Digital Commons Network^™

Hidden Markov Models For Heart Rate Variability With Biometric Applications, Michael Walker Ii

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The utility of hidden Markov models: HMM) for modeling individual heart rate variability: HRV) is presented. Starting with a physiologically based statistical model for HRV from the literature, we justify use of HMMs and present methods for parameterizing the model. The forward-backward algorithm and expectation-maximization algorithm are used to estimate the model and the hidden states for a given observation sequence of inter-beat intervals. Multiple initialization techniques are presented to avoid local maxima. Model order is determined from the data sequence using the Bayesian information criterion. Models are trained on twelve hour recordings. The models are then used to discriminate …

The Impacts Of Lead Contamination On The Community Of Herculaneum, Missouri, Jill Mcnew-Birren

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Lead contamination in Herculaneum, Missouri presents a complex context where the long history of a large lead processing plant has created an environmental health hazard. Local residents have been forced to balance their interest in promoting a clean and healthy local environment against their desire to preserve community identity and honor the history of their city and its most prominent industry. Additionally, contamination and related controversy has substantively impacted this community and its citizens on multiple levels--e. g., education, health, and financial well-being. The study presented in this dissertation explores not only the impact of contamination upon the community, but …

Attracting Foreign Direct Investment To Countries Of Latin America: A Comparative Study The Cases Of Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela And Cuba, Beatriz Schiava

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Foreign Direct Investment: FDI) brings benefits to host countries' populations, using job creation, opportunities for education, training, and technology. The host country benefits from FDI inflows, improving its economy, introducing new technology, organizational and managerial skills that help domestic companies while improving its political institutions. This author chose five countries of Latin America with different political systems and economic policies: Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and Costa Rica. The goal of this thesis is to find out what kind of political systems and social environments in Latin America are best for attracting FDIs, and what are the obstacles those Latin American …

National Education Systems In The European Union, Edmund Staude

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The European community, under a variety of names, has been expanding both physically and in its areas of responsibility since the end of World War II. What began as an attmept for economic unity among sovereign states has evolved into a complex supranational organization. Education, traditionally part of the domestic domain of nations, has gradually emerged as a concern of the European Union as it endeavors to enhance its viability as an economic leader. This paper examines the growing trend twoard more specific EU education policy in light of the education systems and policies of England and Germany. It specifically …

On The Road To Samaria: Urban Religious Congregations As Resource Brokers, Kirk Foster

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Concentrated poverty is an increasing problem in urban U.S. neighborhoods leading to social isolation and marginalization from mainstream institutions. Conventional thought has argued that the urban poor lack resources necessary for social and economic mobility due to constrained social networks endemic in homogeneously poor communities. However, neighborhood based organizations may be one place where the urban poor can engage heterogeneous resource networks to advance socially and economically. Religious congregations are enduring neighborhood organizations that present the opportunity for social interaction and resource access. Thus, this study examines the role of religious congregations in providing access to resources embedded in congregational …

Re-Imagining The Human Rights Law Clinic, Arturo J. Carrillo, Nicolas Espejo Yaksic

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article, co-authored with Chilean law professor Nicolás Espejo, engages the debate in U.S. clinical circles about how best to configure an international human rights law clinic, given that such clinics are widely perceived to be substantially different from their domestic law counterparts. This perception has led many U.S. human rights clinicians to favor the non-legal dimension of human rights advocacy in their teaching, such as fact-finding and reporting. In this context, we address a number of threshold questions: How different are clinics of the human rights variety from more traditional models that center on providing legal services to clients? …

In Pursuit Of Justice? Case Outcomes And The Delivery Of Unbundled Legal Services, Jessica K. Steinberg

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In the United States today, an estimated eighty percent of the legal needs of the poor go unmet. The Supreme Court has repeatedly identified access to the courts as a fundamental constitutional right, but a lack of affordable legal counsel has shattered the promise of this right for low-income individuals. There is widespread consensus that this “justice gap” between rich and poor litigants threatens the credibility of the justice system, undermines public confidence in the law, and distorts the accuracy of judicial decision-making.

The provision of “unbundled” legal aid has been this decade’s response to the severe shortage of lawyers …

Environmental Protection And Human Rights, Dinah L. Shelton, Donald K. Anton

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This book concentrates on the relationship between human rights and the environment. The first chapter provides the framework for the book’s analysis and begins by defining “environment” and noting recent changes to environmental conditions and their causes, such as reduced biodiversity and increased population and resource consumption. The first portion of the chapter concludes by suggesting actions such as removing financial incentives for over-consumption of limited economic resources, that could improve the current environmental trends.

International Human Rights: Problems Of Law, Policy, And Practice, Dinah L. Shelton, Hurst Hannum, S. James Anaya

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The introductory chapter of this book discusses how a unifying concern for human dignity led to the establishment of human rights as part of the body of international law. Next, the chapter includes excerpts from multiple writers’ works to employ slavery as a case study to demonstrate how the international community has used the notion of human rights to create binding law. Third, this chapter discusses the philosophical drivers of human rights by including writings from other scholars and the history of the presence of human rights in international law. The chapter concludes that increasing concern for human rights may …

International Law And Domestic Legal Systems: Incorporation, Transformation, And Persuasion (Introduction), Dinah L. Shelton

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This book discusses developments in international law and their relationship to national legal systems. The introduction of the book notes that countries who received their independence from authoritarian regimes are more receptive to international law. A country may adopt either a monist approach to international law, where it considers international law part of its domestic law, or a dualist approach, in which a country separates its national law from international law. The introduction then proceeds to identify sources of international law, including treaties and countries’ methods of complying, customary international law, and declarations. The introduction concludes by noting the increasing …

Old Lessons For A New World: Applying Adoption Research And Experience To Art, Naomi R. Cahn

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article suggests that knowledge derived from adoption-related research and experience can be used to improve law, policy and practice in the world of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), particularly with respect to sperm, egg and embryo "donations." While there are numerous and significant differences between adoption and ART, the article identifies several areas in which adoption's lessons could be useful. These include secrecy and the withholding of information; a focus on the best interests of children; the creation of "nontraditional" families, particularly as more single, gay and lesbian adults use ART; the impact of market forces; and legal and regulatory …

Visa As Property, Visa As Collateral, Eleanor Marie Brown

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Although the "tragic choice" framework has not been applied in the context of U.S. immigration law, current immigration policy is rife with tragic choices, defined as a commitment by policy elites to maintaining certain illusions which shield from public view tough policy choices that offend deeply held values. Take, for example, the issue of commodification of visas. Policy makers remain committed to maintaining the historical illusion that U.S. visas are open to well-deserving migrants, and are not being "sold" Yet U.S. immigration practice has long made concessions to commodification at the margins. Indeed, some migrants “pay” very high prices to …

The Hydrology And Geochemistry Of Urban And Rural Watersheds In East-Central Missouri, Elizabeth Hasenmueller

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation examines the physical hydrology and geochemistry of surface waters and shallow groundwaters in east-central Missouri, USA, to determine how runoff differs in flow and quality between urban and natural watersheds. The study employs high frequency in situ monitoring of relevant water quality parameters in tandem with lab analyses of major and minor elements and stable isotope concentrations to address degradation of watersheds by land development and other human activities. Chapter 3 of this dissertation compares three watersheds and their tributaries, each with differing levels of urban land use, which were monitored for more than one year to document …

Quantitative Assessment Of Lung Microstructure In Healthy Mice Using An Mr-Based 3he Lung Morphometry Technique, Emir Osmanagic

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Recently developed in our laboratory the MRI-based technique - 3He Lung Morphometry - is a unique tool allowing in vivo measurements of lung microstructural parameters such as alveolar volume, surface-to-volume ratio and alveolar density. These parameters are commonly used by lung physiologists and pathologists but were previously available only from invasive biopsy studies. 3He Lung Morphometry was originally developed for human studies but there is a need to expand it for studies of small animals like mice and rats that are used to advance our knowledge of lung physiology in health and disease and for development of drugs. Such an …

How It Began: The Rise Of The Women's Suffrage Movement In Britain, Shihui Yun

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Not Just A Pretty Voice: Cathy Berberian As Collaborator, Composer And Creator, Kate Meehan

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

During her relatively brief career, Cathy Berberian: 1925-83) became arguably the best-known singer of avant-garde vocal music in Europe and the United States. After 1950, when she married Italian composer Luciano Berio, Berberian premiered almost thirty new works by seventeen different composers and received the dedications of several more. Composers connected to her include: John Cage, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, Sylvano Bussotti, Henri Pousseur, Bruno Maderna, Bernard Rands, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and of course, Berio. Berberian's creative activities ranged widely and she participated many of the major postwar musical movements, including tape and electronic music, music theater, the baroque music revival, …

From Sanguo Zhi To Sanguo Zhi Yanyi: The Role Of Sun Quan And The Development Of The Three Kingdoms Historiography, Hyung-Jong Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

A Marginal Returns Theory Of Politics, Carlos Costa

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

A great deal of contemporary social science rests on a basic, ``primitive'', principle that rational agents are motivated by a quest for marginal returns to investment of time, money, and other resources. In this manuscript we argue that an analogue fundamental principle guides much of modern political science, but has remained largely This manuscript sets out to unearth, reshape and polish this principle into what we term a marginal return theory of politics. We then apply this theory to the study of electioneering in Latin America, focusing on two main elements of vote seeking: the returns of specific votes and …

Essays On Consumer Shopping Behavior And Price Dispersion, Aleksandr Yankelevich

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Essay 1: "Price-Matching in a Sequential Search Duopoly" While substantial research has tried to determine if price-matching guarantees are anti-competitive, most previous studies have overlooked the effect that these policies have on consumer search behavior. This essay examines how price-matching guarantees affect consumer behavior and prices in a model of sequential price search. By endogenizing consumers' acquisition of price information, I find that price-matching may raise prices in three new ways. First, price-matching diminishes firms' incentives to lower prices to attract consumers who have no cost of search. Second, for consumers with positive search costs, price-matching lowers the marginal benefit …

Coalitions And Incumbency Advantage In Mexico, Samuel Bonilla Licea

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Despite the multi-party feature of the federal electoral system in Mexico, local elections are essentially embedded in a bipartisan system. Literature has thus far assumed that democratic transitions will permeate from the national to the sub-national level. However, in Mexico, even a decade after the democratic transition occurred at the federal level, some states have lagged behind. Most of the work done on this topic, for the Mexican case, analyzes the problem at a macro level that ignores the dynamics of election at local districts, focusing mainly on the link between the federal congress and state governors. I argue that …

Calling Law A 'Profession' Only Confuses Thinking About The Challenges Lawyers Face, Thomas D. Morgan

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

It is appropriate to want lawyers to be mature, moral people and to help legal education reinforce those qualities. It is also appropriate to be sure students understand lawyers’ fiduciary responsibilities and the ways lawyers fall short of meeting them. It only confuses work on those issues, however, to call them part of teaching "professionalism." Law is not a "profession" as that term has traditionally been used. Calling law a profession does not help understanding the challenges lawyers face.

The Changing Face Of Legal Education: Its Impact On What It Means To Be A Lawyer, Thomas D. Morgan

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In recent years, it has become less clear what it means to be a lawyer. Current efforts by the ABA to change accreditation standards for U.S. law schools make it important to think about the ways in which lawyers have common qualities. This paper considers both the changes in law practice and what they are likely to mean for U.S. law schools as they try to equip lawyers for the new reality.

What Should We Do About Administrative Law Judge Disability Decisionmaking?, Richard J. Pierce Jr

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Social Security Advisory Board, the Congressional Budget Office, and independent researchers at MIT and the University of Maryland have concluded that the Social Security disability programs have become excessively generous and fiscally unsustainable. The percentage of the population that has been determined to be disabled has doubled, the cost of the programs has increased over four-fold, and the programs are predicted to have exhausted their funding sources by 2018. All of the studies attribute the looming crisis in this area in large measure to Social Security Administration (SSA) Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).

In this article, Professor Pierce argues that …

An Empirical Study Of Judicial Review Of Agency Interpretations Of Agency Rules, Richard J. Pierce Jr, Joshua A. Weiss

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this essay, Pierce and Weiss report the results of a study of judicial review of agency interpretations of agency rules. Prior studies found that, while courts at all levels uphold about 70% of agency actions, the Supreme Court upholds 91% of agency interpretations of agency rules. Pierce and Weiss find that lower courts do not confer this type of super deference on agency interpretations of agency rules. District courts and circuit courts uphold 76% of such agency actions. That is within the range of the findings of prior studies of judicial review of other types of agency actions and …

A Primer On Demand Response And A Critique Of Ferc Order 745, Richard J. Pierce Jr

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay is a contribution to the Second Annual Demand Response Conference sponsored by George Washington University and the law firm of Husch Blackwell. Demand response is a term that is used in debates about potential ways of reforming regulation of electricity to provide consumers with the proper incentives to conserve electricity. In this essay, Professor Pierce attempts to describe the basic economic and legal principles that are implicated in the debate in terms that make the debate more accessible to participants, policy makers, and the general public.

The Supreme Court’S Surprising And Strategic Response To The Civil Rights Act Of 1991, Michael Selmi

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay, which was prepared for a symposium issue in recognition of the twentieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, explores the Supreme Court’s response to the Congressional repudiation of its cases reflected in the 1991 Act. Relying on a positive political theory framework, I demonstrate that the Court appears to have responded in a strategically sophisticated manner designed to insulate their decisions from Congressional reversal. The 1991 Act reversed or modified eight Supreme Court decisions, and reflected concern regarding the conservative turn the Court had taken in discrimination cases. After the passage of the Act, plaintiffs have …

The Pii Problem: Privacy And A New Concept Of Personally Identifiable Information, Daniel J. Solove, Paul M. Schwartz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Personally identifiable information (PII) is one of the most central concepts in information privacy regulation. The scope of privacy laws typically turns on whether PII is involved. The basic assumption behind the applicable laws is that if PII is not involved, then there can be no privacy harm. At the same time, there is no uniform definition of PII in information privacy law. Moreover, computer science has shown that in many circumstances non-PII can be linked to individuals, and that de-identified data can be re-identified. PII and non-PII are thus not immutable categories, and there is a risk that information …

The Update, January/February 2011, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Humanities, Arts And Sciences.

Update

Inside this issue:

-- Popular NPR Show, From the Top, to tape a broadcast at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center
-- Department News
-- 2010-11 CHFA Major Grants Announced
-- Anderson Summer Geology Field Camp Fund
-- Marks of Process, a UNI Department of Art Alumni Exhibition
-- UNI Interpreters Theatre
-- University of Northern Iowa School of Music Concert Chorale
-- Center of Advanced Bio-Based Binders
-- Student Spotlight: Art: Alex Petersen
-- Student Spotlight: Biology: Benjamin Wohlers
-- WCF Symphony & School of Music Events
-- First Lego League
-- Sigma Gamma Epsilon
-- Forum: a Student Organization …

Product Safety And Security In The Global Supply Chain: Issues, Challenges And Research Opportunities, Ann Marucheck, Noel Greis, Carlos Mena, Linning Cai

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

number of high profile product safety events and recalls have heightened public attention to the safety and security of the products that people consume and use. While product safety isn’t a new topic, the effect of the global supply chain in creating or exacerbating safety risks and vulnerabilities is both timely and relevant. In this essay we focus on how the field of operations management can provide fresh perspectives and insights in addressing the challenges of product safety and security in the global supply chain. We first examine the product safety issues and challenges that arise in five industries that …

Iowa Film Premier

Postville Project Documents

A one-page informational sheet about the Iowa premiere Luis Argueta documentary film "AbUSed: The Postville Raid" at the University of Northern Iowa on Feb. 8, 2011.