Digital Commons Network^™

What Jurors Want To Know: Motivating Juror Cognition To Increase Legal Knowledge & Improve Decisionmaking, Sara Gordon

Scholarly Works

What do jurors want to know? Jury research tells us that jurors want to understand the information they hear in a trial so they can reach the correct decision. But like all people, jurors who are asked to analyze information in a trial—even jurors who consciously want to reach a fair and accurate verdict—are unconsciously influenced by their internal goals and motivations. Some of these motives are specific to individual jurors; for instance, a potential juror with a financial interest in a case would be excluded from the jury pool. But other motivations, like the motive to understand the law …

Making The World In Atlanta's Image: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Morris Abram, And The Legislative History Of The United Nations Race Convention, H. Timothy Lovelace

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Alumni Services: Strategies For Keeping The Law Library's Doors Open After Graduation, Michelle M. Trumbo

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Transition From Clinical Practice To Academic Citizenship In Nursing Faculty, Valerie S. Schluter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experience of female registered nurses who transitioned from clinical practice to a faculty role in a baccalaureate program of nursing as experienced by the study participants. An improved understanding of the experience of registered nurses who transition from clinical practice to academic citizenship in an academic community will fill a gap in the literature and assist administrators of schools of nursing in planning faculty orientation and development programs to facilitate a successful transition of new nursing faculty members into academic citizenship in an academic community. Most nursing faculty members begin …

Characterization Of A Σ54-Dependent Response Regulator, Tepr, In The Rice-Pathogenic Bacterium Burkholderia Glumae And Development Of Biocontrol Strategies For Bacterial Panicle Blight Of Rice, Surendra Osti

LSU Master's Theses

Bacterial panicle blight, caused by Burkholderia glumae, is a major bacterial disease of rice in Louisiana. This bacterium contains several virulence factors required for disease development such as toxoflavin, lipase and flagella. In a genome-wide search for regulatory factors related to the virulence of B. glumae, tepR was identified as a negative regulator for toxoflavin production and found to encode a sigma 54-dependent response regulator. TepR is homologous to LuxO, a quorum-sensing signaling component of Vibrio spp. A markerless tepR deletion mutant of B. glumae 336gr-1, LSUPB401, produced more toxoflavin and showed higher lipase and protease activities compared to the …

Flexible Feminism And Reproductive Justice: An Essay In Honor Of Ann Scales, Lynne Henderson

Scholarly Works

Professor Ann Scales began her distinguished career by taking feminism and reproductive justice seriously. She became a leading feminist voice and influence on a number of topics. In later years, she returned to concerns about reproductive justice by presciently emphasizing the need to preserve women’s access to abortions.

This Essay discusses Professor Scales’s concerns and feminist method and then turns to reproductive justice. The Essay notes that, with Scales, a right to abortion is foundational for reproductive justice. The Essay then examines the increasing narrowing of access to abortion through law. The Essay next examines a current crisis over access …

Regulation Of Oocyte Meiotic Resumption Using Camp Modulators In Bovine In Vitro Maturation, Sarah Farmer

LSU Master's Theses

In vitro maturation (IVM) is a reproductive technique critical to in vitro embryo production (IVP) in commercial livestock industries, research, and human infertility treatment. Currently, IVP has low efficiency due to an inadequate IVM system in which premature meiotic resumption results in low oocyte viability. Meiotic arrest is regulated primarily by 3’,5’-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), and the most successful methods of improving IVM utilize cAMP modulators to maintain high intra-oocyte cAMP, delaying the onset of maturation. This thesis includes experiments comparing standard bovine IVM to a novel extended IVM method similar to the procedure described by Albuz and colleagues (Albuz …

Employer-Based Health Care Insurance: Not So Exceptional After All, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Concussions And Sports: Introduction, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

This Is Your Sword: How Damaging Are Prior Convictions To Plaintiffs In Civil Trials?, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Deirdre Bowen

Scholarly Works

The conventional wisdom in law is that a prior conviction is one of the most powerful and damaging pieces of evidence that can be offered against a witness or party. In legal lore, prior convictions seriously undercut the credibility of the witness and can derail the outcome of a trial. This Article suggests that may not always be true.

This Article details the results of an empirical study of juror decision-making that challenges the conventional wisdom about prior convictions. In our study, the prior conviction evidence did not have a direct impact on the outcome of the civil trial or …

Change In Developmental Quotient In Toddlers Assessed For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Lindsey Willis Williams

LSU Master's Theses

ASD is marked by significant delays in social and language development, while development in other areas, such as cognitive functioning, can be highly variable from person to person. Though preschool-aged children with ASD often exhibit a profile of developmental delays similar to children with other developmental disorders at a discrete moment in time, few studies have investigated possible differences in rate of skill acquisition in developmental domains in children with different disorders. Sensitive periods of development are marked by less stability in performance of developmental skills. Results of prior studies suggest that if appropriate early interventions are applied during sensitive …

Similarities Between Corticosteroids, M. Einhorn

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Corticosteroids are a class of potent drugs with important physiological effects on the body. Regular use is linked with common and serious side effects. This paper uses studies to analyze the similarities between various corticosteroids. All drugs in this class are molecules that contain the same steroid backbone and are therefore associated with the same cellular receptor. This results in a comparable mechanism and parallel overall effect in the body. Side effects of corticosteroids are analogous as well. Using the knowledge of physiological changes in the body due to corticosteroids will allow healthcare providers to determine the most effective corticosteroid …

Open Hearts Or Smoke And Mirrors: Metaphorical Framing And Frame Conflicts In A Public Meeting, L. David Ritchie, Lynne Cameron

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

The concept of framing has been widely used to help understand how aspects of messages can shape people’s expectations and consequently influence the outcomes of communicative interactions. In this study we examine transcripts of a contentious and ultimately unsuccessful public meeting between police officials and members of the African-American community following the fatal shooting of a young African-American woman by police officers. We show how contradictory framing between public officials and members of the community as well as within each group may have contributed to unintended and asymmetrical ironies, and ultimately to the failure of the meeting to achieve the …

Use Of Eu Institutions Outside The Eu Legal Framework: Foundations, Procedure And Substance, Paul Craig

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The decision in Case Pringle was primarily concerned with whether the European Stability Mechanism (TFEU) was compatible with various substantive provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, most notably the prohibition on bailouts in Article 125 TFEU. The judgment is nonetheless important for other reasons, including the legitimacy of the use of EU institutions outside the EU legal framework. It will be seen that the CJEU endorsed their use and reaffirmed earlier case law. These conclusions were analysed by Steve Peers in a helpful article in a previous issue of the European Constitutional Law Review, in …

Student, Esquire?: The Practice Of Law In The Collaborative Classroom, Nantiya Ruan

Scholarly Works

Law faculty and non-profit lawyers are working together in a variety of partnerships to offer students exposure to "real life" clients in the first year of law school, as well as in advanced courses in substantive areas. Teachers engaged in this client-centered advocacy through experiential frameworks have broken out of their isolated silos in the law school (e.g., legal writing, clinical, externship, and doctrinal) and begun to work together. To help students develop a sense of professional identity, cultivate professional values, and tap into key intrinsic motivations for lawyering, such as serving the public good, collaborative classrooms have an important …

Not Just For Scouting Anymore: Digital Badges For Legal Research Skills, Alcasid Hannah, Susan David Demaine, Catherine A. Lemmer, Benjamin J. Keele

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Appeal Of Narrative In Research, Colette Daiute

Publications and Research

"I saw the bird flattened on the ground outside my door . One of the kindergarten child walked toward me slowly, crying. That's when I knew it was time to act."

The very brief narrative above occurs amid myriad spheres of social relations. These relations are not all apparent, but understanding narrative meaning requires understanding narrating as an interactive process. As researchers we enhance our Methods if we know how to read narratives as complex social processes. This openi11g narrative expresses a sequence of two past events.1 The narrative involves action ("walked," "act") and consciousness ("saw," "crying," "knew"). From the …

Green Buildings, Corporate Social Responsibility, And Stock Market Performance, Mary Nguyen

University Honors Theses

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which focuses on environmental, social and governance risks and issues, has become an important item on the corporate agenda. CSR has been found to affect consumer attitudes, employee performance, cost structure and corporate image. Previous research on CSR have determined inconsistent relationships with firm value. CSR-related strategies have generally shown a positive relationship with different measurements of firm value, however there some studies have shown the opposite. Other studies found that the relationship between CSR related strategies and market value is too weak to determine any conclusions. However, previous studies neglect the importance of green buildings …

For The Hard Of Hearing: A Catholic Novelist Confronts Modernity, Louis Benjamin Maltese

University Honors Theses

In the early part of the 20th century German Catholic theologian and cultural critic, Romano Guardini, published The End of Modernity, outlining the conceptual shift of self-identity and cosmology from Antiquity to Modernity. Characterizing modernity as turning upon a false self-identity termed “mass man.” This false image of life furthers the individual person’s fragmentation, and deafens their ability to hear the Catholic voice. Walker Percy’s familiarity with Guardini is most explicit in The Last Gentleman where Percy represents the difficulty of hearing the call of Catholicism. Recently, Paul Elie and Dana Gioia have pointed out the lacking literary presence …

Network Analysis-Based Psychoeducation For Gad, Corinna Scott

University Honors Theses

Psychoeducation, providing essential information for a client about psychological and physiological processes, is typically the first step in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) but its content and implementation is currently underdeveloped. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent mental disorder in the United States. Often, persons with GAD and their primary care providers and family do not recognize or understand the meaning of their symptoms because of the diffuse and imprecise nature of the diagnosis. This thesis aims to investigate a systems network analysis of generalized anxiety disorder to explore suggestions for enhancing psychoeducation as an initial intervention for GAD clients. A …

Sense Of Place And Stakeholder Involvement In Rural Environmental Management, Jessica Lynn Beutler

University Honors Theses

There is a growing need for involvement of local communities in environmental management in order to develop dynamic and holistic management strategies. Communities have direct impact on the ecosystems they live in; therefore, it is vital to understand the environmental values and knowledge of environmental threats held by those communities. Integrating the community’s knowledge into local environmental management can help engage instead of alienate them. The relationship between rural communities and their local environment in Puget Island, WA was investigated by conducting interviews with residents, examining at their values and understanding of environmental issues. Additionally, this research investigates how sense …

Social Media And Self: Influences On The Formation Of Identity And Understanding Of Self Through Social Networking Sites, Madison Ganda

University Honors Theses

Over the years, social networking sites have grown into a more modern way of socializing. The widespread use and increasing time spent on these sites cause users to create online self-presentations in order to participate. Using Goffman’s dramaturgical theory, this study looked to explain the effects of feedback associated with online identities on social networking sites with offline identity development and presentation. An online Likert-scale survey was used gauge participant’s feelings about the social networking sites they used. Analysis of the collected data used a regression model to explore possible links between feedback on posts online and individuals’ internalization of …

Traversing The United States-Mexico Border: Gender And Kinship In Migrant Families, Patrick S. Harhai

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the process of gender and kinship reconfiguration during transnational migration. Transnational migrants shift and adapt the ways in which they fulfill the cultural responsibilities of kinship and gender. This study focuses on Latin American migrants and their kin networks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Although themes of global economic, trade, and immigration are present, the focus is migration in a western context. Drawing on published ethnographies, I use data collected by anthropologists and other social science researchers in the past decade and a half to elucidate the ways in which governmental bodies control and incite …

Comics And The Complicit Reader: Closure As A Transgressive Technique In Transmetropolitan, Kyle Knox

University Honors Theses

In recent years, the critical analysis of comic books has come to be a respected field in popular culture studies. Transmetropolitan, a 60 issue comic book created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Darick Robertson, became a one of the most popular nonsuperhero series throughout its publication by DC Comics in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Since the beginning of the present decade, scholars have paid increased attention to the thematic content of the series, identifying the text as a brutal transgressive satire of Western consumerist culture. This paper examines the formal structure of the work, primarily through …

Issues Of Authenticity In Small Scale Tourism: A Study Of The Mcdisney Experience, Jordan Nelson

University Honors Theses

The small scale tourist industry began as a rejection of mass tourism and the consumerist ideals associated with it. The search for authentic experience and authentic culture has become synonymous with small scale tourism and backpacker culture. The rejection of mass tourism typically results in a more culture centered approach to tourism which entails more interactions with locals in hopes of an authentic cultural experience. However, in this article I will discuss the issues that arise with the commoditization of culture and the people of that culture when the search for authenticity is informed by western ideals in the case …

Youth Engagement And Portland Neighborhood Associations, Kelly Sellers

University Honors Theses

This research addresses the intersection between youth engagement and Portland neighborhood associations, and explores future implications for young people’s civic engagement and participation in decisions that affect their lives. Since much of the literature on public participation does not specifically address young people’s assets or needs, this research provides an exploratory view on youth perceptions of place and neighborhood associations. Through semi-structured interviews, three members of the Multnomah Youth Commission, the official youth policy body for the City of Portland and Multnomah County, shared their insights, regarding current awareness of and future hopes for Portland neighborhood associations. The lack of …

Social Constructs In Film Culture: The Effect Of It On The Performing Arts, And The Destroyed Association Of Signs To Enhance Meaning, Eileen W. Tom

University Honors Theses

Semiotics is the study of signs and how they produce meaning in society. How can the lens of semiotics (specifically the components and the relationship between the signifier and the signified) reform the audience and performer systems? This thesis serves as an examination of the relationship between the audience and performer, how each play a part in creating meaning within a given performance piece. This project provides a method on how to rebuild the world of the film to enhance a theme. The primary evidence consists of statistics gathered from a viewing of a staged reading that was written specifically …

Affect Perception In Computer Mediated Communication, Rachel E. Townsend

University Honors Theses

The perception of affect influences the subjective perception of an individual’s environment (Isbell & Burns, n.d.). Accurate affect perception leads to increased resilience and positive coping mechanisms when faced with daily life stressors (Robinson, Moeller, Buchholz, Boyd, & Troop-Gordon, 2012). Communication technologies have revolutionized the ways in which individuals connect to one another professionally and socially (Joseph B. Walther, 1992). This study investigated accurate affect perception in computer mediated communication (CMC) from a multidisciplinary perspective. One hundred fifty four research participants ( = 26.84, = 9.66) responded to a self-report questionnaire hosted by Qualtrics.com. A multiple linear regression was conducted, …

Music And Acculturation: Using Culture-Focused Music Therapy To Address The Adverse Effects Of Acculturative Stress, Christopher A. Arnold

University Honors Theses

More than any other demographic in the United States, Native American populations experience the highest rate of suicide proportional to population size. This is just one of numerous statistics indicative of the overall status of Native American psychological health. There has been increasing research demonstrating that Native American suicide rate and depression is positively associated with acculturative stress, and negatively associated with traditional heritage cultural integration. Because an increased amount of acculturative stress for Native Americans is correlated with high suicide rate and occurrence of depression, while increased traditional culture integration may be linked to lower suicide rate and occurrence …

International Perspectives On Sustainable Agriculture In Cuba, B. Danielle Smith

University Honors Theses

Since the economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba has restructured their agriculture with a greater focus on domestic production of domestically consumed produce, and a dramatic reduction of petroleum products in all aspects of food production. This overhaul has included the broad application of what is termed agroecology – agricultural practices which focus on principles of biodiversity and sustainability – and inter-farm cooperation facilitated by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) and Campesino a Campesino. Academics and journalists from within and abroad have critically examined aspects of the novel reforms developed in the country …