Digital Commons Network^™

A Survey Of Attitudes And Utilization Of Counseling Services Among International Students At Minnesota State University, Mankato, Anna Marie Johnson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

considerable number of international students are represented within the Minnesota State University, Mankato student population. Research indicates that international students face unique and challenging experiences when attempting to adjust to life as a student in the United States. In addition to these unique stressors, research indicates that international student populations utilize campus and community-based counseling services at a lower rate than American students. There are numerous and complex reasons for this utilization trend. A survey of the use of and attitudes toward utilizing counseling services among international students at MSU, Mankato is useful in determining current trends and informs future …

Whytry? A Program Evaluation, Tammie Knick

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In Minnesota, one out of every five students fail to graduate from high school (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2009). Long before students decide to drop out of school, a host of risk factors or early predictors undoubtedly emerged in childhood. The purpose of this research pilot project was to determine the efficacy of the WhyTry? program in helping to reduce some of those risk factors such as: Truancy, Behavior problems in school, Low academic achievement, and School disengagement. The WhyTry? Program uses a strengths-based approach to help youth overcome their challenges and improve their outcomes at school. WhyTry? is based …

Assessing Gaps In Services For Geriatric Patients With Mental Health Needs, Angela Nelson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Older adults in southwest Minnesota have limited options regarding mental health services. Sanford Tracy Medical Center and Sanford Westbrook Medical Center sought to identify the needs of this population so they can better serve their patients. The following research questions were asked: Do local service providers feel gaps in services exist for older adults experiencing mental health needs in the rural southwestern Minnesota communities of Tracy and Westbrook and the surrounding areas? Do area service providers feel that geriatric patients would benefit from a mental health intervention implemented within the primary healthcare setting? A survey of area geriatric service providers …

Expanding The Sea Program: Course Conception, Rationale And A Plan For Implementation, Michelle Schulz

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Student Educational Adventures (SEA) Program was created in 1995 to help motivate youth with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (E/BD) to view education as important as well as to assist with the graduation rate of students with E/BD. Using an experiential method of teaching, each of the four courses in the SEA Program are specifically designed to teach life-long skills, such as team building, decision making, service, leadership, conflict resolution, anger management, goal setting, and taking responsibility, to youth who typically struggle in those areas.

Due to the current financial state of SEA Program funders, the Goodhue County Education District seeks to …

Does Organizational Culture Affect Employee's Readiness To Implementation Of Evidence-Based Practices?, Joseph Waller

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The emergent trend toward the use of evidence-based practices in children’s mental health services has been gaining recognition (Barwick et al., 2005). The motivation for implementing evidence-based practices is to build quality and accountability in the delivery of mental health services. Children with emotional and behavioral disorders should be able to rely on receiving services that can accommodate their personal needs based on the best scientific evidence available. Most children who receive evidence-based treatment display significant progress and do so much more quickly than children that receive other non evidence-based treatment or no treatment at all.

The importance of implementing …

A Fpga-Based Architecture For Led Backlight Driving, Zhaoshi Zheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, Light-emitting Diodes (LEDs) have become a promising candidate for backlighting Liquid Crystal Displays [1] (LCDs). Compared with traditional Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFLs) technology, LEDs offer not only better visual quality, but also improved power efficiency. However, to fully utilized LEDs' capability requires dynamic independent control of individual LEDs, which remains as a challenging topic. A FPGA-based hardware system for LED backlight control is proposed in this work. We successfully achieve dynamic adjustment of any individual LED's intensity in each of the three color channels (Red, Green and Blue), in response to a real time incoming video …

A Self-Organizing Hybrid Sensor System With Distributed Data Fusion For Intruder Tracking And Surveillance, Ravishankar Palaniappan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A wireless sensor network is a network of distributed nodes each equipped with its own sensors, computational resources and transceivers. These sensors are designed to be able to sense specific phenomenon over a large geographic area and communicate this information to the user. Most sensor networks are designed to be stand-alone systems that can operate without user intervention for long periods of time. While the use of wireless sensor networks have been demonstrated in various military and commercial applications, their full potential has not been realized primarily due to the lack of efficient methods to self organize and cover the …

Bioinformatic And Sequence Analysis Of Four Resuscitation Promoting Factor (Rpf) Gene Homologues In Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis (Mpt), And Expression Of The Putative Mpt Rpfb In Escherichia Coli., David Dale Hedlund

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Mpt), the causative agent of Johne's disease (JD), is a global problem in the agricultural industry. It is estimated that 25% of all U.S. dairy herds are JD positive. One obstacle in the management of JD is the lack a sensitive diagnostic test for use during the early stages of infection. Resuscitation promoting factors (Rpf) are proteins that promote the growth of many species of Actinobacteria. If Rpf proteins could enhance the growth of Mpt, the sensitivity of diagnostic fecal culture could be improved, and the impact of JD on the dairy industry would be significantly …

Transformative Use And Cognizable Harm, Thomas F. Cotter

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In recent years, the question of whether the unauthorized use of a copyrighted work is "transformative" has become a dominant consideration in determining whether the use is fair or unfair. As critics have pointed out, however, this emphasis on transformative use is both underinclusive and indeterminate of the range of uses that fall within the scope of the fair use privilege. Worse yet, efforts to define or apply the concept of transformative use, or to distinguish fair transformative uses from transformative uses that infringe the copyright owner's exclusive right to prepare derivative works, often serve only to illuminate the concept's …

Copyright, Derivative Works, And The Economics Of Complements, Glynn S. Lunney, Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

From an economic perspective, copyright is irrational. In defining the scope of a copyright owner's exclusive rights, it treats situations that have similar economic consequences differently, as infringement in one case and not in the other, and situations that have radically different economic consequences similarly. This essay explores such area in which copyright exhibits economic irrationality: Copyright's treatment of complements. Where a lower price on a substitute reduces demand for the original, a lower price on a complement increases it. So defined, copyright addresses whether a copyright owner will control three different types of complements: (i) complementary products, such as …

7 An Interactive Installation: Explorations In The Digital, The Spiritual, And The Uncanny, Bradley Paul Lewter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the application of digital technologies in the creation of visionary or transformative artwork. The installation emphasizes number, color, symmetry, and the human form to create symbolic compositions patterned after ancient archetypes. Background research was done to inform the work through studies of the principles of visionary and transformative artwork as practiced by Ernst Fuchs, De Es Schwertberger, and Alex Grey. Connections between art and spirituality as explained by Kandinsky were studied to augment these principles. The sequence of artwork within the installation is comprised of both digital paintings and interactive triptych panels. To convey a sense of …

Evelyn Offscreen: An Application Of Interactive Performance Methodsin Alternate Reality Gaming, Dawn Borglund

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For my thesis project for the Masters of Fine Art in Film and Digital Media, I designed and produced Evelyn Offscreen, an alternate reality game (ARG) that was facilitated by interactive performance. The goal was to create an interactive experience that allowed several players to collaboratively create story across numerous media within the field of alternate reality gaming. The approach used in Evelyn Offscreen was intended to provide a degree of creative freedom to the players that has not been demonstrated in other ARG experiences and to use digital media to capture information about the relative effectiveness of the different …

A Beautiful Belly: Toward An Intimate Cinema Through Microbudget Production Techniques, Andrew Gay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Beautiful Belly is a feature-length, microbudget, digital motion picture produced, written, and directed by Andrew Kenneth Gay in pursuit of the Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The guiding question behind the production of A Beautiful Belly was whether digital "no budget" production was particularly suited to the telling of a particular kind of cinematic story - the interior journey. The pursuit of an intimate cinema shaped every decision by the filmmaker and his collaborators, and this thesis is a record of their production experience.

Red Tide: A Feature Length Motion Picture, Dino Gallina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following document provides insight into the uncharted process of producing a micro-budget feature length film. This paper aims to document my growth as an artist in terms of storytelling and filmmaking as well as the development and production process. Red Tide: A Feature Length Motion Picture includes elements from each phase of the production process, from story and script development to marketing and distribution. This document reflects on the obstacles we faced and the solutions we implemented during the process of creating a feature length motion picture on an undersized budget.

The Puzzle Of Problem-Solving Efficacy: Understanding Anxiety Among Urban Children Coping With Asthma-Related And Life Stress, Kara Klein Murdock, Carolyn Greene, Sue K. Adams, William Hartmann, Sally Bittinger, Kelly Will

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Children with asthma living in urban environments are at risk for experiencing anxiety by virtue of both social context and health-related stressors. Although the use of active coping strategies is generally associated with more optimal psychosocial functioning, there is evidence that active coping is less helpful in response to uncontrollable or severe stress. Expectations that one can fix a problem that is uncontrollable or insurmountable may create distress. Problem-solving efficacy was examined as a moderator of the association between stress and anxiety among children residing in inner-city neighborhoods. It was hypothesized that children's perceptions of high problem-solving efficacy would exacerbate …

Impact Of Short-Term Study Abroad On Mba Students, Jessica Oldford

Master's Theses

Short-term study abroad programs are quickly becoming the new norm for study abroad within higher education. Results from the Institute of International Education's opendoors 2009 research show that short-term programs were the most popular during the 2007-08 academic year with 56% of students participating in this type of exchange. Many graduate programs of U.S. institutions are now expanding international program offerings to include short-term options to accommodate their students, particularly graduate-level students. Graduate-level students often times have other responsibilities such as full-time employment, young families, etc. which prevent them from participating in full-term study abroad programs. As such, these students …

Penumbral Thinking Revisited: Metaphor In Legal Argumentation, Chris Rideout

Faculty Articles

In the modern jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court, the controversy over the place of metaphor came directly into the spotlight in Griswold v. Connecticut. Justice Douglas, writing for the majority and relying in part on metaphoric reasoning for his argument, located a right to privacy in the penumbral area formed by emanations from specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights. The various opinions in Griswold represent a divide regarding the place of metaphoric reasoning in legal argument. Justice Douglas employs metaphoric reasoning, while several of his fellow justices either avoid it or reject it. Because the case has …

Rodrigo's Portent: California And The Coming Neocolonial Order, Richard Delgado

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Status Of Private Military Contractors Under International Humanitarian Law, Won Kidane

Faculty Articles

One of the serious problems that the new administration faces is undoubtedly the regulation and use of private military contractors in "the war on terror." The private military industry is largely unregulated at the national level. Its status under international law is also poorly understood. This article assesses the legal status of this industry, characterizes the various functions, demonstrates the difficulty of regulating the industry as a unitary entity, and identifies the appropriate set of international standards that the new administration and Congress as well as the larger international legal community could employ in evaluating regulatory options.

The Terrorism Bar To Asylum In Australia, Canada, The United Kingdom, And The United States: Transporting Best Practices, Won Kidane

Faculty Articles

The contemporary threat of terrorism that the Western world faces is primarily from so-called “aliens.” As such, the laws that are meant to combat terrorism necessarily involve the regulation of the admission and exclusion of aliens. This type of regulation is traditionally the purview of immigration law. Although the link between national security and immigration is by no means contemporary, the existing level of intersection between antiterrorism laws and immigration is essentially a post- 9/11 phenomenon.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the 9/11 attacks were planned and executed by aliens. Although there has not been a terrorist attack …

Law Of Geography And The Geography Of Law: A Post-Colonial Mapping, Tayyab Mahmud

Faculty Articles

This article examines the relationship between law and geography through the prisms of colonialism and neoliberal Empire. Using two novels set in nineteenth and twenty-first century India, respectively, it evaluates the so-called first law of geography, namely that "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." It argues that the formative and enduring relationship between global systems of domination and modern law has created a geolegal space that has a global dimension. This geolegal space creates norms and subjectivities that are intimately related to spatially distant forces and projects. Emergence and consolidation of …

Discipline-Building And Disciplinary Values: Thoughts On Legal Writing At Year Twenty-Five Of The Legal Writing Institute, J. Christopher Rideout

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Legal Writing: The View From Within, J. Christopher Rideout, Jill J. Ramsfield

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Tributes To Mary S. Lawrence, Chris Rideout

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Be Professional!, Dean Spade

Faculty Articles

In 2010, the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender published a series of letters between Adrienne Davis and Bob Chang entitled, "Making Up Is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom," along with three response pieces by Adele Morrison, Darren Rosenblum and Dean Spade. "Be Professional!" is written in letter form like "Making Up Is Hard to Do" and discusses Spade's experience becoming and being a trans law professor, as well as broader questions about activism, academia, professionalism and the neo-liberal academy.

On (Cr)Edibility: Why Food In The United States May Never Be Safe, Denis Stearns

Faculty Articles

Most critiques of regulation are premised on the concepts of “free markets” and “market failures” as justifying, or not, the need for government interventions and control of the marketplace. Using the market for food as an example, this article questions not only the possibility of a buyer being a free actor when buying food, but also whether it is meaningful to speak in terms of a “free” market at all. One centerpiece of this questioning is the author’s coining of the term “(cr)edibility” to stand for the twinned ideas of credibility and edibility as defining the nature of all commercial …

Open To Being Different, Chenit Ong-Flaherty

Nursing and Health Professions Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Max Weber On Property: An Effort In Interpretative Understanding, Laura R. Ford

Socio-Legal Review

In this article, Laura Ford explores Max Weber's writings on the subject of property. Weber, in his first dissertation, articulated legally and historically, the conception of property as a phenomenon that was dependent on organised social relationships and somewhat closed to outside participation. Later, he formulated this conception sociologically and systematically connected it to additional concepts. Ford engages with Weber's work in three broad phases (the legal phase of his first dissertation, the economic-historical phase and finally the sociological phase) in order to examine if any sociological issues emerge from the same.

Imperative Values Of A Logical Forgiveness, Abhayraj Naik

Socio-Legal Review

This article deals with the nuances of the concept of 'forgiveness' and its role in shaping law and societal institutions. In the background of Aurel Kolnai's notions on the act of forgiveness, the author analyses the different conceptualizations of forgiveness. The logical paradox of forgiveness as formulated by Kolnai is considered. The article argues that the notion of 'divine forgiveness' is not vulnerable to this paradox. Hence there is a need for interpersonal forgiveness to adopt some of the premises on which divine forgiveness is based on. The critical interrelations between the concepts of forgiveness, patience and trust and their …

Full Issue, Socio-Legal Review

Socio-Legal Review

No abstract provided.