Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Prosecutorial Decision Making: Some Lessons Of Cognitive Science, Alafair Burke

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article draws on cognitive psychology to develop a new explanation for prosecutorial misconduct. Traditionally, commentators have clothed the study of prosecutorial decision making in the rhetoric of fault. They have attributed overcharging, undisclosed exculpatory evidence, and convictions of the innocent to bad prosecutorial intentions and widespread prosecutorial wrongdoing. This fault-based lens colors both the description of the problem and the recommended solutions. In the language of fault, the problem is a culture that values obtaining and maintaining convictions over justice. The solution is to change prosecutorial values through, for example, more stringent ethical rules and increased disciplinary proceedings and …

International Delegations And The New World Court Order, Julian G. Ku

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

In Medellin v. Dretke, the U.S. Supreme Court squarely considered the domestic judicial enforceability of a judgment by the International Court of Justice for the first time. Although the Court ultimately dismissed the case due to President George W. Bush's intervention, the issue that won the Court's attention - the domestic legal status of international tribunal judgments - will almost certainly return to the Court in the near future. When it does, the Court will be faced with calls from leading scholars to enforce the judgments of international courts and tribunals as part of a new world court order, …

A New Model For Identifying Basis In Life Insurance Policies: Implementation And Deference, Mitchell M. Gans, Jay A. Soled

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

In order to compute the gain or loss on the sale or disposition of an asset, a taxpayer is required to determine the investment's basis. While ordinarily straightforward, at least as a theoretical matter, making this determination can be particularly problematic in the case of a life insurance policy. Since so many taxpayers own life insurance policies, it is somewhat puzzling that the basis calculation principles in this context are not more fully developed. ....

The aim of this paper is to consider these tax basis principles in both descriptive and normative terms. To this end, we have organized the …

The Development Of Legal Reasoning Skills In Law Students: An Empirical Study, Stefan H. Krieger

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This article describes a study examining the development of legal reasoning skills in law students through their law school careers and reports some preliminary findings comparing the cognitive development of medical and law students. During the past two decades, scholars have begun to study the process by which medical students progress from novices to expert practitioners and the effect of different curricula on this development. Studying subjects at all levels of medical expertise-from first-year medical students to medical residents to experienced specialists in practice, these researchers have developed theories grounded in empirical findings about the reasoning process of expert physicians …

Do International Criminal Tribunals Deter Or Exarcebate Humanitarian Atrocities?, Julian G. Ku, Jide Nzelibe

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Contemporary justifications for international criminal tribunals (ICTs), especially the permanent International Criminal Court, often stress the role of such tribunals in deterring future humanitarian atrocities. But hardly any academic commentary has attempted to explore in depth this deterrence rationale. This essay utilizes economic models of deterrence to analyze whether a potential perpetrator of humanitarian atrocities would likely be deterred by the risk of future prosecution by an ICT. According to the economic theory of deterrence, two factors-certainty and severity of punishment-are central to the reduction of crime after taking into account a particular individual's preference for risk. In the context …

Corruption's Hold On The Economy: An Examination Of The Causes Of Economic Development, Peter Raatz '06

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study focuses on the relationship between political corruption and economic development through a cross-national survey of twenty-three of the twenty-five European Union Member States. This study was conducted in order to expand on the research conducted by Margaret Goodman and Nathaniel Leff. The survey examined the effect of political corruption on six dependent variables that represent economic development: gross domestic product per capita, unemployment rate, education, fertility rate, infant mortality rate, and government debt. Of the six, GDP, unemployment and fertility were shown to be significant. The findings suggest that corruption index increase coupled with a job creation program …

Evaluating The Impact Of State Level Welfare Reform On Female Heads Of Households, Sarah Mysiewicz '06

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

To what extent do state level welfare policies affect single mothers in poverty? Census Bureau data is used to determine whether or not state policies are moving female heads of households out ofpoverty or merely of/ of the weljbre rolls. Time 4 limits, the family cap, maximum benefits and the earned income tax credit are independents assessed in this study.

Intuition Versus Analysis- Which Process Is Most Appropriate For Solving Everyday Problems With Differing Levels Of Social Content And Complexity?, Amy E. Kowalski '06

Honors Projects

The investigators wanted to test the theories laid out by Hammond (1987) and McMackin and Slovic (2001) that problem attributes affect the appropriateness of intuition for solving problems. The study investigated the appropriateness of strategy (intuition, analysis, or no strategy) for everyday problems that varied in social nature and complexity. It was hypothesized that problems high in social nature and complexity would be solved more accurately using intuition. Results were partially supported but only among novice participants. Results indicate that highly intuitive novice individuals score more accurately than those who are highly analytical when solving everyday problems. One of the …

An Evaluation Of Envy Within Adolescent Friendships, Natalie A. Pawluk '06

Honors Projects

Envy may be an unexplored component of adolescent social relationships. The main goal of the study was to determine if envy is experienced to a higher degree between best friends than with non-friends. A second goal was to assess the correlations between envy and friendship characteristics. A total of 109 seventh-grade students responded to 3 questionnaires, the Friendship Grid, the Best Friend/Non-Friend Envy Survey and the Friendship Qualities Questionnaire. No significant differences were found between reported envy for friends and non-friends. Envy significantly correlated with conflict (p < .01) and exclusivity (p < .05). A major challenge for future research is to develop a more accurate measure of envy-a survey format may not be the most useful technique. The relationship between envy and conflict and exclusivity demonstrates the importance of further research of envy in order to better understand the potentially negative effects of envy on friendships.

Emotional Knowledge Development In Preschoolers Receiving Head Start Services, Meghan E. Mcgrady '06

Honors Projects

This study examined the ability of 3-to 5-year-olds (N = 76; 37 males, 39 females) receiving Head Start services to freely label six emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise) using photographs of facial expressions in condition 1 or stories containing an emotion-eliciting event and behavioral consequence in condition 2. The presentation of a story elicited better performance than the presentation of a facial expression for anger, fear, and disgust. After hearing the story, performance significantly improved for participants who initially incorrectly labeled photographs of facial expressions of anger, fear, disgust, and surprise, F(1, 68) = 119.10,p<.001. The addition of stories to the curriculum of current Head Start emotion knowledge programs may increase program effectiveness.

Interactive Technologies For The Public Sphere Toward A Theory Of Critical Creative Technology, Pamela Lynnette Jennings

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Digital media cultural practices continue to address the social, cultural and aesthetic contexts of the global information economy, perhaps better called ecology, by inventing new methods and genres that encourage interactive engagement, collaboration, exploration and learning. The theoretical framework for creative critical technology evolved from the confluence of the arts, human computer interaction, and critical theories of technology. Molding this nascent theoretical framework from these seemingly disparate disciplines was a reflexive process where the influence of each component on each other spiraled into the theory and practice as illustrated through the Constructed Narratives project. Research that evolves from an arts …

The Compact, Issue 11, December, 2006, Dit: Students' Union

DIT Student Union

No abstract provided.

The Compact, Issue 9, October, 2006, Dit: Students' Union

DIT Student Union

No abstract provided.

The Compact, Issue 5, 1st Of February, 2006, Dit: Students' Union

DIT Student Union

No abstract provided.

The Compact, Issue 8, May, 2006, Dit: Students' Union

DIT Student Union

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Waste Management Through Automatic Control, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

Meeting environmental requirements is recognised as one of the six 21st century business drivers for automatic control. The proportional integral (PI) and proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers are the most dominant form of automatic controllers in industrial use today. With these techniques, it is necessary to adjust the controller parameters according to the nature of the process. Thus, for effective control of a heating, cooling and air-conditioning (HVAC) application, for example, specific values need to be chosen for the P, I and D parameters, which will be different for the values required to control, for example, a distillation column. This …

Performance Improvement Using Simple Pid Controller Tuning Formulae, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

The proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is the most dominant form of automatic controller in industrial use today. With this technique, it is necessary to adjust the controller parameters according to the nature of the process. Thus, for effective control of a HVDC system, for example, specific values need to be chosen for the P, I and D parameters, which will be different for the values required to control, for example, an induction motor drive. This tailoring of controller to process is known as controller tuning. Controller tuning is easily and effectively performed using tuning rules (i.e. formulae for controller …

Digital Signal Processing (Second Edition), Jonathan Blackledge

Books/Book chapters

This book provides an account of the mathematical background, computational methods and software engineering associated with digital signal processing. The aim has been to provide the reader with the mathematical methods required for signal analysis which are then used to develop models and algorithms for processing digital signals and finally to encourage the reader to design software solutions for Digital Signal Processing (DSP). In this way, the reader is invited to develop a small DSP library that can then be expanded further with a focus on his/her research interests and applications.

There are of course many excellent books and software …

Refinements In Using Historical Process Data To Optimize Tolerance Allocation, Kevin Delaney, Pat Phelan

Conference Papers

Tolerance allocation for new products calls for experience and judgment. Whenever products are manufactured using production processes that are similar to existing products it is likely that the trend in production tolerances for both the new and existing products will be similar. It must be assumed that there have been no improvements to the tooling, modifications to the machines being used, or a change in process stability. The data employed to understand and exploit these trends is commonly referred to as process capability data and it is stored in a Process Capability DataBase (PCDB). There are several challenges to be …

Individual Cognition And Dual-Task Interference In Group Support Systems, William G. Heninger, Alan R. Dennis, Kelly Mcnamara Hilmer

Faculty Publications

Previous research shows that synchronous text discussion through group support systems (GSS) can improve the exchange of information within teams, but this improved information exchange usually does not improve decisions because participants fail to process the new information they receive. This study examined one potential cause for this failure: Dual-task interference caused by the need to concurrently process new information from others while also contributing one's own information to the discussion. Although prior research argues that dual-task interference should be minimal, we found that it significantly reduced participants' information processing and led to lower decision quality. The effect sizes were …

The Moon, Issue 2, December-January 2006, Dit Journalism Society

Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Amplification And Suppression Of Internal Waves By Tides Over Variable Bottom Topography, Vasiliy Vlasenko, Nataliya Stashchuk

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The energy exchange between internal waves and barotropic currents over inclined bottom topography is studied theoretically and in the framework of the numerical model. The energy balance equation derived for a continuously stratified fluid predicts that energy can either be transferred toward or away from the internal wave depending on the direction of propagation of both the wave and current. Four scenarios of wave-flow interaction over the inclined bottom were identified. An internal wave extracts energy from the background tidal flow during its propagation upslope-upstream or downslope-downstream and its amplitude grows. The wave loses energy propagating downslope-upstream or upslope-downstream and …

In-Use Emission Measurements Of Snowmobiles And Snowcoaches In Yellowstone National Park, Gary A. Bishop, Daniel A. Burgard, Thomas R. Dalton, Donald H. Stedman

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

A Collision Avoidance System For Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Chiew Seon Tan

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The work in this thesis is concerned with the development of a novel and practical collision avoidance system for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Synergistically, advanced stochastic motion planning methods, dynamics quantisation approaches, multivariable tracking controller designs, sonar data processing and workspace representation, are combined to enhance significantly the survivability of modern AUVs. The recent proliferation of autonomous AUV deployments for various missions such as seafloor surveying, scientific data gathering and mine hunting has demanded a substantial increase in vehicle autonomy. One matching requirement of such missions is to allow all the AUV to navigate safely in a dynamic and unstructured …

Convergence Improvement Of Iterative Decoders, Evangelos Papagiannis

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Iterative decoding techniques shaked the waters of the error correction and communications field in general. Their amazing compromise between complexity and performance offered much more freedom in code design and made highly complex codes, that were being considered undecodable until recently, part of almost any communication system. Nevertheless, iterative decoding is a sub-optimum decoding method and as such, it has attracted huge research interest. But the iterative decoder still hides many of its secrets, as it has not been possible yet to fully describe its behaviour and its cost function. This work presents the convergence problem of iterative decoding from …

Mobility Support Architectures For Next-Generation Wireless Networks, Ql Wang

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

With the convergence of the wireless networks and the Internet and the booming demand for multimedia applications, the next-generation (beyond the third generation, or B3G) wireless systems are expected to be all IP-based and provide real-time and non-real-time mobile services anywhere and anytime. Powerful and efficient mobility support is thus the key enabler to fulfil such an attractive vision by supporting various mobility scenarios. This thesis contributes to this interesting while challenging topic. After a literature review on mobility support architectures and protocols, the thesis starts presenting our contributions with a generic multi-layer mobility support framework, which provides a general …

"Concerns Are Translated Into Conversations Of Sudden Community": Identification At The Iwca/Ncptw, Melissa Ianetta

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Local Practices, National Consequences: Surveying And (Re)Constructing Writing Center Identities, Jo Ann Griffin, Daniel Keller, Iswari P. Pandey, Anne-Marie Pedersen, Carolyn Skinner

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Nonlinear Interactions Of Waves And Currents With Structures In Nearshore Environments, Baoxing Wang

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

In this thesis, nonlinear interactions of waves and currents with structures in nearshore environments are investigated. The emphasis of the research is to model the encountered multiple scales of hydrodynamics (e. g. monochromatic waves and three-dimensional currents) in a numerically efficient and accurate way on a beach and around a structure in the shallow coastal region. The radiation stress and mass flux have been analytically derived by inclusion of higher-order surface elevations. The Boussinesq-type model COULWAVE is used to assess the fully nonlinear wave transformation on a beach. The research unveils the essential roles of the Ursell parameter, Irribarren number …

Review Article Of Living Supply Chains: How To Mobilise The Enterprise Around Delivering What Your Customer Want, Edward Sweeney, Daniel Park

Reviews

No abstract provided.