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Castor Canadensis Spring 2013, Jedediah Smith Society

Castor Canadensis - Jedediah Smith Society

Newsletter of the Jedediah Smith Society

An Investigation Of College Students’ Learning Styles In The Us And China, G. Q. Zhan, D. Moodie, Yanmin Sun, Bailing Wang

Faculty Articles

This research project explores learning styles of college students in the US and China. The Grasha-Reichmann Student Learning Style Scale, designed to measure how college students view their learning, was used as the main instrument for the current study. A total of 511 college students, 274 from the US and 237 from China, participated in this study. Results indicate that there are significant differences between the Chinese and American students in their reported learning styles, but not necessarily in the direction of conventional prediction. For example, the Chinese participants scored higher on the independent and competitive subscales than the American …

Birds Of The Central Platte River Valley And Adjacent Counties, Mary Bomberger Brown, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

The central Platte River Valley region of Nebraska is described ecologically, and defined as encompassing 11 counties and nearly 10,000 square miles, and extending about 120 miles from the western edge of Lincoln County to the eastern edge of Merrick County. At its center is the Platte River, the historic spring staging area for Sandhill and Whooping cranes, five species of geese, and millions of waterfowl and water-dependent birds, in addition to providing the breeding habitats for more than 100 other bird species. Collectively, at least 373 bird species have been reported from the Central Platte Valley, making it the …

The Effect Of Cosmetic Packaging On Consumer Perceptions, Sarah Aidnik

Graphic Communication

This project explores the relationship between cosmetic packaging, perceived price, quality, and retail environment. Packaging is often how consumers form their first impression of a product. Consumers can identify “high-end” and “low-end” cosmetics based on the items’ packaging using both conscious and subconscious cues. In a retail environment, this can signal a certain level of quality to a consumer.

In addition to extensive research, a survey was conducted on a sample of 16 women over the age of 18 living in southern and central California who regularly use and purchase cosmetics and skincare from low-end and/or high-end retail environments …

Corporate Boards’ Political Ideology Diversity And Firm Performance, Incheol Kim, Christos Pantzalis, Jung Chul Park

Finance Faculty Publications

We investigate whether diversity in points of view within corporate boards, as captured by the diversity in political ideology of board members, can affect a firm's performance. We employ personal political contributions' data to measure political ideology distance among groups of inside, outside directors and the CEO. Our empirical evidence strongly supports the notion that outside directors' monitoring effectiveness is more likely to be enhanced when their viewpoints are distinct from those of management. We find that ideologically diverse boards are associated with better firm performance, lower agency costs and less insiders' discretionary power over the firm's Political Action Committee …

Assessing The Potential Contribution Of Vacant Land To Urban Vegetable Production And Consumption In Oakland, California, Nathan Mcclintock, Jenny Cooper, Snehee Khandeshi

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

As urban agriculture grows in popularity, researchers are attempting to quantify its potential contribution to local food systems. We present the results of a vacant land inventory conducted in collaboration with the HOPE Collaborative, a multi-stakeholder, community-based initiative in Oakland, CA, USA. Vacant lots, open space, and underutilized parks with agricultural potential were identified using GIS and aerial imagery. Using visual interpretation, we identified 1201 ac (486.4 ha) of public land and 337 ac (136.4 ha) of private land that could potentially be used for vegetable production. Based on USDA loss-adjusted consumption data, we calculated the potential contribution of these …

Between Brain And State: Herbert C. Hoover, George W. Wickersham, And The Commission That Grounded Social Scientific Investigations Of American Crime And Justice, 1929–1931 And Beyond, James D. Calder

Marquette Law Review

The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, more popularly known as the Wickersham Commission, was embedded in President Herbert C. Hoover’s broader policy initiative to improve the federal criminal justice system. Hoover also believed that the results would provide state and local governments with models for upgrading all other justice systems. President Hoover instructed the chairman, former U.S. Attorney General George W. Wickersham, to assemble a group of leading scholars and the best research findings, mainly from the nascent social sciences, to investigate the causes and costs of crime, Prohibition enforcement, policing, courts and antiquated criminal procedures, and prisons, …

The 9/11 Military Commission Motion Hearings: An Ordinary Citizen Looks At Comparative Legitimacy, Benjamin G. Davis

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

Under the Military Commission Act of 2009, the 9/11 Military Commission has been proceeding at Guantanamo Bay since May 2012.  As an ordinary citizen observer in October 2012 at a remote feed in Fort Meade, Maryland, and in late January 2013 at Guantanamo Bay, the author has followed the 9/11 Military Commission motion hearings.  Numerous dualities became readily apparent: Guantanamo Bay as a tropical paradise and an unseen tropical detention hell; the impact of unseen detention and interrogation “offscreen” on the courtroom process “onscreen”;  the virtual presence of offscreen classification authorities in the courtroom and the judge’s control; the flexible …

Perceptions Of Herbal Remedies Among California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo Students, Maria Cacciatore, Kimmie Layland, Nicole Morrisey

Social Sciences

Many practitioners now recognize that herbal remedies can be an effective and natural alternative to the standard American, western biomedicine. The objective of our research project is to discover the perceptions about herbal remedies as alternative medicine among Cal Poly students. Specifically we ask, why are they chosen and how students gauge their effectiveness. We seek to see if students have experimented with these herbal remedies, why they chose this route for wellness, and how they value the use of herbal alternative. If we are successful in this project, we will have a greater understanding of how young educated adults …

Wine To Water, Jennifer Stangland

Social Sciences

Nearly one billion people in the world today do not have access to clean water (Siegfried, 2008). This is a crisis that society has faced for decades, and is not a problem that (to our knowledge) will be miraculously alleviated anytime in the near future. The implications of this resource deficit run deep for many people outside of America. But sadly, the affected places and people are not often visible to or noticed by the American society as a whole. The purpose of my research and analysis through this project is to change that. I desire to see a community …

Social Sciences Career And Internship Exploration Day, Connie Ng, Katrina Schwarz, Janiece Jarman

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Building Collaboration Within The Quarter Horse Community: The Obstacles And Hurdles, Allison Grayson

Journalism

The following study investigates how to increase collaboration within the Quarter Horse community through Twitter. Twitter is increasingly one of the top social media tools for many organizations, including organizations within the Quarter Horse community. Twitter is an important tool in creating a dialogue between community members, and the organizations to which they are members. Research shows, “Users believe that using Twitter can improve their performance or their ability to achieve specific goals and, thus, they are more extrinsically motivated to continue to use it” (Agrifoglio, Black, Ferrara & Metallo, 2012, p. 38). That being said, it is important that …

Guide To Selection Of Queer Adolescent Literature For Language Arts Teachers And Librarians, Dwight C. Watson, Terri Lasswell, Stephanie Logan, Yolanda Hood

UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

This article was written based on the belief that if teachers and librarians were aware of criteria that would allow them to select appropriate literature for adolescents that are inclusive of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and questioning characters, themes, and plots, then these educators would be bold and resolute in including such literature in their classrooms and libraries. There have been copious articles that discuss the merit of such literature in the classroom and libraries. We will revisit some of those justifications, but our main emphasis of this article is to determine a set of criteria that librarians, teachers, …

Bibliography For Work In Digital Humanities And (Inter)Mediality Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

Strategies For Smaller Campuses: Lessons On Campus Planning For A Higher Education Consortium, Rebekah Green

DRU Workshop 2013 Presentations – Disaster Resistant University Workshop: Linking Mitigation and Resilience

Universities and colleges, at their core, provide students with an opportunity to expand their thinking, gain practical skills and grow personally and professionally through a structured series of experiences. Yet, disasters can interrupt traditional place-based education and prove to be intractable policy problems. The challenges of developing robust plans and drilling them extensively – key elements of building resilient campuses – seems most pronounced among smaller college and university campuses. This paper describes how three small to moderately-sized higher education institutions in Whatcom County, Washington – a technical college, a community college and a regional university – formed the Resilient …

Building The University--Community Partnership In Disaster Management, Bennetta Robinson, Rachel Dowty Beech

DRU Workshop 2013 Presentations – Disaster Resistant University Workshop: Linking Mitigation and Resilience

The Center for Defense Integrated Data (CDID) and the Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence (CHC) at Jackson State University have developed the Disaster Response Intelligent System (DRIS) to ensure interoperable communication, rapid data processing for safe and timely evacuations, scenario analysis, and decision support during disaster events. With an increasing occurrence of both natural and man-made disasters, theoretical underpinnings have emerged to address not only how communities respond to disasters but also how they plan for such. Currently, there is a need to expand upon the existing paradigm in the highly specialized, practitioner driven field of emergency response and disaster …

The Impact Of High-Speed Internet Connectivity At Home On Eighth-Grade Student Achievement, Kent J. Kingston

Student Work

In the fall of 2008 Westside Community Schools - District 66, in Omaha, Nebraska implemented a one-to-one notebook computer take home model for all eighth-grade students. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a required yearlong one-to-one notebook computer program supported by high-speed Internet connectivity at school on (a) English, (b) math, (c) reading, (d) science, and (e) composite score norm-referenced EXPLORE achievement test scores, District's Criterion-Referenced Descriptive Writing Assessment scores, and classroom performance grade point average (GPA) scores for the core subjects (a) English, (b) science, (c) social studies, and (d) cumulative GPA scores of …

The Legality Of Armed Drone Strikes Against U.S. Citizens Within The United States, Marshall Thompson

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Doomsday Delayed: How The Court's Party-Neutral Clarification Of Class Certification Standards In Wal-Mart V. Dukes Actually Helps Plaintiffs, Anthony F. Fata

DePaul Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pinning The Daffodil And Singing Proudly: An American's Search For Modern Meaning In Ancestral Ties, Elizabeth C. Williams

Student Publications

This paper is a collection of my personal experiences with the Welsh culture, both as a celebration of heritage in America and as a way of life in Wales. Using my family’s ancestral link to Wales as a narrative base, I trace the connections between Wales and America over the past century and look closely at how those ties have changed over time. The piece focuses on five location-based experiences—two in America and three in Wales—that each changed the way I interpret Welsh culture as a fifth-generation Welsh-American. Each travel experience contains characters, places, and interactions that shape my conception …

Alcohol Outlets, Social Disorganization, Land Use, And Violence In A Large College Town: Direct And Moderating Effects, Aleksandra J. Snowden, William Alex Pridemore

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

This study examined the direct and moderating effects of alcohol outlet density, social disorganization, and land use on violence in a large college town whose economy is driven by the presence of a flagship state university. Empirical literature points to a consistent association between alcohol outlet density and assault density, and recent research has found social disorganization and land use to moderate the association in urban areas. However, little research has been done to determine whether similar associations hold outside large urban cities. Using geocoded data on assaults and alcohol outlets in Bloomington, Indiana, we estimated ordinary least squares and …

The Protective And Developmental Varieties Of Liberal Democracy: A Difference In Kind Or Degree?, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Liberal democratic governments may differ in both their kind and degree of democracy. However, the literature too often conflates this distinction, hindering our ability to understand what kinds of governing structures are more democratic. To clarify this issue, the article examines two prominent contemporary models of democracy: developmental liberal democracy (DLD) and protective liberal democracy (PLD). While the former takes a 'thicker' approach to governance than the latter, conventional wisdom holds that these systems differ only in kind rather than degree. The article tests this assumption through an empirical comparison of electoral, legislative, and information-regulating institutions in two representative cases: …

Singapore Food Seriously On My Mind, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Optimal City Hierarchy: A Dynamic Programming Approach To Central Place Theory, Wen-Tai Hsu, Thomas J. Holmes, Frank Morgan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Central place theory is a key building block of economic geography and an empirically plausible description of city systems. This paper provides a rationale for central place theory via a dynamic programming formulation of the social planner's problem of city hierarchy. We show that there must be one and only one immediate smaller city between two neighboring larger-sized cities in any optimal solution. If the fixed cost of setting up a city is a power function, then the immediate smaller city will be located in the middle, confirming the locational pattern suggested by Christaller [4] . We also show that …

Journals Supporting Terrorism Research: Identification And Investigation Into Their Impact On The Social Sciences, Daryl R. Bullis, Richard Irving

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

A citation analysis of two preeminent terrorism journals (Terrorism and Political Violence and Studies in Conflict and Terrorism) was used to identify 37 additional social science journals of significant importance to terrorism research. Citation data extracted from the Web of Science database was used to investigate the impact of the two journals on the social science journal literature. The impact of the two journals was also analyzed in terms of SSCI subject categories. This study could provide useful information for collection development librarians interested in the social sciences.

Mapping Long-Term Spatial Trends Of The Taimyr Wild Reindeer Population, Andrey N. Petrov, Anna V. Pestereva, Leonid A. Kolpashchikov, Vladimir V. Mikhailov

Faculty Publications

This report presents preliminary results of mapping and analyzing wild reindeer spatial dynamics in Taimyr, Russia. We collected, spatially referenced, and systematized comprehensive aerial and land survey information spanning from 1969 to 2003, which is the most complete long-term data available about a wild reindeer herd in Eurasia. The report introduces some of the mapping products and presents a summary of our observations on spatiotemporal changes in reindeer distribution and migration. Using these data and new digital products in the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) environment, we were able to observe the long-term shift of the Taimyr Reindeer Herd's summer, winter, …

Healthcare Seeking Behavior Among Subjects With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Saudi Medical Journal

The behaviors exhibited by individuals who seek healthcare for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are numerous, varied, and sometimes controversial, and/or inconsistent. This study aims to review the factors associated with these healthcare seeking behaviors. Through a selective review of the literature, articles were identified by using the following search terms: IBS, healthcare seeking, conventional and non-conventional treatment, cultural factors, and gender differences. The roles of different factors associated with healthcare seeking are discussed.

Molecular Basis For Jagged-1/Serrate Ligand Recognition By The Notch Receptor, P Whiteman, Bh De Madrid, P Taylor, D Li, Et Al

School of Biomedical Sciences

We have mapped a Jagged/Serrate-binding site to specific residues within the 12th EGF domain of human and Drosophila Notch. Two critical residues, involved in a hydrophobic interaction, provide a ligand-binding platform and are adjacent to a Fringe-sensitive residue that modulates Notch activity. Our data suggest that small variations within the binding site fine-tune ligand specificity, which may explain the observed sequence heterogeneity in mammalian Notch paralogues, and should allow the development of paralogue-specific ligand-blocking antibodies. As a proof of principle, we have generated a Notch-1-specific monoclonal antibody that blocks binding, thus paving the way for antibody tools for research and …

Emerson, Reading, And Democracy: Reading As Engaged Democratic Citizenship, Michael D. Boatright, Mark A. Faust

Democracy & Education

“What is the right use of books?” Responding to the question he famously raised, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “books are for nothing but to inspire,” which we take as endorsing a pragmatic and pluralistic view of reading literature and other kinds of texts in a manner that keeps books open to a flow of continual questioning and renewal. The purpose driving Emerson’s democratic conception of reading, we argue, is not to arrive at definitive readings but to engender new possibilities for thinking about oneself in relation to others and to society at large. As such, an Emersonian perspective on …

Deafdigest: Mid-Week Edition, February 28, 2013, Barry Strassler

DeafDigest Mid-Week 2013

No abstract provided.