Digital Commons Network^™

Code Vs. Code: Nationalist And Internationalist Images Of The Code Civil In The French Resistance To A European Codification, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

French academics reacted to announcements about a possible future European civil code ten years ago in the way in which Americans reacted to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 1940: first with shock, then with rearmament, finally with attempted counterattacks. Military metaphors abound. Yet the defense of the French Code Civil against a European civil code is tricky: they must defend one Code against another. The images drawn of codes are therefore of particular interest for our understanding both of civil codes and of legal nationalism. Often, two mutually exclusive images are presented at the same time. In cultural terms, …

Effects Of Message Interactivity Upon Relational Maintenance Strategy In Digital Communications Between Organizations And The Public, Zhan-Qing Liu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital communication between organizations and the public is strategically important in shaping mutual understanding and long term relationship. The primary focus of this project was to investigate the relationship between message interactivity and relational maintenance strategy in the email communication process on organization websites. At issue is to what extent message interactivity and relational maintenance strategy is purposefully incorporated in email responses to public inquiries and consequently, to what extent such interactivity is potentially related to the quality of communication in terms of relationship maintenance. An experimental approach was used to exchange emails with randomly selected 2011 Fortune 500 companies …

Internationalising Chinese Maritime Higher Education: Developing Content And English Language Integrated Teaching And Learning, Robyn Morgan Pyne

Plymouth Business School Theses

This thesis examines how new maritime nations, which are engaged in the export of seafaring labour, need to respond to the demands of the international maritime industry. In particular, traditional maritime nations are calling for greater internationalisation of maritime education and training. The global labour market for seafarers, which is dominated by employers from traditional maritime nations, demands internationally minded graduates. China’s response to these demands for quality labour exports from new maritime nations is the subject of exploration in this thesis. Within the specific context of Maritime English teaching and learning, a significant opportunity for innovation and change is …

Resources And Instructional Strategies Effective Middle School Science Teachers Use To Improve Content Area Reading Skills, Melanie S. Beaver

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the resources and instructional strategies effective middle school science teachers use to improve content area reading skills. Reading instruction in the middle school years should follow the natural cognitive progression that occurs in the adolescent brain from learning to read to reading to learn. Scientific reading is a different type of reading than most middle school students are accustomed to. It is important to understand that students will continue to be expected to read non-fiction critically for success in the 21st century. Effective teachers know this, and they perceive themselves as teachers of reading regardless of the …

The Internationalization Of Chinese Firms: A Critical Review And Future Research*, Ping Deng

Business Faculty Publications

The important phenomenon that the internationalization of Chinese firms (ICF) represents has attracted increasing interest from scholars from multiple fields over the past 20 years (1991–2010). Although this proliferation of research has the potential to significantly improve understanding of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs), the necessary step of consolidating and integrating extant knowledge is absent. This paper reviews the scholarship on the ICF and offers insights into the specific areas in critical need of further development. By focusing on articles published in major scholarly journals during the period 1991–2010, the authors develop a coherent framework to organize and review conceptual and …

Kigyo No Shakai-Teki Sekinin: Challenges For Corporate Social Responsibility In Japan, Janis P. Sarra, Masafumi Nakahigashi

All Faculty Publications

Globally, there is increasing discussion about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Many large multinational enterprises, particularly in mining and other resource sectors, have voluntarily adopted CSR programs, having concluded that social, economic, and environmental sustainability measures are good for the "bottom line" and fro the communities in which they operate. Companies in Japan have yet to move in that direction, although there are a few notable exceptions. In part, this lack of adaptation to the growing interest in CSR internationally is due to cultural and social norms in Japan that suggest that many aspects of CSR properly belong to the domain …

The Basics Of Species At Risk Legislation In Alberta, Shaun Fluker, Jocelyn Stacey

All Faculty Publications

This article examines Alberta's Wildlife Act and the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) to assess the legal protection of endangered species in Alberta. Most of the discussion related to provisions contained in SARA, as there is comparatively less to discuss under the Wildlife Act. The fact that legal protection for endangered species in Alberta consists primarily of federal statutory rules is unfortunate, as wildlife and its habitat are by and large property of the provincial Crown, and it is a general principle of constitutional law that the federal government cannot in substance legislate over provincial property under the guise …

A Pragmatic Critique Of Corporate Criminal Theory: Lessons From The Extremity, James G. Stewart

All Faculty Publications

Corporate criminal liability is a controversial beast. To a large extent, the controversies surround three core questions: first, whether there is a basic conceptual justification for using a system of criminal justice constructed for individuals against inanimate entities like corporations; second, what value corporate criminal liability could have given co-existent possibilities of civil redress against them; and third, whether corporate criminal liability has any added value over and above individual criminal responsibility of corporate officers. In this paper, I use examples from the frontiers of international criminal justice to criticize all sides of these debates. In particular, I harness the …

Overdetermined Atrocities, James G. Stewart

All Faculty Publications

An event is overdetermined if there are multiple sufficient causes for its occurrence. A firing squad is a classic illustration. If eight soldiers are convened to execute a prisoner, they can all walk away afterwards in the moral comfort that “I didn’t really make a difference; it would have happened without me.” The difficulty is, if we are only responsible for making a difference to harm occurring in the world, none of the soldiers is responsible for the death — none made, either directly or through others, an essential contribution to its occurrence. In many respects, this dilemma is the …

Television, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

China In Africa: What The Policy Of Nonintervention Adds To The Western Development Dilemma, Madison Condon

Faculty Scholarship

Chinese investment activity in Africa has skyrocketed in recent years, outpacing every other nation except South Africa. China finances more infrastructure projects in Africa than the World Bank and provides billions of dollars in low-interest loans to the continent’s emerging economies. These loans and investments are typically made in exchange for securing access to natural resources. Based on its principles of nonintervention and respect for sovereignty, China gives this money with little or no strings attached. The West, which typically conditions its loans on initiatives like democracy promotion and corruption reduction, has labeled China a “rogue donor,” whose actions will …

The Failure Of Investor Protection By Disclosure, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

This Article deals with the issue of investor protection by disclosure. It discusses the evolution of disclosure in the financial area during the past thirty years, the role of disclosure in the regulation of intermediaries, and the current strong disagreements concerning the Dodd-Frank Act's mandate applicable to market brokers. The Article notes the role of disclosure in the restructured financial intermediation system, its failure to protect investors, and concludes with suggestions to partially correct the failure and restore the rationale for effective disclosure. Disclosure should apply to the risks posed by the intermediaries rather than to the dangers and risks …

Taking Stock Ten Years In: Coin, Casualties, And Costs In The Long War — An Introduction, Robert D. Sloane

Faculty Scholarship

On October 7, 2001, almost exactly a decade prior to the date of the conference from which the following symposium contributions derive, former President George W. Bush ordered airstrikes on Kabul and Kandahar,' inaugurating hostilities in what has become the longest war in U.S. history. By early December 2001, the Taliban had lost effective control over any significant part of Afghanistan's territory and with it any plausible claim to represent Afghanistan's government under traditional principles of international law.2 President Bush formally declared victory on June 15, 2004, during a speech in which he praised Afghanistan's interim leader and now President …

Is Strict Criminal Liability In The Grading Of Offenses Consistent With Retributive Desert?, Kenneth Simons

Faculty Scholarship

Notwithstanding the demands of retributive desert, strict criminal liability is sometimes defensible when the strict liability pertains, not to whether conduct is to be criminalized at all, but to the seriousness of the actor’s crime. Suppose an actor commits an intentional assault or rape, and accidentally brings about a death. Punishing the actor more seriously because the death resulted is sometimes justifiable, even absent proof of his independent culpability as to the death. But what punishment is proportionate for such an actor? Should he be punished as harshly as an intentional or knowing killer?

The Politics Of Class Action Arbitration: Jurisdictional Legitimacy And Vindication Of Contract Rights, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Exactly one year apart, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases on “class arbitration” proceedings, one about international shipping and the other on consumer purchases of mobile telephones. Each decision inflicted damage on a claimant’s right to invoke collective action in arbitrations. Read together, the opinions serve as a prism through which to refract key elements in an increasingly politicized debate on the legal framework for arbitration, particularly within the United States.

A Teaching Practice Review Of The Use Of Multiple-Choice Questions For Formative And Summative Assessment Of Student Work On Advanced Undergraduate And Postgraduate Modules In Engineering, Aidan O'Dwyer

Articles

This paper reflects on, reports on and evaluates the use of multiple-choice questions, in both formative and summative assessment modes, on control engineering modules taken by advanced undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students, over four academic years. The material covered by the modules is analytical in nature. The rationale for examining the assessment strategy was the poor performance by students in a closed book traditional terminal examination on one of the advanced undergraduate modules over some years. The change in assessment strategy has improved student learning, as measured by assessment data; student feedback on the assessment methods is broadly positive. The …

Riot Control Agents And Chemical Weapons Arms Control In The United States, Sean P. Giovanello

Journal of Strategic Security

This article examines the issue of riot control agents as it relates to the subject of chemical weapons arms control at the international level and, more specifically, implications for the United States. The article examines how the issue of riot control agents has complicated efforts for the United States to enter into and ratify chemical weapons-related arms control agreements. The article provides an overview of chemical weapons, examines the relevant arms control agreements, explores why and how riot control agents influence debates over the merits of these treaties, and explains why riot control agents remain a contentious issue in chemical …

The Libyan Model And Strategy: Why It Won't Work In Syria, Lance Kildron

Journal of Strategic Security

Operation Unified Protector (Libya, 2011) is the latest example of how a limited-means military intervention in a humanitarian crisis can stop the murder of innocent civilians. Proponents of intervention in the name of "responsibility to protect" (R2P) have stated that the air campaign strategy used in Libya could be the model for future U.S. military engagement overseas. This begs the question of when the United States should insert itself militarily into a humanitarian crisis. For instance, Syria is a potential candidate for military intervention. The following article takes the reasons for military intervention in Libya, as explained by President Obama …

Framework For Analyzing The Future Threat Of Wmd Terrorism, James J.F. Forest

Journal of Strategic Security

This article examines theories of practical and strategic constraints that collectively explain why so few terrorist groups in history have crossed (or attempted to cross) the WMD threshold. From this analysis, it becomes clear that a terrorist group's deliberations about WMD can be influenced (positively or negatively) by a variety of factors. Our projections of the future WMD terrorism threat must therefore account for changes in the kinds of practical and strategic constraints that could lead to an increased willingness and/or capability of a group to pursue these kinds of weapons. Further, there are ways in which governments can influence …

Forecasting Terrorism: The Need For A More Systematic Approach, Edwin Bakker

Journal of Strategic Security

This article analyzes a unique branch of terrorism literature—terrorism futures—by academics, think tanks, and governmental agencies published between 2000 and 2012. To this end, it examines over sixty publications that attempt to discern possible futures of terrorism. In general, the track record of forecasting terrorism has not been good. This is particularly true for major changes in the modus operandi of terrorism, the attacks on 9/11 being a case in point. The analyses of the future of terrorism shows an absence of methodologies, and the lack of theoretical foundations, which lead to limited insights about the causes of changes in …

A Primer Of Middle Eastern Leadership Culture, Sheldon Greaves

Journal of Strategic Security

It is natural for someone looking in on a foreign culture from the outside to interpret what they see and frame their reactions based on their own background and assumptions. With cultures as a different as those of the Middle East and the West, the potential for blunders increases dramatically, made worse by the high political, diplomatic, military, and commercial stakes involved. Leadership culture in this region has been shaped over centuries through a variety of factors, such as reputation, family, and religion, which continue to influence decision making. The present study posits that an understanding of these factors and …

Managing The Insider Threat: No Dark Corners. By Nick Catranzos. Boca Raton, Fl.: Crc Press, 2012., Mark J. Roberts

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Heaven On Earth. A Journal Through Shari'a Law From The Deserts Of Ancient Arabia To The Streets Of The Modern Muslim World. By Sadakat Kadri. New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Strauss And Giroux, 2012., Sheldon Greaves

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

In Their Own Words? Methodological Considerations In The Analysis Of Terrorist Autobiographies, Mary Beth Altier, John Horgan, Christian Thoroughgood

Journal of Strategic Security

Despite the growth of terrorism literature in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, there remain several methodological challenges to studying certain aspects of terrorism. This is perhaps most evident in attempts to uncover the attitudes, motivations, and intentions of individuals engaged in violent extremism and how they are sometimes expressed in problematic behavior. Such challenges invariably stem from the fact that terrorists and the organizations to which they belong represent clandestine populations engaged in illegal activity. Unsurprisingly, these qualities make it difficult for the researcher to identify and locate willing subjects of study—let alone a representative sample. In this research …

Exploiting Seams And Closing Gaps: Lessons From Mumbai And Beyond, Andrea Dew

Journal of Strategic Security

This article analyzes a single event—the 2008 Mumbai attacks—in order to consider the strategic and operational lessons for dealing with other armed groups. How and why was Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) able to carry out such a sophisticated attack in the heart of Mumbai? And what lessons does Mumbai hold for strategists seeking to counter other armed groups around the world? While tactical level lessons from Mumbai have been well documented, it is important to also consider what the Mumbai attacks tell us at the strategic and operational levels. Specifically, the Mumbai attacks provide valuable insight into how armed groups use the …

Effect Of Two-Way Communication On Parental Involvement And Third-Grade Achievement In Mathematics, Diana Elysee

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which implementing a collaborative effort using 2-way communication increased parent involvement, impacted parental roles, and helped students improve their performance in mathematics. This parental-involvement intervention was implemented in response to low parental involvement at the school site and low mathematics achievement of students.

Eighteen parents of 3rd-grade students were invited to participate in the study, and only 5 participated. Data were collected from individual interviews with parents to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Focus groups were conducted with parents using a protocol to collect data about the parents’ …

Program Evaluation Of A Dropout-Prevention Academy, Kendra W. Harvin Green

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation study evaluated a dropout-prevention program in a South Carolina school district. The dropout problem was identified by school and district administrators and discussed at county board meetings among community members, faculty, and parents of children attending school in the district. A dropout-prevention program was implemented 3 years prior but, had never been evaluated.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Dropout-Prevention Academy program. The study determined how the program design matched effective dropout-prevention programs described in the literature; stakeholders’ (e.g., teachers, administrators, and parents) perceptions of the program; and any changes that occurred in student …

Dynamic Decision Making Under Uncertainty In Renewable Energy Portfolio Management And Inventory Management, Jianjun Deng

Doctoral Dissertations

"It is challenging and important for a firm to make effective decisions under uncertainties, such as random fluctuations of products prices or demands, etc. This dissertation formulates mathematic models to help decision makers in energy and retail industries make optimal timing and optimal operational decisions when facing uncertain electricity prices and demands. As for energy portfolio management, the optimal entry and dispatch strategies are investigated for an electricity generating firm to introduce a renewable power plant as an alternative method for generating electricity, with or without construction delay. In addition, the abandonment strategies of considering shutting down one of the …

A Monte Carlo Study Of The Scaling Of Nucleation Rates In A Lennard-Jones System, Mark Allan Thomason

Doctoral Dissertations

Temperature scaling of the homogenous vapor-to-liquid nucleation rate, J, is examined in a model Lennard-Jones (LJ) system. The model uses the Bennett Metropolis Monte Carlo technique to determine small cluster growth/decay rate constant ratios ß_n-1|α_n at four temperatures (T = 40, 50, 60, and 83.6K) below the argon Lennard-Jones critical temperature, T_c. The ß_n-1|α_n for clusters ranging in size from n = 2 to n = 192 LJ particles are applied to a kinetic steady-state nucleation rate formalism and nucleation rates are determined at the same four temperatures. When these rates are …

Characterization Of Expanded Polystyrene (Eps) And Cohesive Soil Mixtures, Nicholas Thomas Rocco

Doctoral Dissertations

"Soils modified with expanded polystyrene (EPS) particulates could be used as lightweight fill in a variety of installations including slopes for improved stability, embankments over compressible soils, and to reduce earth pressures next to structures. The addition of low density EPS particulates into soil has a large effect on the mass and volumetric characteristics of these mixtures and their influence on mechanical properties is scarce in the literature. A laboratory characterization program using clay mixed with EPS particulates was conducted for different dosages of EPS. Soils were modified with up to 1.5% EPS by mass, which corresponds to approximately 45% …