Digital Commons Network^™

In Defense Of Conservation Easements: A Response To The End Of Perpetuity, W. William Weeks, Nancy A. Mclaughlin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Playing Forty Questions: Responding To Justice Roberts' Concerns In Caperton And Some Tentative Answers About Operationalizing Judicial Recusal And Due Process, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The Chief Justice of the United States would probably have excelled as a negative debater in high school forensics competitions. Good negative debaters are, as my high school English teacher put it, “great point-pickers” in that they frequently challenge affirmative proposals with a series of “what if?” or “how about?” or “what would you do if?” questions designed to leave the affirmative resolution bleeding to death of a thousand cuts. Less charitable observers might call it nit-picking. After reading Chief Justice Roberts's dissenting opinion in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., one can easily imagine him as a high school …

Homological Width And Turaev Genus, Adam Lowrance

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology are generalizations of the Jones polynomial and the Alexander polynomial respectively. They are bigraded Z-modules, and their underlying polynomials are recovered by taking the graded Euler characteristic. The two homologies share many characteristics, however their relationship has yet to be fully understood. In both Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology, the two gradings can be combined into a single diagonal grading. Homological width is a measure of the support of the homology with respect to the diagonal grading. In this thesis, we show that the homological width of Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology …

Tnf-Alpha Inhibition Of Adiponectin Expression By Targeting Ppar-Gamma And C/Ebp In Adipocytes, Yanning Wang

LSU Master's Theses

Chronic inflammation is involved in the adipose tissue dysfunction through regulation of endocrine and storage function of adipocytes. As a representative proinflammatory cytokine, TNF-α was reported to inhibit expression of adiponectin. However, the mechanism of inhibition remains to be identified. Here, we provide experimental evidence that TNF-α inhibits adiponectin at both transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. In three animal models (aP2-P65, ob/ob and high fat diets-fed mice), an increase in TNF-α expression was associated with a decrease in adiponectin expression. In 3T3-L1 adipocytes, TNF-α inhibition of adiponectin was observed at mRNA and protein levels. Luciferase reporter assay and mRNA stability tests …

Comity And Foreign Parallel Proceedings: A Reply To Black And Swan. Lloyd’S Underwriters V. Cominco Ltd., Austen L. Parrish

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Lloyd's Underwriters v. Cominco Ltd., is a potentially seminal case, currently pending before the Supreme Court of Canada. The case involves the issue of whether Canadian courts should stay litigation in the face of duplicative foreign proceedings. This reply responds to Vaughan Black's and John Swan's comment on the Lloyd's case, which was published in volume 46 of the Canadian Business Law Journal.

The reply argues that although Black and Swan have important insights into judgment enforcement when competing, inconsistent decisions exist, their analysis too readily skips over the first-to-file rule and underestimates the costs of reactive litigation. Canadian courts …

La Storia Del Gatto Che Era Sia Vivo Che Morto, Valia Allori

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Questa è la breve storia , forse un poco romanzata, del gatto che, se non forse il più citato, è di sicuro il più bistrattato della storia della fisica e della filosofia: il gatto di Schrödinger.

Beyond Mediation: Thinking The Computer Otherwise, David J. Gunkel

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Whatever Media Studies 2.0 involves, one thing is certain, there is a need to confront and deal with new technologies, most notably computers and computer networks. Despite the fact that the discipline has largely marginalized these innovations, there has been some effort to incorporate the computer into both the theories and practices of media studies. This has been accomplished, at least in the United States, through the development of what is now called computer-mediated communication (CMC). CMC, which effectively understands the computer as a medium of human communication, does not necessarily institute a significant paradigm shift in media studies but …

Promise Of Confidentiality In Mediation: Practitioners' Perceptions, The, T. Noble Foster, Selden Prentice

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In response to these articles, we sought to determine the perceptions of mediation practitioners in our own region, the Seattle/King County area, regarding mediation confidentiality and privilege. This paper presents our finding and addresses the following: (1) the scope of confidentiality and privilege under Washington law; (2) recent Washington case law addressing evidence of mediation communications; (3) a review of Florida's recent legislation - significantly different from Washington law, and unique among state mediation statutes - which provides for sanctions in the event confidentiality is breached; and (4) the perceptions of mediators, attorneys, and judges from the greater Seattle area …

Future Of Mediation: A Sociological Perspective, The, Brian Jarrett

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Arguably, these sociological pressures are central to the future direction of the mediation field and, in the aggregate, provide a useful building block in the development of an emerging sociology of mediation-a development that could fill the theory-to-practice gap which currently bedevils the mediation field. Understanding sociological forces reminds us of the constraints within which mediators, as social actors, must work. More importantly, an awareness of these pressures is, conceivably, essential to the development of an autonomous and discernible profession that remains capable of welcoming a diversity of practitioners and their respective approaches. I summarize each of these pressures below …

Immunity And Justice For All: Has The Second Circuit Overextended The Doctrine Of Absolute Immunity By Applying It To Arbitration Witnesses, W. Monroe Bonnheim

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Rolon v. Henneman, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether absolute immunity should apply to witnesses in an arbitration proceeding. The common law doctrine of absolute immunity from civil liability for judges has a long pedigree dating back to English courts. When the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the doctrine after Congress passed 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Court cautioned against extending the doctrine beyond judges. Since then, however, the doctrine has been extended to prosecutors and witnesses at public trials, and more recently, to arbitrators and arbitral institutions. Whether absolute immunity should be further extended to witnesses …

Expansion Of Arbitral Immunity: Is Absolute Immunity A Foregone Conclusion, The, Jenny Brown

Journal of Dispute Resolution

With the increased use of arbitration in recent years, the concept of judicial immunity has expanded its scope to include arbitrators. As a result, states are currently enacting their own legislation regarding arbitrator immunity and are looking for guidance in how to do so. In response, the National Conference of Commissioners on State Laws has drafted two model acts, referred to as the Uniform Arbitration Act and the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act for states to utilize in formulating their own arbitration laws. Currently the Uniform Arbitration Act has been adopted in thirteen states and is being considered in four other …

Honoring Margaret Berger With A Sensible Idea: Insisting That Judges Employ A Balancing Test Before Admitting The Accused's Convictions Under Federal Rule Of Evidence 609(A)(2), Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Paradoxical Case Of The Voting Rights Act, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This is an article about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its curious handling by the U.S. Supreme Court. When the Court examines the constitutionality of the Act, for example, it blindly defers to the work of Congress, unwilling to subject the statute to any meaningful scrutiny. In contrast, this posture of deference for questions of constitutional law differs greatly from the Court’s posture when interpreting the language of the statute. This is an area where the Court defers to no one, even when the text of the statute or the clear intent of Congress demands a different outcome. …

Shadow Precedents And The Separation Of Powers: Statutory Interpretation Of Congressional Overrides, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In both judicial decisions and critical commentary on statutory interpretation, the possibility of congressional override is generally considered a significant balance to the countermajoritarian reality that courts, through statutory interpretation, make policy. This Article demonstrates that the "check" on judicial power provided by overrides is not as robust as is typically assumed. One might assume that overridden precedents are functionally erased or reversed. But because Congress technically cannot overrule a prior decision, courts must determine whether the enactment of an override fully supersedes the prior judicial interpretation. Overrides thus raise unique, and previously largely ignored, questions of statutory interpretation. Using …

Three Functions For The Fac̦Ade Of Wells Cathedral: Competition For The Bishopric, Liturgy And Processions, And Heavenly Jerusalem, Alexandra Leigh Pearson

LSU Master's Theses

The facade of Wells Cathedral belongs among the most extraordinary church facades in all of England. An expanse of architectural and figural sculpture, the facade is one hundred fifty feet wide and originally included one hundred seventy-seven niches with full-length statues and ninety quatrefoils framing either a bust of an angel or a scene from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Above a height of seventy-five feet, a gable with figural sculpture and two towers top the façade. Such an elaborate facade is unique and begs the questions: by what means did Wells come to look as it …

Computational Studies On Fatty Acid Synthesis: From Mechanisms To Drug Design, Matthew Edward Mckenzie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The first committed steps of the Fatty Acid synthesis pathway involves the de/carboxylation reactions of biotin. By understanding this step, potential novel antimicrobial agents could be discovered. The current tools of drug discovery can only help the research in finding and modifying potential hits. Finding a lead candidate from these programs are often equated to finding a needle in a haystack, which is due to the many assumptions used in molecular docking. The fundamental reaction kinetics can not be described by these techniques and a detailed study of the decarboxylation reaction is investigated using ab initio molecular dynamics. In this …

Judicial Activism And Fourteenth Amendment Privacy Claims: The Allure Of Originalism And The Unappreciated Promise Of Constrained Nonoriginalism, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Among other meanings, "judicial activism" can be defined as judicial decisionmaking that frustrates majoritarian self-government and that is unconstrained by law. So understood, judicial activism is presumptively problematic, because it frustrates customary democratic and judicial norms.

In this essay, I address originalist and nonoriginalist responses to the presumptive problem of judicial activism in the context of Fourteenth Amendment privacy claims, including claims relating to abortion, sexual conduct, and same-sex marriage. I argue that originalism is an overrated solution, largely because current understandings of originalism, despite claims to the contrary, do not provide standards of decision that are sufficiently clear to …

Now Is The Appropriate Time For Selective Higher Education Programs To Collect Racial And Ethnic Data On Its Black Applicants And Students, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

American colleges and universities have traditionally lumped all of their black students into a unified “Black/African/African American" category. However, there is growing evidence that American higher education is witnessing a historic change in the racial and ethnic ancestry of Blacks who are the beneficiaries of affirmative action. Recent studies have pointed out that disproportionately large percentages of Blacks benefiting from affirmative action are foreign-born Black immigrants, their sons and/or daughters, and multiracials. In addition, the number and percentage of blacks approaching college age from these groups will increase substantially in the next five to ten years.

In light of this …

A Humanistic View Of Satan: The Role Of Satan In Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot, Yohance Myles

LSU Master's Theses

The role of Satan, in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, was selected as the topic of this thesis in acting to be submitted to the Graduate School of Louisiana State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater. The thesis includes an introduction; discussions of acting methods: the Art of Being, logical thinking, rhythmic sounds, the rehearsal process, journal notes, photos, research, and a conclusion. It details my role/character from a theatrical and humanistic point of view. I will highlight points that will reveal my daily discoveries of this …

Feedback Between Residual Circulations And Sediment Distribution In Highly Turbid Estuaries: An Analytical Model, Stefan A. Talke, Huib E. De Swart, H. M. Schuttelaars

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Motivated by field studies of the Ems estuary which show longitudinal gradients in bottom sediment concentration as high as O(0.01 kg/m⁴), we develop an analytical model for estuarine residual circulation based on currents from salinity gradients, turbidity gradients, and freshwater discharge. Salinity is assumed to be vertically well mixed, while the vertical concentration profile is assumed to result from a balance between a constant settling velocity and turbulent diffusive flux. Width and depth of the model estuary are held constant. Model results show that turbidity gradients enhance tidally averaged circulation upstream of the estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM), …

Hearing Assessment Of Forest Loggers, Antonio A. Fonseca

LSU Master's Theses

Forest logging is the process in which trees are cut down for forest management and/or timber harvest. According to OSHA, logging is the most dangerous occupation in the United States. It consistently represents one of the most hazardous industries, with a fatality rate more than 21 times higher than the rate for all workers in the United States. Yet, little research has been performed to determine the long term effect of noise on forest loggers. OSHA regulations state that the maximum permissible hearing in an 8 hour shift should not exceed 90 dB. Occupational noise exposure is recognized as a …

Predicting Performance On High Stakes Testing: Validity And Accuracy Of Curriculum-Based Measurement Of Reading And Writing, Marie Young Henderson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigation was to determine which curriculum-based measures of written expression demonstrated adequate technical characteristics and provided useful information towards predicting performance on a state-standardized assessment. Data collected from 124 third grade students was used for the study. Curriculum-based measures of reading and writing collected three times within the school year were utilized as the independent variables for predicting the dependent variables. Writing samples were scored using 9 indices of writing. Results from a state standardized assessment (iLEAP) were used as the dependent variables. The study found reliability coefficients for writing indices to be consistent with …

Topics In Quantum Optical Metrology, Aravind Chiruvelli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Quantum optical metrology deals with estimation of an unknown parameter by exploiting the non-classical properties of the light. The unknown parameter that we are trying to estimate is the optical phase. Precise optical phase measurement has been a well-known problem and has many applications, most notably the gravitational wave detection. In this thesis we investigate the interferometric measurement schemes. We consider the parity detection for a class of input states that have been shown to exhibit sub-shot noise limited phase estimate with their respective detection schemes. Our results indicate that the parity detection applies to all these strategies with various …

Does Practice Of Multi-Directional Stepping With Auditory Stimulation Improve Movement Performance In Patients With Parkinson's Disease, Zahra Kadivar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder causing many physical limitations. Rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) influences motor complications not alleviated by medicine and has been used to modify straight line walking in this population. However, motor complications are exacerbated during more complex movements including those involving direction changes. Thus immediate RAS effects on direction switch duration (DSD) and other kinematic measures during a multi-directional step task were investigated in PD patients. Long term RAS application was also explored by evaluating functional gait and balance and kinematic step measures before and after 6 weeks of multi-directional stepping either with (Cue, …

The Potential Contribution Of Organic Salts To New Particle Growth, Kelley Barsanti, Peter H. Mcmurry, J. N. Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Field and lab measurements suggest that low-molecular weight (MW) organic acids and bases exist in accumulation and nucleation mode particles, despite their relatively high pure-liquid vapor pressures. The mechanism(s) by which such compounds contribute to the mass growth of existing aerosol particles and newly formed particles has not been thoroughly explored. One mechanism by which low- MW compounds may contribute to new particle growth is through the formation of organic salts. In this paper we use thermodynamic modeling to explore the potential for organic salt formation by atmospherically relevant organic acids and bases for two system types: one in which …

A Case For A Constitutional Right To Counsel In Habeas Corpus, Emily Garcia Uhrig

UC Law Journal

This Article argues for recognition of a constitutional right to assistance of counsel in habeas corpus proceedings that involve challenges to the legality of a criminal judgment where habeas in effect functions as the first appeal of right. It is well-established that due process and equal protection principles guarantee the indigent defendant a right to counsel on the first appeal of right. But the Supreme Court has concluded that no right to counsel attaches in further, discretionary appeals, and in state habeas proceedings where the claims at issue were previously litigated on direct appeal. In Coleman v. Thompson, decided in …

Full State Funding Of Education As A State Constitutional Imperative, Laurie Reynolds

UC Law Journal

After nearly four decades of school finance litigation, with numerous plaintiff victories based on state constitutional law doctrines of equality and adequacy, subsequent generations of lawsuits reveal that the earlier court decrees have not eliminated sustained inequality and inadequacy in public schools. This disappointing state of affairs, when coupled with the fact that a growing number of state courts are increasingly reluctant to take on the merits of school finance cases, suggests that the future trajectory of school finance and school finance litigation is not positive. In this Article, I suggest that both of these negative trends are at least …

Holocene Evolution And Avulsion History Of The Lower Mississippi River, Yazoo Basin, Ms, Eric Prokocki

LSU Master's Theses

Optically stimulated luminescence dates coupled with paleohydrological estimations from lower Mississippi River (LMR) meander belts within the Yazoo Basin, MS provide new insight into the geochronological and hydrologic history of the LMR throughout the Holocene period. According to OSL dates, there are only three temporally equivalent LMR meandering river regime sediment packages, and not five as previously assumed from past geochronological research initiatives within the lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). The three geochronological sediment packages from oldest to youngest are thus represented by the following LMR meander belts: Early Holocene Chronostratigraphic Package – ca. 9.19 to 8.07 ka represented by the …

The Extended Picture Group, With Applications To Line Arrangement Complements, Charles Richard Egedy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We obtain the picture group as the quotient with a torsion subgroup, of an extended picture group, which is isomorphic to the kernel of a precrossed module homomorphism. In addition to expanding the notion of a picture group, the new formulation gives a natural way to construct homomorphisms between picture groups by describing deformations of one-vertex subpictures. The extended picture group thus provides a convenient way to describe generators for the second homotopy group of line arrangement complements as well as homomorphisms between these groups. In particular, we show that the homomorphisms relate to a lattice structure corresponding roughly to …

Originalism And The "Challenge Of Change": Abduced-Principle Originalism And Other Mechanisms By Which Originalism Sufficiently Accommodates Changed Social Conditions, Lee J. Strang

UC Law Journal

One of the most persistent criticisms of originalism-and also one of the most powerful-is that originalism is not a viable interpretative methodology because of the tremendous technological, social, cultural, religious, and moral change that has occurred since the Constitution's original meaning was created. The Constitution's original meaning arose in contexts so dramatically different from our own, the criticism goes, that a Constitution whose meaning was limited by those contexts would be unworkable in today's world.

This form of criticism of originalism - the challenge of changeis pervasive. In this Article, I argue that originalism has, within its analytical quiver, six …