Digital Commons Network^™

The International Community's Response To The Hypothetical Emergence Of Superheroes, Brittany Nicole Woods

CMC Senior Theses

In a golden era for comic based media, this paper uses the hypothetical emergence of superheroes to analyze the assumptions and predictions of three international relations theories: realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Comics consistently reflect the real world, paralleling events and concepts discussed in foreign affairs dialogues. The thought experiment, and the comic genre itself, provides a vehicle for thinking broadly about the political and social ramifications of successful or failed problem solving, state interaction, and scientific advances.

Early Detection Of Mountain Pine Beetle Damage In Ponderosa Pine Forests Of The Black Hills Using Hyperspectral And Worldview-2 Data, Kyle Edward Mullen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

A leading cause for mortality in the pine forests of western North America, the mountain pine beetle, has impacted over 400,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest in the Black Hills of South Dakota since 1996. Methods aimed at earlier detection, prior to visual manifestation of a mountain pine beetle damage in the tree crown, have not been successful because of the overlap and variability of spectral response between the initial stages of attack (green-attacked) and non-attacked tree crowns. Needle-level reflectance spectra was measured from green-attack and non-attack ponderosa pine trees in early spring following an infestation and analyzed using a …

Uno Website Nsfp 2016 Orientation Guide, Uno New Student & Family Programs

Student Support

An illustrated overview of the resources offered by UNO to students in the academic year 2016-2017. UNO has cracked the code to being successful in college, and with so many caring and supportive faculty, staff, and other students committed to your success, there are only three simple things you need to do: Connect. Take Care. Get Help.

Developing A Chronology For Thinning Of The Laurentide Ice Sheet In New Hampshire During The Last Deglaciation, Taylor Hodgdon

Master's Theses and Capstones

Well-constrained ages for the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) have been developed at key sites throughout New England, providing a framework for the deglacial history of the region. Previous work has focused primarily on documenting retreat of the ice sheet margin, but few studies have attempted to reconstruct changes in ice sheet geometry and flow patterns during its recession. This study provides the first direct age control on the thinning of the LIS in central and southern New Hampshire during the last deglaciation. In situ cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages were developed from four glaciated summits, in order to …

Federal Health Care Fraud Statute Sentencing In Georgia And Florida, 2011-2012, Lisa Walker Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The financial costs of U.S. federal health care fraud continue to increase, and as health care payments due to fraudulent claims increase, the portion of The Medicare Trust Fund available to pay for legitimate health care expenses decreases. Prosecution is one of several fraud management life cycle components that contributes to and can alter the course of increasing health care fraud; however, despite this recognition, there is a gap in the literature regarding the consistency of prosecution for federal health care fraud across different judicial districts. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory multiple case study was to explore the federal …

Capitalism And Risk: Concepts, Consequences, And Ideologies, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Confluence Of Water And Immigration Law, Tom I. Romero Ii

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Economic Inequality And College Admissions Policies, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

As economic inequality in the United States has reached unprecedented heights, reformers have focused considerable attention on changes in the law that would provide for greater equality in wealth among Americans. No doubt, much benefit would result from more equitable tax policies, fairer workplace regulation, and more generous spending policies.

But there may be even more to gain by revising college admissions policies. Admissions policies at the Ivy League and other elite American colleges do much to exacerbate the problem of economic inequality. Accordingly, reforming those policies may represent the most effective strategy for restoring a reasonable degree of economic …

The Fifth Migration: A Study Of Cleveland Millennials, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charlie Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Many studies and reports about the “millennial” generation have been conducted at the national level in the past few years. However, little has been done to look at the effects the members of this generation have at the local level. Framed in what has been termed “the fifth migration” or “re-urbanization” this project looks at trends surrounding the millennial generation both nationally and locally. This project not only examines where young people are living, but also dives into trends and changes surrounding mobility, housing, public transit, civic engagement, the changing workplace, and the sharing economy. Across these topics this project …

Walkability In Upper East Texas Cities And Implications For Physical Activity And Health, Wycliffe W. Njororai Simiyu, Fletcher J. Njororai, Billystrom Aronya Jivetti

Health & Kinesiology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: Physical activity is an important intervention strategy against the increasing cases of overweight and obesity in the USA and many other parts of the world. Walking has been identified as a component of physical activity that can easily be incorporated into one’s lifestyle. Recent studies on physical activity have focused on promoting walking as a health enhancing endeavor. Purpose: This study examined the walkability of the environments in 57 cities drawn from 22different counties in upper east Texas within the USA. Methods and materials: The data for all the 57 key cities in upper east Texas were collected from …

International Policy Experience: Short-Term International Travel Courses In Structured Degree Programs, Kirk Marshall Clayton

Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive quantitative research examined 7 years of data to find what are the benefits, challenges, and outcomes of short-term international travel courses in a structured degree program in the organizational leadership, doctoral program at Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology from 2007 to 2014. While there is currently a plethora of study abroad research, most of the existing research explores semester or academic-year programs. Very few studies have investigated shorter durations or students’ perceptions and experiences during these programs or their experiences with, self-identified encounters during these courses. This study aimed to alleviate the dearth of information. …

Espoused And Practiced Stakeholder Engagement In Support Of Corporate Social Responsibility Within The United States Healthcare Sector, Jacqueline J. Macias

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study provides a snapshot into what corporations say and what they do with regard to stakeholder engagement in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and considers the difference in the promises made and the actions taken by corporations in the minds of stakeholders. As the research of CSR questions what a corporation is responsible for and Stakeholder Theory (ST) questions whom the corporation is responsible to, CSR and ST provide conceptual frameworks for the study. A genuine commitment to CSR and stakeholder engagement contributes to sustainability, impacting the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of an organization. According to …

Social Media And Social Learning: A Critical Intersection For Journalism Education, Elizabeth R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

For the past decade, the profession of journalism has been under intense pressure to adapt to changing business models, technology, and forms of communication. Likewise, journalism education has been under intense scrutiny for failing to keep pace with the industry and inadequately preparing students for a rapidly changing professional environment. Social media has become a nexus for the pressures being experienced by both the profession and academia. This study uses Wenger’s (1998) model of Communities of Practice to consider how a student newsroom functions and how student journalists adapt within a newsroom and on social media. This study used a …

Mapping Citizenship: Status, Membership, And The Path In Between, D. Carolina Núñez

Utah Law Review

The concept of citizenship poses an interesting asymmetry: though all citizens receive the same rights and obligations on equal terms, citizenship is not distributed to individuals on equal terms. In the United States, some are citizens by virtue of birth within the national territory or birth to citizen parents. Others must undergo the process of naturalization. Different citizenship rules appear to solve for different variables, and it is not clear whether and how those variables relate to one another. This Article begins unraveling the paradox. It argues that the apparent paradox results from a failure to understand the relationship between …

The Entrepreneurial Commons: Reframing The Relationship Between Intellectual Property And Entrepreneurship, Michael J. Burstein

Utah Law Review

Reconceptualizing entrepreneurial activity as a knowledge commons leads us to ask a different set of questions than previous studies have, and to utilize a different set of methodological tools. As Part II described, existing approaches to understanding the relationship between IP and entrepreneurship focus on the firm and its reactions to various IP laws. By contrast, to the extent that the exemplar entrepreneurial activities described in Part III can be described as instances of commons governance, the analysis must necessarily be broader. The knowledge commons framework forces us to acknowledge that much of information production and dissemination depends on relationships …

Late Holocene Climate: Natural Or Anthropogenic?, W. F. Ruddiman, D. Q. Fuller, J. E. Kutzbach, P. C. Tzedakis, J. O. Kaplan, E. C. Ellis, S. J. Vavrus, C. N. Roberts, R. Fyfe, F. He, C. Lemmen, J. Woodbridge

More Faculty of Science and Engineering Research

AbstractFor more than a decade, scientists have argued about the warmth of the current interglaciation. Was the warmth of the preindustrial late Holocene natural in origin, the result of orbital changes that had not yet driven the system into a new glacial state? Or was it in considerable degree the result of humans intervening in the climate system through greenhouse gas emissions from early agriculture? Here we summarize new evidence that moves this debate forward by testing both hypotheses. By comparing late Holocene responses to those that occurred during previous interglaciations (in section 2), we assess whether the late Holocene …

The Effect Of Serious Gaming On Elementary Student Learning, Amanda Moritz

Graduate Research Papers

With our ever-changing technological world, schools need to incorporate more engaging learning activities that expose and extend students' learning with technologies. This literature review investigated the effects of serious gaming activities on student achievement. Thirty peer-reviewed journals were selected, analyzed, and evaluated. These studies were conducted about a variety of subject areas in the elementary setting in different areas around the world. Research evidence suggested that serious gaming, whose primary goal is not entertainment but instead to educate the user, can improve student achievement, meet their different learning styles, and enhance student motivation across curricular areas and regions. Recommendations for …

Spring Discharge Modeling: A Case Study In The Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, Western Panama, Jordan Mayer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Contact (seepage) springs are frequently the only source of potable drinking water for the Ngäbe people located in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, Western Panama. Dry season flows drastically diminish and sometimes dry up, greatly affecting locals’ access to clean drinking water. This study uses MODFLOW 2005 to model two aquifer systems. One is a lab-created, idealized system, and the other is a small, steeply-sloping aquifer in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé. Modeling the idealized aquifer demonstrated that MODFLOW 2005 has the capacity to model the dewatering of a steeply sloping aquifer. Modeling the field based aquifer demonstrated that a changing climate (increased temperature …

Information Technology And Computer Science Education At St. Patrick’S College In The Republic Of Vanuatu, Timothy R. Ward

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report examines the role of an Information Technology and Computer Science Education Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in the Republic of Vanuatu at St. Patrick’s College. Various methods of developing curriculum, training teachers, and teaching classes were used and the results are analyzed. Primarily cultural and logistical challenges and their associated newly discovered approaches are discussed. Some approaches were found to improve Information Technology and Computer Science Education at St. Patrick’s College.

Modeling The Physical And Biogeochemical Processes In Lake Superior Using Lake2k, Sheelagh M. Mccarthy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Modeling lake processes and dynamics improves understanding of the system and supports predictions of the response of the lake to perturbations, such as climate change. LAKE2K, a 3-layer surface water quality model, uses a mass balance approach to simulate the physical and biogeochemical cycles in Lake Superior. The model is successfully calibrated with data from offshore Lake Superior in 2011, a year with average meteorological conditions. The thermal regime, phytoplankton populations, and phosphorus cycle of Lake Superior are modeled, resulting in a representation of seasonal trends in this dimictic system. The calibrated model is confirmed with an application for Lake …

A Picture Book Biography Of Jessie Field Shambaugh, Kimberly Peterson

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research project was to create a picture book biography of Jessie Field Shambaugh, an influential woman during the beginning of the 4-H movement. The book provides an additional resource in satisfying the Iowa Common Core social studies standard addressing the role of individuals within a society as promoters of change and another emphasizing women and minorities.

The intent of this project was to determine the best information to include in the story of Jessie Field Shambaugh and her contributions to the4-H movement while applying research-based characteristics of high quality picture books that would connect the narrative …

Comparing Of Distance Education And Traditional Education, Chuan He

Graduate Research Papers

With the development of computer and internet technology, online education has gained its popularity in recent decades. In this research paper, the researcher will introduce the history, current situation and development trend of distance education. The advantage and disadvantage of online education will be discussed as well. In addition, the researcher will evaluate the effectiveness of E-learning compared to the traditional education by collecting, analyzing and summarizing the data of the student performance of the same class on Statistics Quality Control in both classroom and online lecture.

Lobbyists Are People Too, And They Should Be Free To Contribute To Their Local Legislative Races, Brian D. Russ

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Measuring A Big Bold Goal, Jonathan Kohn

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

No executive summary.

Housing Satisfaction In South Korea, Yoo Gunseuk

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since April 2013, the Korean government has implemented a series of plans to stabilize the housing market, which has suffered from falling housing prices and surging rent after the 2008 financial crisis. This study estimates the effectiveness of the government's plans by analyzing the housing satisfaction of 2012 and 2014 Korea Housing Survey (KHS). The data used in this study are collected from the KHS carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT)

This study uses 2012 and 2014 KHS to show that some variables and subcategories of household and housing attributes have positive or negative correlation …

Migration And Crossing Borders In Zahra, Favorita De Al-Andalús, Lynn C. Purkey

Teatro: Revista de Estudios Escénicos / A Journal of Theater Studies

No abstract provided.

The Philosophy Of Ecology In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, Stephanie A. Steinbrecher

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the possibilities for ecocritical study in fiction through John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Major ecocritical interpretation has yet to gain much traction in novels; by focusing on human nature, this form’s “anthropocentric” posture seems itself to be antithetical to ecocritical efforts, which aim to unseat humans as the center of the moral universe. However, by analyzing The Grapes of Wrath’s formal, narratorial, and thematic valences, I argue that principles of social justice concurrently imply environmental justice in the philosophical currents of the text. Tenets of deep ecology and Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” …

Economic Assimilation For Immigrants In Chile: An Employment Convergence Analysis, Emily C. Long

Scripps Senior Theses

Blending migration studies and labor economics, this thesis explores the economic implications of immigrant assimilation in Chile by using probit models to test for employment convergence and labor market convergence between immigrant groups and native Chileans. Using census data from 1992 and 2002, we find significant differences in the employment and labor force participation rates for these demographic groups, affected by the immigrants’ gender, decade of arrival, and country of origin. We see evidence of the nascent care industry in Chile, as well as the implications of the Chilean visa system and employment contracts. Additionally, we see employment probabilities fall …

Organizational Learning: The Path To Growth, Rachael M. Huang

Scripps Senior Theses

Organizational learning is a topic that has been widely studied under a number of different approaches. The common, essential themes that are present in any theory of organizational leaning reflect the necessity of balancing explorative and exploitative tendencies within organizations. Organizational learning is the key to organizational effectiveness and development, and involves a collective action and mindset that allows for the reflection of current processes and the reevaluation of the efficiency of these processes within organizational structures. In this way, knowledge is embedded into organizational systems so that continuous learning can be implemented on an organizational scale. As a result, …

William Morris And Diego Rivera: The Pursuit Of Art For The People, Heidi S. Shugg

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to draw parallels between the art and philosophy of William Morris (1834-1896) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Morris drew on his interest in gothic art and architecture, his love of Romantic literature, and his commitment to social reform, to articulate the aesthetic and social vision of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England. Examples of Morris’s writings and his handicraft in the form of wallpapers, books, furniture, and the Red House will be examined. Diego Rivera was a Mexican painter and socialist activist perhaps best known for his murals depicting the working class. Several of …