to research articles within six months after publication. In an open letter to colleagues they pledged to "publish in, edit or review for, and personally subscribe to only those scholarly and scientific journals" that complied with their demand. They defended their stand with the proposition that "[a]s scientists, we are particularly dependent on ready and unimpeded access to our published literature, the only permanent record of our ideas, discoveries, and research results, upon which future scientific activity and progress are …

Did Smokers Catch A Break? The Eighth Circuit Interprets Exclusions Of Tobacco-Related Conditions Narrowly In Christianson V. Poly-America Medical Benefit Plan, E. Kiernan Mcgorty

Nebraska Law Review

According to 2001 U.S. Census data, approximately sixty-three percent of the population receive their health care benefits from employer- sponsored health care plans. Recognizing the growing number and economic impact of employee benefit plans, Congress enacted the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA) in 1974 to regulate employee pension benefit plans and employee welfare benefit plans, which include employer-sponsored health care plans. According to ERISA section 2(b), one of the Act's purposes is to protect the interests of heath care plan participants and beneficiaries by requiring the disclosure of information regarding the plan and providing adequate remedies for breaches of …

Confronting Crawford, Daniel Huff

Nebraska Law Review

In Shakespearean tragedy, horrific acts create a break in the great chain of being, a tear in the cosmic fabric that must be set right. Certain events are marred by such flagrant and gross injustice that they are seared into the collective memory. Our historical conscience impels us to prevent their recurrence. To the Framers of the Constitution, such an event was the case of Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was tried at Winchester, in 1603, on charges of conspiring with a certain Lord Cobham to unseat King James I. While he languished in the Tower of London, Cobham signed a …

Affirmative Action In Higher Education: Insults, Preferences, And The Dworkin Defense, Matthew Debell

Nebraska Law Review

This Essay analyzes a particular kind of justification for affirmative action in higher education. Ronald Dworkin, in Taking Rights Seriously, advances the position that the insult felt by victims of discrimination has a pivotal effect on the meaning of the act of discrimination, thus rendering the targets of such discrimination victims, and making the discriminatory act unethical and illegal. Conversely, the absence of such insult to those merely denied benefits by policies of affirmative action renders their objections impotent and makes affirmative action an ethical and lawful policy. In this Essay, I assess the confluence of ethical, legal, and psychological …

Table Of Contents, Vol. 84, No. 3

Nebraska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Dignity In Supreme Court Constitutional Jurisprudence, Maxine Goodman

Nebraska Law Review

I. Introduction

II. What is Human Dignity as a Constitutional Value?

III. Dignity as a Constitutional Value ... A. Background ... B. Human Dignity as a Value Underlying Particular Constitutional Claims ... 1. Fourteenth Amendment Liberty Interest and Corresponding Right to Privacy Regarding Marriage, Contraception, Intimate Acts, and Procreation ..... 2. Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Under the Law Regarding Access to Education and Accommodations ..... 3. Fifth Amendment Protection Against Self-Incrimination ... 4. Fourth Amendment Protection Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures ... 5. Eighth Amendment Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment ... 6. Fourteenth Amendment Due Process or Equal Protection …

Still, What's So Compelling? The Supreme Court's Continued Application Of The Ginsberg Analysis And Its Effect On The Attempted Regulation Of Internet Pornography In Ashcroft V. American Civil Liberties Union, 542 U.S. 656 (2004), Michael J. Kuhn

Nebraska Law Review

This Note will begin with an examination of the circumstances leading to the Supreme Court's decision, discussing both the case history of sex speech as well as the legislative backdrop to the creation of COPA. Next, section III.A will demonstrate how the majority opinion of the Supreme Court narrowed the protected class originally intended by Congress. Section III.B will explain how the majority opinion's arguments touting filtering software as a more effective and less restrictive means fail when applied to the intended broader class. Section III.C will argue that these findings are directly related to the Supreme Court's implicit reliance …

Development Of A System For Directed Evolution Of Arabidopsis Formate Dehydrogenase To Utilize Nadp As A Cofactor, Brittany L. Prather, Joshua R. Widhalm, John Markwell, Patricia L. Herman

RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences

Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is a NAD-dependent enzyme found in methylotrophic bacteria, yeast and plants. This enzyme catalyzes the reversible oxidation of formate to carbon dioxide. The goal of this research was to determine the feasibility of using a directed evolution approach to generate an altered Arabidopsis FDH with a high affinity for NADP as a cofactor. A PCR procedure that induced approximately 1.5 mutations in the wild-type Arabidopsis FDH sequence per thousand base pairs was developed and the amplified products were transformed into E. coli cells. Approximately 1300 cell lines were assayed in 96-well microplates for activity with NADP^{+ …}