Digital Commons Network^™

The Limits Of The Freedoms Act’S Amicus Curiae, Chad Squitieri

Scholarly Articles

The federal government’s power to engage in surveillance for national security purposes is extensive. In an effort to reform the current national surveillance regime, scholars have called for, among other things, the creation of a “special advocate” to counter the government’s arguments before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Feeling political pressure to improve an ever-unpopular national surveillance regime, lawmakers passed the USA FREEDOM Act (“Freedom Act”). Section 401 of the Freedom Act provides for the creation of an “amicus curiae,” a position that differs from earlier conceptions of a “special advocate” in important respects. This Essay examines those differences, and …

Confronting Big Data: Applying The Confrontation Clause To Government Big Data Collection, Chad Squitieri

Scholarly Articles

When government investigators request data from companies such as Google, they obtain data on targeted individuals with a guarantee that the data has been collected, stored, and analyzed properly. These guarantees constitute a testimonial statement under the Confrontation Clause. Similar to lab analysts who submit test results of cocaine samples or blood alcohol levels, this Note argues that analysts involved with the collection, storage, and analysis of big data must be available for confrontation under the Sixth Amendment.

The Effects Of Omega-3 Fatty Acids On The Concentration Of Myo-Inositol, Patrick Knighton

Honors Theses

Bipolar affective disorder is a mental illness that affects 1-2% of the population. One hypothesis for the effectiveness of current treatments of bipolar disorder is the reduction of cellular myo-inositol. Lithium and valproate (VPA) are known to reduce cellular inositol levels, however these treatments often have notable side effects. Currently, there is a need to find a treatment for bipolar disorder that reduces the adverse side effects of these drugs. Previous studies, have found success in using omega-3 fatty acids for the treatment of bipolar affective disorder. The long-term purpose of this study is to determine what effect omega-3 fatty …

Changing Attitudes Towards Sexual Orientation And The Effect Of Documentary Film, Michael Jon Vanderwaal

Honors Theses

Attitudes towards LGBT people are shifting rapidly, with over half (51%) of the US population now favoring same-sex marriage. LGBT issues are also being hotly debated in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church. The purpose of this research is to examine how the film, Seventh-Gay Adventist (SGA) influences SDA college students' attitudes regarding homosexuality. My study compares attitude scores of students (N=46) using an experimental design with random assignment. Both the experimental group and the control group completed a commonly used Homosexuality Attitude Scale and modified version of Fulton's Adventists and LGB's survey at pretest and posttest. Results show that the …

Edward Snowden, Criminal Or Patriot: Media Coverage Of National Security Agency Document Leaks, Joyce M. Yoon

Honors Theses

Kenneth Burke's dramatic pentad was used to analyze Edward Snowden's National Security Agency (NSA) document leaks from June 5, 2013 through October 1, 2013 as published in the New York Times (NYT) and the Guardian. The articles were coded by newspaper, headline, reporting journalist, page prominence, word count, publication date, and tone of stories. Content analysis revealed that there was significant difference in coverage of Snowden: the Guardian utilized the word "swhistleblower"s extensively in a positive way while negative words like "leaker" drove NYT coverage of Snowden. Both papers overlap in the identification of Snowden's actions as one of the …

Musical Borrowing In Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas: Piazzolla, Desyatnikov, Vivaldi, Wayanne Watson

Honors Theses

Leonid Desyatnikov arranged Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas for violin and string orchestra, interspersing quotations from Vivaldi's Four Seasons throughout the new work. My score-based analysis of the arrangement investigates Desyatnikov's borrowing practice and connects his compositional techniques to musicological meanings. In addition to identifying levels of contrast value between the quotation and the surrounding arrangement, I examine alterations to the original content and context of the quotations and determine whether Desyatnikov maintains or transforms the quotations' identities. I combine identity and contrast value into an interpretive model of musical interaction, providing a more nuanced exploration of musical dominance.

Comparative Study Of Virulence Factors Among Esβl-Producing And Nonproducing Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Clinical Isolates, Maha Abd El Fattah Khalil, Fatma Ibrahim Sonbol, Abdelfattah Badr, Samh Samir Ali

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

\beta-Lactamase production is considered one of the most important resistance mechanisms among virulent Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates. The aim of this study was to compare the production and antimicrobial resistance patterns of some virulence factors in extended spectrum \beta-lactamase (ES\betaL)-producing and nonproducing P. aeruginosa clinical isolates. Materials and methods: Out of 183 different clinical specimens, 104 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were recovered. The isolates were screened for ESbL production using the double disk diffusion test and phenotypic confirmatory disk diffusion test. All isolates were tested for susceptibility to 25 antimicrobials, as well as for expression of various virulence factors including pigment, hemolysin, …

Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester Protects Lung Alveolar Epithelial Cellsfrom Cigarette Smoke-Induced Damage, Firat Bariş Barlas, Suat Erdogan

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: To evaluate the influence of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) on cigarette smoke (CS)-induced cell damage, oxidative stress, and inflammation in human alveolar epithelial cells. Materials and methods: A549 alveolar epithelial cells were divided into control, CS exposure, CAPE, and CS+CAPE treatment groups. Undiluted CS-exposed medium (100%) and three dilutions (50%, 25%, and 10%) of CS-exposed media were applied to cultured A549 cells, which were analyzed after 3 h of incubation. Viability was measured by MTT assay, the gene expressions were evaluated by real-time PCR, and spectrophotometric techniques were used for biochemical assessments. Results: While CS exposure markedly reduced …

Comparison Of The Contamination Rates Of Culture Media Used For Isolation And Identification Of Dermatophytes, Ramazan Gümral, Ayli̇n Döğen, Mehmet Maci̇t İlki̇t

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: Mycological media that promote spore production are essential for the diagnosis of dermatophytosis. However, these culture media frequently become contaminated by multiple fungal or bacterial species during culture. The aim of this study was to compare the contamination rates of 6 culture media used for the isolation and identification of dermatophytes, including Borelli's lactritmel agar (BLA), brain-heart infusion agar (BHIA), Lowenstein-Jensen agar (LJA), malt extract agar (MEA), potato dextrose agar (PDA), and Sabouraud glucose agar (SGA). Materials and methods: Agar plates were inoculated with 43 well-characterized dermatophyte strains, belonging to the genera Arthroderma, Epidermophyton, Microsporum, or Trichophyton. The agar …

Antibiofilm Activity Of Trans-Cinnamaldehyde, P-Coumaric, And Ferulic Acids On Uropathogenic Escherichia Coli, Barbara Kot, Jolanta Wicha, Malgorzata Piechota, Katarzyna Wolska, Agata Gruzewska

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: Biofilm on urinary catheters results in persistent infections that are resistant to antibiotics. In this study, phytochemicals were assessed as alternative antimicrobials in preventing and inactivating E. coli biofilm on urinary catheters. Materials and methods: Biofilm prevention was tested using catheter fragments inoculated with E. coli and treated with trans-cinnamaldehyde, p-coumaric, and ferulic acids (0%, 0.1%, 0.25%, and 0.5%) for 0, 1, 3, and 5 days. Inactivation of E. coli biofilm with the same agents at concentrations of 0%, 1%, 1.25%, or 1.5% used for 0, 1, 3, or 5 days was also evaluated. Results: All used concentrations of …

Herbal Self-Medication Use In Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, Ivana Damnjanovic, Dusanka Kitic, Nikola Stefanovic, Snezana Zlatkovic-Guberinic, Aleksandra Catic-Djordjevic, Radmila Velickovic-Radovanovic

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: A considerable number of patients suffering from diabetes mellitus (DM) turn to self-medication using medicinal plants, preparations, and medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate self-medication using medicinal plants and the potential influence of health care professionals' advice or media information regarding the use of herbal dietary supplements with hypoglycemic effect in a population of patients with type 2 DM. Materials and methods: This research, in the form of an analytic cross-sectional study, was conducted in 6 pharmacies in the territory of Nis, Serbia, during October 2013. The criterion set for the study was to include patients …

Workplace Physical Violence, Verbal Violence, And Mobbing Experiencedby Nurses At A University Hospital, Fatma Nur Baran Aksakal, Emi̇ne Füsun Karaşahi̇n, Asi̇ye Uğraş Di̇kmen, Emi̇ne Avci, Seçi̇l Özkan

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of and risk factors for physical violence, verbal violence, and mobbing experienced by nurses in a university hospital. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Gazi University Medical Faculty Hospital. A questionnaire form recommended by the WHO and the International Labor Organization was administered through face-to-face interviews to determine the violence experienced in the past 12 months by nurses. Results: The prevalence of physical violence, verbal violence, and mobbing was 13.9%, 41.8%, and 17.1%, respectively. Working more than 40 h per week increased the risk of …

Immunogenicity Of Conserved Cork And Ss-Barrel Domains Of Baumannii Acinetobactin Utilization Protein In An Animal Model, Yaqub Hajiaghatabar Sangroodi, Iraj Rasooli, Shahram Nazarian, Walead Ebrahimizadeh, Fatemeh Sefid

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: The uptake of the ferric-acinetobactin complex into the periplasmic space relies on the baumannii acinetobactin utilization (BauA) protein. BauA is composed of cork and the β-barrel domains. We constructed a recombinant protein from conserved antigenic domains of cork and the β-barrel of BauA to evaluate their immunogenic role in an animal model. Materials and methods: The selected bauA domains were amplified from a purified genome of Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 19606. The domains were then cloned into pET28a and the proteins expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) were purified using nickel nitrilotriacetic acid chromatography. Mice and rabbits were immunized with …

Hiv Prevalence In Blood Donors And Recipients In Pakistan: A Meta-Analysis And Analysis Of Blood-Bank Data, Bushra Moiz, Barkat Ali, Muhammad Hasnain Chatha, Ahmed Raheem, Hasan Abbas Zaheer

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Background:
The first instances of HIV-antibody detection in donated blood in Pakistan were reported in 1988. Since then, documentation of HIV in blood donors and of rates of transmission via transfusion has been limited. Previously assumed to have a low prevalence, HIV is an increasing health concern in Pakistan. Since there is no national, centralized blood-banking system, there are no reliable data on which to base estimated risks of transfusion-associated HIV infection. This study was therefore conducted to estimate the prevalence of HIV in blood donors and recipients in Pakistan between 1988 and 2012.
Methods:
Meta-analyses were undertaken of reported …

Bridgefunding: Crowdfunding And The Market For Entrepreneurial Finance, Seth C. Oranburg

Scholarly Articles

Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (Regulation Crowdfunding) should encourage entrepreneurship by allowing startups and small businesses to sell stock online. Unfortunately, that law applied Depression-era securities law concepts to peer-to-peer financing in the Internet era; as a result, it implemented Internet-investor protection ineffectively. Using Regulation Crowdfunding requires startups to comply with costly and unnecessary antifraud requirements. Even after making disclosures, registering with a funding portal, and producing audited financial statements, startups still cannot raise enough money via Regulation Crowdfunding to deploy high-growth strategies without needing more funds from professional angel and venture investors.

This …

A Little Birdie Said: How Twitter Is Disrupting Shareholder Activism, Seth C. Oranburg

Scholarly Articles

Shareholders are organizing and mobilizing on new social media platforms like Twitter. This changes the dynamics of shareholder proxy contests in ways that favor shareholders over management. Disruptive technology may bring about a shareholder revolution, which may not be in shareholders' best interests, at least from the perspective of shareholder wealth maximization, and it also has powerful implications for the future of corporate social responsibility.

Missing Photos, Suffering Withdrawal, Or Finding Freedom? How Experiences Of Social Media Non-Use Influence The Likelihood Of Reversion, Eric P.S. Baumer, Shion Guha Phd, Emily Quan, David Mimno, Geri K. Gay

Health Services and Informatics Research

This article examines social media reversion, when a user intentionally ceases using a social media site but then later resumes use of the site. We analyze a convenience sample of survey data from people who volunteered to stay off Facebook for 99 days but, in some cases, returned before that time. We conduct three separate analyses to triangulate on the phenomenon of reversion: simple quantitative predictors of reversion, factor analysis of adjectives used by respondents to describe their experiences of not using Facebook, and statistical topic analysis of free-text responses. Significant factors predicting either increased or decreased likelihood of reversion …

This Digital Life: A Neighborhood-Based Study Of Adolescents' Lives Online, Jessica Pater Phd, Andrew D. Miller, Elizabeth Mynatt

Health Services and Informatics Research

In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

In this paper, we present the results of a multi-year study of the social computing practices of 179 adolescents (Mage=12.4 years, SD=1.3; range: 10-14) living in a majority-minority lower-income urban neighborhood in the Southeast U.S. We investigate shifting social media practices using annual surveys and focus groups. We describe participants’ social media use and motivations and show how that use has shifted over time. We show how participants identify social pressures and influences as well as specific behaviors including computer-mediated risky behaviors and self-harm. We discuss …

Promises Of Power: A Political Autobiography, Carl B. Stokes

Cleveland Memory

For a brief time in Cleveland, I was the man of power. I had what no black man in this country has had before: direct control of the government of a predominantly white population. That power came to me because I seized a situation that had made me seem like a savior to men who ordinarily look on blacks as an alien and vaguely dangerous force. –Excerpt from chapter 1 “Big Man, Little Man.” Other chapters include “How to Get Elected by White People,” Carl Junior,” "The Media,” “The Police,” and “The Future of Black Politics.” Carl B. Stokes …

Electric Utilities And Distributed Energy Resources - Opportunities And Challenges, Jeff Winmill

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article explores the key business and regulatory issues associated with utility investments in DERs, as well as important considerations for regulators seeking to strike the appropriate balance between DER services provided by third parties and DER services provided by utilities. Part I provides a brief overview of the electric utility industry, and the growth and impact of DERs in recent years. Part II analyzes two emergent distributed technologies––solar photovoltaics (PV) and distributed storage––as well as utility efforts to invest in these technologies. And Part III concludes with a discussion of two different regulatory models for addressing utility-ownership of DERs: …

"Green" Performance: The Future Of Performance-Based Executive Compensation?, Ben Schwefel

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Although sustainability performance appears to be a logical extension of the traditional performance-based compensation model, the effect and result of such performance remains unclear and untested across the market. The adoption of broad-based sustainability performance measures may be dangerous because, often times, these measures are tailored to the corporation and may decrease total shareholder return in the short run. Regardless of whether or not the corporation decides to introduce these measures, their effect on total shareholder return and other corporate interests requires an individualized analysis.
Part II of this Comment discusses the current state of executive compensation, including the use …

Reclaiming Mediation’S Future: Re-Focusing On Party Self-Determination, Robert A. Baruch Bush

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Infringement As Vandalism, Irina D. Manta, Robert E. Wagner

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Defenders of strong intellectual property rights often maintain that intellectual property infringement is theft and that the sanctions associated with it ought to be high. Others are skeptical of the property comparison and think that much lower sanctions are appropriate.

In this Article, we argue that a careful analysis demonstrates: 1) that intellectual property infringement can be analogized to a property crime, but 2) that the more analogous crime is vandalism or trespass rather than theft. This categorization takes the rhetorical punch out of the property comparison. In addition to analyzing the natures of the various offenses, this Article investigates …

A Statistical Analysis And Modeling Of Information Diffusion Across Online Social Networks, Michael Piserchia

Open Access Master's Theses

In recent years, online social networks have become a very popular and effective forum for information exchange. These large, highly interconnected networks span the globe and have the ability to disseminate information in a fraction of the time it would take other communication networks. Given the myriad ways in which online social networks can be used, creating accurate, predictive models for the spread of information across them is very valuable. With that, modeling processes on large networks is a difficult task. It is computationally expensive, and usually prohibitive, to model a process on the entirety of a very large network. …

Effect Of Average Happiness For Twitter On The Dow Jones Industrial Average Return Volatility, Zonghao Zhu

Open Access Master's Theses

The stock market is well known for its volatility and many models are proposed to capture the volatility. Volatility is naturally unobservable and the absolute values of the returns work as the realized volatility. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is the study object and the models used are generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models with different extensions. The unique extension in this study is to add happiness data into the model and check whether it helps to better capture the volatility and improve the forecasting accuracy. The happiness data is extracted from Twitter and it is an index to show …

The Development Of Guidance For Solving Polymer-Penetrant Diffusion Problems In Marine Hardware, Matthew Aaron Rice

Open Access Master's Theses

There is a need for the development and trial of an accessible, robust procedure that can be followed to solve polymer-penetrant diffusion problems associated with marine hardware failures, incorporating some of the complexities abounding in these types of systems. The goals of this guidance are to instruct design engineers in the appropriate methods to apply when predicting diffusion phenomena as well as to assist them when selecting materials for diffusion-susceptible or -dependent applications, especially those related to marine hardware. A straightforward step-by-step flowchart tool is presented to accomplish this instruction to average scientists and engineers not deeply versed in the …

Epidemiology Of Puffy Snout Syndrome In Tuna, Taylor M. Voorhees

Open Access Master's Theses

The domestication of tuna species has proven to be one of the most challenging endeavours in aquaculture. Among the issues yet unresolved is the occurrence of ‘puffy snout syndrome,’ a condition in which tumor-like growths form on the head. Ultimately, vision and feeding are impaired and long-term afflictions typically result in mortality. Though few mentions of puffy snout exist in the literature, evidence suggests that it is not uncommon among facilities that hold tunas in captivity. The specific aims of this study were to: a) describe pathological features of puffy snout, and b) investigate its etiology through the evaluation of …

Take A Deep Breath: How Yoga Postures And Breathing Techniques Can Impact Ptsd Symptoms, Sophia E. Armington

Scripps Senior Theses

Yoga postures (asana) and yoga breathing techniques (pranayama) could be an effective method of treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study investigates the importance of the style of yoga treatment (pranayama, asana, or both) and the frequency with which these interventions are conducted (two or five times per week). The participants in this study will be military personnel with diagnosed PTSD who are currently receiving CBT and pharmaceutical treatment. All participants will have their PTSD symptoms assessed before the study begins, and then once a week each of the 12 weeks of the study. Structured interviews will be administered …

Queer Content In Science Fiction Allegory And Analogue: Is It In Disguise?, Anna C. Marburger

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis performs a textual analysis of two for-profit science fiction texts in which the authors implanted queer content: Bryan Singer's X-Men films and James Robert's Transformers comic series, "More Than Meets the Eye". The argument incorporates queer (referring to attraction and gender variance) media representation and western identity politics lenses into its critique.

By interrogating reality through the masquerade of an impossible universe, science fiction affects how subversive a text can be. When authors designate the natural and the unnatural in a strange universe, they designate what and who belongs in our society. Whatever they imagine has an effect …

A Bayesian Zero-Inflated Generalized Growth Mixture Model For Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors, Si Yang

Open Access Master's Theses

Using longitudinal data to model change patterns of behaviors is a major interest in the field of developmental psychology and behavioral science. As het- erogeneity often exists in the population, researchers are more and more interested in a topological representation of the growth trajectories. That is, to identify distinct trajectories depending on their individual characteristics. Latent class models(LCM) are flexible methods of modeling unobserved heterogeneity in a population and it has been recently extended to analyzing longitudinal data. Latent class growth models(LCGM) assume individuals come from a finite number of latent classes and individuals share the same growth trajectory within …