Digital Commons Network^™

The Structure Of Federal Egovernment: Using Hyperlinks To Analyze The .Gov Domain, Ryan Whalen

2011

This paper uses the hyperlink structure of federal web sites within the .gov domain to answer two research questions: to what degree does the online structure of the federal government mirror its offline hierarchy, and to what degree does the .gov web graph mirror the greater WWW graph.  Findings of subgraph link analysis and Krackhardt’s graph theoretical dimensions of hierarchy analysis demonstrate clear hierarchy within the .gov domain, but also suggest great discrepancies in the linking patterns of different government departments.  Structural analysis suggests that the .gov web graph is indeed a fractal leaf of the greater WWW graph.

Extensiveness And Perceptions Of Lecture Demonstrations In The High School Chemistry Classroom, Daniel S. Price

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

            While lecture demonstrations have been conducted in chemistry classrooms for hundreds of years, little research exists to document the frequency with which such demonstrations are employed or their effect on learners’ motivation and performance.  A mixed-methods research study was performed, using quantitative and qualitative survey data, along with qualitative data from follow-up interviews and structured correspondence, to determine the extent to which lecture demonstrations are used in high school chemistry instruction, and the perceived effects of viewing such demonstrations on students’ performance on course assignments and on motivation to excel in current and future chemistry courses.  Fifty-two randomly selected chemistry …

"Videbantur Gens Effera": Defining And Perceiving Peoples In The Chronicles Of Norman Italy, Jesse Hysell

Masters Theses

The goal of this project is to analyze the ways different cultural groups in Sicily and southern Italy were depicted in a set of historical texts associated with the Norman takeover of those regions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. To achieve that aim, I consider social vocabulary applied to three distinct peoples (native Italians, Greeks, and Muslims) in five sources written by Amatus of Montecassino, Geoffrey Malaterra, William of Apulia, Alexander of Telese, and Hugo Falcandus. Although recent scholarship has posited that medieval identity was often felt through a "self versus other" or "Christian versus non-Christian" dichotomy, I have …

Adaptive Management As An Information Problem, Holly Doremus

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deficient Policy Communication Deficient Outcomes – Capacity Building Policy Under Education Reforms In Sindh, Pakistan, Sajid Ali

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Education decentralisation in Pakistan started from 2001 through an all-out devolution programme of the government across sectors. To strengthen the decentralisation reform and build capacity of district educational managers a USAID sponsored programme Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) was launched in 2003. In order to assess the impact of these capacity building initiatives, a research study was carried out during 2005-2006. The research used qualitative design and was carried out in one of the ESRA target districts in Sindh province. The paper argues the improper communication of policy severely compromised the achievement of intended policy objectives. The research noted that …

Dean Of The Range: George Edward Lemmon, Open Range Cattle Ranching And The Development Of The Northern Great Plains, Nathan B. Sanderson

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

George Edward Lemmon (1857-1945) lived a life full of significant achievements and played an integral role in the growth and settlement of the northern Great Plains.  A renowned cowboy and cattleman, Lemmon saddle-handled more cattle than any man who ever lived, bossed one of the nation’s largest roundups, operated an 865,000-acre lease on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and later became an inaugural member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.  Part of his early success came as a result of trespassing—illegally grazing thousands of cattle—on the Great Sioux Reservation.  Due to his unparalleled cattle-handling skills and reputation as one …

Meatpacking And Immigration: Industrial Innovation And Community Change In Dakota County, Nebraska, 1960–2000, Dustin Kipp

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Latino immigration to the Midwest during the twentieth century has received significant attention from historians, but most have focused on the early and middle decades of the century. The later decades of the twentieth century, when a significant new wave of Latino immigration brought many new arrivals to small rural communities have received less attention. This study examines the intersection of the restructuring of the meatpacking industry and Latino immigration to rural Midwestern communities from 1960 to 2000. Dakota County, Nebraska--home to the flagship operation of Iowa Beef Packers, Inc. (IBP) from 1964 until the company was sold to Tyson, …

Soundings 2011-06, N/A N/A

Soundings

No abstract provided.

Use Of Geocoding And Us Census Data To Assess Determinants Of Outcome In Trauma Patients, Krista M. Goodman Md, John J. Hong Md, Sherrine Eid Mph, Leslie Baga Bsn, Ccrc, Michael M. Badellino Md, Mph, Facs, Michael D. Pasquale Md, Facs

Department of Surgery

No abstract provided.

Intent To Charge For Unsolicited Benefits Conferred In An Emergency: A Case Study In The Meaning Of "Unjust" In The Restatement (Third) Of Restitution & Unjust Enrichment, Louis E. Wolcher

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article is a legal and jurisprudential case study that attempts to shed light on the use of the word "unjust" in the law of restitution as it has been reinterpreted by the new Restatement (Third) of Restitution & Unjust Enrichment. The particular case studied is the legal meaning of the term "intent to charge" in the law’s treatment of claims for unsolicited benefits conferred in emergencies. The author conducts a thought experiment involving the use of a sworn "Declaration of Intent to Charge for Benefits Conferred" to illustrate certain ambiguities and difficulties in the way the new Restatement deals …

The Object Of Platform Studies: Relational Materialities And The Social Platform (The Case Of The Nintendo Wii), Steven E. Jones, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System,by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, inaugurated thePlatform Studies series at MIT Press in 2009.We’ve coauthored a new book in the series, Codename: Revolution: the Nintendo Wii Video Game Console. Platform studies is a quintessentially Digital Humanities approach, since it’s explicitly focused on the interrelationship of computing and cultural expression. According to the series preface, the goal of platform studies is “to consider the lowest level of computing systems and to understand how these systems relate to culture and creativity.”In practice, this involves paying close attentionto specific hardware and software interactions--to the vertical …

African Palm And Afro-Indigenous Resistance: Race And Dispossession Of Garifuna Lands On Honduras' Northern Coast, Laura Jung

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to connect the Honduran state’s need for capital accumulation, it’s almost myopic focus on agro-industrialization and dispossessing Garífuna from lands valued for African palm production, and finally how the Garífuna have been able to effectively resist the state’s attempts to take Garífuna lands by force. One company in particular, the Dinant Corporation, poses the greatest threat to Garífuna communities in the remote Honduran territories of Atlántida and Colón. Dinant Corporation, owned entirely by Miguel Facussé, is a large commercial producer and processor of African palm in Honduras.  The company is the largest and fastest gorwing African palm …

Peace And War In The Qur'an And Juridical Literature: A Comparative Perspective, Liyakat Takim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Qur'anic period of Islamic history took place in a social context of significant diversity. A number of important verses in the Qur'an reflect this diversity and encourage Islamic believers to seek peaceful coexistence with those of other faiths, especially those designated as "people of the Book," specifically Christians, Jews and Sabeans. In the later classical period of Islamic history, the exegesis of Islamic jurists markedly de-emphasized peaceful coexistence in favor of interpretations encouraging conquest and religious uniformity. Although the classical jurists have exercised enormous interpretive authority in subsequent Islamic history, their authority was never understood to be absolute or …

Evaluating Use Of Purchased Books Using Circulation Information, Kathleen Hughes

University Libraries Scholarship and Creative Works

Describes a project of the VALE Cooperative Collection Management Committee to determine the circulation of recently purchased material and analyze its use in order to help assess collection development policies and practices regarding book selection and approval plans, as well as help identify trends, strengths and weaknesses in the collection, and to consider ameliorative strategies.

Presentation made to the June 2011 SNRG Conference.

Augmented Reality: An Overview And Five Directions For Ar In Education, Steve Chi-Yin Yuen, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, Erik Johnson

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging form of experience in which the Real World (RW) is enhanced by computer-generated content tied to specific locations and/or activities. Over the last several years, AR applications have become portable and widely available on mobile de­vices. AR is becoming visible in our audio-visual media (e.g., news, entertainment, sports) and is beginning to enter other aspects of our lives (e.g., e-commerce, travel, marketing) in tangible and exciting ways. Facilitating ubiquitous learning, AR will give learners instant access to location-specific information compiled and provided by numerous sources (2009). Both the 2010 and 2011 Horizon Reports predict …

Promoting Student’S Online Engagement With Communication Tools, Shuyan Wang

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This case study investigated students’ engagement and learning experiences in online courses through Blackboard CE6 (Course Management System). The meaning that students gave to their learning experiences and the problems they encountered were also investigated in order to understand how students learn in a technology-enriched learning environment. Data were col­lected through open-ended survey questions, participant observations, and document analyses from three online instructional technology graduate courses where students used threaded dis­cussion, live classroom, chat room, and email for online communication and interaction. Find­ings indicated that students’ engagement was promoted by using various communication tools although student preferred discussion board and …

Relationship Of Vitamin D Levels To Blood Pressure In A Biethnic Cohort, Rosario O. Sakamoto

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background: Serum hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] has been well-accepted as not an ordinary vitamin but a pro-hormone that has many benefits beyond its well-known effects on bone. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension remain a huge health burden and Blacks have been recognized to have higher prevalence of hypertension compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Despite increasing evidence of the benefits of vitamin D on blood pressure control, there is much more to be learned about the relationship of serum 25(OH)D to blood pressure among different ethnicities.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine whether vitamin D serum 25(OH)D levels were …

People In Action For Change: Photovoice Project, Will Anderson, Ian Bonham, Jason Christensen, Robin Davis

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

This project was undertaken by Portland State University Senior Capstone Students in cooperation with the Rose Community Development Corporation and Leander Court. The Rose Community Development Corporation sponsored a group of Leander Court residents and youth in a photovoice project that sought to empower community members to take action to improve their individual, family and community health. The Portland State University Capstone project partnered with Rose CDC in order to provide a relevant and measurable spatial context for the photovoice project using the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Healthy Development Measurement Tool and the Pedestrian Environmental Quality Survey. The …

Creativity In The Brazilian Culture, Denise S. Fleith

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Research has pointed out creativity as a sociocultural and contextually embedded phenomenon. As a consequence, the effect of cultural factors on the manifestation of creativity has been discussed worldwide. The purpose of this chapter is, therefore, to analyze the development of creativity in the Brazilian culture. A brief description of the Brazilian culture is provided. Models of creativity developed by Brazilian researchers, as well as a review of creativity studies conducted in the educational environment, are presented. Guidelines for future cross-cultural studies on creativity are also suggested.

Breasts Are For Feeding: An Anthropological, Archaeological Examination Of Breastfeeding, Blaize A. Uva

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Ecology Of San Luis Obispo: A Children's Book, Heidi Van Campen

Social Sciences

San Luis Obispo is one of the most loved places in the world by its residents and visitors. Located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo is the heart of California's Central Coast. However, this paper is not about the present-day cities or residents. It is an ecological history; the story of life and land over time.

Historians tend to treat nature as the setting for history, rather than a participant. Ecology is a history written knowing that we shape our environment and it shapes us.

This is a story of the ecology of San Luis Obispo.

A Survey And 5-Point Analysis Of Modern Day Human Trafficking, Sarah Wietbrock

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Selection On The Human Bitter Taste Gene, Tas2r16, Ineurasian Populations, Hui Li, Andrew J. Pakstis, Judith R. Kidd, Kenneth K. Kidd

Human Biology

Bitter taste is one of the most important senses alerting humans to noxious foods. In gatherer communities, sensitivity to bitterness is presumably advantageous because of various noxious plants. TAS2R16 is the gene coding the taste receptor molecules for some of the most common toxins in plants. A previous study of this gene indicated selection has increased the frequency of a derived allele in this gene that arose before the human expansion out of Africa. We have applied a different methodology for detecting selection, the Long Range Haplotype (LRH) analysis, to TAS2R16 in a larger sampling of populations from around the …

Atg Interviews Phoebe Ayers, Katina Strauch, Tom Gilson

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Collecting To The Core -- Nature Field Guides, Flora G. Shrode, Anne Doherty

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Towards Transnational Native American Literary Studies, Hsinya Huang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Towards Transnational Native American Literary Studies" Hsinya Huang discusses how Native American literature can be adapted, translated, articulated, and interpreted in a transnational/trans-Pacific context, using the recently emerging Native American scholarship in Taiwan as a point of departure. Through collaboration across institutional lines, exploration of the community production of local knowledge, and our obligation and desire to participate meaningfully as intellectuals in the international initiatives in Native Studies, can we conceive of an expansive indigenous region across the Pacific? How can indigeneity be both rooted in and routed through particular places and articulated? Through envisioning an expanding …

The European Campaign: Its Origins And Conduct, Samuel J. Newland Dr., Clayton K. S. Chun Dr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

The authors begin with an examination of prewar planning for various contingencies, then move to the origins of “Germany first” in American war planning. They then focus on the concept, favored by both George C. Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower, that the United States and its Allies had to conduct a cross-channel attack and undertake an offensive aimed at the heartland of Germany. Following this background contained in the initial chapters, the remainder of the book provides a comprehensive discussion outlining how the European Campaign was was carried out. The authors conclude that American political leaders and war planners established …

A Position Of Strength: Arms Dealing As Diplomacy Under The Reagan Administration, William D. Watson

Masters Theses

My thesis is an examination of the Cold War during the 1980s, with a focus on arms dealing and diplomacy under President Ronald Reagan from 1981-1989. I chose to write about three specific case studies based on the unique intersections of American diplomatic goals in relation to geography, the sophistication of weapons technology involved, and geopolitical considerations. The purpose of this thesis is to explain why and how the Reagan administration was able to carry out three separate arms deals, and in turn, how those deals fit into the broader, global Cold War between the United States and the Soviet …

From Precarious Labor To Precarious Economy? Planning For Precarity In Singapore's Creative Economy, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The important place of the oftentimes "hidden" independent worker, or freelancer, has been acknowledged in developed countries where the creative economy has grown. These creative workers do not belong to the traditional employment set-up organized around firms. Instead, they move from portfolio to portfolio, assignment to assignment, interspersing corporation-based jobs with periods of self employment. Their work offers freedom, independence and creative space, but has also been characterized as precarious, because the securities of old working patterns no longer hold. While governments in many countries and cities have become attracted to the potential of the creative economy, those that have …

Cosmopolitan Nation-Building: The Institutional Contradiction And Politics Of Postwar Japanese Education, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The education system has been a quintessential state apparatus of nation-building since the emergence of the modern nation-state; however, recent comparative studies demonstrate the growing presence of cosmopolitanism in education policies and school curricula around the world. This trend indicates that the education system now operates according to two different institutional logics, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. To understand how the education system negotiates the potential contradiction between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, in this paper, I analyze the case of postwar Japanese education. Theoretically, I synthesize studies of institutional logics and social movements: while the former shed light on a contradiction between different …