Digital Commons Network^™

Gis In An Age Of Homeland Security: Accessing Public Information To Ensure A Sustainable Environment, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

Critical to the goal of achieving sustainable development is governments' ability to maintain public information, including maps, charts, statistics, and narrative text, about a wide variety of environmental factors, indicators, resources, and threats in easily understandable formats that are readily accessible to the public. While federal and state freedom of information laws help to ensure a relatively high rate of public access to traditional information, such as environmental impact statements, studies and reports,significant environmental events and resources, and census data, the growing use and reliance on geographic information systems ("GIS") has the potential to move the public discourse to a …

Security In Serverless Network Environments, Carl Holtje

Theses

As portable computing devices grow in popularity, so does the need for secure communications. Lacking tethers, these devices are ideal for forming small proximal groups in an ad-hoc fashion in environments where no server or permanent services are available. Members of these groups communicate over a broadcast or multicast network interconnect, and rely upon each other to form a cohesive group. While generally small in size and short in lifetime, security is a critical aspect of these groups that has received much academic attention in recent years. Much of the research focuses upon generating a common, group-wide private key suitable …

A Comparison Of Reputation-Based Trust Systems, John Folkerts

Theses

Recent literature contains many examples of reputation systems which are constructed in an ad hoc way or rely upon some heuristic which has been found to be useful. However, comparisons between these reputation systems has been impossible because there are no established methods of comparing performance. This paper introduces a simulation framework which can be used to perform comparison analysis between reputation models. Two reputation models, one from Abdul-Rahman and Hailes (ARH) [1], and one from Mui, Mohtashemi, and Halberstadt (MMH) [17] are implemented and compared with regard to accuracy, performance and resistance to deception. In order to improve performance …

Irresponsible Legislating: Reeling In The Aftermath Of Kelo, Patricia E. Salkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Final Offer Arbitration, Harold I. Abramson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

“The Indispensable Basis Of Democracy”: American Catholicism, The Church-State Debate, And The Soul Of American Liberalism, 1920–1929, Zachary R. Calo

Scholarly Works

Several recent works of scholarship explore how Establishment Clause jurisprudence has been shaped by broader political debates over the role of religion in public life. This literature focuses on the politics of anti-Catholicism, particularly during the early years of Establishment Clause jurisprudence in the1940s and 1950s. While not questioning the centrality of this period to the historical narrative, this Note argues that the political contest over church and state took shape in an earlier debate over the compatibility of Catholicism and the Constitution during the 1920s. The Church’s response to the anti-Catholicism of this period was of particular importance. Catholic …

Resolving A Split: May Courts Order Consolidation Of Arbitration Proceedings Absent Express Agreement By The Parties, Jonathan R. Waldron

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Illinois Farmers Insurance Co. v. Glass Service Co., 8 the Minnesota Supreme Court had the opportunity to revisit its 1973 decision in Grover-Dimond Associates v. American Arbitration Ass'n 9 in light of conflicting case law developed since that time.' 0 This Note will address the current split in state and federal courts, and suggest that the best way to resolve this issue is through state adoption of the RUAA.

Confidentiality In Mediation: Is It Encouraging Good Mediation Or Bad Conduct, Sarah Williams

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Mediation has long been used in the judicial system of the United States to offer an alternative to litigation which can save time and money. Not only have its cost-effective and time efficient attributes contributed to its use, but the judiciary and legislature have often encouraged its use in order to mitigate the number of cases in the court system. In some states, the legislature has enacted statutes to make mediation mandatory before certain adjudications will even take place. Furthermore, to encourage these mediations to settle, many legislatures and jurisdictions have enacted statutes to protect the confidentiality of the mediation. …

Automated Extraction Of Disease-Gene Relationships From Medline, Jennifer R. Paine

Theses

The increasing amount of scientific information available to researchers in the form of biomedical literature is beginning to bring about a need for the development of tools to extract information automatically from these sources. One segment of information of particular interest to researchers is the linkage information between genes and diseases. These linkages can help researchers interpret large-scale genomics studies as well as make logical connections between gene expression levels and certain phenotypes. To make the finding and collecting of this information practical, automated methods of information extraction are required. In this paper, I propose a method for the automated …

Active Barrier Packaging: Extending The Product Life Of Orange Juice Packaged In Gable Top Cartons, Ann Marie Kenback Chuprevich

Theses

Providing a package that can actively participate in prolonging the product shelf life of orange juice adds value, both financially and nutritionally, to the product and to the package. The code date and shelf life of orange juice is in part determined by the ability of the product to maintain the level of vitamin C as stated on the nutritional label. Vitamin C deteriorates in the presence of oxygen; therefore, removal of oxygen from the package will decelerate the process of oxidation thereby diminishing the loss of vitamin C and prolonging the quality of the orange juice. The refrigerated shelf …

Designing Medical Legal Exhibits: A Guide To Creating Successful Presentations, Sara M. Krause

Theses

This thesis provides design instruction for medical illustrators, including ideas and facts about design, literacy, attention, retention, and recall. It is designed to help illustrators create persuasive printed exhibits to serve as demonstrative evidence in court cases.

An Investigation Of Verbal Versus Visual Persuasive Elements In Travel And Gambling Pop-Up Advertisements, Elizabeth Karras

Theses

Although pop-up advertisements generate ill will, these ads, have an above average clickthrough rate compared to other forms of Internet advertising such as the banner ad, illustrating the significance this form has in modern day advertising. Travel and gambling ads are analyzed in the following study. Previous literature includes studies on factors that play an integral role in the success or failure of an online advertisement, the effectiveness of internet marketing on internet users, persuasive appeals used in advertising, and experiential consumption. Research on pop-up advertisements has focused primarily on tactics, their effects on the consumer, and their failures and …

Five Year Study Of The Effectiveness Of Safety Incentive Programs Instituted At Bj's Wholesale Club, Peter D. Van Derlyke

Theses

Safety incentive programs have been employed for many years as a means of keeping employee injuries under control. There are many ways incentives can be implemented and little is known about which are the most effective. This thesis project reports on a study conducted over five (5) years at some of BJ's Wholesale Club's highest accident frequency rate locations. Each year several locations with high accident frequency rates were chosen to be on what was called the Safety Task Force. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if safety incentives would aid in the reduction of workplace accidents. This …

The Relationship Between Young Women's Large And Small Friendship Networks, Self-Reported Preferences And The Influence Of Popular Fashion Magazine Readership, Meghann E. Connor

Theses

Friendship networks impact self-perceived body images, appearance, popularity, attractiveness, style, pressure, and self-consciousness. This study examines both large and small friendship networks and young women's popular fashion magazine readership. Eighty-seven senior high school young women completed a 22-question survey to determine placement in large or small networks. The survey was used to determine questions later discussed in the report. Significant differences were found between females in large and small networks with regard to attractiveness and style after reading fashion magazines. No other variables were found to be significant.

Women In The Printing Industry: The Challenges Of Women Press Operators, Margaret Przelski

Theses

There appear to be very few women press operators in the printing industry. Unfortunately, the reasons for this situation are not clearly understood. To investigate this phenomenon, three different questionnaires were administered to the following groups:

• human resource managers selected from the top local Rochester commercial printing companies listed in the Rochester Business Journal,

• alumni from RIT's School of Print Media, and

• women with press operation experience.

The main purpose of the first survey was to determine how many women were actually employed as press operators in Rochester, New York. If women weren't working as press operators, what positions did …

Asthma Brochure And Logo For Rochester General Hospital's Camp Bronchopower And Pediatric Associates, Christine Marie Curtiss

Theses

This thesis describes the creation of a lay public educational brochure for Rochester General Hospital, showing asthmatic children how to use a spacer device with a metered dose inhaler. The thesis was created using the author's original artwork and was translated and adapted for a Spanish version. The second part of the thesis describes the revision of the logo for Camp Bronchopower, a children's asthma camp run by Rochester General Hospital.

Canons Of Construction And The Elusive Quest For Neutral Reasoning, James J. Brudney, Corey Ditslear

Vanderbilt Law Review

Federal statutes, like the lawmaking enterprise itself, are seldom models of efficiency. Whether through inevitable laxity or conscious choice, Congress when legislating leaves a fair number of gaps in the meaning of its complex regulatory schemes. In filling those gaps with case-specific interpretive responses, federal courts perform an important policymaking function.

Such policymaking has lately generated increased concerns about the politicization of the judiciary. Scholars using social science techniques have contributed to the image of courts as policymakers, by establishing that judges' political party affiliation and ideological orientation are at times significant predictors of voting behavior. Presidents and senators have …

The Civilization Of The Criminal Law, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law Review

The boundaries of the criminal justice system are eroding. A vast amount of relatively innocuous behavior is now criminalized. The line between criminal penalties and administrative sanctions is dissolving, as criminal law relaxes its mens rea requirements and government bureaucracies aggressively pursue regulatory violations. Distinctions between criminal and civil forfeiture, contempt, and deportation proceedings have been vanishingly subtle for some time. Perhaps the most serious assault on the integrity of today's criminal justice system, however, is the increasing prominence of the "dangerousness criterion" as justification for confinement by the government. Governmental deprivations of liberty have usually been the province of …

Modification Of A Single-Solvent-Based Gravure Ink For Enhance Wettability And Substrate Adhesion, Wiphut Janjomsuke

Theses

In this research, the effect of solvent types and pigment types on C-type ester-based gravure inks were studied. Three of the widely used solvent types and two of the pigment types were used in this study. The characteristics of the modified inks were investigated by measuring the most important physical properties of the inks: (i) surface energy, (ii) contact angle, (iii) viscosity and (iv) substrate adhesion. The experiment results showed that the ink properties changed significantly depending on the solvent type, while pigment type variation had a negligible effect on the ink properties. From this experiment, the most improved properties …

The Implementation Of Homeland Security Efforts In Response Organizations: Monroe County, New York Case Study, Heather M. Savage

Theses

The events from 9/11 have prompted many changes in American society. Perhaps the biggest change can be seen in the Emergency Response field. The initial response to the events of 9/11 was a huge push at readying responders for future attacks. However, it can now be seen throughout the response community that the initial emphasis on terrorism readiness has turned into complacency and that the goal of fully preparing each responder has not yet been attained. There are many factors preventing the physical and mental preparation of each Emergency Responder and these factors range from lack of funding to lack …

An Experimental Investigation Into The Effect Of Surfactants On Air-Water Two-Phase Flow In Minichannels, Nathan J. English

Theses

The complex interfacial phenomena involved in two-phase gas-liquid flow have defied mathematical simplification and modeling. However, the systems are used in heat exchangers, condensers, chemical processing plants, and nuclear reactor systems. The present work considers a 1 mm square minichannel and adiabatic flows corresponding to practical PEM fuel cell conditions. Pressure drop data is collected in experimentation covering mass fluxes of 4.0-33.6 kg/m2s, which correspond to superficial gas and liquid velocities of 3.4-10 m/s and 0.001-0.02 m/s respectively. The experiments are repeated with water of reduced surface tension, caused by the addition of surfactant, in order to quantify the surface …

Hardware And Software Multi-Precision Implementations Of Cryptographic Algorithms, Muhammad A. Janjua

Theses

The software implementations of cryptographic algorithms are considered to be very slow, when there are requirements of multi-precision arithmetic operations on very long integers. These arithmetic operations may include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and exponentiation. Several research papers have been published providing different solutions to make these operations faster. Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) is a cryptographic application that requires multi-precision arithmetic operations. These arithmetic operations are mostly based upon modular multiplication and exponentiation on integers of the size of 1024 bits. The use of such numbers is an essential part of providing high security against the cryptanalytic attacks on the …

Realm Of Possibilities: The Portrayal Of Women In Futuristic Science Fiction Movies, Aru Basu

Theses

This study examines the portrayal of women in 50 science-fiction films produced in the U.S. The method was content analysis and the unit of analysis was the film scene. Presentations of women were analyzed by examining demographic variables and behavioral traits. For a further insight, comparisons have been made between older women (40 years and above) and younger women (below 40 years) and between "human" women and "other" women. This study reveals that there are few differences with previous studies undertaken on portrayal of women. Overall, women in the sciencefiction future have not been portrayed in a significantly different way …

“Culture Of Life” Politics At The Bedside: The Case Of Terri Schiavo, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

For the first time in the history of the United States, Congress met in a special emergency session on Sunday, March 20, to pass legislation aimed at the medical care of one patient — Terri Schiavo. President George W. Bush encouraged the legislation and flew back to Washington, D.C., from his vacation in Crawford, Texas, so that he could be on hand to sign it immediately. In a statement issued three days earlier, he said: “The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues. . . . Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. …

Unspeakably Cruel: Torture, Medical Ethics, And The Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Torture is a particularly horrible crime, and any participation of physicians in torture has always been difficult to comprehend. As General Telford Taylor explained to the American judges at the trial of the Nazi doctors in Nuremberg, Germany (called the “Doctors' Trial”), “To kill, to maim, and to torture is criminal under all modern systems of law . . . yet these [physician] defendants, all of whom were fully able to comprehend the nature of their acts . . . are responsible for wholesale murder and unspeakably cruel tortures.” Taylor told the judges that it was the obligation of the …

Jumping Frogs, Endangered Toads, And California's Medical-Marijuana Law, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Mark Twain wasn't thinking about federalism or the structure of American government when he wrote “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Nonetheless, he would be amused to know that today, almost 150 years later, the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee not only has a jumping-frog contest but also has its own Frog Welfare Policy. The policy includes a provision for the “Care of Sick or Injured Frogs” and a limitation entitled “Frogs Not Permitted to Participate,” which stipulates that “under no circumstances will a frog listed on the endangered species list be permitted to participate in the …

The (Non)Uniqueness Of Environmental Law, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

In everyday discourse, the label "environmental law" signifies a distinct and unique area of the law. The uniqueness of environmental law stems most obviously from the subject matter of environmental legislation and regulation. But does environmental law also differ from other areas of law with respect to how judges ought to approach deciding cases? Should judges act differently somehow when they are deciding an environmental law case as opposed to, for example, a labor law or banking law case? At least one influential scholar - Richard Lazarus of the Georgetown University Law Center - has argued that the distinctive features …

The Practice Of Marriage, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past 40 years, robust law has developed addressing the treatment of non-marital cohabitants. Consequently, the government's gatekeeping role operates somewhat differently than before. States are now more clearly policing the social benefits and the symbolism accompanying marriage, having agreed to provide many of its legal benefits to non-marital couples. This article investigates the state's current role in articulating and managing, as well as responding to, the social meaning of marriage in the context of three recent high profile cases: the prosecution of polygamist Tom Green, the Goodridge same sex marriage case in Massachusetts, and the challenge to Michael …

Turning From Damage Caps To Information Disclosure: An Alternative To Tort Reform, Kathryn Zeiler

Faculty Scholarship

Medical malpractice damage caps are among the most popular instruments of tort reform at the state level. Recently the Bush administration proposed a federal damage cap on non-economic damages to quell the rise of medical malpractice insurance premiums despite the paucity of empirical evidence demonstrating that damage caps actually decrease premiums. This Case Study argues that imposing statutory caps on medical malpractice damages is not an effective method of remedying the medical malpractice insurance crisis: therefore, policymakers should consider alternatives to damage caps. In particular, evidence suggests that implementing mandatory disclosure of the contract terms between managed care organizations and …

Calabresi And The Intellectual History Of Law And Economics, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This essay traces the vein of thought represented by Calabresi's "The Costs of Accidents", both backward in time to examine its sources, and forward to its impact on current scholarship. I focus on three broad topics: positive versus normative law and economics, positivist versus anti-positivist thinking in law, and the assumption of rationality in law and economics.