Digital Commons Network^™

Possible Behavioral Avoidance Of Uv-B Radiation And Sunlight In Wood Frog (Lithobates Sylvaticus) Tadpoles, J. C. Connolly, B. L. Kress, Geoffrey R. Smith, Jessica E. Rettig

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Distribution Of Tadpoles (Hyla Arenicolor) In The Pools Associated With The Rio Salado, Puebla, Mexico, G. A. Woolrich-Pina, J. A. Lemos-Espinal, Geoffrey R. Smith, R. Montoya-Ayala, Luis Oliver-López

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Elevation On Litter-Size Variation Among Lizard Populations In The Sceloporus Grammicus Complex (Phrynosomatidae) In Mexico, A. Ramirez-Bautista, A. Leyte-Manrique, J. C. Marshall, Geoffrey R. Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emerging Issues And Methodological Advances In Fisheries Reproductive Biology, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson

Faculty Publications

Although incorporating detailed reproductive data into all stock assessments is not a practical goal, the need to understand how reproductive biology affects population productivity is being increasingly recognized. More research focused on reproductive biology-coupled with a shift towards a resilience perspective in fisheries science-is resulting in challenges to many long-held assumptions; the emergence of important new issues; and identification of the need to improve data and methods used in reproductive studies. Typically, data for reproductive studies are based on an assessment of gonadal development, which is most accurately evaluated with histology. This special section of Marine and Coastal Fisheries contains …

Enrolling And Engaging High-Risk Youths And Families In Community-Based, Brief Intervention Services, Richard Dembo, Laura M. Gulledge, Rhissa Briones-Robinson, Ken C. Winters

Faculty Publications

Increasing interest has been shown in brief interventions for troubled persons, including those with substance abuse problems. Most of the published literature on this topic has focused on adults, and on the efficacy of these interventions. Few of these studies have examined the critical issues of enrollment and engagement in brief intervention services. The present article seeks to address the shortcomings in the current literature by reporting on our experiences implementing National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded brief intervention projects involving truant and diversion program youths.

Perry V. Schwarzenegger: Is Traditional Marriage Unconstitutional?, George W. Dent

Faculty Publications

This is a brief defense of the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which limits marriage for purposes of California law to a relationship between one man and one woman.

The Importance Of Immutability In Employment Discrimination Law, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

This article argues that recent developments in employment discrimination law require a renewed focus on the concept of immutable characteristics. In 29 two new laws took effect: the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA). This Article’s original contribution is an evaluation of the employment discrimination statutes as a corpus of law in light of these two additions.

The Article thoroughly explores the meaning of the term “immutable characteristic” in constitutional and employment discrimination jurisprudence. It postulates that immutability constitutes a unifying principle for all of the traits now covered by the employment …

Cooper’S Hawk Nest Site Characteristics In The Pineywoods Region, Richard R. Schaefer, D. Craig Rudolph, Josh B. Pierce, Jesse F. Fagan

Faculty Publications

Early accounts describe the Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperi) as a species in decline in much of North America during the early twentieth century (Bent 1937), particularly when in close proximity to humans (Eaton 1914). This decreasing population trend continued to be recognized later in the century in both Texas (Oberholser 1974) and Louisiana (Lowery 1974). Shooting and trapping during the first half of the 1900s, and pesticide use (especially DDT) after World War II are suggested as primary causes of the decline (Henny and Wight 1972, Bednarz et al. 1990). The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1972 and the ban …

A Trade Secret Approach To Protecting Traditional Knowledge, Deepa Varadarajan

Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the doctrinal and normative divide between traditional knowledge protection and intellectual property law has been overemphasized, and that trade secret law can help narrow it. First, in terms of doctrinal fit, trade secret doctrine offers a viable model for protecting a subset of traditional knowledge that is not already publicly available. Broadly speaking, trade secret law imposes liability for the wrongful acquisition, use, or disclosure of valuable information that is the subject of reasonable secrecy efforts. Second, in addition to its practical import, the underlying justifications of trade secret law offer a useful normative guide for …

Punctuated Equilibrium: A Model For Administrative Evolution, Naomi Mezey, Mark C. Niles

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 1972, paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould published a paper that challenged the conventional understanding of the nature and rate of biological evolution. Addressing the absence of support in the fossil record for the accepted model of species change, the scholars observed that significant genetic development within a single species did not appear to follow the kind of gradual path that Charles Darwin had postulated. Instead, they concluded that "the great majority of species appear with geological abruptness in the fossil record and then persist in stasis until their extinction." They observed that species evolution is much …

The Common School Before And After Brown: Democracy, Equality, And The Productivity Agenda, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, economic forces of global magnitude have placed the substance and value of education in the national spotlight. With jobs for college graduates in short supply, political pundits and news commentators have placed different estimates on the worth of a college degree and the continued utility of the liberal arts. Economists tie specific educational factors to future income. A high school diploma, we are told, can translate into an additional $300,000 in lifetime salary. A highly effective kindergarten teacher likewise carries a value-added benefit of $320,000, the additional income that a classroom of today’s students may earn …

The Effect Of B27 Supplement On Promoting In Vitro Propagation Of Her2/Neu-Transformed Mammary Tumorspheres, Yiben Gu, Jie Fu, Pang-Kuo Lo, Shunqi Wang, Qian Wang, Hexin Chen

Faculty Publications

A variety of human solid tumors, including breast cancer, are considered to embrace a hierarchical organization in which only rare tumor-initiating cancer stem cells are truly responsible for tumor formation. Cultivation of tumorspheres in non-adherent conditions is widely employed for enriching these putative cancer stem cells in vitro. However, the absence of a defined culture medium has handicapped further characterization and isolation of this cell population. In this study, we used mouse mammary tumor virus MMTV-HER2/neu transgenic mice that mimic the HER2/Neu-positive subtype of human breast cancer as a model system, and cultured primary tumor cells and tumorspheres from …

Hemebind: A Novel Method For Heme Binding Residue Prediction By Combining Structural And Sequence Information, R. Liu, Jianjun Hu

Faculty Publications

Background

Accurate prediction of binding residues involved in the interactions between proteins and small ligands is one of the major challenges in structural bioinformatics. Heme is an essential and commonly used ligand that plays critical roles in electron transfer, catalysis, signal transduction and gene expression. Although much effort has been devoted to the development of various generic algorithms for ligand binding site prediction over the last decade, no algorithm has been specifically designed to complement experimental techniques for identification of heme binding residues. Consequently, an urgent need is to develop a computational method for recognizing these important residues.

Results

Here …

Prostate Cancer Incidence Rates In Africa, Lisa W. Chu, Jamie Ritchey, Susan S. Devesa, Sabah M. Quraishi, Hongmei Zhang, Ann W. Hsing

Faculty Publications

African American men have among the highest prostate cancer incidence rates in the world yet rates among their African counterparts are unclear. In this paper, we compare reported rates among black men of Sub-Saharan African descent using data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program from 1973-2007. Although population-based data in Africa are quite limited, the available data from IARC showed that rates among blacks were highest in the East (10.7-38.1 per 100,000 man-years, age-adjusted world standard) and lowest in the West (4.7-19.8). These rates were considerably …

Groundwater Uranium And Cancer Incidence In South Carolina, Sara E. Wagner, James B. Burch, Matteo Bottai, Robin C. Puett, Dwayne E. Porter, Susan Bolick-Aldrich, Tom Temples, Rebecca C. Wilkerson, John E. Vena, James R. Hébert

Faculty Publications

Objective

This ecologic study tested the hypothesis that census tracts with elevated groundwater uranium and more frequent groundwater use have increased cancer incidence.

Methods

Data sources included: incident total, leukemia, prostate, breast, colorectal, lung, kidney, and bladder cancers (1996–2005, SC Central Cancer Registry); demographic and groundwater use (1990 US Census); and groundwater uranium concentrations (n = 4,600, from existing federal and state databases). Kriging was used to predict average uranium concentrations within tracts. The relationship between uranium and standardized cancer incidence ratios was modeled among tracts with substantial groundwater use via linear or semiparametric regression, with and without stratification …

Alcohol Consumption And Risk Of All-Cause And Cardiovascular Disease Mortality In Men, Erin K. Howie, Xuemei Sui, Duck-Chul Lee, Steven P. Hooker, James R. Hébert, Steven N. Blair

Faculty Publications

This study examined the association between consumption of alcoholic beverages and all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in a cohort of men (n = 31,367). In the Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age, year of examination, body mass index (BMI), smoking, family history of CVD, and aerobic fitness, there were no significant differences in risk of all-cause mortality across alcohol intake groups. Risk of CVD mortality was reduced 29% in quartile 1 (HR = 0.71, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.53, 0.95) and 25% in quartile 2 (HR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.98). The amount of alcohol consumed …

Association Between Depression And C-Reactive Protein, Yunsheng Ma, David E. Chiriboga, Sherry L. Pagoto, Milagros C. Rosal, Wenjun Li, Philip A. Merriam, James R. Hébert, Matthew C. Whited, Ira S. Ockene

Faculty Publications

Objective. Depression has been associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, and a depression-related elevation of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) has been proposed as a possible mechanism. The objective of this paper is to examine association between depression and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP). Methods. Subjects consisted of 508 healthy adults (mean age 48.5 years; 49% women, 88% white) residing in central Massachusetts. Data were collected at baseline and at quarterly intervals over a one-year period per individual. Multivariable linear mixed models were used to assess the association for the entire sample and by gender. Results. The …

Self-Rated Health Status And Cardiorespiratory Fitness As Predictors Of Mortality In Men, Jennifer Gander, Duck-Chul Lee, Xuemei Sui, James R. Hébert, Steven P. Hooker, Steven N. Blair

Faculty Publications

Self-rated health (SRH) and cardiorespiratory fitness (fitness) are independent risk factors for all-cause mortality. The purpose of this report is to examine the single and joint effects of these exposures on mortality risk. The study included 18 488 men who completed a health survey, clinical examination and a maximal exercise treadmill test during 1987–2003. Cox regression analysis was used to quantify the associations of SRH and fitness with all-cause mortality. There were 262 deaths during 17 years of follow-up. There was a significant inverse trend (p_trend <0.05) for mortality across SRH categories after adjustment for age, examination year, body mass index, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, abnormal ECG, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Adjustment for fitness attenuated the association (p value =0.09). The authors also observed an inverse association between fitness and mortality after controlling for the same covariates and SRH (p_trend = 0.006). The combined analysis of SRH and fitness showed that fit …

Identity Negotiating: Redefining Stigmatized Identities Through Adaptive Sports And Recreation Participation Among Individuals With A Disability, Neil R. Lundberg, Stacy Taniguchi, Bryan P. Mccormick, Catherine Tibbs

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to investigate the meanings and outcomes of adaptive sport and recreation participation among individuals with disabilities. In-depth open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 individuals. Analysis of the data followed qualitative data analysis and classical grounded theory utilizing line by line coding, identification of emergent themes, and identification of a core category grounded in the data. Results indicated that participants felt stigmatized and stereotyped, but their adaptive sports and recreation participation provided them with opportunities to build social networks, experience freedom and success, positively compare themselves with others without disabilities, and feel a sense of …

The History Of Intellectual Property Taxation: Promoting Innovation And Other Intellectual Property Goals?, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Faculty Publications

An important issue deserving scholarly attention concerns the proper role of the federal tax system in achieving intellectual property law's innovation objectives. The article traces the historic development of the specific tax rules governing intellectual property, identifies present areas of policy dissonance in the intersection of intellectual property and taxation, and calls for an appropriate legal framework for future intellectual property tax legislation.

A Web Of Knowledge: A Conceptual-Modeling Perspective, David W. Embley, Stephen W. Liddle, Cui Tao

Faculty Publications

The current web is a web of linked pages. Frustrated users search for facts by guessing which keywords or keyword phrases might lead them to pages where they can find facts. Can we make it possible for users to search directly for facts? Equivalently, can we turn the web into a web of facts (instead of a web of pages containing facts)? Ultimately, can the web be a knowledgebase—a web of knowledge—that can provide direct answers to factual questions and also provide the confidence necessary to make those answers believable? We answer these questions by showing how to superimpose a …

Web-Based Spatial Decision Support System And Watershed Management With A Case Study, Yanli Zhang, Matthew W. Mcbroom, J. Degroote, R. L. Kauten, P. K. Barten

Faculty Publications

In order to maintain a proper balance between development pressure and water resources protection, and also to improve public participation, efficient tools and techniques for soil and water conservation projects are needed. This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI. The WebWMPI uses the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach which is a prioritizing method for watershed management planning and it integrates land use/cover, hydrological data, soils, slope, roads, and other spatial data. The land is divided into three categories: Conservation Priority Index (CPI) land, Restoration Priority Index (RPI) land, and …

Firm Size Matters: An Empirical Investigation Of Organizational Size And Ownership On Sustainability- Related Behaviors, Peter Jack Gallo, Lisa Jones Christensen

Faculty Publications

The phrase “corporate sustainability” is increasingly prevalent in both the industry press and management journals (Engardio, 2007; Montiel, 2008). Corporate sustainability pledges and reports are also increasingly prevalent, yet empirical studies on how top managers define and enact the construct are lacking. To address this deficiency, we investigate how firms define, support, and report their sustainability efforts. In a large sample (N = 922) study of accounting executives at U.S.-based firms, we find evidence that organizational size, ownership, and industry are strongly related with support mechanisms and reporting of sustainability.

A Standardized Terminology For Describing Reproductive Development In Fishes, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson

Faculty Publications

As the number of fish reproduction studies has proliferated, so has the number of gonadal classification schemes and terms. This hasmade it difficult for both scientists and resourcemanagers to communicate and for comparisons to be made among studies. We propose the adoption of a simple, universal terminology for the phases in the reproductive cycle, which can be applied to all male and female elasmobranch and teleost fishes. These phases were chosen because they define key milestones in the reproductive cycle; the phases include immature, developing, spawning capable, regressing, and regenerating. Although the temporal sequence of events during gamete development in …

You Can Lead Them To Water, But You Can’T Make Them Drink: Using Crowd Sourcing To Lead Library Patrons To Extended Library Services Relevant To Their Search Criteria, William B. Lund, Chad Hansen

Faculty Publications

The Lee Library at Brigham Young University has extensive resources in the forms of highly skilled subject librarians, print resources and digital collections, but getting the students to be aware of and use them effectively is a problem. To help inform library patrons of these resources librarian subject specialists have created over 150 subject guides using LibGuides for subject areas, classes, and some subspecialties, which was an enormous task; but are these resources being used effectively? This paper explores and reports on a subject guide recommender system, which recommends relevant subject guides based on patron searches, using a crowd sourced …

Embracing Caregiving And Respecting Choice: An Essay On The Debate Over Changing Gender Norms, Nicole Buonocore Porter

Faculty Publications

This Essay is the third piece of my project to resolve what I call the "caregiver conundrum" for working caregivers. I define the "caregiver conundrum" broadly, to include all of the workplace norms, rules and practices that make it difficult for working caregivers to successfully balance work and family.

In conceptualizing my ideas, I realized that one of the critiques of my proposal would be that it does nothing to change the gender norms, or stated another way, it accepts the gendered division of work and family with which most people live. I do nothing to get women to do …

Digital Technology And The Variation In Design Routines: A Sequence Analysis Of Four Design Processes, James Gaskin, B. Veeresh Thummadi, Kalle Lyytinen, Youngjin Yoo

Faculty Publications

We advance a theory of design process variation across organizational types and the effects of digitalization on these processes. We argue that design routines are subject to greater variation within and between organizations as organizations embed increasingly rich repertoires of digital capabilities in their design activities. Using a sequence analysis method we compare design process variation in four organizations to examine how design routines vary due to differences in embedded digital capabilities and organization of the design process. Our analysis reveals new insights on the effects organizational context and digitalization have on design routine composition.

A Critical Look At The Role Of Technology As A Transformative Agent, Grinell Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Relations Between Traumatic Exposures, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Anger In Male And Female Veterans, Miranda E. Worthen

Faculty Publications

Military personnel who have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom have experienced high rates of combat exposure, which is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder. Less is known about the relations between military sexual trauma (sexual harassment, assault, and rape while serving in the military) and posttraumatic stress disorder. Little is known about anger problems in this Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran population, which research from prior conflicts suggests may be a consequence of both traumas and posttraumatic stress disorder. Anger is an emotional state closely related to aggression, hostility, and violence. Veterans who have difficulty controlling …

Strategies To Disrupt Online Child Pornography Networks, Kila Joffres, Martin Bouchard, Richard Frank, Bryce Westlake

Faculty Publications

This paper seeks to determine which attack strategies (hub, bridge, or fragmentation) are most effective at disrupting two online child pornography networks in terms of outcome measures that include density, clustering, compactness, and average path length. For this purpose, two networks were extracted using a web-crawler that recursively follows child exploitation sites. It was found that different attack strategies were warranted depending on the outcome measure and the network structure. Overall, hub attacks were most effective at reducing network density and clustering, whereas fragmentation attacks were most effective at reducing the network's distance-based cohesion and average path length. In certain …