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Sports-Tool, Bryant Ung

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Creating events and finding people to play sports is a hard thing to do. The solution to this problem is to provide a web based interactive site that allows people to create and join different type of events and interact with each other by creating teams.

The Utah Statesman, December 1, 2010, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Finite Horizon Markov Control With One-Step Variance Penalties, Abhijit Gosavi

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Variance-penalized Markov decision processes (MDPs) for an infinite time horizon have been studied in the literature for asymptotic and one-step variance; in these models, the objective function is generally the expected long-run reward minus a constant time the variance, where variance is used as a measure of risk. for the finite time horizon, asymptotic variance has been considered in Collins [1], but this model accounts for only a terminal reward, i.e., reward is earned at the end of the time horizon. in this paper, we seek to develop a framework for one-step variance in the finite time horizon in which …

New Energy Geopolitics?: China, Renewable Energy, And The "Greentech Race", Joel B. Eisen

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Commentators believe that programs in China promoting development of new renewable energy capacity have produced astonishing achievements in a short period of time. Evoking the "space race" between the United States and the U.S.S.R. after the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957, observers contend that the United States and China are in a "greentech race" to secure international leadership in the development and deployment of renewable energy. As U.S. Energy Secretary Chu has put it, many believe this is a modern "Sputnik moment." This Article finds that China's programs and initiatives are indeed leading to considerable success, but, using …

The Art Of Subsidizing Fuel-Free Electricity Under The European Economic Area Agreement As Illustrated By Norway's Reversion Instrument, Peter Ørebech

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The purpose of this article is to scrutinize legal barriers to state aid instruments in transforming fuel-based electricity into renewable energy, the subsidy prerequisites by which the national state may champion fuel free power production. Subsidy is illustrated by the 2004 Official Norwegian Report's (NOU) disapproval of the Norwegian Reversion Institute (NRI), as a result of a waiver clause to the benefit of municipal power plants. A licensing period of sixty years is final. Relicensing is not possible; only private leasing may occur.

As outlined, my basic criticism is that the NOU confuses interstate distortion of competition as it is …

Smart-Grid: Technology And The Psychology Of Environmental Behavior Change, Stephanie M. Stern

Chicago-Kent Law Review

There is a schism in the legal scholarship between scholars who argue that value, norm, and information campaigns can induce pro-environmental behavior and those who contend that structural, psychological, and social forces sharply constrain behavior change. Both sides of this debate have neglected the critical and ever-increasing role of technology in addressing residential pollution. The example of electricity "smart grids" illustrates how technology engineered to override cognitive and behavioral limitations can comprehensively reduce household consumption and emissions. Electricity conservation suffers from multiple barriers to collective action, including large numbers of geographically dispersed polluters, low financial payoffs, and, the contribution of …

The Legal-Political Barriers To Ramping Up To Hydro, Dan Tarlock

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Hydroelectric energy is the oldest major source of non-carbon, renewable energy and is the only conventional renewable resource in the current energy mix. Increased hydro capacity would seem to be a key element of any United States energy policy designed to promote the greater use of renewable resources. However, for several decades hydro has been perceived as a mature, fully developed technology. This article argues that any effort to stimulate substantial new hydro capacity will face a series of environmental legal and policy constraints. Efforts to adapt to global climate change will further complicate efforts to increase hydro electric generation. …

Mercurial But Not Swift—U.S. Epa's Initiative To Regulate Coal Plant Mercury Emissions Changes Course Again As It Enters A Third Decade, Keith Harley

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The effort to establish national standards to control mercury air pollution from coal-fired power plants now spans twenty years, four presidential administrations, and remains undone. This note will briefly describe the failed twenty-year effort to regulate mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. It will show how United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) efforts during the (first) Bush and Clinton Administrations to construct mercury regulations were dismantled during the Administration of George W. Bush. During the second Bush Administration, U.S. EPA substituted a new regulatory approach that was ultimately repudiated by the federal judiciary as plainly inconsistent with the Clean …

Green Diesel: Finding A Place For Algae Oil, Fred Bosselman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The prospect of obtaining domestically-produced biodiesel from algae has attracted wide investor interest. Although many analysts predict that economic production is five to ten years away, the production process involves such a wide range of environmental and land use issues that it is not premature to begin thinking about the kinds of places in which "green biodiesel" could be efficiently made in the United States. Our land use and environmental laws were all drafted by people who never imagined the possibility that huge volumes of algae would be an important energy resource; nor could they have known that the location …

High-Income Child Support Guidelines: Harmonizing The Need For Limits With The Best Interests Of The Child, Laura Raatjes

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Providing for the needs of children of separated parents lies at the heart of state child support laws. But what about providing for the special needs of children of high-income obligors and ensuring consistency in a system often marked by unpredictability and high emotions? This Note examines the manifold problems that discretionary high-income child support decisions can cause: inequitable settlement, increased litigation, injured family structures, and inconsistent decisions. This Note also proposes a solution: to set higher thresholds for triggering a high-income analysis and to require high-income parents to contribute to post-secondary educational trusts. Finally, this Note explains that, as …

A Metrical Analysis And Rebarring Of Paul Creston's Sonata For Alto Saxophone And Piano, Op. 19, Christopher Kyle Sweitzer

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The Sonata For Alto Saxophone and Piano Op. 19 is one of the most popular pieces in the saxophone literature, commonly played by professional saxophonists during their training. It features exciting rhythmic devices like irregular and mixed meter, the notation of which is the main focus of this paper. Although Creston often used irregular and mixed meter in his compositions, he rarely specifically notated them, choosing instead to use accents, beams, slurs, and other phenomenal cues at the musical surface to create the effect of these metric plans. Time signatures often remained constant throughout entire movements. Creston believed this would …

Innovation And Tradition In Lisan Wang’S Piano Suite Other Hill, Rongjie Xu

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Lisan Wang is one of the most celebrated musical figures in China. His five-movement piano suite Other Hill (1980) is the composer’s response to the “New Wave”, a compositional trend generated in China after the 1977 Cultural Revolution. Gaining fame as a piano composition for showing the application of multiculturalism and syncretism to music, Other Hill is regarded as a prime example of cross-cultural piano composition in China. Wang challenges Chinese traditional piano composition with different artistic media—philosophy, calligraphy, poems, and various folk elements in Other Hill. This document proposes an interdisciplinary study of Lisan Wang’s musical fusion of …

Using An Audience Response System (Ars) A.K.A. “Clicker” To Do Attention Research, Roger A. Kendrick

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This study makes an effort to examine whether a student’s attention or engagement is increased by possession of an Audience Response System (ARS, or clicker). This experiment tested a difference in performance. This study makes an effort to examine whether a student’s attention or engagement is increased by possession of an Audience Response System (ARS, or clicker). This experiment tested a difference in performance between students who possessed an ARS and those who did not. The experiment was conducted at a small state college in the Midwest where small class size is typical. Approximately half the students in each tested …