Digital Commons Network^™

At Home In The Bronx: Children At The New York Catholic Protectory 1865-1938, Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

The N.Y.C.-based New York Catholic Protectory was established in 1865 as the home of destitute or truant children. This article deals with such topics as the protectory's establishment, operation and management, education and industrial training, as well as societal factors leading to its changing mission and closing in the Bronx in 1938-- after serving the needs of over 140,000 boys and girls.

Kamil Kubik: The Artist And Copyright Observed, Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Yvette J. Liebesman

IP Theory

For over 60 years—from the time he fled his native Czechoslovakia in 1948 until his death in August 2011—Kamil Kubik created amazing oil paintings and pastels. His art graces the walls of The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, the Old Ebbett Grill in Washington, DC, and the homes of Presidents, Governors, and celebrities. Many of his works were also printed as lithographs and serigraphs, and sold at more affordable prices than the four-to-five figures that he received for the originals. Fortunately, he was not dependent on the sale of these prints, as most of the original works were unprotected by …

A Probabilistic Model Of Benefit-Cost Analysis For Highway Construction Projects, Yue He

Open Access Theses

Deterministic method occupies the predominant position in economic analysis. However, by using a single value to estimate the project value, deterministic method would hide the risk under it. Analysts may make incorrect judgments by looking at a value without knowing the likelihood of its occurrence and the consequences of its occurrence. A probabilistic model was developed in this study to address this problem. It was found in this study that the traffic flows on Indiana highways follow logistic distributions rather than normal distributions as generally believed. The application of the probabilistic model was illustrated through a case study. The results …

International Comparison Of Cost Efficiency Of Corn And Soybean Production, Elizabeth Anne Lunik

Open Access Theses

Comparing detailed production costs and input use across countries allows producers to see if they are competitive with similar operations in other countries. This thesis looks at the cost efficiency of a sample of corn and soybean farms representing 16 countries to understand efficiency and cost trends at the farm-level, compare these farms, and identify factors that might explain farm-level performance. This analysis delves into detailed production data to calculate an important international benchmark, which is currently not available. ^ The data consist of a six-year (2008-2013) unbalanced panel of 35 corn-producing farms and 16 soybean-producing farms, which come from …

Assessing The Spatial Variability Of Soils In Uganda, Joshua Okach Minai

Open Access Theses

Uganda's soils were once considered the most fertile in Africa, but soil erosion and soil nutrient mining have led to soil degradation and declining agricultural productivity. Lack of environmental awareness among farmers, traditional agricultural practices, minimal inorganic fertilizer use, and little to no use of improved crop varieties all contribute to continued soil degradation. The objectives of this study were: (1) to characterize the spatial distribution of selected physical and chemical soil properties in Uganda on a national scale utilizing the data collected by Nkonya et al. (2008), and (2) to identify the major factors and processes that are dominant …

Characterization Of Hessian Fly From Israel, Alisha J Johnson

Open Access Dissertations

Mayetiola destructor Say, the Hessian fly, is a gall midge and a member of the Dipteran family Cecidomyiidae. It is a common pest of wheat found throughout all of the major wheat growing areas of the world and poses a serious economic threat to the United States (US), particularly in the Southeast winter wheat region. Damage to wheat is done solely by feeding first and second in-star larvae. Hessian fly (Hf) infestations result in a loss in grain yield by the stunting and/or killing of seedling wheat plants in the winter and by causing breakage at the nodes of the …

Improvement Of Simulating Bmps And Lid Practices In L-Thia-Lid Model, Yaoze Liu

Open Access Dissertations

Best management practices (BMPs) and low impact development (LID) practices are popular approaches used to reduce the negative impacts of urbanization on hydrology and water quality. To assist planners and decision-makers in urban development projects, user-friendly tools are needed to assess the effectiveness of BMPs and LID practices on water quantity and quality. To address this need, the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment-LID (L-THIA-LID) model was enhanced with additional commonly used BMPs and LID practices represented in the model, improved approaches to estimate hydrology and water quality, and representation of practices in series. The tool was used to evaluate the performance …

Algorithms For Bundling And Pricing Trucking Services: Deterministic And Stochastic Approaches, Rodrigo Mesa-Arango

Open Access Dissertations

Bundling and pricing trucking services is an important strategic decision for carriers. This is helpful when they consider the incorporation of new businesses to their networks, look for economic and optimal operations, and develop revenue management strategies. Reverse combinatorial auctions for trucking services are real-world examples that illustrate the necessity of such strategies. In these auctions, a shipper asks carriers for quotes to serve combinations of lanes and the carriers have to bundle demand and price it properly. This dissertation explores several dimensions of the problem employing state-of-the-art analytical tools. These dimensions include: Truckload (TL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) operations, behavioral …

Automated Segmentation, Detection And Fitting Of Piping Elements From Terrestrial Lidar Data, Yun-Ting Su

Open Access Dissertations

Since the invention of light detection and ranging (LIDAR) in the early 1960s, it has been adopted for use in numerous applications, from topographical mapping with airborne LIDAR platforms to surveying of urban sites with terrestrial LIDAR systems. Static terrestrial LIDAR has become an especially effective tool for surveying, in some cases replacing traditional techniques such as electronic total stations and GPS methods. Current state-of-the-art LIDAR scanners have very fine spatial resolution, generating precise 3D point cloud data with millimeter accuracy. Therefore, LIDAR data can provide 3D details of a scene with an unprecedented level of details. However, automated exploitation …

The Pathological Role Of Acrolein In Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis And Multiple Sclerosis, Melissa A. Tully

Open Access Dissertations

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating neuropathy that affects nearly 2.5 million people worldwide. Despite substantial efforts, few treatments are currently available largely due to limited knowledge of pathogenic mechanisms underlying the disease. The immune-inflammatory nature of the pathology has prompted investigation of the role of oxidative stress in disease development and progression; however targeting reactive oxygen species for neutralization has had marginal success therapeutically, suggesting that an alternate oxidative stress-related target would prove beneficial. Recently, our lab has implicated acrolein, a highly reactive aldehyde that is both a byproduct and catalyst of lipid peroxidation, as a potential therapeutic …

Becoming Kin: Modernity, Authenticity, And The Construction Of Spiritual Relatedness In An Evangelical Parachurch Ministry, Brad Codr

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores how families are formed and spiritual kinship is created by members of the Body of Christ evangelical parachurch ministry at one public university in the United States. Spiritual relatedness is used to conceptualize members' social relationships and demonstrate the diverse forms of Christian community that emerge in the lives of young adults. Results from this study provide an alternative perspective to social science literature labeling Christianity as an individualistic belief system. It also contributes to continuing dialogue within the anthropology of Christianity, which seeks to describe and understand what it means to be Christian. I argue that …

Carrion-Associated Arthropods In Rural And Urban Environments, Serena Daye Gross

Open Access Dissertations

Preferences of arthropods are important in forensic entomology, as the species collected can help determine the postmortem interval or if remains have been moved. This study looked at arthropods that are attracted to pig carcasses in rural and urban habitats in Northwest Indiana. The species and number of carrion-associated arthropods that are found at a carcass vary with habitat type, month, and stage of decomposition. Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is a synanthropic species that was found in higher numbers in urban locations for both adults and larvae. Though L. sericata had higher numbers in urban habitats, caution must be exercised …

Negotiated Interaction In The Learning Of Written Discourse Conventions, Brian A Guthrie

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines how two Japanese students learning to write in English negotiate the variations in written discourse conventions they encounter in an all-English program at a university in Japan. Textbooks, samples of the students' essays, and written feedback from instructors were analyzed, and interviews were conducted with the students in order to demonstrate the varieties of descriptions and interpretations of written academic introductions the students encountered in their first year of study at the university. Using an approach to learning that draws from ecological theories of composition, alternative approaches to second language acquisition, and actor-network theory, the students' academic …

Constitutional Law—Fifth Amendment And Takings—Courts And The Judicial Process Will Impede Orderly City Development By Limiting Local Governments’ Use Of Exactions In Development Planning. Koontz V. St. Johns River Water Management District, 133s. Ct. 2586 (2013)., Rebecca L. Matlock

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trade Openness And Economic Growth, Anh Tung Dao, '15

The Park Place Economist

Trade liberalization has been central to the discussion of development policy in recent decades. In the 1990s, the Washington Consensus, a set of 10 major development policy recommendations from Washington-based institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), regarded trade openness as essential to achieve higher economic growth. Trade policy, according to the Washington Consensus, should focus on lowering tariffs on imports, especially cheap intermediate inputs that give countries competitive edges in export industries. Although acknowledging the negative effects this type of policy could have on competing domestic industries, the Consensus believed that protection would …

Big Fish, Small Ponds: International Crimes In National Courts, Elizabeth B. Ludwin King

Indiana Law Journal

The principle of complementarity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court anticipates that perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity will be tried in domestic courts unless there is no state with jurisdiction willing or able to do so. This Article examines the situation where a state might be willing to engage in meaningful local justice but temporarily lacks the capability to do so due to the effects of the conflict. It argues that where the state submits a detailed proposal to the International Criminal Court (ICC) outlining the steps necessary to gain or regain the …

Innovation And Leadership: When Does Cmo Leadership Improve Performance From Innovation?, Adam J. Bock, Andreas B. Eisengenrich, Dmitry Sharapov, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Ensuring that organizational innovation generates value increasingly requires effective marketing management. Prior studies, however, report conflicting effects of chief marketing officer (CMO) leadership on how well the firm exploits innovation. These inconsistencies may be associated with firm-level innovation effort, customer focus, and industry type. We analyze archival data from 587 interviews with global CEOs to explain the effect of CMO leadership on outcomes of organizational innovation. CMO leadership of the firm's primary innovation mode is positively associated with product-market innovation effort but not marginal revenue from innovation. CMO leadership also moderates the relationship between customer focus and innovation revenue. Predictive …

The Teachers' Perspective Of Critical Thinking Skills Development In Middle School Gifted Students In The Social Studies Classroom Through The Use Of Primary Sources, Lara Elizabeth Henry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Gifted education, although having been a part of the United States educational fabric since the early 1900s, has various definitions and programs throughout the nation. Many gifted students are being placed in regular education programs without consideration of their needs. In 1991 Wineburg began researching and proposing using primary sources for analyzing and research skills in social studies classrooms as a possible way to meet the needs of gifted students while teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover two connected concepts: The perception middle school social studies teachers' have toward critical …

Asor 2014, Paul J. Ray

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Water Current, Volume 47, No. 2, Spring 2015

Water Current Newsletter

All Seats Reserved For June Tour to Republican River Basin

Water for Food, Filmmaker Team On Drought Documentary

The Smart Cities Movement And Advancing The International Battle To Eliminate Homelessness - Barcelona As Test Case, John Travis Marshall, Jessica Venegas

Faculty Publications By Year

Barcelona is a leader in the smart cities movement, a movement that aims to help cities deliver services to citizens more efficiently and economically as a way of making the city a more inviting and inclusive place to live and work. As with any city committed to forward-looking economic, social, and urban development initiatives, it is important to consider whether ambitious goals to reinvent the city include an agenda to solve the persistent problems that have faced major cities for decades, including affordable housing and caring for roofless or homeless men and women. This article ties together the challenges Barcelona …

On Nine Mile, Allen Morris

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

The photographs of On Nine Mile were made to explore my developing relationship with the place I now inhabit. They compare the reality of a place against preconception and actual experience versus idealized expectations. I made this work to help understand a landscape to which I was transplanted and to which I had no connection. This exhibition is comprised of photographs taken at a section of untilled prairie called Nine Mile that most closely resembled my visual preconception of the Great Plains. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by the mountains, forests, and shoreline that typify the landscape …

Developing A Fuzzy Expert System To Examine Hazard Analysis In The United States Army, Charles J. Karels

Theses and Dissertations

The research conducted in this thesis is an attempt to determine if there are any biographical similarities between second lieutenants in the US Army who view risk in a similar manner and if so, which are the most significant. A study was conducted using in-group surveys of 72 second lieutenants receiving training in Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (IBOLC). The participants were provided with two written surveys each presenting a scenario based on military activities. They were asked to evaluate the scenarios and fill out Risk Management (RM) worksheets based on the US Army's doctrinal process for conducing RM. The …

Collection Development Policy, Electrical Engineering And Computer Science, Ven Basco

Libraries' Documents

No abstract provided.

Atlantic Marine Through The Lens Of Erie, Adam N. Steinman

UC Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Atlantic Marine clarified several things about the enforcement of forum-selection clauses in federal court. But something important was missing from Justice Alito’s opinion—the Erie doctrine. Erie, of course, helps to determine the applicability of state law in federal court, and state law potentially has a lot to say about contractual forum-selection clauses. Indeed, Erie was front and center the last time the Court confronted the enforcement of forum-selection clauses in federal court, when it decided Stewart Organization v. Ricoh a quarter century ago. This article examines the Atlantic Marine decision through the lens of …

"Era(C)Ing The South: Modern Popular Culture Depictions Of Southern History", Bryan Jack

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

There has been significant research on various interpretations of the American South, and the relationship between Southern and American identity. However, there has been little investigation into how modern popular culture depicts and constructs the Southern past and how this shapes Southern identity. This article interrogates the relationship between modern films, race, and Southern history to ask, has the challenge to codified Jim Crow segregation changed filmic portrayals of Southern history? How do these portrayals affect both Southern and American identity? Using race as a lens, the article argues that the end of the Civil Rights Movement has created a …

Transnational Legal Practice [In 2013-2014], Laurel Terry, Carole Silver

Faculty Scholarly Works

This 2015 Year-in-Review article continues the tradition of collecting and publicizing the developments that occurred during the year related to transnational legal practice (TLP). This year’s article builds on the work set forth in the 2014 Year-in-Review.

The 2014 TLP Year-in-Review provided a departure from the Year-in-Review’s typical method of presentation by identifying two categories of what that article called “TLP-Nets.” One group of TLP-Nets is nationally based and the other is inherently transnational. The 2014 article identified examples of TLP-Nets and highlighted the meeting points and relationships that facilitate border-crossing for the variety of actors involved in TLP policy-making …

Kinematics Of Terrestrial Locomotion In Harbor Seals And Gray Seals: Importance Of Spinal Flexion By Amphibious Phocids, Jennifer N. Garrett, Frank E. Fish

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jewish Studies At West Chester University: Programs And Potentials, Ann Lieberman Colgan

Interdisciplinary Studies and Academic Support Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Forum, Volume 39, No. 1, Spring 2015, Florida Humanities Council, Barbara O'Reilley

FORUM: The Magazine of Florida Humanities

Contents: Letter from the Director -- The Oldest City Today: Seeing Balance -- St. Augustine: Life with History and Tourism -- UF Scholars Dig this Place -- St. Augustine Voters Opt for Change -- The Attraction of Authenticity -- Unearthing History in a Place of Myth -- Outrageous (Or just Odd) Stories -- First Families -- Historic Black Community Now Mostly White -- Humanities Alive -- My Favorite St. Augustine Place -- Looking out My Back Door -- Echoes in the Wind