Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Balancing Wildlife And Bioenergy Values On Private Forestlands In The Eastern Upper Peninsula Of Michigan, Karl Makinen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

There is interest in developing a reliable, sustainable, domestic U.S. biofuels industry. A domestic biofuels industry has the potential to provide economic, environmental, and national security benefits on a local, regional, national, and global level. The Mascoma Corporation plans to develop a cellulosic ethanol facility in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula. The primary feedstock of the plant site would be trees sourced within a 150 mile supply radius. In the eastern Upper Peninsula, this radius encompasses Alger, Chippewa, Delta, Luce, Mackinac, and Schoolcraft counties. In these six counties there are 1,320,500 acres of NIPF (non-industrial private forestlands). These acres account for …

More Favorable Combination Of Circumstances Could Hardly Have Been Desired : A Bottom To Top Examination Of The Pittsburgh And Boston Mining Company's Cliff Mine, Sean M. Gohman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The Cliff Mine, an archaeological site situated on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, is the location of the first successful attempt to mine native copper in North America. Under the management of the Pittsburgh & Boston Mining Company from 1845-1879, two-third of the Cliff’s mineral output was in the form of mass copper, some pieces of which weighed over 5 tons when removed from the ground. The unique nature of mass copper and the Cliff Mine’s handling of it make it one of the best examples of early mining processes in the Keweenaw District. Mass copper only constituted 2% of …

A Library And Its Community: Exploring Perceptions Of Collaboration, Phoebe Vincenza Daurio

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores perceptions of interorganizational collaboration through an investigation of the opinions and actions of a public library and three community-based organizations. Interorganizational collaboration is often viewed as an effective strategy for accomplishing objectives that would not otherwise be possible with a single organization. Particularly for complex societal issues such as adult literacy, researchers and practitioners believe collaboration between organizations is necessary in order to achieve desired outcomes. Public libraries are engaging in collaborations also to extend their reach, establish the library’s relevance, increase community involvement, and advocate for their position as a community asset.

This thesis is a …

The Relationship Between Energy Balance Understanding And Measures Of Wellness, Stephanie Fishel-Brown

All Dissertations

Much emphasis on the fight against obesity is placed on education and food labeling, yet very little research has been performed to measure how much people know about energy balance and the relationship of this knowledge to measures of wellness. The primary objective of this study was to determine if college students' (N = 262) performance on an energy balance questionnaire is associated with measures of wellness. Performance on the questionnaire as a whole was not significantly correlated (p > .05) with body mass index (BMI; r_s = .04), percent body fat (r_s = .05), waist to hip ratio …

Aging And Sexual Orientation: A 25-Year Review Of The Literature, Anna M. Muraco, Karen I. Fredriksen-Goldsen

Sociology Faculty Works

In a review of 58 articles published between 1984 and 2008, this article synthesizes the recent state of social research on older lesbian, gay male, and bisexual adults in order to summarize existing knowledge about these groups, to guide future research on aging, and to identify the substantive issues affecting their lives. Based on a life-course perspective, the primary research domains identified include the interplay of lives and historical times and linked and interdependent lives. After reviewing the literature in each of these areas, the article presents an examination of the strengths and limitations of the body of knowledge and …

Awareness And Accessibility Of Environmental Information In Nigeria: Evidence From Delta State, Yemisi T. Babalola, Akinola D. Babalola, Faith O. Okhale

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Environmental awareness is a pre-condition for environment-friendly behaviour and sustainable environment; proper awareness of environment related issues is therefore pertinent. This study examined awareness and accessibility of environmental information in Nigeria with specific reference to Warri Central Local Government Area of Delta state. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire from 140 respondents using the simple random sampling technique and analyzed with descriptive statistics. The results showed that many of the respondents are aware that soil erosion, oil spillage and pipeline vandalization are sources of environmental problems but they are not aware of the ecological impact of domestic activities like …

Libraries Build Autonomy: A Philosophical Perspective On The Social Role Of Libraries And Librarians, Audrey Barbakoff

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

An important, overlooked moral contribution of libraries and librarians to the community is the provision of support for autonomy. Philosophers have long considered autonomy a primary moral value, essential to living a flourishing life. Although library scholarship has not often engaged deeply with the philosophical discourse surrounding autonomy, libraries and librarians are uniquely positioned to enact many of the methods for encouraging it. By considering the moral significance of library services as autonomy-building activities, libraries and librarians can provide a valuable social support for their communities, individual users, and ultimately themselves.

Ability, Assistance, And Collaboration In Academic Library Assessment, Gordon J. Hewitt, Rebecca Troendle Hewitt

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Assessment continues to grow in importance in academic libraries, yet no one has delineated what skills and resources are needed among librarians to carry out assessment activities. This study was a first attempt to describe how library leaders view the skills and resources they need to do assessment. Based on a survey of academic library directors, our findings show that directors rate themselves highly on conceptual skills, but are less confident on methodological skills. Directors also rely heavily on their staff members and campus institutional research and assessment offices to help them with assessment projects.

The Web 2.0 Contradiction: Commercial And Library Use, Tibor Koltay

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper addresses the main motives of Web 2.0 that have contributed to its commercial success. Among the critical topics the question of amateurism is of pivotal interest. The second part of the paper deals with library use of Web 2.0, stressing that the concept of the Library 2.0 has to be properly understood. Last but not least, literacies expedient in the era of the Web 2.0 are identified.

Faculty Attitudes Toward Collaboration With Librarians, Atif Yousef

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of this study was to identify attitudes of faculty members toward collaboration with librarians working in the campus library. The study relates these attitudes to selected independent variables. A questionnaire was distributed to all faculty members in Zarka Private University. A total of 114 responses were gathered. The questionnaire included 22 attitudinal statements. The results of this study indicate that most of the respondents had positive attitudes toward collaboration with librarians. Faculty members accept shared responsibility with librarians in the three main areas of collaboration: collection development, information literacy, and library services. Although most of the respondents had …

"Lawfare" In The War On Terrorism: A Reclamation Project, Melissa A. Waters

Scholarship@WashULaw

In the nine years since Major General Charles Dunlap first coined the term, “lawfare” has strayed considerably from its non-partisan, ideologically neutral origins. Nowhere is this clearer than in the war on terror, where the term is often used as a pejorative label by political pundits who decry as “lawfare” virtually any attempt to apply the rule of law to the conduct of the United States’ war on terror. This essay considers the prospects for reclaiming “lawfare” as a useful term in the war on terror. It explores various conceptions of the term, noting that a more ideologically neutral usage …

Film Review: Masculinity & Interracial Intimacy In 'Star Trek' And 'Gran Torino', Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

Race has long been a central object of political reflection. The salience of racial difference remains hotly debated, figuring in both “utopian” and “dystopian” visions of America’s political future. If race is a primary configuration of “difference” and inequality in the nation, then intimacy between the races is often construed as either a bellwether of equality and political utopia or a re-inscribing of political dominance, typically represented as sexual predation by men against women. Quite expectedly, these political fantasies and fears are often played out at the multiplex, and we can see them in stark relief in two recent films …

The Voting Rights Act’S Secret Weapon: Pocket Trigger Litigation And Dynamic Preclearance, Travis Crum

Scholarship@WashULaw

Following NAMUDNO, the search is on for a way to save section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). This Note offers a solution through an examination of the VRA’s most obscure provision: section 3. Commonly called the bail-in mechanism or the pocket trigger, section 3 authorizes federal courts to place states and political subdivisions that have violated the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments under preclearance. This Note makes a two-part argument. First, the pocket trigger should be used to alleviate the NAMUDNO Court’s anxiety over the coverage formula’s differential treatment of the states. The Justice Department and civil rights groups …

Disputing Limited Liability, Christina L. Boyd, David A. Hoffman

Scholarship@WashULaw

This project presents six years of hand-collected federal district court data to analyze the first representative sample of veil piercing litigation. Our method identifies veil piercing complaints through Westlaw's trial pleadings database and codes each case through a detailed examination of PACER records. We test a variety of hypotheses to understand how such litigations are resolved. We find that plaintiffs succeed quite often in veil piercing litigation, if success is defined as winning on motions that do not terminate a case. A variety of legal and extra-legal factors predict such interstitial veil piercing successes. Voluntary creditor causes of action promote …

Residual Voting In Florida, James Hicks, Paul Gronke, Charles Stewart Iii

Scholarship@WashULaw

The residual vote rate is a metric that can be used to evaluate the comparative performance of election systems, particularly voting technology and ballot design. If collected at the appropriate levels of disaggregation (county- or more preferably precinct-level) and by different modes of balloting (in person, absentee, and early voting), the residual vote rate can identify ways that voter demographics, voting technology, and the time and place of casting the ballot may influence varying levels of voting errors.

This report describes a project that examined the residual vote rates in the state of Florida’s 2008 presidential preference primary, taking advantage …

Ensuring The Ethical Representation Of Clients In The Face Of Excessive Caseloads, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

The right of one charged with [a] crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours. From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impar-tial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with [a] crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.

You can't give me too many cases, too many clients, …

Constructing Systemic Safeguards Against Informant Perjury, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

Reliance on an informant's testimony as the primary basis for charging and convicting the accused is fraught with problems. While the hypothetical explicitly addresses the ethical dilemmas defense counsel faces when her client is trading false testimony in exchange for a reduced charge and shorter sentence, the hypothetical also implicitly illustrates the inadequacies of our criminal justice system's current handling of testimony from cooperating witnesses.

The focus on the ethical, and perhaps moral, obligations of Lawyer representing a potentially perjurious Client begs larger questions. Are there safeguards the prosecutor's office could employ to ensure that the trial prosecutor, who is …

Japan's New Clinical Programs: A Study Of Light And Shadow, Peter A. Joy, Shigeo Miyagawa, Takao Suami, Charles D. Weisselberg

Scholarship@WashULaw

Japan instituted a new system of graduate professional law school education when sixty-eight new law schools opened their doors on April 1, 2004. The new law schools are an integral component of far-reaching reforms that seek to improve the administration of justice in Japan by increasing the number of lawyers, especially in grossly underserved rural areas, and better preparing attorneys for the practice of law domestically and internationally. Japan modeled the new graduate professional law schools after schools in the United States. A large number of the schools adopted clinical legal education programs -- also substantially influenced by law school …

Countering The Majoritarian Difficulty, Stefanie A. Lindquist, Amanda Frost

Scholarship@WashULaw

Most state court judges are elected to office, and thus must be attentive to voter preferences just like other elected officials. Critics of judicial elections fear that subjecting judges to majoritarian pressures jeopardizes the rights of disfavored groups and undermines the rule of law, and accordingly call for their abolition. The reality, however, is that judicial elections are firmly entrenched in thirty-eight states, and thus appear to be a permanent part of the legal landscape.

This article suggests that the so-called “majoritarian difficulty” posed by elected judges can be tempered by regular interactions with appointed, life-tenured federal judges, who are …

The Sinification Of Western Company Forms In Modern China: A Hybridization Of Sinospheres And Anglospheres, Wai Keung Chung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Western company or corporate forms were introduced to China for more than a hundred years. What has been the impact of this Western institution on the traditional mode of Chinese family business? At the same time, has the traditional Chinese mode of doing business changed any of the fundamental features of this Western institution, and in the end created corporate forms with “Chinese characteristics”? This paper uses the historical sociology and economic sociology perspectives to analyse the interaction between traditional Chinese business and Western corporate forms during the late 19th earlier 20th century modern China. Traditional Chinese business convention for …