Digital Commons Network^™

Is Wikileaks A Hit Man Handbook: Why Wikileaks Cannot Claim First Amendment Immunity If The Afghan And Iraq War Logs Cause Physical Harm, Rachel Wolbers

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

No abstract provided.

Making Boundaries And Linking Globally: “Material Politics” Of Phytosanitary Regulation On Mexican Mangos, Kiyohiko Sakamoto

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This dissertation illuminates how phytosanitary (PS) regulations enable mango exportation from Mexico to the United States. PS regulations are technical and legal measures to prevent plant pests from proliferating or being transported to other places and are important regulatory mechanisms enabling the globalization of agriculture. My case study investigates how PS regulations enable Mexican mango exportation as an aspect of the globalization of agriculture, illustrating the consequences of PS regulations to humans and non-humans. More specifically, three research questions are posed: (1) How does the PS regulation network operate to draw distinctions between pest/non-pest, thereby enabling the export of Mexican …

Fls 4645b : Topics In Hispanic Culture, Foreign Languages

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

The Efficacy Of Inquiry-Based Learning In Undergraduate Physiology, James Depaepe, Tracy Campion

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Lecture, where learning is passive, remains a prevalent instructional method of teaching content. Contextualized approaches like Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) where students are more actively engaged remains less common. For 25 years the literature has supported contextualized approaches. Nevertheless, recent papers have claimed IBL to be an unguided approach that has produced content knowledge deficits. Therefore, we tested whether undergraduate physiology content could be learned using IBL. Four groups of undergraduates (mean ages=23, N=60) took a ten-week physiology course using IBL. A content valid pretest and posttest measured content knowledge. A one-way ANOVA indicated no significant differences within or between groups …

The Perils And Promise Of Personalized Learning, Allyson Fleming

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

In this article I explore the concept of personalized learning, a relatively new concept being promoted by the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Education as the “new” approach to effective learning through the lens of a practicing professional. I begin by tracing my own emerging understanding of personalized learning as a discourse in BC education and then follow this with a discussion about the dominance of neoliberalism as an ideological frame for thinking about education and schooling. In particular, I consider how the role of the teacher shifts from professional to functionary, and how this shift is reified through two …

The Effects Of Chinese Petroleum Diplomacy On Us Energy Policy Objectives In Nigeria (1993-2010), Jennifer Lynn Leapley

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The United States and China have turned to Africa as an additional source of oil to ensure reliable, secure access to oil supplies in the future. While China stresses noninterventionist foreign policies, the US, at least rhetorically, if not in practice, links its energy policy in Africa to its foreign policy goals. China's petroleum diplomacy in Africa has raised concern among some scholars and policymakers about the effect an increased Chinese economic presence will have on American foreign policy objectives.

The question arises: What impact has Chinese petroleum diplomacy had on US foreign policy objectives? More specifically, how strongly, if …

Linked Open Data Alignment & Querying, Prateek Jain

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The recent emergence of the "Linked Data" approach for publishing data represents a major step forward in realizing the original vision of a web that can "understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content" i.e. the Semantic Web. This new approach has resulted in the Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud, which includes more than 295 large datasets contributed by experts belonging to diverse communities such as geography, entertainment, and life sciences. However, the current interlinks between datasets in the LOD Cloud, as we will illustrate,are too shallow to realize much of the benefits promised. …

Among-Locus Heterogeneity In Genetic Diversity And Divergence In Two Pairs Of Duck Species (Genus: Anas), Kirandeep K. Dhami

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Genetic diversity and divergence at a locus are the result of interactions among the fundamental evolutionary forces of mutation, genetic drift, gene flow and natural selection. Variation in the strength of these forces can cause high heterogeneity in diversity and divergence across the genome. The overall objective of this thesis was to examine the role of population history vs. selection in generating heterogeneity in genetic diversity and differentiation. In Chapter 1, I examine the role of dispersal behavior in causing genetic differentiation and population structure within and between two morphologically distinct Australian duck species that differ in ecology and life …

Challenging Rust: Race And Rightsizing In Detroit, An American Post-Industrial Context, Andrienne Palchick

Geography Honors Projects

Cities in the American Rustbelt face the considerable challenges of depopulation and economic decline, but they are also increasingly viewed as places ripe with opportunities for innovation and an exciting re-imagination of urban space. This paper examines the Detroit Works Project, a re-envisioning and revitalization initiative in Detroit, to explore larger questions of accessibility and inclusion in U.S. post-industrial cities. It is an investigation of how to structure these revitalization efforts within cities where networks of actors, who invested in urban industrial growth, created policies which built the geographies of unequal access, racial segregation, and systemic marginalization that persist today.

Continental-Scale Validation Of Modis-Based And Ledaps Landsat Etm+ Atmospheric Correction Methods, Junchang Ju, David P. Roy, Eric Vermote, Jeffrey Masek, Valeriy Kovalskyy

United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Publications

The potential of Landsat data processing to provide systematic continental scale products has been demonstrated by several projects including the NASA Web-enabled Landsat Data (WELD) project. The recent free availability of Landsat data increases the need for robust and efficient atmospheric correction algorithms applicable to large volume Landsat data sets. This paper compares the accuracy of two Landsat atmospheric correction methods: a MODIS-based method and the Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) method. Both methods are based on the 6SV radiative transfer code but have different atmospheric characterization approaches. The MODIS-based method uses the MODIS Terra derived dynamic aerosol …

Hydraulic Conductivity Of The High Plains Aquifer Re-Evaluated Using Surface Drainage Patterns, Wei Luo, Darryll T. Pederson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The High Plains Aquifer (HPA), underlying parts of 8 states from South Dakota to Texas, is one of the largest fresh water aquifers in the world and accounts for 30% of the groundwater used for irrigation in the US. Determining the distribution of HPA’s hydraulic conductivity (K) is critical for water management and addressing water quality issues. K is traditionally estimated from well pumping data coupled with computer modeling and is known to be highly variable, spanning several orders of magnitude for the same type of rock. Here we show that applying our innovative method of determining effective …

Radical Reform Of Intercollegiate Athletics: Antitrust And Public Policy Implications, Stephen F. Ross

Faculty Scholarship

Universities operating major intercollegiate athletic programs are heading for, if not already in, a crisis. Corruption continues to affect major football and basketball programs, exacerbated by a failure of imagination and will in identifying and deterring corruption, and by a lack of consensus on what constitutes "corruption" when football and men's basketball stars generate millions of dollars but cannot enjoy a lifestyle commensurate with many peer students. Current levels of spending are nonsustainable at many schools. Even where intercollegiate athletic programs are sustained primarily by football and basketball revenues, otherwise visionary and questioning college presidents have yet to publicly question …

Precious Knowledge: State Bans On Ethnic Studies, Book Traffickers (Librotraficantes), And A New Type Of Race Trial Race Trials, Richard Delgado

Articles

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment's Epistemological Problem Symposium: The First Amendment In The Modern Age: Essay, Paul Horwitz

Essays, Reviews, and Shorter Works

No abstract provided.

Ngo-State Relations: Freedom House Status And Cooperation Versus Conflict, Jacquelyn Ann Schroeder

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Based on previous academic literature, relationships between non-governmental organizations and governments are categorized as being either generally cooperative or generally conflictual, and vary state to state. Considering an assumption that more freedom afforded to a state provides space in society for a more vibrant third sector, it seems intuitive that states with more freedom will experience more cooperative relationships with the NGO sector than states with less. However, six case studies illustrate that this may not always be a correct assumption. To test this hypothesis, Freedom House statuses between 1991 and 2011 are averaged to provide an overall status of …

How The City State Fares Under State Capitalism In The Prc: Local And State-Wide Reform, Alex Gregory Elkins

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

How do national political and economic policies impact the ability of cities to accomplish urban growth and economic goals? This study examines the state policies Shanghai operates under to assess the potential for software reform in China. Specifically, this study examines software by drawing on the corruption and rule of law theories of Larry Diamond and Randall Perrenboom. This study also uses Richard Florida's creative class theory to examine tolerance of lesbians and gay men in Shanghai and its impact on the city's priority industries. Additionally, this study examines Shanghai's placement on the 2008, 2010, and 2012 Global Cities Index …

Aspects Of Adaptation In The Egyptian Singing Film, Margaret Jean Farrell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores aspects of adaptation in the Egyptian singing film in the period from 1932 to 1962. The primary types of adaptation examined are those that are evident in the stories the films told, the ways in which the songs functioned within the stories, and the music for which these films formed the setting. Research was conducted through the viewing of over sixty Egyptian films as well as time spent in Cairo to study Arabic language and music, and to collect primary sources in the form of films, press books, books, and periodicals.

The goal of this study is …

Teaching About Big Money In Elections: To Amend Or Not To Amend The U.S. Constitution?, Brett L.M. Levy, James M. M. Hartwick

Educational Theory and Practice Faculty Scholarship

This article provides an overview of major campaign finance laws in the United States and then describes an engaging method for preparing students to discuss these laws and related issues. The authors suggest that educators first frame the issue by presenting background information about recent developments in campaign finance laws and innovative efforts to change them. After that, they recommend that educators introduce a guiding question about whether or not a constitutional amendment designed to limit political campaign contributions should be ratified. Students can then consider their own answers to this question by exploring a variety of pre-selected documents (listed …

Region Codes And Human Rights, Molly Land

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Brown Abroad: An Empirical Analysis Of Foreign Judicial Citation And The Metaphor Of Cosmopolitan Conversation, Sheldon B. Lyke

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article generates a data set (twelve courts and thirty-two decisions) of foreign judicial citations to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The purpose of this Article is to learn what happens when a case is deterritorialized and reconstituted in a different national scenario, and to conceptualize how courts around the world use foreign authority. My analysis reveals that few foreign courts used Brown in decisions involving education or race and ethnicity. Foreign courts used the case as a form of factual evidence, as a guide in understanding the proper role of a court …

Law And Development As Anti-Comparative Law, Jedidiah Kroncke

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article asserts that during the twentieth century, American law has predominantly structured its relationship to foreign legal experience through a set of ideas and practices known as "law and development," which is irredeemably antithetical to the practice of comparative law. Centrally, law and development is built on the assumption that American law can be exported abroad to catalyze foreign legal development. The dismal record of such efforts has remained paradoxically popular while the field remains locked in repeating cycles of failure and optimism.

This Article demonstrates that the history of law and development's failures is far older than has …

Imagining The Homeland From Afar: Community And Peoplehood In The Age Of The Diaspora, Adeno Addis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Diasporas--understood as groups of individuals or communities who carry an image of a homeland that is separate from the host land in which they reside--have always been with us. As long as there have been large movements of people across boundaries, be it voluntary or involuntary, there have been diasporas. The image of the homeland that diasporas carry could be real (an existing country) or imagined (a future country). In whatever way diasporas imagine the homeland, they have often attempted to act as if they belong to "we the people" of the homeland. They imagine themselves to be "outside the …

The Bederman Lecture On Law And Jurisprudence: Public Law & Custom, David J. Bederman

Emory Law Journal

Law professors love puzzles. Give us a legal doctrine that does not make sense, or appears counterintuitive, or does not appear to comport with some methodological assumption, and we can spend months (if not years) plumbing its depths and producing reams of paper in exploring its contours. The good news today is that my exegesis shall be limited to the length of this lecture. Let me first set out the character of the puzzle and see if I cannot solve it in the time allotted.

It’S The Autonomy, Stupid: Political Data-Mining And Voter Privacy In The Information Age, Chris Evans

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Progressive Abandonment And Planform Changes Of The Central Platte River In Nebraska, Central Usa, Over Historical Timeframes, John D. Horn, R. Matthew Joeckel, Christopher R. Fielding

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

This paper presents data compiled from aerial photography, General Land Office maps (GLOs), and discharge data from the central Platte River in Nebraska that quantify and provide a new understanding of channel evolution and abandonment in a braided stream. Analyses of aerial photographs and GLOs in ArcMap™ show that channel area decreased by an average of 46% from 1938 to 2006 and that channel widths in 1858 were an average of 539% greater than in 2006. Annual discharge during 1942–2006 does not show a clear long-term relationship with the decrease in channel width and area. Rather, stabilization through vegetation of …

Holocene Seasonal Variability Inferred From Multiple Proxy Records From Crevice Lake, Yellowstone National Park, Usa, Cathy Whitlock, Walter E. Dean, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Lora R. Stevens, Jeffery R. Stone, Mitchell J. Power, Joseph R. Rosenbaum, Kenneth L. Pierce, Brandi B. Bracht-Flyr

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

A 9400-yr-old record from Crevice Lake, a semi-closed alkaline lake in northern Yellowstone National Park, was analyzed for pollen, charcoal, geochemistry, mineralogy, diatoms, and stable isotopes to develop a nuanced understanding of Holocene environmental history in a region of northern Rocky Mountains that receives both summer and winter precipitation. The limited surface area, conical bathymetry, and deep water (>31 m) of Crevice Lake create oxygen-deficient conditions in the hypolimnion and preserve annually laminated sediment (varves) for much of the record. Pollen data indicate that the watershed supported a closed Pinus-dominated forest and low fire frequency prior to 8200 …

The Influence Of Temperature, Moisture, And Eolian Activity On Holocene Lake Development In West Greenland, Bianca B. Perren, N. J. Anderson, Marianne S. V. Douglas, Sherilyn C. Fritz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Holocene paleolimnological records (diatoms, organic content, spectrally inferred sediment chlorophyll-a) from three West Greenland lakes (~67°N) situated along a transect from the outer coast to a nunatak at the periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet are used to explore the nature of regional postglacial lake development and its relationship to Holocene climate evolution. The lakes were deglaciated asynchronously by approximately 4 ka (earliest on the coast) and thus their sediment records document different starting points of Holocene ontogeny, both temporally and paleoclimatically. Despite similar time-transgressive characteristics of the diatom stratigraphies, overarching climatic factors, principally effective moisture, and eolian inputs, govern …

(Im)Mobile Metaphors: Toward An Intersectional Rhetorical History, Carly S. Woods

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Metaphors not only "structure our experience" but "by organizing reality in particular ways, our selected metaphors also prescribe how we are to act." As the opening chapter of this volume notes, feminist scholars have long grappled with the figurative language of intersectionality in order to find the conceptual framing that best accounts for varied relationships between power, oppression, and privilege. Similarly, rhetorical historians have an obligation to think critically about the metaphors we use. One cluster of metaphors, in particular, characterizes both intersectional and rhetorical-historical research: the spatial and geographic. Moreover, critiques of both research approaches essentially point to the …

Three Geologic Cross Sections Across Portions Of Eastern Nebraska Showing Quaternary Lithologic Units And Stratigraphy Of Uppermost Bedrock, Jesse T. Korus, Dana Divine, P. R. Hanson, J. S. Dillon

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Conservation Implications When The Nest Predators Are Known, Frank Thompson, C.A. Ribic

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Conservation and management of passerines has largely focused on habitat manipulation or restoration because the natural communities on which these birds depend have been destroyed and fragmented. However, productivity is another important aspect of avian conservation, and nest predation can be a large source of nesting mortality for passerines. Recent studies using video surveillance to identify nest predators allow researchers to start evaluating what methods could be used to mitigate nest predation to help passerines of conservation concern. From recent studies, we identified latitudinal and habitat-related patterns in the importance of predator groups that depredate passerine nests. We then reviewed …