Digital Commons Network^™

$100 Bills On The Sidewalk: Violations Of No-Arbitrage In 401(K) Accounts, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

We identify employees at seven companies whose 401(k) investment choices are dominated because they are contributing less than the employer matching contribution threshold despite being vested in their match and being able to make penalty-free 401(k) withdrawals for any reason because they are older than 59½. At the average firm, 36% of match-eligible employees over age 59½ forgo arbitrage profits that average 1.6% of their annual pay, or $507. A survey educating employees about the free lunch they are forgoing raised contribution rates by a statistically insignificant 0.67% of income among those completing the survey.

Dynamic Collaboration: Participant-Driven Agile Processes For Complex Tasks, Joel H. Helquist, Amit Deokar, Thomas Meservy, John Kruse

Faculty Publications

Groups and decision makers are increasingly running headlong into complexity as interconnections and interdependencies between individuals and organizations continue to grow, decision time horizons shrink and more work is being performed by distributed teams. These factors are driving up overall problem space complexity and limiting the effectiveness of time-tested decision and collaboration processes. Increases in problem space complexity lead to higher equivocality in collaborative processes and associated products. Electronic collaboration support tools and associated process management schemes have proven successful in many challenging contexts. However, current collaboration process management schemes and tools may not be able to effectively handle more …

Demystifying Schmitt, Eric A. Posner, Adrian Vermeule

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Don‘T Shoot: Police Privacy And Accountability In The Digital Age, Jory Canfield

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

This paper examines how technological developments in widely used recording devices and social networking sites have impacted scrutiny of police action. ―Police brutality‖ videos are becoming a popular trend on the internet, but various anti-wiretapping statutes have been interpreted to make such recordings illegal. Several case studies will be used, with a focus on Anthony Graber. Twelve states have strict anti-wiretapping statutes, three of which (Massachusetts, Illinois, and Oregon) are notably strict. This paper evaluates the constitutionality of these laws by looking to existing case law, as well as the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. In light …

From Borders To Neighborhoods: Explaining The Shift Toward State And Local Immigration Law Enforcement In The United States., Erika Cadena

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

Immigration law enforcement has historically been a federal responsibility. The 1996 enactment of section §287 (g) of the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act represented a major change, allowing state and local officers to be trained to perform the legal functions of immigration officers through Memorandums of Understanding (MOAs) with the federal government. Despite this change, few states utilized the MOA process until after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Following the attacks, there has been a steady increase in both the number of MOAs and other forms of local and state immigration enforcement (such as Arizona's SB …

Rompiendo Las Cadenas De Injusticia: El Caso Para Juzgar A Los Combatientes Enemigos Justamente, Alan R. Gray

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

In Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court held that individuals detained as enemy combatants at U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay (GTMO) during the War on Terror are constitutionally entitled to the writ of habeas corpus. In so finding, the Court failed to thoroughly investigate the nature of the United States‟ relationship with Cuba – an investigation that would have indicated that procedural due process also ought to be extended to those detained at the base. In this thesis, I review the legal battle over enemy combatants, evaluate the writ of habeas corpus as a remedy for unlawful detention, examine the …

Atrophy Or Progress? Evaluating The Evolution Of Environmental Policy By Comparing Large Scale Oil Spills In The United States, Nicole Henken

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

Many political theorists accept that focusing events effect the cycle of environmental policy change without agreeing on the specifics of how events impact the construction of legislation. Pessimistic theories (consisting of Down’s “Issue Attention Cycle” and Freudenburg’s “Atrophy of Vigilance”) and optimistic theories (including the “Punctuated Equilibrium Model” and Busenberg’s “Evolution of Vigilance Model”) offer opposing views of policy creation. As focusing events, the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spills together serve as effective cases for assessing and comparing the validity of pessimistic and optimistic policy change models. The analysis of each set of theories adds to the understanding …

What’S In A Name? Eu Foreign Policy Through The Fyrm, Cassidy Henry-Pearson

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

The European Union (EU) is a unique political/economic body in the world that has created a more integrated union of European states. Yet the structure of the EU remains under debate, as does the existence of the EU itself. Conflict about possible member states, such as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM) is especially contentious. By examining the FYRM‟s arduous process of gaining admission to the EU this thesis evaluates the effectiveness of the current EU foreign policy.

Plea Bargaining, Coercion, And Fairness, James R. Jimenez

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

The process of plea bargaining in the American legal system has long been criticized for being coercive. I use Robert Nozick’s criteria for coercion to show that plea bargaining is not inherently coercive. However, prosecutors can introduce coercion into the process, and the possibility of uneven introduction of coercion in offering pleas makes the system of plea bargaining unfair. However, that plea bargaining can be unfair and often coercive does not mean that it must be abolished. Although the current state of plea bargaining is not ideal and does result in unfairness for many, there does not seem to be …

Racializing The Queer: Racialized Bodies And The Construction Of Gay And Lesbian Identities, Andy López

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

The contemporary Gay and Lesbian movement emphasizes “identity” in an effort to unify all people being marginalized based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. However, such an “identity” falls short of inclusion of all people of color, and becomes a tool for the oppression of those who do not fall within the contexts already defined. This paper will highlight parallels between the construction of racialized sexuality and the construction of “gay” and “lesbian” identities. Moreover, I will examine the ways in which Race Studies and Gay & Lesbian Studies are entangled in the context of American culture, particularly with …

The Case Of The Finals Tree: How Constitutional Issues Can Be Resolved Outside Of The Courtroom, Alicia Lopiccolo

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

In December of 2005, members of the Harriet Wilkes Honors College voiced objections over the erection of a Finals Tree, a faculty and staff endorsed pine tree that held various snacks for students during finals weeks. In an email, the tree was accidentally called a Christmas tree, which it did resemble. One faculty who objected deemed the tree unconstitutional because he felt the university was endorsing a particular religion and was acting unethically. I examine the history of the Finals tree tradition, evaluate its constitutionality according to Supreme Court precedent, and examine whether its display violates the rights of those …

Implementing Brown V. Board: An Evaluation Of The Success Of Desegregation At Suncoast High School, Travis Moore

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

In 1954 a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that maintaining separate schools for white and black students was inherently unequal. Following the decision, school boards across the nation struggled to determine what desegregation meant for their schools. This research focuses on the history of desegregation at Suncoast High School, in Riviera Beach, FL, paying specific attention to the respective goals of the various stakeholders. The goals are discerned by drawing on official documents, newspaper articles and interviews. After weighing the goals of each stakeholder against the current state of desegregation at Suncoast I argue that only some goals have been met. …

The Death Of Privacy: An Empirical Analysis Of Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence, Wesley Mathieu

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

Privacy as a legal concept affects every single American citizen whether they know it or not. Justice Harlan's concurrence in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 defined an expectation of privacy as one that society must recognize as objectively reasonable. The court has used this doctrine to establish different privacy tests for different situations, yet has never empirically determined whether its decisions accurately reflect society's view of what is 'reasonable.' To that end, this paper will examine the philosophical and historical origins of the right to privacy, and well as its development by the Supreme Court to its current …

Ethnosexual Frontiers: Where Art Meets Race Within International Politics, Renata Rodriguez-Bozzetto

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

Since the economic crisis from 2007, an extensive debate matching unemployment and immigration has been central to conservative discourses. Although progressive organizations have been critical of the SB1070 law in Arizona for its pervasive racial profiling content, some individuals seem to ignore the strong history of legislation, cultural apparatus and social norms that were made to support white supremacy within the history of United States. As immigration comes to the American debate, various politics adopted by the United States towards South American countries have been ignored. My objective with this research is to take a closer look at the artistic …

Lysander Spooner, Lifestyle Anarchism, And Jury Nullification, Ed Skrod

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

Individual anarchism, a social movement of the early nineteenth century, was founded on the principles of self-sovereignty and individualism. One such anarchist, Lysander Spooner, argues in “Vices are not Crimes” that vices should not be criminalized by the State. To do so, “deprive*s+ every man of his… liberty to pursue his own happiness.”1 I argue that Spooner’s essay lays the foundation for “lifestyle anarchism,” the doctrine that all the affairs of human beings within the domain of their lifestyle choices (provided they do not harm the person or property of another), should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations. One …

Three Assassins: Women, Revolution And Violence In Modern World History, Ashleah Zigmond

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2010 - 2019

This thesis examines three women who committed the unprecedented crime of attempting to assassinate a key male figure in three separate times and places. It involves the government’s and society’s reaction and implications about the role of gender in the violent deeds transforming society at times of revolutionary upheaval. The women examined are Charlotte Corday from eighteenth century France, Vera Zasulich from nineteenth century Russia, and Shi Jianqiao from twentieth century China. These women shared numerous qualities that, when combined, provided the women with the ability to see themselves as equals in the patriarchal societies in which they lived, allowing …

2010-2011 Annual Report, Graduate And Professional Student Association

GPSA Documents

The GPSA has been the recognized Graduate and Professional Student Government at the University of New Mexico since 1969. We strive to represent students on issues ranging from research grants to health insurance to academic freedom. GPSA stays involved on campus by sending representatives to numerous university boards, university and faculty senate committees, and the UNM Board of Regents. GPSA actively lobbies the New Mexico State Legislature for graduate and professional student interests. We also try to meet individual student needs, whether by providing access to our computer lab in SUB 1021, or by funding student research or travel through …

States And Networks In The Formation Of International Law, Moria Paz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Internal Revenue Code And Latino Realities: A Critical Perspective, Leo P. Martinez, Jennifer M. Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Petrobras: The Unique Structure Behind Latin America's Best Performing Oil Company, Genaro Arriagada, Chris Cote

Latin American Energy Dialogue, White Papers and Reports

This article details the success of Petrobras, the national oil and gas company of Brazil. In particular, it discusses how the company was formed and how it currently operates as both a government corporation and a dividend-paying private company.

Neutrosophic Interpretation Of Tao Te Ching, Florentin Smarandache, Fu Yuhua

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The purpose of this book is to extend the foundation and application range of 'Tao Te Ching'. The reasons for this are as follows. Firstly, we are willing to point out that 'Tao Te Ching' already has some limitation, because many questions we are interested in cannot be answered within 'Tao Te Ching'. For example, 'Tao Te Ching' basically discussed the matters in China, however considering all possible situations it should matter in foreign countries as well, i.e. the “global village”. This was impossible in Lao Tzu’s time. Secondly, if the original “Tao Te Ching” is regarded as “Positive Tao …

Uniform And Partially Uniform Redistribution Rules, Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper introduces two new fusion rules for combining quantitative basic belief assignments. These rules although very simple have not been proposed in literature so far and could serve as useful alternatives because of their low computation cost with respect to the recent advanced Proportional Conflict Redistribution rules developed in the DSmT framework.

Resolving Ambiguous Behavioral Intentions By Means Of Involuntary Prioritization Of Gaze Processing., Matthew Hudson, Tjeerd Jellema

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Development Of Lower Cost Imaging Systems For Laser Metal Deposition Process, Shyam Barua

Masters Theses

"Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) has been used as an additive manufacturing process in industries such as aerospace and die castings. LMD is especially useful in repair applications involving die repair. However, it is still not used widely in industry due to variations in the quality of parts. There are multiple interactions between various factors which influence the quality of deposit.

There exists a need for defect detection systems to detect any changes in the deposition quality during deposition. On demand detection enables adjustment in process parameters and minimization of rework cost.

Vision systems have been used extensively in the industry …

Thermomechanics Of Curves In Space, Pavan Krishna Kanchi

Masters Theses

"Several biological molecules are known to form helices and coiled structures, such as DNA, collagen, bacterial flagella, and proteins. The backbones of such molecules may be modeled as a curve in three dimensions. A variational problem for the functional of the total free energy required to perturb moving curves in space is considered. The total energy of a curve in three dimensions is minimized y with a general intensive energy, which is a function of position, and the invariants, curvature and torsion. Three types of moduli are identified: stretching, bending and torsional moduli. As a result, three independent force balances …

Optimal Control Of A Helicopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav), David John Nodland

Masters Theses

"This thesis addresses optimal control of a helicopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Helicopter UAVs may be widely used for both military and civilian operations. Because these helicopters are underactuated nonlinear mechanical systems, high-performance controller design for them presents a challenge. This thesis presents an optimal controller design via both state and output feedback for trajectory tracking of a helicopter UAV using a neural network (NN). The state and output-feedback control system utilizes the backstepping methodology, employing kinematic and dynamic controllers while the output feedback approach uses an observer in addition to these controllers. The online approximator-based dynamic controller learns the …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Data For Lithological Mapping In Arid Regions: A Quantitative Approach With Examples From The Makkah Neoproterozoic Region, Saudi Arabia, Nawwaf Awad Al Muntshry

Masters Theses

"This work quantitatively evaluates the effectiveness of multi-spectral remote sensing data for geological mapping in arid regions. For this, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data covering part of the Neoproterozoic Arabian Shield around the Makkah region in Saudi Arabia are used. The Makkah region is dominated by a variety of layered and intrusive rocks covered by unconsolidated sediments. The Landsat TM data have six spectral bands in the visible and near infrared (VNIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) with thirty meters spatial resolution.

The Optimum Index Factor (OIF) has been computed to determine the best Red-Green-Blue (RGB) band combination emerging from the …

The Price Of The Ottoman Failure, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The question of the implications of secularization for Christian communities in today’s Middle East is a difficult one, both because the extent of contemporary secularization in the region is contested, and because the term itself has so many different meanings. Nonetheless, a preliminary consideration imposes itself. Whatever else it means, secularization means legal equality for religious minorities, including Christians. Formal equality often exists in the Middle East today. Yet legal restrictions – apostasy prosecutions, limitations on clergy and churches, and so on – continue to pose real threats to Christians. Moreover, as Abdullahi An-Na‘im notes, ‘tension with the traditional …

Teacher Cell Phone Searches In Light Of Ontario V. Quon, Joseph O. Oluwole

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Technological innovations permeate almost every inch of society. From the government and corporate workforce to family and social settings, technology seemingly knows no boundaries. Technology’s limitless reach has even crossed into the realm of public schools, where, according to teacher Lyn Newton, “[s]chool principals are witnessing more and more cell phone use by their teachers.” Teachers, like other cell phone users, use cell phones not only for making phone calls, but also for taking pictures and texting, which has landed some teachers in trouble for inappropriate communications. Indeed, the sexting wave has not eluded teachers.

Spilling Secrets: Trade Secret Disclosure And Takings In Offshore Drilling Regulation, Michael A. Greene

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

This Article will explore whether the law may require the disclosure of adequate proprietary information to enable effective regulation. Part II will discuss the settled law regarding the property status of trade secrets, the regulatory takings doctrine, the applicability of the Takings Clause of the United States Constitution to proprietary data, and the exactions doctrine. Part III will explore the validity of the mandatory submission of proprietary health, safety, and environmental data to government regulators, with the guarantee that such data will be kept secret from competitors and the public. Part IV will then explore the validity of regulation mandating …