Digital Commons Network^™

Breakdown Probabilities For Thin Heterostructure Avalanche Photodiodes, Majeed M. Hayat, Ünal Sako ̆Glu, Oh-Hyun Kwon, Shuling Wang, Joe C. Campbell, Bahaa E.A. Saleh, Malvin Carl Teich

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The recurrence theory for the breakdown probability in avalanche photodiodes (APDs) is generalized to heterostructure APDs that may have multiple multiplication layers. The generalization addresses layer-boundary effects such as the initial energy of injected carriers as well as the layer-dependent profile of the dead space in the multiplication region. Reducing the width of the multiplication layer serves to both downshift and sharpen the breakdown probability curve as a function of the applied reverse-bias voltage. In structures where the injected carriers have an initial energy that is comparable to the ionization threshold energy, the transition from linear mode to Geiger-mode is …

E Wars - Episode One: The Patent Menace, Raymond Van Dyke

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

With the advent of the Information Age and the consequent transformation of our society, information companies have recognized the importance of protecting their business methodologies. As with any technological revolution, competition between the players is intense, and in this new arena of business, competitors have turned patents into a weapon of choice. Thus, businesses need new strategies to avoid becoming unnecessary casualties in this war.

What Online Activity Does The Wiretap Act Protect? The Ninth Circuit Holds That Unauthorized Access Of A Secure Website Does Not Violate The Federal Wiretap Act Konop V. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc., Thomas P. Ludwig

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Throughout the last half-century, there has been constant tension in the communication arena between individual privacy interests and the interests of law enforcement in proactively combating crime and terrorism. The difficulty in maintaining a balance between these interests has been compounded by the explosive development in electronic communication technology over the last several decades. In an attempt to bring the state of privacy protection law up to date with modem technology, Congress enacted the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 ("ECPA"). While the ECPA was enacted "to update and clarify Federal privacy protections and standards," both the usage and the …

Project Uplift: A Program To Ensure The Promotion Of Students Who Had Previously Failed, Auty G. Horn

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This report describes a program that assisted students in Grades 6-8 who had previously failed 2 or more grades in meeting promotion requirements. The setting was Green Acres Middle School, an urban school with a 99% African American student population of 535 and a free and reduced-price lunch rate of 80%. In 2000-2001, 100% of students for whom data were available and who had failed 2 or more times performed below the 5th stanine on the Stanford Achievement Test 9 (SAT-9)for the total battery.

Project Uplift was a program that was designed to meet the needs of these students. It …

Health-Related Quality Of Life As Predictor Of Adherence With Antiretroviral Medication, Rakesh Joshi

Open Access Master's Theses

Title of the Study: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as predictor of medication adherence in patients infected with Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV).

Summary: Quality of life (QoL) is a broad term which involves evaluation of all aspects of life including, health, education, family life, housing, friendship, marriage, standard of living, and work. Health is one of the domains that affect our quality of life. The measurement of HRQoL is becoming an increasingly common activity in healthcare systems around the world. Health-related quality of life or biological outcome of treatment might predict adherence to HIV medication. This research is …

Game When They Win; Investment When They Lose: Sec V. Sg, Ltd., Todd M. Tippett

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Congress established the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to protect citizens from fraud in a wide array of financial instruments, ranging from well-established investment vehicles such as stocks and bonds to the more elusive concept of the investment contract. The landmark case of SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. has long grounded judicial efforts in defining what is and what is not an investment contract. The various federal circuit courts struggle, however, with the applicability of one prong of the Howey test, namely the requirement of a "common enterprise," with no indication of an agreement …

Patent Pending ... Pending ... Pending The Evolution Of Equivalents: Festo Corp. V. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kabushiki Co., Karly Stoehr

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Information is rapidly becoming many firms' most valuable resource and the patents protecting inventions have become critical strategic assets. In May of 2002, the Supreme Court unanimously issued a ruling on the doctrine of equivalents that will likely trigger inconsistent results in future patent protection cases. Patent holders acquire a limited monopoly of twenty years to generate profits. Patent protection is critical because there is a strong need to provide firms with sufficient incentives to create and invest in new technologies. It is important, therefore, to provide clear guidelines for patent procedures so that inventors may rely on future protection. …

Ashcroft V. Aclu: The Fate Of The Child Online Protection Act, Marybeth Eyrich

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Concerns about the proliferation and accessibility of cyber-porn motivated Congress to pass legislation intended to protect children from on-line pornography. This nascent attempt to regulate the Internet has not yet passed constitutional muster, as Congress's efforts to protect children have been thwarted by First Amendment challenges. Ashcroft v. ACLU examines, but does not resolve, the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act ("COPA"). The issue in Ashcroft was whether COPA's use of "community standards" to identify "material that is harmful to minors" violated the First Amendment. In a plurality opinion, the Court held that COPA's use of "community standards" does …

Clients' Views On Privacy And Security After September 11: Have They Changed? Should They? An Information Technology Lawyer's Perspective, Richard G. Lyon

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Looking For A Crack To Break The Internet's Back: The Listen4ever Case And Backbone Provider Liability Under The Copyright Act And The Dmca, Daniel W. Kopko

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In August 2002, a group of 13 record labels brought a lawsuit against the four major companies that provide the "backbone" infrastructure of the Internet. The record labels sought an injunction under section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1982 ("DMCA") to compel the defendants to block access to a China-based website, Listen4Ever.com ("Listen4ever"), that offered free downloads of entire albums of copyrighted music from its central server. The labels alleged that Listen4ever located its operations in China specifically to evade U.S. copyright laws. They noted that the site was in English and offered almost exclusively music by …

Personal Jurisdiction: Lost In Cyberspace?, Susan Nauss Exon

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Law, Religion, And Human Rights In Global Perspective, Mark Modak-Truran

MC Law Review

Law and Religion Symposium: Introduction

Scene-Based Nonuniformity Correction For Focal Plane Arrays By The Method Of The Inverse Covariance Form, Sergio N. Torres, Jorge E. Pezoa, Majeed M. Hayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

What is to our knowledge a new scene-based algorithm for nonuniformity correction in infrared focal-plane array sensors has been developed. The technique is based on the inverse covariance form of the Kalman filter (KF), which has been reported previously and used in estimating the gain and bias of each detector in the array from scene data. The gain and the bias of each detector in the focal-plane array are assumed constant within a given sequence of frames, corresponding to a certain time and operational conditions, but they are allowed to randomly drift from one sequence to another following a discrete-time …

Kalman Filtering For Adaptive Nonuniformity Correction In Infrared Focal-Plane Arrays, Sergio N. Torres, Majeed M. Hayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A novel statistical approach is undertaken for the adaptive estimation of the gain and bias nonuniformity in infrared focal-plane array sensors from scene data. The gain and the bias of each detector are regarded as random state variables modeled by a discrete-time Gauss–Markov process. The proposed Gauss–Markov framework provides a mechanism for capturing the slow and random drift in the fixed-pattern noise as the operational conditions of the sensor vary in time. With a temporal stochastic model for each detector’s gain and bias at hand, a Kalman filter is derived that uses scene data, comprising the detector’s readout values sampled …

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Standard Operating Procedures, Donald H. Stedman, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Phase Transitions Occurring In Models Of Neighborhood Racial Segregation, Alexander J. Laurie '03

Honors Projects

This thesis is organized as two chapters whose contents are closely related yet quite distinct. The first chapter presents a paper "Role of 'Vision' in Neighborhood Racial Segregation: A Variant of the Schelling Segregation Model," authored by myself and Dr. Jaggi, which has been accepted for publication by the journal Urban Studies and is currently in press (as of April 2003). This chapter introduces the well-known Schelling model of neighborhood segregation, outlines the sociopolitical motivation for our work, and presents the key results that we believe are of interest to social scientists. Chapter two, which ought to be of greater …

Contentious Policies: The Experiment With Affirmative Action In Undergraduate Admissions To Public Universities, Elizabeth R. Notz '03

Honors Projects

Affirmative action policies have polarized the American public for over a quarter of a century. With regard to undergraduate university admissions, the Department of Education has not issued a definitive policy stance and has chosen to rely upon the results of previous and forthcoming research. Most scholars have not seized the opportunity to explore the effectiveness of affirmative action on a university's minority admission or enrollment rates. Additionally, scholars have not established the role that other confounding factors, such as financial aid and academic preparation, play in determining admission or enrollment rates. This research explores the role of affirmative action …

The Potential Effects Of Federal Campaign Finance Reform On Women Candidates For The U.S. House Of Representatives And Senate, Cameo Kaisler '03

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study investigates the potential effects of campaign finance reform, namely the banning of party or "soft" money on each candidate group (Democrats and Republicans, men and women) for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Emphasis is placed on the difference in the effect the reform will have on the sexes. Following analysis of the sources and average totals of campaign financing for all of the groups in the 2000 elections, it can be noted that Republican women stand to be affected by campaign finance reform more than any other group, as they received the largest average amount of …

Contentious Policies: The Experiment With Affirmative Action In Undergraduate Admissions To Public Universities, Elizabeth Notz '03

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Affirmative action policies have polarized the American public for over a quarter of a century. With regard to undergraduate university admissions, the Department of Education has not issued a definitive policy stance and has chosen to rely upon the results of previous and forthcoming research. Most scholars have not seized the opportunity to explore the effectiveness of affirmative action on a university’s minority admission or enrollment rates. Additionally, scholars have not established the role that other confounding factors, such as financial aid and academic preparation, play in determining admission or enrollment rates. This research explores the role of affirmative action …

Measuring Culture And Cultural Change, James Melton '03

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Mary Douglas’s grid/group analysis has been a very influential theory for many culture theorists in all fields of the social sciences. There are two good reasons for importance of this theory. It allows for an interaction between the individual and the culture, and it can explain cultural change. There has been some theorizing about the implications of these innovations; however, little empirical work has been done to test these implications. The reason for this, at least partly, is the lack of an indicator capable of easily measuring culture on a wide-scale basis. This paper attempts to solve this problem by …

Market Liberalization, Social Programming, And Stability In Latin America: Are They Compatible?, Gretchen Grabowski '03

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

A central axiom of political science research holds that government stability is a key determinant of effective governance. Instability makes policymaking difficult and creates an environment that is inhospitable to foreign or domestic economic investment and, in turn, economic growth. Latin America provides an excellent context in which this relationship can be examined. The region was known for its political instability in the 1970s and 1980s, and the vast majority of countries implemented liberal economic reforms during the 1990s. The expectation was that these reforms would yield the economic growth so desperately needed in the region and, along with democratic …

Two Facets Of Competitiveness And Their Influence On Psychological Adjustment, Elaine Kayhan '03

Honors Projects

This study was conducted to explore the influence of competitiveness as a personality trait on psychological adjustment. Competitiveness was differentiated into two distinct facets referred to as superiority competitiveness and mastery competitiveness. In terms of psychological adjustment, the effects of these facets of competitiveness on depression, loneliness, self-esteem, anxiety, and eating patterns were examined. Questionnaires were used to assess the aforementioned dimensions. The results of the study revealed some noteworthy gender differences. Among females, superiority competitiveness was associated with higher levels of depression. Among males, superiority competitiveness was associated with less loneliness. A significant association was also observed between mastery …

Differences In Friendship Qualities Of Korean And American College Students, Yun-Sun Alexis Bae '03

Honors Projects

The present study explored the friendship characteristics of Korean and American college students. Participants (41 Koreans and 87 Americans) described their friends using a questionnaire (Friendship Quality Questionnaire) and an interview. Because of the inadequacy of the interview coding system, the interview data were not analyzed. Analysis of the FQQ supported the hypothesis that Koreans exhibit higher exclusivity than Americans, but no other country effects emerged. Both U.S. and Korean women reported more intimate disclosure than men. Friendship characteristics of Korea and U.S. students were conceptualized using concepts such as Individualism and Collectivism, Confucianism, and the Korean term "cheong" (affection). …

Masculinity And Homophobia: Does Masculine Threat Increase Homophobic Behavior?, Julie M. Longo '03

Honors Projects

Threatened masculinity may play a role in homophobic responses in college men. In this study, homophobic or non-homophobic responses to a gay confederate were measured after a masculine threat or no threat manipulation. 49 college men participated in the study: 24 in the masculine threat condition and 25 in the no threat condition. Masculinity level was pre-determined in an initial phase one testing using the Male Role Norms Scale (MRNS). In the masculine threat condition, participants were given a test that was said to measure masculine knowledge and then received false negative feedback. The no threat condition involved a general …

Environmental Impacts Of Modern Agricultural Technology Diffusion In Bangladesh: An Analysis Of Farmers' Perceptions And Their Determinants, S Rahman

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Farmers' perception of the environmental impacts of modern agricultural technology diffusion and factors determining such awareness were examined using survey data from 21 villages in three agro-ecological regions of Bangladesh. Results reveal that farmers are well aware of the adverse environmental impacts of modern agricultural technology, although their awareness remains confined within visible impacts such as soil fertility, fish catches, and health effects. Their perception of intangible impacts such as, toxicity in water and soils is weak. Level and duration of modern agricultural technology adoption directly influence awareness of its adverse effects. Education and extension contacts also play an important …

Parenting And Adult Development: Contexts, Processes, And Products Of Intergenerational Relationships, Rob Palkovitz, Loren D. Marks, David W. Appleby, Erin K. Holmes

Faculty Publications

For the past 50 years, parenthood has been discussed in social science literature as a context of adult development. Theories, anecdotes, and the opinions of laypersons are nearly unanimous: People who become parents and are involved in the raising of children are transformed and follow a different developmental trajectory from people who do not engage in parenting roles. Erickson (1950) suggested that positive adult development reflects care for the next generation, or "generativity," and that parenthood is "the first, and for many, the prime generative encounter" (Erickson, 1964, p. 130). More recently, parenthood has been described as a necessary but …

The Relations Between Knowledge, Search Strategy, And Performance In Unaided And Aided Information Search, John A. Barrick, Brian C. Spilker

Faculty Publications

Information search is a critical step in resolving complex issues in many different decisionmaking domains. This study examines the relations between knowledge, search strategy, and performance in both unaided and aided information search. The results of an experiment indicates that (a) task-relevant knowledge is directly related to performance in aided but not in unaided information search; (b) in unaided information search, search strategy mediates the relation between knowledge and performance; that is, knowledge indirectly affects performance through its effect on search strategy; and (c) an information search aid moderates both the relation between knowledge and search strategy and the relation …

Indirect Evaporative Cooling Potential In Air-Water Systems In Temperate Climates, Ben Costelloe, Donal Finn

Articles

Recent developments have prompted a review of evaporative cooling technology as an effective means of cooling modern deep plan buildings. Prominent among these developments is the success of high temperature sensible cooling systems, particularly, chilled ceilings, which require a supply of cooling water at 14–18 °C. Crucial to the success of evaporative cooling technology, as a significant means of cooling in modern applications, is the ability to generate cooling water, in an indirect circuit, at a temperature which closely approaches the ambient adiabatic saturation temperature (AST) or wet bulb temperature (WBT). Recent experimental research has demonstrated that it is technically …

Automated Rating Of Esl Essays, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Diane Strong-Krause

Faculty Publications

To date, traditional NLP parsers have not been widely successful in TESOLoriented applications, particularly in scoring written compositions. Re-engineering such applications to provide the necessary robustness for handling ungrammatical English has proven a formidable obstacle. We discuss the use of a nontraditional parser for rating compositions that attenuates some of these difficulties. Its dependency-based shallow parsing approach provides significant robustness in the face of language learners’ ungrammatical compositions. This paper discusses how a corpus of L2 essays for English was rated using the parser, and how the automatic evaulations compared to those obtained by manual methods. The types of modifications …

Study Of Structure And Quality Of Different Silicon Oxides Using Ftir And Raman Microscopy, C. Moore, T. S. Perova, B. Kennedy, Kevin Berwick, I. I. Shaganov, R. A. Moore

Articles

In this work, SiO₂ and fluorine and phosphorous doped SiO₂ thin films are investigated using FTIR and Raman techniques. FTIR spectroscopy was performed at normal and oblique incidence of the probe beam in transmission and reflection modes. The effect of polarisation and angle of incidence of the probe beam is examined for the case of reflection mode. Infrared spectra taken from doped oxides show that the structure changes with the passage of time. Alternate methods to calculate the thickness of the doped film are therefore discussed. Infrared spectra of electron beam evaporated oxides give valuable information on their …