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Spending Clause Litigation In The Roberts Court, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Duke Law Journal

Throughout the Rehnquist Court's so-called federalism revolution, as the Court cut back on federal power tinder Article I and the Civil War Amendments, many commentators asserted that the spending power was next to go on the chopping block. But in the last years of the Rehnquist Court, a majority of Justices seemed to abandon the federalism revolution, and in the end, the Rehnquist Court never got around to limiting Congress's power tinder the Spending Clause. This Article contends that it is wrong to expect the Roberts Court to be so charitable about Congress's exercise of the spending power. But the …

Constitutional Secrecy: Aligning National Security Letter Nondisclosure Provisions With First Amendment Rights, Brian D. Eyink

Duke Law Journal

First created in the 1980s, national security letters and their nondisclosure provisions evaded judicial review until 2004. These secretive investigative tools allow federal agencies such as the FBI to compel disclosure of information about hundreds of thousands of people while also allowing the same agencies to unilaterally issue gag orders that can silence the people who receive these letters. This Note examines the nondisclosure provisions in the national security letter statutes. It argues that the nondisclosure provisions are unconstitutional prior restraints on speech and content-based speech restrictions. This Note then proposes a three-part solution that constitutionally balances the government's need …

Milberg’S Monopoly: Restoring Honesty And Competition To The Plaintiffs’ Bar, James P. Mcdonald

Duke Law Journal

When the renowned plaintiffs' firm Milberg Weiss was indicted in 2006 for paying kickbacks to clients, most commentators saw the scandal as the product of five dishonest lawyers. This Note argues that the causes were more complex than the moral shortcomings of a few attorneys; rather, the kickbacks were but one symptom of a deeply flawed system for selecting lead counsel in securities class action lawsuits. Although the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 attempted to curb abusive behavior by the plaintiffs' bar, its focus on reforming plaintiff behavior meant that attorneys were left relatively free to continue using …

Retirement Savings And Types Of Investment Assets Among Near-Retirees Aged 51-64: How Do Women Invest Differently Than Men?, Katrina R. Nye

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the financial portfolios of near-retiree women and compare their assets to near-retiree men. This study also investigated how economic and demographic factors were associated with the probability of holding aggressive assets and the level of savings. Socioeconomic variables were used to create a profile of the investment behaviors and to examine the level of savings among near-retiree women and men. Specific variables key to the study included household income, age, marital status, education, race, and self-reported health of near-retiree women and men.

The descriptive statistics indicated that overall, average levels of all …

Automated Data Type Identification And Localization Using Statistical Analysis Data Identification, Sarah Jean Moody

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research presents a new and unique technique called SÁDI, statistical analysis data identification, for identifying the type of data on a digital device and its storage format based on data type, specifically the values of the bytes representing the data being examined. This research incorporates the automation required for specialized data identification tools to be useful and applicable in real-world applications. The SÁDI technique utilizes the byte values of the data stored on a digital storage device in such a way that the accuracy of the technique does not rely solely on the potentially misleading metadata information but rather …

The Impact Of Religious Schema On Critical Thinking Skills, Matthew Kirby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between critical thinking and religious schema as represented by religious orientation. Past research has included religious belief within the larger construct of paranormal belief, and demonstrated a correlation between high levels of paranormal belief and poor critical thinking skills. Studies in the psychology of religion suggested that a more complex religious measure based on religious orientation was necessary to understand these correlations. Additionally, schema theory offered a cognitive framework within which to experimentally test the cause of these correlations. This study found that primed religious schema did not account for …

Student Teachers' Beliefs And Practices About Developmentally Appropriate Practice For Infants And Toddlers, Trisha Haws

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ beliefs and practices about developmentally appropriate practice with infants and toddlers. This study examined whether coursework in child development, combined with a lab experience engaging with children of the same age group, was related to developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices of student teachers. In particular, the study examined how coursework and practicum taken concurrently may have differed from taking the coursework alone. The relationships between descriptive data and student teachers’ developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices were also of interest.

A total of 390 college students participated in this study. These students …

Analysis Of Chemical Bonding In Clusters By Means Of The Adaptive Natural Density Partitioning, Dmitry Yu Zubarev

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Models of chemical bonding are essential for contemporary chemistry. Even the explosive development of the computational resources including, both hardware and software, cannot eliminate necessity of compact, intuitive, and efficient methods of representing chemically relevant information. The Lewis model of chemical bonding, which was proposed eleven years before the formulation of quantum theory and preserves its pivotal role in chemical education and research for more than ninety years, is a vivid example of such a tool. As chemistry shifts to the nanoscale, it is becoming obvious that a certain shift of the paradigms of chemical bonding is inescapable. For example, …

Principals' Perspectives On Adolescent Literacy Implementation And Support In Secondary Schools: Views Through A Sociocultural Lens, Jack A. Robinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study, interview data were analyzed to illustrate the perspectives of five secondary school principals in adolescent literacy implementation and support. These principals fell on the continuum from beginning practitioners in adolescent literacy to “seasoned veterans.” They were selected based on the recommendations of their district’s assistant superintendents and/or curriculum directors. I interviewed two high school principals, two middle school principals, and one junior high school principal.

Much emphasis has been placed over the last several decades on improving the reading skills of elementary school children, especially in the primary grades. While this goal continues to be an important …

Measuring And Modeling Of Plant Root Uptake Of Organic Chemicals, Erik Dettenmaier

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Determining the root uptake of xenobiotic organic chemicals into plants is critical for assessing the human and ecological health risks associated with the consumption of plants growing in contaminated environments. Root uptake of xenobiotic organics occurs passively in conjunction with transpiration and the transport from root to shoot is ultimately controlled by passage through one or more lipid root membranes. The transpiration stream concentration factor (TSCF), the ratio between the concentration of a chemical in the xylem to that in the solution used by the roots, is used to describe the relative ability of an organic chemical to be passively …

Technologically Assisted Intervention (Tai): Are Clients Satisfied With Online Therapy?, Jennifer A. Morrow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the level of satisfaction reported by participants of a technologically assisted intervention study (TAI). TAI is a type of teletherapy done through online, live video conferencing. Satisfaction was examined at three different time points, post therapy, 3-months post therapy, and 6-months post therapy. Analyses examined if there were any changes in reported satisfaction over the three time periods. Participants received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) targeted at reducing symptoms of mild to moderately severe depression. A satisfaction measure was developed for this study, and included quantitative and qualitative items which were analyzed to determine participants' level of satisfaction. …

Modeling, Designing, Fabricating, And Testing Of Channel Panel Flat Plate Heat Pipes, James R. Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Flat plate heat pipes are very efficient passive two-phase heat transport devices. Their high efficiency and low mass are desirable in the aerospace and electronics industries. The highly competitive nature of the thermal management industry results in little awareness of the capabilities of at plate heat pipes, which has resulted in only a few applications of the technology. In the year 2000 a research and development project sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory was launched to investigate building carbon-based at heat pipes. The flat configuration is desireable to incorporate many components onto one thermal management system. Development led to the adoption …

Angles-Only Navigation For Autonomous Orbital Rendezvous, David Charles Woffinden

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The proposed thesis of this dissertation has both a practical element and theoretical component which aim to answer key questions related to the use of angles-only navigation for autonomous orbital rendezvous. The first and fundamental principle to this work argues that an angles-only navigation filter can determine the relative position and orientation (pose) between two spacecraft to perform the necessary maneuvers and close proximity operations for autonomous orbital rendezvous. Second, the implementation of angles-only navigation for on-orbit applications is looked upon with skeptical eyes because of its perceived limitation of determining the relative range between two vehicles. This assumed, yet …

Movement Patterns And Multi-Scale Factors That Influence Exotic Brook Trout And Endemic Bonneville Cutthroat Trout Distribution And Abundance In The Mill Creek Drainage, Utah, Benjamin Keith Nadolski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Introduced brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) are implicated as a primary factor leading to the decline in distribution and abundance of native cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii). However, not all introductions are successful, suggesting local conditions influence the success of invasions. Therefore, I sought to determine the multi-scale factor(s) that influence brook trouts’ invasion success of native Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii utah) habitats in Mill Creek, Utah. I conducted patch occupancy surveys to determine watershed-scale brook trout and cutthroat trout distribution. I also determined the relative abundance of brook trout and cutthroat trout at the …

Disturbance As Restoration In The Intermountain Sagebrush Steppe: Effects On Non Target Bird Species, Russell Edward Norvell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Changes in shrubsteppe passerine bird habitat associations in response to disturbance were investigated at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Spatial measures incorporated the effects of area at different ecological scales (nest site, territory, and landscape) to include ecologically meaningful extents. Temporal measures included seasonal and annual effects, and were designed to detect lagged responses should they occur. Local-to-landscape scale effects of mechanical restoration treatments on local extirpation and abundances of nine species indicated most were insensitive to changes in habitat quality, while abundance models showed only broad declines. Changing the availability of nesting habitat on both the attractiveness and quality …

Factors Affecting Landowner Participation In The Candidate Conservation Agreements With Assurances Program, Kendra Womack

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States’ Endangered Species Act of 1973 has been recognized as one of the most powerful laws enacted to protect endangered species in the world. Its protections for animal species extends onto private land, which has in some cases created conflict between the law, its enforcers, and private landowners. The Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAA) program was developed in 1999 to provide a regulatory incentive for private landowners to engage in pro-active conservation for sensitive species to preclude the need for listing under the ESA in the future. Since 1999, however, there have only been 17 CCAAs signed, …

Long-Term Effectiveness Of Brief Multiple-Stimulus Without Replacement Preference Assessments On Individualized Education Plan Reading Progress Of Students With Severe Disabilities, Heather C. Thornton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To teach operant behaviors to individuals with severe disabilities, stimulus preference assessment (SPA) methods have been developed to accurately identify stimuli that may function as reinforcers. Previous researchers have used multiple-stimulus preference assessments without replacement (MSWO) effectively over a short time period to teach target behaviors to individuals with disabilities. The present study investigated the long-term effects of incorporating brief MSWO preference assessments into the instructional routine for students with severe disabilities on individualized education plan reading goal/objective progress. This was done by investigating the effectiveness of incorporating brief MSWO preference assessments by comparing reading goal progress when a random …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Differential Reinforcement Of Alternative Behavior On Students With Mild/Moderate Disabilities In A School Classroom, Katrina Spangenberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the effects of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), a behavior reduction procedure, on problem behavior exhibited by three elementary school students in a general education classroom. DRA involves reinforcement of an alternative behavior while withholding reinforcement for the inappropriate behavior. The three participants were classified as experiencing mild/moderate disabilities but received most services (and participated in this research) in a general education classroom. Problem behaviors included off-task, talk-outs, and inappropriate touching. Alternative behaviors included on-task and hand-raising to get teacher attention. Results indicated that DRA decreased off-task and talk-out behavior for two participants, although effects were …

Effects Of Foraging Sequence On The Ability Of Lambs To Consume Endophyte-Infected Tall Fescue (Alkaloids), Birdsfoot Trefoil (Tannins), And Alfalfa (Saponins), Emily Lockard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

All plants contain primary and secondary compounds. Primary compounds are needed by plants and herbivores for maintenance, growth, and reproduction, while secondary compounds play roles as diverse as protecting plants from ultraviolet radiation, defenses against herbivores, pollination attraction, and stress resistance. Secondary compounds have nutritional and medicinal benefits for herbivores as well, especially when eaten in diverse combinations that complement one another. While complementarities among secondary compounds are an important but little understood area of plant-herbivore interactions, even less is known about how the sequences of eating plants with different compounds affects foraging behavior, though they may be critical. In …

A Three-Dimensional, Time-Dependent Circulation Model Of Utah Lake, Eric V. Callister

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spatial and temporal variations of Utah Lake’s flow field were modeled using the Estuary Lake and Computer Model from the Centre for Water Research (CWR-ELCOM) at the University of Western Australia as part of an effort to increase understanding of the lake’s natural processes in order to restore the lake to its pristine, clear-water state and preserve the habitat of the June sucker, an endangered species. The model was validated using temperature measurements taken by sensors in 2007. The water temperature was a strong function of air temperature and incident short wave radiation, and was influenced to a lesser degree …

Predicted Versus Measured Thoracic Gas Volume For The Bod Pod® Air Displacement Plethysmography System, Phil A. Blaney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a significant difference between measured values of thoracic gas volume (MTGV) and predicted values of thoracic gas volume (PTGV) using the Bod Pod®. One hundred and thirteen college freshmen, both males and females, were tested using the Bod Pod® by first measuring thoracic gas volume with the Bod Pod® technique, then by using pre-determined values based on height, weight, and age that predict thoracic gas volume. Results of a paired t test showed that measured thoracic gas volume and predicted thoracic gas volume were significantly different. A Pearson’s product-moment …

Online Education For Nontraditional Adult Students: Perceptions And Attitudes Of Emergency Services Workers In Asynchronous Learning Environments, R. Jeffery Maxfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of this research was to better understand the lived experiences and perceptions of nontraditional, adult college students in an asynchronous online environment. Contemporary researchers have investigated the differences between online education and the traditional, in-class learning. Most of the work has been done in quantitative methodologies, focusing on the similarities and differences in cognitive achievement. The extant literature is replete with studies and positions claiming little or no difference between the two delivery methods. However, most research is not presented in a theoretical construct; therefore, it is difficult to create a nexus between one study and the next. …

A Novel Technique Of Network Auditability With Managers In The Loop, Rian Shelley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Network management requires a large amount of knowledge about the network. In particular, knowledge about used network addresses, access time, and topology is useful. In a network composed of managed devices, much of the data necessary can come from simple network management protocol (SNMP) queries. Other data can come from other databases, or analysis of existing data. In particular, layer-two network topology can be determined by analyzing the mac address forwarding tables of layer-two devices. The layer-two topology can be merged with a layer-three topology to generate a complete topology of the network. This information is useless unless it is …

Approximations To Continuous Processes In Hierarchical Models, Amanda Cangelosi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Models for natural nonlinear processes, such as population dynamics, have been given much attention in applied mathematics. For example, species competition has been extensively modeled by differential equations. Often, the scientist has preferred to model the underlying dynamical processes (i.e., theoretical mechanisms) in continuous-time. It is of both scientific and mathematical interest to implement such models in a statistical framework to quantify uncertainty associated with the models in the presence of observations. That is, given discrete observations arising from the underlying continuous process, the unobserved process can be formally described while accounting for multiple sources of uncertainty ( …

Factors Related To Success And Participants’ Psychological Ownership In Collaborative Wildlife Management: A Survey Of Sage-Grouse Local Working Groups, Lorien R. Belton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Declines of sage-grouse (Centrocercus spp.) across the western United States have prompted the formation of numerous collaborative stakeholder partnerships, known as local working groups. These voluntary groups create and implement local sage-grouse management plans and projects, often in the hopes that their efforts may help avert a federal Endangered Species designation for the bird. Using a mail survey of participants in 54 local working groups, I examined the importance of psychological ownership in working group dynamics. Psychological ownership is conceptualized as a latent, multidimensional variable consisting of responsibility, control, and caring elements. Multiple regression analysis showed early-stage group success, representative …

The Influence Of Debris Cages On Critical Submergence Of Vertical Intakes In Reservoirs, Skyler D. Allen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study quantifies the influence of debris cages on critical submergence at vertical intakes in reservoir configurations. Four model debris cages were constructed of light panel material. A vertical intake protruding one pipe diameter above the floor of a model reservoir was tested in six configurations: open intake pipe, a debris grate placed directly over the intake pipe, and debris cages representing widths of 1.5*d and 2*d and heights of 1.5*c and 2*c, where d is diameter of the intake and c is height of intake above reservoir floor. A selection of top grating configurations and a submerged raft configuration …

Two Highly Diverse Studies In Computing: A Vitruvian Framework For Distribution And A Search Approach To Cancer Therapies, Brian G. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Solid cancer tumors must recruit new blood vessels for growth and maintenance. Discovering drugs that block this tumor-induced development of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) is an important approach in cancer treatment. However, the complexity of angiogenesis and the difficulty in implementing and evaluating medical changes prevent the discovery of novel and effective new therapies. This paper presents a massively parallel computational search-based approach for the discovery of novel potential cancer treatments, using a high fidelity simulation of angiogenesis. Discovering new therapies is viewed as multi-objective combinatorial optimization over two competing objectives: minimizing the medical cost of the intervention while minimizing …

Forensic And Anti-Forensic Techniques For Object Linking And Embedding 2 (Ole2)-Formatted Documents, Jason M. Daniels

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Common office documents provide significant opportunity for forensic and anti-forensic work. The Object Linking and Embedding 2 (OLE2) specification used primarily by Microsoft’s Office Suite contains unused or dead space regions that can be over written to hide covert channels of communication. This thesis describes a technique to detect those covert channels and also describes a different method of encoding that lowers the probability of detection.

The algorithm developed, called OleDetection, is based on the use of kurtosis and byte frequency distribution statistics to accurately identify OLE2 documents with covert channels. OleDetection is able to correctly identify 99.97 percent of …

Application Of Structural Control For Civil Engineering Structures, Abdollah Shafieezadeh

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study presents the application of control methods in seismic mitigation of structural responses. The study consists of two parts. In the first section, fractional order filters are utilized to enhance the performance of the conventional LQR method for optimal robust control of a simple civil structure. The introduced filters modify the state variables fed back to the constant gain controller. Four combinations of fractional order filter and LQR are considered and optimized based on a new performance criterion defined in the paper. Introducing fractional order filters is shown to improve the results considerably for both the artificially generated ground …

Development Of A Post-Fire Monitoring Protocol For Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness And Cheatgrass Abundance Using Quickbird Imagery And Ground Observations, Gabriel Bissonette

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 9.3 million hectares of land in Utah and has implemented an Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ESR) Program to protect life and property, combat soil erosion, and reduce the invasion of exotic/noxious weeds following wildland fire. In highly vulnerable sites, seeding treatments may be applied to establish an interim landcover to stabilize the soil and competitively exclude weed invasions. Monitoring treatment effectiveness is mandated through ESR guidelines and necessary for the submission of annual Accomplishment Reports for the first three years following fire containment. Ground monitoring has been the traditional approach to fulfilling this …