Digital Commons Network^™

Pharma On The Hot Seat, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

The pharmaceutical industry has been receiving greater scrutiny lately due in large part to the many public and private legal enforcement actions taken against pharmaceutical manufacturers. These enforcement actions, along with legal developments such as the OIG Compliance Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s statutory guidelines for public corporations, the HIPAA privacy regulations, and the Medicare Modernization Act, have the potential to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to self-regulate beyond the bounds currently required by the law. After a brief overview of enforcement actions and compliance programs directed toward the pharmaceutical industry, this Article reviews a similar situation the hospital …

Foreword: The Politics Of Health Law: Any Tipping Points In View?, Frances H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

Malcolm Gladwell explored the way certain ideas and behaviors can proliferate "just like viruses do" once they achieve a critical mass in The Tipping Point,' his best-seller about the sorts of widespread and rapidly adopted social phenomena he labels epidemics. Gladwell's subtitle, "How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference," indicates that he thinks it need not take much to get one of these social epidemics rolling. He does believe, however, that three factors are essential: getting "people with a particular and rare set of social gifts" involved,² packaging the ideas so they are "irresistible" under the circumstances, ^{3 …}

Performance Evaluation Of Extended Sparse Linearization In Gf(2) And Gf(28), Tigin Kaptanoglu

Theses

XSL (eXtended Sparse Linearization) is a recent algebraic attack aimed at the Advanced Encryption Standard. In order to shed some light into the behavior of the algorithm, which is largely unknown, we have studied XSL on equation systems with variables interpreted either as bits or bytes. The algorithm solves byte-systems much faster than it does bit-systems, which promts us to suggest that if a more compact representation of equation systems can be found, such as one where the variables are 8-byte blocks, or even a more generalized form of 8n-byte blocks, it may be possible to increase the speed of …

Effective Approaches To Minimize The Problem Of Pharmaceuticals And Other Personal Care Products In The Environment, Papun Pramanick

Theses

Studies have shown that pharmaceuticals and other personal care products (PPCPs) are present in the environment, especially in water, due to different human activities. Some of these compounds are toxic to our eco-system. Although there is no evidence of adverse human health effect from the presence of PPCPs in the environment to date , some adverse effects on aquatic life cycle already have been found. Therefore, protecting our environment as well as human health from adverse effect(s) of PPCPs is a growing concern. The objective of this thesis work was to collect information about the principal approaches available to pharmaceutical …

Using Eye Tracking To Understand Banner Blindness And Improve Website Design, Chad Lapa

Theses

Banners, as a form of advertising on the web, are important for businesses. Conversely customers want to navigate the site without being distracted by irrelevant or annoying ads. Design and placement of banners is not well understood and "banner blindness", which occurs when users overlook the banner entirely, is what causes the ineffectiveness of the banner. This study employs eye tracking to investigate how banner background color and the banner’s relevance to users’ tasks influence banner blindness. Eye movements were collected for users performing several tasks and viewing banners in a task-free context. Different banners were counterbalanced with task order. …

Rook Polynomials For Chessboards Of Two And Three Dimensions, Benjamin Zindle

Theses

Not provided.

Five Myths About Sprawl, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

In Sprawl: A Compact History, Robert Bruegmann, an art historian, has painted a superficially convincing case for the status quo, asserting that sprawl is "a natural result of affluence that occurs in all urbanized societies." Bruegmann's book has generated glowing media publicity. This article suggests that Bruegmann overestimates the universality of sprawl, by overlooking the differences between pedestrian-friendly cities with some sprawling development and cities in which automobile-dependent sprawl is the only choice available to most consumers. In addition, Bruegmann understates the harmful social effects of sprawl, especially the effect of automobile-dependent development upon non-drivers. Bruegmann also consistently underestimates the …

You Can Have It All: Less Sprawl And Property Rights Too, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Some commentators believe that smart growth and property rights are at loggerheads - and to be sure, these theories do lead to differing positions on a few issues (most notably urban growth boundaries and similar anti-sprawl regulations). But as to a wide variety of issues, smart growth advocates and property rights theorists can find common ground. Both groups can support eliminating zoning regulations that mandate automobile-dependent, sprawling development, such as single-use zoning, minimum parking requirements and minimum lot size requirements.

How Ehs Managers Can Influence Environmental Excellence Within Their Organization, Joseph Whitaker

Theses

The objective of this work is to evaluate the various management styles and systems applicable to the Environmental, Health, and Safety ('EHS') profession; furthermore, it will present ways in which managers will discover how to understand and evaluate projects from a 'business' point of view, allowing them to compete within their organization for capital and human resources. ... This paper will also discuss various evaluations used to ensure proper buy-in from management -- a process that will facilitate the allocation of human and financial resources to environment, health, and safety projects. The evaluation will focus on two primary elements. The …

Situational Awareness In The Marine Towing Industry, Boris Towns

Theses

Loss of situational awareness has been cited as the most common cause of accidents in the maritime industry. However, current research has not proven beneficial in determining the factors that underpin situational awareness. This study examined situational awareness among licensed captains and pilots of the inland towing industry. Twenty towboat captains, who operate on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) from New Orleans, LA to Houston, TX and who represented 16 towing vessel companies, were interviewed and participated in an integrated survey that explored fatigue, communication, dangerous drugs and alcohol, social stress, and mental workload. These factors were believed to have …

Point Seeking: A Family Of Dynamic Path Finding Algorithms, Andrew Fanton

Theses

In the field of Artificial Intelligence, calculating the best route from one point to another, known as “path finding,” has become a common problem. If an agent cannot effectively navigate through an environment – be it real or virtual – it will often not be able to perform even the most routine tasks. For example, a Martian rover can't collect samples if it can't get to them; meanwhile, a computer game is not much of a challenge if your opponents can't find their way around. The problem of path finding has three basic aspects: map representation, path generation, and locomotion. …

Visualization Analysis Of Astrophysics N-Bodied Problem Using Image Morphological Processing Techniques, Thomas J. Borrelli

Theses

This project’s primary goal is to detect points of interest within the output data resulting from running a simulation of the Astrophysics N-Bodied problem (GRAPEcluster). Morphological Image Processing techniques will be applied to the visualized data in order to detect areas of interest within the original data. Several Morphological Image Processing techniques will be used and the results compared in the analysis. The final output of the VRAD (Visualization of Raw Astrophysics Data) System will be two-fold: first, the VRAD system will output a text file that contains the x, y and z coordinates of each region of interest in …

The Performance Of Group Diffie-Hellman Paradigms: A Software Framework And Analysis, Kieran S. Hagzan

Theses

A mobile computing environment typically involves groups of small, low-power devices interconnected through a mobile and dynamic network. Attempts to secure communication over these “ad-hoc” networks must be scalable to conserve the minimal resources of mobile devices as network sizes grow. In this project, the scalability of differing Group Diffie-Hellman security key generation implementations is examined. In theory, the implementation utilizing a data structure with the lowest theoretical run-time complexity for building the Diffie-Hellman group should prove the most scalable experimentally. A common modular framework was implemented to support generic Group Diffie-Hellman key agreement implementations abstracted from the underlying data …

Audio Watermarking Techniques Using Singular Value Decomposition, Joseph Kardamis

Theses

In an increasingly digital world, proving ownership of files is more and more difficult. For audio files, many schemes have been put into place to attempt to protect the rights of the digital content owners. In general, these techniques fall under the classification of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Audio watermarking is one of the less invasive schemes which embeds security into the data itself instead of in an outside layer meant to encapsulate and protect the data. There are many domains in which an audio watermark can be applied. The simplest is that of the time domain; often, however, other …

Ivee: Interesting Video Event Extraction, Jeremy Paskali

Theses

The Video Exploitation and Novelty Understanding in Streams (VENUS) system is a complete software solution for video surveillance, which consists of motion detection, motion tracking, novel event detection, missed expected event detection, object recognition, scene description, and database mining. This research focuses on the assignment of degrees of interest for events in motion and at rest for the VENUS system. The Interesting Video Event Extraction (IVEE) system is the second module in the processing pipeline of the VENUS system. The novel features of the IVEE sysem include the ability to assign a degree of interest to an event, to develop …

Biologically-Inspired Translation, Scale, And Rotation Invariant Object Recognition Models, Myung Woo

Theses

The ventral stream of the human visual system is credited for processing object recognition tasks. There have been a plethora of models that are capable of doing some form of object recognition tasks. However, none are perfect. The complexity of our visual system is so great that models currently available are only able to recognize a small set of objects. This thesis revolves analyzing models that are inspired by biological processing. The biologically inspired models are usually hierarchical, formed after the division of the human visual system. In such a model, each level in the hierarchy performs certain tasks related …

Approximation And Elections, Eric Brelsford

Theses

Any culture that requires that a decision be made within a group necessarily creates methods for aggregating each individual’s preferences. For instance, we see such a need in political elections, committees, and businesses. With the Internet and the increasing use of multiagent software systems, the general need for means of aggregating differing preferences has increased dramatically. Voting is one way to come to a single option (or small group of options) out of a larger pool of candidate options. Many voting systems exist, and criteria exist (within the field of social choice theory) for deciding which most fairly and accurately …

Challenges Of Implementing Rss Barcodes On Hospital Unit Dose Blisters, Rolando Quiles

Theses

Not provided.

Table Of Contents - Issue 1

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

When Lawyers Move Their Lips: Attorney Truthfulness In Mediation And A Modest Proposal, Don Peters

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article examines whether the punch line that you can tell when lawyers are lying by confirming that their lips are moving applies to their conduct when negotiating in mediations. General surveys of lawyer honesty suggest that this perception probably does apply to the way lawyers negotiate in mediations. Only 20% of people surveyed in a 1993 American Bar Association poll described the legal profession as honest, and that number fell to 14% in a 1998 Gallup poll.' A more recent poll revealed that one-third of the American public believes that lawyers are less truthful than most people.

Following The Script: An Empirical Analysis Of Court-Ordered Mediation Of Medical Malpractice Cases, Ralph Peeples, Catherine Harris, Thomas Metzloff

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Court-ordered mediation of civil cases has become an accepted part of the litigation process in a number of states and in some federal courts.' The widespread growth of court-ordered mediation is not difficult to explain. First of all, the process appears to produce settlements, although because most cases settle anyway, it is difficult to say that court-ordered mediation reduces trial rates. It does, however, at least provide a structured opportunity for settlement discussions, if the parties are so inclined. Second, court-ordered mediation is a process usually paid for by the parties themselves. From the courts' perspective, it is not a …

Eleven Bid Ideas About Conflict: A Superficial Guide For The Thoughtful Journalist, Leonard L. Riskin

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In case you are wondering how something like this could possibly be reported in a local newspaper, I can tell you two reasons: First, the story takes place in Columbia, Missouri, a small town with a big journalism school and two daily newspapers; these factors combine to produce hordes of desperate reporters and reporting students.' Second, as I show below, if the reporter has sophisticated vision, this case has the potential to provide a good deal of valuable material.

Social Conflict: Some Basic Principles, Dean G. Pruitt

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The term "conflict" has two generally accepted meanings.' The first refers to overt conflict-an argument, fight, or struggle. The second refers to subjective conflict-Party's perception that Party and Other have opposing beliefs or interests, or that Other has deprived or annoyed Party in some way. The latter concept is richer for theory building than the former, in that there are several strategies Party can employ in reaction to subjective conflict. Party can take a contentious approach and retaliate, or Party can try to impose its will on Other by means of an argument, demand, or threat. This strategy is very …

Press Coverage Of Interethnic Conflict: Examples From The Los Angeles Riots Of 1992, Shah Shah

Journal of Dispute Resolution

News media are an important source of cultural production and information. Their representation of the social world provides explanations, descriptions, and frames for understanding how and why the world works as it does. In media studies, "frames" refer to the perspectives on, or interpretation of, current events provided by news coverage. Frames are complex and overlapping, existing in a single news article or within an entire body of news coverage. Multiple and opposing frames may exist simultaneously. Frames are built up from the choices reporters make in terms of language use, source selection, and story organization. In their coverage of …

Public Relations Perspective To Manage Conflict In A Public Health Crisis, A, Qi Qiu, Glen T. Cameron

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The present study particularly focuses on the SARS outbreak in China because it was a major battlefield against the disease that largely affected the fate of the worldwide SARS crisis. Framing analysis of media coverage of the SARS epidemic and organization information from the WHO is used to dissect specific conflicts and strategies involved in China's SARS crisis. The discussion finishes with a checklist for planning strategic communication and conflict management during public health crises.

News Coverage And Social Protest: How The Media's Protect Paradigm Exacerbates Social Conflict, Douglas M. Mcleod

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Past research on media coverage of social protests has yielded evidence of a protest paradigm: a set of news coverage patterns that typifies mainstream media coverage. This coverage generally disparages protesters and hinders their role as vital actors on the political stage. The lack of respect for the value of social protest inherent in such coverage has created frustration among the protesters, which has in turn contributed to dysfunctional confrontations. However, under certain conditions, journalists will deviate from the protest paradigm. Such aberrations were found in the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the May 1, 2006, "Day without Immigrants" demonstrations. …

News Coverage, The Expansion Of Discourse, And Conflict, Philip Seib

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The universe of news cultures--comprising providers and consumers-has never been static. It perpetually evolves, sometimes in small increments, sometimes with dazzling leaps. We are now in one of the latter phases, with new technologies driving change at high speed. This alteration of the news universe is a mix of reshaping and expansion, and it has a profound effect on social and political life throughout much of the world. It has particular impact on how policy makers and the public evaluate and respond to conflict.

Wanted: Leaders, Journalists, Scholars, And Citizens With The Right Stuff: A Reflection On Conflict, Journalism, And Democracy, Edmund B. Lambeth

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The purpose of this article is to describe, frame, and place the new initiative in the larger context of what can be done when professions and the institutions they inhabit and serve encounter internal stress and/or external conflict.

Media And International Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Eytan Gilboa

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This study suggests a new framework for analysis of media coverage and its role in international conflict. The framework is based on integration of theories and models from both international studies and communication. The work begins with a brief analysis of major changes that have occurred in last two decades in the nature and evolution of international conflicts. The analysis offers significant distinctions among types, levels, and phases of conflict. Next, the study presents major changes that have occurred in the media and offers significant distinctions among levels, types, and functions of media. Based on all these concepts and ideas, …

In-Water Spectral Radiative Transfer Modeling Using Photon Mapping, Adam Arthur Goodenough

Theses

In contrast to spectroscopic observation of deep ocean waters, measurement of coastal waters is often influenced by inhomogeneous surroundings. An accurate model of light propagation in coastal regions must therefore take into account spatially variant phenomena, such as the distribution of inherent optical properties in the water, bottom structure, in-water objects, and wind-driven wave surfaces. In order to account for the influence of these multi-dimensional structures effectively, this work adapts and develops efficient Monte Carlo based ray tracing techniques to simulate radiative transfer in natural waters.

The basis of this work is a two-pass ray tracing process that generates a …