Digital Commons Network^™

"Thir They Byen Thralls…" Chaucer's Boethian Poems And Usk's "Testament Of Love": Foundations Of English Prison Literature., Phillip Scott Dennis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Fourteenth-century English society bore witness simultaneously to a marked increase of dedicated prison spaces and a proliferation of imaginative writing in English. Volumes of study have focused on the social implications of carceral practice, and many studies have also been dedicated to the rapid development of English as a literary and philosophical vehicle in the late Middle Ages. This study seeks to bridge these areas of scholarship by focusing on the political implications of early English prison writing. Close readings of Chaucer's "Boethian texts and Thomas Usk's Testament of Love, matched for their close overlaps in subject matter, audience, dates …

Effects Of Stereotype Threat On Adolescents' Math And Visual-Spatial Performance., Lisa M. Didonato

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recent research suggests that the gender gap in math performance is closing (Else-Quest, Hyde, & Linn, 2010; Hyde, Lindberg, Linn, Ellis, & Williams, 2008). However, negative stereotypes about girls’ math abilities are still widely held (Bhanot & Jovanovic, 2005; Bleeker & Jacobs, 2004). The gender gap in visual-spatial skills, or the ability to reason about and manipulate mental pictures, still exists in that boys outperform girls on visual-spatial tasks. The current study drew from literature on stereotype threat (i.e., the risk of confirming negative stereotypes about a specific group; Steele, 1997) to investigate the impact of negative math stereotypes on …

Mandatory Sentencing And Racial Disparity, Assessing The Role Of Prosecutors And The Effects Of Booker, Sonja B. Starr, M. Marit Rehavi

Articles

This Article presents new empirical evidence concerning the effects of United States v. Booker, which loosened the formerly mandatory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, on racial disparities in federal criminal cases. Two serious limitations pervade existing empirical literature on sentencing disparities. First, studies focus on sentencing in isolation, controlling for the “presumptive sentence” or similar measures that themselves result from discretionary charging, plea-bargaining, and fact-finding processes. Any disparities in these earlier processes are excluded from the resulting sentence-disparity estimates. Our research has shown that this exclusion matters: pre-sentencing decision-making can have substantial sentence-disparity consequences. Second, existing studies have used loose causal inference …

Development Of Hg1-Xcd Xse For 3rd Generation Focal Plane Arrays Using Molecular Beam Epitaxy., Kevin Doyle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Hg1-xCd xSe grown on nearly lattice-matched GaSb substrates could serve as a new basis for infrared detector development. The preparation of the GaSb substrate surfaces and the growth of ZnTe1-xSex buffer layers via molecular beam epitaxy were investigated. ZnTe and ZnTe1- xSex layers were grown on GaSb substrates prepared with atomic hydrogen cleaning. The lattice constant of ZnTe1-xSex was tuned by controlling the ratio of Se/Te beam equivalent pressures, and ZnTe1- xSex was found to be lattice-matched to GaSb for x=0.01. Confocal photoluminescence measurements indicated that ZnTe0.99Se0.01 layers grown on GaSb have dislocation densities ∼7x104 cm-2, indicating that ZnTe0.99Se0.01/GaSb provides …

The Case For Online Obscurity, Woodrow Hartzog, Frederic Stutzman

Faculty Scholarship

On the Internet, obscure information has a minimal risk of being discovered or understood by unintended recipients. Empirical research demonstrates that Internet users rely on obscurity perhaps more than anything else to protect their privacy. Yet, online obscurity has been largely ignored by courts and lawmakers. In this Article, we argue that obscurity is a critical component of online privacy, but it has not been embraced by courts and lawmakers because it has never been adequately defined or conceptualized. This lack of definition has resulted in the concept of online obscurity being too insubstantial to serve as a helpful guide …

Making Law Out Of Nothing At All: The Origins Of The Chevron Doctrine, Gary S. Lawson, Stephen Kam

Faculty Scholarship

For more than a quarter of a century, federal administrative law has been dominated by the so-called Chevron doctrine, which prescribes judicial deference to many agency interpretations of statutes. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.,2 for which the doctrine is named, has become the most cited case in federal administrative law, and indeed in any legal field, 3 and the scholarship on Chevron could fill a small library.4 Love it5 or hate it,6 Chevron virtually defines modern administrative law.

Even after almost thirty years and thousands of recitations, unanswered questions about this Chevron framework abound. Does this …

Convention Violations And Investment Claims, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

In theory, treaty commitments remain a foundation of international law, often expressed in the adage pacta sunt servanda: ‘agreements are to be kept’.1 In practice, however, some treaty violations remain without realistic sanctions. Here as elsewhere, the divergence between theory and practice remains greater in practice than in theory.

The Executive Right To Lease Mineral Real Property In Texas Before And After Lesley V. Veterans Land Board., Christopher S. Kulander

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Deceiving Law Students: Employment Statistics And Tort Liability., Angie Roberts-Huckaby

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

To A Professor: Douglas Haddock Retires., Charles Epps Ipock

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

New Oil And Old Laws: Problems In Allocation Of Production To Owners Of Non-Participating Royalty Interests In The Era Of Horizontal Drilling., Benjamin Holliday

St. Mary's Law Journal

Oil and gas exploration and production is not only a big business, it is also an expensive one. As with any business, when faced with competing alternatives, operators generally prefer to pursue exploration in areas with more stable and predictable legal environments. Efforts have previously been made to make Texas such an environment, but as technology advances, legal rules often become unclear in their application. The explosion in horizontal drilling activity is challenging the courts and the Texas Railroad Commission to apply and adapt traditional legal and regulatory concepts to horizontal wells. The growing dominance of horizontal well development is …

Plugging The School-To-Prison Pipeline By Improving Behavior And Protecting Core Judicial Functions: A Constitutional Crisis Looms., Patrick S. Metze

St. Mary's Law Journal

The consolidation of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) into the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) in 2011, produced a unified state juvenile justice agency to promote public safety first and to produce positive outcomes for youth, families, and communities second. As Professor Metze’s second paper discussing ways to effect a change in the School-to-Prison Pipeline, he first highlights the progress of TJJD’s use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in the Texas juvenile correctional context as continued evidence that such techniques, if effective in the correctional setting, will certainly work in the …

Texas Legislative Implications For Minors Accused Of Sexting., Mallory N. Myers

St. Mary's Law Journal

State legislation criminalizing sexting—the possession or electronic transmission of visual material capturing a minor engaged in sexual conduct—should not punish minors similarly to adults. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (Walsh Act) in conjunction with the Sex Offender Registration & Notification Act (SORNA), require that any individual, including a minor, convicted of child pornography register as a sex offender. As a result, states with legislation that categorize sexting as child pornography, will require a minor with a sexting conviction to register as a sex offender. This disportionate punishment on the minor will make it difficult for …

Water Can Be For Drinking Again: Economic And Collaborative Solutions To A Texas Water Fight., Aaron Culp

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract Forthcoming.

Motivation Matters: Guideline 10.13 And Other Mechanisms For Preventing Lawyers From Surrendering To Self-Interest In Responding To Allegations Of Ineffective Assistance In Death Penalty Cases, Tigran W. Eldred

Faculty Scholarship

Defense lawyers whose clients are sentenced to death are virtually guaranteed to be accused of ineffective assistance of counsel. The question is how they will respond. On one hand, lawyers alleged to be ineffective are obligated under Guideline 10.13 of the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases to continue to safeguard the interests of their former clients, a duty that includes full cooperation in appropriate legal strategies chosen to pursue the ineffectiveness claim. On the other hand, lawyers who are accused of ineffectiveness often react defensively to the allegation, reflexively …

The Co-Author Prenup., David A. Schlueter

St. Mary's Law Journal

Producing a book or article with co-authors is not an easy task. There are six potential issues one might consider before deciding to co-author a book or article. First, do you really want to be a co-author? Second, how many co-authors are going to be involved in the project? Having more than one co-author can make the departure of a co-author less of an issue, but each co-author needs to have a clearly defined role. Third, what role will each member of the team perform and what are those roles? Fourth, what should the co-author “marriage” look like? Multiple scenarios …

Secured Transaction History: Protecting Holmes' Notes Through The Conditional Sales Acts., George Lee Flint Jr.

St. Mary's Law Journal

The historical explanation for the adoption of the conditional sales acts is woefully lacking. How and why the first conditional sales acts arose are investigated. Grant Gilmore, when presenting his theory, confessed ignorance concerning the origins of the conditional sale transaction, first known as Holmes’ notes. The failure of traditional legal historians to explain the passage of the conditional sales acts encourages inquiry into their legislative history to find an explanation. Pre-Act American decisions provide clues regarding the ratification of the acts. The courts provided three explanations for their passage: to treat the conditional sale as a chattel mortgage, to …

The South Texas Drought And The Future Of Groundwater Use For Hydraulic Fracturing In The Eagle Ford Shale., Taelor A. Allen

St. Mary's Law Journal

Texas has undergone a succession of historic droughts, each one creating unique problems and controversies. The state is also one of the largest national producers of oil and gas with the Eagle Ford Shale fields contributing to the production boom. The technique used to extract the oil is called hydraulic fracturing, which requires large volumes of water to be injected at high pressures to “frac” and release gas from an underground formation. The amount of water required places even greater strain on the regional water supply. This Comment highlights legal issues raised by the high volumes of groundwater used for …

Underneath Her Pantsuit: A Reflection On Hanna Rosin's The End Of Men, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

In her book, The End of Men, ¹ Hanna Rosin argues that women have “surpassed” men. This new reality necessitates a reevaluation of marriage, family, sex, and gender roles.² To further her claim, Rosin dedicates a chapter of her book to the topic of violence committed by women. She argues that women are becoming more violent³ :

The new [trope] taps into a fear that as they gain more power, women will use violence and their new specialized skills to get what they want. Singular and exotic though these cases may be, they raise the broader unsettling possibility …

State V. Pardoned Individual, 138 Ohio St.3d 97 (2013) - Appellant's Brief, Joann M. Sahl

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This appellate brief submitted to the Ohio Supreme Court asserts that a pardon conclusively entitles the recipient to have their pardoned convictions sealed.

The Patent Litigation Explosion, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides the first look at patent litigation hazards for public firms during the 1980s and 1990s. Litigation is more likely when prospective plaintiffs acquire more patents, when firms are larger and technologically close and when prospective defendants spend more on research and development ("R&D"). The latter suggests inadvertent infringement may be more important than piracy. Public firms face dramatically increased hazards of litigation as plaintiffs and even more rapidly increasing hazards as defendants, especially for small public firms. The increase cannot be explained by patenting rates, R&D, firm value or industry composition. Legal changes are the most likely …

Enhancing Pcr Amplification Of Dna From Recalcitrant Plant Specimens Using A Trelahose-Based Additive, Tharangamala Samarakoon, Shiao Y. Wang, Mac H. Alford

Faculty Publications

Premise of the study: PCR amplification of DNA extracted from plants is sometimes difficult due to the presence of inhibitory compounds. An effective method to overcome the inhibitory effect of compounds that contaminate DNA from difficult plant specimens is needed.

Methods and Results: The effectiveness of a PCR additive reagent containing trehalose, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and polysorbate‐20 (Tween‐20) (TBT‐PAR) was tested. PCR of DNA extracted from fresh, silica‐dried, and herbarium leaf material of species of Achariaceae, Asteraceae, Lacistemataceae, and Samydaceae that failed using standard techniques were successful with the addition of TBT‐PAR.

Conclusions: The addition of TBT‐PAR during routine …

Rehabilitation And Field Evaluation Of Discarded Timber Railroad Ties Using Thermoset Gfrp Composites, Amir Hossein Houshmandyar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study presents the effectiveness of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite thermoset shells in strengthening discarded timber railroad ties. In this work, a total of 18 composite shell-timber ties were manufactured through GFRP wrapping of discarded wood ties at the Constructed Facilities Center in West Virginia University (CFC-WVU) and tested under three-point bending to evaluate their properties such as Young’s modulus, rupture modulus and bending strength. Elastic moduli of all the 18 ties were measured before and after wrapping. Following laboratory testing, composite ties were field installed and evaluated at Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) Pueblo, Colorado. The composite …

Patent Variation: Discerning Diversity Among Patent Functions, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This Article describes and analyzes qualitative interview data collected over a five-year period. The goal of the interviews was to explore the roles of intellectual property (“IP”) in IP rich fields. Interviews were with diverse actors in a wide-range of industries: film, book publishing, visual arts, internet commerce, biology, engineering, chemistry, computer science. The data described and analyzed in this Article focuses on the specific question about the diverse functioning of patents in the subset of interviewees who are scientists and engineers, their lawyers and business partners. The Article proceeds in two parts. Part I describes the empirical dimension of …

Heed Not The Umpire (Justice Ginsburg Called Nfib), Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

A bad reading of the facts in NFIB v. Sebelius has led to new limitations on Congress’s Commerce, Necessary and Proper, and Spending Clause powers. The decision appeared to use healthcare as a vehicle for constitutional change, leading to interpretive gymnastics that invite further litigation. This essay highlights the factual errors in Chief Justice Roberts’s and the joint dissent’s opinions and explains why Justice Ginsburg’s more fact-attuned opinion was the correct analysis of the case.

Neutrophil In Viral Infections, Friend Or Foe?, Brandon D. Drescher, Fengwei Bai

Faculty Publications

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes or neutrophils are the first immune cells to the site of injury and microbial infection. Neutrophils are crucial players in controlling bacterial and fungal infections, and in particular secondary infections, by phagocytosis, degranulation and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). While neutrophils have been shown to play important roles in viral pathogenesis, there is a lack of detailed investigation. In this article, we will review recent progresses toward understanding the role of neutrophils in viral pathogenesis. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Young Again, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

This essay revisits an old problem in the law of federal courts: the source of the right of action in Ex parte Young. The core of the story underlying Young is familiar. Shareholders in railroad corporations filed suit in a federal circuit court, claiming that state established rail rates in Minnesota violated the Fourteenth Amendment and the (dormant) Commerce Clause. The circuit court issued a preliminary injunction barring adoption of the rates and prohibiting the defendants from attempting to enforce them. One of the defendants, Minnesota Attorney General Edward T. Young, nonetheless brought a state court mandamus action against the …

A Survey Of Selected Intermediate-Level Chamber Repertoire With Piano From 1750 - 1900., Duangruthai Pokaratsiri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research paper, "A Survey of Selected Intermediate-Level Chamber Repertoire with Piano from 1750 - 1900, is a reference guide to available pieces suitable for performance and study both in the private studio and at the college level. The chamber works surveyed are duos and trios only, which include strings (violin and cello) and/or woodwinds (flute, oboe and clarinet) with piano as well as works for two pianos, all with piano parts at the intermediate level. This paper provides a listing of intermediate-level chamber music, original works and movements from larger pieces, that can be valuable for piano teachers, students, …

A Presumptively Better Approach To Arbitrability, John A. E. Pottow, Jacob Brege, Tara J. Hawley

Articles

One of the most complex problems in the arbitration field is the question of who decides disputes over the scope of an arbitrator's purported authority. Courts in Canada and the United States have taken different approaches to this fundamental question of "arbitrability" that necessarily arises when one party disputes the contractual validity of the underlying "container" contract carrying the arbitration clause. If arbitration is a creature of contract, and contract is a product of consensual agreement, then any dispute that impugns the underlying consent of the parties to the container contract implicates the arbitration agreement itself (i.e., no contract, no …

Case Study Of Three Rural Texas Superintendents As Equity Oriented Change Agents, Gerri Marie Maxwell, Leslie A. Locke, James Joseph Scheurich

Faculty Publications

For this qualitative case study (Patton, 2003), we used narrative inquiry (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993) and sought to analyze extended interviews and field notes based on interactions with three rural superintendents working in high-needs, public PK-12 school districts in Texas. We collected data with regard to these superintendents’ perceptions of themselves as social justice/equity oriented change agents based on the Equity Oriented Change Agent or EOCA framework developed by Skrla, McKenzie, and Scheurich (2009). Our goal with this study was to glean greater insight into the work of these rural school leaders as potential equity oriented change agents. …