Digital Commons Network^™

State Constitutional Law: Developments In Georgia Election Law, Bryan P. Tyson, Bryan F. Jacoutot, Diane F. Laross

Mercer Law Review

Since the 2018 election, the election process in Georgia has been subjected to intense scrutiny both on the campaign trail and in the courtroom through a variety of lawsuits. Cases in superior courts and the Supreme Court of Georgia have challenged everything from candidate eligibility to election outcomes to the voting machines used in elections. While much of the highest-profile litigation has been in federal court, state law regarding election administration and post-election contests has developed in significant ways during that time period. This Article reviews some of the most significant cases involving Georgia election law that have made their …

Does Georgia’S Code Have The Force Of Law? Early Codification Practices And Constitutional Questions, Jake Shatzer

Mercer Law Review

In 1858, Georgia’s General Assembly commissioned the state’s first official code. The legislature appointed three men to assemble a lengthy volume that included all the legislative acts that were in force at the time. Besides statutes, the General Assembly also tasked the codifiers with codifying legal principles of the English common law, Georgia Supreme Court decisions, and English statutes that were still in force. As a result, the codifiers inserted hundreds of provisions into the code that they wrote in an attempt to distill these legal principles into statutory form. When the codifiers’ work was done, the General Assembly adopted …

Local Government, Jacob Stalvey O’Neal, Russell A. Britt, Dana A. King, Jennifer Dorminey Herzog, Nicholas A. Kinsley, M. Blake Walker

Mercer Law Review

Last year’s survey showed that the appellate courts in Georgia were reluctant to rule that a public official had violated a ministerial duty and thus were willing to hold that public officials were entitled to official immunity. This year, however, at least one case showed a swing in the other direction, with the Court of Appeals of Georgia holding that official immunity can be overcome, despite the existence of some discretionary language in a policy.

Zoning And Land Use Law, Newton M. Galloway, Steven L. Jones, Joshua Williams

Mercer Law Review

This year’s Georgia Survey on zoning law analyzes new developments in case law and legislation over the Survey period. It analyzes the impact and aftermath of the Supreme Court of Georgia’s opinion in State v. SASS Group, LLC. SASS Group was the first case arising under the 2020 amendment to the Georgia Constitution of 1983, which permitted a limited waiver of the state’s sovereign immunity for declaratory judgment claims alleging that an action of a government official was unconstitutional. Though SASS Group did not factually involve a zoning decision, its holding impacted how and against whom an appeal of a …

Beyond Gary V. State: Paragraph Xiii And The Future Of Georgia’S Exclusionary Rule, Joshua R. Wright

Mercer Law Review

While lawyers across Georgia routinely file motions to suppress evidence in the state’s superior courts, many may never stop to consider what actually affords their clients that right. Practitioners preparing these motions quickly discover one of the most significant recent developments in modern Georgia criminal law: the debate over the scope of a criminal defendant’s constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and, more importantly, when courts must suppress evidence obtained in violation of those rights. Will the Georgia Supreme Court overturn Gary v. State in full and adopt a good-faith exception? If so, can criminal defense attorneys look to …

Still A Deal With The Devil? Mary Carter Agreements And The Integrity Of Civil Jury Trials, Lane Hammond

Mercer Law Review

This Comment examines how jurisdictions treat Mary Carter agreements today and why Georgia should prohibit them entirely. It explores a case currently on appeal before the Court of Appeals of Georgia that raises the issue, draws parallels to prohibited trial tactics under the Bruton Doctrine, and explains why limiting instructions fail to cure the prejudice these agreements create. It raises questions about whether Mary Carter agreements even present a justiciable controversy. It also considers the tension between the competing values at stake: promoting settlements and judicial efficiency on one side, versus safeguarding fairness and the integrity of litigation on the …

Saints, Sinners, And Standard Agreements: Rethinking Morality Clauses In Georgia, Margaret Shehane

Mercer Law Review

This Comment situates morality clauses within Georgia’s broader contract and employment law framework, while also drawing lessons from New York and California. Part I traces the history and function of morality clauses, distinguishing between express and implied provisions, as well as reputational and conduct-based triggers. Part II examines how New York and California have approached morality clauses, emphasizing their reliance on public policy to limit enforceability. Part III turns to Georgia, analyzing how morality provisions are interpreted in light of at-will employment, identifying common drafting pitfalls, and offering practical guidance for attorneys. Part IV looks ahead, considering how Georgia law …

From Classroom To Courtroom: Vicarious Liability In Clinical Education, Grace M. Owens

Mercer Law Review

Vicarious liability has progressively extended its reach into the healthcare field. The advancement of clinical education and increased presence of medical students in the healthcare setting raises the question of who bears the legal responsibility for a student’s wrongful acts or omissions during the provision of medical care. In an attempt to conform to traditional tort ideals, should a medical student be solely responsible for their own actions? Conversely, should the medical institution or supervising physician pay the price of a student’s mistakes? Statham v. Quang demonstrates this tension and represents the Supreme Court of Georgia’s attempt to strike a …

Butterflies & You: Considerations Of Human Relationships With The Natural World, M. E. Colby

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Science communication only accounts for approximately 2% of the entire scientific output of 2017-2022 (Parejo-Cuéllar et. al, 2024). It is an under-researched and under-valued field, especially in an age that has devalued science as a whole. The delicate art of explaining complicated ideas to people who are unfamiliar with scientific jargon is vital to humans’ understanding of the world. Butterflies & You is a documentary film exploring the relationship between humans and the many different butterfly species that call Illinois home. Video-based science communication is important to research and practice because of its impact on environmental advocacy and the growing …

The Johnson-Křížek-Mercier Elasticity Element In Higher Dimensions, Jay Gopalakrishnan, Johnny Guzman, Jeonghun J. Lee

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mixed methods for linear elasticity with strongly symmetric stresses of lowest order are studied in this paper. On each simplex, the stress space has piecewise linear components with respect to its Alfeld split (which connects the vertices to barycenter), generalizing the Johnson–Mercier two-dimensional element to higher dimensions. Further reductions in the stress space in the three-dimensional case (to 24 degrees of freedom per tetrahedron) are possible when the displacement space is reduced to local rigid displacements. Proofs of optimal error estimates of numerical solutions and improved error estimates via postprocessing and the duality argument are presented.

The Campus Evp: A Multi-Case Content Analysis Of Employer Branding Communication In U.S. Higher Education, Latoya A. Clarke

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how universities across the major geographical regions in the United States communicate their employer brand through the Careers section on their websites and digital recruitment materials. Using a multiple-case qualitative content analysis, the study applies the four-dimensional brand SMRT storytelling framework of story, meaning, ritual, and transmedia to evaluate how institutions signal aspects of their employer value proposition across various content formats. Findings show that meaning and ritual were consistently applied through content formats via mission statements, departmental narratives, and employee photography. However, story and transmedia appeared inconsistently, as fewer content formats featured long-form …

Dialogic Communication And Digital Fandom: The Role Of K-Pop In Shaping Global Artist–Fan Relationships, Huanchun Xu

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how K-pop artists use Instagram and Weverse to communicate with fans, and how platform-specific affordances shape the relational dynamics of contemporary fandom. Using a mixed-method content analysis of four artists—Seventeen, Babymonster, Lee Sung-Kyoung, and Kim Myungsoo (L)—this study compares 2022–2024 posting patterns across both platforms. Quantitative findings show that highly curated promotional photos and videos dominate Instagram, whereas Weverse contains far more text-based, casual, and relational posts.

This study further reveals that Weverse fosters dialogic communication, personal disclosure, and multilingual fan interaction, unlike on public-facing platforms. Drawing on dialogic communication theory and computer-mediated communication (CMC) interaction frameworks, …

Data Storytelling For Reputation Management: A Multiple Case Study Of Formula 1, Patagonia & Spotify, Michael O. P. Lowsley-Williams

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates data storytelling as a reputation management strategy by examining how organizations leverage data narratives to enhance brand identity, build stakeholder trust, and reshape public perception. Through analysis and comparison of three qualitative case studies of Patagonia, Formula 1, and Spotify, this research explores how these companies construct and utilize data-driven narratives to address reputational challenges across distinct industry contexts. Drawing on elements of framing, situational crisis and stakeholder theories as well as the concepts of encoding and decoding, this study analyzes narrative structures, framing devices, and audience engagement tactics within reports, campaigns, and multimedia content from 2015-2025. …

Creating A Radical Social Change Campaign To Restore Rational Thinking: A Theoretical Framework, John S. Long

Student Theses and Dissertations

Rational thinking is a skill and mindset that is under siege in modern society, becoming increasingly endangered as we devolve into increasingly hyper-partisan communities rife with echo chambers and confirmation biases. The most basic processes of analyzing issues and facts to develop clearly thought-out and defendable positions have been abandoned in favor of a zealous devotion to toe the party line, no matter the evidence or implications. What we are witnessing firsthand is the fast-approaching culmination of the post-truth era.

One might assume that an issue with such far-reaching implications across our entire society would generate a significant amount of …

Masthead

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standing Apart: Wasserman V. Franklin County And The End Of Third-Party Standing In Georgia, Scott Key

Mercer Law Review

In Wasserman v. Franklin County, the Supreme Court of Georgia ended third-party standing, reasoning that the Georgia Constitution does not provide for it and that principles of stare decisis do not require that Georgia courts continue to follow the third-party standing doctrine. While Georgia courts imported the federal third-party standing doctrine in 2007, the supreme court abandoned it approximately eighteen years later. Beginning in Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Henry County Board Of Commissioners (“SCV”), the court narrowed the scope of standing under Georgia law. This case also reflects a broader trend in which the court strictly construes the language …

Extending Wuads Analysis Capabilities To General Aviation Aircrafts With Piston Propeller And Turbo Propeller Engines And Hydrogen Fuel, Natasha C. Igic, Michael Kiely, Ramesh K. Agarwal

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

The Washington University Aerospace Design Software (WUADS) is a Python-based conceptual aircraft design software for the analysis of subsonic commercial aircrafts. This paper presents modifications to WUADS enabling the design and analysis for general aviation (GA) aircrafts. The updates include revised weight estimation methods as well as a modified method for estimating the performance of piston propeller and turbo-prop engines. For the weight estimation, the average of the GA versions of the Raymer, and NASA FLOPS methods were implemented for each component. Weight analysis accuracy was measured by comparing the gross takeoff weight calculated by WUADS to published data. Engine …

Stem And Pdf Simulation Of Crystalline And Amorphous Materials, Yang Yang, Francisco Lagunas Vargas

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

The aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is a powerful tool for nanoscale characterization, as it is capable of imaging structures with sub-angstrom resolution. An optical microscope uses visible light to magnify objects, which is limited to ~1000X due to the limited resolving power of light. Here, we applied STEM simulations via PRISMATIC and PY4DSTEM, in order to compute images of crystals, 2D materials, and metallic glasses. Practically, computational simulations are important due to the operating cost of STEM and time required to be trained on the equipment. More importantly, simulations provide a direct comparison between theory and experimental …

Peripheral Blood Biomarkers For Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease, Brent A. Luedders

Theses & Dissertations

Rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) is a common extra-articular complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Measuring peripheral blood biomarkers represents an appealing strategy to inform the screening and prediction of RA-ILD. In these studies, I aimed to further characterize the associations of peripheral blood biomarkers with prevalent and incident RA-ILD. First, I evaluated the associations of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) with RA-ILD among a multicenter cohort of RA U.S. Veteran patients (n = 2,312). Higher concentrations of MMP-7 and MMP-9 were independently associated with both prevalent and incident RA-ILD, including a nearly four-fold increased odds of prevalent RA-ILD (adjusted odds ratio …

Reuven Holding, Ltd. V. Lopez

All Decisions

In this licensee holdover proceeding, the landlord obtained a judgment and warrant of eviction, leading to the tenant's eviction. The tenant subsequently filed a post-eviction Order to Show Cause seeking restoration, citing medical issues that impacted her ability to litigate and potential eligibility for HRA assistance. Balancing the equities, the court granted the tenant's motion under RPAPL § 749(3), ordering immediate restoration to possession. The re-execution of the warrant was stayed, conditioned upon the tenant's payment of stipulated rent arrears, plus marshal and legal fees, despite the landlord's strong objection.

470 Manhattan Ave. Llc. V Barboza

All Decisions

In this licensee holdover for an Interim Multiple Dwelling, the court granted the landlord's motion in its entirety. The tenant's personal jurisdiction defense was stricken because she asserted unrelated counterclaims for retaliatory eviction (inapplicable to non-tenants) and attorney's fees. The tenant's jury demand was also stricken, as the prior lease's jury waiver was a real covenant binding successors. The court granted discovery to the landlord regarding the tenant's succession defense and awarded ongoing use and occupancy under RPAPL § 745(2), finding landlord's good faith efforts to comply with Loft Law superseded the certificate of occupancy requirement. The tenant's cross-motion for …

The Impact Of New York City’S Bail Reform, Ruya Y. Kutgun

Honors College Theses

This thesis examines the impact of New York City’s bail reform on crime, recidivism, and jail populations, with particular attention to whether the reform has contributed to increased violence. Implemented in 2020 to reduce racial and economic inequalities, bail reform eliminated cash bail for most low-level offenses and emphasized the least restrictive pretrial conditions, with subsequent amendments expanding eligibility for detention. Using cross-sectional data from multiple governmental and research institutions, this study analyzes arrest rates, rearrest rates, and jail population trends before and after implementation. Findings indicate no significant increase in recidivism or violent crime attributable to bail reform. Fluctuations …

Review Of Nutrition: Science And Everyday Application – Second, Sara M. Reyna

Open Educational Resources - Reviews

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Wearable Resistance Microloading On Sprint Biomechanics, Curtis King

Doctorate in Kinesiology

Wearable resistance refers to the practice of attaching weight to specific body segments during sport-specific movements. This study investigates the impact of progressive microloading training, which involves wearing wearable resistance on the torso (3%, 5%, 10%), on sprint mechanics and performance among competitive athletes. A total of twenty-two participants engaged in a nine-week study that included both progressed and non-progressed group protocols. Sprint times, hip angles, and perceived fatigue were monitored at pre, mid, and post-intervention. A manual biomechanical analysis combined with SPSS-based repeated measures ANOVA indicated no statistically significant changes in hip angle or sprint times between the groups. …

Evaluating The Effects Of Visualization On Vertical Jump Performance In Varsity High School Athletes, David Linton

Doctorate in Kinesiology

This study examined the effects of guided visualization on vertical jump performance in high school varsity athletes. Twenty varsity athletes (ages 13–18) were randomly assigned to either a control group or a visualization group. Following baseline testing, participants completed seven sessions across three weeks. All sessions included a standardized dynamic warm-up. The control group engaged in passive rest prior to testing, while the experimental group completed a five-minute guided visualization exercise. Vertical jump height was measured using a Vertex Vertical Jump Trainer. A randomized controlled pretest–posttest design was employed. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests and two-way mixed factorial …

Conditions Of The Enterprise Energy Management And Energy Transformation – A Risk Management Perspective, Waldemar Kozioł

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to initially indicate the role of risk management and the main areas of risk analysis in the energy transformation process as an element of systemic energy management at the enterprise level.

Methodology: The basic method is literature studies on energy management, risk management and economic transformation processes, supplemented by unstructured interviews with managers from energy, transport, automotive and chemical industries conducted during advisory activities.

Results: Based on literature studies and interviews conducted as part of ongoing research and consulting projects, it can be tentatively indicated that the most important …

The Sustainability Game: A Case Study Of The Effectiveness Of A Training Game, Michał Mijal

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to analyse the possibilities and limitations of using the educational game “Eko Smakosz” in academic teaching, as well as to evaluate the potential of adapting its mechanics for managerial training and scientific research.

Design/methodology/approach: A case study method was employed, comprising quantitative research (pre-test and post-test) and qualitative research (participant observation and DATA model debriefing). The study was conducted on a group of 14 individuals (university students and employees) who played a series of game sessions.

Findings: The study demonstrated an increase in knowledge and participant engagement with subsequent gameplay …

Studia I Materiały Nr 2/2025 (43)

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

Entire Volume Studia i Materiały 2/2025 (43)

Micro-Credentials As A Tool To Support Sustainable Development Academic Education – Survey Results, Mariola Zalewska

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore the potential of micro-credentials as a tool for integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into university curricula and for mitigating student dropout. In light of delays in achieving the 2030 Agenda goals, the study examines whether micro-credentials can enhance sustainability competencies through flexible, student-centred learning pathways. To address the research gap regarding the limited understanding of student perceptions of both ESD and micro-credentials, a pilot study was conducted among students at the Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw.

Design/ methodology/approach: The survey covered the following thematic areas: perceived importance of …

Acceptability Of Using Brain-Computer Interface In The Workplace – Attitudes Of Prospective Employees, Aneta Biernikowicz

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

Purpose: This study aims to examine the attitudes of young management students toward the use of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) in the workplace, considering both the potential benefits and the associated risks of this technology.

Methodology: The study is exploratory in nature and was conducted using the CAWI method on a group of management students. Both open-ended and closed-ended questions were used on a 7-point Likert scale. Qualitative analysis included descriptive and focused coding, and quantitative analysis - descriptive statistics.

Results: Respondents showed a high level of awareness of the existence of BCI technology, mainly for medical purposes. …