Digital Commons Network^™

Gendering The Body: Exploring The Construction Of The Sexually Dimorphic Body, Sarah Kaye Lewis

Dissertations and Theses

Gender is a pervasive and regulating social institution that is operationalized in mainstream Western culture as a natural extension of the ontological difference perceived to exist between the binarily sexed bodies of male and female. Feminist theory has widely established, however, that gender is done - i.e., gender is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, but is an ongoing construction engaged and replicated by individual actors and which, while compulsory, is nevertheless optional. Within this canon is a small number of feminist theorists, notably Judith Lorber, Judith Bulter, and Nancy Tuana, who argue that the constructive manifestations of gender performativity (that …

Diminished Democracy? Portland Radio News/Public Affairs After The Telecom Act Of 1996, Rebecca Webb

Dissertations and Theses

News and public affairs on commercial radio dramatically changed following the 1996 Telecom Act, with rapid consolidation and economic efficiencies radically shrinking commercial radio's role in the provision of political information. By examining jobs data, public files, and the views of broadcast journalists, this project assesses the Act's impact through the lens of civic-minded Portland, Oregon. Because political information enables democracy, and because of radio's uniquely accessible qualities, this paper argues that market emphasis in media policy--especially in the Act's absolute manifestation--has diminished a significant channel of public discourse. Noticing radio's democratic potential, still relevant in the digital age, this …

Fpga Implementation And Acceleration Of Building Blocks For Biologically Inspired Computational Models, Mandar Deshpande

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years there has been significant research in the field of computational neuroscience and many of these biologically inspired cognitive models are based on the theory of operation of mammalian visual cortex. One such model of neocortex developed by George & Hawkins, known as Hierarchical Temporal Memories (HTM), is considered for the research discussed here. We propose a simple hierarchical model that is derived from HTM. The aim of this work is to evaluate the hardware cost and performance against software based simulations. This work presents a detailed hardware implementation and analysis of the derived hierarchical model. We show …

Whisper, Christina Struyk-Bonn

Dissertations and Theses

Whisper was a reject, living in a world so polluted and damaged that many humans and animals alike were born with defects. She'd grown up in an outcast camp far from any village, and those who lived in the camp were like her: disfigured. But on her sixteenth birthday, Whisper's father came to take her back to the village where she was to fill her mother's vacated spot and perform duties for the family. Her job was to cook, clean, wash the clothes, and maintain the family property. At night she was chained to the doghouse. Her uncle decided that …

An Evaluation Of Moderating Influences Of Employee Proactive Personality: Empowerment And Political Skill, Deborah Kaylee Ford

Dissertations and Theses

An action-orientation within the workplace is often sought out by organizations as a source for competitive advantage. Organizational leaders are increasingly reliant on independently driven employees that will take action without being instructed to do so. Toward this effort, proactive personality has become increasingly popular within the literature as a personality trait associated with an employee's propensity to take charge of situations and demonstrate initiative to make a positive impact. In identifying potential variables that will moderate the effects of proactive personality, a highly relevant construct is empowerment. Proactive personality is thought of as a trait, whereas empowerment can be …

Population Structure Of Island-Associated Pantropical Spotted Dolphins (Stenella Attenuata) In Hawaiian Waters, Sarah Shelby Courbis

Dissertations and Theses

Understanding gene flow, diversity, and dispersal patterns is important for predicting effects of natural events and anthropogenic activities on dolphin populations. With the very recent exceptions of false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris), and common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Hawaiian odontocete species are managed as single stocks within the U.S. Hawaiian Exclusive Economic Zone. These exceptions are a result of recent studies that have indicated that some species have populations that show fidelity to individual islands or groups of islands, resulting in genetic differentiation, often with management implications. The first part …

The Technological Role Of Bone And Antler Artifacts On The Lower Columbia: A Comparison Of Two Contact Period Sites, Kristen Ann Fuld

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explore the technological role of bone and antler artifacts from two contact period southern Northwest coast archaeological sites, the Cathlapotle site (45CL1) and the Meier site (35CO5). Technological measures of sedentism are based on lithics, and predict residential sedentism promotes technological expediency in hunter-gatherers (Parry and Kelley 1987). Cathlapotle and Meier lithic assemblages consist of expedient and opportunistic assemblages and raw material stockpiles, with the exception of highly curated projectile points and endscrapers (Hamilton 1994). The expectation that residential sedentism promotes technological expediency in hunter-gatherers was tested on the Cathlapotle and Meier bone and antler artifact assemblages in …

An Action Research Study To Determine The Feasibility Of Using Concept Maps As Alternative Assessments By A Novice Teacher, Nancy Smith Mitchell

Dissertations and Theses

This action research study investigated the feasibility of a novice teacher using concept maps as assessments in secondary science classes. The subjects in this study were the researcher, a novice pre-service science teacher, and students (n=35) in two classes of mixed-grade Foundations in Physics and Chemistry. This study tracked student and teacher experiences over an instructional unit in astronomy. All students received a 50-minute lesson on concept mapping, one class received three additional concept mapping lessons during the unit, then all students took a unit test with a paired short answer and concept map question. Student surveys were conducted to …

The Realization Of The Cathlapotle Plankhouse: Reflections On Cross-Cultural Collaboration In The Post-Nagpra Era, Erica Lynn Boyne

Dissertations and Theses

In the last two decades, a shift in the museological paradigm has changed the way in which Native American history and culture is interpreted and represented to the general public. As legal mandates and growing institutional pressures increasingly call for the integration of tribal representatives into the decision-making bodies of museums and authoritative institutions, cross-cultural collaboration and partnerships have increased significantly. With little precedent guiding public historians and museum professionals through this new and complex system of collaboration, the path unfolding in the journey towards the “indigenization”; of museums has been marked with achievements and challenges that have both taught …

Employment Of Crystallographic Image Processing Techniques To Scanning Probe Microscopy Images Of Two-Dimensional Periodic Objects, Bill Moon

Dissertations and Theses

Thin film arrays of molecules or supramolecules are active subjects of investigation because of their potential value in electronics, chemical sensing, catalysis, and other areas. Scanning probe microscopes (SPMs), including scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs) and atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are commonly used for the characterization and metrology of thin film arrays. As opposed to transmission electron microscopy (TEM), SPMs have the advantage that they can often make observations of thin films in air or liquid, while TEM requires highly specialized techniques if the sample is to be in anything but vacuum. SPM is a surface imaging technique, while TEM typically …

The Law And Politics Of Embryo Research In America, O. Carter Snead

Journal Articles

The moral, legal, and public policy dispute over embryonic stem cell research (and related matters, such as human cloning) is the most prominent issue in American public bioethics of the past decade. The primary moral question raised by the practice of embryonic stem cell research is whether it is defensible to disaggregate (and thus destroy) living human embryos in order to derive pluripotent cells (stem cells) for purposes of basic research that may someday yield regenerative therapies. This essay will explain the legal and political dimensions of the embryonic stem cell debate as it has unfolded at the national level …

Building Healthier Babies & Adults For Tomorrow, Linda E. May

Faculty and Staff Publications

Current studies intimate the fetal cardiovascular and respiratory systems benefit from exercise throughout pregnancy. These changes persist after birth suggesting that exercise exposure has long-term health benefits lasting into adulthood. Individuals exposed to exercise in utero show no signs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as adults. Considering the pandemic of CVD in the U.S., these findings suggest further research is warranted concerning the effects of exercise during pregnancy on childhood and adult health outcomes.

Effects Of Lateral Ligament Sectioning On The Stability Of The Ankle And Subtalar Joint, Stacie I. Ringleb, Ajaya Dhakal, Claude D. Anderson, Sebastian Bawab, Rajesh Paranjape

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Patients with subtalar joint instability are often diagnosed with ankle instability. Only after a prolonged period of time in which a patient does not improve after treatment for ankle instability is subtalar joint instability considered. To develop a clinically relevant method to diagnose subtalar joint instability, the kinematics of the simulated unstable subtalar joint were examined. A 6 degree-of-freedom positioning and loading device was developed. Plantarflexion/dorsiflexion, inversion/eversion, and internal/external rotation were applied individually or as coupled motions along with an anterior/posterior drawer. Kinematic data were collected from sensors attached to the calcaneus, talus, and tibia by keeping all the ligaments …

Myths Of Coal's Clean Future: The Story Of Methylmercury, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Legal History Of Federally Granted Railroad Rights-Of-Way And The Myth Of Congress's "1871 Shift", Darwin P. Roberts

University of Colorado Law Review

Beginning in the 1830s, the United States government granted railroads thousands of miles of rights-of-way across the public lands. In 1850, Congress began to further subsidize the construction of certain railroads by granting them title to millions of acres of the public lands. By the late 1860s, however, the public came to vehemently oppose giving vast tracts of the public domain away to railroads. As a consequence, in 1871, Congress ceased granting subsidy lands to railroads. Federal grants of railroad rights-of-way, though, continued well into the twentieth century. The Supreme Court has held that the year 1871 marked a transition …

Urbanization, Water Quality, And The Regulated Landscape, Dave Owen

University of Colorado Law Review

Watershed scientists frequently describe urbanization as a primary cause of water quality degradation, and recent studies conclude that even in lightly-developed watersheds, urbanization often precludes attainment of water quality standards. This Article considers legal responses to this pervasive problem. It explains why traditional legal measures have been ineffective, and it evaluates several recent innovations piloted in the northeastern United States. These innovations are potentially applicable across the nation. Specifically, the innovations involve using impervious cover total maximum daily loads, residual designation authority, and collective permitting to expand, intensify, and modify regulatory control of urban stormwater. More generally, the innovations involve …

The Need To Overrule Mapp V. Ohio, William T. Pizzi

University of Colorado Law Review

This Article argues that it is time to overrule Mapp v. Ohio. It contends that the exclusionary rule is outdated because a tough deterrent sanction is difficult to reconcile with a criminal justice system where victims are increasingly seen to have a stake in criminal cases. The rule is also increasingly outdated in its epistemological assumption which insists officers act on "reasons" that they can articulate and which disparages actions based on "hunches" or "feelings." This assumption runs counter to a large body of neuroscience research suggesting that humans often "feel" or "sense" danger, sometimes even at a subconscious level, …

Dog Damages: The Case For Expanding The Available Remedies For The Owners Of Wrongfully Killed Pets In Colorado, Logan Martin

University of Colorado Law Review

For most people, the death of a loved one can have devastating emotional consequences. This is especially true where the person's death was the result of an accident caused by the negligent, or worse, malicious actions of another person. In most of these situations, both common law and statutory law usually provide some means of compensation for the surviving party. However, when the dead loved one is not another person, but rather a pet or companion animal, the owner's recovery is usually very limited. This Comment argues that such limited recovery is inappropriate and that Colorado should adopt a rule …

The Water Transfers Rule: How An Epa Rule Threatens To Undermine The Clean Water Act, Chris Reagen

University of Colorado Law Review

Water transfer is a term that describes the movement of water from an area where water is available to another area where water is scarce. This process has enabled otherwise uninhabitable lands in the western United States to support large cities and agricultural districts. In Friends of the Everglades v. South Florida Water Management District, the Eleventh Circuit upheld a rule that removed federal water quality restrictions on water transfers. This rule codified the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) position that the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) requirement of the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not apply to water transfers …

Not Of Woman Born: A Scientific Fantasy, Jennifer S. Hendricks

Publications

This Article explores the legal implications of a scientific fantasy: building artificial wombs that could gestate a human child from conception to birth. Because claims about the technological possibility of artificial wombs in the foreseeable future are likely overstated, the focus of the Article is the effect that the fantasy of artificial gestation has on the legal discourse about pregnancy and reproduction today.

The Article first places the fantasy of artificial gestation in the context of theories about reproduction that western science has propounded. The history of scientific theorizing about reproduction is a history of scientists emphasizing the male contribution …

Under Attack: Terrorism Risk Insurance Regulation, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Scholarly debates over the September 11th attacks focus predominantly on high-profile issues, such as torture, preventive detention, interrogation, privacy, and surveillance. These debates have overshadowed the equally important and far-reaching issue of terrorism risk insurance, which not only involves billions of dollars, but provides powerful incentives to keep us safe. Developing a sound understanding of the market for terrorism risk insurance is essential to guiding the difficult determination of the appropriate balance between private and public responsibility for preventing and (when necessary) compensating for terrorism.

The attacks of September 11th represented one of the costliest insurance events in American history. …

Intermediaries And Hate Speech: Fostering Digital Citizenship For Our Information Age, Danielle Keats Citron, Helen Norton

Publications

No longer confined to isolated corners of the web, cyber hate now enjoys a major presence on popular social media sites. The Facebook group Kill a Jew Day, for instance, acquired thousands of friends within days of its formation, while YouTube has hosted videos with names like How to Kill a Beaner, Execute the Gays, and Murder Muslim Scum. The mainstreaming of cyber hate has the troubling potential to shape public expectations of online discourse.

Internet intermediaries have the freedom and influence to seize this defining moment in cyber hate's history. We believe that a thoughtful and nuanced intermediary-based approach …

A Diva Defends Herself: Gender And Domestic Violence In An Early Twentieth-Century Headline Trial, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

This short article was presented as part of a symposium on headline criminal trials, organized by St. Louis University School of Law in honor of Lawrence Friedman. It describes and analyzes the self-defense acquittal of opera singer Mae Talbot in Nevada in 1910 on charges of murdering her abusive husband. Based on extensive research into archival trial records and newspaper reports, the article discusses how the press, the court, and trial lawyers on both sides depicted the killing and Mae’s possible defenses. Without discounting the sensationalism and entertainment value, to a scandal-hungry public, of stories about violent marriages, I contend …

The Need To Overrule Mapp V. Ohio, William T. Pizzi

Publications

This Article argues that it is time to overrule Mapp v. Ohio. It contends that the exclusionary rule is outdated because a tough deterrent sanction is difficult to reconcile with a criminal justice system where victims are increasingly seen to have a stake in criminal cases. The rule is also increasingly outdated in its epistemological assumption which insists officers act on "reasons" that they can articulate and which disparages actions based on "hunches" or "feelings." This assumption runs counter to a large body of neuroscience research suggesting that humans often "feel" or "sense" danger, sometimes even at a subconscious …

Industrial Terrorism And The Unmaking Of New Deal Labor Law, Ahmed A. White

Publications

The passage of the Wagner (National Labor Relations) Act of 1935 represented an unprecedented effort to guarantee American workers basic labor rights--the rights to organize unions, to provoke meaningful collective bargaining, and to strike. Previous attempts by workers and government administrators to realize these rights in the workplace met with extraordinary, often violent, resistance from powerful industrial employers, whose repressive measures were described by government officials as a system of "industrial terrorism." Although labor scholars have acknowledged these practices and paid some attention to the way they initially frustrated labor rights and influenced the jurisprudence and politics of labor relations …

Unraveling Privacy: The Personal Prospectus And The Threat Of A Full-Disclosure Future, Scott R. Peppet

Publications

Information technologies are reducing the costs of credible signaling, just as they have reduced the costs of data mining and economic sorting. The burgeoning informational privacy field has ignored this evolution, leaving it unprepared to deal with the consequences of these new signaling mechanisms. In an economy with robust signaling, those with valuable credentials, clean medical records, and impressive credit scores will want to disclose those traits to receive preferential economic treatment. Others may then find that they must also disclose private information to avoid the negative inferences attached to staying silent. This unraveling effect creates new types of privacy …

Consumer Contract Exchanges And The Problem Of Adhesion, Andrew A. Schwartz

Publications

Businesses and sophisticated parties have long used "contract exchanges," like the Chicago Board of Trade, to obtain a fair price and protect themselves from market volatility. These contract exchanges have greatly benefited both their participants and the public at large, but participation was long limited to a wealthy few. A decade ago, however, Internet websites, including Hotwire and Priceline, brought the power of contract exchanges directly to consumers, allowing regular people to flex their collective bargaining power to obtain low prices on travel services. Even more recently, other such "consumer contract exchanges," including Prosper and MoneyAisle, have organized vibrant markets …

Floorplan Design And Yield Enhancement Of 3-D Integrated Circuits, Rajeev Kumar Nain

Dissertations and Theses

We have developed a placement-aware 3-D floorplanning algorithm that enables additional wirelength reduction by planning for 3-D placement of logic gates in selected circuit modules during the floorplanning stage. Thus it also bridges the existing gap between 3-D floorplanning and 3-D placement. To reduce the solution space of 3-D floorplanning which is known to be an NP-hard problem, we derive a set of feasibility conditions on the topological representation of a floorplan. In addition, we have designed a fast module packing algorithm that satisfies a set of constraints for placement-aware 3-D floorplanning. Furthermore, we have designed an efficient evolutionary algorithm …

On Constrained Optimization Schemes For Joint Inversion Of Geophysical Datasets, Uram Anibal Sosa Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the area of geological sciences, there exist several experimental techniques used to advance in the understanding of the Earth. We implement a joint inversion least-squares (LSQ) algorithm to characterize one dimensional Earth's structure by using seismic shear wave velocities as a model parameter. We use two geophysical datasets sensitive to shear velocities, namely Receiver Function and Surface Wave dispersion velocity observations, with a choice of an optimization method: Truncated Singular Value Decomposition (TSVD) or Primal-Dual Interior-Point (PDIP). The TSVD and the PDIP methods solve a regularized unconstrained and a constrained minimization problem, respectively. Both techniques include bounds into the …

Identification And Characterization Of Fkbp52-Specific Inhibitors For The Treatment Of Prostate Cancer, Johanny Tonos De Leon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Steroid hormone receptors require the ordered assembly of various chaperone and cochaperone proteins in order to reach a functional state. The final stage in the receptor maturation process requires the formation of a mutimeric complex consisting of Hsp90 dimer, p23, and one of several large immunophilins. Studies conducted previously demonstrated that the large immunophilin FKBP52 acts to potentiate glucocorticoid, androgen, and progesterone receptor signaling pathways. The aim of these studies was to identify and characterize FKBP52-specific inhibitors that would not only serve as tools for the pharmacological analysis of FKBP52-receptor interactions, but may also lead to novel drugs with significant …