Digital Commons Network^™

The Duty To Disobey Illegal Nuclear Strike Orders, Anthony J. Colangelo

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This Article argues there is a legal duty to disobey illegal nuclear strike orders. Failure to carry out this duty may result in criminal and civil liability.Because nuclear weapons are quantitatively and qualitatively different from conventional weapons, typical legal calculations regulating their use under the laws of war or humanitarian law, as well as human rights law, change along with the change in weaponry. At least five “unique characteristics” of nuclear weapons ominously distinguish them from conventional weapons in ways that promise only to increase civilian death and suffering. First, quantitatively, the blast power, heat, and energy generated far outstrip …

Cults: A Psychological Perspective, Jonica V. Carlton Best

Theses and Dissertations

Cults are communities that are seen as odd or strange. Lack of research done on cults makes it a phenomenon in society. With the help of evolutionary, social, and cognitive psychology, this phenomenon was analyzed and the behavior of the cult and its members were explained. Analysis of cults showed that there is an evolutionary need for them, for they are used as a means for social bonds and resources. Next, the identity of cult members was analyzed using a conveyor belt type method starting with social-identity followed by self-categorization and ending with deindividualization. Cult members then make decisions using …

Danse Macabre: Origins, Evolution, And Execution, Steven A. Bardon

Theses and Dissertations

The Danse Macabre is an allegory in which all living things -grand and otherwise -are equally escorted to death’s embrace. Most cultures, from ancient to contemporary, have a belief in an afterlife and interpreted death through funerary practices and religious artwork. Such spirituality associated with Danse Macabre is especially influential within the arts, such as visual storytelling. Two series in particular, FaustFall and Cardinal Junction, incorporate the Danse Macabre allegory through its implementation into accompanying concepts: like the Faustian archetype, the Gothic narrative, and the Byronic hero. Through exploring the Danse Macabre within their dystopian narratives, the notion of …

The Power Of Narratives: A Cultural History Of Us Involvement In Axis-Occupied Yugoslavia, William P. Fouse

Open Access Master's Theses

My thesis examines the ways in which narratives about Axis-occupied Yugoslavia developed within the United States over the course of World War II and identifies how these narratives influenced the development of American foreign policy. Methodologically, I utilize the literary theories of Northrop Frye and Hayden White as a means of narrative analysis. Frye categorizes narratives as romance, comedy, tragedy, or satire. Each of these modes of employment serves as a call to action or, in the case of satire, inaction. The initial narrative related to occupied Yugoslavia was romance, and it served as a call for the United States …

A Line Array Of Directional Hydrophones For Improved Detection Of Emergency Locator Beacons, Elizabeth Ann Alvanas

Open Access Master's Theses

The U.S Navy’s system for locating black boxes from downed aircraft is the Towed Pinger Locator 25 (TPL-25). The TPL-25 is a kite-shaped fiberglass shell that is towed behind a surface vessel while its single omnidirectional hydrophone listens for the signal being transmitted from the emergency beacon on one of the aircraft’s black boxes. Recovery of the black boxes is critical to an accident investigation yet the window in which to locate the black box is short, typically only 30 days, and the success of the TPL-25 is limited as evidenced by the unsuccessful search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 …

Muskets In Misery Swamp: An Investigation Into A King Philip's War Battle, Laura Damon

Open Access Master's Theses

On August 12, 1676, Benjamin Church, an English colonizer and military leader, led a company of Englishmen and Indian allies in an attack on a group of Wampanoags with the goal of killing the Wampanoag sachem known as Metacomet, Metacom, or King Philip. According to colonial records, the attack took place at Mount Hope in Bristol, Rhode Island during King Philip’s War. This conflict began in southern Massachusetts in June 1675 and eventually engulfed most of New England. The Wampanoags and English fought on opposing sides.

This study will analyze the attack that resulted in Philip’s death, guided by the …

Cyber Law And Espionage Law As Communicating Vessels, Asaf Lubin

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Professor Lubin's contribution is "Cyber Law and Espionage Law as Communicating Vessels," pp. 203-225.

Existing legal literature would have us assume that espionage operations and “below-the-threshold” cyber operations are doctrinally distinct. Whereas one is subject to the scant, amorphous, and under-developed legal framework of espionage law, the other is subject to an emerging, ever-evolving body of legal rules, known cumulatively as cyber law. This dichotomy, however, is erroneous and misleading. In practice, espionage and cyber law function as communicating vessels, and so are better conceived as two elements of a complex system, Information Warfare (IW). This paper therefore first draws …

Wideband Doa And Parameter Estimation Of Chirp Sources Using Dcft And Compressive Sensing, Luay A. Al Irkhis

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Direction of Arrival (DoA) estimation of chirp sources has many applications in radar, sonar and medical imaging. This work considers DoA and parameter estimation of wide- band chirp sources by the use of Discrete Chirp Fourier Transform (DCFT), its Compres- sive Sensing formulation (CS-DCFT) and Distributed CS. DCFT is similar to traditional Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) but with chirp ba- sis and two-dimensional search over chirp rate and chirp frequency. For chirp parame- ters estimation, the proposed Compressive Sensing (CS) formulation uses the parametric DCFT basis to achieve superior estimator performance in polynomial time using Orthog- onal Matching Pursuit (OMP) …

The Law Of Nations And The Judicial Branch, Thomas H. Lee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Noise Level On Task Performance And Workload And Correlation To Personality, Kaylee Marie Eakins

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

An ideal work environment supports a culture of high performance, low mental workload, and quick turnarounds. The impact of noise on three types of tasks in a lab work environment were examined while attempting to identify correlations between a subject's personality and their tolerance to noise. Neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extroversion correlated significantly with subjective (NASA-TLX) and physiological mental workload measures (heart rate variability and eye-tracking). The results show that task type impacts the performance, task duration, and mental workload. Although the physiological workload measures showed significant impact, the parameters standard deviation of R-R intervals and LF/HF ratio agreed with …

High‐Frequency Thermal‐Fluidic Characterization Of Dynamic Microchannel Flow Boiling Instabilities: Part 2 ‐ Impact Of Operating Conditions On Instability Type And Severity, T. A. Kingston, J. A. Weibel, S V. Garimella

CTRC Research Publications

Dynamic instabilities during flow boiling in a uniformly heated microchannel are investigated. The focus of this Part 2 of the study is on the effect of operating conditions on the instability type and the resulting time-periodic hydrodynamic and thermal oscillations, which have been established after the initial boil- ing incipience event. Part 1 of this study investigated the rapid-bubble-growth instability at the onset of boiling in the same experimental facility. Fluid is driven through the single 500 μm-diameter glass mi- crochannel by maintaining a constant pressure difference between a pressurized upstream reservoir and a reservoir downstream that is open to …

An Investigation Of The Violation Of Human Rights In Yemen, Abigail Watson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper aims to investigate the persistence of human rights violations in Yemen from 2008 to 2018. It examines whether this persistence of human rights violations is related to Yemen’s regime type, external actors such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Iran, and the United States, Yemen’s state of wealth and economic growth, and civil wars. This research paper uses data from various sources to examine different propositions related to the investigation of human rights in Yemen. The findings of this paper include that Yemen’s regime type, external actors such as the GCC, Iran, and the United States, Yemen’s …

High‐Frequency Thermal‐Fluidic Characterization Of Dynamic Microchannel Flow Boiling Instabilities: Part 1 ‐ Rapid‐Bubble‐Growth Instability At The Onset Of Boiling, T. A. Kingston, J. A. Weibel, S V. Garimella

CTRC Research Publications

Dynamic flow boiling instabilities are studied experimentally in a single, 500 μm-diameter glass mi- crochannel subjected to a uniform heat flux. Fluid flow is driven through the microchannel in an open- loop test facility by maintaining a constant pressure difference between a pressurized upstream reservoir and a reservoir at the exit that is open to the ambient; the working fluid is HFE-7100. This hydrodynamic boundary condition resembles that of an individual channel in a parallel-channel heat sink where the channel mass flux can vary in time. Simultaneous high-frequency measurement of reservoir, inlet, and outlet pressures, pressure drop, mass flux, inlet …

Place Over Politics: Power, Strategy, Terrain, And Regime Type In Interstate War Outcomes, 1816-2003, Connor Joseph Sprayberry Sutton

Wayne State University Dissertations

While the study of war occurrence is among the primary considerations of the field of international relations, only recently has attention turned towards the study of war outcomes. This attention is best represented by the democratic victory proposition, which suggests that democracies win the majority of their wars by virtue of being democratic. However, elements of this study are currently incipient. In turn, this dissertation generates a novel set of variables to measure the impact of terrain on war outcomes, including measures of spatial extent, topographic heterogeneity, and land cover heterogeneity. These metrics are generated for all 94 interstate wars …

Fostering Resilience: Leader Strategies And Practices For Overcoming Adversity In Military Organizations, Eugene Coughlin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to identify leadership strategies and practices for overcoming adversity in military organizations. This entailed determining what challenges military leaders face in implementing practices aimed at fostering resilience in their organizations. Also examined was how military leaders measure success at fostering resilience in their organizations. Finally, this study considered what recommendations military leaders would make to aspiring leaders wanting to foster resilience in their own organizations in the future. The researcher used a phenomenological approach that incorporated interviews and content analysis. The population for this study was United States Marine Corps infantry officers who …

Principals' Perceptions Of Parent Involvement In Catholic And Protestant Schools In Southern California, Jacqueline Estella Davis

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined principals’ perceptions of faith-based schools in Southern California. A 6-item survey was distributed by hard copy to 217 Catholic principals affiliated with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and by e-mail to 218 Protestant school principals affiliated with the Association of Christian School International. The survey was completed by 148 principals (101 from Catholic schools and 47 from Protestant schools, 34% of population), suggesting that hand-delivered surveys yielded a higher return. However, the Protestant principals who responded exclusively online completed significantly more comprehensive written comments or transcripts to the survey. Both groups of principals revealed high parent engagement …

Op Ed-Epistemology — A Matter Of Trust, Scott T. Plutchak

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

If Rumors Were Horses, Katina Strauch

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

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Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

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Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Where Do We Go From Here? Best Practices For Adapting Historic Buildings For Climate Resiliency In Newport, Rhode Island, Olivia Katherine Needham

Historic Preservation Theses

When looking to the future, it is hard to ignore the significant effects climate change will have on our historic built environment. Roughly 2,459.32 acres of land throughout the historic City of Newport, Rhode Island fall within the hundred-year floodplain associated with sea level rise. Through examination of precedents in Louisiana and Charleston, South Carolina, this study analyzes best practices and government policies for adapting historic structures to be more climate-change resilient. The goal is to identify best practices from the precedent areas and use them as guidance for the creation of new initiatives to protect historic structures in Newport. …

A Dirge For The Doubly Dead, Fritz Swanson

True Story

No abstract provided.

Limitless Discretion In The Wars On Drugs And Terror, Wadie E. Said

University of Colorado Law Review

The wars on terror and drugs have been defined, largely, by what they lack: a readily identifiable opponent, a clear end goal, a timeline, and geographical boundaries. Based on that understanding, this Article discusses the increasingly expansive discretion of American authorities to prosecute individuals where the wars on terror and drugs intersect. Through laws such as the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, the ban on providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, and the narco-terrorism statute, the United States exercises a kind of universal jurisdiction to pursue anyone, anywhere it believes its laws are being violated. Wielding the power of …

Figures Of Wwi, Grant Morgan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This is a paper about three things: the connection between The University of Oxford and Akron; T.E. Lawrence's exploits in the WWI Hejaz; and the fall of the British Liberals after WWI.

The Unifying And Divisive Effects Of Social Identities: Religious And Ethnopolitical Identities Among Mindanao Muslims In The Philippines, Ma. Elizabeth J. Macapagal, Jose Jowel P. Canuday, Cristina J. Montiel

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

The present study looks into the unifying and divisive effects of ethnopolitical and religious social identities, and an emerging superordinate Bangsamoro identity of Muslims in the southern region of the Philippines. We surveyed 394 Muslims with a mean age of 32.6 and standard deviation of 13.3 from the Tausug, Maranao, and Maguindanaoan ethnopolitical affiliations using various measures of social identities. Findings showed that the Muslims in our sample identify themselves more strongly with their religious identity over their ethnopolitical affiliations. Religious identity may thus be a unifying element in the conflict-ridden context of Mindanao, as a significant correlation was also …

Targeting, The Law Of War, And The Uniform Code Of Military Justice, Michael W. Meier, James T. Hill

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Allegations of civilian deaths or injury or damage to civilian property caused during combat operations require an investigation to determine the facts, make recommendations regarding lessons learned in order to prevent future occurrences, and recommend whether individual soldiers should be held accountable. Using the factual circumstances of the airstrike on the Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital, this Article articulates how, in the context of targeting, a violation of the Law of War is made punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice as explained by the recent Targeting Supplement promulgated by The Judge Advocate General of the Army.

Humanitarian Regulation Of Hostiles: The Decisive Element Of Context, Geoffrey S. Corn

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Today, isolated force-on-force battles are considered a relic of the past. Instead, armed forces must expect to conduct combined arms maneuver operations in and around civilians and civilian population centers. And this expectation is only increased when anticipating operations against enemies who see embedding their vital assets in densely populated areas as a force multiplier. This perception is based on not only the inherent tactical advantages of embedding assets among civilian population centers (such as ready access to logistics and lines of communication), but also their recognition that the complexity of conducting operations against these assets in a legally compliant …

Enemy-Controlled Battlespace": The Contemporary Meaning And Purpose Of Additional Protocol I'S Article 44(3) Exception, Kubo Macak, Michael N. Schmitt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The contemporary propensity for, and risk of, armed conflict taking place among the civilian population has cast a new light on several long-standing challenges to the application of international humanitarian law (IHL). One is the determination of combatant status and, more specifically, the question of when the requirement for the combatants to distinguish themselves from the civilian population may exceptionally be relaxed. In addressing this question, the Article re-examines Additional Protocol I's Article 44(3) and adopts an interpretation thereof that better comports with its object and purpose than those previously prevalent. After exposing the limitations of relying solely on drafting …

Policy Implications Of News Media Coverage Of The Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria., Godfred A. Ababio

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) garnered global news media attention in Summer 2014 when it seized a significant section of land in Iraq and Syria. The group then mishandled and executed its captives. There is a lack of consensus among the international community, led by Russia and the United States, on how best to address the threat posed by ISIS. An understanding of the function of Russian and U.S. news media coverage of the ISIS threat is an appropriate research topic. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis study was to explore how the U.S, Russian, and …

Patterns Within Nine Preattack Phases That Emerged In Israel Suicide Bombing Cases, Aaron Richman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

From 2000 to 2013, Israel had the second highest number of deaths from suicide attacks and was on the list of countries that may experience increases in terrorism due to ongoing conflicts. Suicide bombings present highly complex situations for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency professionals. Using Freeman, Tucker, and Merton's framework of 9 preattack phases as the primary theoretical constuct, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore specific patterns that consistently emerged in the adversary planning process for 6 successful or failed suicide bombing cases in Israel. Secondary, archival data were acquired through a data use agreement with a …