Digital Commons Network^™

Ideology And Institutions In The Evolution Of Capital, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

In Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty poses the intriguing thesis that ideology, or ideas about how society should be governed, is a powerful determinant for how society will be governed-as long as we take advantage of historical switch points. In this review essay I challenge this thesis by pointing out that many powerful ideas have run aground because of countervailing institutional arrangements. Oftentimes, they are leftovers from earlier times that precede the change and are now strategically employed for reconstituting private wealth. Clearly, ideology and institutions are deeply intertwined. I credit Piketty for putting ideology on the map of …

Calvin Theological Seminary Academic Catalog 2021-2022, Calvin Theological Seminary

Seminary Academic Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Drivers Of Health Policy Adoption: A Political Economy Of Hiv Treatment Policy, Matthew M. Kavanagh, Kalind Parish, Somya Gupta

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Why do some countries rapidly adopt policies suggested by scientific consensus while others are slow to do so? Through a mixed methods study, we show that the institutional political economy of countries is a stronger and more robust predictor of health policy adoption than either disease burden or national wealth. Our findings challenge expectations in scholarship and among many international actors that policy divergence is best addressed through greater evidence and dissemination channels. Our study of HIV treatment policies shows that factors such as the formal structures of government and the degree of racial and ethnic stratification in society predict …

Complicity And Lesser Evils: A Tale Of Two Lawyers, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Government lawyers and other public officials sometimes face an excruciating moral dilemma: to stay on the job or to quit, when the government is one they find morally abhorrent. Staying may make them complicit in evil policies; it also runs the danger of inuring them to wrongdoing, just as their presence on the job helps inure others. At the same time, staying may be their only opportunity to mitigate those policies – to make evils into lesser evils – and to uphold the rule of law when it is under assault. This Article explores that dilemma in a stark form: …

Constitutional Skepticism And Local Facts, Louis Michael Seidman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Are written constitutions evil? In his new book, Constitutional Idolatry and Democracy, Brian Christoper Jones argues that they are. He claims that written constitutions fail to unite societies, degrade democratic engagement, and obstruct necessary constitutional maintenance. This review of his book argues that he is mostly right about the effects of the American Constitution, but that the effects of other constitutions will vary depending upon local facts.

Arthur Linton Corbin, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter on Arthur Linton Corbin will appear in the forthcoming collection, Scholars of Contract Law. The chapter provides a brief summary of Corbin’s life, then discusses five topics: Corbin’s Socratic approach to the classroom and his introduction of the caselaw method at Yale; Corbin’s analytic approach, which was inspired by Hohfeld and is illustrated by Corbin’s definitions of “contract” and “consideration”; Corbin’s evolutionary theory of the common law, his understanding of the relationship between law and social mores, and his insistence that legal rules always be treated as mere “working rules”; Corbin’s occasional appeal, despite his general aversion …

Power Washing Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis, Tiana R Endicott-Yazdani, Gary S Schwartz, Haiying Zhang, Randall L Rosenblatt, Puneet S Garcha

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is an uncommon cause of insidious onset shortness of breath and hypoxemia. It is caused by an accumulation of surfactant within the alveoli. Left untreated, it can be fatal. Standard-of-care treatment is whole-lung lavage; however, in severe cases, the associated hypoxemia can be profound and single-lung ventilation would not be tolerated, potentially preventing a lifesaving treatment. Single cases using veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to perform whole-lung lavage have been reported. Here we describe three patients with severe pulmonary alveolar proteinosis who were successfully treated with whole-lung lavage using veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for oxygenation support.

Annual Hudson Medal Discussion, Catherine Amirfar, Paul Reichler, Lori Fisler Damrosch, Bernard H. Oxman

Faculty Scholarship

Welcome everyone to the 2021 Hudson Medal Presentation. The Manley O. Hudson Medal, the Society’s highest honor, has been awarded since 1959 to a distinguished person of American or other nationality for outstanding contributions to scholarship and achievement in international law. The medal has been conferred on many luminaries, including Rosalyn Higgins, Tom Franck, Michael Reisman, Eli Lauterpacht, John Jackson, Bruno Simma, Peter Trooboff, and Stephen Breyer.

I would like to thank Paul Reichler, Larry Martin, and ASIL Law Firm Leadership Circle Partner Foley Hoag LLP, for sponsoring this program—their eighth year of continuous sponsorship.

Does Providing Pre-Procedural Video Information Improve The Guardian’S Experience For Patients Undergoing Full Mouth Dental Rehabilitation In The Operating Room?, Jennifer Waters

Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this randomized controlled trial was to determine the effect of pre-procedural informational video for full mouth dental rehabilitation (FMDR) under general anesthesia (GA) on guardian knowledge, retention and anxiety. Guardians of patients presenting to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Dentistry, Department of Pediatric Dentistry for consult appointments to receive FMDR under GA were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. In the experimental group, subjects watched an informational video and received written and verbal instructions regarding the upcoming FMDR appointment. The control group received written and verbal instructions only. On the day of the surgery, …

Inclusive Academic Education & Vocationally-Oriented Transition Predictors’ Association With Post-Secondary Outcomes Of Youth With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Joshua P. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Despite efforts through legislation to increase the engagement of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in competitive integrated employment (CIE) and post-secondary education, outcomes remain poor. However, recent policy has emphasized CIE as a preferred outcome and created new opportunities to engage individuals with IDD in post-secondary education. Likewise, research into the transition of youth with disabilities has revealed several predictors of post-school success including inclusive education and a variety of vocationally-oriented experiences. Previous research had not determined whether students with IDD received both inclusive academic education and vocational transition experiences or how these predictors might interact. The purpose …

Vaccination Equity By Design, Olatunde C.A. Johnson, Kristen Underhill

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay examines how states’ initial COVID-19 vaccine-distribution strategies tended to disadvantage populations of color, including Black, Latinx, and Native American communities. These dynamics resonate with “inverse equity” effects of other public-health innovations. We argue for a federal regulatory framework to reduce inequity-forcing effects during initial vaccine rollout.

Interactive Modules For Flight Training: A Review, Stephanie G. Fussell, Robert Thomas

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

The use of animation and video, combined with auditory and text components, to teach complex subjects can be beneficial to deepen understanding. A review of the literature was conducted to better understand how interactive learning modules can give flight students tools to enhance the learning process outside of traditional instruction. Instructional theories and educational environments were considered through the lens of designing course content for flight students. Several research questions were asked to guide the course of the research, all focused on how students learn a complex subject matter using interactive material. Guidelines and principles are discussed to ensure the …

In Vitro And In Vivo Response To A Novel Borophosphate Bioactive Glass, Nada Abokefa

Masters Theses

"Bioactive glasses have been widely used in several biomedical and tissue engineering applications since the late 1960s. Numerous families of bioactive glasses have emerged over the years, with each having its own advantage and disadvantage. One concern common to all families is that most bioactive glasses create a basic or acidic environment when degraded and, therefore, are toxic for cells. Recently, there has been an increased interest in borophosphate bioactive glass (BPBGs) because of their neutral pH, release of therapeutic ions, and biodegradable properties. Despite the growing interest, there is little reported on the bioactivity of BPBGs. The biological effects …

Relationships Among Mineralogy, Geochemistry, And Oil And Gas Production In The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Hayley Roxana Beitel

Masters Theses

"The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) is an unconventional shale reservoir located in southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. Limited mineralogical and geochemical data for the TMS have been published. The data that do exist indicate that the formation is heterogeneous. Consequently, previous investigators and oil and gas companies have not managed to effectively link mineralogical and chemical changes to oil and gas production in the TMS. These linkages are critical to establish for future exploration efforts. In this study, we attempt to establish these relationships by gathering all existing mineralogical and chemical data in the TMS, including newly acquired data from …

A Comparative Visual Content Analysis Of The Cdc And Who Covid-19 Infographics, Manushri Pandya

Masters Theses

"In this study, I conducted a comparative visual content analysis of the CDC and WHO COVID-19 infographics. I considered infographics as an important genre of communication during such times because they not only provided sufficient information to the audience but did so in an engaging manner. The goal of my study was to think about the role of infographics in the context of health and risk communication during a pandemic, and to emphasize on the rhetorical elements that constitute the creation of infographics by major health organizations. I specifically focused on three elements: the kinds of information communicated through infographics, …

Toward Understanding Commercial Additives For Zincate Electrogalvanizing, Margaret Scott

Masters Theses

"Cyanide zinc electrogalvanizing has been used for many years to produce high quality and uniform zinc coatings. Due to toxicity concerns, a significant amount of research has occurred to remove the use of cyanide while still producing a similar deposit. One of the resulting plating chemistries is the alkaline zincate bath.

Alkaline zincate plating has the advantages of low startup cost, low toxicity, and low corrosion rate. Despite these advantages, alkaline bath conditions do not produce acceptable zinc deposits without the use of plating additives, which can promote lustrous, smooth deposits. This research aims to: (1) generate fundamental electrochemical data …

Analysis Of Refracturing Activities In The Major Shale Plays In The United States, Faisal Shammam

Masters Theses

"Refracturing of existing horizontal multistage wells has increased over the past decade in the oil industry. This work aims to investigate all the refracturing operations in the most active shale plays in the united states (Bakken, Niobrara, Marcellus, Permian, Eagle Ford, Barnett, and Haynesville) in terms of completion technique, candidate selection, treatment types, and refracturing production efficiency. To collect the data of the refractured wells, an advanced data analytics approach was applied to separate the refractured wells from 170,000 wells reported in FracFocus, a public chemical registry for hydraulic fracturing in the United States, and combine it with DrillingInfo database, …

Predator Scent And Presence Alter Mammal Assemblages In The Missouri Ozarks, Usa, Cara Jean Yocom-Russell

Masters Theses

"Species that are vulnerable to predation exhibit a host of behavioral and physiological adaptations toward the avoidance of this outcome: Heightened awareness of surroundings through visual, olfactory, and auditory senses are common ways in which these species avoid detection by predators. While links between direct predator-prey relationships are well established, less is known about how predators can shape overall community structure or the populations of secondary or less frequently consumed prey items. As humans expand into rural areas, the frequency of wildlife conflicts rises. In response, humans look to prevent these events with a variety of methods. One such method …

Optimization Of Transit Smart Card Data Publishing Based On Differential Privacy, Chenxi Chen

Masters Theses

“Privacy budget allocation is a key step of the differential privacy (DP)-based privacy-preserving data publishing (PPDP) algorithm development, as it directly impacts the data utility of the released dataset. This research describes the development of an optimal privacy budget allocation algorithm for transit smart card data publishing, with the goal of publishing non-interactive sanitized trajectory data under a differential privacy definition. To this end, after storing the smart card trajectory data with a prefix tree structure, a query probability model is built to quantitatively measure the probability of a trajectory location pair being queried. Next, privacy budget is calculated for …

Method Of Optimal Battery Scheduling With Optimal Battery And Photovoltaic Sizing, Gideon Hallman

Masters Theses

“Renewable energy generation is on the rise. One of the best ways to capitalize on this intermittent power supply is by using the renewable energy source in tandem with batteries. A joint photovoltaic (PV) and battery system model was created that implemented battery degradation and optimized battery usage using a Markov Decision Process (MDP). This system was then subjected to a series of tests to do a sensitivity analysis while optimizing the battery and PV sizing for the system at hand. Parametric sweeps of solar power and battery capital costs, the cost of energy taken from the grid, the cost …

A Physics-Based Pi Pre-Layout Tool For Pcb Pdn Design, Shuang Liang

Masters Theses

"With increasingly stringent requirements for lower voltage supply, and higher density in PCB PDN design, now integrity (PI) is an increasingly important aspect that must be considered. A pre-layout tool based on the Cavity Model and Boundary Element Method is built to automatically achieve a specified target impedance for a multi-layered Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Power Distribution Network (PDN) design with a minimal number of decoupling capacitors.

The pre-work about the post-layout design and analysis is proposed and the guidelines for creating a decoupling capacitors network with better performance has been built. With limit inputs, physical limitations for the minimal …

Multiple Generations Of Phlogopite In An Alnöite Diatreme: Insights Into The Petrogenesis Of The Avon Alkaline Igneous Province, Missouri, Nathan Gregory Limbaugh

Masters Theses

“Alkaline Ultramafic Carbonatite (AUC) complexes, although rare, are valued for diamonds and REEs, and as windows into subcontinental and mantle processes as recorded by rock fabrics, mineral spatial relationships, and mineral compositions. We report specifically on olivine and phlogopite petrographic relationships and compositions from the Devonian alnoite diatreme-facies of the Avon Alkaline Igneous Province, Missouri. The diatreme alnoite is a mixture of domains of olivine magmaclasts (OM) set in a crystal-rich melilite matrix. OM are highly fractured, serpentinized olivine pseudomorphs with variable amounts of pristine olivine fragments. Larger olivine domains typically exhibit clear crystal faces and irregular “channels” indicative of …

The Effects Of Rigid Polyurethane Foam As A Confinement Material On Breaching Charge Detonations, Nathan Franz Paerschke-O'Brien

Masters Theses

"The effects of a rigid polyurethane foam used as a confinement material on four types of breaching explosives were tested, focusing on the changes in shockwave peak pressures, detonation load compression forces, and brisance cratering abilities. The Plate Dent testing procedure was modified to incorporate a load cell force sensor, and two air overpressure sensors were included adjacent to the blast to quantify each test result. The testing variables focused on the polyurethane foam cure times and thickness volumes around the breaching explosives to determine the breaching charges' optimal energy output capabilities when confined by the foam material. The rigid …

Investigation Of The Sensitivity Of Human Arm To Small Interaction Forces During Physical Human-Robot Interaction (Phri), Fazlur Rashid

Masters Theses

“Understanding the human motor control strategy during physical interaction tasks is crucial for developing future robots for physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). Effective pHRI depends on humans communicating their intentions for movement with robots. In physical human-human interaction (pHHI), small interaction forces are known to convey their intent between the partners. It is speculated that small interaction forces contain significant information to convey the movement intention of pHHI. However, the mechanism underlying this interaction strategy is largely unknown. Hence, the aim of this work was to investigate what affects humans’ sensitivity to the interaction forces. The hypothesis was that small interaction …

Transfer Function Measurement For Automotive Intentional Emi And Thermal Runaway Investigation Of Lithium-Ion Battery By Intentional Emi, Woncheol Song

Masters Theses

"With an increasing demand for electric vehicles and autonomous driving, many components of a vehicle are being replaced as electric components. This implicates the possibility of an increase in the malfunction of electric components due to unknown electromagnetic interferences. In this reason, malicious intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) is being considered as a growing threat for the current and next generation of automotive technology.

In the first topic, the transfer function between the IEMI attacker and the engine control unit (ECU) circuit in an automobile is extracted to analyze how the IEMI affects the vehicle.

In the second topic, to mimic …

Communicating Uncertain Information From Deep Learning Models To Users, Harishankar Vasudevanallur Subramanian

Masters Theses

“The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) decision support systems is increasing in high-stakes contexts, such as healthcare, defense, and finance. Uncertainty information may help users better leverage AI predictions, especially when combined with domain knowledge. I conducted two human-subject experiments to examine the effects of uncertainty information with AI recommendations. The experimental stimuli are from an existing image recognition deep learning model, one popular approach to AI. In Paper I, I evaluated the effect of the number of AI recommendations and provision of uncertainty information. For a series of images, participants identified the subject and rated their confidence level. Results …

Bond Graph Modeling Of Critical Infrastructures For Cyber-Physical Security Implementation, Michele Jane White

Masters Theses

“In developed societies, there exists infrastructure vital to everyday life. This includes water and power systems. Technology is quickly evolving and being implemented on these utilities. This technology can range from smart metering in neighborhoods to volume sensors in local waste water treatment facilities. When networking, sensing, monitoring, or control devices are integrated with infrastructure it is considered a cyber physical system, or CPS. When information about an important physical system is connected to the virtual world, it is opened up to security risks. Cyber security can be provided to the CPS by monitoring the physical state of the system …

Fabrication Of Silicon Nitride Parts By Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion Process, Sachin Choudhary

Masters Theses

“Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion (CODE) is a patented solid freeform fabrication method for manufacturing high-density monolithic ceramic parts. In the past 5-6 years, the technology has been successfully implemented to fabricate alumina and zirconia parts. The mechanical characterizations also show CODE’s high potential in achieving desired structural properties. The present study covers the fabrication of silicon nitride parts by CODE process, which entailed the design of paste formulation for achieving rheology suitable for dimensional control in fabricated parts and determining firing temperature and the content of sintering additives for silicon nitride green bodies fabricated by CODE. The density, hardness, and fracture …

Research And Development Of A Laser Hot Wire Deposition Process, Christopher Croft

Masters Theses

“Laser hot wire directed energy deposition (DED) is an increasingly popular method for improving deposition rates and overall reduction of build times in DED processing. While there is clear benefit, it is important to fully understand the impact of preheating the wire. This work focuses on developing a model that describes bead geometry output using all factors including the wire preheat. The model was fit with over 150 data points that explored a large range of each factor. The resulting model was then leveraged to evaluate a process control variable. The technique chosen used feedback from the hot wire system …

Recent Trends In Heat-Related Mortality In The United States: An Update Through 2018, Scott C. Sheridan, P. Grady Dixon, Adam J. Kalkstein, Michael J. Allen

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Much research has shown a general decrease in the negative health response to extreme heat events in recent decades. With a society that is growing older, and a climate that is warming, whether this trend can continue is an open question. Using eight additional years of mortality data, we extend our previous research to explore trends in heat-related mortality across the United States. For the period 1975–2018, we examined the mortality associated with extreme-heat-event days across the 107 largest metropolitan areas. Mortality response was assessed over a cumulative 10-day lag period following events that were defined using thresholds of the …