Recent Developments: Louisiana Class Actions

The article focuses on determination of whether a purported class action meets the requirements for class certification under Louisiana\u27s class action procedures. Two Louisiana Supreme Court cases discussed include Price v. Martin, in which the Court granted certiorari to review whether the lower courts correctly applied the commonality requirement and Alexander v. Norfolk Southern Corp, dealing with chemical spill. Other topics include class action Lis Pendens, forum non conveniens

Student Voice Initiative: Exploring Implementation Strategies

Student voice is the process of allowing students to work collaboratively with adults to produce a learning culture that is conducive for optimum growth in every student. In a traditional setting, the adults make the decisions and the students are passive observers in the learning process. Data has shown that this traditional culture is not advantageous to student learning for all students. Research has shown that students are seven times more academically motivated when they have the opportunity to have a voice in their personal learning process (Quaglia, 2016). This case study centered on the Northeast Arkansas Regional Student Voice Initiative. The focus of this study was to determine what factors, elements, or components need to be in place for student voice to flourish as well as how student voice creates a positive impact in school culture. The coding revealed the emergence of nine themes: 1) leadership support, 2) time for implementation, 3) buy-in from teachers, 4) teacher training, 5) school procedural impact, 6) student / teacher relationships, 7) student leadership, 8) student-teacher collaboration, and 9) student learning

Identification of sensitivity genes involved in teratogen-induced neural tube defects

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references.Neural tube defects (NTDs) are common human congenital anomalies affecting 1 per 1000 live-born infants in the United States. NTDs are medical conditions that result from improper formation of the brain and spinal cord. There is evidence to suggest that NTDs have a strong genetic component to their development. My project is designed to examine differential expression patterns of genes within the neural tube cells of inbred LM/Bc mouse fetuses following exposure to the known teratogenic agent, Valproic acid (VPA). In this project I am comparing gene expression patterns in both control and treated mice and attempting to identify those genes whose expression patterns have been significantly altered. My experimental methods include isolating total RNA from Lm/Bc mouse neural tissue, reverse transcribing the RNA into cDNA and PCR amplifying the cDNA using a radioactively end labeled primer in order to visualize the amplified fragment. The labeled cDNA fragment is then loaded onto a denaturing gel and separated by electrophoresis. The gel is then exposed to film and examined. Differentially expressed cDNAs are then isolated from the gel and sequenced. The results of this project show the identification of differentially expressed genes that may regulate the occurrence of NTDs