Digital Commons Network^™

Integrative Governance In Northern Ireland, Melvin J. Dubnick, Elizabeth M. Meehan

Faculty Publications

We view integrative governance as a varied response to un-centering and de-centering trends and offer a framework that highlights three ‘paths’ to integration: proactive, reactive and emergent. This frame is applied to Northern Ireland and we draw some preliminary conclusions about both the potential usefulness of the model and the insights it generates about Northern Ireland governance. The principal insight is that reactive integration tends to suppress the emergence of third sector alternatives while proactive integration has the opposite effect.

The Role Of Optimal Healing Environments In The Management Of Childhood Obesity, Marjorie Freedman, Judith Stern

Faculty Publications

The prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity has increased steadily over the past three decades such that obesity is now a major worldwide pediatric health risk factor. Pediatric obesity is associated with significant health problems, and is an important early risk factor for adult morbidity and mortality. This paper focuses on the role and components of optimal healing environments (OHEs) that may be useful in the management of childhood obesity: healing intention, healing relationships, health promotion and disease prevention, and healing spaces. Diet, physical activity, and behavior modification strategies used in the treatment of childhood obesity are also reviewed.

Questioning Deference, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

This article examines the accepted axiom that courts should defer to the government's actions during national security crises even when such actions potentially violate citizens' constitutional rights. The paper questions two assumptions underlying that axiom - first, that executive officials are best equipped to determine when security needs justify liberty infringements and, second, that judges are particularly unqualified to meddle in security issues, even when civil liberties are involved. Relying on psychological theories regarding the role that fear plays in skewing risk assessment and historical analyses of past crises, the paper argues that times of crisis lend themselves to unnecessary …

Two Mistakes Behavioralists Make: A Reply To Professor Feigenson Et Al. And Professor Slovic, Thom Lambert

Faculty Publications

First, the growing catalog of cognitive quirks may lead behavioralists to hastily adopt “non-rational” explanations for otherwise rational behavior. Second, because their evidence seems to undermine the rationality assumption of Chicago school law and economics, behavioralists may improperly assume that their work also undermines that school's default policy prescription--i.e., laissez faire. Consequently, they may advocate inappropriately paternalistic government policies.

Foreword - Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Fear And Risk Perception In Times Of Democratic Crisis (Symposium), Christina E. Wells, Jennifer K. Robbennolt

Faculty Publications

The articles and essays included or referenced in this volume discuss both the factors that affect decision making in times of crisis and their implications for law and democratic theory. Professor Cass Sunstein's keynote address, Fear and Liberty, noted that psychological biases such as the availability heuristic and probability neglect can skew risk perception, leading to excessive public fear of national security risks and unreasonable curtailment of civil liberties. According to Sunstein, courts, which are typically responsible for protecting civil liberties, often lack sufficient information to assess whether national security concerns justify incursions on civil liberties. Nevertheless, he concluded that …

"National Security" Information And The Freedom Of Information Act, Christina E. Wells

Faculty Publications

Secrecy regarding national security information is a widely accepted phenomenon. Throughout history, however, such secrecy has proved problematic. Although officials often have credible and legitimate reasons to keep national security information secret, government secrecy initiatives have invariably expanded to encompass information beyond their initial rationale. Over time, we have come to realize the very real problems associated with excessive government secrecy.

Broken Scales: Obesity And Justice In America, Adam Benforado, Jon Hanson, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

This Article is not so much about the scales we use to measure weight, but the scales we use to infer causation and assign responsibility-including the scales of justice. Ultimately, the problem we face is not obesity itself. Obesity is only a symptom of the problem. When scientists and public health experts point to various environmental agents-whether larger portion sizes, corn subsidies, video games, or urban sprawl-they, too, overlook the deeper source of our troubles. Our real problem is that we have an extremely difficult time seeing and understanding the role of unseen features in our environment and within us …

Fear And Risk In 'Times Of Crisis': The Media's Challenge, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

As we have heard time and again during this conference, perspective is a crucial safeguard against the distorting effect of fear. While space and consumer patience may be thin, it is during times of crisis that the media's capacity to provide context becomes most important. This is part of the challenge of risk communication. Editors need to insist on this perspective rather than trying to cut it out if the story still reads, and reporters need to learn how to write about it effectively as well as compellingly. None of these challenges is easy. Institutional reform never is. But I …

Bankruptcy And Mortgage Lending: The Homeowner Dilemma, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Overcoming The Limitations Of Learning Objects, David Wiley, Matthew Barclay, Deonne Dawson, Brent Lambert, Laurie Nelson, David Wade, Sandie Waters

Faculty Publications

Note: this is not the final version of the article. There are a number of issues facing those who wish to employ learning objects in the facilitation of learning. There are a number of issues facing those who wish to employ learning objects to facilitate learning. These issues are not, however, inherent in the component-based paradigm. The first section of this paper describes some of the most difficult issues to be resolved. In the second section, we present a model of the use of learning objects that is grounded in a object-based paradigm. In the third section, we describe the …

Exploring The Relationship Between Accountability And Performance In Uk’S Private Finance Initiative, Istemi Demirag, Melvin J. Dubnick, M. Iqbal Khadaroo

Faculty Publications

There is growing evidence to suggest that accountability is implicated in New Public Management (NPM) reforms and performance measures. This paper explores and theorizes the nature of this ‘problematic’ relationship using four assumptions: warrantability, tractability, measurability and feasibility in the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) literature. We argue, using value for money (VFM) in PFI as a mechanism to connect accountability to performance, that the concept of accountability has lost its meaning through increased societal expectations, loss of trust to public authorities and their promises of accountability, and increasing conflict of objectives between public and private interest groups. We conclude that …

Accounting For Accountability, Melvin J. Dubnick, Jonathan B. Justice

Faculty Publications

Accountability is often presented as a means by which to achieve the collective and individual goods of democracy, justice, administrative performance, and ethical conduct in governance. Treating this presumption as a collection of testable hypotheses rather than as a self- evident truth leads to an interest in operationalizing and measuring accountability. Accountability is, however, a conceptually and empirically slippery word, subject to a host of competing definitions, interpretations, understandings, and rhetorical usages. One solution is to turn from accountability-the-word to accountability-the-concept. Consideration of the complexity of the conceptual space of accountability as well as its historical contingency suggests that the …

Aligning Paper Tests With Multimedia Instruction, Scott L. Howell

Faculty Publications

Although the "click-and-point" virtual classrooms of today hardly resemble the brick-and-mortar classrooms of yesterday, one thing seems to not have changed: the prevalence of paper-based tests. Paper-based tests have been the staple of education for centuries and will most likely persist for many years to come. This article explores some of the issues surrounding the growing chasm between the way students are now taught and how they are still tested from three perspectives: researcher, student, and teacher.

Ministering In The Midst Of Competing Worldviews, Trevor O'Reggio

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Merrill's Code For Classifiers, Anita Coleman

Faculty Publications

This Microsoft PowerPoint presentation of 25 slides includes several pictures and quotations about and from the "Code for Classifiers: Principles governing the consistent placing of books in a system of classification" by William Stetson Merrill. Coleman briefly explores the problems of classification presented in the Code, the model of collaboration that was used to develop the principles documented in the various editions of the Code, and how the Code can be used to develop a federated classification (classifying) model for digital library organization. The discussion also makes it clear that early American library classification was not just a "mark and …

Like Your Classes, Know Your Professors? Predictors Of Talented College Students’ Science And Technology Careers, James Lee, Christina Stow

Faculty Publications

In the US, there is great loss of academically talented college-level science and technology students as many decide not to follow through with their initial career choices. Following research that has implicated personal relationships in career decision-making, we study the effects of college course experiences, relationships with professors, and individual characteristics on career plans of 58 talented university students by analyzing interview data gathered in 1999. Among other things, we find that students who dropped out have few positive science course experiences and no relationships with faculty. Life sciences students report that they do not like science courses, but they …

Characteristics Of Preschoolers With Lower Perceived Competence, Robert J. Coplan, Leanne C. Findlay, Larry J. Nelson

Faculty Publications

The goal of the present study was to identify preschool children with “age-inappropriate” less positive self-perceptions, and to explore their parental and peer relationships as compared to their classmates with “age normal” self-perceptions. Participants were n = 127 preschool children (M age = 54.98 mos., SD = 8.21). Data were collected from multiple sources including parental ratings, child self-reports, and teacher ratings. Results indicated that as compared to their peers, children with less positive self-perceptions demonstrated more internalizing problems (i.e., loneliness, social-withdrawal), were more excluded by peers, and had mothers with less positive parenting styles. Results are discussed in …

Reappraising T.L.O.'S Special Needs Doctrine In An Era Of School-Law Enforcement Entanglement, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Publications

This essay presents one doctrinal method for lawyers to defend children accused of criminal charges in juvenile or adult court: attacking the applicability of the twenty-year old case, New Jersey v. T.L.O., to most school searches. T.L.O. based its application of a lower standard for searches of students by school officials on the presumption that firm gates separate public school from law enforcement and criminal justice institutions. Later administrative search cases inside and outside of the school context show that tee lower standard of T.L.O. depends entirely on programmatic purposes that distinguish school systems and ordinary law enforcement. Porous schoolhouse …

Culture Clash: Teaching Cultural Defenses In The Criminal Law Classroom, Susan S. Kuo

Faculty Publications

In the law school classroom, the Socratic method of legal analysis removes a dispute at issue in a given case from its sociocultural context and takes the cultural backgrounds of the parties into account only when they serve the legal argument. The language of the law commands law students to siphon off the emotional and cultural content because of the enduring belief that the law is neutral and impartial. Accordingly, cultural conflicts are deemed irrelevant to legal analysis because laws are unbiased and culture-blind. This detached outlook has been termed perpectivelessness to denote a neutral, odorless, colorless non-perspective.

This essay …

Defining Accelerometer Thresholds For Activity Intensities In Adolescent Girls, Margarita S. Treuth, Kathryn H. Schmitz, Diane J. Catellier, Robert G. Mcmurray, David M. Murray, Maria João C. A. Almeida, Scott Going, James E. Norman, Russell R. Pate

Faculty Publications

Purpose - To derive a regression equation that estimates metabolic equivalent (MET) from accelerometer counts, and to define thresholds of accelerometer counts that can be used to delineate sedentary, light, moderate, and vigorous activity.

Methods - Seventy-four healthy 8th grade girls, age 13-14 yr, were recruited from urban areas of Baltimore, MD, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, and Columbia, SC, to participate in the study. Accelerometer and oxygen consumption (VO₂) data for 10 activities that varied in intensity from sedentary (e.g., TV watching) to vigorous (e.g., running) were collected. While performing these activities, the girls wore two accelerometers, a heart …

A Patch Hath Smaller Patches: Delineating Ecological Neighborhoods For Parasites, Derek Zelmer, John R. Seed

Faculty Publications

Use of the host individual as a boundary for parasite populations and communities provides an unambiguous spatial unit that is useful for pattern description, but this framework precludes consideration of the host landscape and within-host population dynamics. Recognizing host individuals as spatially and temporally complex landscapes requires modified concepts of parasite populations and communities. An outline of the currently accepted hierarchies of parasite populations and communities is provided on the basis of ecological neighborhoods that are delineated by discrete habitat patches or functional dynamics (or both), as opposed to host individuals. This parasite-based framework accommodates consideration of both within- and …

Judicial Dialogue For Legal Multiculturalism, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Teaching Reading To Speakers Of Non-Romanized Languages, Scott Alkire

Faculty Publications

Speakers of non-Romanized languages face special challenges in learning to read English: a new alphabet, the left-to-right direction of English text (new to many of these learners), and, most significantly, the letter-sound correspondences of English, which are relatively complex among Romanized languages. Fortunately, strategies for overcoming these challenges are presented in a text by the famous linguist Leonard Bloomfield and the lexicographer Clarence Barnhart (Bloomfield & Barnhart, 1961). Though Bloomfield and Barnhart’s text was designed for teaching native-English-speaking children to read, with minor modifications it can be used to successfully teach speakers of non-Romanized languages to read as well. This …

Combining Learning Approaches For Incremental On-Line Parsing, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Michael B. Manookin

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the integration of two different machine learning approaches to modeling language, NL-Soar and analogical modeling (AM). The resulting hybrid system is capable of functionality that is not possible when using only one of the systems in isolation. After a brief introduction of each system, an explanation is given of how AM is used to provide information useful to NL-Soar for two tasks. Examples are given, and related issues are outlined.

Ethnic/Racial Matching Of Clients And Social Workers In Public Child Welfare, Robin Perry, Gordon E. Limb

Faculty Publications

Although considerable debate exists throughout the human-service literature regarding the potential benefits and limitations associated with ethnic/racial matching of clients and workers, there are few studies that examine the prevalence of this practice with large representative samples. This study utilizes a secondary analysis of data collected from 4813 public-child-welfare workers throughout California. Using census data to control for county-specific population demographics, American-Indian, Hispanic/Latino(a), Caucasian, and Asian-American child-welfare workers are more than two times more likely to have caseloads with a high percentage of clients who match their race/ethnicity than workers self-identified as another race/ethnicity. African-American workers are 1.28 times more …

Accountability And The Promise Of Performance: In Search Of The Mechanisms, Melvin J. Dubnick

Faculty Publications

This document critically examines the assumed relationship between accountability and performance in public administration reforms, particularly within the context of New Public Management.

Stickiness And The Adaptation Of Organizational Practices In Cross-Border Knowledge Transfers, Robert J. Jensen, Gabriel Szulanski

Faculty Publications

The re-use of organizational practices in multiple locations is a fundamental way MNCs leverage knowledge to seek competitive advantage. Scholars approaching the issue of adaptation from both a market and an institutional perspective argue that, in order to achieve fit with the local environment, some degree of adaptation is advisable with the need for adaptation increasing as the institutional distance between source and recipient locations increases. However, arguments to date have examined the effect of adaptation primarily on a subsidiary's long term performance. A necessary precursor is to understand the effect of adaptation on the transfer process itself as transfer …

When Do Fair Beliefs Infiuence Bargaining Behavior? Experimental Bargaining In Japan And The United States, Nancy R. Buchan, Rachel T.A. Croson, Eric J. Johnson

Faculty Publications

In this research, we examine the influence of beliefs about fairness on bargaining behavior. Using a repeated ultimatum game, we examine bargaining contexts in Japan and the United States in which buyers' or sellers' fair beliefs are either in alignment with or in conflict with their own self-interest. We suggest that understanding the relationship between fair beliefs and self-interest is central to understanding when fair beliefs will influence bargaining behavior. Our results demonstrate that fair beliefs predict bargaining behavior when they are aligned with one's own self-interest.

Examining The Relationship Between Religious Orientation And Eating Disturbances, Melissa H. Smith, P. Scott Richards, Christopher J. Maglio

Faculty Publications

The relationship between religion and eating concerns is receiving increasing empirical attention. The current investigation sought to examine the relationship between eating attitudes and religious orientation, utilizing the fourfold typology of religious orientation. A curvilinear relationship was found between religious orientation and eating attitudes among a subclinical college population and a clinical population of individuals receiving inpatient treatment for eating disorders, particularly among extrinsically orientated individuals with diagnosis of bulimia nervosa.

Discerning Trends, Contours, And Boundaries In Comparative Education: A Survey Of Comparativists And Their Literature, Steven J. Hite, Bradley J. Cook, Erwin H. Epstein

Faculty Publications

Surely the health and vitality of any academic field relies on the periodic review of its intellectual history, evolving theoretical frameworks, and thematic shifts. Attempts to define a field typically involve lively debates over boundary maintenance. Indeed, the question of whether cooperative education is a "discipline" has been debated at least since the earliest issues of the Comparative Education Review and has continued to be debated in different forums. Leon Tikly and Michael Crossley believe that a comparative and international canon is discernible, although it is one that is "continually being challenged by new theories and approaches from the arts, …