Digital Commons Network^™

Rural Philanthropy: An Examination Of The Pertinent Literature Of The Current State And Evolution Of Rural Philanthropy In This Country, Barbara J. Keninger

Graduate Research Papers

While the social needs of rural America continues to grow, the philanthropic funding of these rural communities has not kept pace. This study looks at evidence that rural communities are not receiving the fair share of philanthropic funding despite these increasing needs and investigates the barriers faced by rural organizations that prevent the grant makers from focusing on the needs of rural America. Numerous authors of the literature reviewed support the importance of philanthropic funding for rural America to help fulfill the growing social needs.

This study examined the literature regarding the possible growth of rural philanthropy and how rural …

Peer Network Emergence And Change In The Classroom: A Multiple Systems Perspective, Nicole Ann Sage

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined peer group processes in the classroom that can potentially explain how motivationally "rich" children get "richer" whereas motivationally "poor" children get "poorer." In contrast to research on group processes which focuses on socialization from group to individual, this study focuses on contributions from the individual to his/her group. The viewpoint taken for this study is that children actively choose group members based on their own self-system state, thereby creating their own peer environments in which they develop.Viewed as open complex systems, children's natural peer groups were examined using data collected from students and their teachers at five …

Evidence Code Section 802: The Neglected Key To Rationalizing The California Law Of Expert Testimony, Edward J. Imwinkelried, David L. Faigman

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Combating Organized Crime With Union Democracy: A Case Study Of The Election Reform In United States V. International Brotherhood Of Teamsters, James B. Jacobs, Dimitri D. Portnoi

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Stochastic Collocation Approach To Bayesian Inference In Inverse Problems, Youssef Marzouk, Dongbin Xiu

PRISM: NNSA Center for Prediction of Reliability, Integrity and Survivability of Microsystems

We present an efficient numerical strategy for the Bayesian solution of inverse problems. Stochastic collocation methods, based on generalized polynomial chaos (gPC), are used to construct a polynomial approximation of the forward solution over the support of the prior distribution. This approximation then defines a surrogate posterior probability density that can be evaluated repeatedly at minimal computational cost. The ability to simulate a large number of samples from the posterior distribution results in very accurate estimates of the inverse solution and its associated uncertainty. Combined with high accuracy of the gPC-based forward solver, the new algorithm can provide great efficiency …

What Scholarship Of Teaching? Why Bother?, Daphne Pan

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Excerpt: Since its ‘launch’ a couple of decades ago, “scholarship of teaching” has been increasingly acknowledged on many campuses in and beyond North America. It has been incorporated into mission statements and strengthened the professionalisation of teaching and concomitant interest in faculty development, peer review and the teaching portfolio. Boyer (1997) reported that the need to recognise and find an appropriate balance between different forms of scholarship has led the majority of campuses in the United States to revise their standards for tenure and promotion, while there have also been changes...

Teaching Social Justice Through Community Engagement, Rosemary B. Closson, Barbara Mullins Nelson

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This research was motivated by our desire for our students to achieve a deeper appreciation for the social justice aspect of our field, adult education, and also to engage them with the community. We sought to accomplish these ends as students at two different state universities volunteered to build a home with Habitat for Humanity. Data was collected using focus groups and reflective papers and analyzed using a constant-comparative method. We found that student engagement with Habitat for Humanity resulted in students’ personal growth and to a lesser extent they learned something about the potential of adult education to contribute …

(Re)Considering The Scholarship Of Learning: Inviting The Elephant In The Room To Tea, Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, Dale Lackeyram

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This essay argues that the SoT(L) field has mistakenly equated learning solely to teaching and the teaching classroom, and has systematically ignored the other moments and opportunities within higher education institutes where learning and scholarly learning occurs—particularly within academic support and development programming. Therefore, we endeavour to discuss what we see as the elephant in the SoT(L) living room—learning, scholarly learning, and the Scholarship of Learning—and examine the ways in which learning and the Scholarship of Learning can be brought back into the SoT(L) discussion through an examination of academic support and development programming. Through the creation of a new …

‘Additional Comments’: The Final Word In Assessment For Humanities Undergraduates, Despina Michael

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

A key component to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) is reflection on teaching methodology and, in particular, assessment practices and how they impact on undergraduate students. The aim of this article is to explore how one particular technique—the written expression of ‘additional comments’ in a generic assessment criteria-based form—can be utilised effectively as a means of clear, constructive feedback and simultaneously as a means of engagement in dialogue with students. Dialogue is, in fact, postulated as one of the most important pedagogical tools underpinning and informing deep learning. Understanding how our words leave an impact on our students …

Faculty Senate Minutes-2009

Faculty Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Western Australian Natural Resource Management Plan 09, Department Of Agriculture, Western Australia

Natural resources published reports

The purpose of the State Natural Resource Management [NRM] Plan is to communicate the direction for sustainably managing Western Australia's natural resources.

This direction has been informed by previous initiatives such as the 'Decade of Landcare', several programs focused on salinity, the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy (2009), and more recently a report commissioned by the State entitled The delivery of Natural Resources Management in Western Australia - a review (2006), which recommended preparation of an NRM Plan. The review noted that the most important issue for the State to clarify first was the outcome it seeks rather than how …

Faithful Hermeneutics, Francis J. Mootz Iii

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Herring V. United States: Mapp's "Artless" Overruling?, Michael Vitiello

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Small Capacity And Big Responsibilities: Financial And Legal Implications Of A Human Right To Water For Developing, Stephen C. Mccaffrey, Kate J. Neville

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Faith And Politics In The Post-Secular Age: The Promise Of President Obama, Francis J. Mootz Iii

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

If the modern era is properly characterized as the 'age of secularism' - a time when constitutional democracies finally have shed the last vestiges of church authority from the political realm and embrace a rationalist and humanist perspective - then the United States appears to be outside the Western mainstream. In this paper I explore how the relationship between politics and religious faith in the United States might be seen as part of the narrative of secularism that defines most other Western countries, even as the differences in the American experience might suggest an evolution of this narrative. My thesis …

The Role And Future Of Customary Tort Law In Ghana: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Julie A. Davies, Dominic N. Dagbanja

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Can The West Learn From The Rest?' The Chinese Legal Order's Hybrid Modernity, Nicholas C. Howson

Other Publications

I am asked to present on the "shortcomings of the Western model of legality based on a professionalized, individualistic and highly formalistic approach to justice" as a way to understanding if "the West can develop today a form of legality which is relational rather than based on litigation as a zero sum game, learning from face to face social organizations in which individuals understand the law" - presumably in the context of the imperial and modem Chinese legal systems which I know best as a scholar and have lived for many years as a resident of the modem identity of …

"It Takes A Lot Out Of You": Ethnography Of Secondary English Teachers' Writing Pedagogy, Lisa F. Morales

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted in two case-study teachers’ public middle school classrooms in south Louisiana and a survey in three public school districts. A qualitative research focus with the research design taken from work of Michael Patton’s (2002) Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods and James Spradley and David McCurdy’s (1975) Anthropology: The Cultural Perspective. The survey was developed from the work of Tourangeau, Rips, and Rasinski’s (2002) The Psychology of Survey Responses. The researcher assumed the role of participant observer for three months which resulted in two themes: first, traditional teaching methods in the teaching of writing, and secondly, teacher perceptions …

Biogenesis Of Iron-Sulfur Clusters And Intracellular Iron Metabolism, Jacob Philip Bitoun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Iron-sulfur ([Fe-S]) clusters represent one of natures most diverse and ubiquitous protein prosthetic groups. [Fe-S] proteins are integral for diverse biological processes. Reconstitution of apo-proteins can occur by exogenously adding excess iron and sulfide. However, due to the toxicity of iron and sulfide, it is most likely that proteins coordinate [Fe-S] cluster assembly in cells. The first part of this dissertation addressed the iron donor for [Fe-S] cluster assembly. Recently, it has been shown that IscA is capable of binding iron with an association constant of 3.0 x 10¹⁹M^-1. In addition, iron-loaded IscA is capable of …

Evaluation Of Pectin Methylesterase And Lactobacillus Spp. Isolated From Tabasco Peppers (Capsicum Frutescens L.), Sonja Tanee Jones

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

One of the major concerns of the hot sauce manufacturers is separation of sediments and layering of the sauce. Separation is an undesirable production condition because consumers view this as a defect which consequently increases manufacturing costs. Pectins play an important role in pepper processing since it forms gels and influences the final viscosity of the sauce. Hence, its integrity during processing influences the quality of the final product. Failures in pectin stability can sometimes be related to the presence of enzymes. Understanding how the pectin enzymes function during fermentation of pepper sauce is a necessary step in controlling the …

The Effects Of Geomorphology And Primary Productivity On Neotropical Leaf Litter Herpetofauna: Implications For Amazonian Rainforest Conservation, Jessica L. Deichmann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Amazon rainforest encompasses over one billion acres of South America and sustains remarkable biodiversity. Despite the large body of research stemming from this region, little is known about the effects of geomorphology and primary productivity on the fauna of Amazonia, and on reptiles and amphibians in particular. In my dissertation, I examine differences in the abundance, biomass and species richness of secondary consumers in the leaf litter herpetofauna communities on young and ancient soils. Herein, I develop methods to utilize existing data sets and museum collections in new studies involving community biomass. I found that, although the process of …

Europeanization As A Process: Thoughts On The Europeanization Of Private Law, Christian Joerges

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Christian Joerges delivered the Second Annual Herbert L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Comparative Law in 2003 and this article is based on his remarks. The article is included in the inaugural volume of CICLOPs that collects the first six Bernstein lectures. Professor Joerges puts forth a three part thesis concerning the “Europeanization of Private Law”, the process by which the European Community influences the legal and political policies of its member states within a framework of transnational cooperation. Joerges first establishes the eroding importance of the idea that legal systems operating at the national level fulfill the goals of …

The Second Wave Of Comparative Law And Economics?, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Comment on a text by Gillian Hadfield, The Levers of Legal Design: Institutional Determinants of the Quality of Law, 36 Journal of Comparative Economics 43 (2008)

The Taxonomic Designation Of Eriogonum Corymbosum Var. Nilesii (Polygonaceae) Is Supported By Aflp And Cpdna Analyses, M. W. Ellis, J. M. Roper, R. Gainer, J. P. Der, Paul G. Wolf

Biology Faculty Publications

We examined populations of perennial, shrubby buckwheats in the Eriogonum corymbosum complex and related Eriogonum species in the subgenus Eucycla, to assess genetic affiliations of the recently named E. corymbosum var. nilesii. The known populations of this varietyare all located in Clark County, Nevada, U. S. A. We compared AFLP profiles and chloroplast DNA sequences of plants sampled from populations of E. corymbosum var. nilesii with those of plants representing other E. corymbosum varieties and related Eriogonum species from Colorado,Utah, northern Arizona, and northern New Mexico. We found evidence of genetic cohesion among the Clark County populations as well astheir …

The Federal Common Law Of Nations, Bradford R. Clark

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Courts and scholars have vigorously debated the proper role of customary international law in American courts: To what extent should it be considered federal common law, state law, or general law? The debate has reached something of an impasse, in part because various positions rely on, but also are in tension with, historical practice and constitutional structure. This Article describes the role that the law of nations actually has played throughout American history. In keeping with the original constitutional design, federal courts for much of that history enforced certain rules respecting other nations' "perfect rights" (or close analogues) under the …

The Case For Preferring Patent-Validity Litigation Over Second-Window Review And Gold-Plated Patents: When One Size Doesn't Fit All, How Could Two Do The Trick?, F. Scott Kieff

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Complaints about frivolous patents abound in academic, business, and policy circles, and the focus of blame is usually on the large number of junk patents that have issued from the Patent Office that are actually invalid. The underlying cause is said to be the relatively modest examination performed by the Patent Office. Most popular proposals for change suggest methods for segregating patents into two or so bundles based on whether the patents should be subject to closer examination. A so-called “second window of review” has been proposed to allow competitors to make the choice of which patents get closer examination; …

Implementing The Social And Economic Promise Of The Constitution: The Role Of South African Legal Education, Susan R. Jones, Peggy Maisel

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The South African Constitution recognizes socio-economic rights as a necessary foundation for the enjoyment of civil and political rights. The South African Constitution, one of the most progressive in the world, contains many important protections such as the rights to equality, housing, and education. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Law (BEE) was designated to address the economic inequities of apartheid. South Africa’s commitment to economic justice is also evidenced by the fact that it is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The challenge is translating these rights into opportunities for social and economic …

Criminalizing Humanitarian Intervention, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The States Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will likely vote in 2010 on whether to amend the Rome Statute to allow the ICC to prosecute the crime of aggression. If a robust amendment is widely ratified by states, and if the mechanism for triggering ICC jurisdiction in a particular situation is the ICC itself, then the ICC may emerge as an important voice in the debate over the legality of humanitarian intervention taken without Security Council authorization. Prosecutions, or at least indictments, of leaders of those interventions would considerably strengthen the hand of those who regard such intervention …

Book Review Of Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise Of The Most Powerful Mercenary Army (2007/2008) And From Mercenaries To Market: The Rise And Regulation Of Private Military Companies (Simon Chesterman & Chia Lehnardt, Eds., 2008), Gregory E. Maggs

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This is a review of two books: Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: the Rise of the Most Powerful Mercenary Army (2007/2008) and From Mercenaries to Market: the Rise and Regulation of Private Military Companies (Simon Chesterman & Chia Lehnardt, eds., 2008). Each book concerns the increasing use of contractors in military operations.

Which Original Meaning Of The Constitution Matters To Justice Thomas?, Gregory E. Maggs

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay was published as part of a symposium hosted by the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty in March 2009. The journal citation is: Gregory E. Maggs, Which Original Meaning Matters to Justice Thomas?, 4 N.Y.U. J. L. & Liberty 494 (2009).

The essay addresses a basic question about Justice Clarence Thomas’s originalist jurisprudence. When Justice Thomas looks for the original meaning of the Constitution, does he seek (a) the meaning intended by the Framers at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (“original intent”), (b) the meaning as understood by the delegates to the thirteen state ratifying conventions …