Digital Commons Network^™

Study On Intumescent Flame Retarded Polystyrene Composites With Improved Flame Retardancy, Hongdian Lu, Charles A. Wilkie

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The flame retardancy and thermal stability of ammonium polyphosphate/tripentaerythritol (APP/TPE) intumescent flame retarded polystyrene composites (PS/IFR) combined with organically-modified layered inorganic materials (montmorillonite clay and zirconium phosphate), nanofiber (multiwall carbon nanotubs), nanoparticle (Fe₂O₃) and nickel catalyst were evaluated by cone calorimetry, microscale combustion calorimetry (MCC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Cone calorimetry revealed that a small substitution of IFR by most of these fillers (≤2%) imparted substantial improvement in flammability performance. The montmorillonite clay exhibited the highest efficiency in reducing the peak heat release rate of PS/IFR composite, while zirconium phosphate modified with C₂₁H_{26 …}

Introducing Creativity In The Ensemble Setting: National Standards Meet Comprehensive Musicianship, Charles E. Norris

Peer Reviewed Articles

This article explores realistic ways with which ensemble conductors can facilitate the conceptual acquisition of their students via creative activities. Creativity, as included in the National Standards, is presented through the “eyes” of comprehensive musicianship.

The Effect Of Taxes On Multinational Debt Location, Matteo P. Arena, Andrew H. Roper

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We provide new evidence that differences in international tax rates and tax regimes affect multinational firms' debt location decisions. Our sample contains 8287 debt issues from 2437 firms headquartered in 23 different countries with debt-issuing subsidiaries in 59 countries. We analyze firms' marginal decisions of where to issue debt to investigate the influence of a comprehensive set of tax-related effects, including differences in personal and corporate tax rates, tax credit and exemption systems, and bi-lateral cross-country withholding taxes on interest and dividend payments. Our results show that differences in personal and corporate tax rates, the presence of dividend imputation or …

Applying Feature Selective Validation (Fsv) As An Objective Function For Data Optimization, Siming Pan, Hanfeng Wang, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Feature Select Validation (FSV) is a widely used validation method for data comparison. FSV provides a quantitative standard to describe the similarity between two sets of data. in this paper, the application of the FSV technique is extended to data optimization. the raw data obtained from simulations or measurements are often non-ideal for further processing. Several techniques, such as data perturbation, can be used to improve the data quality in certain aspects. However, after modifications the new data could be very different to the original one. using FSV as an objective function for the optimization process is discussed in this …

State V. Thumm Clerk's Record V. 1 Dckt. 37512

Idaho Supreme Court Records & Briefs, All

No abstract provided.

Signs Of The Times, Winter-Spring 2010

Signs of the Times

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Rockford, IL

Signs of the Times Finding Aid

The Unwise And Unconstitutional Hatch Act: Why State And Local Government Employees Should Be Free To Run For Public Office., Jason C. Miller

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

This article examines the restrictions instated by the Hatch Act, a statute that prevents federal, state, and local employees from using their position or authority to influence elections. It also prohibits the candidacy for office for some government employees. While the author criticizes the restrictions imposed by the Act, there is support for the Act’s protections against coercion and inappropriate use of federal funds. The article analyzes the nuances of the Hatch Act and discusses perceivably negative effects of the Act on the political process, including the automatic disqualification of ideal candidates and a more restricted selection of candidates generally. …

Curb Your Immunity: The Improper Expansion Of Good Samaritan Protection In Illinois, Ben Bridges

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

The Illinois Good Samaritan Act was originally enacted to encourage physicians to provide medical assistance “at the scene of a motor vehicle accident or in case of a nuclear attack.” Over the years, however, the Act was expanded by the Illinois General Assembly and the Illinois courts to provide civil immunity to any physician who, in good faith, provides emergency care without charging a fee. Thus a physician need only demonstrate he provided emergency care and that he did not charge a fee in order to be shielded from liability. This comment critically analyzes the current status of the Good …

Assisting In Persecution: Analyzing The Decision In Negusie V. Gonzales, 231 F. App’X 325 (5th Cir. 2007), Mark L. Philipp

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

In the wake of World War II, the United States Supreme Court created a “persecutor bar” for asylum law that denied asylum status from being granted to individuals who had “voluntarily participated” in persecution. Unfortunately, while there have been changes in the asylum law, and the world, the persecutor bar has not changed. In Negusie v. Gonzales, the Fifth Circuit refused to move away from the old persecutor bar, ultimately creating an unjust and erroneous result. The old persecutor bar is no longer appropriate for Negusie, or for any other asylum case. This Note examines why Negusie demands a new …

The Investors Weren’T Tricked, But How Were They Treated? The Seventh Circuit’S New Definition Of Fiduciary Duty In Jones V. Harris Associates, L.P., 527 F.2d 923 (7th Cir. 2008), Leslie M. Warren

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act imposes a fiduciary duty on mutual fund advisers to the investors of a fund. For over twenty years, the mutual fund industry and the federal judiciary used a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Gartenberg v. Merrill Lynch Asset Management, Inc, as the standard in determining if a mutual fund adviser had breached his duty to the investors. The Gartenberg approach involved analyzing an adviser’s fees to determine if they were excessive or disproportionately unfair. In 2008 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided in Jones v. Harris Associates, L.L.P. to “disapprove” of …

The Rain Stars, The World’S River, The Horizon And The Sun’S Path: Astronomy Along The Rio Urucauá, Amapá, Brazil, Lesley Green, David Green

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article curates excerpts from astronomical narratives recorded in Palikur between 2000 and 2008 along the Rio Urucauá, in the Área Indígena do Uaçá on the border of Brazil and French Guiana. The material assembles around the seasonal cycle of stars associated with particular rains and seasonal changes in the landscape. Star maps of the major constellations are counterposed with wood carvings of the constellations. The curation of these narratives and carvings serves three arguments. First, the figures in this mythical cycle offer multiple references to Amerindian astronomies documented across lowland and highland South America. While the contemporary Palikur population …

Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire: Trauma In The Lives Of Homeless Youth Prior To And During Homelessness, John Coates, Sue Mckenzie-Mohr

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Anecdotal evidence from those who work with homeless youth indicates that trauma permeates these young people's lives. This paper presents the findings from a study of 100 homeless youth regarding the presence of trauma in their lives, both before and during homelessness. Participants living in the Maritime Provinces volunteered to take part in a semi-structured interview lasting one to two hours. The interview questionnaire was conducted by a trained interviewer, and was composed of standardized and adapted survey instruments, as well as questions regarding demographics, experiences prior to becoming homeless, assistance received while dealing with stressors, and current needs. The …

Pharmacokinetic Evaluation Of The Blood: Tissue Relationship In Poultry: Screening For Antibiotic Residues In Chicken Muscle, Ixchel Reyes Herrera

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During their life, humans are exposed to numerous substances that are naturally present in the environment or that are the result of man made processes, including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, pesticides and veterinary drugs. Some of these substances can leave residues in food products and possibly expose consumers to their potential toxic effects. To address these problems extensive regulatory efforts are devoted to prevent, detect and control these substances from reaching the food supply. However, given the vast diversity of food products that requires monitoring and the immense diversity of potential chemical contaminants, the need for an efficient and …

Sonia, What’S A Nice Person Like You Doing In Company Like That, Thomas D. Rowe Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Effects Of After-School Programs On Math And Literacy For Fourth And Sixth Grade Students, June Elliott

College of Education Dissertations

The general purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if participating in after-school programs affected students’ math and literacy achievement in four elementary schools and two middle schools located in a school district in central Arkansas. The study investigated this phenomenon as it related to gender at two different grade levels. The independent variables were participation in after-school programs (participated versus no participation) and gender (male versus female). The dependent variables were math and literacy achievement measured by the state’s Augmented Benchmark Examinations. A review of the literature identified the various aspects after-school programs including the need for such …

Teachers’ Knowledge About The Nature Of Mathematics: A Survey Of Secondary School Teachers In Karachi, Pakistan, Munira Amirali, Anjum Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This study presents the findings from a study which explored patterns in teachers’ knowledge about the nature of mathematics. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 200 secondary school mathematics teachers teaching in public and private schools in Karachi, Pakistan. Exploratory factor analysis was performed which showed patterns in teachers’ view about the nature of mathematics. The analysis illustrates that teachers hold contradicting views about the nature of mathematics i.e. mathematics, both as discovered as well as invented body of knowledge. Moreover, teachers irrespective of their professional qualification, considered mathematical knowledge as ‘truth’, where mathematical rules can never be …

Commitment Decisions Under The Polish Competition Act – Enforcement Practice And Future Perspectives, Tomasz Kozieł

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the commitments procedure under the Polish competition law, including both legal and economic perspective. The outcome of this research is supposed to help in estimation whether novel negotiated instruments may be successfully employed in the field of antitrust enforcement. Hence, the paper first introduces the legal background of the commitments decisions, with focus on the specific features of the procedure. Being a tool of antitrust enforcement, commitment decisions should contribute to its goals. Therefore, the paper identifies such objectives drawing on the economic literature. It is in the light …

The Recession Mounts The Ivory Tower: How The Lillian Goldman Law Library At Yale Has Met The Challenges Posed By A Declining Economy, Femi Cadmus, Blair Kaufmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The global recession has wrought havoc on the budgets of libraries worldwide, forcing administrators to reassess priorities and change direction midcourse. Privately funded academic libraries which typically rely heavily on large endowments have not been exempt and in fact have probably been hit the hardest. The challenges encountered by this long drawn financial crisis have ultimately provided opportunities to reassess priorities and conduct business more efficiently.

Razian Authority And Its Implications For Legal Ethics, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The question considered in the session was whether the concern of legal ethics is the morality of law, the morality of clients, or the morality of lawyers. The response I have been pursuing, in my book and elsewhere, is that all of these moral concerns are tied together in the lawyer’s role. The morality of law, clients, and lawyers are interrelated, but the political perspective is primary. The law serves a political purpose, of making public life possible despite first-order moral pluralism. When people disagree, either at the level of moral principles or over the facts that bear on the …

An Exploratory Study Of First-Semester Student Attrition In A Community College., Ophelia Turner Scott 1953-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine if student background variables (age, gender, race, academic preparation); student status (part/full-time student), and student circumstances (commuting distance, independent/dependent financial student status) could predict fall-to-spring attrition (2006-2007) in a sample of 542 first-time, first-semester students at a community college in Southern Indiana. This study also included the results from an exit survey administered in the spring semester by the college. The sample consisted of 403 students who persisted to the next semester, and 121 students who did not persist to the next semester. Demographic variables, COMP ASS math and reading scores, …

The Impact Of Long-Term Tillage, Crop Rotation And N Application On Soil Carbon Sequestration, Agustin Martellotto

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Soil organic carbon (SOC) stock is controlled by many factors, but for given conditions it is the long term summation of the balance between inputs and outputs. Management practices will alter this balance by affecting the system’s productivity and the speed of residue and soil organic matter decomposition. Given that annual changes in SOC are generally small, compared with the large and variable SOC background, long-term experiments, and soil samples taken at the start of experiments (archived samples) are necessary to determine SOC trends over time. Changes in SOC were analyzed for two long-term experiments; one an irrigated site at …

Developing An Online Horseless Horse Learning Lesson: An Action Research Study, Jessica M. Bauman

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In today’s society it is becoming ever so important to find creative and influential outlets to keep young people occupied in positive ways. High quality youth programs are shown to make a positive difference in the lives of many young people; therefore, it is important to continue the use of established youth programs as well as develop new programs. Equine science programs have proven to be a popular and beneficial outlet for many youth due to the ability to learn a variety of life skills, improve character, and increase positive youth development in those youth who participate.

Traditional equine programs …

Shovelnose Sturgeon Age And Growth Characteristics And Fish Community Characteristics Of The Lower Platte River And Missouri River Near Nebraska, Tara L. Anderson

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There have been documented widespread losses of freshwater biodiversity over the past several decades. Many of these losses may be due to anthropogenic causes such as habitat alterations, pollution, and overharvest. Shovelnose sturgeon may also be influenced by anthropogenic causes and have experienced declines in population abundance near Nebraska. My objectives were to first to describe the age, growth and mortality of shovelnose sturgeon found in the lower Platte River (LPR). Second, I quantitatively evaluated similarities and differences between the Missouri River (MR) and the LPR fish community composition (presence-absence of species) and structure (abundance of species). We used trammel …

Estimating Maize Grain Yield From Crop Biophysical Parameters Using Remote Sensing, Noemi Guindin-Garcia

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The overall objective of this investigation was to develop a robust technique to predict maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield that could be applied at a regional level using remote sensing with or without a simple crop growth simulation model. This study evaluated capabilities and limitations of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Vegetation Index 250-m and MODIS surface reflectance 500-m products to track and retrieve information over maize fields. Results demonstrated the feasibility of using MODIS data to estimate maize green leaf area index (LAI_g). Estimates of maize LAI_g obtained from Wide Dynamic Range Vegetation …

Characteristics And Stability Of Oxide Films On Plutonium Surfaces, Harry Guillermo García Flores

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The oxidation of plutonium (Pu) metal continues to be an area of considerable activity. The reaction characteristics have significant implications for production use, storage, and disposition of this radiological material. Developing an accurate physical model of the structures, oxidation states, and oxygen concentration gradients present during oxidation are essential to understanding this process. Traditionally, the stable oxides of Pu have been thought to be plutonium sesquioxide (Pu₂O₃, O/Pu = 1.5, Pu³⁺) and plutonium dioxide (PuO₂, O/Pu = 2.0, Pu⁴⁺), existing in a layered structure on Pu metal. Many of the …

The Development And Psychometric Testing Of A Hypertension Knowledge Instrument In A Vulnerable Population, Crescent Elayne Rowell

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The primary objective of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of a hypertension knowledge instrument in a vulnerable population. The secondary objective was to determine the association between hypertension knowledge and outcomes such as systolic and diastolic blood pressure and hemoglobin A1c.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience sample of 196 adults aged 18 years and older with hypertension. Item analysis was conducted to determine the reliability of the instrument. The factor structure was determined and confirmed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between …

Abrupt Longitudinal Magnetic Field Changes In Flaring Active Regions, G. J.D. Petrie, Jeffrey J. Sudol

Physics & Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Competing Theories Of Blackmail: An Empirical Research Critique Of Criminal Law Theory, Michael T. Cahill, Paul H. Robinson, Daniel M. Bartels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Administrative Law, Martin M. Wilson, Jennifer A. Blackburn

Mercer Law Review

Even in tough economic times, the work of administrative agencies seems to continue with particularly robust growth at the state level. The number of contested agency cases seems to be rising, even those involving the most trivial details. Although the idea of more government is not fashionable in most corridors, higher levels of activity by existing governmental agencies will be the norm until the state's economic picture achieves measurable improvement.

This Article is a survey of cases from the Georgia Supreme Court and Georgia Court of Appeals from June 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010. The cases chosen for review …

Does Ricci Herald A New Disparate Impact?, Joseph Seiner, Benjamin N. Gutman

Faculty Publications

Federal law has long prohibited not just intentional discrimination by employers, but also practices that have an unintentional disparate impact on minorities. A cryptic passage at the end of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Ricci v. DeStefano may signal a sea change for this disparate impact doctrine. Ricci, a lawsuit about a civil-service exam for firefighters, received widespread attention as a case about intentional discrimination. We show that the opinion also can be read to suggest a new affirmative defense for employers facing claims of disparate impact. Before Ricci, disparate impact was a purely no-fault doctrine. An employer was …