Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Clapper V. Amnesty International Usa On The Doctrine Of Fear-Based Standing, Amanda M. Mcdowell

Georgia Law Review

The Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International USA dealt with the government's electronic surveillance authority under the Foreign Intelligence SurveillanceAct (FISA) Amendments. In a 5- 4 opinion, the Court held that a variety of U.S. persons, including attorneys and media organizations, did not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments because the plaintiffs' fear of future unlawful surveillance was not "certainly impending." Depending on how lower courts choose to interpret Clapper, the decision could have a significant impact on the doctrine of fear-based standing, which allows plaintiffs to establish standing based on fear of …

A Process For The Critical Analysis Of Instructional Theory, Jay A. Bostwick, Isaac W. Calvert, J. Francis, Melissa Hawkley, Curtis Henrie, Fred R. Hyatt, Janele Juncker, Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

Some have argued for a common language of theory in the field of instructional design in an effort to reduce misunderstandings and simplify a multitude of synonymous terms and concepts. Others feel that this goal is undesirable in that it would inhibit further theoretical development. In this article we propose an ontology-building process as a way for readers to compare and analyze terms and concepts across theories. This process entails the development of ontological categories that emerge from the literature, and the comparison of theories using these categories. Such a process can reveal broader concepts that exist beyond specific theoretical …

The Battle Of Adobe Walls And The Red River War, 1874-5, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Adobe Walls became the site of two major engagements between the whites and Indians, first in 1864 and ten years later in 187 4. In 1843, William Bent established a trading post near a crossing of the Canadian River in the panhandle area of north Texas. The original structure was probably constructed from wood. Two years later, in 1843, the fort was rebuilt out of adobe or sun-dried brick. It was a formidable structure that with walls about 30 feet (9 meters) high, but the fort proved to be in a dangerous area, and Indian raids soon made the location …

The Battle Of The Rosebud, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

The Battle of the Rosebud, which took place on 17 June 1876, was the largest single engagement between the United States cavalry and Indian forces in the entire history of the American West. It was a fierce encounter that lasted about six hours and involved all together several thousand cavalrymen and Indian warriors. The outcome of the contest was highly significant because it turned back a major invasion of Indian territories and freed many warriors to engage another invading force under the command of George Armstrong Custer. This led to the destruction of Custer's command at the Battle of the …

Exceptional Authorship: The Role Of Copyright Exceptions In Promoting Creativity, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

A lawyer for an immense copyright-exploiting corporation, casting himself as a defender of authors’ rights, challenged his interlocutor’s incredulity with the following assertion: given today’s diversity of authors, ‘more of them depend on limitations and exceptions than on exclusive rights’. Some might cringe at the resemblance of this credo to Orwell’s ‘Freedom Is Slavery!’ Nonetheless, I would like to take seriously the proposition that today’s authors need copyright exceptions and limitations more than they need exclusive rights.

First, I will test the proposition by examining what one might call authorship-oriented exceptions, from ‘fair abridgement’ in early English cases to the …

Ill-Posedness Of The Two-Dimensional Keller-Segel Model In Triebel-Lizorkin Spaces, Chao Deng, John Villavert

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

This article proves the ill-posedness of the Cauchy problem for the two-dimensional Keller–Segel model in Triebel–Lizorkin spaces, for . In particular, it is shown that solutions can develop norm inflation under certain settings in that the solution can become arbitrarily large after an arbitrarily short time even for small initial data.

Lessons Learned In Establishing Stem Student Cohorts At A Border University And The Effect On Student Retention And Success, Mikhail M. Bouniaev, Immanuel Edinbarough, Bill W. Elliott

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) serves more than 8,000 students in the Lower Rio Grande Valley area and broader Mexico region. UTB is a Hispanic-serving institution that attracts students from the surrounding areas, including the Mexico border region. The College of Science, Mathematics and Technology (CSMT) established a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) cohort program to help the majority of students to earn a degree in a STEM field in the shortest possible time. The challenges and obstacles encountered during the planning and implementation phase of the STEM cohort program are discussed in this paper, as are …

Development Of An Instrument To Measure Student Attitudes Toward Science Fairs, Claudia Huddleston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Science fairs are woven into the very fabric of science instruction in the United States and in other countries. Even though thousands of students participate in science fairs every year, no instrument to measure student attitudes toward partaking in this hands-on learning experience has been fully developed and available for school administrators and teachers to assess the perceived value that current students attribute to participation in science fairs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to continue the development and refinement of an instrument that measured student attitudes towards science fairs based on an unpublished instrument created by Michael (2005). …

Sender Side Transmission Rules For The Internet, Tejas N. Narechania, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

Since 1966, the Federal Communications Commission has, one way or another, protected businesses that deliver services over the nation’s communications infrastructure. But in January 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the FCC’s net neutrality rules contained in its 2010 Open Internet Order. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has since indicated that he will take up the D.C. Circuit’s invitation to implement rules that, consistent with historic practice, “will meet the court’s test for preventing improper blocking of and discrimination among Internet traffic.”

Chairman Wheeler’s statement invites an obvious question: presuming that the FCC wants …

Street Stops And Police Legitimacy: Teachable Moments In Young Urban Men's Legal Socialization, Tom Tyler, Jeffrey Fagan, Amanda Geller

Faculty Scholarship

An examination of the influence of street stops on the legal socialization of young men showed an association between the number of police stops they see or experience and a diminished sense of police legitimacy. This association was not primarily a consequence of the number of stops or of the degree of police intrusion during those stops. Rather, the impact of involuntary contact with the police was mediated by evaluations of the fairness of police actions and judgments about whether the police were acting lawfully. Whether the police were viewed as exercising their authority fairly and lawfully shaped the impact …

Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, David C. Dollahite

Faculty Publications

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) was formally organized on April 6, 1830, in Palmyra, New York, by founding president Joseph Smith during the era of U.S. history known as the Second Great Awakening. Smith was considered a prophet, through whom God restored the church of that Latter-day Saints (i.e., the Mormons), believed to be lost to apostasy in ancient times.

Hollandites As A New Class Of Multiferroics, S. Liu, A.R. Akbashev, X. Yang, X. Liu, Wanlu Li, L. Zhao, X. Li, A. Couzis, M.-G. Han, Y. Zhu, L. Krusin-Elbaum, J. Li, L. Huang, S.J.L. Billinge, J.E. Spanier, S. O'Brien

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Discovery of new complex oxides that exhibit both magnetic and ferroelectric properties is of great interest for the design of functional magnetoelectrics, in which research is driven by the technologically exciting prospect of controlling charges by magnetic fields and spins by applied voltages, for sensors, 4-state logic and spintronics. Motivated by the notion of a tool-kit for complex oxide design, we developed a chemical synthesis strategy for single-phase multifunctional lattices. Here, we introduce a new class of multiferroic hollandite Ba-Mn-Ti oxides not apparent in nature. BaMn₃Ti₄O_14.25, designated BMT-134, possesses the signature channel-like hollandite structure, …

Do Defaults On Payday Loans Matter?, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the effect on a borrower’s financial health of failure to repay a payday loan. Recent regulatory initiatives suggest an inclination to add an “ability to pay” requirement to payday-loan underwriting that would be fundamentally inconsistent with the nature of the product. Because the premise of that regulation would be that borrowers suffer harm when they fail to repay such a loan, it is timely to examine the after-effects of such a default empirically. This essay examines that question using a dataset that combines payday borrowing histories with credit bureau information.

The essay uses a difference-in-difference approach, comparing …

Accuracy Assessment In Multivariate Bayesian Forecasting Linear And Nonlinear Models, Clark Joachim Kogan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Reduced alertness and high levels of cognitive fatigue due to sleep loss bring forth substantial risks in today's 24/7 society. Biomathematical models can be used to help mitigate such risks by predicting quantitative levels of fatigue under sleep loss. These models help manage risk by providing information on the timing at which high levels of fatigue will occur; countermeasures can then be taken to reduce accident risk at such critical times.

Many quantitative models exist to predict cognitive performance based on homeostatic and circadian processes (Mallis et al., 2004). These models have typically been fitted to group average data. Due …

Biological Invasions: Insights Into Ecology And Evolution, Jennifer Naomi Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Introductions of exotic species commonly restructure native communities, but the mechanisms driving native species responses are poorly understood. Invasion biology has focused its research on the negative impacts of invaders, yet invaders can also have positive interactions. A holistic understanding of how biological invasions can have a full range of potential responses from negative to neutral to positive. Understanding the mechanics that underlie native species responses to invasions can help elucidate those factors structuring the native communities we see today. I used a combination of experimental and observational studies in the field and laboratory to determine the effects of spotted …

Leveraging Antidiscrimination, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

As the Civil Rights Act of 1964 turns fifty, antidiscrimination law has become unfashionable. Civil rights strategies are posited as not up to the serious task of addressing contemporary problems of inequality such as improving mobility for low-wage workers or providing access into entry-level employment. This Article argues that there is a danger in casting aside the Civil Rights Act as one charts new courses to address inequality. This Article revisits the implementation strategies that emerged in the first decade of the Act to reveal that the Act was not limited to addressing formal discrimination or bias, but rather drew …

Housing Regulation, Externalities And Residential Property Prices, Henry J. Munneke, C. F. Sirmans, Barrett A. Slade, Geoffrey K. Turnbull

Faculty Publications

This article examines the effects of quantity restrictions on residential property prices in the presence of neighborhood externalities. A Brigham Young University policy limiting students’ location choices provides a natural experiment for studying the externality and quantity restriction effects on property values. A flexible hedonic model is used to control for nonstudent population spatial sorting by type. The estimates show significant positive quantity restriction and student agglomeration effects on student housing prices. There are also significant differences in the negative student externality across nonstudent neighborhoods, with the quantity restriction reinforcing (offsetting) the student price premium (discount) at the boundary.

Who Uses The Roth 401(K), And How Do They Use It?, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

Using administrative data from twelve companies that added a Roth 401(k) option between 2006 and 2010, we describe the characteristics of Roth contributions. Approximately one year after the Roth is introduced, 9% of 401(k) participants have positive Roth balances. Roth participation is more than twice as high among 401(k) participants who were hired after the Roth introduction than among 401(k) participants who were hired before the Roth introduction. In essence, once an employee joins a 401(k) she becomes passive/inattentive, thereby reducing the likelihood of reacting to the introduction of a new Roth option. Conditional on contributing to the Roth, 66% …

The Judiciary And Fiscal Crises: An Institutional Critique, Peter Conti-Brown, Ronald J. Gilson

Faculty Scholarship

Scholars have long debated the role for courts with respect to governmental action that responds to crisis. Most of the crises analyzed, however, are exogenous to the political process; the courts’ role in response to politically endogenous crises has received less attention. We evaluate the role of the judiciary in a subset of those endogenous crises: the judicial treatment of governmental efforts to resolve the crisis facing underfunded public pensions. Assessing institutional competence schematically with reference to an institution’s democratic accountability and fact-finding ability, we argue that, where institutions function properly, judicial intervention in politically endogenous economic crises should be …

Event Flyer

MLK 2014 Event Information

Flyer promoting the 2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. lecture featuring Bill Lann Lee

A Silence That Wants To Be Heard: Suburban Korean American Students In Dialogue With Invisibility, Dawan Coombs, Hye-Young Park, Bob Fecho

Faculty Publications

Korean American students experience invisibility and silence as their culture and presence remain outwardly invisible in the mainstream culture of US high schools. This is further exacerbated by the silent response of the dominant population of the school towards these issues. Yet, to an extent, Korean American students find a sense of comfort within that invisibility; less visibility allows more silence and thus more privacy. This qualitative in-depth interview study focuses on developing understandings of Korean American students’ perceptions and negotiations of education in suburban American schools, specifically through the perceptions of two Korean American female students. When viewed through …

Blending Informational Texts And Readers Theatre To Promote Authentic Inquiry, Dawan Coombs, Terrell A. Young

Faculty Publications

Learning with informational texts doesn’t need to be restricted to the recall of information and facts; instead, challenging students to interpret and present their findings in the form of readers theatre performances requires the application of synthesis and analysis skills. This article frames informational texts and readers theatre as complimentary approaches that, when used together, address the demands of the reading, presenting, and writing standards of 21st century English language arts classrooms while also providing opportunities for students to write creativity. Through an example based on a student-directed inquiry of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the authors present an …

Stories From The Workplace: Using Mini-Modules Online To Increase Student Motivation And Learning, Jon Balzotti, Janet Roberts

Faculty Publications

In this article, we describe the incorporation of video modules into three professional communication classrooms. These modules were designed to give both teachers and students access to professional practitioners and their views about the changing role of communication in the 21st century workplace. We incorporated these modules into professional communication courses (junior/senior level technical communication course) and courses in the disciplines (freshman and senior engineering design courses). The article discusses how content designed to simulate the language conventions of friendly conversation can impact student motivation and foster greater participation in the professional communication classroom.

A Stakeholder–Human Capital Perspective On The Link Between Social Performance And Executive Compensation, Peter M. Madsen, John B. Bingham

Faculty Publications

The link between firm corporate social performance (CSP) and executive compensation could be driven by a sorting effect (a firm’s CSP is related to the initial levels of compensation of newly hired executives), or by an incentive effect (incumbent executives are rewarded for past firm CSP). Existing empirical work focuses exclusively on the incentive effect. In contrast, in this paper we explore the sorting effect of firm CSP on the initial compensation of newly hired executives. In doing so, we develop a novel theoretical approach based on an integration of stakeholder theory and human capital theory, suggesting a positive association …

The Reputational Costs Of Tax Avoidance*, John Gallemore, Edward L. Maydew, Jacob Thornock

Faculty Publications

This study investigates whether firms and their top executives bear reputational costs from engaging in aggressive tax avoidance activities. At least two decades of empirical tax research has shown that firms engage in a wide range of strategies for tax avoidance purposes. 1 Recent studies suggest that for many firms, tax avoidance appears to be highly effective at reducing the firms’ tax payments and increasing their after-tax earnings. For example, Dyreng, Hanlon, and Maydew (2008) find that more than a quarter of publicly traded U.S. firms are able to reduce their taxes to less than 20 percent of their pre-tax …

Trust And Financial Reporting Quality, Jace Garrett, Rani Hoitash, Douglas F. Prawitt

Faculty Publications

Using unique survey data from Great Place to Work R Institute, we investigate the association of intraorganizational trust (i.e., employees’ trust in management) with three aspects of financial reporting: accruals quality, misstatements, and internal control quality. We find that trust is associated with better accrual quality, lower likelihood of financial statement misstatements, and lower likelihood of internal control material weakness disclosures. However, these effects are not uniform across all companies. Consistent with trust improving financial reporting quality through improved information production and information sharing, we find that trust is significantly associated with financial reporting quality in relatively decentralized firms, but …

The Effect Of Product Category On Consumer Brand Relationships, Marc Fetscherin, Michèle Boulanger, Gustavo Q. Souki, Cid Goncalves Filho

Faculty Publications

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the effect of product category on consumer brand relationships. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a total of 800 consumers, respondents evaluated their relationship with their favorite brand in one of the four product categories studied (soft drink, mobile phone, shoes, cars). EFA, subsequent CFA, SEM and ANOVA were used to assess these relationships and the product category effect. Findings - The authors find that brand love positively influences brand loyalty and both, influence positively WOM and purchase intention. Looking at the directionality of these relationships, the results show no product category differences. However, the …

Rearing Children In Love And Righteousness: Latitude, Limits, And Love, Craig H. Hart

Faculty Publications

The First Presidency (1999) counsels parents to “devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church,” and further states that “no other instrumentality can take [the home’s] place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.” The proclamation on the family supports parents in magnifying their divinely designed responsibilities in the Father’s great plan of happiness (see Alma 42:8) by specifically identifying the principles that ultimately will make the most difference in their efforts.

Extraterritorial Avoidance Actions: Lessons From Madoff, Edward R. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

The Madoff case continues to provide fertile ground for testing boundaries of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (Code). In July 2014, Judge Rakoff issued an important decision regarding the extraterritorial scope of the Code’s avoidance rules. The Trustee for the Madoff Estate, Irving Picard, sought to recover cash withdrawn by “feeder funds.” These funds pooled customer assets, invested them in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (Madoff Securities), withdrew proceeds from the investment prior to Madoff’s SIPA filing, and distributed the proceeds to customers before the funds themselves collapsed. The funds are located abroad: one, Fairfield Sentry, is a British Virgin Islands …

Simulation Of The Swelling Of High-Volatile Bituminous Coal During Pyrolysis, He Yang, Sufen Li, Thomas H. Fletcher, Ming Dong

Faculty Publications

In this paper, a model is established to predict the swelling ratio of high-volatile bituminous coal during pyrolysis, based on the assumption that the structure of bubble distribution in the particle at the beginning of the plastic stage is a central bubble surrounded by many surrounding bubbles. The initial number and size of the bubbles when the particles become plastic are calculated by the pressure in the particle. The chemical percolation devolatilization (CPD) model is used to describe pyrolysis. The pyrolysis of eight types of high-volatile bituminous coals is simulated, and the results are compared with experimental results to verify …