Digital Commons Network^™

Restructuring The Debate Over Fetal Homicide Laws, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

The worst problems with the fetal homicide laws that have proliferated around the nation are quite different than the existing scholarship suggests. Critics often argue that the statutes, which criminalize the killing of a fetus by a third party other than an abortion provider, undermine a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy. This concern is overstated. Although supported by anti-abortionists, many of the fetal homicide laws embody the perspective of the so-called "abortion grays," who eschew the absolutism of the doctrinaire pro-choice and anti-abortion camps. This Article explores how a contextual view of life-taking allows us to reconcile legal abortion …

Transfer Of Training From Flight Training Devices To Flight For Ab-Initio Pilots, Nickolas D. Macchiarella, Pamela K. Arban, Shawn M. Doherty

Publications

The application of flight simulation to meet pilot training needs continues to evolve. Flight simulations built with powerful and inexpensive computers are making high fidelity simulation available as a medium for training ab-initio pilots at Pilot Schools and Training Centers. The researchers conducted an 18-month study that applied an experimental flight-training curriculum comprised of 60% flight training device (FTD) flight and 40% airplane flight to certify Private Pilots under Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 142. The results from the research provided data to ascertain the effective transfer for each flight-training task. Ab-initio student pilots practiced each task to standard in …

Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines [2006 Edition], Michael O. Leavitt, Ben Shneiderman, Robert W. Bailey, Carol Barnum, John Bosley, Barbara Chaparro, Joseph Dumas, Melody Y. Ivory, Bonnie John, Hal Miller-Jacobs, Sanjay J. Koyani, James R. Lewis, Stanley Page, Judith Ramey, Janice (Ginny) Redish, Jean Scholtz, Steve Wigginton, Cari A. Wolfson, Larry E. Wood, Don Zimmerman

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The new edition of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines. These guidelines reflect HHS’ commitment to identifying innovative, research-based approaches that result in highly responsive and easy-to-use Web sites for the public.

These guidelines help move us in that direction by providing practical, yet authoritative, guidance on a broad range of Web design and communication issues. Having access to the best available research helps to ensure we make the right decisions the first time around and reduces the possibility of errors and costly mistakes.

Book Review: Digital Crime And Forensic Science In Cyberspace, Gary C. Kessler

Publications

This document is Dr. Kessler's review of Digital Crime and Forensic Science in Cyberspace, by P. Kanellis, E. Kiountouzis, N. Kolokotronis, and D. Martakos. Idea Group Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 1-59140-873-3.

Modeling Bus Priority Using Intermodal Dynamic Network Assignment-Simulation Methodology, Khaled F. Abdelghany, Ahmed F. Abdelghany, Hani S. Mahmassani, Akmal S. Abdelfatah

Publications

This article presents a modeling framework that represents bus priority at signalized intersections in the context of its potential network-level and intermodal effects. The model incorporates bus priority within an intermodal dynamic traffic assignment simulation model. It dynamically assigns travelers to different modes and routes in the network according to prevailing traffic conditions, which result from applying a certain network control/bus priority scheme. The model considers changes in traffic conditions as a result of (1) drivers’ route choice adjustments due to changes in traffic signals settings and (2) modal shifts by travelers to take advantage of improved transit service. Three …

Cool White Dwarfs In The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Mukremin Kilic, Jeffrey A. Munn, Hugh C. Harris, James W. Liebert, Ted Von Hippel, Kurtis A. Williams, Travis S. Metcalfe, D. E. Winget, Stephen E. Levine

Publications

A reduced proper motion diagram utilizing Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry and astrometry and USNO-B plate astrometry is used to separate cool white dwarf candidates from metal-weak, high-velocity, mainsequence Population II stars (subdwarfs) in the SDSS Data Release 2 imaging area. Follow-up spectroscopy using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the MMT, and the McDonald 2.7 m telescope is used to demonstrate that the white dwarf and subdwarf loci separate cleanly in the reduced proper motion diagram and that the contamination by subdwarfs is small near the cool white dwarf locus. This enables large, statistically complete samples of white dwarfs, particularly the …

The White Dwarf Luminosity Function From Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data, Hugh C. Harris, Jeffrey A. Munn, Mukremin Kilic, James W. Liebert, Kurtis A. Williams, Ted Von Hippel, Stephen E. Levine, David G. Monet, Daniel J. Eisenstein, S. J. Kleinman, T. S. Metcalfe, Atsuko Nikka, D. E. Winget, J. Brinkmann, Masataka Fukugita, G. R. Knapp, Robert H. Lupton, J. Allyn Smith, Donald P. Schneider

Publications

A sample of white dwarfs is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3 using their reduced proper motions, based on improved proper motions from combined SDSS and USNO-B data. Numerous SDSS and follow-up spectra (Kilic and coworkers) are used to quantify completeness and contamination of the sample; kinematicsmodels are used to understand and correct for velocity-dependent selection biases.A luminosity function is constructed covering the range 7 < Mbol < 16, and its sensitivity to various assumptions and selection limits is discussed. The white dwarf luminosity function based on 6000 stars is remarkably smooth and rises nearly monotonically to Mbol=15.3. It then drops abruptly, although the small number of low-luminosity stars in the sample and their unknown atmospheric composition prevent quantitative conclusions about this decline. Stars …

Ethical Attitudes Of Business Information Systems Students: An Empirical Investigation, Leila Halawi, Silva Karkoulian

Publications

This paper discusses attitudes toward ethical issues in information systems. Approximately 150 subjects were drawn from two populations: full-time undergraduate business information systems students and full-time master’s students. The subjects read a subset of six ethical scenarios. Hypotheses were tested for significant differences between the undergraduate students’ beliefs and those of graduate students, and female and male students who responded to the same scenarios.

Which Theory Applies: An Analysis Of Information Systems Research, Leila Halawi, Richard Mccarthy

Publications

Research in information systems has rapidly expanded during its relatively brief existence. IT offers organizations a fundamental decision-enhancing environment that extends new opportunities, therefore producing thriving, competitive firms, adding business value and offering valuable products and services to customers. Research within the IT domain has produced several new theories, some of which have been used to help explain and predict end-user use of technologies. We provide a comprehensive overview of the major IT theories and review their theoretical fundamentals.

Experimental Investigation Of The Velocity Field In Buoyant Diffusion Flames Using Piv And Tpiv Algorithm, Lulu Sun, Xiangyang Zhou, Shankar Mahalingam, David R. Weise

Publications

We investigated a simultaneous temporally and spatially resolved 2-D velocity field above a burning circular pan of alcohol using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The results obtained from PIV were used to assess a thermal particle image velocimetry (TPIV) algorithm previously developed to approximate the velocity field using the temperature field, simultaneously captured by an infrared (IR) thermal camera. By tracing “thermal particles,” which were assumed to be virtual particles that corresponded to pixels of temperature values in successive IR images, the TPIV algorithm estimated a larger scale instantaneous velocity field than either a single-point velocity measurement (e.g., LDV) or the …

Health Information Literacy And Competencies Of Information Age Students: Results From The Interactive Online Research Readiness Self-Assessment (Rrsa), Lana Ivanitskaya, Irene O'Boyle, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

This study aimed to measure the proficiency of college-age health information consumers in finding and evaluating electronic health information; to assess their ability to discriminate between peer-reviewed scholarly resources and opinion pieces or sales pitches; and to examine the extent to which they are aware of their level of health information competency.

Observations Of Triboelectric Charging Effects On Langmuir-Type Probes In Dusty Plasma, Aroh Barjatya, Charles M. Swenson

Publications

Investigation of Earth’s mesosphere using sounding rockets equipped with a myriad of instruments has been a highly active field in the last 2 decades. This paper presents data from three separate instruments: an RF impedance probe, a DC fixed bias Langmuir probe, and an electric field probe, that were flown on a mesospheric sounding rocket flight investigating the presence of charged dust within and/or around a sporadic metal layer. The combined data set indicates a case of payload surface charging, the causes of which are investigated within this paper. A generic circuit model is developed to analyze payload charging and …

On Doubly Periodic Solutions Of Quasilinear Hyperbolic Equations Of The Fourth Order, T. Kiguradze, T. Smith

Publications

The problem on doubly periodic solutions is considered for a class of quasilinear hyperbolic equations. Effective sufficient conditions of solvability and unique solvability of this problem are established.

An Environmental Pool For The Rio Grande, Kara Gillon

Publications

The Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers operate a series of dams, reservoirs, and levees along the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The plight of the Rio Grande silvery minnow, an endangered species, and of the river itself demonstrates the need for a change from the emphasis on water development to sustainable river management. Conservation groups invoked the protections of the Endangered Species Act to catalyze this change. Recognizing that flexibility is necessary to meeting competing water needs, the groups also promoted the need for and several approaches to a sustainable and long-term approach to river management and …

The Grokster Dead-End, Bryan H. Choi

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No abstract provided.

"The Emperor’S New Quotas: European And American Safeguard Measures Against Chinese Textiles", Vivek Krishnamurthy

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No abstract provided.

Book Note: Reviewing Gary C. Hufbauer And Jeffrey J. Schott, Nafta Revisited: Achievements And Challenges (2005), Vivek Krishnamurthy

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No abstract provided.

Cite Checking: A Brave New World, Susan Nevelow Mart

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No abstract provided.

Indian Givers: What Indigenous Peoples Have Contributed To International Human Rights Law, S. James Anaya

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No abstract provided.

Merrill Lynch V. Dabit: Federal Preemption Of Holders' Class Actions, Mark J. Loewenstein

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No abstract provided.

Academic Freedom: Disciplinary Lessons From Hogwarts, Emily M. Calhoun

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No abstract provided.

Learning From Wal-Mart, Melissa Hart

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This article considers the landmark gender discrimination class action, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, both as a prototype of an emerging litigation strategy and also as a case that is entirely unique. As part of a growing trend of gender discrimination class claims, Dukes has the potential to push the boundaries of the law to confront the pervasive, tenacious stereotypes that continue to limit women's workplace opportunities. The plaintiffs' arguments - both the narrative of discrimination their evidence set out and the legal strategies they chose - are strikingly similar to claims that have been made in many class action …

Raising The Red Flag: The Continued Relevance Of The Japanese Internment In The Post-Hamdi World, Aya Gruber

Publications

In the years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the Japanese interment has re-emerged as a topic of serious discourse among legal scholars, politicians, civil libertarians, and society in general. Current national security policies have created concerns that the government has stepped dangerously close to the line crossed by the Roosevelt administration during World War II. Civil libertarians invoke the internment to caution policy-makers against two of the most serious dangers of repressive national security policies: racial decision-making and incarceration without process. Bush defenders advance several arguments in response to internment comparisons. The most conservative is an ardent defense …

A Psychology Of Emotional Legal Decision Making: Revulsion And Saving Face In Legal Theory And Practice, Peter H. Huang, Christopher J. Anderson

Publications

Professor Martha C. Nussbaum is an accomplished scholar in an impressive variety of fields. Drawing on her diverse academic backgrounds, Nussbaum has written extensively about emotions and their importance for law from the perspective of her primary specialty, philosophy. Her book Hiding from Humanity criticizes the roles that two particular emotions, disgust and shame, play in the law. Its central thesis is that, as legal actors, we should be wary of disgust and shame because indulging in those emotions allows us to hide from our humanity - both our humanity in the general sense and also those specific features of …

Against "Academic Deference": How Recent Developments In Employment Discrimination Law Undercut An Already Dubious Doctrine, Scott A. Moss

Publications

When the defendant in an employment case is a college or other institution of higher education, the plaintiff usually will face an "academic deference" argument. Citing the importance of their "academic freedom," defendants and sympathetic courts have asserted that federal courts should decline to "invade" higher education with "federal court supervision." Whether or not courts cite the "academic deference" doctrine expressly, they certainly have proven hostile to professors' claims of discrimination, dismissing as a matter of law claims that seemed quite strong, or at least solid enough to allow a factfinder to rule either way. Indeed, empirical evidence shows that …

"Particular Intentions": The Hillmon Case And The Supreme Court, Marianne Wesson

Publications

The case of Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Hillmon is one of the most influential decisions in the law of evidence. Decided by the Supreme Court in 1892, it invented an exception to the hearsay rule for statements encompassing the intentions of the declarant. But this exception seems not to rest on any plausible theory of the categorical reliability of such statements. This article suggests that the case turned instead on the Court's attachment to a particular narrative about the events that gave rise to the case, events that produced a corpse of disputed identity. The author's investigations into newspaper …

The Dust Cloud Around The White Dwarf G29-38, William T. Reach, Ted Von Hippel, Et Al.

Publications

We present new observations of the white dwarf G29-38 with the camera (4.5 and 8 μm), photometer (24 μm), and spectrograph (5.5-14 μm) of the Spitzer Space Telescope. This star has an exceptionally large infrared excess, amounting to 3% of the bolometric luminosity. The spectral energy distribution (SED) has a continuum peak around 4.5 μm and a 9-11 μm emission feature 1.25 times brighter than the continuum. A mixture of amorphous olivine and a small amount of forsterite in an emitting region 1-5 R☉ from the star can reproduce the shape of the 9-11 μm feature. The SED …

Historical Development Of South Carolina's State And Local Revenue System, 2005 December 15, Ada Louise Steirer, James C. Hite

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No abstract provided.

A Multisite Photometric Campaign On The Pre-Main-Sequence ₰ Delta Scuti Pulsator Ip Per, V. Ripepi, T. D. Oswalt, S. Bernabei, M. Marconi, Et Al.

Publications

We present the results of a photometric multisite campaign on the δ Scuti Pre-Main-Sequence star IP Per. Nine telescopes have been involved in the observations, with a total of about 190 h of observations over 38 nights. Present data confirms the multiperiodic nature of this star and leads to the identification of at least nine pulsational frequencies. Comparison with the predictions of linear non-adiabatic radial pulsation models allowed us to identify only five of the nine observed frequencies, and to constrain the position of IP Per in the HR diagram. The latter is in good agreement with the empirical determination …

Limited Dispersal And Heterogeneous Predation Risk Synergistically Enhance Persistence Of Rare Prey, Brett J. Goodwin, Clive G. Jones, Eric M. Schauber, Richard S. Ostfeld

Publications

White-footed mice prey on gypsy moth pupae while foraging for other, more abundant food. Mice appear capable of locally extirpating moths since mice exert high predation pressure on sparse pupae and are numerically decoupled from moth populations. Nevertheless, during 23 years of monitoring, moths persisted at scales .1 ha despite frequent extinctions at smaller spatial scales. We hypothesized that spatially heterogeneous intensity in mouse foraging and/or limited moth dispersal might allow moth persistence. Using a spatially explicit, individual-based, empirically parameterized model, we show that neither spatially heterogeneous predation by mice, nor limited moth dispersal alone allows moth persistence at typical …