Digital Commons Network^™

Rebalancing Judicial Immunity For Civil Rights Actions, Bailey D. Barnes

Faculty Publications

Sterilization for shorter jail sentences. Vasectomies and birth control implants for freedom. In 2017, a criminal court judge in rural Tennessee made this offer to people incarcerated through sentences issued by his court. When litigators sought monetary damages and to enjoin the practice, and the local media exposed the scheme, the judge begrudgingly rescinded the order while expressing surprise that it was controversial. The Board of Judicial Conduct issued a letter of reprimand to the judge. Meanwhile, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee summarily dismissed the constitutional tort claims against the judge based on absolute …

A Tribute To Professor Marjorie Corman Aaron Upon Her Retirement, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Caring For The Caregivers: Reimagining Institutional Recognition Of Caregiving Work After The Covid Care Crisis, Shruti Rana

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic washed over the already uneven landscape of legal academia with an unrelenting force, hitting the most vulnerable most harshly while leaving others bobbing or churning in the waves, loosening the tethers to the social and institutional structures that had previously supported them. Some of the most devastating losses were unsurprising and indeed played out as had long been feared or predicted in times of crisis. Other harms played out in entirely new ways, creating new scars and obstacles. As we survey the changes brought across this landscape in the pandemic's wake, several emerging themes deserve further scrutiny …

A Comparative Analysis Of Third-Party Litigation Funding In The United States And The United Kingdom, Gary Myers

Faculty Publications

Third-Party Litigation Funding (TPLF), which is also known as litigation finance, involves a financial arrangement in which a third party provides funding to support the plaintiff's pursuit of a civil lawsuit. The third party, in return, receives a portion of the proceeds if the litigation is successful. Like a contingent fee agreement, this type funding model enables a party to bring a lawsuit even if it does not have the resources to pay the up-front costs of the litigation. The important difference is that the litigation funder is not counsel to a party in the case, and that TPLF essentially …

Recruiting The Right Candidate, Cynthia Bassett

Faculty Publications

The market for hiring a law librarian has changed significantly over the last few years. Those on both sides of the equation are a little uncertain about the whole process, wondering when the job search should start, how much to expect in pay, and what aspects of a position are up for discussion. The challenge of a limited pipeline of law librarians requires new approaches to recruiting.

Guns, Vices And Freedom, Oh My: A Preliminary Empirical Investigation, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Essay estimates factors within States that are associated with per capita firearms ownership and the extent of legal restrictions con-cerning firearms. The metrics are: for the former, a proxy consisting of the fraction of suicides with a firearm; for the latter, Giffords Law Center’s ratings of the restrictiveness of a State’s regulation of fire-arms. For each, the Essay estimates the relationship between it and each of the levels of vices and freedom.

The Giffords score (more restrictions scored higher) is negatively related to the Cato Institute’s measure of overall freedom and regula-tory policy freedom but positively related to Cato’s …

Spatiotemporal Patterns For Agroforestry Tree Crops In The U.S. Corn Belt For Usda Census Of Agriculture Periods 2012–2022, Andria Caruthers, Justin Dijak, Robin M. Rotman

Faculty Publications

Within the U.S., there is a growing need to integrate environmentally friendly practices into conventional agriculture. Agroforestry enhances environmental and resource stewardship in agricultural landscapes while offering potential economic benefits to farmers. Despite rising interest, limited information on its application in the U.S. hinders development efforts. A spatiotemporal analysis of current farm operations can provide crucial insights. This study examined patterns of agroforestry and tree crop adoption in the U.S. Corn Belt using USDA Census data (2012, 2017, and 2022) and spatial tools (Global Moran’s I, Local Moran’s I, and Moran scatterplots). The tree crops included in the analysis were …

The Success Of Pre-Enforcement Challenges To Antidiscrimination Laws, Alexander Gouzoules

Faculty Publications

Formally, judicial analysis of a challenged statute's validity should be consistent, regardless of the challenge's pre- or post-enforcement posture. A post-enforcement posture arises when an aggrieved party defensively challenges a purportedly unconstitutional statute being enforced against them. Alternatively, a pre-enforcement posture arises when an impacted party strikes first, attacking the statute by asserting a credible threat that the law will be enforced against them in the future. Either way, judicial evaluation of a statute's validity should turn on its content and effect-not on whether it was challenged before or after enforcement.

This Article challenges that assumption, arguing that pre-enforcement challengers …

Just Consumer Financial Protection: Prevention Or Cure, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

This article examines the relationship between two complementary and related consumer financial protection approaches: regulatory oversight of financing terms (ex ante protection) and bankruptcy discharge of consumer debts (ex post protection). Although often conceptualized as distinct areas of law, consumer financial regulation and consumer bankruptcy are two sides of the same coin and function together to treat the harms of financial distress. This article seeks to explore the relationship and tensions between these various approaches by juxtaposing consumer debtor-creditor law attitudes and legal developments in continental Europe (primarily France and Germany) with those in the United States. After …

Choosing Your Judge, Alexander Gouzoules

Faculty Publications

Accounts of American litigation pose a contradiction: Forum shopping is acceptable, but judge shopping is not. Formal disfavor toward judge shopping is pervasive, and attempts by parties to manipulate the assignment of their case are deemed abusive and even sanctionable. Nevertheless, sophisticated judge-shopping tactics have proliferated in specific areas of the law—particularly in challenges to executive branch policies and in the reorganization of large companies under Chapter 11. In these disparate areas, judge-shopping strategies have been deployed in high-profile cases, ranging from a challenge to the FDA’s authorization of an abortion drug to the opioid-driven bankruptcy of Purdue Pharma. In …

Petition Power, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

The law cannot be kept secret. We cannot comply with rules that we do not know. Nor can we question their legitimacy, which is both our right and our duty as citizens. And yet, a substantial body of law applied in this country is difficult for anyone but federal agency insiders to piece together. Rather than publishing regulations that lay out standards of conduct for the future, many agencies interpret the law, and articulate and implement new policies, as they go. Those subject to the law they implement are left to piece the rules together by studying whatever information is …

Top Ten Ways To Improve Your Mediation Skills, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article uses Real Practice Systems (RPS) theory to identify things that mediators can do to improve their mediation skills. This begins by mediators recognizing that they have a complex mediation practice system if they mediate regularly. The article includes links to a short video and articles to help mediators understand their unique systems. Using these insights, mediators can complete a self-assessment questionnaire and take advantage of the RPS Menu of Mediation Checklists to tailor their own checklists to fit their practices. Mediators can continuously improve by participating in ongoing educational practice groups.

Ready, Set, Mediate!, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article summarizes the discussion in a program at the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s annual conference about helping parties prepare for mediation sessions. The article describes benefits and goals of preparation, studies finding failures to prepare before mediation sessions, consequences of failing to prepare, and how courts can promote preparation. It lists the audience’s experiences of problems due to inadequate preparation and materials they use or would like to use.

The last part of the article provides resources to help everyone be as ready as possible when their mediation sessions begin. These resources are useful for private mediations as …

News And Perspectives: Words Matter In Primatology, Michelle Bezanson, Liliana Cortés-Ortiz, Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Ramesh Boonratana, Susana Carvalho, Marina Cords, Stella De La Torre, Catherine Hobaiter, Tatyana Humle, Patrícia Izar, Jessica W. Lynch, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Joanna M. Setchell, Gladys Kalema Zikusoka, Karen B. Strier

Faculty Publications

Postings on social media on Twitter (now X), BioAnthropology News (Facebook), and other venues, as well as recent publications in prominent journals, show that primatologists, ecologists, and other researchers are questioning the terms “Old World” and “New World” due to their colonial implications and history. The terms are offensive if they result in erasing Indigenous voices and history, ignoring the fact that Indigenous peoples were in the Americas long before European colonization. Language use is not without context, but alternative terminology is not always obvious and available. In this perspective, we share opinions expressed by an international group of primatologists …

Deciphering Genetic Factors Contributing To Enhanced Resistance Against Cercospora Leaf Blight In Soybean (Glycine Max L.) Using Gwas Analysis, Jinesh Patel, Tom W. Allen, Blair Buckley, Pengyin Chen, Michael Clubb, Leandro A. Mozzoni, Moldir Orazaly, Liliana Florez, David Moseley, John C. Rupe, Bishnu K. Shrestha, Paul P. Price, Brian M. Ward, Jenny Koebernick

Faculty Publications

Cercospora leaf blight (CLB), caused by Cercospora cf. flagellaris, C. kikuchii, and C. cf. sigesbeckiae, is a significant soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] disease in regions with hot and humid conditions causing yield loss in the United States and Canada. There is limited information regarding resistant soybean cultivars, and there have been marginal efforts to identify the genomic regions underlying resistance to CLB. A Genome-Wide Association Study was conducted using a diverse panel of 460 soybean accessions from maturity groups III to VII to identify the genomic regions associated to the CLB disease. These accessions were evaluated for CLB in …

Cotton Host Resistance As A Tool For Managing Rotylenchulus Reniformis In Louisiana, Tristan T. Watson

Faculty Publications

The reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis, is a major yield-limiting pest of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) in the United States that has been steadily increasing in incidence in many states. Reniform nematode-resistant cotton cultivars have recently become commercially available for cotton producers; however, few field trials have evaluated their efficacy as a nematode management tool. The aim of this study was to evaluate reniform nematode population development, plant growth, and seed cotton yield of reniform nematode-resistant cotton cultivars in two nematode-infested fields in Louisiana. Replicated small-plot field trials were conducted in St. Joseph, LA (NERS field) and Winnsboro, LA (MRRS field) …

Serine Proteinase Inhibitors From Nicotiana Benthamiana, A Nonpreferred Host Plant, Inhibit The Growth Of Myzus Persicae (Green Peach Aphid), Honglin Feng, Georg Jander

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) is a severe agricultural crop pest that has developed resistance to most current control methods, requiring the urgent development of novel strategies. Plant proteinase inhibitors (PINs) are small proteins that protect plants against pathogens and/or herbivores, likely by preventing efficient protein digestion. RESULTS: We identified 67 protease genes in the transcriptomes of three M. persicae lineages (USDA-Red, G002 and G006). Comparison of gene expression levels in aphid guts and whole aphids showed that several proteases, including a highly expressed serine protease, are significantly overexpressed in the guts. Furthermore, we identified three genes encoding …

Registration Of ‘Ho 13-739’ Sugarcane, James R. Todd, Anna L. Hale, Yong Bao Pan, Thomas L. Tew, William H. White, Edwis O. Dufrene, Michael P. Grisham, Jeff Hoy, Hannah J. Penn, Blake Wilson, Albert Orgeron, Herman Waguespack, Michael Pontif, Kenneth A. Gravois, Windell R. Jackson, Michael J. Duet, Cory Landry, David L. Verdun

Faculty Publications

‘Ho 13-739’ (Reg. no. CV-214, PI 703499) sugarcane (a Saccharum spp. complex polyploid) was selected and evaluated by scientists at the USDA-ARS in Houma, LA, in cooperation with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and the American Sugar Cane League, Inc. It was released to growers in Louisiana in 2020. Results from evaluations in plant-cane and first- and second-ratoon crops at 13 field locations revealed that sucrose content and stalk weight of Ho 13-739 were significantly greater than ‘L 01-299’ in every crop and across the crop cycle. Sucrose yield was not significantly different than L 01-299 for all crops …

Soybean Planting Dates And Maturity Groups: Maximizing Yield Potential And Decreasing Risk In Louisiana, David Moseley, Andre Reis, Thanos Gentimis, Priscila Campos, Josh Copes, Melanie Netterville, Peters Egbedi, Dustin Harrell, Manoch Kongchum, Ronnie Levy, Boyd Padgett, Samuel Soignier, Derek Scroggs, Jason Sanders, Joe Pankey, Katarzyna Fic

Faculty Publications

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] producers in Louisiana began shifting to an early soybean production system (ESPS) in the early 2000s by planting earlier maturing varieties in April and May. Although this shift in planting practices has been supported by research elsewhere beginning in the mid-1990s, there is minimum data focusing on the ESPS across Louisiana. The overall objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of planting date, maturity group (MG), and their combination across a comprehensive set of yield environments in the state of Louisiana to determine the combination of optimum planting date and MG for soybean …

Treatment Comparisons In Adaptive Platform Trials Adjusting For Temporal Drift, Beibei Guo, Li Wang, Ying Yuan

Faculty Publications

An adaptive platform trial (APT) is a multi-arm trial in the context of a single disease where treatment arms are allowed to enter or leave the trial based on some decision rule. If a treatment enters the trial later than the control arm, there exist nonconcurrent controls who were not randomized between the two arms under comparison. As APTs typically take long periods of time to conduct, temporal drift may occur, which requires the treatment comparisons to be adjusted for this temporal change. Under the causal inference framework, we propose two approaches for treatment comparisons in APTs that account for …

A Pharmacological Approach To Investigating Effector Translocation In Rice-Magnaporthe Oryzae Interactions, Ely Oliveira-Garcia, Allison Jane Hamilton

Faculty Publications

Fungal pathogens deliver effector proteins into living plant cells to suppress plant immunity and control plant processes that are needed for infection. During plant infection, the devastating rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae, forms the specialized biotrophic interfacial complex (BIC), which is essential for effector translocation. Cytoplasmic effectors are first focally secreted into BICs, and subsequently packaged into dynamic membranous effector compartments (MECs), then translocated via clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME) into the host cytoplasm. This study demonstrates that clathrin-heavy chain inhibitors endosidin-9 (ES9) and endosidin-9–17 (ES9–17) blocked the internalization of the fluorescently labeled effectors Bas1 and Pwl2 in rice cells, leading to …

Biology, Ecology, And Management Of Redbanded Stink Bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), Olabimpe O. Okosun, Justin George, Maribel Portilla, James P. Glover, Katherine A. Parys, Gadi V.P. Reddy

Faculty Publications

The redbanded stink bug (RBSB), Piezodorus guildinii (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is an invasive stink bug species and a polyphagous pest of cultivated crops and non-cultivated wild plants. The increase in soybean cultivation during the 1960s-1970s led to the spread of RBSB as an economic pest of soybean throughout South America, especially in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. In the early 2000s, RBSB became an economic concern to US agriculture and is currently a key species in a stink bug complex that damages soybean in many mid-southern states. RBSB causes extensive damage to soybeans and other economically important leguminous crops by feeding …

Understanding Inequality In U.S. Farm Subsidies Using Large-Scale Administrative Data, Jisang Yu, Sunghun Lim

Faculty Publications

Using a large-scale, individual-level administrative data set for 2008–2021, we document the inequality in farm program payments across all recipients in the U.S. By examining the relationship between within-county inequality and demographic characteristics of farmers in a county, we find that there is a positive association between the share of Black operators and within-county inequality. We also provide suggestive evidence that a substantial portion of racial and gender disparities in farm payments are associated with crop production characteristics. We then utilize name information in farm payment data to infer the race and gender of individual payees. The analysis using approximately …

Transgenic Sugarcane Expressing Bacillus Thuringiensis Cry1ac Protein Offers New Possibilities For Controlling The Giant Borer, Telchin Licus (Drury), A Pest Difficult To Control, Caroline Izabel R. Sakuno, Fabricio José B. Francischini, Karen Missy A. Komada, Murilo Basso, Fangneng Huang

Faculty Publications

The giant borer, Telchin licus (Drury), is an important insect pest of sugarcane in Central and South America. This pest is difficult to control with chemical or biological control approaches due to the larvae behavior of hiding in the deepest parts of the plants. Manual scavenging and skewer killing have been the main approaches for monitoring and control of T. licus in Brazil, the world's largest sugarcane producer. Recently, Brazil launched the first commercial use of transgenic sugarcane expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins to control the sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (F.), a primary insect pest of sugarcane in the Americas. …

Multinational Prediction Of Soil Organic Carbon And Texture Via Proximal Sensors, Marcelo Mancini, Renata Andrade, Sérgio Henrique Godinho Silva, Rogério Borguete Alves Rafael, Swagata Mukhopadhyay, Bin Li, Somsubhra Chakraborty, Luiz Roberto Guimarães Guilherme, Autumn Acree, David C. Weindorf, Nilton Curi

Faculty Publications

Novel technologies help to monitor the environmental impact of human activities, but tests involving datasets from several countries, encompassing a large variability of soil properties, are still scarce. This study utilized proximal sensors to predict soil organic carbon (OC) and soil texture of samples from Brazil, France, India, Mozambique, and United States. A total of 1749 samples were analyzed by portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry and visible near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Sand (R2 = 0.89), silt (0.87), and clay (0.84) predictions were very accurate, despite contrasting climates, soil parent materials, and weathering degrees. Soil OC predictions were similarly successful (0.74) …

Expanding The Scope: Multimodal Dimensions In Aphasia Discourse Analysis—Preliminary Findings, Manaswita Dutta, Bijoyaa Mohapatra

Faculty Publications

Background: Aphasia, resulting from acquired brain injury, disrupts language processing and usage, significantly impacting individuals’ social communication and life participation. Given the limitations of traditional assessments in capturing the nuanced challenges faced by individuals with aphasia, this study seeks to explore the potential benefits of integrating multimodal communication elements into discourse analysis to better capture narrative proficiency in this population. Objective: This study examined how incorporating multimodal communication elements (e.g., physical gestures, writing, drawing) into discourse analysis may affect the narrative outcomes of persons with aphasia compared to those observed using methods that exclude multimodal considerations. Methods: Participants included individuals …

Memory And Myth In The Creation Of Identity: The Establishment Of The Vernal Public Library, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

Local history and lore reports that the Vernal Public Library owed its inception to a performance of Queen Esther Opera in 1907. However, the Vernal Express makes no mention of such a performance (nor can any such opera be identified), while it does record multiple other community fundraising events held to benefit the public library. One such, a unique event in public library history, occurred in 1908 when the public library association held a benefit performance of a stage version of Owen Wister’s popular Western novel, The Virginian. This documented event, however, seems to have been lost to history, as …

The Lavatory Lens: Tracking The Global Movement Of Pathogens Via Aircraft Wastewater, Aaron Bivins, Robert Morfino, Andrew Franklin, Stuart Simpson, Warish Ahmed

Faculty Publications

Modern commercial air travel connects disparate human populations. The global airline industry transported as many as 4.5 billion passengers annually in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. While such connections are convenient for commerce and tourism, air travel networks can also be efficient distributors of infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health agencies used multi-layered control strategies to manage the risk of COVID-19 transmission associated with air travel. Simultaneously, the surveillance of aircraft wastewater was further developed as a promising new method to screen for COVID-19, including newly emerging lineages, among international travelers. Herein, we review the …

Establishment Of A Practical Sperm Cryopreservation Pathway For The Axolotl (Ambystoma Mexicanum): A Community-Level Approach To Germplasm Repository Development, Nicholas Coxe, Yue Liu, Lucía Arregui, Rose Upton, Sarah Bodenstein, Steven Randal Voss, Maria T. Gutierrez-Wing, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) draws great attention around the world for its importance as a biomedical research model, but housing and maintaining live animals is increasingly expensive and risky as new transgenic lines are developed. The goal of this work was to develop an initial practical pathway for sperm cryopreservation to support germplasm repository development. The present study assembled a pathway through the investigation of axolotl sperm collection by stripping, refrigerated storage in various osmotic pressures, cryopreservation in various cryoprotectants, and in vitro fertilization using thawed sperm. By the stripping of males, 25–800 µL of sperm fluid was collected at …

Adhesion Of Technical Lignin-Based Non-Isocyanate Polyurethane Adhesives For Wood Bonding, Jaewook Lee, Byung Dae Park, Qinglin Wu

Faculty Publications

Lignin is the most abundant aromatic natural polymer, and receiving great attention in replacing various petro-leum-based polymers. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of technical lignin as a polyol for the synthesis of non-isocyanate polyurethane (NIPU) adhesives to substitute current polyurethane (PU) adhesives that have been synthesized with toxic isocyanate and polyols. Crude hardwood kraft lignin (C-HKL) was extracted from black liquor from a pulp mill followed by acetone fractionation to obtain acetone soluble-HKL (AS-HKL). Then, C-HKL, AS-HKL, and softwood sodium lignosulfonate (LS) were used for the synthesis of technical lignin-based NIPU adhesives through carbonation and …