Digital Commons Network^™

"Should I Just Confess?": The Influence Of Perceived Consequences Associated With Confessing On The Likelihood Of True Vs. False Confessions, Allyson Judith Horgan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The growing awareness of the problem of false confessions has lead social science researchers to investigate the factors that influence true vs. false confessions. Previous research suggested that minimization and maximization techniques may be interpreted by a suspect as the equivalent of an offer of leniency and a threat of harsher punishment, respectively. The current studies seek to further this literature by distinguishing between minimization and maximization techniques that may or may not influence a suspect's perceptions of the consequences associated with confessing. Results indicate that techniques that manipulate the perceived consequences of confessing increase false confession rates while those …

The Effectiveness Of Multicultural Based Social Stories To Increase Appropriate Behaviors Of Children With Developmental Delay, Ning Hsu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The needs of students from culturally and linguistically diverse background have become a growing concern in America. It is a great challenge for educators to provide appropriate education for culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities. Although there are some researchers that espouse effective principles of multicultural special education, there have been few empirical on the effectiveness.

Social Stories are a practical behavioral intervention which has been regarded as an individualized intervention since the student's needs, background and learning style should be took into consideration. This present research used an ABA design to compare the modified social story with and …

Templeton's Peace, Trent Devell Hudley

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This novel is a work of fiction.

Nondestructive Testing For Finding Out The Displacement Of Crack In Silicon Nitride, Sriharsha Kurra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nondestructive testing (NDT) has become an increasingly vital factor in the effective conduct of research, development, design and manufacturing. Only with the appropriate use of nondestructive testing techniques, the benefits of advanced materials science can be fully realized. NDT has a wide range of industrial applications and various methods and techniques are employed to perform the nondestructive testing. The current work aims to demonstrate the nondestructive testing technique applied to determine the damage in silicon nitride. Ceramics are brittle materials and non destructive evaluation methods are required to assess the quality and reliability of them. A nondestructive evaluation technique has …

Un/Commonplaces: Redirecting Research And Curricula In Rhetoric And Writing Studies, Brian J. Mcnely

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Un/Commonplaces is guided by a broad and fundamental question of inquiry regarding writing and disciplinary research: how can some of the predominant ways that our discipline has approached writing be retheorized to better approximate the complexity of contemporary rhetorical knowledge work? A corollary inquiry explores the resonances with English Studies that persist--and seeks to uncover how they persist--in our field. I argue that we can negotiate such issues by tracing and troubling some of our core disciplinary commonplaces, those commonsense notions and practices too frequently and easily adopted from English Studies and perpetuated within the often tumultuous and hegemonic relationship …

The Effect Of Facial Resemblance On Alibi Credibility And Final Verdicts, Claudia Ochoa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine an extra-legal variable that may affect the credibility of a defendant and the alibi corroborator's testimonies. In this study, the facial appearance of the alibi corroborator was manipulated to resemble the defendant or the trial judge to different degrees using facial morphing software. Participants serving as mock jurors provided verdicts for a trial summary and rated the credibility of an alibi corroborator. It was hypothesized that as the facial resemblance shared between an alibi corroborator and a defendant increased, the less credible the alibi corroborator's testimony would be perceived, resulting in an …

An Enhanced Method For The Existing Bluetooth Pairing Protocol To Avoid Impersonation Attacks, Patricia Aidee Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As the use of the Bluetooth technology in wireless technologies such as computers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), printers, digital cameras, PC peripherals, and headphones, among others, has enormously increased during this decade, it has also increased the need of employing a more secure and robust pairing protocol that protects the transfer of information between Bluetooth devices.

The existing Bluetooth pairing protocol starts when a Bluetooth device is set to be in discoverable mode and it is found by another device. After this step is completed, it initiates the pairing procedure by sharing some important device information, then by …

Production Of Future Forms By L2 English Learners, Sabrina Mossman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines forms of future expression used by L2 English learners, which can be different from those used by native English speakers. Three types of data were collected for this study--language produced daily by L2 English learners in an ESL classroom, language produced in response to open questions in an interview, and language produced in a Discourse Completion Task (DCT). Twenty-six ESL learners from multiple language backgrounds participated in the interview and DCT portions of the study. Of these twenty-six, five also participated in the classroom production portion. Twenty-seven native speakers acted as a control group. The results of …

Hybrid Ftth Optical Network Using Incoherent Optical Code Division Multiple Access, Joel Quintana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the past 20 years there has been extensive research on the application of spread spectrum multiplexing techniques for communications via optical fiber. Optical Code Division Multiplexing (OCDMA) is the technique that has exhibited the most promise as a primary multiplexing vehicle for the transition into all-optical processing of data, and as a supplement to other techniques such as Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM). OCDMA can be classified into incoherent OCDMA, where coding and detection is done on the basis of optical power, and coherent OCDMA where coding is done on a field amplitude basis. The …

Analysis Of Cluster Compute Nodes With Varying Memory Hierarchy Distributions, Jon Valentin Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis compares a Compute Node, a cluster compute node that can completely contain smaller processes within, but not larger ones, with a Memory Node, a cluster compute node that can fully contain large processes within main memory. The Compute Node and Memory Node are tested by executing matrix multiplication programs that range in size from small processes similar to jobs that can be run on a single workstation to large processes that would only fit entirely within a Memory Node. Memory was allocated using four types of memory allocation: static, external, dynamic, and automatic. This analysis provides a measure …

Claiming The Discursive Self: Mestiza Rhetoric Of Mexican Women Jouranlists, 1876-1924, Cristina Devereaux Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the last two decades, scholars in Rhetoric and Writing Studies have been calling for a greater representation of voices of those from other cultures who participated in rhetorical practices. As Jacqueline Jones Royster contends, rhetoric has been framed as mostly white, male, and elite, and that these positions distort the democratic perspective of our discipline. Claiming the Discursive Self: Mestiza Rhetoric of Mexican Women Journalists, 1876-1924 presents women rhetors who were participating in not only creating a national identity, but also in constructing a public identity that would insure women's contribution and participation for future generations. It closely examines …

Optimization Of Flow For Plastic Pbt With 45% Glass And Mineral Fiber Reinforcement In An Injection Over Mold Process Using Taguchi, Cpk And Mold Flow Simulation Software Approaches, Israel Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis analyze the plastic injection molding parameters in order to identify which parameters significantly affects the flow properties of Polibuthylen Thereptalate with 45% glass/mineral reinforcement, and which levels are the best to use for those parameters. With the purpose of optimizing the plastic flow conditions in an injection mold to obtain parts free from short shots (term used to describe a plastic part that is incomplete due to the poor plastic flow in the mold runners and cavities).

The used approach is Taguchi design of experiments to define which parameters have significant effect on the response variable, and the …

Exploring Poly(Ethylene Glycol) As A Suitable Material For Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Scaffolds Manufactured By Stereolithography, Nubia Zuverza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

One of the challenges in tissue engineering is to have spatial and temporal control over the biological elements within a scaffold used to guide regeneration for example of transected nerves. Some of the physical and chemical characteristics to regulate include incorporation of bioactive domains and release of chemical signals. This study presents the use of stereolithography (SL) to incorporate localized domains for cell adhesion in addition to include releasable nerve growth factor (NGF) in the process of building poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate (PEGda) hydrogel scaffolds. Besides providing sites for cell attachment, an ideal nerve guidance conduit (NGC) should be able to release …

On The Estimation Of Averages Over Infinite Intervals With An Application To Average Persistence In Population Models, Sean F. Ellermeyer

Faculty Articles

We establish a general result for estimating the upper average of a continuous and bounded function over an infinite interval. As an application, we show that a previously studied model of microbial growth in a chemostat with time–varying nutrient input admits solutions (populations) that exhibit weak persistence but not weak average persistence.

Animated Courseware Support For Teaching Database Design, Meg C. Murray, Mario Guimaraes

Faculty Articles

Database technologies are a core component of computing technology curricula. Their importance will only continue to expand as more and more data are retained in database systems. An effective database system is predicated on a good data model. Database design is the conceptualization of an underlying data model that progresses from identifying user requirements to graphically depicting those requirements and finally mapping the graphical models to a set of tables implemented in a physical database system. The abstract nature of much of database design makes it challenging to teach. This paper presents a set of software animations designed to support …

Procedural Adequacy, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This short piece responds to Jay Tidmarsh’s article, Rethinking Adequacy of Representation, 87 Texas Law Review 1137 (2009). I explore Professor Tidmarsh’s proposed “do no harm” approach to adequate representation in class actions from a procedural legitimacy perspective. I begin by considering the assumption underlying his alternative, namely that in any given class action both attorneys and class representatives tend to act as self-interested homo economicus and we must therefore tailor the adequacy requirement to curb self-interest only in so far as it makes class members worse off than they would be with individual litigation. Adopting the “do no harm” …

Shareholder Bylaws And The Delaware Corporation, Christopher M. Bruner

Scholarly Works

Much like hostile tender offers in the 1980s and 1990s, shareholder bylaws purporting to limit board authority in key areas of corporate governance are, once again, forcing Delaware's courts to grapple with the fundamental nature of the corporate form.

In this (short) essay written for a roundtable discussion at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, I discuss CA, Inc. v. AFSCME Employees Pension Plan - the 2008 opinion in which the Delaware Supreme Court began to define the nature and scope of the shareholders' bylaw authority. In CA, Inc. the court held that a proposed …

The Burden Of Knowledge, Christian Turner

Scholarly Works

Sometimes we are better off not knowing things. While we often hear that "ignorance is bliss," there has not been a comprehensive consideration in the legal academy of the virtues of ignorance and its regulation. Though the distribution of knowledge, like the distribution of other goods, is affected both directly and indirectly by law, several characteristics of knowledge distinguish it from other kinds of property. Much has been written about the impact of the nonrival and nonexclusive nature of knowledge on its production and distribution. This Article centers around two other attributes of knowledge that combine to create a special …

Can International Law Work? A Constructivist Expansion, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

An increasing number of scholars have begun to apply rational choice methodologies to the study of international law. Earlier rational choice scholarship voicing skepticism about international law’s true force has since been followed by sophisticated rational choice defenses of international law. This review essay focuses on Andrew Guzman’s recent book HOW INTERNATIONAL LAW WORKS: A RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY (2008), one of the best of those defenses. In that book, Guzman develops an elegant and sophisticated account of 'reputation' and the role it can play in encouraging rational compliance with international law. Based on this account, Guzman makes a powerful case …

Workplace Privacy: An Environmental-Behaviour Analysis Of Etisalat Offices In Al-Ain, Latefa Ali Saleh Ahmad Alkuwaiti

Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore environmental quality factors in the workplace and to examine the level of job satisfaction among the employees of Etisalat Al-Ain through three main factors: visual privacy, acoustical privacy and social interaction. The theoretical and conceptual elements of the study evolved from the literature of office history, behaviour studies, building performance evaluation and job satisfaction.

Data were gathered in two stages, first phase with a population of 10 and second stage with 100 subjects of Etisalat employees, including both those working in open plan workstations and those who work in enclosed offices.

Using …

The Taxonomic Designation Of Eriogonum Corymbosum Var. Nilesii (Polygonaceae) Is Supported By Aflp And Cpdna Analyses, M. W. Ellis, J. M. Roper, R. Gainer, J. P. Der, Paul G. Wolf

Biology Faculty Publications

We examined populations of perennial, shrubby buckwheats in the Eriogonum corymbosum complex and related Eriogonum species in the subgenus Eucycla, to assess genetic affiliations of the recently named E. corymbosum var. nilesii. The known populations of this varietyare all located in Clark County, Nevada, U. S. A. We compared AFLP profiles and chloroplast DNA sequences of plants sampled from populations of E. corymbosum var. nilesii with those of plants representing other E. corymbosum varieties and related Eriogonum species from Colorado,Utah, northern Arizona, and northern New Mexico. We found evidence of genetic cohesion among the Clark County populations as well astheir …

Conservation Of Selection On Matk Following An Ancient Loss Of Its Flanking Intron, A. M. Duffy, S. A. Kelchner, Paul G. Wolf

Biology Faculty Publications

The chloroplast gene trnK and its associated group II intron appear to be absent in a large and ancient clade that includes nearly 90% of fern species. However, the maturase protein encoded within the intron (matK) is still present and located on the boundary of a large-scale inversion. We surveyed the chloroplast genome sequence of clade-member Adiantum capillus-veneris for evidence of a still present but fragmented trnK intron. Lack of signature structural domains and sequence motifs in the genome indicate loss of the trnK intron through degradation in an ancestor of the clade. In plants, matK preferentially catalyzes splicing of …

Encephalitic Sarcocystosis And Its Prophylactic Treatment In Sheep, Özlem Özmen, Şi̇ma Şahi̇nduran, Mehmet Haligür, Bayram Ali̇ Yukari, Gerry M. Dorrestein

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The aim of this study was to examine the clinical and pathological findings in sheep naturally infected with severe encephalitic sarcocystosis and to evaluate the prophylactic effect of amprolium on the disease. From a flock of approximately 350 animals, 10 sheep were referred to the Veterinary Faculty Clinic with neurological symptoms that developed during the previous 2 weeks. These 10 sheep were clinically and pathologically examined, and the remaining animals in the flock without neurological symptoms were treated. All 10 animals were hypothermic, weak, and unable to stand. Complete blood count and serum biochemical analysis revealed mild leukocytosis, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, …

Effect Of Suburban Transit Oriented Developments On Residential Property Values, Shishir Mathur, Christopher Ferrell

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Job Related Stress And The Ability To Transition Among Life Roles For Police Officers, Stacy Dawn Seay

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Role Of Thyroid Hormone In The Intestinal Development Of Eleutherodactylus Coqui, Srikanth Singamsetty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thyroid hormone (TH) is required for the metamorphosis of the long, coiled tadpole gut in Xenopus laevis into a shorter mature adult gut. Eleutherodactylus coqui, a direct developing frog, lacks a tadpole. Its embryonic gut is a miniature adult form with a mass of yolky endodermal cells attached to the small intestine to provide nutrition. The requirement of TH for the gut development in E. coqui was tested in this study. Inhibition of TH synthesis with methimazole arrested gut development in its embryonic form. T3, the active form of TH, induced gut development. Embryos treated with methimazole failed to utilize …

The Role And Function Of Literacy In Two Homeschooling Families, Kevin Rua

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Homeschooling is an increasingly popular practice, and this raises questions about how it is carried out. One important area for investigation is the literacy practices of homeschooling. Literacy is often seen as a necessary component of formal schooling. This project investigated the role and function of literacy in two homeschooling families. Specifically the research was designed to answer the following questions:

*How is homeschooling both similar to and different from formal schooling?

*What are the literacy practices of homeschooling? What tools are used in these practices? What knowledge and skills are used in these practices? What are the goals of …

Mental Health Care At The Margins: A Critical Ethnography Of Psychological Practice In An Inner City Mental Health Setting, Katy Sampson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the past several decades, the field of psychology has attempted to improve psychological services for a greater diversity of people. However, despite these attempts, research continues to document a "gap" when it comes to mental health care services for marginalized populations. Various studies have addressed the issue of this "gap" in mental health care; however, most adhere to positivist assumptions regarding sociocultural aspects of experience, understanding culture and identity as immutable qualities existing within individuals, rather than as an interpersonal phenomenon that is negotiated between and among people and institutions. As a result of these assumptions, many past studies …

The Characteristics And Functions Of Humor In Psychotherapy: A Qualitative Study, Joshua Gregson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Literature on humor in psychotherapy has been strongly influenced by a debate on whether therapists should engage in humor with clients. Many authors urge caution and are suspicious of humor's use by therapists. Others argue that humor is helpful in therapy and illustrate its uses through clinical evidence, mainly anecdotes from the author's experience. The debate on humor's admissibility in psychotherapy treats humor as optional, and thereby ignores its centrality in human relating and its inevitability in the therapeutic relationship.

Since humor inevitably arises in psychotherapy, it is important for therapists to know typical manifestations and meanings of humor in …

Some Logical Limits Of E-Discovery, Lon A. Berk

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.