Digital Commons Network^™

Staff Of The People? Assessing Progress In Descriptive Representation Under The Obama Administration, José Villalobos

Departmental Papers (PS)

Over the past few decades, presidents have made some increasingly noticeable efforts to fill their administrations with a higher number of minorities. Though not yet fully representative of the general public, such advances in descriptive representation are a sign of progressive change occurring within the executive branch, with positive potential implications for the state of representative democracy and public policy. In this article, I survey the current state of descriptive representation under the Obama presidency and the extent to which the president’s policy agenda has substantively addressed the needs of historically underrepresented groups. Descriptively, I find that President Barack Obama …

Administrative Law, Martin M. Wilson, Jennifer A. Blackburn

Mercer Law Review

The difficult economic times and resulting budget cuts to many state agencies were evident in the reduced number of high-level administrative law cases brought before the courts during this survey period. It seems in tough times such litigation is often not pursued to the degree it is in a more comfortable economic climate. As the economy begins to recover, we will likely see an increase in the number and complexity of administrative law cases brought before the appellate courts.

This Article is a survey of cases from the Georgia Supreme Court and Georgia Court of Appeals from June 1, 2010 …

Dancing With The Big Boys: Georgia Adopts (Most Of) The Federal Rules Of Evidence, David N. Dreyer, F. Beau Howard, Amy M. Leitch

Mercer Law Review

Georgia has become the forty-fourth state to model its new evidence rules on the Federal Rules of Evidence. The new code will go into effect on January 1, 2013, 150 years from when Georgia's first legal code was published. Passage of the 2013 Georgia Evidence Code did not come easy, but was a product of years of debate, compromise, and vetting from legislators, the judiciary, academia, and members and groups of the practicing bar. The new code is largely derived from the Federal Rules of Evidence, but Georgia has retained a significant amount of evidence rules from its prior code …

Evidence, John E. Hall Jr., W. Scott Henwood

Mercer Law Review

The biggest story in Georgia Evidence law this year is undoubtedly the Georgia General Assembly's decision to align Georgia's evidence code with the Federal Rules of Evidence. Proponents of House Bill 24 describe the former rules, many of which have been on the books for more than 150 years, as archaic and inconsistent. Paul S. Milich, professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law and the reporter for the State Bar of Georgia committee that proposed the new rules of evidence for Georgia, described the way the outdated rules impeded the modern practice of law in Georgia: "Our …

Workers' Compensation, H. Michael Bagley, J. Benson Wood

Mercer Law Review

The 2010-2011 survey period featured decisions of Georgia appellate courts in areas ranging from medical care to intervening accidents, with no significant legislation impacting the Workers' Compensation Act

Real Property, Linda S. Finley

Mercer Law Review

The survey period, June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011, saw continued dire economic times for Georgia and the entire United States, which were marked with a record-breaking number of foreclosures. Georgia courts and the Georgia General Assembly began to pay attention to the foreclosure process, the diminution of property values, and how these issues affect Georgia families. Although the purpose of this Article is not to specifically address these serious issues, judicial and legislative trends indicate that these issues will be around for some time.

Labor And Employment Law, W. Melvin Haas Iii, William M. Clifton Iii, W. Jonathan Martin Ii, Alyssa Peters Morris

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in the state statutory and common law that affect labor and employment relations of Georgia employers. Accordingly, it surveys published decisions interpreting Georgia law from June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011. This Article also includes highlights of certain revisions to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.).

Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford

Mercer Law Review

This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.

Supplementing Distillers' Grains In Extensive Beef Cattle Systems, Kelsey Rolfe

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A 3-yr study evaluated effects of supplementing modified wet distillers grains with solubles during summer grazing and subsequent feedlot sorting on long yearling steers. During summer grazing, supplemented steers had greater ADG and were more profitable than non-supplemented steers. At feedlot entry, supplemented steers were 48 kg heavier than non-supplemented steers. Feed efficiency and DMI were not different between supplementation treatments during finishing. Supplemented steers were fed 24 fewer days to reach a similar 12^th rib fat thickness, had greater LM area, and lower marbling compared to non-supplemented steers. Overall profitability favored supplementing steers because less expensive summer gains …

Understanding Svocs, Ying Xu, Jianshun Zhang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - All Scholarship

Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are an important class of indoor pollutants that are of great health concern. However, they have not received much attention within the ASHRAE community. This column provides an overview of the sources, sinks, transport mechanisms, and potential health effects, and discusses how HVAC systems may affect occupants’ exposure to SVOCs.

Dynamic Botanical Filtration System For Indoor Air Purification, Zhiqiang Wang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - Dissertations

A dynamic botanical air filtration (DBAF) system was developed, tested and modeled for indoor air purification. The DBAF system consisted of an activated-carbon/hydroculture-based root bed for potted-plant, a fan for driving air through the root bed for purification, and an irrigation system for maintaining proper moisture content in the root bed. Results from test conducted in a full-scale open office space indicated that the filtration system had ability to supply clean air equivalent to 80% of required outdoor air supply for the space. The DBAF was effective for removing both formaldehyde and toluene at 5 to 32% volumetric water content …

Applying The Golden Rule Towards Recruitment Effectiveness, Amanda Grant Nicholson

Social Science - Dissertations

The purpose of the present work was threefold: (1) to examine the perceptions of what makes retail recruiting organizations attractive to college undergraduates and examine what attributes recruiting organizations believe students are attracted to; (2) to examine the differences in these perceptions with particular interest in the role of the recruiters themselves and (3) to test whether specific recruitment attributes, ranked highly by the students, impacted variables already cited in the extant literature, in order to assist human resources professionals increase the effectiveness of their recruitment practices.

In the fall of 2008, four in-depth interviews with key retail recruiters, and …

In Defense Of The Ministerial Exception, Christopher C. Lund

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Exit: The Problem Of Same-Sex Divorce, Elisabeth Oppenheimer

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fair Use As A Collective User Right, Haochen Sun

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Another Competitive Enterprise: A Balanced Private-Public Solution To North Carolina's Forensic Science Problem, Kavita Pillai

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Postmortems On The Affordable Care Act (Book Review), Rick Mayes

Political Science Faculty Publications

Nearly two years after the Affordable Care Act became law, books are appearing by Washington insiders who detail how the legislation came about. The two reviewed here discuss and dissect topics related to the health reform law from decidedly different points of view.

Plurality Of Laws, Legal Traditions And Codification In Spain, Aniceto Masferrer

Journal of Civil Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Damages For Lucrum Cessans In Tort: A Fusion Of Sources Creating A Unique Legal Structure For Malta, Fiona Cilia

Journal of Civil Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Judicial Training In Turkey In Light Of Constitutional Traditions And Europeanization, Simone Benvenuti

Journal of Civil Law Studies

In recent years, the strengthening in Turkish constitutional culture of the rule of law and pluralism appeared as a further breach of the Kemalist ideology of “sacralization” of the State. Nevertheless, the principle of statehood, characterizing the Republic of Turkey since its creation in 1923 and now affirmed in art. 1 of the Constitution still influences Turkish institutions. With regard to judicial system, while Euro-driven reforms and the application of the conditionality principle led to its modernization, the Constitution sketches an organization based on both institutional dependence and corporatism. These features are reflected also in judicial education, notwithstanding the establishment …

Dutch Notaries: Do They Have A Future? How The Historical Foundations Of The Civil Law Can Help Survive A Modern Crisis, Kees Cappon

Journal of Civil Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Maltese Court Delays And The Ethnography Of Legal Practice, David E. Zammit

Journal of Civil Law Studies

This article starts by critiquing two recent attempts to sociologically account for court delays in Mediterranean societies. The first account was produced by the sociologist David Nelken and uses the concept of legal culture to explore the causes of court delays in Italian criminal trials, while the second account was produced by the anthropologist Michael Herzfeld, who sees court delays in Crete as metonymically encapsulating a broader cultural context. It is argued that both accounts omit an important dimension of the issue, which is how such delays are produced and justified at the level of legal practice itself. By referring …

Hear My Voice: An Examination Of The Views Of Parents Who Are Raising Children Of African American Descent, Chavez Maurice Phelps

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have demonstrated that children who attend early childhood education programs benefit academically and socially (National Institute for Early Education Research, 2003). However, other researchers have shown that African American students may still lag behind their counterparts when they enter school (National Center for Education Statistics ([NCES], 2004). To explain this phenomenon, scholars and practitioners have relied on deficit theories, such as Ruby Payne’s (2005) culture of poverty theory or John Ogbu’s (1992) oppositional culture identity theory, which shift the blame solely on the child or their parents. However, there are other researchers who have stressed the importance of examining …

One Year Performance Of Longitudinal Waterborne Paint Pavement Markings Used On Primary And Secondary Roads Of South Carolina, Sudhakar Pandurangan

All Theses

Pavement markings are made retroreflective so that roads are more visible. But retroreflectivity degrades over time due to a number of factors. Although the Federal Highway Administration has yet to finalize minimum standards for retroreflectivity, the degradation of pavement marking retroreflectivity can be detrimental to safety. The primary objective of this thesis was to use statistics to develop and validate regression models to predict the degradation of water borne pavement marking retroreflectivity. This will provide the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) a systematic means to determine when markings should be replaced.
To achieve this objective an LTL-X handheld retroreflectometer …

Gangs And Race: A Look At New Jersey Police Perspectives On African American And Hispanic Gangs, Jeanette Medina

All Theses

In the United States the presence of gangs and gang activity is a common occurrence in lower socio-economic communities; however, local law enforcement agencies often have little information about the racial and ethnic composition of gang activity in their areas. As a result, gangs are often categorized without respect to important demographic differences between them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the New Jersey State Police Gang Survey 2007, which is a statewide assessment of gang composition and activity. I use the data from this survey along with conflict theory to analyze differences between African American and Hispanic …

Role Of Surface Coatings In Lithium-Ion Batteries, Archana Kayyar

All Theses

Rechargeable batteries that can charge and discharge at high rates have applications in hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles and they provide energy storages for wind energy. Various methods like reducing particle size, aliovalent doping and carbon coating have been researched in order to attain higher charge and discharge rates in rechargeable Li-ion batteries. In this work, the electrode materials were coated with amorphous films in an attempt to improve the rate capability of the batteries.
A study by Kang and Ceder suggested that a Li₄P₂O₇-like 'fast-ion conducting surface phase' could form on the surface …

A Computational Investigation For Potential Improvements, Angela Grujicic

All Theses

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), colloquially known as a concussion, is the most common injury in modern wars. This domination of mTBI is hypothesized to be due to a combination of unconventional explosives and better protection and care of the patients, increasing survivability. While the majority of the body is covered in armor, the head is left relatively unprotected. The current Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) has been designed to protect the warfighter against ballistic impacts and impacts against a hard surface, with little to no regard to blast loading. Polyureas, a class of microsegregated, elastomeric copolymers, has been shown to …

Short Remarks On The Political And Social Writings Of Reverend Anthony Walke Of Princess Anne County, Virginia & A Concise & Impartial Account Of The Causes Of Their Origins & Progress, Roberta Vogt

All Theses

The following thesis examines multiple social and political topics in the largely unstudied writings of Reverend Anthony Walke (c. 1755-1814) of Princess Anne County, Virginia. His papers reside at the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as appearing in Virginia newspapers of the period. Walke's works comprise more than four hundred pages of primary source documents that relate to late eighteenth-century Virginia, and span the period of 1786 through 1805.
My research emphasizes his Revolutionary War pamphlet, Remarkable Occurrences during the unhappy American War, & a concise & impartial Account of the Causes of its Origin & Progress: …

Abundance, Overload, And Excess, Kristina Falotico

All Theses

As a middle class American, I have become aware of my culture's inclination and capability to accumulate goods. Through relocations, my life in recent years has been a transient one; relying mostly on possessions to constitute a home. At the same time these
possessions begin to become a burden, weighing me down as they constantly get packed and unpacked. It is through these experiences that I've become more aware of what we surround ourselves with and which represent our lives. My prints explore the notion of
everyday household goods and how much we have amassed as a culture. My observation …

Robust Design And Monitoring Tools For Sustainable And Resilient Structural Design And Infrastructure Management, Sarah Dalton

All Theses

Structural systems are subject to inherent uncertainties due to the variability in many hard-to-control `noise factors' that include but are not limited to external loads, material properties, and construction workmanship. Two design methodologies have been widely accepted in the practicing engineering realm to manage the variability associated with operational structures: Allowable Stress Design (ASD) and Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD). These traditional approaches explicitly recognize the presence of uncertainty; however, they do not take robustness against this uncertainty into consideration. Overlooking this robustness against uncertainty in the structural design process has two drawbacks. First, the design may not satisfy …