The Rural Rescue: Tackling Arkansas’s Legal Deserts Through Proven Statutory Reform

In some rural counties of Arkansas, a single attorney is responsible for serving thousands of residents, depriving many Arkansans of even basic legal representation. Imagine facing eviction, fighting for custody of your child, contesting a divorce, or navigating the complexities of probate with no attorney for miles. This stark reality exemplifies the growing “legal deserts” problem facing rural Arkansas, where access to justice has become a luxury rather than a right. To combat the growing shortage of legal professionals in rural areas, states seek new solutions—some proving more successful than others. Several states have implemented rural attorney incentive programs, typically managed by their respective judicial branches or bar associations. Such programs, alongside scholarships, fellowships, and incubator projects, aim to attract and retain lawyers in underserved, rural communities. This Note examines the ongoing rural legal desert crisis in Arkansas and proposes that the state adapt its rural physician recruitment program to increase the presence of Arkansas lawyers in rural communities. It also considers how Arkansas can implement elements from other states’ successful incentive programs for rural attorneys to further enhance efforts to address its legal deserts problem. Section II seeks to provide background on Arkansas’s legal landscape, compare rural attorney incentive programs from other states, and explore the state’s rural practice incentive model for physicians. Section III suggests a solution, proposing that Arkansas adapt its statutory rural physician program to create a parallel model for attorneys, while also addressing potential implementation barriers. Section IV concludes with a call to action, urging Arkansas lawmakers and the legal community to explore the proposed solution and expand access to justice in rural areas

Livestock Risk Protection Basis Risk for Feeder Cattle

Recent government subsidies make livestock risk protection (LRP) insurance an affordable price risk management tool for many U.S. cattle producers. LRP insurance triggers a loss when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Feeder Cattle Index falls below the selected coverage price. The CME Feeder Cattle Index is a 7-day weighted average of feeder cattle prices in 12 states. This paper determines if LRP policy holders who produce feeder cattle in states whose feeder cattle prices are not included in the CME Feeder Cattle Index are exposed to excess basis risk. To do this, we use a hedonic regression model to determine how state, year, month, and cattle types contribute to expected feeder cattle basis. We also consider asymmetric differences in LRP basis risk by separately modeling upside and downside risk. We find that Southeast cattle producers and producers marketing cattle in the fall face more LRP basis risk. The results have important implications for risk management tools for small cattle producers in the Southeastern United States, who have traditionally lacked access to livestock price risk tools such as futures and options

Overlook

The project consists of an introductory essay, three main short story sections, and finally the titular novella as the anchor. I found inspiration in Tommy Orange’s There There to open with a nonfiction prologue that contextualizes the fiction. The essay encapsulates my reckoning with place and the realization that I belong in a rich lineage of Southern literature in more ways than one. The essay, like the thesis as a whole, is a meditation on my inheritance of storytelling—the complex relationship between life and fiction, what we remember, who remembers what, and how we remember it. My work reflects my journey in the program: At first feeling apart from or ashamed of the place I’m from, to reflecting on my origins, and ending with a symbolic embracing of my identity as an Arkansan writer. Foregrounded by each of the “Arkansas Traveler” sections, the short stories follow that thematic arc while interrogating a blend of mythologies. The final section, “Overlook,” is the natural progression from acceptance to celebration where I set out to create an original Southern mythos of my own

ChatGPT Didn’t Write This . . . or Did It? The Emergence of Generative AI in the Legal Field and Lessons from Mata v. Avianca

It’s no secret: Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), for better or worse, is revolutionizing the world. The legal field and legal education at large are not immune to this explosion of possible uses for AI technology. However, as with any technological advancement, AI and Generative Language Models bring with them many challenges, including the implications of their use. One such challenge was vividly presented in the case of Mata v. Avianca, often referred to as “The ChatGPT Case.” Mata is a cautionary tale of the potential missteps that can trip up the unwitting user who naively relies on the lofty promises of programs like ChatGPT without exercising the due diligence and competence required of a legal professional. The core objectives of this Comment are three-fold. First, to identify some of the many ethical pitfalls that can emerge from the marriage of AI and the law, highlighting examples on display in Mata v. Avianca––the landmark case revolving around the misuse of generative AI. Second, to acknowledge the inevitable role AI is poised to play in legal practice and outline some basic guidelines that may help ensure the integration and use of AI in the legal field is responsible, fair, and ethically sound. Third, from the perspective of a law school student, to address the importance of implementing AI into legal education and the imperative of properly equipping future generations of legal professionals. Through an examination of the evolution of Artificial Intelligence in the legal field and lessons from Mata v. Avianca, this Author aims to shine a light on the nuances of AI’s ethically ambiguous landscape and provide a helpful roadmap for its responsible adoption into legal education and practice

Fragments of a Note Written then Destroyed

Fragments of a Note Written then Destroyed is a meditation upon grief, memory, and transience. The titular ‘note’ refers to a lengthy journal entry in which the poet experienced an outpouring of emotion regarding the death of her beloved grandmother (mom’s mom) two years prior. The January 2025 death of the poet’s grandfather (mom’s dad) and the realization that, in the natural order of things, there was no longer anyone standing between death and her mother triggered an extreme and prolonged state of despair. This state culminated in a nearly four-page piece of writing which the poet refers to as “the closest thing I’ve ever written to a suicide note.” The poet tore the note to pieces then set them aside. The poet kept these pieces because, in spite of the darkness they held, they were the fruit of a labor-intensive writing session that the poet was not willing to let go to waste. The fragments of this note appear alongside ekphrastic poems which are centered upon very old photographs from the childhood of the poet’s grandmother. Taken in Lansing, Michigan from 1947 to 1957, these photographs came into the poet’s possession after her grandmother’s death in December 2022. These photos are themselves fragments—representations of moments past that the poet will never be able to ask her grandmother about. In collecting and responding to these fragments, the poet struggles to find balance between imagination and oblivion

At The Table Together: Exploring Child Perception of Lunch Buddy Mentoring

Research suggests school-based mentoring is a promising strategy for helping children who experience school bullying and peer victimization. Lunch Buddy Mentoring (LBM) is a school-based mentoring program that places mentors in the lunchroom and has them sit with the mentee and peers at the lunch table. Research shows that LBM is positively perceived by both parents and teachers, but there is little research on the perceptions of LBM held by children at the lunch table. Negative perceptions of LBM by children who sit with the mentor could reduce its success by further isolating or victimizing children it aims to support and by raising concerns about LBM in the eyes of teachers and parents. This study assessed children’s perceptions of LBM via individual interviews conducted with 16 elementary-aged students, four who were mentees and twelve who were nearby lunch mates. Children were interviewed in the fall semester and again in the spring semester, and a total of 26 interviews were conducted. All interviews were transcribed and coded, and thematic analysis of these qualitative data interviews revealed four key themes: a) Positive Social Dynamic, including enjoyment and an improved lunchtime atmosphere, b) Communication and Interactions, with a focus on the integration of playful activities, c) Social Connection and Relationships, focusing on feelings of relatability and support, and d) Mentor Viewed Positively. These themes indicate a positive perception of LBM from the perspective of children seated at the lunch table

Integrating Data Analytics: Exploring the Best Methods To Evaluate Players’ Performance To Help Gain A Competitive Advantage On The Football Field

To succeed in the world of sports, leaders need to uncover and utilize any advantage possible in order to gain a competitive advantage over their competition. I discuss how leaders of a sports organization, specifically within the Arkansas Razorback football program, implement the use of analytics on and off the field, as well as how they use their data to create visuals, find potential strengths and weakness, and ultimately help them be more prepared for gameday. Using my personal experience as a Student Analyst for the Razorbacks, along with supplementary information, I share the latest tactics and the strategies for how sports teams measure and track performance in order to get the most out of their program

The expression of intestinal tight junction proteins induced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3-glycosides supplementation to reduce bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis lameness in broilers

Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis (BCO) is a leading cause of lameness in broiler chickens, impacting animal welfare and commercial poultry production. Supplementation using organic trace minerals, vitamin D, probiotics, and prebiotics has been studied to mitigate BCO lameness incidences in broiler chickens. Our previous study demonstrated that feeding Panbonis®-G-1,25(OH)2D3 from Solanum glaucophyllum, containing 1 µg/kg G-1,25(OH)2D3, to broilers for the first 28 days of their production cycle reduced BCO lameness by approximately 50%. In this study, we investigated the impact of 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 supplementation on the expression of tight junction (TJ) proteins to further understand its mode of action in safeguarding birds from BCO disease. We measured the mRNA expression of claudins (CLDN1 and CLDN5), occludin (OCLDN), and zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) in the epithelial barrier of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts at 14, 21, and 28 days post-hatch. RNA extraction was performed using the QIAGEN RNeasy Plus Mini Kit, and gene expression was analyzed with RT-qPCR for key TJ genes, with GAPDH serving as a housekeeping gene. Expression levels were quantified using the ΔΔCt method to assess differences between experimental and control groups. The results revealed a time-dependent pattern of TJ gene expression, with no and limited expression at days 14 and 21, respectively, and significant upregulation at day 28. T3 (1 µg/kg for 21 days) primarily influenced the gastrointestinal tract, while T4 (1 µg/kg for 28 days) had the strongest impact on the respiratory tract. Notably, CLDN1, OCLDN, and ZO-1 showed significant upregulation at day 28 in both the ileum and jejunum, whereas the trachea exhibited substantial changes only in response to T4 supplementation. These findings suggest that TJ protein activity is regulated developmentally and tissue-specifically, highlighting the potential role of gut and respiratory barrier integrity in BCO susceptibility. Understanding these molecular mechanisms contributes to developing targeted nutritional strategies to reduce lameness in broiler chickens and informs potential genetic markers for selective breeding programs

Application of Ordinal Regression Models to Acquired Stress Resistance in Wild Strains of\u3ci\u3e Saccharomyces cerevisiae\u3c/i\u3e

This thesis explores the application of ordinal regression to the analysis of semi-quantitative growth assays often used when comparing fitness for different strains of the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For stress survival assays, yeast stress resistance is measured using an ordered survival score that ranges from 0 (no growth) to 4 (confluent growth). Traditional approaches to analyze this type of data either treats data as a nominal categorical variable or as a continuous numerical variable. These approaches risk loss of information or violation of testing assumptions. In contrast, cumulative logit ordinal regression uses the information contained in the order of the data scores without requiring equal spacing between scores. This work also compares censored Poisson regression for colony count data while accounting for overlapping colonies. Through simulation and example datasets, the performance of ordinal regression is compared to nominal-based tests (chi-sq, fisher’s exact) and summary approaches (t- test of score sums) for identifying differences in effect of treatment according to genotype. Results show ordinal modeling is a powerful technique that is manages to control Type I (false positive) error. Additionally, proposed here is a biologically intuitive summary statistic, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), derived from ordinal model estimates to quantify the lowest dose of stress that prevents survival. Application of ordinal regression to example datasets further demonstrates advantages of ordinal regression for quantifying stress resistance. In one dataset, the effect deleting CTT1, a key gene for stress protection, is quantitatively assessed across different conditions. A second dataset evaluates hybrid yeast strains crossed from stress- sensitive and stress-resistant parents, allowing for quantification of resistance profiles across genetically diverse isolates. This thesis highlights the merits of ordinal regression for analyzing semi-quantitative survival data. By utilizing model-based estimation of effects with interpretable metrics, this thesis supports wider adoption of ordinal regression in cell and molecular biology research