Digital Commons Network^™

Scientific Visualizations, Nick Kochakian

Theses

Visualizations for three different categories of problems are presented: measurements of object parameters as they vary over time, constructing surfaces from unorganized sets of points, and representing the internal structure of volumes using isosurfaces. Problem backgrounds are discussed as well as the operational details of each visualization. Visualizations were written with ease of use in mind for Spiegel, a programmable visualization environment.

Data Center Design & Enterprise Networking, Christian Mahood

Theses

Today’s enterprise networks and data centers have become very complex and have completely integrated themselves into every facet of their represented organization. Organizations require Internet facing services and applications to be available at any part of the day or night. These organizations have realized that with centralized computing and highly available components, their technological presence with customers can be greatly enhanced. The creation of an infrastructure supporting such high availability takes numerous components and resources to function optimally. When an organization makes the decision to design a data center, they utilize resources to provide insight into what components to deploy. …

Hierarchical Task Allocation In Robotic Exploration, John Hawley

Theses

Autonomous robotic exploration has long been a topic of interest in robotics research. Robotic exploration promises the ability to explore otherwise unreachable or hostile environments. Autonomous exploration is particularly useful in distant or hostile environments in which real-time communication with a human controller may not be practical, such as deep sea or planetary exploration. In order to more effectively explore a large unknown area, multiple robots may be employed to work cooperatively. While cooperation among multiple robots allows for increased exploration potential, it also entails significantly more complex planning. This complex planning involves allocation of exploration tasks to the robots …

Vibrational Control Of Chaos In Artificial Neural Networks, Ralph Bean

Theses

Neural networks with chaotic baseline behavior are interesting for their experimental bases in both biological relevancy and engineering applicability. In the engineering case, the literature still lacks a robust study of the interrelationship between particular chaotic baseline network dynamics and 'online' or 'driving' inputs. We ask the question, for a particular neural network with chaotic baseline behavior, what periodic inputs of minimal magnitude have a stabilizing effect on network dynamics? A genetic algorithm is developed for the task. A systematic comparison of different genetic operators is carried out where each operator-combination is ranked by the optimality of solutions found. The …

Improving Dodgson Scoring Techniques, Jason A. Covey

Theses

The Dodgson score problem is part of the Dodgson election scheme invented by Charles Dodgson and presented in his manuscript. One of the system's strengths (and motivations for its study) is that it satisfies the Condorcet criterion (which states that any candidate who defeats all other candidates in pairwise elections will be declared the winner). It is unfortunate, though, that in a given election no Condorcet winner may exist. Dodgson's election system chooses the winner "closest" to being the Condorcet winner in the sense that it requires the shortest sequence of edits (swapping of adjacent candidates in the voters' preference …

Assessing Instructional Strategies At Barbados Community College Hospitality Institute In A Dynamic Global Environment, Juiann Young-Lovell

Theses

Today, there are educational institutions whose offerings highlight the value of a blended learning experience. Such organizations design their curricula to enhance students' knowledge, skills and attitudes. These institutions integrate several elements into the learning experience. The subject mater is taught, provision is made for students to practice and this all takes place in the traditional or virtual classroom or in a real world setting. Instructional practice is the bridge between the student and the teacher. At the Barbados Community College Hospitality Institute (BCCHI), there is no evidence that the faculty has conducted formal assessment of the organisation's instructional practices …

Designing Foreign Tax Credit Rules In China: The Case Of Foreign Loss Limitations, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

Over the last few years, China’s large trade surplus against other countries, as well as its high domestic savings rate even relative to its high investment rate, have resulted in a very substantial foreign currency reserve that puts the country in the position of a significant capital exporter. The huge amount of foreign currency assets held by the Chinese government— near $1.9 trillion at the end of 2008 — and a breathtaking series of acquisitions made by Chinese firms overseas are now salient items in international business reporting and public discussion. China’s new posture as an exporter of capital has …

Implementing Qr Code Technology In Medical Device Pacakage, Manu Chakravarthy Kittanakere Naagaraj

Theses

The medical device industry strives to improve the delivery of key device information

through the package to patients, doctors and end users. To achieve this goal Indications For Use (IFU) and user manuals have been major tools and are necessary components required in Medical Device Package according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

Historically there have been challenges caused by packaging information materials aspects

such as manufacturing, transportation and translation. The need for extensive packaging and labelling has ultimately contributed to increased cost of manufacturing for devices. It is also important to know what information a customer needs and …

Effects Of Telepresence Light Height And Ambient Light On Glare And Appearance, James P. Beno

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Golfers' Experience With Multiple Imagery Interventions And Putting Performance, Seongkwan Cho

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Sheaf Catalogs Of George John Spencer, Larissa C. Brookes

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Scyphozoan Jellies As Prey For Leatherback Sea Turtles Off Central California, Tanya R. Graham

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Dietrich And Sternberg : From Cabaret Performance To Feminist Empowerment, Elizabeth Anne Taylor

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Psychosocial Stress And Social Support On Memory, Dong T. H Nguyen

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Guidelines To Developing A Corporate Packaging Group For The Medical Device Industry, Michael Piazza

Theses

The purpose of this study was to reveal and assess improvements that can be made to the candidate selection process when developing a Corporate Packaging Group in the Medical Device Industry.

Sequential Innovation, Patents, And Imitation, James Bessen, Eric Maskin

Faculty Scholarship

How could such industries as software, semiconductors, and computers have been so innovative despite historically weak patent protection? We argue that if innovation is both sequential and complementary--as it certainly has been in those industries--competition can increase firms' future profits thus offsetting short-term dissipation of rents. A simple model also shows that in such a dynamic industry, patent protection may reduce overall innovation and social welfare. The natural experiment that occurred when patent protection was extended to software in the 1980?s provides a test of this model. Standard arguments would predict that R&D intensity and productivity should have increased among …

Death From The Public Domain?, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In his recent article in the Texas Law Review, Ben Roin advances the claim that pharmaceutical innovation and the public’s health are harmed by the doctrines of non-obviousness and novelty. He does not mince words, labeling the nonobvious requirement as “perversity” with a “pernicious” effect on drug development. In his view, these standards pose an insurmountable barrier for drug companies seeking to commercialize inventions already in the public domain. He claims that valuable, life-saving drug ideas languish in the public domain because the companies face high barriers to entry from the FDA, but potential free riders are encouraged through the …

Book/Tax Conformity And Equity Compensation, David I. Walker, Victor Fleischer

Faculty Scholarship

Should we require companies to report the same amount of income to the IRS as they report to their shareholders? The idea behind "book/tax conformity" is that managers' desire to increase reported earnings would act as a check on their desire to minimize taxable income, and vice versa. Some scholars have proposed a comprehensive approach, adopting financial income as the basis for corporate taxation. Legislators, meanwhile, have offered a targeted approach that singles out equity compensation, which has historically been a significant source of the "gap" between book income and taxable income.

This Article argues that book/tax conformity carries unexplored …

The End Of Reparations Talk: Reparations In An Obama World, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Disparities in Black health began in slavery, were reinforced in segregation and racism, and persist today despite significant remedial efforts. In the last decade, the statistics about Black health disparities show no improvement. The caustic history of slavery, racism and segregation hasn't been completely undone. Fundamental changes are still necessary to repair deficits in Black health.

But the election of Barack Obama has changed the relevance of reparations as a political tool for making these changes. We elected a Black man as President, and he refused to apply reparations talk to social programs of uplift for disadvantaged communities. Obama struck …

The Turn Toward Congress In Administrative Law, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

Congress engages in an extensive and ever-increasing level of oversight of the activities of the Executive Branch. The level of observation and supervision is high enough that it is appropriate to hold Congress responsible for a very high proportion of the activities of the Executive Branch. In recent years, so much attention has been paid to assertions of power by the President and the Supreme Court, Congress has been somewhat neglected. This paper analyzes the power of Congress mainly through an administrative law lens with the aim of pointing out ways in which Congress has remained or become responsible for …

Tort Duties Of Landowners: A Positive Theory, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most controversial areas of modern tort law is that of the duty of landowners toward people who visit their land. The common law divided land visitors into three types: invitees, licensees, and trespassers. The highest duty of care was owed to the invitee and the lowest to the trespasser. The distinctions led courts to hand down harsh decisions and to draw formal lines between the categories that seemed to defy common sense at times. This paper explains the incentive-based function of the classical landowner duties. I will argue that the classical duties served useful regulatory functions. The …

Rethinking Consideration In The Electronic Age, Robert A. Hillman, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

Our fast-paced age of electronic agreements that ostensibly govern transactions as diverse as downloading software, ordering goods, and engaging in collaborative development projects raises questions regarding thesuitability of contract law as the appropriate legal framework. While this question arises in many settings, we focus here on the free and open source software (FOSS) movement because of the maturity and success of its model and the ubiquity of its software. We explore in particular whether open source licenses are supported by consideration, and argue that they are, and that open source licenses are contracts. We further argue that a contractual framework …

The Challenge Of Improving The Long-Term Focus Of Executive Pay, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

A consensus is developing that executive compensation in the U.S. is inadequately linked to long-termcompany performance, resulting in reckless, short-term decision making. Congress, the Obama administration, and academic commentators have recently embraced dramatic restrictions on the form and holding period of senior executive pay, at least at some companies. A common view, apparently, is that while regulation of the amount of executive pay would do more harm than good, regulation of form and term is desirable.

This essay questions that view. It highlights the challenges of fruitfully regulating the term and form of payarising from the complexity and diversity of …

Breaking The Genuine Link: The Contemporary International Legal Regulation Of Nationality, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

The concept of nationality traditionally mediated the relationship between the individual and the state in a bygone era in which international law regarded only the latter as a genuine subject of the law; today, its international legal functions have expanded. Yet, as in the past, it remains unclear whether and how international law limits the otherwise almost plenary competence of states to confer their nationality by their internal laws in a way entitled to international recognition. After the International Court of Justice's ("ICJ") 1955 judgment in Nottebohm, however, lawyers began to express this limit with a kind of doctrinal mantra: …

Federalization Snowballs: The Need For National Action In Medical Malpractice Reform, Abigail Moncrieff

Faculty Scholarship

Because tort law generally and healthcare regulation specifically are traditional state functions and because medical, legal, and insurance practices are highly localized, legal scholars have long believed that medical malpractice falls within the states' exclusive jurisdiction and sovereignty. Indeed, this view is so widely held that modern legal scholarship takes it for granted. Articles on general federalism issues use medical malpractice as an easy example of a policy in which federal intervention lacks functional justification, and articles that focus on federalization of other tort reforms use medical malpractice as an easy foil, pointing out that the uniformity interest that justifies …

Supreme Court Justices, Empathy, And Social Change: A Comment On Lani Guinier's Demosprudence Through Dissent, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

Justice Souter's imminent retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court provides President Obama with his first opportunity for a judicial nomination to the high court. President Obama's remarks about the relevance of life experience and of empathy are sparking discussion of relevant judicial qualifications. This Essay examines Professor Lani Guinier's recent argument that dissenting justices, particularly through the use of oral dissents, may spur ordinary people to action and that such dissents may expand the range of democratic action, as part of what she and Gerald Torres call "demosprudence." That controversial decisions by the United States Supreme Court can spur dissenting …

Justice Ginsburg's Dissent In Bush V. Gore, Hugh Baxter

Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, I examine Justice Ginsburg's dissenting opinion in Bush v. Gore, the decision that ended the 2000 controversy over the winner of the presidency. I look critically at Justice Ginsburg's invocation of federalism-based deference to the Florida courts' interpretations of state election law in the recount controversy. I consider also Justice Ginsburg's criticisms of the Court's remedial decision to stop the recounts. Finally, I take up the much-debated question of how to understand Justice Ginsburg's final two words: "I dissent," rather than "I respectfully dissent." My conclusion is that the omission of "respectfully" is pointed, but not for …

Judicial Control Of The National Labor Relations Board's Lawmaking In The Age Of Chevron And Brand X, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes and applies to Labor Board decision making the Court’s oft-cited 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The article argues that judicial review of Board decision making under Chevron, though limited, can still be sufficiently meaningful to control excessive shifts in Board lawmaking criticized by many commentators. The article explains why recent Supreme Court decisions reject any distinction between two theoretically distinct forms of agency discretionary lawmaking – (1) lawmaking through construction of the direct force of an ambiguous statute: and (2) lawmaking through the elaboration of law beyond that which is embodied in …

A Court Between: Aboriginal And Treaty Rights In The British Columbia Court Of Appeal, Douglas C. Harris

All Faculty Publications

This article, one in a collection of articles on the British Columbia Court of Appeal, surveys that court's jurisprudence in the field of Aboriginal and treaty rights. It begins in the 1960s and 1970s with a series of cases that reveal a court confident in its assumption that Aboriginal rights had little bearing on the province. The decisions of the court through the 1970s reflected and consolidated a status quo that had all but ignored Aboriginal rights and title. This would change in the 1980s with a series of remarkable decisions from the court following the constitutional entrenchment of Aboriginal …

Justices As Economic Fixers: A Response To A Macrotheory Of The Court, Scott Baker, Adam Feibelman, William P. Marshall

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.