Digital Commons Network^™

Identity Federalism In Europe And The United States, Vlad Perju

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The turn to identity is reshaping federalism. Opposition to the policies of the Trump administration, from the travel ban to sanctuary cities and the rollback of environmental protections, has led progressives to explore more fluid and contingent forms of state identity. Conservatives, too, have sought to shift federalism away from the jurisdictional focus on limited and enumerated powers and have argued for a revival of the political safeguards of federalism, including state-based identities. This Article draws on comparative law to study identity as a political safeguard of federalism and its transformation from constitutional discourse to interpretative processes and, eventually, constitutional …

Artificial States And The Remapping Of The Middle East, Ash U. Bali

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article critically examines arguments tracing contemporary crises in the Arab world to the making of the Arab state system a century ago. A series of popular and scholarly articles occasioned by the recent spate of World War I-related centenaries suggest that new boundaries be drawn in the Middle East to produce more stable nation-states. More specifically, a set of authors has advocated for different borders that would avoid ethno-sectarian conflict by designing relatively homogenous smaller states to replace multiethnic, multisectarian states like Iraq and Syria. Such proposals are significant for the underlying presumptions they reflect concerning the relationship between …

A Genome-Wide Association Study Of Cocaine Use Disorder Accounting For Phenotypic Heterogeneity And Gene–Environment Interaction, Jiangwen Sun, Henry R. Kranzler, Joel Gelernter, Jinbo Bi

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background: Phenotypic heterogeneity and complicated gene-environment interplay in etiology are among the primary factors that hinder the identification of genetic variants associated with cocaine use disorder. Methods: To detect novel genetic variants associated with cocaine use disorder, we derived disease traits with reduced phenotypic heterogeneity using cluster analysis of a study sample (n = 9965). We then used these traits in genome-wide association tests, performed separately for 2070 African Americans and 1570 European Americans, using a new mixed model that accounted for the moderating effects of 5 childhood environmental factors. We used an independent sample (918 African Americans, 1382 European …

Hold The High-Water Line: A Transnationally Informed Coastline Protection Scheme In The United States, Charlie Spencer-Davis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Climate change and sea level rise degrade the environment, infrastructure, and private property along US coastlines. The magnitude of these harms will only accelerate unless the United States improves its coastal protection scheme. Informed by approaches in Israel, the United Kingdom, and China, this Note offers a dynamic solution to coastline protection by way of a federal Rolling Coastal Conservation Easements Act. The act would authorize states to develop and implement rolling easements on private coastal properties. This flexible scheme would include compensation for those landowners who grant easements to their localities, while giving private property owners the option to …

Granulosa Cell Proliferation Is Inhibited By Pge2 In The Primate Ovulatory Follicle, Patric S. Lundberg, Gil J. Moskowitz, Carmel Bellacose, Esra Demirel, Heidi A. Trau, Diane M. Duffy

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a key paracrine mediator of ovulation. Few specific PGE2-regulated gene products have been identified, so we hypothesized that PGE2 may regulate the expression and/or activity of a network of proteins to promote ovulation. To test this concept, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was used to predict PGE2-regulated functionalities in the primate ovulatory follicle. Cynomolgus macaques underwent ovarian stimulation. Follicular granulosa cells were obtained before (0 h) or 36 h after an ovulatory dose of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), with ovulation anticipated 37-40 h after hCG. Granulosa cells were obtained from additional monkeys 36 h after treatment with …

A Heuristic Baseline Method For Metadata Extraction From Scanned Electronic Theses And Dissertations, Muntabir H. Choudhury, Jian Wu, William A. Ingam, Edward A. Fox

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Extracting metadata from scholarly papers is an important text mining problem. Widely used open-source tools such as GROBID are designed for born-digital scholarly papers but often fail for scanned documents, such as Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). Here we present a preliminary baseline work with a heuristic model to extract metadata from the cover pages of scanned ETDs. The process started with converting scanned pages into images and then text files by applying OCR tools. Then a series of carefully designed regular expressions for each field is applied, capturing patterns for seven metadata fields: titles, authors, years, degrees, academic programs, …

Addressing The Auditor Independence Puzzle: Regulatory Models And Proposal For Reform, Martin Gelter, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Auditors play a major role in corporate governance and capital markets. Ex ante, auditors facilitate firms' access to finance by fostering trust among public investors. Ex post, auditors can prevent misbehavior and prevent financial fraud by corporate insiders. In order to fulfill these goals, however, in addition to having the adequate knowledge and expertise, auditors must perform their functions in an independent manner. Unfortunately, auditors are often subject to conflicts of interest, for example, resulting from the provision of nonaudit services but also because of the mere fact of being hired and paid by the audited company. Therefore, even if …

Management Succession In Korea: Tunneling, Semi-Tunneling, And The Reaction Of Corporate Law, Kyung-Hoon Chun

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Recently in Korea, certain issues of corporate law became the subjects of fierce political debates unlike many other jurisdictions where corporate law issues generally remain in the exclusive realm of professionals and academics. This Article begins with the question of why corporate law issues attracted so much political attention in Korea and whether such political attention actually helped improve the corporate law. In pursuing the answers to such questions, this Article identifies a recurring pattern: (i) existence of strict rules against seeking private benefits; (ii) various clever measures to circumvent such rules; (iii) failure of the courts to regulate such …

The Conundrum Of Common Ownership, Jennifer G. Hill

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The common ownership debate has become one of the most contentious issues in corporate law today. This debate is a by-product of major changes to capital market ownership structure, which have triggered concerns about the rise of institutional investors, the growth of index investing, and the rapid concentration of ownership in major international financial markets. The common ownership theory focuses on concerns about the incentives of large financial institutions holding widely diversified portfolios of shares in competing companies within a particular economic sector. Proponents of the common ownership theory argue that, even where institutional investors have relatively small ownership stakes, …

Deal Breakage In Domestic And Cross-Border Mergers And Acquisitions: New Data And Avenues For Research, Morgan Ricks

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article presents a newly constructed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) data set that can support detailed analysis of deal outcomes, including deal breakage. The main novelty of the data set is a detailed classification scheme for characterizing deal outcomes, using information drawn from public announcements and news reports. The data set also includes a number of variables, hand gathered from press releases and merger agreements, that are unavailable in existing data sets in reliable form, or at all. The data set consists of all definitive, signed M&A transactions involving US public company targets with a deal value of at least …

Repurposing Visual Input Modalities For Blind Users: A Case Study Of Word Processors, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok, I.V. Ramakrishnan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Visual 'point-and-click' interaction artifacts such as mouse and touchpad are tangible input modalities, which are essential for sighted users to conveniently interact with computer applications. In contrast, blind users are unable to leverage these visual input modalities and are thus limited while interacting with computers using a sequentially narrating screen-reader assistive technology that is coupled to keyboards. As a consequence, blind users generally require significantly more time and effort to do even simple application tasks (e.g., applying a style to text in a word processor) using only keyboard, compared to their sighted peers who can effortlessly accomplish the same tasks …

Rotate-And-Press: A Non-Visual Alternative To Point-And-Click, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok, I. V. Ramakrishnan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Most computer applications manifest visually rich and dense graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that are primarily tailored for an easy-and-efficient sighted interaction using a combination of two default input modalities, namely the keyboard and the mouse/touchpad. However, blind screen-reader users predominantly rely only on keyboard, and therefore struggle to interact with these applications, since it is both arduous and tedious to perform the visual 'point-and-click' tasks such as accessing the various application commands/features using just keyboard shortcuts supported by screen readers.

In this paper, we investigate the suitability of a 'rotate-and-press' input modality as an effective non-visual substitute for the visual …

The "Poison Pill" In The Usmca: The Erosion Of Wto Principles And Its Implications Under A Us-China Trade War, Gil Lan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The United States, Canada, and Mexico have ratified a multilateral trade agreement (the "USMCA") that contains a highly unusual provision. This provision (referred to as the 'Poison Pill") is intended to deter the signatories from entering into a free trade agreement (FTA) with any "non-market country." The Poison Pill was introduced by the United States in the wake of the US-China trade war and was most likely directed at deterring Canada from entering into an FTA with China.

This Article argues that the Poison Pill is functionally an expulsion clause (as opposed to a withdrawal clause) which violates the USMCA …

To Edit Or Not To Edit?--Regulating Crispr Transnationally, Ann Potter

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

After Chinese scientist Dr. He Jiankui's announcement that he had successfully edited the human genome using a new technology called CRISPR/Cas-9, Dr. He forced the world to address the ethical dilemmas introduced by gene-editing technologies. Born out of a historical tradition of human "improvement," gene-editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas-9 modify human genes down to DNA molecules. CRISPR can prevent and cure genetic diseases that have previously had no cure, but problems arise when CRISPR's use expands to enhancements or to modifications that would change the human genome permanently. Given CRISPR's potential profound impact, this Note analyzes how international bodies like the …

The Effects Of Inclusion For Teachers, Special Education, And General Education Students In General Education Classrooms, Rachel O'Neill

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the current special education policies in place in the United States, solutions must be found in order to equitably meet the academic, social and emotional needs for all types of students found in a classroom. One of the most practiced solutions found in schools today, is the inclusion of special education students in mainstream classrooms. Inclusion can provide many benefits to teachers, general education and special education students when executed properly. When not executed properly, inclusion can cause undue stress to both teachers and students. This literature review will examine the effects of inclusion on teachers, special education, and …

Perceived Overqualification And Task Performance:Reconciling Two Opposing Pathways, Allen Lee, Berrin Erdogan, Amy Tian, Sara Willis, Jie Cao

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we predict that higher levels of relative deprivation and higher levels of task mastery constitute two pathways through which perceived overqualification (POQ) has indirect and opposing effects on task performance. Further, we predict that occupational instrumentality, the degree to which the individual regards their job as a stepping tone to future career opportunities, will serve as a moderator for both pathways. Across two studies, as well as a supplementary study, we found evidence that POQ is positively associated with followers’ perceptions of both task mastery and relative deprivation. In both studies, we also found consistent evidence for …

I Doubt It [Grades 1-3], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

Sharing STEM: Math Games

No abstract provided.

Line Up The Fives [Grades 1-3], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

Sharing STEM: Math Games

No abstract provided.

Track Meet [Grades K-1], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

Sharing STEM: Math Games

No abstract provided.

7-Layer Citation Salad—The Joy Of Identifying Distinct Ingredients And Assembling A Glorious Delight: Students As Information And Citation Creators, Barbara E. Weeg, Leila June Rod-Welch

Library Faculty/Staff Publications

In the 7-Layer Citation Salad critical-thinking exercise, students become apprentice chefs as they learn to create journal article citations adhering to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The library instruction chef draws parallels to mise en place (“everything in its place”) and to assembling a structured salad as the apprentices discover the rewards of identifying each citation ingredient from articles and assembling the ingredients in the proper order. The library chef discusses the need to credit other authors for their ideas. The standard recipe may be adapted to any citation style and the number of layers modified.

Doctoral Psychology Students' Attitudes Toward Evidenced-Based Practice, Jordan Ashley Newburg

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in psychology requires use of clinical judgement to apply the best evidence to each client’s case (APA Presidential Taskforce on Evidence-Based Practice, 2006), but practitioners may not fully engage in EBP given low usage of evidence-based treatments or manuals (Becker et al., 2013; Johnson et al., 2016; Steir, Lasota, & Christensen, 2007). Some practitioners and students misunderstand EBP (Luebbe, Radcliffe, Callands, Green, & Thorn, 2007; Wilson et al., 2009). Cultivating students’ positive attitudes toward EBP during graduate education may increase the likelihood of future engagement in EBP. This study investigated how interactivity of academic programs, program emphasis …

Rat-A-Tat-Cat [4 Years-Grade 3], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

Sharing STEM: Math Games

No abstract provided.

Salute! [Grades 1-3], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

Sharing STEM: Math Games

No abstract provided.

Making Families [Grades K-2], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

Sharing STEM: Math Games

No abstract provided.

Taming Uncivil Discourse, Gregory P. Magarian, James L. Gibson, Lee Epstein

Scholarship@WashULaw

In an era of increasingly intense populist politics, a variety of issues of intergroup prejudice, discrimination, and conflict have moved center stage in American politics. Among these is “political correctness” and, in particular, what constitutes a legitimate discourse of political conflict and opposition. Yet the meaning of legitimate discourse is being turned on its head as some disparaged groups seek to reclaim, or re-appropriate, the slurs directed against them. Using a Supreme Court decision about whether “The Slants” – a band named after a traditional slur against Asians – can trademark its name, we test several hypotheses about re-appropriation processes, …

Name Cards: Using Name Cards In The Early Childhood Classroom [Grades Prek-3], Regents’ Center For Early Developmental Education

STEM Experiences for Classrooms

No abstract provided.

Science Curriculum Alignment To The Ngss, Whitney E. Canaday

Honors Program Theses

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are a set of standards and criteria that support the most effective way to teach science. Twenty states and the District of Columbia (representing over 36% of U.S. Students) have officially adopted the NGSS as their science standards. In addition, twenty-four states (representing 35% of U.S. students) have developed their own standards based on recommendations in the National Research Council (NRC) Framework for K-12 Science Education, which is the same frameworkthat the NGSS was developed from (NSTA) (NRC, 2012). In those 44 states (71% of the U.S. student population) teachers should ask students to …

Supplemental Seeding And Seed Predation In A Newly Planted Tallgrass Prairie, Isabella Betzer

Honors Program Theses

The Iowa around today looks vastly different from the Iowa that was originally around. What once used to house vast tallgrass prairies is now home to about 0.1% of what was originally here (Smith 1998). However, conservationists have been working hard to restore even a fraction of what originally here despite high costs and low yields in restoration prairies. Recently experiments have been done on the use of sacrificial seed to potentially increase plant yield in restoration with successful results. This study was done to further research the effects of supplemental seeding on seed predation and if seedling emergence would …

An Interprofessional Approach To Teaching Evidence-Based Practice, Jennifer L. Gresham - Anderson, Kathleen M. Williamson, Satyanarayana Ayinagadda

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify students’ engagement and implementation of EBP competencies after exposure to EBP content in an interprofessional online research course. In this research, a diverse, convenience sample of nursing, respiratory care, and social work students were selected. The results aim to assist educators in preparing the next generation for their first professional role in providing care using the best evidence. The research questions that guided the study were: (1) What are the levels of practice, attitude, knowledge and skill regarding EBP among the sample? (2) What are the barriers and facilitators …

Athletic Training Assessment Of Knowledge Inconsistent With Perceptions Of Knowledge Needs: Part Ii, Jessica R. Edler, Lindsey E. Eberman

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Continuing education (CE) is intended to promote continued competence beyond the level required for entry-level practice. Previous research suggests that athletic trainers are unable to identify their knowledge gaps regarding their clinical practice. The purpose of this research study was to determine if athletic trainers’ perceived need for CE aligns with their performance on an actual knowledge assessment. Method: We used a correlational design conducted on Qualtrics, a web-based platform. Four hundred, forty-four (444) athletic trainers completed all the CE Needs Assessment and over 60% of the athletic training assessment of knowledge. The CE Needs Assessment determined participant’s perceived …