Digital Commons Network^™

Juvenile-To-Adult Antler Development In White-Tailed Deer In South Texas, James Kroll, Ben Koerth

Faculty Publications

Past studies using penned deer provide conflicting results on the age when reliable predictions about antler growth potential in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) can be made. We captured wild whitetail males via aerial net gun on 12 ranches in 5 counties in south Texas, USA, from 1999 to 2007 to determine if a reliable juvenile-to-adult relationship in antler development existed. We individually marked and released captured animals at the trap site after we took antler and body measurements. We recaptured marked animals as possible in subsequent years or until we obtained final measurements after legal harvest. Amount of growth in …

Child Psychosocial Adjustment And Parenting In Families Affected By Maternal Hiv/Aids, Tanya L. Tompkins, Gail E. Wyatt

Faculty Publications

Child adjustment and parenting were examined in 23 9-through 16-year-old youth from families affected by maternal HIV infection and 20 same-age peers whose mothers were not infected. Children whose mothers were seropositive reported significantly more externalizing problems. Infected mothers reported less age-appropriate supervision/monitoring relative to non-infected mothers. Better mother-child relationship quality and less impairment in parental supervision/monitoring of age-appropriate youth behaviors were associated with fewer externalizing difficulties among the HIV-positive group only. Similarly, only among HIV-infected mothers was refraining from engaging in inconsistent disciplinary tactics associated with lower reports of internalizing and externalizing problems. These data highlight the promise of …

Distinct Phospho-Forms Of Cortactin Differentially Regulate Actin Polymerization And Focal Adhesions, Anne E. Kruchten, Eugene W. Krueger, Yu Wang, Mark A. Mcniven

Faculty Publications

Cortactin is an actin-binding protein that is overexpressed in many cancers and is a substrate for both tyrosine and serine/threonine kinases. Tyrosine phosphorylation of cortactin has been observed to increase cell motility and invasion in vivo, although it has been reported to have both positive and negative effects on actin polymerization in vitro. In contrast, serine phosphorylation of cortactin has been shown to stimulate actin assembly in vitro. Currently, the effects of cortactin serine phosphorylation on cell migration are unclear, and furthermore, how the distinct phospho-forms of cortactin may differentially contribute to cell migration has not been directly compared. Therefore, …

Using Data Mining For Forecasting Data Management Needs, Qingyu Zhang, Richard S. Segall

Faculty Publications

This chapter illustrates the use of data mining as a computational intelligence methodology for forecasting data management needs. Specifically, this chapter discusses the use of data mining with multidimensional databases for determining data management needs for the selected biotechnology data of forest cover data (63,377 rows and 54 attributes) and human lung cancer data set (12,600 rows of transcript sequences and 156 columns of gene types). The data mining is performed using four selected software of SAS® Enterprise MinerTM, Megaputer PolyAnalyst® 5.0, NeuralWare Predict®, and Bio- Discovery GeneSight®. The analysis and results will be used to enhance the intelligence capabilities …

Effects Of Eutrophication On Salt Marsh Root And Rhizome Biomass Accumulation, F A. Darby, R. Eugene Turner

Faculty Publications

The root:shoot ratio of grassland plants may be lower in high fertility sites than in low fertility sites as plants modify their root, rhizome and shoot morphologies (and masses) to suit prevailing nutrient availability. We conducted geographically diverse and regionally specific field sampling and measured above- and belowground plant biomasses in western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico salt marshes to determine whether there is a similar morphological response in Spartina alterniflora, the dominant salt marsh plant. Coastal nutrient addition/enrichment, which is widespread and ongoing, may lower root and rhizome biomass, belowground production and organic accumulation in this species. Higher soil …

Ocean Urea Fertilization For Carbon Credits Poses High Ecological Risks, P.M. Glibert, R. Azanza, M. Burford, K. Furuya, E. Abal, A. Al-Azri, F. Al-Yamani, P. Andersen, D.M. Anderson, J. Beardall, G.M. Berg, L. Brand, D. Bronk, J. Brookes, J.M. Burkholder, A. Cembella, W.P. Cochlan, J.L. Collier, Y. Collos, R. Diaz, M. Doblin, T. Drennen, S. Dyhrman, Y. Fukuyo, M. Furnas, J. Galloway, E. Granéli, D.V. Ha, G. Hallegraeff, J. Harrison, P.J. Harrison, C.A. Heil, K. Heimann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“The Longest Journey, With A First Step” : Bringing Coherence To Sovereignty And Jurisdictional Issues In Global Employee Benefits Law, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

One of the most neglected areas of employee benefits law in the United States today is the extraterritorial application of ERISA to U.S. employees in other countries. Additionally, the courts and legislature have not spent the necessary time to discuss ERISA coverage issues for foreign employees, both legal and illegal and both working for foreign government and non-government employers, in the United States. These are increasingly crucial areas of U.S. employee benefits law as the globalization of the world's workplaces continues apace.

After surveying the tangled web of ERISA law in this context, the article proposes two statutory fixes and …

Yes To Nondiscrimination, No To New Forms Of Criminal Liability: A Reply To Professors Collins, Leib, And Markel, Michael M. O'Hear

Faculty Publications

This Essay responds to an article by Jennifer Collins, Ethan Leib, and Dan Markel, Punishing Family Status, 89 B.U. L. Rev. 1327 (2008). Among other things, Collins et al. offer a new normative framework for determining when and how the criminal law may appropriately be used to promote voluntary care-giving relationships. This Essay argues that their framework is misconceived in two respects. First, voluntariness does not offer a persuasive foundation for criminal enforcement of care-giving responsibilities. The voluntary assumption of responsibilities later neglected has not generally been regarded as either necessary or sufficient as a basis for criminal liability, and …

First Things, First: A Principled Approach To Patent Administrative Law, Kali Murray

Faculty Publications

The relevance of administrative law to patent law has been reinforced by the recent controversy in Tafas v. Dudas. This Essay examines two issues. First, this Essay, using the controversy over continuation practices at the heart of Tafas v. Dudas, examines the impact of patent exceptionalism on the development of patent administrative law. In particular, this Essay explores the way in which the Federal Circuit's opinion in Merck v. Kessler can be used to (temporarily) resolve tensions in how Section 2 of the Patent Act is interpreted with respect to substantive rulemaking. Second, this Essay attempts to outline a series …

The Rhetoric Of Self-Defense, Janine Young Kim

Faculty Publications

The rhetoric of self-defense is a powerful instrument in the hands of legal actors to shape our understanding of justified violence in society. This rhetoric is based not in the legal definition of self-defense but rather in the paradigmatic situation of deadly response to deadly attack, which offers useful guidance in interpreting the law's required elements. However, the paradigm also tends to embrace claims of morality and right that threaten to expand self-defense beyond recognition to consider inappropriate values such as vengeance and punishment.

In this Article, the author argues that self-defense should be viewed not only as a moral …

Athlete Eligibility Requirements And Legal Protection Of Sports Participation Opportunities, Matthew J. Mitten, Timothy Davis

Faculty Publications

This article compares and examines the existing legal frameworks governing athletic eligibility rules and dispute resolution processes for Olympic, professional, college, and high school sports from both private law and public law perspectives. At all levels of sports competition, monolithic sports leagues and governing bodies establish eligibility requirements and conditions that must be satisfied for an individual to participate in athletics. Most sports governing bodies have broad, exclusive authority to regulate a single sport or group of sports on either an international, national, or state-wide basis, which provides the corresponding power to exclude or limit athletic participation opportunities. In conducting …

Tales Of A Law Professor Lateral Nothing, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

This Essay seeks to uncover the mysterious world of the law professor lateral hiring market, which has become increasingly important in the last number of years as law schools seek to build their reputations in this U.S. News & World Report world through the hiring of prominent faculty members.

Although the advice and guidance given in this Essay are sometimes written with tongue firmly in cheek, I do attempt to accomplish two important objectives here. First, there has been scarcely anything written about the lateral hiring market for law professors, as opposed to the cottage industry that has been devoted …

A Historical Review Of Title Ix Litigation, Paul M. Anderson, Barbara Osborne

Faculty Publications

This paper provides a historical analysis of litigation involving Title IX from its enactment in 1972 until its thirty five year anniversary in 2007.

Garcetti's Impact On The First Amendment Speech Rights Of Federal Employees, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

Garcetti v. Ceballos does nothing less than redefine the whole conception of what role public employees should play in ensuring the fair and efficient administration of government services. Through its holding, the Court has now made it nearly impossible for conscientious public servants to speak out in the best interests of the public without jeopardizing their careers. Yet, if possible, the situation is even worse for federal employees.

For the uninitiated, Garcetti is the watershed public employment free speech case that drastically cuts down on public employees' First Amendment expression rights while such employees are working pursuant to their official …

Plain-English Drafting For The 'Age Of Statutes', Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The 60th Anniversary Of The Everson Decision And America's Church-State Proposition, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

Sixty years ago the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township, which for the first time incorporated the Establishment Clause through the Fourteenth Amendment and made it binding on state and local governments. The case marks the beginning of the Court's modern era with respect to church-state relations. In Everson, the Justices said that the restraints on federal power represented by the Establishment Clause were the same as the ideas that emerged from the disestablishment struggles in the several states, with special attention to the Virginia experience. The disestablishment effort in the states, which …

The Business Value Of Social Network Technologies: A Framework For Identifying Opportunities For Business Value And An Emerging Research Program, Degan Kettles, Julie Smith David

Faculty Publications

Although social network technologies have been the focus of many articles in the popular and business press, businesses remain unclear about their value. We use theory and data gathered from IT leaders to develop an initial model assessing the value of social network technologies in the business environment. Insights are given into when different features should be used to enhance existing business processes and to provide business value.

Ordeal By Innocence: Why There Should Be A Wrongful Incarceration/Execution Exception To Attorney-Client Confidentiality, Colin Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Even Better Than The Real Thing: How Courts Have Been Anything But Liberal In Finding Genuine Questions Raised As To The Authenticity Of Originals Under Rule 1003, Colin Miller

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Mysteriously Reappearing Cause Of Action: The Court’S Expanded Concept Of Intentional Gender And Race Discrimination In Federally Funded Programs, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

This Article addresses whether a cause of action exists under federal statutes to challenge gender and racial inequity in federally funded programs. The question has widespread ramifications because Congress appropriates funds to millions of programs that are subject to these statutes. The Court has held that the only cause of action that exists under these statutes is for intentional discrimination, but in a series of recent cases the Court has developed a framework that broadens the concept of intentional discrimination. Unfortunately, lower courts have focused on older and narrower interpretations of intentional discrimination without accounting for the more complex nuances …

Educating At The Crossroads: Parents Involved, No Child Left Behind And School Choice, Danielle R. Holley-Walker

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From The States Up: Building A National Renewable Energy Policy, Shelley Welton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Question Order On Reporting Physical Activity And Walking Behavior, Brent E. Hutto, Patricia A. Sharpe, Michelle L. Granner, Cheryl L. Addy, Steven P. Hooker

Faculty Publications

Background: Question order might affect self-reported regular physical activity (PA) measured with items from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) PA module. Methods: A telephone survey was conducted using 2 forms (N = 1004, N = 212) with varying PA question order. The standard form presented moderate-PA, vigorous-PA, and walking questions, in that order, whereas the alternate form presented walking questions, followed by moderate-PA, and then vigorous-PA questions. Weighted, adjusted rates of vigorous PA, walking, meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation for moderate or vigorous PA, and moderate PA from each form were compared. Results: …

An Uncertain Privilege: Implied Waiver And The Eviseration Of The Psychotherapist Patient Privilege In The Federal Courts, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

Twelve years ago in Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1 (1996), the United States Supreme Court first recognized a federal common law psychotherapist-patient privilege and held that federal courts must protect confidential communications arising in psychotherapy despite the "likely evidentiary benefit" of such communications. This article examines the sharply conflicting authority in the federal courts that has developed since that landmark decision on the question of whether a plaintiff to a civil lawsuit waives the psychotherapist-patient privilege merely by seeking emotional distress damages. The federal courts' inconsistent and unprincipled approaches to this question renders the privilege itself nearly illusory and …

A Study Of Consumers' Post Discharge Finances: Struggle, Stasis, Or Fresh Start?, Lois R. Lupica, Jay L. Zagorsky Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The postwar U.S. has experienced an extremely sharp rise in consumer bankruptcies. What happens to these consumers financially after filing for bankruptcy? Do filers catch up with their non-filing peers, stay a constant distance behind or fall further behind over time? This question is investigated empirically using a new set of financial and bankruptcy data obtained from a large national random survey of bankruptcy filers and non-filers. Along some simple financial dimensions, such as car ownership, bankruptcy filers are not disadvantaged compared to non-filers. Along more complex indicators, such as total income and net worth, filers catch up over time …

Narcissism, Over-Optimism, Fear, Anger, And Depression: The Interior Lives Of Corporate Leaders, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Personal Integration And Outsider Status As Factors In Law Student Well-Being, Susan Grover

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sepas, Climate Change, And Corporate Responsibility: The Contribution Of Local Government, Catherine J. Lacroix

Faculty Publications

Municipalities in the United States are increasingly active in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Data suggest that the physical layout of communities and the buildings they contain make significant contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and thus to climate change. One useful tool for municipalities could be the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), pioneered in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) at the federal level and subsequently adopted as a policymaking guide in the State Environmental Policy Acts (SEPAs) of many states. A SEPA requires state governments - and, in six states, local governments as well - to consider the …

Academics In Wonderland: The Team Production And Director Primacy Models Of Corporate Governance, George W. Dent

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the Team Production and Director Primacy Models of corporate governance, finds them wanting, and explains why corporate governance is moving toward shareholder primacy and why this will benefit not only investors but the whole American economy.

The director primacy model posits that shareholders are so ill-informed and so divided in their interests that they would self-destruct if they controlled the firm. Accordingly they tie their own hands by ceding control to a board of independent directors. Advocates of the team production theory often agree with the foregoing but stress the importance to the firm of other constituencies, …

Settling The Matter: Does Title I Of The Ada Work?, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Analysis of cases decided under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which addresses employment discrimination, reveals that defendants have consistently prevailed in well over 90% of cases since the ADA's inception. This empirical evidence has led many commentators to conclude that the ADA's Title I has failed to improve workplace conditions for individuals with disabilities.

This article attempts to assess the efficacy of Title I through a different lens. It focuses on several data sets that have previously received little attention. It examines Equal Employment Opportunity Commission merit resolutions, lawsuit settlement statistics, and reports concerning reasonable accommodation …