Digital Commons Network^™

A Heuristic Text Analytic Approach For Classifying Research Articles, Steven Walczak, Deborah L. Kellogg

School of Information Faculty Publications

Classification of research articles is fundamental to analyze and understand research literature. Underlying concepts from both text analytics and concept mining form a foundation for the development of a quantitative heuristic methodology, the Scale of Theoretical and Applied Research (STAR), for classifying research. STAR demonstrates how concept mining may be used to classify research with respect to its theoretical and applied emphases. This research reports on evaluating the STAR heuristic classifier using the Business Analytics domain, by classifying 774 Business Analytics articles from 23 journals. The results indicate that STAR effectively evaluates overall article content of journals to be consistent …

Examining Political Mobilization Of Online Communities Through E-Petitioning Behavior In We The People, Catherine L. Dumas, Daniel Lamanna, Teresa M. Harrison, S. S. Ravi, Christopher Kotfila, Norman Gervais, Loni Hagen, Feng Chen

School of Information Faculty Publications

This study aims to reveal patterns of e-petition co-signing behavior that are indicative of the political mobilization of online “communities”. We discuss the case of We the People, a US national experiment in the use of social media technology to enable users to propose and solicit support for policy suggestions to the White House. We apply Baumgartner and Jones's work on agenda setting and punctuated equilibrium, which suggests that policy issues may lie dormant for periods of time until some event triggers attention from the media, interest groups, and elected representatives. In the case study presented, we focus on …

A Novel Algorithm For Analyzing Drug-Drug Interactions From Medline Literature, Yin Lu, Dan Shen, Maxwell Pietsch, Chetan Nagar, Zayd Fadli, Hong Huang, Yi-Cheng Tu, Feng Chen

School of Information Faculty Publications

Drug-drug interaction (DDI) is becoming a serious clinical safety issue as the use of multiple medications becomes more common. Searching the MEDLINE database for journal articles related to DDI produces over 330,000 results. It is impossible to read and summarize these references manually. As the volume of biomedical reference in the MEDLINE database continues to expand at a rapid pace, automatic identification of DDIs from literature is becoming increasingly important. In this article, we present a random-sampling-based statistical algorithm to identify possible DDIs and the underlying mechanism from the substances field of MEDLINE records. The substances terms are essentially carriers …

No One Left-Behind! Teaching Information Literacy In A Different Way To An Urban Population, Kiersten Cox, Vicki L. Gregory, Julius Fleschner

School of Information Faculty Publications

The demographics of student-athletes at the University of South Florida closely resemble that of many urban areas in the USA. These students often have little academic success. The School of Information pioneered a credit bearing information literacy course specifically for student-athletes to increase their academic success and to improve their information literacy. The article describes five strategies that make this class successful. These strategies can employed in this class can be employed in other setting such as an urban library or other institution interested in improving clients information literacy.

A Study On The Limitations Of Evolutionary Computation And Other Bio-Inspired Approaches For Integer Factorization, Mohit Mishra, Vaibhav Gupta, Utkarsh Chaturvedi, K. K. Shukla, Roman Yampolskiy

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Integer Factorization is a vital number theoretic problem frequently finding application in public-key cryptography like RSA encryption systems, and other areas like Fourier transform algorithm. The problem is computationally intractable because it is a one-way mathematical function. Due to its computational infeasibility, it is extremely hard to find the prime factors of a semi prime number generated from two randomly chosen similar sized prime numbers. There has been a recently growing interest in the community with regards to evolutionary computation and other alternative approaches to solving this problem as an optimization task. However, the results still seem to be very …

Human Origins, Dispersal And Associated Environments: An African Perspective, Amanuel Beyin

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Africa’s position as the cradle of humanity is widely accepted, supported by rich fossil and archaeological discoveries from different parts of the continent. Drawing on the Out-of-Africa theory of human origins, this article provides a condensed narrative of the major milestones in human evolution and associated environmental settings. The underlying hypothesis is that changes in global climate played an important role in fueling early modern human origins and dispersals within and outside of Africa. As one will discover in this article, the history of humanity is a tale of small events that merged together into major milestones over a long …

A Trustworthiness Of Commercial Airline Pilots (T-Cap) Scale For American Consumers, Stephen C. Rice, Rian Mehta, Scott Winter, Korhan Oyman

Publications

The purpose of this study was to create a Trustworthiness of Commercial Airline Pilots (T-CAP) scale that could be used with American participants. Previous research (Rice, Mehta, Steelman, & Winter, 2014) created a similar scale that may be used with Indian participants. However, due to cultural differences, it was necessary to recreate an instrument that could be used with American consumers. In fact, the scale developed by American participants did differ significantly, both in terms of length and items to measure trustworthiness of commercial pilots. Participants were used in the entire process of creating the scale, including item generation and …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Human Health, Mary Snow, Richard Snow

Publications

Climate change is impacting human health. An obvious effect of a warmer environment is more frequent and severe heat waves. During the European heat wave of 2003, there were an estimated 35,000 more deaths than normal in the first two weeks of August. Many of the deaths resulted from cardiovascular complications among the elderly. As heat waves become more commonplace in the future, so will the number of heat strokes and the onset of other cardiovascular problems. Higher summertime temperatures also increase tropospheric ozone concentrations which in turn affects people with asthma and causes lung and heart damage. Increases in …

The Walking Qur’An: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, And History In West Africa By Rudolph Ware Iii, Emad Hamdeh

Publications

With the introduction of new educational systems in the Muslim world during the late-eighteenth through the early-twentieth century, many Muslims and non-Muslims became critical of traditional pedagogical methods. In particular, the image of Qur’an schools in West Africa are often criticized for their “backward” forms of education and commonly perceived as places where children simply parrot Qur’anic verses without much understanding. These institutions have largely been abandoned and replaced by modern and secular schooling systems. In his The Walking Qur’an, Rudolph Ware argues that Qur’an schools have survived in places like West Africa. By studying them, he seeks to historicize …

Editorial: Special Issue: Safety & Efficiency Of Civil Aviation: Selected Papers From The World Conferences Of The Air Transport Research Society And The World Conference On Transport Society - 2013, Paul Hooper, Ian Douglas, Chunyan Yu, Stefano Paleari

Publications

The Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) is a Special Interest Group (SIG) of the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS). The ATRS annual World Conference was held at the University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy on 26-29 June 2013 and it attracted 266 papers from 37 countries. Also, the WCTRS triennial World Conference was held on 15- 18 July at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during which the ATRS organised several sessions devoted to air transport topics. This special issue of the Journal of Air Transport Studies has drawn upon all of this material to present four papers that promote improvements …

The Role Of Neighborhood Environment In Promoting Risk Factors Of Cardiovascular Disease Among Young Adults: Data From Middle To High Income Population In An Asian Megacity, Mohammad Ahraz Hussain, Sandal Noorani, Amna Khan, Hafsa Asad, Anam Rehan, Aamir Kazi, Mirza Zain Baig, Arish Noor, Amash Aqil, Nida Shahab Bham

Community Health Sciences

Background: Modifiable risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have their triggers in the neighborhood environments of communities. Studying the environmental triggers for CVD risk factors is important to understand the situation in a broader perspective. Young adults are influenced the most by the environment profile around them hence it is important to study this subset of the population.Methods: This was a descriptive study conducted using the EPOCH research tool designed by the authors of the PURE study. The study population consisted of young adults aged 18-25 in two areas of Karachi. The study setting was busy shopping malls frequented by …

Does Academic Assessment System Type Affect Levels Of Academic Stress In Medical Students? A Cross-Sectional Study From Pakistan, Madiha Ali, Hamna Asim, Ahmed Iqbal Edhi, Muhammad Daniya Hashmi, Muhammad Shahjahan Khan, Farah Qamar, Kanza Noor Qaiser, Sidra Masud Qureshi, Mohammad Faizan Zahid, Imtiaz Jehan

Community Health Sciences

Introduction: Stress among medical students induced by academic pressures is on the rise among the student population in Pakistan and other parts of the world. Our study examined the relationship between two different systems employed to assess academic performance and the levels of stress among students at two different medical schools in Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods: A sample consisting of 387 medical students enrolled in pre-clinical years was taken from two universities, one employing the semester examination system with grade point average (GPA) scores (a tiered system) and the other employing an annual examination system with only pass/fail grading. A pre-designed, …

Searching For Safe, Fair, And Affordable Housing: Learning From Experiences., Lauren Heberle, Cate Fosl, T. Kagaba

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Compendium Of Organics Recovery Programs At Colleges And Universities, A.P. Lacy, A. Sizemore, Lauren Heberle, C. Norton

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Intelligence Legalism And The National Security Agency’S Civil Liberties Gap, Margo Schlanger

Articles

Since June 2013, we have seen unprecedented security breaches and disclosures relating to American electronic surveillance. The nearly daily drip, and occasional gush, of once-secret policy and operational information makes it possible to analyze and understand National Security Agency activities, including the organizations and processes inside and outside the NSA that are supposed to safeguard American’s civil liberties as the agency goes about its intelligence gathering business. Some have suggested that what we have learned is that the NSA is running wild, lawlessly flouting legal constraints on its behavior. This assessment is unfair. In fact, the picture that emerges from …

Reflections On Freedom And Criminal Responsibility In Late Twentieth Century American Legal Thought, Thomas A. Green, Merrill Catharine Hodnefield

Articles

It is now a commonplace among historians that American criminal jurisprudence underwent a dramatic change something like two-thirds to three-quarters into the last century. Roughly, this development is understood as a shift (or drift) from a more-or-less pure consequentialism to a "mixed theory" wherein retributivism played a major-at times, dominant-role. As the new paradigm remains intact, now approaching a half-century, the development qualifies as a significant historical fact. The fact applies not only to the history of justification for punishment but also to conceptions of the underlying principle of (basis for) responsibility. The two are rightly distinguished: for many scholars …

No Reason To Blame Liberals (Or, The Unbearable Lightness Of Perversity Arguments), Margo Schlanger

Reviews

In addition to the current extraordinary number of people behind American bars, the other key feature of our current carceral state is the very high concentration of non-whites in that population. That concentration of non-whites has grown significantly since the 1960s, when whites constituted nearly two thirds of American prison population; today, they are only a bit over one-third. Since 72% of Americans are white, the distinction in terms of incarceration rate is far more stark: among white men, the current imprisonment rate (counting only sentenced prisoners) is 4.7/1000; among Latino men it is two-and-a-half times that (11.3/1000); and among …

Consent Searches And Fourth Amendment Reasonableness, Alafair Burke

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article builds on a growing body of scholarship discussing the role of reasonableness in consent-search doctrine. Although the language of “voluntary consent” implies a subjective inquiry into the state of mind of the person granting consent, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly injected an objective standard of reasonableness into its analysis of a citizen’s consent. Several scholars have characterized the Court’s consent jurisprudence as focusing not on true voluntariness but on the reasonableness of police conduct, which they argue is appropriate because the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is “reasonableness.” While the renewed scholarly focus on the role of …

Asset Preservation And The Evolving Role Of Trusts In The Twenty-First Century, Jay A. Soled, Mitchell Gans

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

For the vast majority of the twentieth century, trusts served two pivotal roles. The first was as a vehicle to help mitigate federal and state estate tax burdens, the rates of which could be quite significant. The second was to assist in asset preservation, safeguarding trust beneficiaries from their profligacy, former spouses, creditors, and the like.

At the start of the twenty-first century, Congress passed legislation that curtailed the impact of the federal estate tax, and many state legislatures have followed suit, either eliminating or significantly reducing their estate taxes. As a result of these legislative changes, trust instrument reliance …

Intellectual Property And The Presumption Of Innocence, Irina D. Manta

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Our current methods of imposing criminal convictions on defendants for copyright and trademark infringement are constitutionally defective. Previous works have argued that due process under the Sixth Amendment requires prosecutors to prove every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, including the jurisdictional element. Applying this theory to criminal trademark counterfeiting results in the conclusion that prosecutors should have to demonstrate that an infringing mark needs to have traveled in or affected interstate commerce, which currently is not mandated. Parallel to this construction of the Commerce Clause, criminal prosecutors would also have to prove that Congress has the power …

Moving Forward, Looking Back: A Retrospective On Sexual Harassment Law, Joanna L. Grossman

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

The history of sexual harassment law─which I have occasion to consider as part of this symposium on the fiftieth anniversary of Title VII─can be divided, if not neatly, into three eras. The 1970s was home to the emergence of consciousness about the frequency and harm of sexually harassing behaviors in the workplace─and a name to describe them. The 1980s and 1990s saw the development and embrace of a theoretical understanding of sexual harassment as a form of discrimination, outlined in Catharine MacKinnon's path-breaking 1979 book, The Sexual Harassment of Working Women, and the development of a comprehensive set of …

The New York Llc Act At Twenty: Is Piercing Still 'Enveloped In The Midst Of Metaphor'?, Miriam R. Albert

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Twenty years ago, the New York Limited Liability Company Law was enacted, including § 609(a), which explicitly disclaims liability of members, managers, and agents for the debts and obligations of the LLC. However, New York courts have held that this limitation on liability is not absolute, and certain conduct on the part of the owners can erode the liability shield. The statute provides that the members will not have personal liability for LLC debts solely because of their role as owners in the LLC. The statute does not say that members will never have liability, just that any liability will …

Why Do Law Students Want To Become Tax Lawyers?, Linda Galler

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

The paper lays out a list of reasons why law students develop an interest in tax law. It is part of a compendium of papers commemorating the 75th anniversary of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation. It is written to provide law students with guidance concerning their choice of career and practicing attorneys with a bit of nostalgia.

Librarian Director As Manager Of Union Employees, Courtney L. Selby

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Over the past 5 years, directors of law libraries have been retiring at a rapid rate and this pace is only increasing. As a result, many new law library directors may have relatively little exposure to a director’s responsibilities before assuming the role. Academic Law Library Director Perspectives: Cases and Insights is a valuable guide and learning tool for any prospective or new law library director looking to learn the ins and outs of the position. Each chapter starts with a case study to provide a realistic context in which to examine the subject, followed by analysis and commentary by …

The Challenge Of Using Electronic Resources To Solve Ill-Structured Legal Problems, Stefan H. Krieger

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Changing The School To Prison Pipeline: Integrating Trauma Informed Care In The New York City School System, In Collected Essays Impact: Threat Of Economic Inequality, Ellen Yaroshefsky, Anna Shwedel

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

No Execution If Four Justices Object, Eric M. Freedman

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

I. DRIVING A NAIL WITH A SCREWDRIVER IN CAPITAL CASES

Today’s Supreme Court defines its role as choosing from the thousands of cases pressed upon it annually those very few that will best serve as vehicles for the resolution of legal issues of general importance.

1. A. Ordinary Cases

(1) The necessary consequence is that some litigants will seek review and fail to attain it for reasons having nothing to do with the merits of their claims (e.g., the Court desires to have the issue percolate for a while in the lower courts or in the public arena), and will find …

Trotting Out The White Horse: How The S.E.C. Can Handle Bitcoin’S Threat To American Investors, J. Scott Colesanti

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Bitcoin has entered the kingdom to stay, yet few are willing to shield its most likely victims.

The cryptocurrency is a mysterious amalgam of technology, transparency, and secrecy. Despite its initial mission of bypassing commercial fees, the currency alternative, presently valued at over $400 a coin, is a more likely candidate for hoarding and speculation. Surprisingly, while its brazen use to facilitate money laundering and drug purchases have been met with prosecution and headlines, Bitcoin’s everyday rapidly growing appeal to investors has been left largely unaddressed.

As an investment, Bitcoin’s chief marketing tool appears to be conversion mechanisms declaring themselves …

Lgbtq Relationships, Barbara J. Stark

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Perhaps nowhere in family law is this evolution more dramatic than in the burgeoning recognition of rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (LGBTQ) couples. Within the past twenty- five years courts, legislatures, and international bodies have addressed the extent to which rights and obligations formerly reserved to heterosexual married spouses should be conferred on other partners.

Most western democracies now recognize same- sex unions, assuring the partners in such unions a range of rights and benefits, similar to but distinct from the rights and benefits enjoyed by married couples. Part A of this Chapter describes the legal mechanisms …

Correcting The Record Regarding Therestatement Of Property’S Slayer Rulein The Brooklyn Law Review’Ssymposium Issue On Restatements, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein

Articles

In 2014, the Brooklyn Law Review published a symposium issue on Restatements of the Law. The organizer of the symposium, Professor Anita Bernstein, did not afford an opportunity for Restatement reporters to comment on the articles. The organizer did invite the Director of the American Law Institute, Lance Liebman, to contribute an essay commenting on the symposium as a whole. Liebman’s essay—unintentionally no doubt—misstated the position that we took in formulating the slayer rule for the Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers. Liebman’s misstatement—that we recommended that the Institute adopt a rule allowing a murderer to inherit …