Digital Commons Network^™

Childhood Sexual Abuse Among University Students In Tanzania, Denis Mccrann, Kevin Lalor, Joviter K. Katabaro

Articles

Objectives: There are no prevalence data for childhood sexual abuse among Tanzanian university students. This investigation addressed this paucity. The nature of sexual abuse was also investigated. Method: Participants (N= 487) from a university in Tanzania completed a questionnaire which assessed abusive childhood sexual experiences, gathering information about age of victim, duration of abuse, perpetrators, amount of force or persuasion involved, and potential causes of child sexual abuse. A number of individuals were also interviewed about their experiences. Results: The overall prevalence rate for child sexual abuse was 27.7%, with rates being higher for females than for males. The average …

Implementation Of Image Processing Approach To Translation Of Asl Finger-Spelling To Digital Text, Divya Mandloi, Kanthi Sarella, Chance Glenn

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The present analysis is the phase one of a broader project, the Sign2 Project, which is focused on a complete technological approach to the translation of American Sign Language (ASL) finger-spelling to digital audio and/or text. The methodology adopted in this analysis employs a grayscale image processing technique. We will describe the latest results as well as future enhancements to the system. This paper will also discuss the application of the approach to the telecommunication Industry.

Using A 2-D Simulation Program To Support Interactive Learning Of 3-D Vehicle Dynamics, George Sutherland

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The author has developed an undergraduate course to introduce students to the basic principles of land vehicle dynamics. Many students, though they are intrinsically interested in the subject, have difficulty grasping the physical principles needed to enable a sufficient understanding of the subject to support their aspirations of making informed vehicle design decisions. An intriguing potentially useful fact is that the computer gaming world has developed widely available very sophisticated vehicle computer models with realistic human driver interfaces. However, while very entertaining, these computer games are not suitable for helping undergraduate engineering students understand the basic principles needed for land …

Digital Entrepreneurship, Clyde Hull, Yu-Ting Hung, Neil Hair

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As more companies start doing digital business - whether by selling their products online, by selling digital wares, or both - the question of how starting a digital venture differs from starting a traditional venture grows more important. We present a framework of digital entrepreneurship that includes a topology of new digital ventures, the characteristics of each type of new digital venture, and a discussion of how those characteristics shape the critical success factors of each type of venture. Specific issues addressed include digital or virtual products and services, digital or virtual workplaces and the effects of relying on computer-mediated …

Xbrl Cost-Benefit Analysis: In Theory And Application, Phillip Kloeden

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A definition of XBRL will be given, followed by a brief overview of the XBRL system. A timeline of events in the brief history of XBRL will be rendered and discussed. Based on the global perspective of the XBRL movement and the establishment of an international consortium, XBRL International, international and domestic analysis will be addressed. Standardization of coding for financial reporting information is the goal of the consortium and the required coding structure will transcend national borders in order to accomplish this goal. A prototype language, created by the early users of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), in the accounting …

Instruction Via Instant Messaging Reference: What’S Happening?, Christina M. Desai, Stephanie J. Graves

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Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze one Instant Messaging (IM) reference service to determine to what extent instruction is or can be offered in this medium and whether patrons want or expect it.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors surveyed IM patrons over a seven week period to determine whether they felt they could and did learn from chat transactions. Transcript content was analyzed to find out whether and how instruction is being offered.

Findings – Results show that patrons overwhelmingly welcome instruction and that it is provided in a large majority of cases, using a variety of …

Idea: Timing Controversial Decisions, Cass R. Sunstein

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No abstract provided.

Law Of Implicit Bias, The, Cass R. Sunstein, Christine Jolls

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Considerable attention has been given to the Implicit Association Test (IA T), which finds that most people have an implicit and unconscious bias against members of traditionally disadvantaged groups. Implicit bias poses a special challenge for antidiscrimination law because it suggests the possibility that people are treating others differently even when they are unaware that they are doing so. Some aspects of current law operate, whether intentionally or not, as controls on implicit bias; it is possible to imagine other efforts in that vein. An underlying suggestion is that implicit bias might be controlled through a general strategy of "debiasing …

A New Progressivism, Cass R. Sunstein

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There are serious problems with the two twentieth-century approaches to government: the way of markets and the way of planning. The New Progressivism simultaneously offers (1) a distinctive conception of government's appropriate means, an outgrowth of the late-twentieth-century critique of economic planning, and (2) a distinctive understanding of government's appropriate ends, an outgrowth of evident failures with market arrangements and largely a product of the mid-twentieth-century critique of laissez faire. The New Progressivism emphasizes the need to replace bans and commands with appropriate incentives, and to attend to social norms and social meanings in leading human behavior in welfare-promoting directions. …

Climate Change And Animals Responses To Global Warming: The Law, Economics, And Science Of Climate Change, Cass R. Sunstein, Wayne Hsiung

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Climate change is already having adverse eeds on animal life, and those effects are likely to prove devastating in the future. Nonetheless, the relevant harms to animals have yet to become a serious part of the analysis of climate change policy. Even if animals and species are valued solely by reference to human preferences, consideration of animal welfare dramatically increases the argument for aggressive responses to climate change. We estimate that, even under conservative assumptions about valuation, losses to nonhuman life might run into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Whatever the precise figure, the general conclusion is clear: …

Government Secrets, Constitutional Law, And Platforms For Judicial Intervention, Adam M. Samaha

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American law has yet to reach a satisfying conclusion about public access to information on government operations. But recent events are prompting reconsideration of the status quo. As our current system is reassessed, three shortfalls in past debates should be overcome. The first involves ignorance of foreign systems. Other democracies grapple with information access problems, and their recent experiments are illuminating. Indeed they expose two additional domestic weaknesses. One is a line we have drawn within constitutional law. Courts and commentators tend to treat constitutional issues of public access separately from those of executive discretion to withhold information, but these …

Undue Process, Adam M. Samaha

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This Article explores the relationship of the US. Constitution to the costs of government decision making. Constitutional law clearly can escalate these costs, as when the Due Process Clauses are read to mandate additional procedure not otherwise favored by decisionmakers. This much is understood But the Constitution and its doctrine sometimes put downward pressure on decision costs. We lack a systematic investigation of when this is, and should be, true. The Article makes three general claims: (1) The entire Constitution tends to reduce decision costs insofar as it is a focal point for confining disputes, and empirical work suggests that …

Trade And Tensions, Daniel J. Gifford

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International disputes and tensions arise in situations where one nation is seeking its own economic betterment in ways that diminish the economic welfare of other nations. Prior to World War II, most nations deployed systems of tariffs and import quotas in unveiled attempts to protect their domestic in- dustries. Today, trading tensions are often generated by a range of government activities that limit imports or subsidize exports; yet the governments that impose these measures often rationalize them as policy measures that have no protectionist or other trading objective. The earlier trading model was a mer- cantilist one. Economic welfare was …

Blakely In Minnesota, Two Years Out: Guidelines Sentencing Is Alive And Well, Richard Frase

Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Blakely v. Washington' has produced some changes in sentencing law and practice in Minnesota, but after two years the basic structure of the state's pioneering sentencing guidelines system remains intact. Blakely caused much initial concern and uncertainty, but the dire predictions2 of catastrophic change or major retreat from progressive sentencing policy have not been borne out. This article examines the ways in which critical policy choices made before and after Blakely helped to preserve the most important features of the Guidelines. Part I shows how the design, implementation, and pre-Blakely evolution of the Guidelines served …

Foreclosure Equity Stripping: Legal Theories And Strategies To Attack A Growing Problem, Prentiss Cox

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Foreclosure equity stripping is the classic case of kicking someone who is down. The person perpetrating the equity strip-let's call this person the "acquirer"- targets homeowners who are in foreclosure and have equity remaining in the property. Promising to "save" the home for the desperate homeowner, the acquirer offers refinancing or other assistance to "stop the foreclosure." For too many foreclosed homeowners, these promises end when the acquirer or the acquirer's confederates gain title to the property and take the homeowner's equity.

A Law And Economics Perspective On Terrorism, Francesco Parisi, Nuno Garoupa, Jonathan Klick

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This paper reviews the existing law and economics literature on crime, noting where various models might apply to the terror context. Specifically, it focuses on two strands of the literature, deterrence and incapacitation. It considers anti-terror measures enacted by different countries, highlighting how the details of the laws correspond to the insights from economic models of crime. In conclusion, the paper proposes an efficient sorting mechanism in which individuals will be provided with incentives to reveal their type to law enforcement authorities.

The Role Of Status Quo Bias And Bayesian Learning In The Creation Of New Legal Rights, Francesco Parisi, Robert L. Scharff

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We consider the role of status quo bias and Bayesian learning on the creation of new legal rights utilizing a model of legal evolution in which judges have limited discretion to create new precedent based on personal values, but, in the long run, are constrained by efficiency criteria. Our model demonstrates that status quo bias may effectively transform an ex ante inefficient rule into an ex post efficient rule. Because these legal rights are internalized over time through a process of Bayesian learning, new precedent is vulnerable to reversal until the new right has been sufficiently recognized and accepted.

Quit The Sticks In 2006, Wendy Dimatteo

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No abstract provided.

Using Court Records For Research, Teaching, And Policymaking: The Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, Margo Schlanger, Denise Lieberman

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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is, wisely, planning the future of its enormous collection of relatively recent court records. The pertinent regulation, a “records disposition schedule” first issued in 1995 by the Judicial Conference of the United States in consultation with NARA, commits the Archives to keeping, permanently, all case files dated 1969 or earlier; all case files dated 1970 or later in which a trial was held, and “any civil case file which NARA has determined in consultation with court officials to have historical value.” Other files may be destroyed 20 years after they enter the federal …

Grados De Libertad: Democracia Y Antidemocracia En Cuby Y Luisiana, 1898-1900, Rebecca J. Scott

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This comparative study between the quest for political racial inclusivity in 1890s Louisiana and the fight against state-sanctioned racialized violence in Cuba in the early 1900s exposes similarities, tensions, and differences between the two systems. The article traces the evolving contests for citizenship and suffrage in each climate at the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of the twentieth, juxtaposing the expression of race, suffrage, and citizenship in the constitution and political climate of each locale. In 1898, the new Louisiana state constitution disenfranchised African-Americans, while in 1900 Cuba was positioning itself for a grant of universal …

Odious Debt Or Odious Payments - Using Anti-Corruption Measures To Prevent Odious Debt, Anita Ramasastry

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This article focuses on ways to stem the tide of odious payments and to stop such payments, when made, from moving offshore into foreign bank accounts. To the extent that such payments leave a country, fewer funds are available to repay sovereign debts in the event of a regime change, or to feed and shelter the population. This article focuses on emerging anti-corruption mechanisms as a means of dealing with odious payments and odious debt. It also focuses on the role of financial institutions (banks) as gatekeepers. Part I of this article focuses on the way in which banks are …

Lost In Translation? Data Mining, National Security And The Adverse Inference Problem, Anita Ramasastry

Articles

To the extent that we permit data mining programs to proceed, they must provide adequate due process and redress mechanisms that permit individuals to clear their names. A crucial criteria for such a mechanism is to allow access to information that was used to make adverse assessments so that errors may be corrected. While some information may have to be kept secret for national security purposes, a degree of transparency is needed when individuals are trying to protect their right to travel or access government services free from suspicion.

Part II of this essay briefly outlines the government's ability to …

Liability, Regulation And Policy In Surgical Innovation: The Cutting Edge Of Research And Therapy, Anna C. Mastroianni

Articles

This article examines the implications of the foregoing competing claims from a U.S. legal perspective, focusing particularly on how the legal system addresses patient safety concerns and autonomous decision-making of surgeons in the context of surgical innovation. The lack of oversight and the risks borne by patients during surgeons' development and subsequent refinement of a novel procedure must be balanced with the need to encourage medical progress through the development of improved techniques designed to benefit the health of current and future patients. This article argues that current reliance on the medical malpractice system and the federal regulatory system of …

Twisted Solenoids And Maps Of R2 Whose Minimal Sets Are Cantor Sets, William Basener, Carl V. Lutzer

Articles

We construct homeomorphisms of R2 that have a Cantor set which is a minimal set. Some of these homeomorphisms are proven to be C^(infinity), while the others are conjectured to be nondifferentiable (Refer to PDF file for exact formulas).

Xbrl: Origins, Implementation And Acceptance, Phillip Kloeden

Articles

A brief overview of the origins of modern accounting are examined with it’s genesis in the Italian Renaissance. During this time period, trade and commerce expanded and new methods for tracking and recording transactions became necessary. Double entry bookkeeping was first documented by Luca Pacioli in 1458. Innovative Italian merchants and scholars of this time period have become known as the fathers of modern accounting. eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is currently the revolutionizing concept in the modern accounting world. Originally, known as Extensible Financial Reporting Markup Language (XFRML) in 1998, it was a prototype language created by the early …

Deaf People And World War Ii, Patricia Durr

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Newsletter article and website about deaf people and World War II. The website is the result of several years of gathering materials about Deaf people’s experiences related to World War II for Deaf Studies courses taught at NTID/RIT. The site focuses on three spheres of the world involved in this conflict. Deaf Americans, Deaf Europeans, and Deaf Asians people’s lives are examined before, during and after the war. It also features videotape clips and full testimonies, articles, scripts, artwork, books and links to other related sites.

Can I Tell?, Bruce Pemberton

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No abstract provided.

Xbrl In The Accounting Curriculum: A Survey Of Ais Faculty, Ashutosh Deshmukh, Khondkar Karim, Jeffrey Romine, Robert W. Rutledge

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to assess the challenges and opportunities associated with introducing XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) into the accounting curricula. XBRL is an electronic format for simplifying the flow of financial information between software programs. It is a complex, rapidly changing language that is multi-disciplinary in nature. This poses difficult pedagogical questions. The primary question is whether XBRL should be covered in the curriculum or not. If answered affirmatively, the issues related to which topics should be covered and to what extent become pertinent. The concurrent problems of faculty preparation and availability of instructional materials also …

Diverging Perspectives On Electronic Contracting In The U.S. And Eu, Jane K. Winn, Brian H. Bix

Articles

Electronic Contracting - understood broadly to include both the Internet downloading of free or purchased software and the use of rolling contracts (shrink-wrap or terms in the box) in the sale of computers or the lease of software - has raised problems, based in part on the novelty of the transactional forms, and in part on the now-standard issue of unread terms in standardized contracts. This article, part of a conference relating to the legal regulation of new property and new technologies, offers an overview of the distinctly different approaches to Electronic Contracting of the U.S. and the European Union. …

A Parent-Centered Radial Layout Algorithm For Interactive Graph Visualization And Animation, Andrew Pavlo, Christopher Homan, Jonathan Schull

Articles

We have developed (1) a graph visualization system that allows users to explore graphs by viewing them as a succession of spanning trees selected interactively, (2) a radial graph layout algorithm, and (3) an animation algorithm that generates meaningful visualizations and smooth transitions between graphs while minimizing edge crossings during transitions and in static layouts. Our system is similar to the radial layout system of Yee et al. (2001), but differs primarily in that each node is positioned on a coordinate system centered on its own parent rather than on a single coordinate system for all nodes. Our system is …