Digital Commons Network^™

An Empirical Assessment Of The Can Spam Act, Alex Conrad Kigerl

Dissertations and Theses

In January 2004, the United States Congress passed and put into effect the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN SPAM). The Act was set forth to regulate bulk commercial email (spam) and set the limits for what was acceptable. Various sources have since investigated and speculated on the efficacy of the CAN SPAM Act, few of which report a desirable outcome for users of electronic mail. Despite the apparent consensus of anti-spam firms and the community of email users that the Act was less than effective, there is little to no research on the efficacy of …

Somatization And Engagement In Mental Health Treatment, Teresa Chianello

Dissertations and Theses

Somatization, the presentation of physical symptoms without an identifiable cause, is among the most common problems in primary medical care. Treatment approaches are typically offered within the medical consultation interview once the medical provider distinguishes between physical and emotional etiology. This dualistic strategy is especially troublesome for patients whose physical complaints cannot be validated and who are recommended for only mental health therapy. The aim of this study was to examine how medical practitioners can instead motivate patients to consider both physical and emotional treatment. An analogue intervention consisting of an enhanced consultation interview was compared to a care as …

Occurrence And Concentrations Of Caffeine In Seawater From The Oregon Coast And Potential Effects On The Dominant Mussel, Mytilus Californianus, Zoe Rodriguez Del Rey

Dissertations and Theses

Caffeine, a biologically active drug with many known molecular targets, is recognized as a contaminant of aquatic systems including marine systems. Although the concentrations of caffeine reported from aquatic systems are low (ng/L to μ/L), harmful ecological effects not detected by traditional toxicity tests could occur as a result of caffeine contamination. The goals of this thesis project were to: 1) quantify concentrations of caffeine occurring in the coastal ocean off of the Oregon Coast and to determine if higher levels were correlated with proximity to caffeine pollution sources; and 2) investigate the sub-lethal cellular toxicity of environmentally relevant concentrations …

Who Am I? Well, It Depends: How Frame-Of-Reference Imposes Context In Non-Contextualized Personality Inventories, Elizabeth Anne Mccune

Dissertations and Theses

The frame-of-reference (FOR) effect refers to the finding that validities for personality measures can be improved by asking respondents to consider how they behave in a particular context (e.g., "at work"). Recently, Lievens, De Corte, and Schollaert (2008) demonstrated that a FOR serves to reduce within-person inconsistencies in responding, which then improves the reliability and validity of personality measures. Despite this important step forward in FOR research, Lievens et al. note that there is still very little known with regard to how respondents complete non-contextualized personality inventories (i.e., inventories where no FOR is provided). The present studies sought to fill …

Academic Persistence Factors For Students Who Delay College Entry, Kirsten Tripodi

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Many more students begin college than complete their degrees. Retaining students to graduation has been the objective of many research studies; however, college students are changing. Changing demographics in the United States are creating changes in the college student population that could not have been foreseen years ago. In order inform policy in a changing climate, the research community must study the changes in the student body and what factors are important to the persistence of the new college student. This study will use Adelman's framework from The Toolbox Studies in conjunction with the Beginning Postsecondary Survey in order to …

The Effects Of Expressive Writing On Stress, Mood, And Perception Of Self-Efficacy And Of Instructor, Sophia S. Tailor

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if emotional disclosure through expressive writing would have an effect on stress, mood, self-efficacy, and perception of instructor in a population of undergraduate human services students. This study used a randomized control-group pretest-posttest design with three experimental conditions. There were 32 participants with (N = 10) emotional disclosure group, (N = 11) factual disclosure group, and (N = 11) the control group. The study was conducted over three consecutive days following a variation of Pennebaker's (1986) expressive writing protocol. Study measures and writing samples were collected via a web-based interface. The data …

The Association Between Parental Perceptions Of Children's Residential Mental Health Treatment And The Parent-Child Relationship, Susanne Elizabeth Preston

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Residential mental health treatment for children as an intervention for children is increasing, potentially affecting the relationship within families. The purpose of this study was to examine the parental perspectives of the associations between the parent-child relationship and children's residential mental health treatment. This study explored parental perspectives of specific aspects of the parent-child relationship: parental support, satisfaction with parenting, parental involvement, communication, and limit setting-and the association between these aspects and the child's residential mental health treatment. Paired samples t-tests were conducted; resulting in statistically significant changes on all scales measured, with varying effect sizes. Results indicated parents …

Radiative Transfer Theory Applied To Ocean Bottom Modeling, Jorge Quijano

Dissertations and Theses

Research on the propagation of acoustic waves in ocean bottom sediment is of interest for active sonar applications such as target detection and remote sensing. Currently, all seabed scattering models available in the literature are based on the full solution of the wave equation, which sometimes leads to mathematically intractable problems. In the electromagnetics community, an alternative formulation that overcomes some of this complexity is radiative transfer theory, which has established itself as an important technique for remote sensing. In this work, radiative transfer (RT) theory is proposed for the first time as a tool for the study of seabed …

Fully Generalized Two-Dimensional Constrained Delaunay Mesh Refinement, Panagiotis A. Foteinos, Andrey N. Chernikov, Nikos P. Chrisochoides

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Traditional refinement algorithms insert a Steiner point from a few possible choices at each step. Our algorithm, on the contrary, defines regions from where a Steiner point can be selected and thus inserts a Steiner point among an infinite number of choices. Our algorithm significantly extends existing generalized algorithms by increasing the number and the size of these regions. The lower bound for newly created angles can be arbitrarily close to $30^{\circ}$. Both termination and good grading are guaranteed. It is the first Delaunay refinement algorithm with a $30^{\circ}$ angle bound and with grading guarantees. Experimental evaluation of our algorithm …

The 3rd Computational Structural Bioinformatics Workshop, Jing He, Di Wu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

As many other domains in biology, molecular structures have proposed challenging but interesting computational problems. The unique challenge of the 3-dimensional molecular structures comes from the combination of the fundamental concepts of physics, chemistry, biology and geometry, and it is often computationally intensive to search for the correct structure. The Computational Structural Bioinformatics Workshop (CSBW) is a workshop that focuses on the fundamental computational work that is related to 3-dimensional molecular structures. This workshop aims to bring together researchers with expertise in bioinformatics, computational biology, structural biology, data mining, optimization and high performance computing to discuss recent results, new techniques, …

The Use Of Mortgage-Backed Securities In International Comparative Perspective: Lessons And Insights, Csaba Rusznak

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The secondary mortgage market in the United States has helped millions of people purchase homes over the past half century. Following the burst of the real estate bubble and the credit crisis, it is important for American policymakers not to lose sight of the importance that the secondary mortgage market has played in increasing home ownership. The financial engineering in the form of securitization that led to the success of the secondary mortgage market needs to be preserved, although it should also be reworked so that the externalization of unappreciated risk is reduced and the possibility of a large-scale financial …

Did Trinko Really Kill Antitrust Price Squeeze Claims?, Caroline C. Rudaz

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article presents a critical analysis of the Linkline case that refuses to recognize price squeeze claims as antitrust claims under § 2 of the Sherman Act. It argues that Linkline gives a distorted reading of Trinko without giving proper attention to the application of § 2 of the Sherman Act. The Linkline decision takes a dogmatic position and thus, while refuting the Alcoa decision, appears to be a missed opportunity to more precisely define price squeezing.

This Article offers a comparison between the U.S. Supreme Court's decision and the recent European decisions delivered in broadband access cases that are …

Panacea Or Pathetic Fallacy? The Swiss Ban On Minarets, Lorenz Langer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On November 29, 2009, Swiss voters adopted a ballot initiative introducing a constitutional ban on the construction of minarets. This Article provides a thick description of the minaret vote's context. A legal analysis addresses the implications of the ban under national, regional, and international normative frameworks. The Article argues that the ban is irreconcilable with the Swiss constitutional bill of rights and several international human right provisions. In Switzerland, however, respect for the vox populi potentially trumps any concern over conflicting international obligations, and there is no effective judicial review of initiatives. This lack of judicial review is partly a …

Civilians In Cyberwarfare: Conscripts, Susan W. Brenner, Leo L. Clarke

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Civilian-owned and -operated entities will almost certainly be a target in cyberwarfare because cyberattackers are likely to be more focused on undermining the viability of the targeted state than on invading its territory. Cyberattackers will probably target military computer systems, at least to some extent, but in a departure from traditional warfare, they will also target companies that operate aspects of the victim nation's infrastructure. Cyberwarfare, in other words, will penetrate the territorial borders of the attacked state and target high-value civilian businesses. Nation-states will therefore need to integrate the civilian employees of these (and perhaps other) companies into their …

One New President, One New Patriarch, And A Generous Disregard For The Constitution:, Robert C. Blitt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The government of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)--the country's predominant religious group--recently underwent back-to-back changes in each institution's respective leadership. This coincidence of timing affords a unique opportunity to reassess the status of constitutional secularism and church-state relations in the Russian Federation. Following a discussion of the presidential and patriarchal elections that occurred between March 2008 and January 2009, the Article surveys recent developments in Russia as they relate to the nation's constitutional obligations. In the face of this analysis, the Article argues that the government and the ROC alike continue to willfully undermine the constitutional principles of …

Forgive Me, Founding Fathers For I Have Sinned, Carolyn A. Pytynia

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants the federal government the authority to make the law of the land and, in turn, preempt state law that is incompatible with the federal government's legislative and treaty making efforts. In addition, other provisions of the Constitution authorize the federal government to participate in matters of foreign affairs, and the Supreme Court has found this authority to be exclusive to the federal government in a number of cases. However, the Constitution is silent on the issue of when federal preemption of state law is appropriate when states seek to legislate in matters …

Refugee Credibility Assessment And The "Religious Imposter" Problem, Michael Kagan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Credibility assessment in refugee status determination (RSD) poses unique challenges when the outcome of asylum applications turns on the question of whether an asylum seeker is actually a member of a persecuted religious minority. These cases require secular adjudicators to delve into matters of religious identity and faith that are, by their nature, subjective and beyond the realm of objective analysis. This Article explores practical means of addressing this challenge through a case study of the RSD interviews of Eritrean asylum seekers in Egypt who based their refugee claims on Pentecostal religious associations. Analysis of the interview methods used in …

Deconstructing Transnationalism: Conceptualizing Metanationalism As A Putative Model Of Evolving Jurisprudence, Paul Enriquez

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article builds upon Philip C. Jessup's revolutionary scholarship to pave new pathways for interdisciplinary research and expand the normative constitutional framework of universal human problems. To that end, this Article ties American constitutional theory to the new era of international globalization and provides context that facilitates the discussion of racial and ethnic diversity in education from a domestic and international perspective. By arguing for compelling treatment of diversity in elementary and secondary learning institutions, this Article introduces a new theory of constitutional interpretation vis-&-vis international law. This theory, called metanationalism, rejects Harold Koh's theory of transnationalism and demonstrates that …

When Dissatisfaction Is A Good Thing, Michael P. Clough, Jerrid Kruse

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Our previous editorial (Clough and Kruse, 2010) in the Iowa Science Teacher Journal used conceptual change theory (Posner, 1982; Pintrich et al., 1993; Abd-El-Khalick & Akerson, 2004; Clough, 2006) to highlight the similarities between students learning science content and educators learning to teach well. An important part of conceptual change is first acknowledging and then confronting current ways of thinking. That is, before learners (whether children or adults) will consider altering their thinking, they must first develop some sense of dissatisfaction with their currently held ideas. That can be difficult because the ideas people hold do appear to work — …

Environmental Barriers Contributing To Dental Caries Among Diverse And Underserved Children: Meeting The Challenge In The United States And Iowa, Venus Hernandez

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this literature review of secondary data is to 1) Identify environmental factors such as oral health education, water fluoridation and sealant programs, access to dental insurance, and dental health workforce issues, that may contribute to poor oral health, and 2) Provide recommendations to reduce these barriers that are linked with oral health disparities among children in the United States and Iowa. This literature review concludes that there is a need to consider comprehensive, multiple approaches to address family and community determinants of oral health. Some of these strategies include simultaneous efforts, such as increasing the number of …

The Effects Of Verbal Aggression On Self-Efficacy And Self-Talk, Brett Cline

Graduate Research Papers

No abstract provided.

A Defensible Defense?: Reexamining Castle Doctrine Statutes, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

Recent years have seen a proliferation of so-called “castle doctrine” statutes – laws that provide home dwellers with more expansive self-defense protections if they resort to lethal force in confrontations with intruders. The passage of such laws and subsequent uses of the defense have captured the public imagination, prompting significant media attention, as well as skeptical and critical scholarship from the legal academic community. Considering the current prevalence of castle laws and the often polarized nature of the debate concerning their application, this Article argues that it is important to excavate the doctrine from the culture wars rhetoric in which …

Probe (Problem-Based Learning Activities For K-12 Science), Jody Stone

K-12 Curriculum Supplements

This book, PROBE: Problem-Based Learning Activities for K-12 Science, is a K-12 curriculum supplement developed by the Jody Stone at the Malcom Price Laboratory School to teach problem-based science learning.

PROBE covers the following areas: Chemistry, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Health Science, Inquiry, Life Science, Literacy, Math, Physical Science, and Physics. The materials were developed for different grades ranging from PreK to 12th grade.

Creating Family Through Foster-Adoption: Media Portrayal Of The Foster Care System In The U.S., Kimberly A. Powell

Iowa Journal of Communication

As adoption has gained attention in the media, the focus tends to have been on international and private adoptions, and less on adoption from foster care. When the focus is on foster care, the coverage is most often negative, which is perhaps why there are less adoptions from foster care than there are private and international adoptions. This study of mainstream newspaper coverage of United States foster care adoption from 1992-2005 explores how themes in the media have resulted in a narrow view of foster care and adoption.

New Media Globalization In Asia: The Online Game Industries Of South Korea, Singapore, And China, Peichi Chung

Iowa Journal of Communication

This paper examines the emerging media flow in the new media economy of Asia by focusing on the networking of media exchange among three growing production centers. It argues that the nation-state has come to play an increasingly important role in the development of a pan-Asian cultural economy in the online gaming industries of Asia. New cultural production centers have created a rising regional growth corridor between South Korea, Singapore and China. This paper concludes that this emerging growth corridor in Asia redefines the power relationship between core and periphery in the global media industry in ways that affect the …

Iowa Journal Of Communication, Volume 42, Number 1, Fall 2010 [Download Entire Issue]

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

The Game Of Being Social: Web 2.0, Social Media, And Online Games, Larissa Hjorth

Iowa Journal of Communication

As the Internet confluences into the creative social networking potentialities of Web 2.0 localities, the techno-social fabric of online gaming dramatically shifts. Once the preoccupation of 'hardcore' gamers, MMOGs (massively multi-player online games) have now become casualized (Juul 2009) and part of the daily diet of many millions of social networking sites (SNS) users. This is particularly apparent in the Asia-Pacific region in locations such as China and Singapore. In this paper I will explore the rise of 'Web 2.0' and its types of social labour (i.e., playbour and produsers), epitomized by SNS, that have led to the growth of …

Transmitter Optimization In Multiuser Wireless Systems With Quality Of Service Constraints, Danda B. Rawat

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation, transmitter adaptation for optimal resource allocation in wireless communication systems are investigated. First, a multiple access channel model is considered where many transmitters communicate with a single receiver. This scenario is a basic component of a. wireless network in which multiple users simultaneously access the resources of a wireless service provider. Adaptive algorithms for transmitter optimization to meet Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements in a distributed manner are studied. Second, an interference channel model is considered where multiple interfering transmitter-receiver pairs co-exist such that a given transmitter communicates with its intended receiver in the presence of interference from other …

Relationship Between Membership In Deca, An Association Of Marketing Students, And Grade Point Average As An Indicator Of Academic Success, Michael Frederick Kosloski Jr.

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Stakeholders in career and technical education, and more specifically marketing education, tout member benefits of applied learning through career and technical student organizations. However, there is little empirical evidence to support the notion that such student organizations help students to achieve academic gains. As a result, the purpose of this study was to collect and analyze empirical data to determine whether there is a relationship between DECA, An Association of Marketing Students, and academic gains as indicated by grade point average.

The study examined three relationships. The first was the relationship between DECA membership and grade point average movement, the …

Steamboat Bill : William J. Peterson: Iowa's River Historian, Nathan J. Gruber

Undergraduate Student Work

A biography of William J. Petersen, a superintendent of the State Historical Society of Iowa.