Digital Commons Network^™

Tyrant, 2000, Longwood University

Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Sicnn Optimisation, Two Dimensional Implementation And Comparison, Grant Walker

Theses : Honours

The study investigates the process of optimisation, implementation and comparison of a Shunting Inhibitory Cellular Neural Network (SICNN) for Edge Detection. Shunting inhibition is lateral inhibition where the inhibition function is nonlinear. Cellular Neural Networks are locally interconnected nonlinear, parallel networks which can exist as either discrete time or continuous networks. The name given to Cellular Neural Networks that use shunting inhibition as their nonlinear cell interactions are called Shunting Inhibitory Cellular Neural Networks. This project report examines some existing edge detectors and thresholding techniques. Then it describes the optimisation of the connection weight matrix for SICNN with Complementary Output …

An Exploration Of Tools, Techniques And Procedures For Evaluating Informational/Educational Multimedia Software, Serge Walberg

Theses : Honours

This thesis explored the evaluation of informational/educational systems. It investigated the features of the design of an evaluation system needed to conduct the summative evaluation of informational and educational software. In designing this evaluation methodology, several questions were addressed: - What is needed to be achieved from an evaluation? - Which characteristics/features of a system required evaluation? - How was the evaluation going to be conducted? - How can future developers use the information obtained from the evaluation? - What were the scope and the limitations of the proposed evaluation? - How can evaluation tools, techniques and procedures developed by …

Workplace Safety Policy: Past, Present, And Future, Thomas J. Kniesner, John D. Leeth

Center for Policy Research

With an annual budget of about $400 million, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is about 5 percent the size of the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency created by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, the "Year of the Environment." Nearly all workers in the United States come under OSHA's jurisdiction, with some notable exceptions, including miners, transportation workers, many public employees, and people who are self-employed. OSHA is currently responsible for projecting over 100 million workers at 6 million work sites with the help of only about 2,000 workplace health and safety inspectors. Nevertheless, suppers of OSHA …

Health Promotion For Older Adults: What Is The Potential?, Linda P. Fried

Center for Policy Research

As a greater number of people reach old age, medicine is challenged to develop new approaches to this population. Health promotion, not just treatment of disease but improving the quality of life for older persons, must play a role. What happens to individuals in terms of health status as they get older, and what are the implications for health care needs? Where should we focus to get the biggest benefits in terms of health promotion? Overall, we have learned a tremendous amount over the last 25 years about the components of health as people get older, and what modifies their …

How Well Can We Track Cohabitation Using The Sipp? A Consideration Of Direct And Inferred Measures, Reagan Anne Baughman, Stacy Dickert-Conlin, Scott Houser

Center for Policy Research

Cohabitation is an alternative to marriage and to living independently for an increasing number of Americans. Despite this fact, research exploring links between living arrangements and economic behavior is limited by a lack of data that explicitly identify cohabiting couples. To aid researchers in using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) rich data for cohabitation issues, our paper considers direct and inferred measures of cohabitation. Our findings suggest that: (1) the best inferred measures in pre-1966 SIPP depends upon a researcher's goals, and (2) the SIPP counts a larger number of cohabiting couples than the widely used CPS.

Microdata Panel Data And Public Policy: National And Cross-National Perspectives, Robert Carroll, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Harvey S. Rosen, Mark Rider

Center for Policy Research

This paper investigates the effect of entrepreneurs' personal income tax situations on the growth rate of their enterprises. We analyze the personal income tax returns of a large number of sole proprietors before and after the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and determine how the substantial reductions in marginal tax rates associated with that law affected the growth of their firms as measured by gross receipts. We find that individual income taxes exert a statistically and quantitatively significant influence on firm growth rates. Raising the sole proprietor's tax price (one minus the marginal tax rate) by 10 percent increases receipts …

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Why Do Real Estate Agents Withhold Available Houses From Black Customers?, Jan Ondrich, John Yinger, Stephen Ross

Center for Policy Research

This paper develops a new approach to testing hypotheses about the causes of discrimination in housing sales. We follow previous research by using data from fair housing audits, a matched-pair technique for comparing the treatment of equally qualified black and white home buyers. Our contribution is to shift the focus from differences in the treatment of teammates during an audit to agent decisions concerning an individual housing unit. Our sample consists of all units seen by either a black of a white auditor in the 1989 national Housing Discrimination Study. We estimate a multinomial logit model to explain a real …

The Impact Of Hospital Quality-Related Practices On Health Outcomes, Deborah A. Freund, Frank R. Lichtenberg

Center for Policy Research

In this paper we analyze the cross-sectional relationship between hospital quality scores calculated by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and risk-adjusted indicators of outcomes and quality--mortality, rates of surgical/medical misadventures, adverse drug reactions, and length of stay--calculated from Nationwide Inpatient Sample discharge records. The results suggest that greater adherence to JCAHO accreditation standards is not associated with reduced mortality or lower probability of avoidable hospital or physician-caused adverse outcomes. Other hospital characteristics, such as teaching/non-teaching and urban/rural status, also exhibit little or no correlation with risk-adjusted survival and adverse-event probabilities.

The Relationship Between A Required Self-Disclosure Speech And Public Speaking Anxiety: Considering Gender Equity, Deanna D. Sellnow, Tamara Golish

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examines the relationship between a required self-disclosure speech and public speaking anxiety levels expressed by student speakers. If students report higher anxiety levels when asked to self-disclose during a speech, then the potential classroom climate warming advantages of such an assignment may not outweigh the disadvantages. Results indicated: (1) that most students did not report increased anxiety when presenting the self-disclosure speech; (2) there appeared to be no significant gender differences with regard to anxiety and self-disclosure in a public speaking situation; (3) students revealed that feeling confident, in control, and respected are primary factors necessary to reduce …

Assessment Of The Repeated Speech Performance As A Pedagogical Tool: A Pilot Study, Mark A. Gring, Jera W. Littlejohn

Basic Communication Course Annual

Realizing the ongoing need to develop pedagogy in public speaking, these researchers investigated the learning achieved by asking students to repeat one of their speech assignments. They assessed the value of this practice from the students' viewpoint as well as the statistical change in performance outcomes. Across the eight competencies evaluated, students' average scores increased significantly on the repeated speech. Students who scored in the lower quartile on the first speech benefited most from the second opportunity. The researchers conclude that allowing students to repeat a speech appears to have pedagogical and practical merit.

Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 12

Basic Communication Course Annual

Full issue (232, 7.896 KB)

The Proximate Cause Paradox In The Admiralty Extension Act, Steven F. Friedell

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Additional Light On The Origins Of Federal Admiralty Jurisdiction, William R. Casto

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Shipbrokers' Authority And Ability To Bind Principals: At The Juncture Of Chartering And Agency, H. Edwin Anderson Iii

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Ship Agent Liability In Nigeria: Has The Common Law Been Overthrown, Obijiofor Aginam

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Convergence And Divergence In Marine Insurance Law

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Days Of Anger, Days Of Tears: The Story Of Two Kentucky Feuds - Millennium Edition, Juanita Blair, Fred Brown Jr., David Beaver

Rowan County War Collection

The millennium edition of Days of Anger, Days of Tears: The Story of Two Kentucky Feuds, a self-published book on the Rowan County War by Juanita Blair and Fred Brown Jr. printed in 2000. Illustrations by David Beaver.

Agent Teams: Building And Implementing Software, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

Agents will become fundamental building blocks for general-purpose Internet-based software. The software may not display any explicitly agent-like characteristics, but it will exhibit the benefits of tolerance to errors, ease of maintenance, adaptability to change, and speed of construction that agents provide. Moreover, an agent-based approach to software development can lead to new types of software solutions that might not otherwise be obvious. The author considers how an approach based on teams of active, cooperative, and persistent software components, that is agents, shows special promise in enabling the rapid construction of robust and reusable software.

Coercion, Pop-Psychology, And Judicial Moralizing: Some Proposals For Curbing Judicial Abuse Of Probation Conditions, Andrew Horwitz

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Iv), Craig H. Allen

Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Investigation Into The Feasibilty Of Providing Intelligent Support For Computer Mediation Decision Making Groups, Andrew Martyn Morley

School of Psychology Theses

This thesis investigated the claim that the adaptation to the keyboard interface of a computer-mediated (CM) decision making group leads to differences in the style of communication when compared to that of a face-to-face (FTF) group. More importantly it examined the possibility that changes in satisfaction with the process and the decision outcome are determined not by the mode of communication, but rather the style of communication the decision makers employed in response to the keyboard interface. The decision processes of CM and FTF groups were examined using a simulated panel of enquiry presented via computer databases and containing inconsistent …

Dietary Phosphorus Effects On Waste Management And Nutrient Balance In The Feedlot, Galen E. Erickson, Terry J. Klopfenstein, Todd Milton, Daniel T. Walters

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Four experiments were conducted, two with calves in the winter/spring and two with yearlings during the summer, to evaluate the effects of decreasing dietary phosphorus on nutrient balance in the feedlot. The control diets averaged .38% phosphorus, whereas the experimental diets were formulated to not exceed requirements (~.25%). Phosphorus excretion was reduced by feeding the lower phosphorus diet. Phosphorus removed in manure at cleaning was not different. However, when manure was corrected for soil phosphorus, phosphorus removal was decreased by 59% in the summer trials and 38% in the calf trials during the winter/spring by feeding the experimental diet.

Criminal And Civil Parental Liability Statutes: Would They Have Saved The 15 Who Died At Columbine?, Eric P. Ebenstein

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that current parental liability statutes in the United States are insufficient to hold parents accountable for their children's violent acts, such as the Columbine High School massacre. It advocates for strengthening these laws, particularly by adopting a negligence standard, to incentivize parents to monitor their children's activities more effectively and prevent such tragedies.

Parental Liability And The Criminal Misconduct Of Children In The Wake Of An Unregulated Internet: Who Should Pay?, Katherine R. Richardson

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the legal and practical challenges of holding parents accountable for their children's criminal acts, particularly when influenced by internet content. It questions the effectiveness of parental liability laws and highlights the tension between child protection, parental rights, and internet regulation. While acknowledging the complexity of these issues, the note suggests that parental liability should only apply when a clear causal link exists between negligence and harm, though proving such a link is legally challenging. Ultimately, the analysis advocates for a nuanced approach to balancing these competing interests.

Women's Annotated Legal Bibliography

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Supplemental But Not Equal: Reply To Dell'olio On Feminine Language For God, John W. Cooper

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Cpa's Advanced Guide To The Family Limited Partnership And Beyond : Saving Taxes And Protecting Clients, Martyin A. Goldberg

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

The Bible As One Story: Images As The Holy Spirit's Device For Making Scripture God's Word Written, Robert Farrar Capon

Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers

(Excerpt)

My approach to scripture, you probably have guessed, is not that of someone trained by the biblical scholarship critical fellowship. I studied under them as you all did, too. I managed not to think too much about them, because I didn't think much of them. When I was in seminary a number of us got together and wrote a series of four-line doggerel verses on the result of biblical criticism as we were receiving it when applied to the scriptures. I can only remember one of those stanzas: Of wilderness wanderings, there'd not be so many; of Abraham's stories, …