Digital Commons Network^™

Discovery And Optimization Of Novel Small-Molecular Inhibitors Suppressing Stat3-Dependent Tumor Process, Xiaolei Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the critical role of aberrantly active Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (Stat) 3 protein in many human cancers, selective small-molecule inhibitors targeting the dimerization event which is required for stat3 activation, would be valuable as therapeutic agents. And the inhibitors will be useful chemical probes to clarify the complex biological functions of Stat3. By computational and structural analyses of the interaction between Stat3 and the lead dimerization disruptor, S3I-201, we have designed a diverse set of analogs. One of the most active analogs, S3I-201.1066 is derived to contain a cyclo-hexyl benzyl moiety on the amide nitrogen, which increases …

Organizational Apologies: Bp As A Case Study, Erin O'Connor

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article examines the conduct of BP executives in the weeks following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to illuminate the use of apology by organizations. After briefly describing the value of apology and its nuances from an evolutionary perspective, the Article describes how apology and other responsibility-accepting behaviors can be mobilized by organizations to avoid the costs of its apparently careless conduct. In particular, organizations can designate particular agents as spokespersons who possess the ability to portray a sense of sincerity and regret. Moreover, reconciliation by ingroup members appears to be more common than is reconciliation by outgroup members, likely …

Outsourcing, Modularity, And The Theory Of The Firm, Erin O'Connor, Gregg Kirchhoefer, Margaret M. Blair

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Firms have increasingly moved productive activities from within to outside the firm through outsourcing arrangements. According to some estimates, the value of outsourcing contracts has been nearly 100 billion dollars per year since 2004. Firm outsourcing happens for a number of reasons, including to save labor costs, capture the benefits of regulatory arbitrage, and take advantage of economies of scale in the provision of firm needs. We review a number of outsourcing contracts for evidence that contract techniques are used to help modularize the relationship between the firm and its service provider. Consistent with what modularity theory might predict, some …

The Law Of War In The War Against Terrorism, Michael A. Newton

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The struggle to define the contours of the legal regime and to correctly communicate those expectations to the broader audience of civilians is a recurring problem that is integrally related to the current evolution of warfare. Shaping the expectations and perceptions of the political elites who control the contours of the conflict is perhaps equally vital. The paradox is that as the legal regime applicable to the conduct of hostilities has matured over the last century, the legal dimension of conflict has at times overshadowed the armed struggle between adversaries. As a result, the overall military mission will often be …

Constitutional Adjudication In Japan: Context, Structures, And Values, John O. Haley

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Judges in Japan share the prevailing communitarian orientation of their society, an orientation that rejects Manichean choices and moral or "scientific" absolutes, but instead relies on their collective and individual perceptions of community values, including the global community, shared by peers. They also, I believe, accept an unstated premise that legislative and administrative decisions reflect a consensus among the participants--not a simple majority. The issue remains as to who participates--who sits at the table--but the political and administrative processes do not routinely require merely fifty-one out of a hundred votes. As a consequence, judges are cautiously conservative. They adhere to …

Ant Colony Optimization Approach For Stacking Configurations, Yijun Chen

Lingnan Theses

In data mining, classifiers are generated to predict the class labels of the instances. An ensemble is a decision making system which applies certain strategies to combine the predictions of different classifiers and generate a collective decision. Previous research has empirically and theoretically demonstrated that an ensemble classifier can be more accurate and stable than its component classifiers in most cases. Stacking is a well-known ensemble which adopts a two-level structure: the base-level classifiers to generate predictions and the meta-level classifier to make collective decisions. A consequential problem is: what learning algorithms should be used to generate the base-level and …

Impact Of Land Management On House Mice And Red Imported Fire Ants, Jesse R. Abelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding of mechanisms that limit the abundance and distribution of species is central to ecology. The failure of mechanisms to regulate populations can result in population outbreaks. There have been two outbreaks of house mice in the past decade in central Florida. In my study, I examine the efficacy of landscape management in the form of mowing and plowed soil barriers to limit or prevent outbreaks of house mice in a former agricultural area. House mouse populations were highly variable, but were unaffected by mowing or plowed soil barriers. Red imported fire ants were ubiquitous in the study area regardless …

Risk, Speculation, And Otc Derivatives: An Inaugural Essay For Convivium, Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Speculative trading, including speculative trading in derivatives, is often claimed to provide social benefits by decreasing risk and improving the accuracy of market prices. This assumption overlooks the possibility that speculation can be driven not just by differences in traders' risk aversion and information investments, but also by differences in traders' subjective expectations. Disagreement-based speculation erodes traders' returns, increases traders' risks, and can distort market prices. There is reason to believe that by 2008, the market for OTC derivatives may have been dominated by disagreement-based speculation that contributed to the Fall 2008 credit crisis.

Defending Disclosure In Software Licensing, Robert A. Hillman, Maureen O'Rourke

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article surveys prominent kinds of disclosures in contract law-of facts, contract terms, and performance intentions. We show why the disclosure tool, although subject to substantial criticism, promotes important social values and goals, including efficiency, autonomy, corrective justice, fairness, and the legitimacy of the contract process. Further, proposals to replace disclosure with other alternatives are unrealistic because they are too expensive or complex. Our working example is the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Software Contracts.

The Predictability Of Juries, Valerie P. Hans, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article discusses the meaning of jury “predictability” and whether jury research supports claims of unpredictability. It then analyzes the factors that are associated with perceptions of civil jury unpredictability using data from (1) surveys of corporate and insurance attorneys’ views of the civil justice system, and (2) the outcomes of civil jury trials in state courts. Perceptions of punitive damages dominate business and insurance industry attorneys’ jury predictability ratings. Punitive damages data are significantly and strongly related to attorneys’ judgments about jury predictability across states. This strong association occurs despite evidence of infrequent punitive damage award requests and less …

Group Rights And Legal Pluralism, Natan Lerner

Emory International Law Review

This Essay deals with a controversial issue in the area of group relations in democratic states, namely the place of group rights in democratic societies and the role of legal pluralism theories. Group rights are presently recognized as entitled to, if not a treatment equal to that of individual rights, at least the recognition of some form of legitimacy that justifies respect, consideration, and protection. Underlying such legitimacy is a view that looks to ensuring harmony between, and constructive coexistence of, the different components of democratic societies. This was not always the case with classic international law, which was not …

The New Icc Rule On Consolidation: Progress Or Change?, Lara M. Pair, Paul Frankenstein

Emory International Law Review

In September 2011, the International Chamber of Commerce ('ICC') published the tenth revision of its Arbitration Rules. A task force of more than 175 members from forty-one countries revised the ICC Rules, starting in October 2008. These new rules will enter into effect on January 1, 2012, replacing the current ICC Rules that entered into force on January 1, 1998. Numerous changes were made, ranging from the trivial to the significant. This Article analyzes the expansion of the provision on consolidation in an attempt to predict whether there will be material improvement in the consolidation process or whether the changes …

Protecting The Human Rights Of Lgbt People In Uganda In The Wake Of Uganda's "Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009", Daniel Englander

Emory International Law Review

A bill pending before the Ugandan Parliament from October 2009 to May 2011 sought to punish anyone who engages in 'homosexuality' with life imprisonment and prescribed the death penalty for a variety of activities deemed 'aggravated homosexuality.' Many commentators saw the 'Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009' ('Bill' or 'Anti-homosexuality Bill') as the most pernicious legislative proposal aimed at gays and lesbians anywhere in the world and feared the death penalty provision could signal a 'looming gay genocide' in Uganda. This Comment seeks to begin the conversation on legal solutions to vindicate the rights of LGBT people in Uganda in the wake …

Try As They Might, Just Can't Get It Right: Shortcomings Of The International Megan's Law Of 2010, Danielle Viera

Emory International Law Review

This Comment argues that future legislation closely resembling House Bill 5138, the International Megan's Law of 2010, should not become law. Further, this Comment encourages future drafts of such a law to account for the inherent weaknesses of House Bill 5138. This Comment proposes two alternative solutions for Congress to consider in light of the problems discussed: Congress should either change the language in its next attempt or decline to pass any law until it can analyze the successes and failures of the British Parliament's similarly drafted Sarah's Law.

The French Jury At A Crossroads, Valerie P. Hans, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Richard Goldschmidt: Reputation, Memory, And Biography, Michael Dietrich

Dartmouth Scholarship

Richard Goldschmidt was one of the most controversial biologists of the mid-twentieth century. Rather than fade from view, Goldschmidts work and reputation has persisted in the biological community long after he has. Goldschmidts longevity is due in large part to how he was represented by Stephen J. Gould. When viewed from the perspective of the biographer, Goulds revival of Goldschmidt as an evolutionary heretic in the 1970s and 1980s represents a selective reinvention of Goldschmidt that provides a contrast to other kinds of biographical commemorations by scientists.\r\n\r\nKeywords: Richard Goldschmidt, hopeful monsters, evolutionary synthesis, Stephen J. Gould, punctuated equilibrium, biography

Ceo's Pay Differentials And The Location Of Ipos : An Empirical Study For Chinese A-Share And H-Share Companies, Yi Liu

Lingnan Theses

This thesis provides an empirical investigation on how different public listing locations affect the CEO (chief executive officer)’s pay of Chinese SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) and whether such a pay differential would in turn affect the listing location choice by those firms, which have not received much attention in the current literature. In particular, we focus on two stock markets, the mainland (including Shenzhen and Shanghai) A-share market and Hong Kong H-share market. Unlike what have been found in many other markets, where firms listed in the foreign markets can normally enjoy a price premium, Chinese firms listed in the …

Housing Prices And Consumption : The Case Of China, Yonglin Wang

Lingnan Theses

The rapid soaring housing prices in Chinese residential property market have attracted increasing worldwide attention in recent years. Facing the rising concerns about both the stability and sustainability of Chinese housing market prices dynamics, this study aims at investigating the impacts of changes in housing wealth on consumption in China.

Previous studies on this subject usually use country level data with relatively shorter sample period, or individual time series for a single or a few cities. Recent development in literatures suggests that panel data have the more heightened capacity for modeling the complexity of human behavior than a single cross-section …

Rmb Exchange Rate Reform And Cross Listed Stock Price Disparity, Yuqian Rong

Lingnan Theses

A growing number of Chinese corporations have been listing their shares on foreign stock markets. Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are their major targets. Taking China’s exchange rate system reform as a unique event, I examine the price disparity between A-share and H-share (or ADR) using a sample of 28 Chinese companies listed in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York. I conduct a panel-data investigation to examine the price disparity before and after the transition from the pegged to the managed floating exchange rate.

I have obtained several important findings in this study. …

The Driving Forces Behind The Recent Housing Market Development In Hong Kong : Fundamentals? Bubbles? Policy?, Ki Chiu Lo

Lingnan Theses

By examining the driving forces behind the recent housing market development in Hong Kong, this thesis offers an explanation for the effects of the ―Capital Investment Entrant Scheme‖ and the movements in the exchange rate between HKD and RMB on the housing prices of the overall market and two sub-markets. Induced by record-low mortgage rates and decreasing amount of new dwelling units completion, housing prices in Hong Kong surged to a record high level recently. To test the equilibrium price of housing, cointegration tests will be used to identify whether there is overvaluation in recent property market. At the end …

翻译研究中的后殖民女性主义视角 : 自我反思的立场, Lijuan Chen

Lingnan Theses

女性主义和后殖民理论已于20 世纪80 年代介入翻译研究，并成为“效忠 取向”的翻译研究中的两大流派。但是，主流女性主义翻译研究和主流后殖民 翻译研究在缺乏自我反思立场的同时，在很大程度上分别体现了对种族维度和 性别维度的漠视，从而忽视了一些重要的研究问题。尽管已有极少数学者，从 结合性别和种族的后殖民女性主义视角看待了有关翻译现象，她们并没有考虑 将后殖民女性主义理论体系性地纳入翻译研究，同时也在很大程度上没有体现 自我反思。有鉴于此，本研究一方面以提出研究问题的方式，尝试体系性地将 后殖民女性主义理论纳入翻译研究，另一方面则以个案研究的方式，尝试如何 进行自我反思的后殖民女性主义翻译研究，并审视在很大程度上未被其他后殖 民女性主义学者所具体分析过的翻译现象。

在从后殖民女性主义视角提出一系列翻译研究问题之后，本研究继而选择 其中的两个问题作为个案研究对象，即考察西方女性主义出版社在出版第三世 界女性文本方面的翻译选材政治，以及西方女译者在处理第三世界女性主义文 本方面的翻译政治。在有关后殖民女性主义观点的启发下，以及在保持自我反 思立场的同时，本研究首先审视了美国女性主义出版社Aunt Lute Books 以及英 国女性主义出版社Virago Press，在翻译出版中国女性文本方面所体现的选材特 点。接着，本研究考察了美国白人女译者，在处理美籍华裔女作家严歌苓所著 《扶桑》中体现道家思想和佛教内涵的严歌苓式女性主义方面，所采用的翻译 方式。本研究表明，西方女性主义的话语殖民，西方女性主义与第三世界女性 主义之间及其背后文化理据之间的权力差异，以及相关主体所具有的白人女性 身份，以颇为复杂的形式，体现于涉及第三世界女性文本的翻译选材和翻译方 式。此外，通过上述讨论，本研究也展示了如何进行自我反思的后殖民女性主 义翻译研究，并凸显自我反思的翻译研究话语的内部冲突和暧昧之处。

The Internationalization Of Emerging Market Multinationals : Effects Of Host And Home Country Institutional Facotrs, Yuanyuan Zhang

Lingnan Theses

As we all know, economic globalization and internationalization have sparked off countless studies and arguments in the past years. Some of the conventional theories about the internationalization of firms, however, are repeatedly challenged when they are applied to the less developed countries. The internationalization of firms from less developed countries has been a topic of growing interest in the international business and economics literature. In our study, we consider the influence of institutions from both the host and home country on entry modes of Chinese firms expanding overseas. Based on a sample of 314 China’s MNCs, the results support our …

Low Noise And Low Repetition Rate Semiconductor-Based Mode-Locked Lasers, Dimitrios Mandridis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The topic of this dissertation is the development of low repetition rate and low noise semiconductor-based laser sources with a focus on linearly chirped pulse laser sources. In the past decade chirped optical pulses have found a plethora of applications such as photonic analogto-digital conversion, optical coherence tomography, laser ranging, etc. This dissertation analyzes the aforementioned applications of linearly chirped pulses and their technical requirements, as well as the performance of previously demonstrated chirped pulse laser sources. Moreover, the focus is shifted to a specific application of the linearly chirped pulses, timestretched photonic analog-to-digital conversion (TS ADC). The challenges of …

Metal Blacks As Scattering Centers To Increase The Efficiency Of Thin Film Solar Cells, Deep R. Panjwani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metal nano particles are investigated as scattering centers on front surface of thin-film solar cells to improve efficiency. The principle is that scattering, which is enhanced near the plasmon resonance frequency of the particle and depends on particle size, increases the effective optical path length of incident light, leading to more light absorption in active layer of thin film solar cell. The particular types of particles investigated here are known as "metal-black", well known as an IR absorber for bolometric infrared detectors. Gold-black was deposited on commercial thin-film solar cells using a thermal evaporator in a nitrogen ambient at pressures …

Dead, Imprisoned, Relapsed The Fate Of Homeless Substance Abusers Two Decades Later, Rachel L. Rayburn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Guided and influenced by a famous follow-up study in criminology focused on desistance from crime, this dissertation studies desistance from crime, homelessness, and substance abuse. In the early 1990s, The New Orleans Homeless Substance Abusers Project (NOHSAP) was founded as an experiment funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to uncover optimal treatment strategies for homeless alcoholics and drug addicts. The program ran for three years (1991-1993) and in those years, 670 homeless New Orleans men and women were admitted into treatment. Some of the original clients were followed for as long as 18 months, but …

An Analysis Of Knowledge Of The Bible, Private School Law, And Business And Finance Between Christian School Principals With And Without Graduate Degrees, Dennis E. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the performance of a sample of K-12 Assemblies of God Christian school principals on the Christian School Principal Preparation Assessment Questionnaire (CSPPAQ). The CSPPAQ, developed especially for this study, assesses knowledge in three areas: knowledge of the Bible, knowledge of private school law, and knowledge of business and finance. A sample size of 102 was determined using the sample size formula, based on a population of 611and a bound of 4 (+ 2). Numerous school closures over the course of this study caused the population size to drop to 490. This fact, coupled with a 45% survey …

The Stigmatization Of Deathcare Workers, Shannon Rose Simone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has indicated that Funeral Directors and Embalmers are stigmatized for their work. Studies have shown that, although the decay of dead bodies is a stigmatized process in American culture, these particular deathcare workers are able to shift the focus of their services from the dead to the living. However, there remains a lack of research regarding deathcare workers who are not employed as Funeral Directors or Embalmers— those whose positions are not as obvious to the general public. This research explores how, why, and to what degree stigma is placed on those individuals who spend the majority of their …

Middle School Literacy Coaches In Florida A Study Of The Relationships Among Experience, Coaching Activities, And Other Factors Related To Reading Achievement, Patricia A. Bowman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research was to investigate and clarify the work lives of middle school literacy coaches in central Florida by studying their backgrounds and experiences before assuming the role of literacy coach. Additionally, the beliefs of literacy coaches on what factors influence reading achievement were examined. The responses of 44 participating middle school literacy coaches were used to investigate (a) the academic and professional experiences of each coach, (b) the percentage of time spent in 13 literacy coaching activities, and (c) the working factors related to student reading achievement as evidenced on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Data …

Innovation On A Budget The Development Of Military Technology During The Interwar Period, 1919-1939, William Erik Deupree

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the progress of technological development during the interwar period of 1919 to 1939. The interwar period was a time of slashed military budgets and isolationist policies. However, despite political, financial, and organizational handicaps, each branch of the military made significant progress in the development of military technology, and the air corps and navy achieved significantly better results. The reason these two branches were able succeed was through a combination of organizational policy and the development of an overarching goal for their respective branch. Within this thesis, I investigated each of the major military branches during the interwar …

A Comparison Of Paper-Pencil Versus Video-Conferencing Administration Of A Neurobehavioral Screening Test, Tyler Cole Duffield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regardless of the reason, many patients/clients do not have access to face-to-face medical, neuropsychological, or mental health consultation, assessment, or treatment (Cowain, 2001). The term Remote Neuropsychological Assessment (RNA) has been proposed by Browndyke to denote the general use of telecommunication and Internet-based technologies in neuropsychological assessment and practice (as cited in Schatz & Browndyke, 2002). RNA (Telemedicine) offers a plausible, potentially cost-effective solution to individuals in need of medical, neuropsychological, or mental health consultation, assessment, or treatment that are located in geographical areas away from the specialist (Armstrong, 2006; Berman, 2005; Cowain, 2001; Jacobsen, Sprenger, Andersson, & Krogstad, 2003). …