Digital Commons Network^™

Polygraph In Trade Secret Litigation: Overcoming Misconceptions And Paving The Way For Admissibility, Elisabeth A. Wilson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Ponder for a moment what you know about polygraph. Polygraph is sometimes referred to as a "lie detector" test. You may have seen a polygraph exam on television or a movie, but most people have a very limited understanding of what a polygraph examination really is. In fact, most depictions of polygraph seen in popular culture are overwhelmingly misleading and inaccurate. Likewise, the legal community's understanding of polygraph and how it can be utilized is scant, at best.

Courts have been divided for years over what role polygraph should play in litigation and have struggled with questions of admissibility. Confusion …

Construction Of Improved Temperature-Sensitive And Mobilizable Vectors And Their Use For Constructing Mutations In The Adhesin-Encoding Acm Gene Of Poorly Transformable Clinical Enterococcus Faecium Strains, Sreedhar R Nallapareddy, Kavindra V Singh, Barbara E Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Inactivation by allelic exchange in clinical isolates of the emerging nosocomial pathogen Enterococcus faecium has been hindered by lack of efficient tools, and, in this study, transformation of clinical isolates was found to be particularly problematic. For this reason, a vector for allelic replacement (pTEX5500ts) was constructed that includes (i) the pWV01-based gram-positive repAts replication region, which is known to confer a high degree of temperature intolerance, (ii) Escherichia coli oriR from pUC18, (iii) two extended multiple-cloning sites located upstream and downstream of one of the marker genes for efficient cloning of flanking regions for double-crossover mutagenesis, (iv) transcriptional terminator …

Reconsidering Public Relations’ Infatuation With Dialogue: Why Engagement And Reconciliation Can Be More Ethical Than Symmetry And Reciprocity, Kevin L. Stoker, Kati Tusinski Berg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Advocates of dialogic communication have promoted two-way symmetrical communication as the most effective and ethical model for public relations. This article uses John Durham Peters’s critique of dialogic communication to reconsider this infatuation with dialogue. In this article, we argue that dialogue’s potential for selectivity and tyranny poses moral problems for public relations. Dialogue’s emphasis on reciprocal communication also saddles public relations with ethically questionable quid pro quo relationships. We contend that dissemination can be more just than dialogue because it demands more integrity of the source and recognizes the freedom and individuality of the source. The type of communication, …

A Man And A Mission: Julius Rosenwald And Schools For African American Rural Children In The South, Martha May Tevis

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Demise Of Native American Mascots: It's Time To Do The Right Thing, Joyce M. Wolburg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose – The intent of this article is to show why the use of Native American mascots, logos, and nicknames by sports teams perpetuates depictions that are perceived as harmful and racist by Native Americans.

Design/methodology/approach – This article examines data from published research, personal correspondence, and essays by Native Americans so that non-natives can understand the issue from the native perspective. It also calls into question previous communication efforts that may have limited the voices of Native Americans.

Findings – By examining the meaning of warriors and other cultural symbols for Native Americans and by exploring the different views …

Information Commons At Brigham Young University: Past, Present, And Future, Michael J. Whitchurch, Jeffrey C. Belliston, William Baer

Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that the idea and implementation of information commons is becoming more prevalent in the academic library community. Many of these have been implemented in what were once General Reference areas of libraries. This paper discusses the process and experience of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, including concept development, acceptance and implementation. In addition, the first 18 months of operation and our visions for the future of our implementation are contained herein. One of the major themes of the paper is that change in an information commons is …

Behold, Ye Shall Have Joy With Me’: A Study On The Lord, The Servant And The Allegory Of The Olive Tree, Dan Belnap, Daniel L. Belnap

Faculty Publications

In chapter 5 of the book of Jacob, we find a unique text commonly referred to as the allegory of the olive tree. President Joseph Fielding Smith once said that “the parable of Zenos . . . is one of the greatest parables ever recorded.”1 Composed of seventy-seven verses, this allegory is thought to follow the progression of a particular olive tree and its offspring in the Lord’s vineyard. Many readers have commented on the special nature of the allegory, with studies ranging from theological meaning, to linguistic comparisons, to actual viticultural practices. Though these studies differ in content, they …

Design And Implementation Of Preparation Strategies For Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Stakeholders, Judith Josephs

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide better access to current preparation strategies for passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test. The test preparation strategies did not meet the needs of the students. The students did not know how to use the computer to study for the test and did not know how to study at home for the test. Teachers also did not know of the availability of electronic information to enrich their lessons and increase the achievement of vocational high school students.

The researcher developed strategies to train students and teachers on Bridges Transitions (1999) testGEAR and …

Radium Isotopes As Tracers Of Water Mass Age And Groundwater Flux To Shallow Coastal Salt Ponds, Andrea L. Hougham

Open Access Master's Theses

Water mass age within and submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to coastal southern Rhode Island was estimated from measurements of the naturally-occurring radioisotopes of ²²³Ra (t_1/2 = 3.66 days), ²²⁴Ra (t1/2 = 11.4 days), ²²⁶Ra (t1/2 = 1600 yrs) and ²²⁸Ra (t_1/2 = 5.75 yrs). Surface water and porewater samples were collected quarterly in Winnapaug, Quonochontaug, Ninigret, Green Hill, and Pt. Judith-Potter Ponds, as well as nearly monthly in the surface water of Rhode Island Sound, beginning January 2002 through August 2003. Additional porewater samples were collected in August 2005. Surface water activities ranged from …

Grundtivigianism In America, Yesterday And Today, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

It has been said, "In Denmark, everyone is a Grundtvigian whether he knows it or not." This certainly is not the case in America. Indeed, there are very few Grundtvigians in this country, and the prospects for increasing that number are very slight. This is not because the followers of Grundtvig have been "hiding their light under a bushel," but because the vast majority has not accepted it as light.

The Effects Of 9/11 On The Fire Fighter Labor Market, Kathleen E. Frawley '06

Honors Projects

The purpose of this study is to look at this apparent increase in demand for fire protection services in the theoretical framework of derived demand. The theory of derived demand tells us that the demand for labor in a certain field is determined by the demand for the goods or services produced by that labor (Freeman, 1972). More specifically, we should expect to see a shift to the right of the demand curve for fire fighters from the increased demand for fire protection services since September Eleventh. This should lead to greater employment levels and higher wages in the labor …

The Effect Of Oil Prices On Exchange Rates: A Case Study Of The Dominican Republic, Jennifer C. Dawson '06

Honors Projects

Oil imports represent a significant fraction of the trade balance for energy-dependant economies. In the case of small open economies with floating exchange rates, the variability in oil prices is expected to have a large impact on the relative value of the currency. Since oil contracts are denominated in US dollars, changes in the price of oil have significant implications for the demand and supply of foreign exchange. This relationship between the price of oil and the exchange rate has been established by the literature for oil-producing countries but not for oil-importing countries. This paper uses the case of the …

Design And Implementation Of 8 Bit Successive Approximation Adc At 1mhz, Sesha Smuruti Akkinapally

Open Access Master's Theses

Successive Approximation Analog to Digital converters (ADCs) are very popular for reasonably quick conversion time and good resolution yet moderate circuit complexity. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a Successive Approximation ADC with 8-bit resolution at lMHz speed in 0.5 um CMOS technology. Design, architecture, methodology and performance of the proposed ADC are presented.

The main features of the Successive Approximation (SAR) ADC architecture designed are very low power dissipation and small chip area because of the comparatively simple circuit implementation. The internal Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) is the most important block of the SAR ADC. Division …

Should Shielding Children From Internet Pornography And Protecting Free Speech Be Mutually Exclusive - Ashcroft V. American Civil Liberties Union, Adam Gates

MC Law Review

Note

The Principles On Agreements: "Fairness" And International Human Rights Law, Barbara J. Stark

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Family law is again in turmoil, and the ALI Principles are an ambitious and sometimes inspired effort to increase clarity and fairness. This turmoil can be attributed to two major factors. First, family law is ground zero in the gender wars. Second, family law is reeling from the upheavals of globalization. These factors provide the backdrop against which the dilemmas addressed in Chapter 7, Agreements, play out.

Chapter 7 focuses on a particularly intriguing tension, between commercial contracts and premarital agreements. This tension is grounded in the broader tension between American views on freedom of contract and autonomy in general, …

Disintegration-Of-Measure Techniques For Commuting Multivariable Weighted Shifts, Raúl E. Curto, Jasang Yoon

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We employ techniques from the theory of disintegration of measures to study the Lifting Problem for commuting $n$-tuples of subnormal weighted shifts. We obtain a new necessary condition for the existence of a lifting, and generate new pathology associated with bringing together the Berger measures associated to each individual weighted shift. For subnormal $2$-variable weighted shifts, we then find the precise relation between the Berger measure of the pair and the Berger measures of the shifts associated to horizontal rows and vertical columns of weights.

Multi-Model Kalman Filtering For Adaptive Nonuniformity: Correction In Infrared Sensors, Jorge E. Pezoa, Majeed M. Hayat, Sergio N. Torres, Md. Saifur Rahman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents an adaptive technique for the estimation of nonuniformity parameters of infrared focal-plane arrays that is robust with respect to changes and uncertainties in scene and sensor characteristics. The proposed algorithm is based on using a bank of Kalman filters in parallel. Each filter independently estimates state variables comprising the gain and the bias matrices of the sensor, according to its own dynamical-model parameters, which underly the statistics of the scene and the nonuniformity as well as the temporal drift in the nonuniformity. The supervising component of the algorithm then generates the final estimates of the state variables …

Vigilance In African Americans: Cardiovascular Reactivity And Phasic Heart Period Reactions To Cued Threat And Nonthreat Stimuli, Thomas Starr King

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African Americans are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors than are Whites, and recent research has suggested that the effects of racial discrimination are a significant contributor to this disparity. Thus, a preattentive bias and vigilance for threat might serve as a mechanism through which experienced racial discrimination would negatively impact cardiovascular health. A study was conducted to investigate the physiological and attentional underpinnings of vigilance for discriminatory threat via examination of phasic heart period (HP) responses to cued threat and nonthreat stimuli. Thirty African American and forty-two European American undergraduate students from a …

Laboratory Analysis Of Staphylococcus Aureus In Florida From January 1, 2003 To December 31, 2005 With An Emphasis On Methicillin Resistance, Stephanie Kolar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Staphylococci are gram-positive bacteria that cause infections in humans and can produce severe morbidity and mortality. Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates are resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics, such as methicillin, and cephalosporins making treatment of these infections more difficult. MRSA has become prevalent throughout the United States, spreading in the health care setting and the community.The purpose of this study is to examine methicillin resistance among S. aureus isolates in an outpatient population in the state of Florida and asses possible associations between methicillin resistance and age group, gender, and geographic area. It is important to define methicillin …

Control Of Lysogeny In Marine Bacteria: Studies With Φhsic And Natural Populations, Amy K. Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Viruses have an estimated global population size of 10 to the 31st, with a significant proportion found in the marine environment. Viral lysis of bacteria affects the flow of carbon in the marine microbial food web, but the effects of lysogeny on marine microbial ecology are largely unknown. In this thesis, factors that influence the control of lysogeny were studied in both the phiHSIC/Listonella pelagia phage-host system and in bacterioplankton populations in the Gulf of Mexico. Using macroarrays dotted with phiHSIC amplicons, viral gene expression over the course of a synchronous infection experiment was measured. Early, middle, late, and continually …

Gender Differences During Heat Strain At Critical Wbgt, Christina L. Luecke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heat stress is influenced by environmental conditions, workload and clothing. A critical environment is the upper limit of compensable heat stress for a given metabolic rate and clothing ensemble. The physiological strains associated with heat stress are core and skin temperatures, heart rate and physiological strain index (PSI). Because heat dissipation mechanisms may differ between men and women, there may be gender differences in the critical environment and the associated physiological variables. Gender differences were explored between acclimated men (n = 20) and women (n = 9) at the upper limit of compensable heat stress. Participants walked on a motorized …

Virginia Woolf And The Persistent Question Of Class: The Protean Nature Of Class And Self, Mary C. Madden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From the beginning of her career, Virginia Woolf moves beyond the perspective of her inherited class position to challenge a damaging class system. She increasingly recognizes the extent of her own complicity in the creation and maintenance of class structures supporting patriarchy, war, and British imperialism. Highlighting ambiguities inherent in the very category of class, she acknowledges the limiting "boxes" of language itself in attempts to rethink class. For Woolf, class is not monolithic but internally differentiated by gender and race. Examining Woolf's early work in relation to class theory shows that throughout her career Woolf interrogates the imbrication of …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Increased Levels Of O-Glcnac Protein Modification On Protein Kinase C And Akt, Jason Aaron Matthews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) is an abundant and ubiquitous post-translational modification that has been shown to play a role in regulating a variety of intracellular processes. The pathway responsible for generating the O-GlcNAc modification, the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP), has also been shown to affect the activity and translocation of certain protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms. To investigate if the effects of HBP flux on PKC translocation observed by others is related to the O-GlcNAc modification, O-GlcNAc levels in human astroglial cells were elevated using four separate O-GlcNAc modulating agents followed by analysis of cytosol and membrane concentrations of PKC-epsilon, -alpha, …

Study Of The Ethical Values Of College Students, Victor Mercader

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on five main purposes, all of them interrelated and each focused on ethical values, virtues, or character values. The five purposes are: a) Investigate college students' perceptions of ethical values, including their importance, application, usefulness, origin, benefits, need for education, and courses proposed to be included in the curricula; b) Review literature in areas related to ethical values, virtues or character values of college students; c) Develop and pilot an instrument to assess the ethical values of college students; d) Improve and use the developed instrument to describe the status of college students' ethical values; and e) …

Evaluation Of Aashto Design Specifications For Cast-In-Place Continuous Bridge Deck Using Remote Sensing Technique, Ebrahim Mehranipornejad

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research project concerns the construction, testing, and remote health monitoring of the first smart bridge structure in Florida, the East Bay bridge in Gibsonton, Hillsborough County. The East Bay Bridge is a four span, continuous, deck-type structure with a total length of 120' and width of 55'. The superstructure consists of an 18'' cast-in-place reinforced concrete slab, and is supported on pre-stressed pile bents, each consisting of 5 piles. The smart sensors used for remote health monitoring are the newly emerged Fabry --Perot (FP) Fiber Optic Sensors, and are both surface-mounted and embedded in the concrete deck.Static and Dynamic …

Altered Features Of Female Pigeons (Columba Livia) Elicit Preference Behavior In Male Pigeons, Tadd B. Patton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that male pigeons (Columba livia) respond with courtship displays to video playbacks of a female pigeon indicating that they 'recognize' the female as a potential mate. Courtship displays significantly decline when the head region of the female is occluded (Shimizu, 1998) suggesting that features located within the head are important for species recognition and mate selection. However, little is known about the exact visual features necessary to elicit displays. The current study examined the preference behavior of male pigeons when given a choice between photographic images of normal looking or altered female pigeon faces. The altered-face …

Clarifying The Cohesion-Performance Relationship In Teams: Backup Behavior As A Mediating Mechanism, Matthew S. Prewett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between team cohesion and team performance has been extensively studied, but behavioral mediators of this relationship have not been adequately assessed. This study proposed that backup behavior mediates the relationship between team cohesion and team performance. In addition, it was also hypothesized that team goal commitment would moderate the relationship between team cohesion and team backup behavior. 138 participants forming 46 teams of three were assigned to one of fours conditions to test this framework: high cohesion/high goal commitment, high cohesion/low goal commitment, low cohesion/high goal commitment, and low cohesion/low goal commitment. Results indicated no significant differences between …

Spin Polarization Measurements And Sensor Applications In Thin Films And Carbon Nanotube-Based Devices, Jeff T. Sanders

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The unique properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) show a great deal of potential for nanoelectronic devices, spintronic devices, biosensing and chemical sensing applications. Their applicability as interconnects for spintronic devices derives from their one-dimensionality and theoretically predicted preservation of spin current. In this work, we combine an investigation of spin polarization in materials such as half metallic oxides in thin film and bulk form with studies on several aspects of CNTs for sensing and spin transport applications. These two areas of study are intimately related within the umbrella of spin-electronics and nanoscale sensors that are being pursued with great topical …

The Causal Effect Of Alcohol Consumption On Employment Status, Chanvuth Sangchai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol consumption may affect labor market outcomes directly through a reduction in productivity and indirectly through human capital accumulation. However, empirical results from previous studies in the economics literature are mixed and inconclusive. While some researchers found negative effects of alcohol use on labor market outcomes, quite a few studies found either positive or insignificant effects. The purpose of this dissertation is to estimate causal effects of alcohol consumption on employment status. It uses three data sets previously unexploited for this purpose and attempts to eliminate any potential estimation problems from previous studies. The results show that previous problematic heavy …

Advancements In Rapid Load Test Data Regression, Michael Jeffrey Stokes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rate-dependent effects introduced during rapid and/or dynamic events have typically been oversimplified to compensate for deficiencies in present analyses. As load test results are generally considered as the basis of performance from which foundations can be designed, it is imperative that the analyzed load test data be as accurate as possible. In an attempt to progress the state of load test data regression, this dissertation addresses two common assumptions made during the regression process: (1) the statnamic damping coefficient is constant throughout the entire load test and (2) the concrete stress-strain relationship is linear-elastic. Also presented is a case study …