Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of Goals On Sexual Initiation, Shawna Harris

Iowa Journal of Communication

In an effort to utilize theory to understand sexual communication, this study examined if the Goals-Plans-Actions Theory's conceptualization of goals would relate to the use of direct and indirect sexual initiation strategies. We surveyed 111 participants and asked them to identify the salient goals and strategies used when initiating sex with a partner. Although relational resource goals and identity goals were rated high, they had no effect on the use of direct or indirect initiation strategies. However, the primary goal of having sex and conversation management goals positively correlated with the use of direct and indirect initiation strategies.

Speaking For Another Polis, Rebecca Townsend

Iowa Journal of Communication

With the ending of the historic practice of town meeting legislature in Amherst, Massachusetts in 2018, this essay studies one practice that had been a source of tension: the deliberative body's foreign policy rhetoric. This essay examines one deliberation on a resolution concerning Nigeria for how participants use presence (Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 1971) and ventriloquism (Cooren, 2016) to construct a sense of authority for speaking for themselves and for others as democratic agents. It contributes to literature on public meetings and on rhetorical authority.

Making The Case: A College Physical And Mental Health Integration, Tamara L. Laursen

Iowa Journal of Communication

Much research has been done linking physical disorders and depressive disorders. Although this topic is highly relevant to college populations, administrative structures and clinical practices vary as to how college health, health promotion, and counseling services are delivered. Understanding current operational relationships and possible strengths and weaknesses of an integrated physical and mental health service can provide notable benefits for college students. Recognized standards exist for college health services, health promotion, and counseling services. Exploration of current integrated models offers an understanding of benefits and challenges encountered when establishing an integrated model. Health and well-being are life-long endeavors, and by …

Resting Cerebral Blood Flow After Exercise Training In Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alfonso J. Alfini, Lauren R. Weiss, Kristy A. Nielson, Matthew D. Verber, J. Carson Smith

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Background:

Exercise training has been associated with greater cerebral blood flow (CBF) in cognitively normal older adults (CN). Alterations in CBF, including compensatory perfusion in the prefrontal cortex, may facilitate changes to the brain’s neural infrastructure.

Objective:

To examine the effects of a 12-week aerobic exercise intervention on resting CBF and cognition in CN and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We hypothesized individuals with MCI (vs. CN) would exhibit greater whole brain CBF at baseline and that exercise would mitigate these differences. We also expected CBF changes to parallel cognitive improvements.

Methods:

Before and after a 12-week exercise intervention, …

Exploring Action Coils For Bystander Intervention: Modeling Bystander Consequences, Victoria Banyard, Elizabeth Moschella, Ernest N. Jouriles, John H. Grych

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: Individuals who take action to reduce sexual assault can experience a range of positive and negative consequences as a result of helping. This study examined how different types of consequences explain variation in confidence and intent to help. Participants: Nine hundred sixty-six individuals who reported intervening in a situation involving interpersonal violence; approximately half were recruited from university psychology courses and half through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Data were collected from September to December of 2016. Methods: Participants completed measures of consequences related to helping, bystander efficacy, and intent to help. Results: Positive reactions from victims and other individuals who …

Examining The Ncaa Selection Process For Bias Against Mid-Majors, Jackson Twait

Honors Program Theses

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Men’s Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination style tournament that takes place every March in order to crown the best men’s college basketball team in the country. Every year since 2011, 68 teams have made it through the grueling regular season for a chance at winning the title of best in the nation. The current system’s 68 teams are selected by a committee of ten athletic directors of schools and commissioners of conferences, but only 36 teams are actually selected by the committee because 32 teams gain an automatic spot in the tournament by winning …

Alcohol And Marijuana: Substitutes Or Complements And A Deeper Evaluation Of Marijuana Prohibition, Nicholas Andrew Brown

Honors Program Theses

This paper first looks to determine whether alcohol and marijuana are substitutes or complements. This economic relationship between alcohol and marijuana could influence policy decisions regarding marijuana’s legal status in the United States. My method is a meta study and evaluates the current literature on alcohol and marijuana’s economic connection. I find that more empirical research is needed before we can definitively say whether alcohol and marijuana are substitutes or complements. Second, the paper compares the prohibitions of alcohol and marijuana and gives reasons why the United States should learn from its experience during alcohol prohibition and legalize marijuana

Richard Gardner: Scholar, Statesman, Columbian, Gillian L. Lester

Faculty Scholarship

I am honored to pay tribute to Richard Gardner, who was truly one of Columbia Law School's greatest global citizens. He demonstrated so many of the qualities that make Columbia Law School unique, especially the influence that Columbia Law School has on the world. He was a brilliant statesman, international lawyer, and beloved professor. Over seven decades, he was a mentor to generations of students who are now leaders in law, foreign policy, and international affairs. Upon his retirement in 2012, the Law School hosted a two-day conference in his honor. Entitled "The Challenges We Face," the conference featured panels …

Liability Design For Autonomous Vehicles And Human-Driven Vehicles: A Hierarchical Game-Theoretic Approach, Xuan Di, Xu Chen, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are inevitably entering our lives with potential benefits for improved traffic safety, mobility, and accessibility. However, AVs’ benefits also introduce a serious potential challenge, in the form of complex interactions with human-driven vehicles (HVs). The emergence of AVs introduces uncertainty in the behavior of human actors and in the impact of the AV manufacturer on autonomous driving design. This paper thus aims to investigate how AVs affect road safety and to design socially optimal liability rules in comparative negligence for AVs and human drivers. A unified game is developed, including a Nash game between human drivers, a …

Corporate Governance For Sustainability, Andrew Johnston, Jeroen Veldman, Robert G. Eccles, Simon Deakin, Jerry Davis, Marie-Laure Djelic, Katharina Pistor, Blanche Segrestin, William M. Gentry, Cynthia A. Williams, David Millon, Paddy Ireland, Beate Sjåfjell, Christopher M. Bruner, Lorraine E. Talbot, Hugh Christopher Willmott, Charlotte Villiers, Carol Liao, Bertrand Valiorgue, Jason Glynos, Todd L. Sayre, Bronwen Morgan, Rick Wartzman, Prem Sikka, Filip Gregor, David Carroll Jacobs, Roger Gill, Roger Brown, Vincenzo Bavoso, Neil Lancastle, Julie Matthaei, Scott Taylor, Ulf Larsson-Olaison, Jay Cullen, Alan J. Dignam, Thomas Wuil Joo, Ciarán O'Kelly, Con Keating, Roman Tomasic, Simon Lilley, Kevin Tennent, Keith Robson, Willy Maley, Iris H-Y Chiu, Ewan Mcgaughey, Chris Rees, Nina Boeger, Adam Leaver, Marc T. Moore, Leen Paape, Alan D. Meyer, Marcello Palazzi, Nitasha Kaul, Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia, Timothy Kuhn, David J. Cooper, Susanne Soederberg, Andreas Jansson, Susan Watson, Ofer Sitbon, Joan Loughrey, David Collison, Maureen Mcculloch, Navajyoti Samanta, Daniel J.H. Greenwood, Grahame F. Thompson, Andrew R. Keay, Alessia Contu, Andreas Rühmkorf, Richard Hull, Irene-Marie Esser, Nihel Chabrak

Faculty Scholarship

The current model of corporate governance needs reform. There is mounting evidence that the practices of shareholder primacy drive company directors and executives to adopt the same short time horizon as financial markets. Pressure to meet the demands of the financial markets drives stock buybacks, excessive dividends and a failure to invest in productive capabilities. The result is a ‘tragedy of the horizon’, with corporations and their shareholders failing to consider environmental, social or even their own, long-term, economic sustainability.

With less than a decade left to address the threat of climate change, and with consensus emerging that businesses need …

Variation In Both Host Defense And Prior Herbivory Can Alter Plant-Vector-Virus Interactions, Xiaobin Shi, Evan L. Preisser, Baiming Liu, Huipeng Pan, Min Xiang, Wen Xie, Shaoli Wang, Qingjun Wu, Chuanyou Li, Yong Liu, Xuguo Zhou, Youjun Zhang

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background:

While virus-vector-host interactions have been a major focus of both basic and applied ecological research, little is known about how different levels of plant defense interact with prior herbivory to affect these relationships. We used genetically-modified strains of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) varying in the jasmonic acid (JA) plant defense pathways to explore how plant defense and prior herbivory affects a plant virus (tomato yellow leaf curl virus, ‘TYLCV’), its vector (the whitefly Bemisia tabaci MED), and the host.

Results:

Virus-free MED preferred low-JA over high-JA plants and had lower fitness on high-JA plants. Viruliferous MED preferred …

Analysis Of The Tcr Repertoire In Hiv-Exposed But Uninfected Infants, Benjamin Gabriel, Carey Medin, Jeremiah Alves, Ruth Nduati, Rose Kerubo Bosire, Dalton Wamalwa, Carey Farquhar, Grace John-Steward, Barbara L. Lohman-Payne

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Maternal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been shown to leave profound and lasting impacts on the HIV-exposed uninfected (HEU) infant, including increased mortality and morbidity, immunological changes, and developmental delays compared to their HIV-unexposed (HU) counterparts. Exposure to HIV or antiretroviral therapy may influence immune development, which could increase morbidity and mortality. However, a direct link between the increased mortality and morbidity and the infant’s immune system has not been identified. To provide a global picture of the neonatal T cell repertoire in HEU versus HU infants, the diversity of the T cell receptor beta chain (TRB) expressed in …

Valuation Of The External Costs Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Development: The Critical Importance Of Mineral Rights Ownership, Andrew Boslett, Todd Guilfoos, Corey Lang

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

We quantify the externalities associated with unconventional oil and gas development using hedonic valuation. One complication in determining local impacts is that some but not all properties are unified with mineral rights, which enable the residents to financially benefit from drilling, and this information is typically unobserved by researchers. To overcome this issue, we exploit the mineral severance legacy of the homestead act extensions of the twentieth century to identify properties in western Colorado that do not have mineral rights and are therefore only impacted negatively by drilling. We find housing prices decline about 35% when drilling occurs within 1 …

Smart Growth At The Ballot Box: Understanding Voting On Affordable Housing And Land Management Referendums, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, Corey Lang

Political Science Faculty Publications

This study investigates voter decision-making on two smart-growth components: land preservation and affordable housing. We seek to understand how voters make concurrent decisions about unpaired smart-growth components at the ballot box. Previous studies of smart growth, affordable housing, and environmental preservation have focused primarily on describing the attitudes and traits of voters on these policies, utilize aggregate voting outcomes, or are case studies of single towns in which there is a fairly homogenous group of residents either supporting or opposing the policy. We draw on a unique data set to investigate the different covariates of attitudes for environmental preservation and …

Interpreting The Law Of The Sea ‘Regime Of Islands’: An Opportunity For Productive Us Leadership, Elizabeth Mendenhall

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

This commentary describes an opportunity for clarification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ‘regime of islands.’ It describes the growing need to authoritatively distinguish between islands, rocks, and artificial islands for the purpose of stabilizing claims to maritime territory. Sea level rise and island building activities in the South China Sea and elsewhere are increasing the pace at which new islands appear and existing islands disappear. This commentary proposes a two-part interpretation of UNCLOS, which (1) freezes the status of islands and rocks, and (2) asserts a practical distinction between ‘islands’ and ‘artificial islands.’ …

Institutional And Conceptual Barriers To Climate Change Adaptation For Coastal Cultural Heritage, Alanna Casey, Austin Becker

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

Climate change is increasing the speed at which tangible coastal cultural heritage is changing in character or being lost through weathering, erosion, and inundation. Damages to coastal archeological sites, loss of access to historical sites, and the alteration of cultural landscapes will force changes in the way researchers can study sites, tourists can enjoy places, and descendant communities who have lived in particular areas for time immemorial, and local community members can utilize and relate to landscapes. In the USA, the National Park Service is a primary coastal cultural resource management organization. The National Park Service has been working on …

The Influence Of Plastic Bag Bans On Pro-Environmental Behaviors In Rhode Island Coastal Communities, Eva Touhey

Open Access Master's Theses

One of the greatest threats to the natural environment is marine debris pollution. Single-use plastics, one of many contributors to marine debris, are causing the greatest harm, affecting the well-being of humans and animals. In an effort to mitigate plastic pollution, environmental policies are implemented to reduce the availability of single-use plastic products to the consumer. This research looks explicitly at single-use plastic bag policies to see if implemented plastic bag bans promote pro-environmental behaviors and broader support for plastic bag policies. This study sampled two communities in Rhode Island, one with a single-use plastic bag ban, Middletown, and one …

Optimized Fishing Through Periodically Harvested Closures, Paul G. Carvalho, Stacy D. Jupiter, Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley, Jordan Goetze, Joachim Claudet, Rebecca Weeks, Austin T. Humphries, Crow White

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Periodically harvested closures are a widespread, centuries‐old form of fisheries management that protects fish between pulse harvests and can generate high harvest efficiency by reducing fish wariness of fishing gear. However, the ability for periodic closures to also support high fisheries yields and healthy marine ecosystems is uncertain, despite increased promotion of periodic closures for managing fisheries and conserving ecosystems in the Indo‐Pacific.
2. We developed a bioeconomic fisheries model that considers changes in fish wariness, based on empirical field research, and quantified the extent to which periodic closures can simultaneously maximize harvest efficiency, fisheries yield and conservation of fish stocks. …

Social Learning And Communication With Threshold Uncertainty, Todd Guilfoos, Haoran Miao, Simona Trandafir, Emi Uchida

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Using a threshold public bad game, we perform an experiment to test the effects of communication on coordination failure with various levels of threshold uncertainty. We apply two communication treatments to the coordination game: cheap talk between group members (unrestricted) and anonymous written communication from one generation of subjects to another (restricted). We find that the probability of groups coordinating and reaching the socially preferred equilibrium increases significantly with cheap talk and increases moderately with written communication. Repeated communication through cheap talk leads to a higher probability of achieving a set of payoff-dominant equilibria even in the face of threshold …

Assessing Consumer Preferences For Sustainability, Equity, And Welfare In The Aquarium Trade, Larynn Cutshaw

Open Access Master's Theses

Each year millions of fish and invertebrates are traded to support the home aquaria industry. Aquarium keeping is a popular hobby worldwide and the trade has the potential to provide socio-economic benefits to reef-adjacent communities while promoting environmental stewardship by consumers. However, current practices are negatively impacting the industry as the supply chain can be environmentally unsustainable and socially unequitable. Poor industry practices compromise the welfare of the organisms, leading to immense supply chain losses which exacerbate the sustainability and equity issues. Since the trade is demand-driven, consumers can play a role in addressing poor industry practices by using their …

The Burden Of Invisibility: A Case Study Of The Fisheries Crisis In Ghana, And Usaid/Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project’S Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, Danielle Bilecki

Open Access Master's Theses

The Sustainable Fisheries Management Project’s primary goal is to create a more sustainable artisanal fishery in Ghana, in order to increase food security within the nation. One of SFMP’s strategies within this fisheries-based project was to implement a gender mainstreaming strategy in order to empower previously overlooked women stakeholders. This chapter will present the results of a study on the impacts of SFMP’s gender mainstreaming strategy on members of Ghana’s artisanal fisheries sector.

This study focuses on impacts primarily associated with fishers, fish processors, members of client and partner organizations, as well as the organizations themselves, and on the Ministry …

A Comparative Assessment Of Geostatistical, Machine Learning, And Hybrid Approaches For Mapping Topsoil Organic Carbon Content, Lin Chen, Chunying Ren, Lin Li, Yeqiao Wang, Bai Zhang, Zongming Wang, Linfeng Li

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Accurate digital soil mapping (DSM) of soil organic carbon (SOC) is still a challenging subject because of its spatial variability and dependency. This study is aimed at comparing six typical methods in three types of DSM techniques for SOC mapping in an area surrounding Changchun in Northeast China. The methods include ordinary kriging (OK) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) from geostatistics, support vector machines for regression (SVR) and artificial neural networks (ANN) from machine learning, and geographically weighted regression kriging (GWRK) and artificial neural networks kriging (ANNK) from hybrid approaches. The hybrid approaches, in particular, integrated the GWR from geostatistics …

Improving Spatial Predictions Of Animal Resource Selection To Guide Conservation Decision Making, Brian Gerber, Joseph M. Northrup

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Resource selection is often studied by ecologists interested in the environmental drivers of animal space use and movement. These studies commonly produce spatial predictions, which are of considerable utility to resource managers making habitat and population management decisions. It is thus paramount that predictions from resource selection studies are accurate. We evaluated model building and fitting strategies for optimizing resource selection function predictions in a use‐availability framework. We did so by simulating low‐ and high‐intensity spatial sampling data that respectively predicted study area and movement‐based resource selection. We compared one of the most commonly used forms of statistical regularization, Akaike's …

Mechanisms Of Division Site Selection And Role Of The Atp-Dependent Protease Clpxp In Mind Regulation And Proteostasis In E. Coli, Christopher James Labreck

Open Access Dissertations

Cell division in Escherichia coli depends on mechanisms to spatially and temporally regulate selection of the division site. In dividing cells, the Z-ring, composed of linear polymers of FtsZ, assembles at the site of septation. For division to yield two identical progeny, the septum must form at the longitudinal cell center, also known as midcell. Septation at locations other than midcell results in uneven division and gives rise to daughter cells with chromosome abnormalities and functional defects, which may arise from chromosome severing or impaired chromosome segregation. Therefore, an organism's overall viability necessitates cellular strategies that ensure correct placement of …

The Last Refuge Of Scoundrels: The Problem Of Truth In A Time Of Lying, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

This essay addresses the problem of truth today in light of the common belief, especially among progressives, that we have entered a post-truth age, as well as of the frequent claim that our post-truth society is the fault of postmodernists and their challenge to the objectivity of truth. The essay does not resolve the strategic question whether the post-truth argument is, as a purely tactical political matter, an effective approach to respond to the onslaught of misrepresentations and lies by President Donald Trump and the New Right. Instead, it explores the post-truth argument from a more synoptic perspective regarding the …

Choice Theory: A Restatement, Michael A. Heller, Hanoch Dagan

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter restates choice theory, which advances a liberal approach to contract law. First, we refine the concept of autonomy for contract. Then we address range, limit, and floor, three principles that together justify contract law in a liberal society. The first concerns the state’s obligation to be proactive in facilitating the availability of a multiplicity of contract types. The second refers to the respect contract law owes to the autonomy of a party’s future self, that is, to the ability to re-write the story of one’s life. The final principle concerns relational justice, the baseline for any legitimate use …

Administrative States: Beyond Presidential Administration, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

Presidential administration is more entrenched and expansive than ever. Most significant policymaking comes from agency action rather than legislation. Courts endorse “the presence of Presidential power” in agency decisionmaking. Scholars give up on external checks and balances and take presidential direction as a starting point. Yet presidential administration is also quite fragile. Even as the Court embraces presidential control, it has been limiting the administrative domain over which the President presides. And when Presidents drive agency action in a polarized age, their policies are not only immediately contested but also readily reversed by their successors.

States complicate each piece of …

What Is ‘Dark Money’? 5 Questions Answered, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

With the 2020 campaign season upon us, “dark money” is again in the news.

Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins has decried what she contends is a “dark money” campaign against her. Montana’s Gov. Steve Bullock has made opposition to dark money a centerpiece of his Democratic presidential campaign.

But what exactly is “dark money,” and why is it considered a problem?

As a law professor who studies campaign finance, I’d like to answer those questions and explain how improved disclosure laws could shed some light on dark money.

Protecting Consumers In The Age Of The Internet Of Things, Nicole Smith Futrell

Faculty Scholarship

“Wake up, baby!”

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a stranger speaking to your baby through the baby monitor. For one Texas couple, this horror story became reality when a man hacked their internet-connected monitors to watch and stalk their child. In a similarly horrifying scenario, a hacker stalked Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, for a year via her webcam. The stalker had 24/7 access to her webcam and also traced the keystrokes on her keyboard to learn her passwords for various web accounts. Subsequently, the hacker used private information he learned about …

Engineering Rules, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

“Engineering Rules” is a clever triple entendre, evoking rules (the industrial standards that are its concern), the emergence of engineering (the profession largely responsible for their creation) and the consensus processes developed over time (the engineering) by which they have been created. The book is an extraordinarily detailed history of the movement from national to international standards creation and use, a necessary product of the industrial age and the emergence of a global economy. It introduces as its heroes, in remarkably intimate accounts of their careers, a series of men of rectitude and accomplishment who selflessly built the practice. The …