Digital Commons Network^™

Asset Protection Through The Use Of Premarital Agreements, Robert T. Rose

CMC Senior Theses

The number of multi-million dollar divorce settlements has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. Although Donald Trump's divorce from his first wife, Ivana, wherein $25 million was awarded to the former spouse, may have seemed like a significant sum in 1992, this amount appears quite minuscule today.1 In December of 2011, Mel Gibson's soon to be ex-wife Robyn Moore received $425 million in the couples' divorce settlement.2 In March of 2012, Frank McCourt was forced to sell his professional franchise, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in bankruptcy during his divorce proceedings with Jamie McCourt.3 It seems as if every month …

Who's Afraid Of The Patent Trolls? Assessing The Market Impact Of Landmark Patent Troll Litigation Outcomes, Xiaotong Li

CMC Senior Theses

Patent trolls have changed the innovation and patent policy landscape. This thesis is an empirical event study that focuses on two landmark cases of patent troll litigation, RIM v. NTP and eBay v. Mercexchange, to determine whether pro-troll litigation outcomes significantly impact the market values of the firms in the high-tech industries they target. I find that the Supreme Court ruling in eBay v. Mercexchange did seem to significantly impact a proportion of firms in the market. The decisive factors in distinguishing affected vs. unaffected firms include a firm's R&D to Sales ratio, market value, and NAICS code specification.

The Effects Of The Media On The Discrepancy Between Gaap And Pro Forma Earnings, Peter Schock

CMC Senior Theses

This study seeks to find if there is a significant relationship between the amount of media coverage focused on public companies in the United States and the difference between GAAP financial performance and analyst-adjusted estimates of financial performance. I will answer this question by testing this difference among S&P 500 companies, as well as companies within that index as identified by a certain industry.

Candidates, Campaigns, And Political Tides: Electoral Success In Colorado's 4th District, Megan Gwynne Maccoll

CMC Senior Theses

The race between Republican Cory Gardner and Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey for Colorado's 4^th Congressional District was a partisan fight for political momentum. In the 2010 campaign cycle, Republicans looked to retake the historically Republican 4^th District as part of a national strategy to win back the U.S. House, while Democrats tried desperately to hold on to both. Cory Gardner was only one of fifty-four Republican challengers to defeat a Democratic incumbent in 2010, but the Gardner-Markey race is particularly interesting as a case study of voter motivation and the mediating forces, both regional and national, that influence …

Does The Reit Tale Wag The Dog? The Relationship Between Tenant Ownership And The Volatility Of Retail Reit Stock Returns, Dana G. Staley

CMC Senior Theses

This paper will assess the relationship between tenant characteristics and public REIT volatility. Specifically, we focus on the retail REIT subset of the industry. Given that retail REITs are one the most transparent asset classes, they provide an interesting landscape for evaluating the relationship between the firm and the customers, or in this case, the tenants. Specifically, we assess how major tenant ownership, public or private equity owned, impacts the volatility of the REIT’s stock price using 2010 data on 30 retail REITs. Controlling for tenant credit quality, leverage, ROE, book-to-market, size, age, region and property focus, we find that …

How To Pick A Running Mate: Rethinking The Vice Presidential Selection Process And Criteria, Jake A. Petzold

CMC Senior Theses

Over the course of American history, the vice presidency has evolved into a meaningful and influential part of the executive branch, and running mates have become an important part of presidential elections. But scholars, pundits, and political professionals continue to discuss and evaluate vice presidential selection in an outdated framework that now borders on superstition. Now that presidential nominees have sole authority to choose their running mates and the resources to take care in the process, voters demand that they do so. The modern presidential nominee should undertake a serious and methodical research and decision-making process, and should choose a …

A Proposal To Test The Effects Of Factor Ecat1 On Pluripotency, From Reprogramming To Differentiation Of Human Somatic Cells, Vritti R. Goel

CMC Senior Theses

The field of stem cell research has been growing more because of the interest in using stem cells to cure diseases and heal injuries. Human embryonic stem cells, because of the controversy surrounding them—and subsequently the difficulties in acquiring samples of the existing aging cell lines—can only be used in limited capacities. While the development of induced pluripotent stem cells in the last decade has allowed the field to progress closer to medical treatments, the low efficiency of reprogramming a somatic cell to a pluripotent state, and the vast molecular and genomic differences between human embryonic stem cells and human …

T.S. Eliot's Anti-Modernism: Poetry And Tradition In The European Waste Land, John Bedecarré

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis hopes to contribute to a reconciliation of the apparent conflict between Eliot's conservative outlook and his formally innovative poetry. I do not advocate stripping Eliot of his modernist label. I would rather amend the term "modernism." This qualification is important because the modernist label carries connotations that simply do not do justice to Eliot. For example, the label implies that modernists wanted to move forward, away from the past. Eliot wanted to move backwards, partly because he felt other artists had left the past behind. In an essay introducing the early twentieth-century modernists, the Norton Anthology of British …

California's War Over The Bay-Delta: Historic Failures And Current Battles, Jessica J. Mao

CMC Senior Theses

California has one highly-coveted possession: the Bay-Delta, which is the second largest estuary in the United States. Today, tensions are higher than ever as Southern California continues to grow and demand water from the Delta, agriculture suffers from drought and less-than-promised water allocations, and aquatic life diminishes due to environmentally damaging processes like pumping and exporting of water elsewhere. This paper will examine the historic policies that have shaped how the Delta has been managed, their successes and failures, and current plans in discussion for continuing improvement of the Delta. The Bay-Delta Conservation Plan and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water …

Is There A Right To Healthcare? An Analysis From The Perspective Of Liberty And Libertarianism, Sarah R. Robinson

CMC Senior Theses

Despite already having the most expensive healthcare system in the world, the U.S. is facing rapidly rising costs, a growing population not covered by health insurance, and outcomes that are no better, and frequently worse, than those seen in the majority of developed nations with universal healthcare. Popular justifications of keeping the state out of healthcare appeal to protecting individual liberty; those who assert that there is a universal right to healthcare usually fail to address this claim. This paper describes the kinds of obligations in healthcare that are consistent with, if not demanded by, theories of justice that emphasize …

Do Political Contributions Purchase Regulatory Discretion In Mining Inspections?, Neil K. Malani

CMC Senior Theses

A vast literature acknowledges the corruptibility of regulators; however, empirical tests on the matter have been limited to two-agent models examining the rulemaking process and price regulation of natural monopolies. It remains an open question whether political contributions, by driving legislative pressure, can entice laxity from regulators in their application of the rules. To remedy this issue, I observe the highly-regulated coal mining industry for which there exists several points for inspector discretion. By comparing the outcomes with Congressional coal mining contribution levels, I am able to ascertain capture across several dimensions. Specifically, I find that contributions are associated with …

Half Baked: The Federal And State Conflicts Of Legalizing Medical Marijuana, Andrew K. Fevery

CMC Senior Theses

The legalization of medical marijuana has been a complicated and confusing process. The drug is used for medical purposes yet is only semi-legal and not approved by the federal government. This piece will observe the legal medical history of this drug in the United States. It will analyze the growth of the medical marijuana movement up to the present with a special emphasis to the importance of federal, state and local supremacy. It will observe important court cases that have been decisive in defining the reach of federal power under the Commerce Clause and the 1970 Controlled Substance Act. This …

Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, And Indira Gandhi's Actions And Rhetoric Regarding Feminism And Gender During Their Ascent To Power, Ariel Katz

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the rhetoric and actions of Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi regarding feminism and their gender before they became prime minister. The paper finds that none of the leaders identified as feminists, and did not actively focus on women’s issues or elevate the status of women while in office. Yet, all of these leaders called for women to mobilize and pursue careers, either via their actions or speeches. Thatcher, particularly in the crucial period in which she rose to power, explicitly encouraged women to mobilize as voters and pursue work outside the home in her formal …

Water Policy: The World's Most Important Resource Politicized, Ethan Gilbert

CMC Senior Theses

Water is the most important resource on the planet for sustaining life, and many consider access to water as a fundamental human right. However, in light of its necessity, the distribution and allocation of water has become a highly politicized issue. Economic and political conditions have been shown to be influential in shaping a country’s water policy, more so then recognition of water as a basic human right. The reason for this is that many agree that there needs to be a value assigned to water to encourage its conservation and efficient use, and different methods of addressing that issue …

Corporate Social Responsibility And Financial Performance: Does It Pay To Be Good?, Harmony J. Palmer

CMC Senior Theses

The prominence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives today suggests that the corporate perception of such policies has shifted from an unnecessary addition to a critical business function. Using a reliable source of data on corporate social performance (CSP), this study explores and tests the relationship between CSP and corporate financial performance (CFP). Unlike prior research, this study additionally tests the impact CSP has on sales and gross margin in hopes of providing insight on sales strategies that can be implemented to maximize the impact of the relationship. The dataset includes most of the S&P 500 firms and covers years …

Differential Effects Of Tort Reform Across Medical Specialties, William C. Dodds

CMC Senior Theses

This paper utilizes data on physician malpractice insurance premiums and state tort law to analyze how physicians in various medical specialties are differentially affected by caps on noneconomic damages. As higher premiums put pressure on legislators to enact damage caps, I instrument caps on noneconomic damages with enactment of tort reform measures that do not affect malpractice premiums to uncover the effect of caps on noneconomic damages on such premiums. I find evidence to support that, in terms of dollars saved, physicians in high risk specialties benefit more from noneconomic damage caps than physicians in low risk specialties. However, in …

Leader Spirituality And Leader Virtues As Predictors Of Effective Leadership, Mark Green, Carol A. Wheeler, Maria N. Hodgson

Communication Faculty Publications

A growing body of literature indicates that leader spirituality positively influences how leaders lead. There is also a body of literature that indicates that followers associate good leadership with behaving ethically. A concept related to leader ethics is leader virtues. Historically, virtues have been written about from a theological perspective. Recently, Riggio, Zhu, Reina & Maroosis (2010) developed an empirical assessment to measure leadership virtues. In this study, 143 leaders were rated by their followers, peers and supervisors using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Leadership Virtues Questionnaire. The leaders completed three spiritual and religious assessments on themselves. The results …

Federal Regulation Of Emerging Technologies And Its Implications For Transhumanist Applications Of Nbic Technologies, David A. Dreshfield

CMC Senior Theses

This paper attempts to chart potential courses for federal regulation of emerging technologies in the United States, and its near-future implications for the development and proliferation of NBIC technologies in a transhumanist context. Drawing on significant regulatory actions by the FDA and FCC throughout the twentieth century, relevant historical regulatory trends are identified and extrapolated broadly across the next two to three decades. The importance of the NBIC paradigm is discussed in detail, alongside several examples of both current and potential NBIC technologies with transhumanist applications. It ultimately concludes that, in spite of recent congressional dysfunctions and lack of political …

Guided Self-Help Concreteness Training As An Intervention For Major Depression In Primary Care: A Phase Ii Randomized Controlled Trial., E. R. Watkins, R. S. Taylor, R. Byng, C. Baeyens, R. Read, K. Pearson, L. Watson

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: The development of widely accessible, effective psychological interventions for depression is a priority. This randomized trial provides the first controlled data on an innovative cognitive bias modification (CBM) training guided self-help intervention for depression. METHOD: One hundred and twenty-one consecutively recruited participants meeting criteria for current major depression were randomly allocated to treatment as usual (TAU) or to TAU plus concreteness training (CNT) guided self-help or to TAU plus relaxation training (RT) guided self-help. CNT involved repeated practice at mental exercises designed to switch patients from an unhelpful abstract thinking habit to a helpful concrete thinking habit, thereby targeting …

Seasonal Variation In Heat Fluxes, Predicted Emissions Of Malodorants, And Wastewater Quality Of An Anaerobic Swine Waste Lagoon, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Age Before Stage: Insulin Resistance Rises Before The Onset Of Puberty: A 9-Year Longitudinal Study (Earlybird 26)., An Jeffery, Bs Metcalf, J Hosking, Aj Streeter, Ld Voss, Tj Wilkin

Peninsula Medical School

OBJECTIVE: Insulin resistance (IR) is associated with diabetes. IR is higher during puberty in both sexes, with some studies showing the increase to be independent of changes in adiposity. Few longitudinal studies have reported on children, and it remains unclear when the rise in IR that is often attributed to puberty really begins. We sought to establish from longitudinal data its relationship to pubertal onset, and interactions with age, sex, adiposity, and IGF-1. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The EarlyBird Diabetes study is a longitudinal prospective cohort study of healthy children aged 5-14 years. Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR), skinfolds (SSF), adiposity …

Analysis And Validation Of A Parkinson's Disease Register As A Recruitment Tool For Clinical Studies., Camille Carroll, Amy Palmer, Christine Cosby, John Zajicek

Peninsula Medical School

Promotion of research is a key strategy of the National Health Service (NHS). Currently, many patients are not afforded the opportunity to participate in clinical studies. A register of research-interested patients has the potential to maximise inclusivity. We have established a register of research-interested patients with Parkinson's disease within the South West of England, with pragmatic inclusion criteria and multiple recruitment routes. We undertook an analysis of the register, investigation of its utility as a recruitment tool and a survey of recruiters. There were 529 active participants; 30% were self-referred and 70% were recruited by a healthcare practitioner. Response rate …

Facilitated Physical Activity As A Treatment For Depressed Adults: Randomised Controlled Trial, Melanie Chalder, Nicola J. Wiles, John Campbell, Sandra P. Hollinghurst, Anne M. Haase, Adrian H. Taylor, Kenneth R. Fox, Ceire Costelloe, Aidan Searle, Helen Baxter, Rachel Winder, Christine Wright, Katrina M. Turner, Michael Calnan, Deborah A. Lawlor, Tim J. Peters, Deborah J. Sharp, Alan A. Montgomery, Glyn Lewis

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Neurofibromatosis 2011: A Report Of The Children's Tumor Foundation Annual Meeting., Michel Kalamarides, Maria T. Acosta, Dusica Babovic-Vuksanovic, Olli Carpen, Karen Cichowski, Dg Evans, Filippo Giancotti, Co Hanemann, David Ingram, Alison C. Lloyd, Debra A. Mayes, Ludwine Messiaen, Helen Morrison, Kathryn North, Roger Packer, Duojia Pan, Anat Stemmer-Rachamimov, Meena Upadhyaya, David Viskochil, Margret R. Wallace, Kim Hunter-Schaedle, Nancy Ratner

Peninsula Medical School

The 2011 annual meeting of the Children's Tumor Foundation, the annual gathering of the neurofibromatosis (NF) research and clinical communities, was attended by 330 participants who discussed integration of new signaling pathways into NF research, the appreciation for NF mutations in sporadic cancers, and an expanding pre-clinical and clinical agenda. NF1, NF2, and schwannomatosis collectively affect approximately 100,000 persons in US, and result from mutations in different genes. Benign tumors of NF1 (neurofibroma and optic pathway glioma) and NF2 (schwannoma, ependymoma, and meningioma) and schwannomatosis (schwannoma) can cause significant morbidity, and there are no proven drug treatments for any form …

Dietary Analysis Of Piraino 1, Sicily, Italy: The Role Of Archaeopalynology In Forensic Science, Dario Piombino-Mascali, Albert R. Zink, Karl J. Reinhard, Melissa Lein, Stephanie Panzer, Arthur C. Aufderheide, Rachel Rachid, Wanderley De Souza, Adauto Araujo, Sergio A.M. Chavez, Sara Leroy-Toren, Isabel Teixeira-Santos, Juliana M. F. Dutra

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Pollen from intestinal contents of mummies, backed by macrofloral analysis, provides important clues to diet, medicines, and season of death. Intestinal contents were recovered from the Piraino 1 mummy from the “Sepulcher of the Priests,” Piraino Mother Church, in the province of Messina, Sicily. Using standard palynological methods and pollen concentration technique, we quantified the numbers of pollen grains per gram of coprolite. The pollen spectrum was dominated by Polygalaceae, the Milkwort Family. Polygalaceae pollen is rarely found in archaeological sites. Based on comparison to published keys, we determined that the pollen came from a species of Polygala. Polygala contains …

The Danish Society Dania Of California, Carl Plow

The Bridge

This society was established December 11th, 1879 in Oakland, California.

Its original name was “Den Danske Forening Dania af Oakland og Alameda” (The Danish Society Dania of Oakland and Alameda), and its original purpose was to further the social life among the Danish settlers in these twin cities.

It soon became evident, however, that if the young society were to grow and thrive and keep its membership, it would have to include other and more tenable points on its program, not just entertainment, and thus it was decided to establish a health and burial insurance, and it has been functioning …

Dissertation And Theses Notices, Gary Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Mosquito Species Abundance And Diversity In Malindi, Kenya And Their Potential Implication In Pathogen Transmission, Joseph M. Mwangangi, Janet Midega, Samuel Kahindi, Laban Njoroge, Joseph Nzovu, John Githure, Charles M. Mbogo, John C. Beier

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are important vectors of human disease-causing pathogens. Mosquitoes are found both in rural and urban areas. Deteriorating infrastructure, poor access to health, water and sanitation services, increasing population density, and widespread poverty contribute to conditions that modify the environment, which directly influences the risk of disease within the urban and peri-urban ecosystem. The objective of this study was to evaluate the mosquito vector abundance and diversity in urban, peri-urban, and rural strata inMalindi along the Kenya coast. The study was conducted in the coastal district of Malindi between January and December 2005. Three strata were selected which …

Turnaround Church Ministry: Causes Of Decline And Changes Needed For Turnaround, Dan Eymann

Great Commission Research Journal

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” This familiar saying is the crux of this paper. With 85% of the churches in North America in plateau or decline, change is desperately needed. Change is the name-of-the-game in turnaround church ministry. This paper examines the following three crucial questions in turnaround ministry: (1) what are the primary causes of decline in North American churches, (2) what are the changes needed to effectively turn around plateaued or declining churches, and (3) what is the relationship between the changes implemented for turnaround and the …

Church Turnaround: Perspectives, Principles, And Practices, Kenneth E. Priddy

Great Commission Research Journal

Prominent church analysts agree that over 80% of American Protestant churches are in plateau and decline and that the growth of the church is not keeping pace with the growth of the population. Sacrifice on the part of church leaders and congregants is sorely needed but strongly resisted, as congregations tend to prefer stability and familiarity above risk and change. This paper presents insights into the origin of plateau and decline and offers perspectives, principles, and practices that when properly and faithfully applied, generate health, growth, and multiplication in churches that commit to sustainable church turnaround.