Digital Commons Network^™

The Taiwanese Student Happiness Initiative: Fulfilling Lives And Success In The Future, David R. Pendery

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This research examines happiness levels in a group of Taiwanese students and extrapolates what the data may mean for government and educational policy. I conducted this research by allowing students at universities in Taiwan to access the Seattle-based Happiness Alliance Gross National Happiness Index Survey, which measures happiness. I examine happiness levels in the students, compare them with global happiness survey results, and then recommend policy developments that can be taken by Taiwanese government and educational institutions. This data and the recommendations may have far-reaching implications in Taiwanese society. I focus my recommendations on areas where the students scored lower …

A Tempest In A Transatlantic Teapot: A Legal Historian’S Critical Analysis Of Frédéric Bastien’S La Bataille De Londres, Philip Girard

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This review discussed the allegations in Frederic Bastien’s book La Bataille de Londres, to the effect that two Supreme Court of Canada judges had improper communications with British and Canadian authorities before and after the hearing of the Patriation Reference. It analyzes in detail the five incidents upon which the allegations are based, and finds that the author’s interpretation cannot be supported in four of them because of faulty interpretation of the evidence or incomplete research. The fifth incident, in which Chief Justice Laskin met with the English attorney general, is found to have been arguably inappropriate judicial behaviour, but …

Beyond Vox Pop: The Role Of News Sourcing And Political Beliefs In Exemplification Effects, Brandon Bosch

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The people we see in news media can affect our perceptions of public opinion through exemplification. Although research shows that individuals interviewed in a news story can influence perceptions of public opinion, little attention has been paid to the role that source type and audience attitudes play in the exemplification process. This study tests how the exemplification process is influenced by different types of news sources featured in an article (e.g., vox pop, protester, and interest group interviews) and the audience’s own political ideology. The study finds that the perceived typicality of sources is affected by both source type and …

Developing Buy-In For Positive Behavior Support In Secondary Settings, Hank Bohanon, Meng-Jia Wu

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Based on the implementation of school-wide positive behavior supports (SWPBS) in high schools, the current study examined the effect of supporting buy-in through conducting needs assessments and focused professional development for high school staff when implementing SWPBS. The effectiveness of the two additional items was investigated using two treatment schools and two comparison schools. The hypothesis was that schools with enhanced support would implement SWPBS better and student office discipline referrals (ODRs) would drop due to the better implementation. Overall, the results showed the treatment schools improved in fidelity and demonstrated significant improvement in numbers of ODRs. In contrast, both …

The Chicago Teachers Strike And Its Public, Amy B. Shuffelton

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Educational Governance Activities And The Rise Of Educational Contagion In The Islamic Maghreb: The Case Of Tunisia, Tavis D. Jules, Teresa Barton

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Tunisia’s recent movement from dictatorship to democracy presents a unique opportunity to understand educational developments in post-revolutionary settings. Within Tunisia, the study of the post-revolutionary scenery is integral because it is likely that education now has to deal with the baggage and verbiage of education for democracy as it attempts to partake in the global souk in a post-Ben Ali era. Using Tunisia as a case study, this research examines educational developments within transitory democratic spaces to advance the research hypothesis that revolutions act as an ‘educational contagion' as new ideas are imported and old ones realigned to seek national …

Developing A Methodical Approach For The Systematic Identification Of Innovative Technological Applications – Based On Mixed Reality In Manual Order Picking, Markus Friedrich Ehmann

Plymouth Business School Theses

The need to be economically successful is the key driver for companies to be innovative and implement new technologies with increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Uncertainty about whether to use new technologies and missing knowledge about their advantages lead to staggering and withholding from fast diffusion of innovations. Focusing on the industry of logistics and the technology Mixed Reality, this research project developed a methodical approach for evaluating the fitness of an innovative technology and a specific process of application. A mixed methods approach was derived, based on interviews and experiments. The main methodologies used, were semi-structured interviews with decision makers …

The Effects Of Explicit Story Grammar Instruction On The Narrative Skills Of Preschool Children, Nichole Mulvey

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of large-group, explicit, story grammar vocabulary instruction during shared storybook reading on the narrative retell skills of preschoolers. Two preschool classrooms in rural, southeastern Illinois participated in the study. The study examined narrative retell ability via the Test of Narrative Retell-Preschool. Scores were compared for the experimental group, who received instruction from the investigator, to the control group, who received instruction from their regular classroom teacher. The study also explored instructional practices during shared storybook reading through observational checklists of recorded sessions. The results of the study indicated that students …

The Impact Of Explicit Instruction On Preservice Teachers' Conceptions Of Randomness, Jonica H. Mcbride

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study considered the impact of explicit teaching of misconceptions regarding randomness on cognitive growth of preservice teachers. Specifically, the purpose was to compile and validate instructional materials that facilitate preservice teachers' conceptual understandings of randomness. The quasi-experimental design compared the cognitive effects of the instructional materials. Hence, in addition to the instructional materials, assessment instruments were compiled and validated. These items were intended to illuminate the cognitive growth resulting from the treatment instruction. The convenience sample of 67 students represented approximately one third of the teacher-education students enrolled in a mathematicsEducation content course at this institution. Three sections were …

Juries, Lay Judges, And Trials, Toby S. Goldbach, Valerie P. Hans

All Faculty Publications

“Juries, Lay Judges, and Trials” describes the widespread practice of including ordinary citizens as legal decision makers in the criminal trial. In some countries, lay persons serve as jurors and determine the guilt and occasionally the punishment of the accused. In others, citizens decide cases together with professional judges in mixed decision-making bodies. What is more, a number of countries have introduced or reintroduced systems employing juries or lay judges, often as part of comprehensive reform in emerging democracies. Becoming familiar with the job of the juror or lay citizen in a criminal trial is thus essential for understanding contemporary …

A Canadian Model Of Corporate Governance, Carol Liao

All Faculty Publications

What is Canada’s actual legal model to govern its corporations? Recent landmark judicial decisions indicate Canada is shifting away from an Anglo-American definition of shareholder primacy. Yet the Canadian securities commissions have become increasingly influential in the governance sphere, and by nature are shareholder-focused. Shareholders’ rights have increased well beyond what was ever contemplated by Canadian corporate laws, and the issue of greater shareholder vs. board control has now become the topic of live debate. The future of Canada's overall model seems to rest on what will be more compelling: the constancy of the corporate statutes and trajectory of the …

Reducing Intrinsic Cognitive Load In Complex Learning Such As Flight Training That Involves Both Cognitive And Psychomotor Tasks, Adil Aslan

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Flying an aircraft requires processing or considering great number of inputs and an ability to link these data to a massive amount of information in order to interpret them. As a result, flight training imposes a high intrinsic cognitive load. The focus of this research was to investigate the effect of decreasing intrinsic cognitive load for complex tasks such as flight training that involves both cognitive and psychomotor tasks. Participants ( n = 38) completed an instruction unit on how to conduct a simulated Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) and were asked to report perceived cognitive load in addition to tests …

The Precautionary Principle And Its Application In The Intellectual Property Context: Towards A Public Domain Impact Assessment, Graham Reynolds

All Faculty Publications

This chapter considers whether the precautionary principle - a central element of contemporary environmental law and policy - can be usefully applied in the intellectual property context as a means through which the public domain can be protected. Assuming the importance of the public domain, and arguing that expansions in intellectual property protection risk harming the public domain, this chapter contends that it is appropriate to apply the precautionary principle in the intellectual property context in order to guard against harm to the public domain; suggests several ways in which a precautionary principle (or a precautionary approach) could be applied …

What Constitutes The Success Or Failure Of Multinational Corporations (Mncs) In Foreign Markets? A Case Study Of Chinese And American Mncs, Shiwei Jiang

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Scholars have identified multinational corporations (MNCs) as increasingly important and influential actors in international politics. However, mainstream international studies scholarship has failed to explain why MNCs succeed or fail in entering foreign markets. Market entry is a particularly vexing question for U.S. and Chinese firms seeking to compete for each other's consumers. As this study shows, surprising differences in success among U.S. firms in China, as well as Chinese firms in the U.S., suggest that statist and market factors interact with corporate strategies in confounding ways. Through case studies in the internet, automobile and fast food industries, this dissertation builds …

The Turn To Corporate Criminal Liability For International Crimes: Transcending The Alien Tort Statute, James G. Stewart

All Faculty Publications

In November 2013, Swiss authorities announced a criminal investigation into one of the world’s largest gold refineries on the basis that the company committed a war crime. The Swiss investigation comes a matter of months after the US Supreme Court decided in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. that allegations like these could not give rise to civil liability under the aegis of the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”). Intriguingly, however, the Swiss case is founded on a much earlier American precedent. In 1909, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the novel practice of prosecuting companies. Unlike the Court’s position in Kiobel …

The Punishment Agenda In The Courts, Debra Parkes

All Faculty Publications

This paper critically examines the potential of prisoner litigation in Canada to shed light on what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has called “the hidden world of punishment.” It considers whether prisoner’s rights litigation can act as a meaningful legal check on the growing punishment agenda in Canada. The paper begins with a brief description of some aspects of the punishment agenda before moving on to consider case law under the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which speaks directly to punishment and its limits, the section 12 right to be free from “cruel and unusual …

The Ideology Of Temporary Labour Migration In The Post-Global Era, Catherine Dauvergne, Sarah Marsden

All Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we seek to explore the potential of new temporary labour migration programs to yield different outcomes than earlier guestworker programs in the 1980s and 1990s. By looking at key elements of temporary labour migration we assess the potential for an alternative trajectory for understanding and reframing the discussion in terms which are capable of responding in a more emancipatory way to the lived experiences of migrant workers. We have identified three concepts central to most analyses of temporary migration policies and programs: temporariness, the labour market, and rights. Our central contention is that these concepts function ideologically, …

Building An Innovation Strategy, Elizabeth Cruickshank, Perry Haan

AMTP Proceedings 2014

This non-empirical paper describes the innovation strategy for Aetna, Inc. This company is a national managed care organization, and although it is already large in scope, it operates more like a government agency rather than an innovative organization (Schack, 2000). This paper will highlight the theories, or ingredients, of innovation strategy, followed by an explanation of how the theories support and help in the creation and application of the recommended innovation strategy for Aetna. This paper also describes the organizational design model that drives innovation, the processes that enable innovation, and the success factors necessary for people to develop and …

Is Environmental Concern In Advertising Related To The State Of The Economy? An Exploratory Study From The Wall Street Journal 2007-2011, Lindsay Larson, Luther T. Denton, Anni Rainio

AMTP Proceedings 2014

This study is an attempt to determine the relationship between the prevalence of environmental cues in advertisements and the state of the U.S. economy. Advertisements sampled from the Wall Street Journal, a preeminent daily business news publication in the United States, were examined during the years 2007, 2009, and 2011 to determine this relationship. While few direct environmental appeals were found within the sample of advertisements, a variety of indirect environmental cues were utilized for analysis. The results show that there is a quadratic relationship between advertisers’ use of indirect environmental cues and the state of the economy, such that …

Social Media In The Financial Services Industry, Nathaniel Gibbs, Perry Haan

AMTP Proceedings 2014

Innovative strategies set a company apart from its competitors. Lindsay and Hopkins (2010) said strategy is making the most of a current situation and devising a plan for the future. Likewise, if banks and other financial organizations want to enhance their brands, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, boost innovation, increase revenue, and maintain their competitive positions, they need to embrace social media. Social networks are used by marketers to connect and communicate with customers (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Organizations must be receptive and flexible to remain relevant in the business environment (Bouckenooghe, Devos, & Van den Broeck, 2009). The environment …

Resilient Digital Image Watermarking For Document Authentication, Jonathan Blackledge, Oleksandr Iakovenko

Articles

Abstract—We consider the applications of the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and then a Chirp coding method for producing a highly robust system for watermarking images using a block partitioning approach subject to a self-alignment strategy and bit error correction. The applications for the algorithms presented and the system developed include the copyright protection of images and Digital Right Management for image libraries, for example. However, the principal focus of the research reported in this paper is on the use of printscan and e-display-scan image authentication for use in e-tickets where QR code, for example, are embedded in a full colour …

An Algorithm To Estimate Unsteady And Quasi-Steady Pressure Fields From Velocity Field Measurements, John O. Dabiri, Sanjeeb Bose, Brad J. Gemmell, Sean Colin, John H. Costello

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

We describe and characterize a method for estimating the pressure field corresponding to velocity field measurements such as those obtained by using particle image velocimetry. The pressure gradient is estimated from a time series of velocity fields for unsteady calculations or from a single velocity field for quasi-steady calculations. The corresponding pressure field is determined based on median polling of several integration paths through the pressure gradient field in order to reduce the effect of measurement errors that accumulate along individual integration paths. Integration paths are restricted to the nodes of the measured velocity field, thereby eliminating the need for …

Speculative Accumulation: Property-Making In The Brazilian Amazon, Jeremy M. Campbell

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

This article explores how nonindigenous settlers in the Brazilian Amazon pursue vernacular territorial strategies as they attempt to make property legible and legitimate in an emerging order of state-led governance reforms. In Amazonia, official figurations for the development of the region have layered upon one another over the past 50 years, depositing a range of contradictory procedures for claiming, holding, and disposing of property. Ethnography shows how residents draw on the ambiguous history of property-making and their deep familiarity with surrounding landscapes to influence new environmental governance paradigms. With the goal of appearing in line with state-led tenure reform, colonists …

Evaluating Evidence Of Childhood Abuse As A Function Of Expert Testimony, Judge’S Instructions, And Sentence Recommendation, Judith Platania, Fotine Konstantopoulou

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

In the current study we examined how jurors utilize evidence of childhood abuse as a function of expert testimony and sentence recommendation. We also varied the specificity of instructional language in the context of mitigating circumstances. We predicted jurors who impose a life sentence would rate evidence of childhood abuse as significantly more important in determining sentence compared to jurors who impose the death penalty. Furthermore, we expected this effect to be moderated by expert testimony. Testimony of childhood abuse increased importance ratings of non-statutory mitigating circumstances. This effect was more evident for jurors who imposed a life sentence compared …

The Benefit Of A Clergy Union To The United Church Of Canada, Margaret J. Perry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis was was motivated by the question of the effect of the union

organizing efforts of some of the clergy in the United Church of Canada. The topics of work, call and covenant/contract are examined in a secondary, qualitative manner to establish the way in which they affect the relationship between clergy and the various levels of the church. The work of philosophers, such as Hannah Arendt and sociologists, such as Richard Sennett, as well as theologians Martin Luther, Jean Calvin, John Wesley, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Abraham Heschel, and Walter Brueggemann are included in the study. A Biblical understanding of …

Surface Complexation Of Monosubstituted Organoarsenicals On Hematite: Atr-Ftir Investigations, Md Abdus Sabur

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Little is known about the surface chemistry of organoarsenic compounds with iron-containing materials commonly found in geosorbents and arsenic removal technologies. In this thesis, these organoarsenicals include aliphatic and aromatic arsenicals that historically have been used as herbicides, pesticides and in the poultry feed industry, respectively. Attenuated total internal reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy has been used to study the surface interactions of organoarsenicals at the molecular level under various environmentally-relevant conditions. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters extracted from these molecular level experiments provide trends that are not observed in any published bulk experiments. Apparent initial rates of adsorption and desorption …

A Computational Study Of Small Gold Clusters With H2s, Thiols, H2o, And Alcohols, Silvija C. Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Alkane thiols, RSH, are commonly used in aqueous solution to stabilize and prevent aggregation of gold clusters, Au_n. Initially a RSH-Au_n complex is formed and, subsequently, there is hydrogen atom transfer to form a RSAu_nH complex. We examine the rate of this reaction for small neutral gold clusters, with n=1-2 and short-chain thiols with R = H, CH₃, and CH₃CH₂, using transition state theory. The comparison of DFT (with the functionals, BP86 and M06-2X), and MP2 was performed. A pseudopotential was employed to account for the large relativisitic effects …

Time, Perspectives, Verbs, And Imagining Events, Jeffrey P. Hong

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During the processing of verbs, readers form internal representations of the events described by those verbs. Two key elements in the construction of event representations are temporal information, given by the verbs that describe the represented events, and the visual perspective from which the events are represented. The current study is composed of two experiments aimed at examining the roles these two factors play in event representation. Specifically, the study aimed to determine how temporal information and visual perspective are represented during event imagination.

Experiment 1 investigated the role of temporal information associated with verbs, given by grammatical aspect (GA) …

Integrated Spatial Analysis Of Volunteered Geographic Information, Haydn Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is becoming a pervasive form of data within geographic academic research. VGI offers a relatively new form of data, one with both potential as a sensitive way to collect information about the world, and challenges associated with unknown and heterogeneous data quality. The lack of sampling control, variable expertise in data collection and handling, and limited control over data sources are significant research challenges. In this thesis, data quality of VGI is tackled as a general composite measure based on coverage of the dataset, the evenness in the density of data, and the relative evenness in …

Juror Perceptions Of Eyewitness Identification Evidence, Timothy G. Wykes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Jurors rely on eyewitness testimony in deciding a defendant’s guilt or innocence. Archival analyses of hundreds of post-conviction DNA exonerations have identified eyewitness misidentification as the highest individual factor contributing to wrongful convictions (Innocence Project, 2014). Internationally, criminal justice systems have employed procedural safeguards (PSs) to educate juries on factors affecting eyewitness identification accuracy. Two such safeguards include the introduction of eyewitness expert testimony during trial proceedings and the reading of cautionary instructions by a presiding judge. In an independent factorial design, this research sought to examine the effects of a model judicial caution drafted by the Ontario Judicial Council …