Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2004

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 16651 - 16680 of 18113

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Past, Present, And Future Trends Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2004

Past, Present, And Future Trends Of The Endangered Species Act, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

this article is designed to convince readers that the past, present, and future trends of the ESA are all the same. To provide context, Part I presents a brief overview of the structure of the statute and the kinds of decisions that must be made under it. Part II delves more deeply into each of the topics covered in the NR&E issues, eight in all, providing in each case the necessary legal background followed by a discussion of how the topic played out in the two NR&E issues. Finally, I conclude with a brief summary of my own perspectives on …

Go to article

Apology And Thick Trust: What Spouse Abusers And Negligent Doctors Might Have In Common, Erin O'Connor Jan 2004

Apology And Thick Trust: What Spouse Abusers And Negligent Doctors Might Have In Common, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

As apology advocates have previously emphasized, much of the civil litigation that clogs court dockets in America today could be avoided with a simple heartfelt apology. Although sometimes difficult to offer, these expressions of remorse are profoundly powerful and valuable for humans as social animals. Nevertheless, apologies can be problematic. This Article used evolutionary theory as a tool to explore the costs of apology in two areas-spouse abuse and medical malpractice-to suggest that excessive victim forgiveness can, in some contexts, cast doubt on the effectiveness of a purely private litigation system for creating appropriate behavioral incentives. It also explored ways …

Go to article

United States' Trade Policy And The Exportation Of United States' Culture, Beverly I. Moran Jan 2004

United States' Trade Policy And The Exportation Of United States' Culture, Beverly I. Moran

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The United States Trade Representative and the policies that he (or she) attempt to impose on our trading partners have the serious and perhaps unintended effect of destroying local culture particularly in the area of film production.

Go to article

How Different Is Death? Jury Sentencing In Capital And Non-Capital Cases Compared, Nancy J. King Jan 2004

How Different Is Death? Jury Sentencing In Capital And Non-Capital Cases Compared, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Drawing upon a recent study of felony jury sentencing in Kentucky, Virginia, and Arkansas, this essay highlights some of the similarities and differences between jury sentencing in capital cases and jury sentencing in non-capital cases. Unlike jury sentencing in capital cases, jury sentencing in non-capital cases includes functional differentials in judge and jury options for sentencing, and fewer controls on arbitrary decision-making. Jury sentencing in both contexts shares the potential for reluctance on the part of elected judges to reduce jury sentences, information gaps on the part of jurors in setting sentences, and, above all, service as a tool in …

Go to article

Felony Jury Sentencing In Practice: A Three-State Study, Nancy J. King, Rosevelt L. Noble Jan 2004

Felony Jury Sentencing In Practice: A Three-State Study, Nancy J. King, Rosevelt L. Noble

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Jury sentencing in non-capital cases is one of the least understood procedures in contemporary American criminal justice. This Article looks beyond idealized visions of jury sentencing to examine for the first time how felony jury sentencing actually operates in three different states - Kentucky, Virginia, and Arkansas. Dozens of interviews with prosecutors, defenders, and judges, as well as an analysis of state sentencing data, reveal that this neglected corner of state criminal justice provides a unique window through which one can observe some of the most fundamental forces operating in criminal adjudication today. It turns out that jury sentencing in …

Go to article

The Influence Of Students' Cognitive Style On A Standardized Reading Test Administered In Three Different Formats, Elizabeth Lynn Blanton Jan 2004

The Influence Of Students' Cognitive Style On A Standardized Reading Test Administered In Three Different Formats, Elizabeth Lynn Blanton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the means of scores on three forms of a standardized reading comprehension test taken by community college students in developmental reading classes. The three forms of the test were administered as a timed multiple-choice test, a constructed response test, and an un-timed multiple-choice test. Scores on the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) were used to classify the students who participated in the study as having field dependent (LOW GEFT), mid-field dependent/independent (MID GEFT), or fieldindependent (HIGH GEFT) tendencies. The paired samples test was used to analyze the scores among the students classified …

Go to article

Multiple Scattering Of Light In Inhomogeneous Media And Applications, Claudia Mujat Jan 2004

Multiple Scattering Of Light In Inhomogeneous Media And Applications, Claudia Mujat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Light scattering-based techniques are being developed for non-invasive diagnostics of inhomogeneous media in various fields, such as medicine, biology, and material characterization. However, as most media of interest are highly scattering and have a complex structure, it is difficult to obtain a full analytical solution of the scattering problem without introducing approximations and assumptions about the properties of the system under consideration. Moreover, most of the previous studies deal with idealized scattering situations, rarely encountered in practice. This dissertation provides new analytical, numerical, and experimental solutions to describe subtle effects introduced by the properties of the light sources, and by …

Go to article

The Design And Development Of A Comprehensive 49 Locus Y-Str Database For Major U.S. Populations, Paulina Niki Berdos Jan 2004

The Design And Development Of A Comprehensive 49 Locus Y-Str Database For Major U.S. Populations, Paulina Niki Berdos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The establishment of a U.S. National Y-STR reference database from a variety of geographically and ethically diverse populations is essential to facilitate the generation of reliable estimates of Y-STR haplotype frequencies. Such multi-locus haplotype frequencies are required to provide a statistical estimate of the significance of a match. Y-STR loci, unlike traditional STR markers, are not independent of one another and are co-inherited as extended haplotypes of linked markers. The estimation of the frequency of occurrence of a particular haplotype therefore necessitates the use of a counting method, which means that the significance of many matches is dependent upon the …

Go to article

Nascar Restrictor Plate Exhaust Manifold Design Strategies, Matthew John Dollhopf Jan 2004

Nascar Restrictor Plate Exhaust Manifold Design Strategies, Matthew John Dollhopf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents the results of a study on exhaust manifold design for a NASCAR Restrictor plate internal combustion engine. A computer simulation model was developed using Ricardo WAVE software. WAVE is a computer-aided engineering code developed by Ricardo to analyze the dynamics of pressure waves, mass flows and energy losses in ducts, plenums and the intake and exhaust manifolds of various systems and machines. [1] The model was validated against experimental data from a current NASCAR Winston Cup restrictor plate motor. The parameters studied have been exhaust manifold diameters and lengths. A response surface analysis of the simulation output …

Go to article

Motivations For Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) System Implementation In Public Versus Private Sector Organizations, Joycelyn Lorraine Harrison Jan 2004

Motivations For Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) System Implementation In Public Versus Private Sector Organizations, Joycelyn Lorraine Harrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to increase the knowledge base regarding Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software implementation, particularly in the public sector. To this end, factors regarding benefits sought through ERP system implementation and critical factors surrounding successful ERP implementation were identified. In addition, the perception of project team members’ satisfaction with modules implemented and their concerns about implementing ERP software were identified in this study. The results of this study provided recommendations for public- and private-sector organizations in order to increase their opportunity for successful ERP system implementation. The literature review and results of this study suggested that …

Go to article

Object Tracking And Activity Recognition In Video Acquired Using Mobile Cameras, Alper Yilmaz Jan 2004

Object Tracking And Activity Recognition In Video Acquired Using Mobile Cameras, Alper Yilmaz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to increasing demand on deployable surveillance systems in recent years, object tracking and activity recognition are receiving considerable attention in the research community. This thesis contributes to both the tracking and the activity recognition components of a surveillance system. In particular, for the tracking component, we propose two different approaches for tracking objects in video acquired by mobile cameras, each of which uses a different object shape representation. The first approach tracks the centroids of the objects in Forward Looking Infrared Imagery (FLIR) and is suitable for tracking objects that appear small in airborne video. The second approach tracks …

Go to article

Design And Analysis Of Adaptive And Reconfigurable Antennas For Wireless Communication, Maha Abdelmoneim Mohamed Ali Jan 2004

Design And Analysis Of Adaptive And Reconfigurable Antennas For Wireless Communication, Maha Abdelmoneim Mohamed Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modern radar and communication systems have experienced a tremendous increase in the number of antennas onboard, on the ground, and in orbital space. This places a burden due to the confined volume and limited weight requirements especially in space applications. The reconfigurable antenna is a promising and exciting new type of antenna, where through the use of appropriate switches the antenna can be structurally reconfigured, to maintain the elements near their resonant dimensions for several frequency bands. This increases the bandwidth of the antenna dramatically, which enables the use of one antenna for several applications. Four novel reconfigurable antenna elements …

Go to article

A Journey Of Teaching And Learning In Science Education: The Microculture Of Emerging Inquiry-Based Science Instruction In An Urban, Low Socioeconomic Elementary School Science Lab, Kimberly Dahl Jan 2004

A Journey Of Teaching And Learning In Science Education: The Microculture Of Emerging Inquiry-Based Science Instruction In An Urban, Low Socioeconomic Elementary School Science Lab, Kimberly Dahl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic study of emerging inquiry-based science instruction in an urban, low socioeconomic elementary school science lab was designed to gain insight into the perspectives of the teacher and students. The study involved a Central Florida elementary school whose population was over 80 percent African-American. In this six month study, the researcher examined the classroom setting of a science lab teacher and her fourth and fifth grade students during a six month period of time. Data sources included interviews, field notes, reflections, and student work , which were used to identify the emerging themes and patterns in the study. The …

Go to article

Evolving Models From Observed Human Performance, Hans Karl Gustav Fernlund Jan 2004

Evolving Models From Observed Human Performance, Hans Karl Gustav Fernlund

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To create a realistic environment, many simulations require simulated agents with human behavior patterns. Manually creating such agents with realistic behavior is often a tedious and time-consuming task. This dissertation describes a new approach that automatically builds human behavior models for simulated agents by observing human performance. The research described in this dissertation synergistically combines Context-Based Reasoning, a paradigm especially developed to model tactical human performance within simulated agents, with Genetic Programming, a machine learning algorithm to construct the behavior knowledge in accordance to the paradigm. This synergistic combination of well-documented AI methodologies has resulted in a new algorithm that …

Go to article

Inelastic Dynamic Behavior And Design Of Hybrid Coupled Wall Systems, Mohamed Hassan Jan 2004

Inelastic Dynamic Behavior And Design Of Hybrid Coupled Wall Systems, Mohamed Hassan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A key consideration in seismic design of buildings is to ensure that the lateral load resisting system has an appropriate combination of strength, stiffness and energy dissipation capacity. Hybrid coupled wall systems, in which steel beams are used to couple two or more reinforced concrete shear walls in series, can be designed to have these attributes and therefore have the potential to deliver good performance under severe seismic loading. This research presents an investigation of the seismic behavior of this type of structural system. System response of 12- and 18-story high prototypes is studied using transient finite element analyses that …

Go to article

Genetic Analysis Of Rhoa Signaling During Epithelial Morphogenesis In Drosophila, Amanda Fitch Leppert Jan 2004

Genetic Analysis Of Rhoa Signaling During Epithelial Morphogenesis In Drosophila, Amanda Fitch Leppert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Epithelial morphogenesis is contingent upon cell shape changes. Cell shape changes are the driving force for the metamorphosis of the adult Drosophila leg from the leg imaginal disc precursor. Genetic analysis has identified several Drosophila genes involved in regulating cell shape changes during leg disc morphogenesis. These include members of the RhoA signaling pathway and the product of the Stubble-stubbloid (Sb-sbd) locus, a transmembrane serine protease. Mutations in the Sb-sbd gene interact genetically with the members of the RhoA signaling pathway, however the nature of the relationship between Sb-sbd serine protease activity and RhoA signaling is not understood. To identify …

Go to article

Location Of Sinkhole Confining Breach Using Groundwater Flow Patterns Derived From Cone Penetration Testing, Natalie Romina Marinuzzi Jan 2004

Location Of Sinkhole Confining Breach Using Groundwater Flow Patterns Derived From Cone Penetration Testing, Natalie Romina Marinuzzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic forces in the hydrologic cycle move underground water through Florida's carbonate rocks dissolving chemical components of the rocks, leaving behind caves, solution pipes, and other voids that result in a karst terrain. Ravelling is the common subsidence mechanism throughout most of Florida where unconsolidated materials filter downward into voids in the underlying limestone. A cavity in the overburden develops and enlarges over a period of many years. The enlarged cavity is also known as sinkhole. The investigations of sinkhole characteristics and potential involve studying the regional geology, hydrology and mapping historic sinkholes that have occurred in the area. Use …

Go to article

An Approach To Automating Data Collection For Simulation, Irin Portnaya Jan 2004

An Approach To Automating Data Collection For Simulation, Irin Portnaya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In past years many industries have utilized simulation as a means for decision making. That wave has introduced simulation as a powerful optimization and development tool in the manufacturing industry. Input data collection is a significant and complex event in the process of simulation. The simulation professionals have grown to accept it is as a strenuous but necessary task. Due to the nature of this task, data collection problems are numerous and vary depending on the situation. These problems may involve time consumption, lack of data, lack of structure, etc. This study concentrates on the challenges of input data collection …

Go to article

Gun Ownership Trends In The United States, 1973-2000, Jason Michael Ruckert Jan 2004

Gun Ownership Trends In The United States, 1973-2000, Jason Michael Ruckert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last half century, gun ownership has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the United States. The right to bear arms was written into the U. S. Constitution and into the hearts and minds of its citizens. During the last half century, however, numerous gun control laws have been enacted at Federal, state and local levels, and it can be argued (plausibly or not) that part of the legislative intent has been to decrease the number of gun owning households in the United States. For many decades, this number hovered at one half of all households …

Go to article

An Investigation Into The Apparent Over-Representation Of Blacks In Educable Mentally Handicapped Programs In K-12 Schools Within The 67 Florida Public School Districts, Arlene H. Thomson Jan 2004

An Investigation Into The Apparent Over-Representation Of Blacks In Educable Mentally Handicapped Programs In K-12 Schools Within The 67 Florida Public School Districts, Arlene H. Thomson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Placement into educable mentally handicapped (EMH) programs is necessary for some students in order to allow them the opportunity to receive an education appropriate for their special needs. Nonetheless, identification as EMH is often perceived as negative and demeaning. Decades of research have substantiated the over-representation of black students into certain categories of special education, including EMH, in comparison to white and Hispanic students. This disparity has raised questions within schools, academe and research communities, and legislative and governing bodies as to the causes, compelling factors, and related variables impacting the phenomenon. This study investigated the apparent over-representation of blacks …

Go to article

Finite Element Analysis Of A Test Specimen For Strength Of A Co-Polymer Layer At A Bone-Implant Interface, Nitin Chhabra Jan 2004

Finite Element Analysis Of A Test Specimen For Strength Of A Co-Polymer Layer At A Bone-Implant Interface, Nitin Chhabra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this work is to evaluate the mechanical strength of a co-polymer of 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and methylmethacrylate (MMA), so that it can be applied as an interfacial layer between bone cement and steel implants to improve their performance and life. Finite element (FE) analysis techniques are used to assess the behavior of the interface layer under static and dynamic loading conditions. The material property of the co-polymer is a function of its composition and water saturation. The factors affecting the strength of the bone-implant interface are many. Implant interfacial fracture can lead to decreased stability. Fatigue life is …

Go to article

Interactivity And User-Heterogeneity In On Demand Broadcast Video, Mounir Tantaoui El Araki Jan 2004

Interactivity And User-Heterogeneity In On Demand Broadcast Video, Mounir Tantaoui El Araki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video-On-Demand (VOD) has appeared as an important technology for many multimedia applications such as news on demand, digital libraries, home entertainment, and distance learning. In its simplest form, delivery of a video stream requires a dedicated channel for each video session. This scheme is very expensive and non-scalable. To preserve server bandwidth, many users can share a channel using multicast. Two types of multicast have been considered. In a non-periodic multicast setting, users make video requests to the server; and it serves them according to some scheduling policy. In a periodic broadcast environment, the server does not wait for service …

Go to article

Analysis And Modeling Of The Eds Maglev System Based On The Halbach Permanent Magnet Array, Qinghua Han Jan 2004

Analysis And Modeling Of The Eds Maglev System Based On The Halbach Permanent Magnet Array, Qinghua Han

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electro-dynamic suspension (EDS) Magnetic levitation (Maglev) with its advantage in maintenance, safety, efficiency, speed, and noise is regarded as a leading candidate for the next generation transportation / space launch assist system. The Halbach array due to its unique magnetic field feature has been widely used in various applications. The EDS system using Halbach arrays leads to the potential EDS system without super-conductor (SC) technology. In this thesis, the Halbach array magnetic field and the dynamics of a novel Halbach array EDS Maglev system were considered. The practical Halbach array magnetic field was analyzed using both a Fourier series approach …

Go to article

Mitochondrial Dna Analysis By Pyrosequencing, Patsy-Ann Susan Hastings Jan 2004

Mitochondrial Dna Analysis By Pyrosequencing, Patsy-Ann Susan Hastings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondrial DNA (deoxyribo nucleic acid) is typically used in forensic casework when small quantities of high molecular weight quality DNA is not expected to be present thus negating the chances of obtaining usable nuclear DNA. Typical samples that utilized mitochondrial DNA analysis are: hair, bones, teeth, ancient remains (samples or remains that are at least 100 years old) or very old samples (samples that are less than 100 but greater than 10 years old). The current method used to evaluate mitochondrial DNA is Sanger sequencing. Although robust, it is also time consuming and labor intensive, on the other hand pyrosequencing …

Go to article

Cell Phone Distraction Analysis Of Motor Response In A Simulated Driving Environment, Anusha Ravishankar Jan 2004

Cell Phone Distraction Analysis Of Motor Response In A Simulated Driving Environment, Anusha Ravishankar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Does the use of a cell phone while driving influence the driver's ability to execute a proper turn? Is there difference between genders pertaining to motor skill while driving in a simulated driving environment? To accomplish this task, three groups of ten participants (5 women and 5 men) each were tested using a scripted test scenario focusing on left and right turns. The participants were made to drive through a test scenario to get used to the driving simulator. The scenario for the experimental group was an inner-city training scenario with the presence of vehicular traffic and the main focus …

Go to article

An Investigation Of The Proficiency Level Of High School Students With Autism And Mental Retardation Within Community-Based Job Settings: The Relationship Between The Use Of A Hand-Held Computer Compared To Staff Modeling For Accurate Novel Job Skill Acquisition And Student Learning, Kimberly Gen Spence-Cochran Jan 2004

An Investigation Of The Proficiency Level Of High School Students With Autism And Mental Retardation Within Community-Based Job Settings: The Relationship Between The Use Of A Hand-Held Computer Compared To Staff Modeling For Accurate Novel Job Skill Acquisition And Student Learning, Kimberly Gen Spence-Cochran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects and efficacy of two vocational instructional interventions - a Hand-Held Computer intervention versus a Staff Model intervention - as vocational instructional tools for high school students with autism and mental retardation. Specifically, the study analyzed the effects of these two treatments on the completion of authentic novel job tasks within a local department store. This research indicated the provision of specific technology as an instructional model positively influenced participants' ability to: accurately complete tasks, exercise increased independence during task completion, reduce problematic behavior during task completion, and lower necessary staff prompts during task completion. The …

Go to article

Improving Project Management With Simulation And Completion Distributi, Grant Cates Jan 2004

Improving Project Management With Simulation And Completion Distributi, Grant Cates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the critical importance of project completion timeliness, management practices in place today remain inadequate for addressing the persistent problem of project completion tardiness. Uncertainty has been identified as a contributing factor in late projects. This uncertainty resides in activity duration estimates, unplanned upsetting events, and the potential unavailability of critical resources. This research developed a comprehensive simulation based methodology for conducting quantitative project completion-time risk assessments. The methodology enables project stakeholders to visualize uncertainty or risk, i.e. the likelihood of their project completing late and the magnitude of the lateness, by providing them with a completion time distribution function …

Go to article

Awareness, Knowledge, And Attitude About Environmental Education: Resp, Rodrigo Melchor Cruz Lasso De La Vega Jan 2004

Awareness, Knowledge, And Attitude About Environmental Education: Resp, Rodrigo Melchor Cruz Lasso De La Vega

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 30 years, environmental education has been part of the curriculum in Southwest Florida public schools. Curriculum objectives, such as, environmental attitude, knowledge, and awareness (AKA), have been investigated in the literature as ways to improve the overall behavior of future citizens toward the environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aforementioned objectives among the following groups: environmental specialists, high school instructors, high school students, and the parents of the corresponding students in three Southwest Florida counties during the 2003-2004 school year. An instrument was developed to measure the groups' levels of awareness, knowledge, and …

Go to article

Effective School Characteristics And Student Achievement Correlates As, James Doran Jan 2004

Effective School Characteristics And Student Achievement Correlates As, James Doran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between effective school characteristics and norm referenced standardized test scores in American-style international schools. In contrast to schools in traditional effective schools research, international schools typically have middle to high SES families, and display average to above average achievement. Eleven effective school characteristics were identified and correlated with standardized test scores for grades 4, 6, and 8 and high school SAT scores. Data was gathered from an online teacher questionnaire designed for this study. All eleven characteristics were present in high performing international schools while frequent analysis of student progress, …

Go to article

Habitat Use And Seasonal Activity Of Selected Snakes On John F. Kenned, Karen Dyer Jan 2004

Habitat Use And Seasonal Activity Of Selected Snakes On John F. Kenned, Karen Dyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An intensive, replicated monthly sampling of snake communities inhabiting four habitat types was conducted at John F. Kennedy Space Center, Brevard County, Florida from November 2002 through October 2003. Thirteen species (580 individuals plus 74 recaptures) plus one hybrid were captured. The three most commonly captured species, Coluber constrictor, Thamnophis sirtalis, and Thamnophis sauritus, combined made up 85% of the sample. These three species were active during every month of the year, but showed modal activity patterns typical of Temperate Zone snakes. Monthly snake captures were correlated with monthly captures of potential prey species and with mean monthly temperature. Species …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last