Digital Commons Network^™

A Confidence Paradigm For Classification Systems, Nathan J. Leap

Theses and Dissertations

There is no universally accepted methodology to determine how much confidence one should have in a classifier output. This research proposes a framework to determine the level of confidence in an indication from a classifier system where the output is or can be transformed into a posterior probability estimate. This is a theoretical framework that attempts to unite the viewpoints of the classification system developer (or engineer) and the classification system user (or war-fighter). The paradigm is based on the assumptions that the system confidence acts like, or can be modeled as a value and that indication confidence can be …

Causes Won, Lost, And Forgotten: How Hollywood And Popular Art Shape What We Know About The Civil War, Megan Kate Nelson

Civil War Book Review

Picturing the Civil War

The Legal Regulation Of War, Beth Van Schaack, Ron Slye

Faculty Publications

This work is a chapter for a forthcoming book on The Essentials of International Criminal Law to be published by Aspen Publishers as part of its Essentials series. This chapter weaves together the history and contemporary doctrines governing the jus ad bellum (addressing the legality of going to war) with the jus in bello (addressing the rules governing the means, methods, and tactics of warfare once a state of war exists). It then focuses on the penal implications of breaches of these two bodies of war SHOULD BE LAW NOT WAR with respect to the evolving definitions of war crimes …

Religion And Science At The Turn Of The Century, Calvin Jongsma

Pro Rege

This article was published in the 2007 issue of the online Journal of the ACMS (Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences).

Playing For His Side: Kipling’S ‘Regulus,’ Corporal Punishment, And Classical Education, Emily A. Mcdermott

Classics & Religious Studies Faculty Publication Series

Rudyard Kipling’s short story, “Regulus,” revolves around the flogging of a student who has let loose a mouse in the drawing classroom of a turn-of-the-century British public school. The first part of the story is devoted to a fifth-form Latin class’s line-by-line explication of Horace’s fifth Roman ode, in which the story’s title character is presented as a paradigm of manly virtue; the remainder is given over to narration of the mouse-miscreant’s progress toward punishment, in thematic counterpoint to the Regulus exemplum. Within that idiosyncratic framework, the story tackles as ambitious a topic as the purposes of education, with particular …

Review Of Ask & Tell: Gay & Lesbian Veterans Speak Out. Steve Estes. Reviewed By John F. Longres., John F. Longres

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Steve Estes. Ask & Tell: Gay & Lesbian Veterans Speak Out. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. $29.95 hardcover.

Psc 495.01: Politics Research Goals And Strategies, Christopher P. Muste

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psc 355.01: Theories Of Civil Violence, Louis Hayes

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psc 333.01: International Security, Karen Adams

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Collecting Open Source Intelligence Via Tailored Information Delivery Systems, William Sousan, Qiuming Zhu, Ryan Nickell, William Mahoney, Peter Hospodka

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The Internet offers a plethora of freely available information for possible use in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) operations. However, along with this information come challenges in finding relevant information and overcoming information overload. This paper presents the results of an ongoing research in a Tailored Information Delivery Services (TIDS) system that aids users in retrieving relevant information through various open intelligence sources. The TIDS provides a semantics-based query constructor that operates in a “What You Get is What You Need (WYGIWYN^TM)” fashion and builds ontology based information tagging, theme extractor, and contextual model.

Abolition In The U.S.A. By 2050: On Political Capital And Ordniary Acts Of Resistance, Bernard E. Harcourt

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

The United States, like the larger international community, likely will tend toward greater abolition of the death penalty during the first half of the twenty-first century. A handful of individual states—states that have historically carried out few or no executions—probably will abolish capital punishment over the next twenty years, which will create political momentum and ultimately a federal constitutional ban on capital punishment in the United States. It is entirely reasonable to expect that, by the mid-twenty-first century, capital punishment will have the same status internationally as torture: an outlier practice, prohibited by international agreements and customary international law, practiced …

Breaking The Khaldunian Cycle? The Rise Of Sharifianism As The Basis For Political Legitimacy In Early Modern Morocco, Stephen Cory

History Faculty Publications

This paper argues that the sharifian Sa'di and 'Alawi dynasties ended the Khaldunian Cycle within Morocco through their development of a political creed based upon sharifianism (the idea that Islamic leadership should be held by descendants of the Prophet Muhammad). Within the context of a growing European threat, the Sa'dis created a doctrine that was both new and distinctly Moroccan while alleging it held a universal application deriving from the time of the Prophet. Thus they institutionalised a sense of 'asabiyah in a way that preceding dynasties could not, which later enabled the 'Alawis to exceed Ibn Khaldun's predicted dynastic …

“I Hope You Never See Another Day Like This”: Pedagogy & Allegory In “Post 9/11” Video Games, Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Although critics and scholars have considered the extent to which the terror attacks of 11 Sept. 2001 influenced subsequent media productions, video games comprise a largely unexamined form. This oversight also applies to related forms of media production and among those who study video games is in part attributable to the ongoing debate regarding the relationship(s) between narrative and play. Even so, as early as 1997, JC Herz was investigating the role of video games in the military-entertainment complex. That said, the focus of this paper will not be the obvious games which draw settings and plots directly from the …

A Methodology For Assessing The Military Benefits Of Science And Technology Investments, Albert Sciarretta, Richard Chait, Joseph N. Mait, Jordan Willcox

Defense and Technology Papers

This paper discusses approaches developed at CTNSP, at the request of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, for measuring the benefits of today’s science and technology (S&T) investments on the future military.

Irregular Warfare: New Challenges For Civil-Military Relations, Patrick M. Cronin

Strategic Forums

Success in the highly political and ambiguous conflicts likely to dominate the global security environment in the coming decades will require a framework that balances the relationships between civilian and military leaders and makes the most effective use of their different strengths. These challenges are expected to require better integrated, whole-of-government approaches, the cooperation of host governments and allies, and strategic patience.

Defense Transformation À La Française And U.S. Interests, Leo G. Michel

Strategic Forums

France has embarked on a transformation of its national security strategy, structures, capabilities, and relationships with Allies and other international partners. At its core, this transformation reflects a growing French consensus that globalization—especially the emergence of new, less predictable threats and vulnerabilities—has profoundly altered defense requirements since the last comprehensive review in the mid-1990s. But President Nicolas Sarkozy, faced with a large budget deficit, is determined to meet those requirements without near-term increases in defense spending.

Good Bugs, Bad Bugs: A Modern Approach For Detecting Offensive Biological Weapons Research, Michael Moodie, Cheryl Loeb, Robert E. Armstrong, Helen Purkitt

Defense and Technology Papers

This report outlines a new framework to monitor countries in terms of their potential to engage in covert biological weapons research. This is an effort to develop an indirect approach to measuring a nation’s capability to conduct offensive weapons research in both civilian and government or military settings.

Programming Development Funds To Support A Counterinsurgency: Nangarhar, Afghanistan, Michelle Parker

Defense and Technology Papers

This paper describes one method of programming development funds at a sub-national level to positively affect a counterinsurgency, in this case, in Eastern Afghanistan. It explores how one interagency group, the Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), developed and implemented a strategy for increasing stability in its area of operations by maximizing the resources each agency brought to the table and creating “unity of effort.”

And They Were There -- Reports Of Meetings -- Electronic Resources In Libraries Conference, Salalm Annual Conference, Digin -- Digital Preservation Conference, Editor

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Full Page Ads, Editor

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

The 2006 Lebanon Campaign And The Future Of Warfare: Implications For Army And Defense Policy, Stephen D. Biddle Dr., Jeffrey A. Friedman Mr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

Many now see future warfare as a matter of nonstate actors employing irregular methods against Western states. This expectation has given rise to a range of sweeping proposals for transforming the U.S. military to meet such threats. In this context, Hezbollah’s 2006 campaign in southern Lebanon has been receiving increasing attention as a prominent recent example of a nonstate actor fighting a Westernized state. In particular, critics of irregular-warfare transformation often cite the 2006 case as evidence that non-state actors can nevertheless wage conventional warfare in state-like ways. This monograph assesses this claim via a detailed analysis of Hezbollah’s military …

Human Behavior And The Social Environment: Models, Metaphors, And Maps For Applying Theoretical Perspectives To Practice. James Forte.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for James Forte. Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Models, Metaphors, and Maps for Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Practice. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2007. $67.95 papercover.

Understanding Social Inequality. Tim Butler And Paul Watt.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Tim Butler & Paul Watt. Understanding Social Inequality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2007. $39.95 papercover.

Studying The Exclusionary Rule: An Empirical Classic, Albert W. Alschuler

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Forced Terminations Among Clergy: Causes And Recovery, Thomas A. Powell Sr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to bring attention to the issues that surround forced terminations among clergy. We will look at the available statistics, investigate the causes, read testimonies of those who have been forced out and look at plans for recovery. The author will incorporate his own testimony relating to his voluntary forced termination and describe how it affected his whole family and the recovery that followed.

Combat Identification Using Multiple Tuav Swarm, Younin Kang

Theses and Dissertations

In modern warfare, Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (TUAVs) are rapidly taking on a leading role in traditional and non-traditional ISR, to include Automatic Target Recognition (ATR). However, additional advancements in processors and sensors on TUAVs are still needed before they can be widely employed as a primary source for positive identification in the Combat Identification (CID) process. Cost is a driving factor for operating an ATR system using multiple TUAVs. The cost of high quality sensors appropriate for a single TUAV can be significantly higher than less sophisticated sensors suitable for deployment on a group, or swarm, of coordinated TUAVs. …