Digital Commons Network^™

Critique Of Money Judgment Part Three: Restraining Notices, David G. Carlson

Articles

New York is virtually unique in permitting lawyers to issue court orders restraining debtors and third parties from conveying away any assets that could be used to satisfy a money judgment. In effect, these orders command the recipient to do nothing, whereas a turnover or garnishment orders the recipient to do something — pay the creditor or sheriff or surrender illiquid property to the sheriff. The weakness and strength of this debt collection tool is assessed at length. The Article also analyzes in detail New York’s Exempt Income Protection Act, enacted in 2008 to force banks to protect the exempt …

Macro Data With The Fred Excel Add-In, Humberto Barreto

School of Business and Leadership Working Papers

This working paper is intended to be a chapter in a forthcoming book, tentatively titled Macroeconomics with Excel. The printed book will be a manual for professors, while the Excel workbooks are freely available to students. See www.depauw.edu/learn/macroexcel for more information on this project. This version was presented at the 9th annual Economics Teaching Conference on October 25, 2013.

I Account This World A Tedious Theatre: Foucauldian Theatricality And Female Subversion In Webster's The Duchess Of Malfi, Samantha Snively

Honors Theses

The title character in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi resists patriarchal authority by marrying against her brother's will, provoking a violent and repressive response from a state that embodies Michel Foucault's "spectacle of the scaffold." However, before her murder, the Duchess deconstructs the theatrical nature of her brothers' power. By exposing it as dependent on theatrical deceptions, she destabilizes and invalidates their authority. Deploying a direct critique of her brothers' power jeopardizes her own aristocratic identity, and thus the speech and actions of the servant Cariola complement the Duchess' internal critique with an external condemnation from a lower-class perspective.

Conservation Easements: Design Flaws, Enforcement Challenges, And Reform, Roger Colinvaux

Scholarly Articles

The charitable deduction for conservation easements promises a conservation benefit, lasting forever. Millions of acres have been protected by deductible conservation easements. On average over $1.5 billion are claimed in easement contributions each year, not including corporate contributions. The deduction, however, has serious problems. As use of the incentive has grown, doubts about the public benefit conveyed by conservation easements and significant enforcement difficulties have led to increased scrutiny of land trusts and to a growing chorus of calls for reform of the tax benefit and state laws governing easements. This Essay argues that it is because the tax incentive …

Charitable Contributions Of Property: A Broken System Reimagined, Roger Colinvaux

Scholarly Articles

On average, nearly $46 billion of property is given to charitable organizations each year, about twenty-five percent of the total charitable deduction. This makes the charitable contribution deduction for property a tax expenditure within a tax expenditure, yet it is rarely analyzed as such. It emerged as part of a noble effort to encourage contributions to worthy organizations. But the deduction for property has never worked well. The general rule allowing a deduction based on the fair market value of the property may have some intuitive appeal, but its implementation has yielded numerous exceptions and immense complexity. The Article argues …

You Have The Right To Remain Silent: Does The U.S. Constitution Require Public Affirmation Of Same-Sex Marriage?, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

The political and legal campaign for marriage equality rests on the proposition that the Constitution of the United States requires communal recognition of committed, same-sex relationships. The text, structure, and history of the amended Constitution, however, support precisely the opposite conclusion: i.e., that neither the United States nor any state may compel any community, association, or individual to affirm (by word, deed, or policy) the hotly disputed propositions about human sexuality that lie at the core of the debate. Nor can it plausibly be argued that any part of the Constitution requires any person, association, or polity to remain discreetly …

Where Pardons Are Concerned, Second Best May Not Be So Bad After All: A Response To Chad Flanders, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Getting Real About Gideon: The Next Fifty Years Of Enforcing The Right To Counsel, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of Gideon, in this Article I argue that we can and should be more realistic in our efforts to enforce the right to counsel. Assuming, as many now do, that five decades of resource-starved indigent defense will likely continue in the future, where are our efforts most effectively deployed in the years to come? I address that question in three parts. Part II briefly acknowledges the entrenched crisis in indigent defense that is as old as the Gideon decision itself. Part III examines the most salient reform efforts of the last fifty years, highlighting …

Katz On A Hot Tin Roof: Saving The Fourth Amendment From Commercial Conditioning By Reviving Voluntariness In Disclosures To Third Parties, Mary Graw Leary

Scholarly Articles

In a world in which Americans are tracked on the Internet, tracked through their cell phones, tracked through the apps they purchase, and monitored by hundreds of traffic cameras, privacy is quickly becoming nothing more than a quaint vestige of the past.

In a previous article discussing the intersection of technology and the Fourth Amendment, I proposed reframing the issue away from conventional commentary. The Missed Opportunity of United States v. Jones: Commercial Erosion of Fourth Amendment Protection in a Post-Google Earth World, 15 PENN. J. CON. L. 331, 333 (2012). That article posits that society has reached the point …

Hawksbill Turtle Eretmochelys Imbricata Nesting Environment And Population Study In Cuero Y Salado Wildlife Refuge On The Coast Of Northern Honduras, Ariana Emily Cunningham

Honors Theses

This report outlines my contributions to ProTECTOR's Hawksbill turtle conservation project along the beachfront at Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge of Honduras. Observation-focused nightly beach patrols were conducted so as to census numbers of turtles nesting in this location presently and beach characteristic surveys were undertaken to create a map of environmental factors relevant to Hawksbill nesting along this beach. Resulting environmental maps were correlated with known factors contributing to Hawksbill nest site choice in order to assess the suitability of this beach for Hawksbill nesting, and thus determine its value for preservation efforts and ongoing funding. Of the 10 …

Analysis Of The Icelandic Oral Hymn Tradition As Seen In The Twentieth-Century Enthnographic Recordings Of "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ Bears His Cross"), Navina M. Dueck-Stefansson

Honors Theses

The Hymns of the passion are a collection of Icelandic poems (1656-1659) that have been important to Icelandic religious life since the seventeenth century. Until an organ was first brought to Iceland in 1840, hymns were unaccompanied both in church and in the home. Though the words of the hymns were reprinted several times, the musical notation seldom accompanied them, allowing for a strong oral tradition to form. I transcribed 31 field recordings of the hymn "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ bears his cross"). I then compared these transcriptions in order to identify rhythmic and melodic variations. The final stage of my …

On "Unease" And "Idealism": Reflections On Pope Benedict Xvi's Educating Young People In Justice And Peace And Its Message For Law Teachers, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

Pope Benedict XVI recently wrote about the challenges facing those who have the responsibility for the education of the next generation. His insights, expressed last year, were addressed not simply to a Catholic audience but to all who look to the future and see the obligation to train young people "in justice and peace" to be a noble vocation and one solution to some of the difficulties that face the modern world. Although it was not directed to, or intended primarily for, law professors, the document has much to say to those whose vocation lies in legal education. This essay …

The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities: Reflection On Four Flaws That Tarnish Its Promise, Lucia A. Silecchia

Scholarly Articles

On December 13, 2006, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”). Widely touted as the “first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century,” and effusively praised for its open negotiation process, the CRPD was opened for signature on March 30, 2007. The CRPD quickly entered into force on May 3, 2008. As it rapidly amassed signatories, the CRPD inspired great hope that its comprehensive approach would do much to overcome the consistent failure to promote the dignity of those with disabilities in meaningfully concrete ways.

The CRPD has garnered much recent and …

Unequal Treatment Of Religious Exercises Under Rfra: Explaining The Outliers In The Hhs Mandate Cases, Mark L. Rienzi

Scholarly Articles

Ongoing conflict over the contraceptive mandate promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") has resulted in more than two dozen lawsuits by profit-making businesses and their owners seeking protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA"). To date, the businesses and their owners are winning handily, having obtained preliminary relief in seventeen of the cases, and being denied relief in only six. Last month, in fact, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals took the extraordinary step of reconsidering and reversing its own prior ruling and granting a preliminary injunction to a business seeking RFRA's …

Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma Presenting As Testicular Mass; A Diagnostic Challenge, Saroona Haroon, Arsalan Ahmed

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background: T-cell lymphomas involve the testis infrequently, which deserve special attention because of the poor prognosis and the need to make an appropriate diagnosis, which could lead to a better therapeutic strategy.
Case Presentation: A 40-year-old man presented with right testicular swelling for past three months. The swelling was painless, hard and rubbery. Testicular ultrasound showed diffuse increase in size of the testicle, with alteration in its echogenicity. The patient underwent orchidectomy, and based on histopathological and immunohistochemical tests, a peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified was diagnosed.
Conclusion: Testicular peripheral T-cell lymphomas are rare and aggressive cancers, with clinical …

Narrative Pluralism And The Doctrine Incoherence In Hosanna-Tabor, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Faculty Scholarship

In Hosanna-Tabor Church and School v. EEOC, the Supreme Court recognized for the first time that the Religion Clauses require a “ministerial exception” to federal antidiscrimination laws, holding that religious congregations have a broad and categorical immunity against government interference in ministerial employment decisions.

Hosanna-Tabor is filled with ironies. The case is as much about unjustified discrimination and administrative inconsistency as religious liberty. The Court’s endorsement of the exception as a feature of church autonomy overlooks that churches subvert autonomy as often as they protect it. The exception described by the Court is so broad, absolute, and inflexible that it …

Congressional Silence And The Statutory Interpretation Game, Paul Stancil

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the circumstances under which the federal legislative apparatus may be unable to respond to a politically objectionable statutory interpretation from the Supreme Court. The Article builds upon existing economic models of statutory interpretation, for the first time incorporating transaction costs into the analysis. The Article concludes by identifying recent real-world disputes in which transaction costs constrained Congress and the President from overriding the Court.

Copyright And Social Media: A Preliminary Case Study Of Pinterest, Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Bri Whetstone

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Taxpayers As Victims: Taxpayer Harm & Criminalization", Brenner M. Fissell

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Criminal statutes are least objectionable when they are justified by the notion that the conduct being prohibited is harmful to others. Over the past few decades, a new argument has arisen that makes this very easy to do. This argument appeals to the reality that often when one’s conduct causes or risks physical injury to one’s self, governmental services (e.g. rescue, police, healthcare) will be provided, and that the cost of these services is an unfair burden imposed upon taxpayers. This argument understands the taxpayers to be victims, and the self-harming conduct to therefore be harmful to others, and justifiably …

The Dual Standard Of Review In Contracts Clause Jurisprudence, Brenner M. Fissell

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

The article discusses American constitutional law, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1977 case United States Trust Co. of New York v. New Jersey, and a reported dual standard of review in regards to Contracts Clause jurisprudence under the the nation's Constitution as of April 2013. Legislative repudiations of private agreements, government contracting, and public choice theory are addressed, along with trusteeship and police powers. A reasonableness analysis for contracts is mentioned.

On Performance Of Gpu And Dsp Architectures For Computationally Intensive Applications, John Faella

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the implementations of a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm on digital signal processor (DSP), graphics processor unit (GPU), and a common Intel i7 core architecture. The purpose of this work is to identify which of the three is most suitable for SVM implementation. The performance is measured by looking at the time required by each of the architectures per prediction. This work also provides an analysis of possible alternatives to existing implementations of computationally intensive algorithms, such as SVM. Some performance improving methods were proposed and examined for the given DSP and GPU architectures

The 4-class …

Developing A Method For Enhanced Explosive Detection By Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers) And Metal Enhanced Fluorescence (Mef), Meredith A. Matoian

Open Access Master's Theses

The first manuscript, “Fabrication of SERS Substrates for Explosive Detection,” focuses on the development of a Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrate for use in the area of explosive detection. The substrate was created by immersion plating of silver onto porous silicon, resulting in a Ag roughened surface with an average roughness of 135 nm as determined by AFM. When explosive solutions, such as trinitrotoluene (TNT) and dinitrotoluene (DNT) in ethanol, were applied directly to the substrate, detection of unique Raman bands was possible down to the 10^-9 – 10^-10 mol/cm² range. These results prove the technique …

Survival Of The Blacktip Shark, Carcharhinus Limbatus, William A. Swinsburg

Open Access Master's Theses

Proportional survival (S) is a crucial life-history parameter in population dynamics, natural selection, and management of harvested stocks; variations in survival due to age, sex, or geographic region may have large effects on the success of managing fish stocks. The blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, is the most abundantly harvested shark species in American fisheries. Direct estimates of survival are preferred, but all current survival estimates for this species are either focused on young-of-the-year (YOY) or based on indirect methods. The objectives of this study were to determine whether age, sex, or geographic grouping affects survival and to generate …

Visual Images And The Rhetoric Of Environmental Advocacy, Collin Syfert

Open Access Master's Theses

This project investigates visual representations of staged environmental protests that are produced and distributed by the environmental-activist organization Greenpeace, and broadcast through international news media. By examining eight images taken from four separate Greenpeace image campaigns, this thesis shows how these demonstrations generally, and images of them more specifically, draw attention to climate change issues through their rhetorical capacity to challenge dominant cultural values that have enabled climate-changing human activities to persist. As such, the rhetorical capacity of these images further demonstrates Kevin DeLuca’s image event theory, which suggests how visual demonstrations can be designed to attract mass media attention …

Transcriptome Of The Eastern Oyster Crassostrea Virginica In Response To Bacterial Challenge, Ian Mcdowell

Open Access Master's Theses

The Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, an ecologically and economically important estuarine organism, suffers mortalities as high as 90-100% in affected areas due to Roseovarius Oyster Disease (ROD), caused by the bacterial pathogen, Roseovarius crassostreae. Advanced genotypic breeding techniques necessitate information regarding markers and genes associated with disease resistance. As yet, the host-pathogen interaction between C. virginica and R. crassostreae is poorly understood at the molecular level. The identification of potential genes and pathways responsible for an effective host defense response in the Eastern oyster to R. crassostreae is important not only to provide a basis for enhanced breeding techniques, …

Distribution, Variability, And Trends In Wind Characteristics In New England Coastal Areas, Kelly I. Knorr

Open Access Master's Theses

A comprehensive analysis of regional near-surface wind speed characteristics is presented based on data from 9 coastal sites, extending over periods of 20 to 39 years, with a mean duration of 33 years. Six terrestrial data sets were obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), and 3 additional buoy data sets came from the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC). Data sets contain either sub-hourly or hourly wind speed averages from near-surface, single height anemometers. Extensive quality checks were performed to account for anemometer height changes, missing data, and flagged data.

Analyses focus on long-term temporal trends. Monthly, seasonal, and …

Networked Differential Gps Methods, Simon P. Barr

Open Access Master's Theses

Historically, maritime organizations seeking accurate shipboard positioning have relied upon some form of differential GNSS, such as DGPS, WAAS, or EGNOS, to improve the accuracy and integrity of the GPS. Ground-based augmentation systems, such as DGPS, broadcast corrections to the GPS signal from geographically distributed terrestrial reference stations—often called beacons. Specifically, pseudorange corrections to the GPS L1 C/A signal are computed at each reference site, then broadcast in the nearby geographic area using a medium frequency (approximately 300 kHz) communications link. The user then adds these corrections onto their measured pseudoranges before implementing a position solution algorithm. Within the United …

Partner Perception Of Nonverbal Social Skills And Its Impact On Relationship Satisfaction In Dating Couples, Wynston D. Wilson

Open Access Master's Theses

This study examined relational satisfaction and perceptions of the target person’s social skills from the perspective of both members of the relationship. Respondents (N = 177) age 18 to 28 completed the Relationship Assessment Scale and the emotional expressivity, emotional sensitivity, social expressivity, and social sensitivity subscales of the Social Skills Inventory. Participants and partners completed a self-report assessment of her or his own social skills, other-report assessment of her or his partners’ social skills, and the Relationship Assessment Scale. Multiple regression correlations were performed using participant and partner satisfaction as the dependent variables and participant and partner social skills …

Improving Performance Of Data-Parallel Applications On Cpu-Gpu Heterogeneous Systems, Ronald Duarte

Open Access Master's Theses

Using two full applications with different characteristics, this thesis explores the performance and energy efficiency of CUDA-enabled GPUs and multi-core SIMD CPUs. Our implementations efficiently exploit both SIMD and thread-level parallelism on multi-core CPUs and the computational capabilities of CUDA-enabled GPUs. We discuss general optimization techniques and cost comparison for our CPU-only and CPU-GPU platforms. Finally, we present an evaluation of the implementation effort required to efficiently utilize multi-core SIMD CPUs and CUDA-enabled GPUs. One of the applications, seam carving, has been widely used for content-aware resizing of images and videos with little to no perceptible distortion. The gradient kernel …

An Inversion Scheme For Shear Wave Speed Using Scholte Wave Dispersion, Jennifer L. Giard

Open Access Master's Theses

Acoustic propagation in littoral waters is greatly affected by seafloor sediment properties. Shear properties of sediments are also directly related to the strength of sediments for geotechnical applications. These factors emphasize the importance of estimating shear wave speeds in semi-consolidated shallow water sediments. One of the most promising approaches to estimate shear speed is to invert the shear speed profile using the dispersion of seismo-acoustic interface (Scholte) waves that travel along the water-sediment boundary. The propagation speed and attenuation of Scholte waves are closely related to the shear wave speed and attenuation over a depth of 1-2 wavelengths into the …