Digital Commons Network^™

Community Benchmarks: An Analysis Of Performance Measurements In Urban Planning Management, Susan Joan Daluddung

Dissertations and Theses

New public management practices in the U.S. call for governmental accountability, performance measures and benchmarks. Community benchmarks research provides a basis for current information and further research for planners and educators in the urban planning profession. A benchmark is simply a standard for performance or targeted level of service delivery aspired to by the city. Community benchmarks, as defined by the researcher, are tied to an adopted community plan. Community plans take many shapes including the General or Comprehensive Plan, the city's budget document, or a variety of strategic planning documents.

The intent of the study was to complete research …

Intuitive Decision Making And Leadership Style Among Healthcare Executives In The United States, Cherie Whiting

Dissertations

The purpose of this two-phased, sequential, exploratory, mixed-methods study was to survey a sample of Fellows in the American College of Healthcare Executives in the United States and then interview selected individuals who scored in the highly intuitive category on the intuition survey to explore how they made intuitive decisions. In the first phase, quantitative research questions addressed the relationship between leadership style and the potential to make intuitive decisions, as well as the relationship and interaction between the potential to make intuitive decisions and age, gender, and size of company. In the second phase, qualitative interviews were used to …

From Queer To Paternity: How Primary Gay Fathers Are Changing Fatherhood And Gay Identity, E. Gary Spitko

Faculty Publications

In this symposium paper, I reflect upon how public images of gay fathers who raise children from the start as a gay couple are likely to impact the identity both of gay men and of fatherhood. I consider both the perceptions of the larger society as well as the self-images of gay men and their perceptions of fatherhood. For ease of reference, I refer to such gay fathers who begin fathering while in a gay relationship as primary gay fathers. I contrast primary gay fathers with the first generation of gay fathers to come to American public consciousness - gay …

Temporal Perspectives: Resolving The Conflict Between Current And Future Investors, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the temporal conflict between current and future investors. Although disclosure can reduce the information asymmetry between a firm and investors in the firm's securities, disclosure itself involves probabilities and difficult judgment choices and often is ambiguous. If a risk is possible though unlikely, should management disclose it? If the risk should be disclosed, how prominently should it be disclosed? These questions highlight the temporal conflict: disclosure of a possible risk harms a firm's current investors, and the more prominent the disclosure, the greater their harm; but failure to disclose the risk, or to give sufficient prominence to …

Behavioral Economics And Health Policy: Understanding Medicaid’S Failure, Barak D. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article employs a behavioral economic analysis to understand why Medicaid has failed to improve the health outcomes of its beneficiaries. It begins with a formal economic model of health care consumption and then systematically incorporates a survey of psychosocial variables to formulate explanations for persistent health disparities. This methodology suggests that consulting the literature in health psychology and intertemporal decision theory - empirical sources generally excluded from orthodox economic analysis - provides valuable material to explain certain findings in health econometrics. More significantly, the lessons from this behavioral economic approach generate useful policy considerations for Medicaid policymakers, who largely …

Progress And Economy: The Clash Of Values Over Oregon's Trojan Nuclear Plant, Gregory Nipper

Dissertations and Theses

From 1976 to 1992 Portland General Electric (PGE) -- a private utility based in Portland, Oregon -- operated the Trojan Nuclear Plant near Rainier, Oregon, on the bank of the Columbia River. Trojan was the first commercial nuclear facility in the Pacific Northwest and was the largest such facility in U.S. history. From its origins, Trojan was the focus of growing conflict over atomic energy facilities and their environmental effects, risks, and costs. This thesis traces the history of Trojan, including the conditions in which PGE decided to build the plant as well as the changing conditions in which the …

Reactions To The Seventh-Day Adventist Evangelical Conferences And Questions On Doctrine 1955-1971, Juhyeok Nam

Dissertations

Topic

The Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences of 1955-1956 resulted in the publication of articles favorable to Adventists in Eternity and Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, both of which evoked a variety of reactions among evangelicals and Adventists.

Purpose

This study identifies and analyzes various evangelical and Adventist responses to the Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences and Questions on Doctrine. In particular, this investigation examines the interaction between the major theological camps that emerged within and outside the Adventist church.

Sources

This research is a documentary/analytical study of materials produced between 1955 and 1971 in reaction to the Seventh-day Adventist …

Perceptions Of The Mathematics Achievement Gap: A Survey Of Nctm Membership, Robert Q. Berry, Linda Bol

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Choice, Crypto-Initiaives, And Policymaking By Direct Democracy, Thad Kousser, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Brief History Of Bioperl, Colin Crossman, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

Large-scale open-source projects face a litany of pitfalls and difficulties. Problems of contribution quality, credit for contributions, project coordination, funding, and mission-creep are ever-present. Of these, long-term funding and project coordination can interact to form a particularly difficult problem for open-source projects in an academic environment.

BioPerl was chosen as an example of a successful academic open-source project. Several of the roadblocks and hurdles encountered and overcome in the development of BioPerl are examined through the telling of the history of the project. Along the way, key points of open-source law are explained, such as license choice and copyright.

The …

Gender Differences In The Self-Efficacy Of African Americans With Type Ii Diabetes: A Secondary Analysis Of A Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, Haley Erica Shead

Masters Theses

African Americans with type II diabetes must possess the self-efficacy to manage and cope with the chronic illness in order to prevent further decline in physical and psychosocial health. This secondary analysis of data examined gender differences in self-efficacy with the theoretical frameworks of Lazarus (1993), Bandura (1971), and Bandura and Bussey (1999). There were no significant differences found between the mean scores on the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease 6-Item Scale (Lorig, 1999) for the subgroups of males and females. Other variables such as years diagnosed with diabetes, family members with diabetes, and HbA_1c levels were not related …

Home: A Concept Analysis With Application Of The Concept To Experiences Of Individuals With Serious And Persistent Mental Illness, Corinne A. Overmyer

Masters Theses

The purpose of this paper was to explore and define the concept of home through an extensive review of the literature. The concept analysis framework of Walker and Avant (1995) was used to structure the paper and the theories of Johnson (1980) and Maslow (1954) were used for operationalization. The literature search examined characteristics of home applicable to all individuals. The concept’s defining attributes were discovered and applied to the home experiences of those living with serious and persistent mental illness. Homes were evaluated to assess for attribute presence and to determine if the homes were model, borderline, or contrary. …

One Wedding And A Revolution: A Film By Debra Chasnoff, Jean C. Love, Patricia A. Cain

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Medical Malpractice And The Tort System In Illinois (Report To The Illinois State Bar Association, May 2005), Neil Vidmar

Faculty Scholarship

A report to the Illinois State Bar Association of a study examining the incidence, frequency, size of verdicts and other aspects of the medical malpractice system in Illinois. The study looked at statewide data where available, concentrating on Cook and DuPage counties, and Madison and St. Clair counties. The study concludes that the Illinois tort system does not appear to be the cause of the undisputed fact that doctors' liability insurance premiums showed dramatic rises.

Book Review, Just Trade, Joost H. B. Pauwelyn

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing, Frank J. Garcia, Trade, Inequality and Justice: Toward a Liberal Theory of Just Trade (2003)

Proprietary Rights And Collective Action: The Case Of Biotechnology Research With Low Commercial Value, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Sutherland Report: A Missed Opportunity For Genuine Debate On Trade, Globalization, And Reforming The Wto, Joost H. B. Pauwelyn

Faculty Scholarship

In January 2005, at the 10th anniversary of the organization, the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued the long-awaited high-level panel report on The Future of the WTO. This essay explains why the so-called Sutherland Report, named after one of its authors, is likely to be regarded by history as a missed opportunity. The report was written by insiders, focuses on insider problems and offers what are essentially insider-based solutions. The essay addresses two specific foundational problems skirted in the Sutherland report: (i) the WTO's protectionist/producer bias and (ii) the question of coordination and coherence with other international organizations. It also …

Creating Markets For Ecosystem Services: Notes From The Field, James Salzman

Faculty Scholarship

Created by the interactions of living organisms with their environment, ecosystem services support our society in many critical ways, from providing clean air and water, decomposing waste, and pollinating flowers, to regulating climate, and pacifying floodwaters. Interest in ecosystem service markets has recently exploded, with a cover article in The Economist just a few months ago. Scholarship in the field, though, is still quite young. Despite their immense practical value, with rare exception, ecosystem services are neither prized by markets nor explicitly protected by the law. In recent years, an increasing number of initiatives around the world have sought to …

Precautionary Regulation In Europe And The United States: A Quantitative Comparison, Jonathan B. Wiener, James K. Hammitt, Brendon Swedlow, Denise Kall, Zheng Zhou

Faculty Scholarship

Much attention has been addressed to the question of whether Europe or the United States adopts a more precautionary stance to the regulation of potential environmental, health, and safety risks. Some commentators suggest that Europe is more risk-averse and precautionary, whereas the US is seen as more risk-taking and optimistic about the prospects for new technology. Others suggest that the US is more precautionary because its regulatory process is more legalistic and adversarial, while Europe is more lax and corporatist in its regulations. The flip-flop hypothesis claims that the US was more precautionary than Europe in the 1970s and early …

Book Review, Jonathan B. Wiener

Faculty Scholarship

Reviewing, Richard A. Posner, Catastrophe: Risk and Response (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2005)

Introductory Report On The World Trade Organization, Joost H. B. Pauwelyn

Faculty Scholarship

Presented at Palma Workshop, 20-21 May 2005, on Unity and Fragmentation in International Law.

The Globalization Of Private Knowledge Goods And The Privatization Of Global Public Goods, Jerome H. Reichman, Keith H. Maskus

Faculty Scholarship

Global trade and investment have become increasingly liberalized in recent decades. This liberalization has lately been accompanied by substantive new requirements for strong minimum standards of intellectual property (IP) protection, which moves the world economy toward harmonized private rights in knowledge goods. While this trend may have beneficial impacts in terms of innovation and technology diffusion, such impacts would not be evenly distributed across countries. Deep questions also arise about whether such globalization of rights to information will raise roadblocks to the national and international provision of such public goods as environmental protection, public health, education, and scientific advance. This …

Exiting Treaties, Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article analyzes the under-explored phenomenon of unilateral exit from international agreements and intergovernmental organizations. Although clauses authorizing denunciation and withdrawal from treaties are pervasive, international legal scholars and international relations theorists have largely ignored them. This Article draws upon new empirical evidence to provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework for understanding treaty exit. It examines when and why states abandon their treaty commitments and explains how exit helps to resolve certain theoretical and doctrinal puzzles that have long troubled scholars of international affairs.

Common-Law Disclosure Duties And The Sin Of Omission: Testing The Meta-Theories, Kimberly D. Krawiec, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

Since ancient times, legal scholars have explored the vexing question of when and what a contracting party must disclose to her counterparty, even in the absence of explicit misleading statements. This fascination has culminated in a set of claims regarding which factors drive courts to impose disclosure duties on informed parties. Most of these claims are based on analysis of a small number of non-randomly selected cases and have not been tested systematically. This article represents the first attempt to systematically test a number of these claims using data coded from 466 case decisions spanning over a wide array of …

Cam Controlled Walking Robot, Andrew Crow

Honors Capstones

The objective ofthis project is to create a walking robot employing a cam controlled leg. The cam controlled walker was first theorized in the Master's Thesis of Xiaonan Wan of Northern Illinois University. The principle of a cam controlled is to combine the advantages of both wheels and legs into one manipulator. The robot is constructed 'of a body with four motor driven walking pods. Each pod consisted of three cam-controlled members. The robot is capable of walking in a smooth, strait and level line, when it is activated. The robot is designed to be less than 69 centimeters and …

The Reproductive Effectiveness Of Reindeer Bulls On Depo-Provera, Danielle Anderson

Honors Capstones

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) are a domesticated variety of caribou, commonly bred and herded by humans in some northern countries. Use of Depo-Provera (DP) is of interest to many reindeer breeders and exhibitors across North America. While on DP, bulls are more easily handled and treated as they would be throughout the rest of the year. A regimen of injectable Depo-Provera (DP) appears to be effective in controlling extremely aggressive behavior of reindeer bulls during the rut. However, it is not known whether or not this lowers their ability to breed as many cows as would have without the DP shots. …

A Regularized And Renormalized Electrostatic Coupling Hamiltonian For Hybrid Quantum-Mechanical–Molecular-Mechanical Calculations, Pradip K. Biswas, Valentin Gogonea

Chemistry Faculty Publications

We describe a regularized and renormalized electrostatic coupling Hamiltonian for hybrid quantum-mechanical (QM)–molecular-mechanical (MM) calculations. To remedy the nonphysical QM/MM Coulomb interaction at short distances arising from a point electrostatic potential (ESP) charge of the MM atom and also to accommodate the effect of polarized MM atom in the coupling Hamiltonian, we propose a partial-wave expansion of the ESP charge and describe the effect of a s-wave expansion, extended over the covalent radius rc, of the MM atom. The resulting potential describes that, at short distances, large scale cancellation of Coulomb interaction arises intrinsically from the localized expansion of the …

Underlying Representations In Children's Speech, Jessica Kay Wert

Honors Capstones

Knowledge of a child's underlying phonemic categories would be extremely helpful when working with children with speech-language impairments. Morris (1999) analyzed the speech productions and perceptions of 15 preschool children and grouped them based on their performance on the production and perception tasks. Three groups emerged. The current study reports on acoustic analysis of 8 children's productions of lsi and lei. The concept that was expanded upon was that children listen differently to sounds than adults (Nittrouer, Studdert-Kennedy, McGowan, 1989). If the specific acoustic characteristic that children weight so heavily can be determined, that characteristic can be found in the …

Living Waters: An Invitation To Contemplative Spirituality For The Quail Springs Church Of Christ, Wyatt E. Fenno

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project addressed an acknowledged need for ministry action to promote and facilitate communal spiritual formation in the present and future life of the Quail Springs Church of Christ. The focus of the project was to present a model of contemplative spirituality determined to be accessible to the ministry context at Quail Springs. In addressing the problem of community fragmentation at Quail Springs, this model was offered as a means of grace to deepen faith and strengthen relationships in church life at Quail Springs. A pilot group of six women and six men served as the working group for this …

Aadej Comm 36 2 2005

AADEJ - The Communicator

The Communicator is the official journal of the American Association of Dental Editors and Journalists (AADEJ). It is published quarterly, distributed digitally via email to members, and posted on the Association's website, AADEJ.org. Each issue includes regular updates from the editorial team and AADEJ board, as well as feature articles on current issues in the field.