Digital Commons Network^™

The Invisible Ban: Negligent Disparate Impact, Kenneth R. Davis

American University Law Review

Title VII provides two primary anti-discrimination theories: disparate treatment and disparate impact. Disparate-treatment law prohibits intentional employment discrimination against a member of a protected class. Disparate impact law imposes strict liability on employers for using facially neutral employment practices that have a disproportionately adverse effect on a protected class.

This Article proposes following the structure of tort law as a template for the law of employment discrimination. A comparison of Title VII to tort law reveals that an analogy to negligent torts is absent from Title VII. The very language of Title VII provides the means to rectify this deficiency …

Reconstructing Patent Eligibility, Talha Syed

American University Law Review

Patent law’s doctrine of ineligible subject matter is widely agreed to be in a bad state of repair. Even those welcoming the Supreme Court’s return to express subject-matter bars have been left disoriented by the Court’s pronouncements in this area. Which subject matter is ineligible, why it is ineligible, and how it might become eligible have all remained enshrouded in mystery.

The nub of the problem, this Article contends, is two-fold. First, from its nineteenth-century origins to the present, courts grappling with ineligibility doctrine have remained in the grip of a series of “physicalist” misconceptions of the object of patent …

Arctic Observations And Numerical Simulations Of Surface Wind Effects On Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera Measurements, Kyle E. Fitch, Chaoxun Hang, Ahmad Talaei, Timothy Garrett

Faculty Publications

Ground-based measurements of frozen precipitation are heavily influenced by interactions of surface winds with gauge-shield geometry. The Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC), which photographs hydrometeors in free-fall from three different angles while simultaneously measuring their fall speed, has been used in the field at multiple midlatitude and polar locations both with and without wind shielding. Here, we present an analysis of Arctic field observations – with and without a Belfort double Alter shield – and compare the results to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the airflow and corresponding particle trajectories around the unshielded MASC. MASC-measured fall speeds compare well with …

User Guide For Dust Modeling Using Cmaq 5.3.1 And Wrf 4.2.1, Zachary D. Lawless, Ariel S. Cable, Cameron B. Van Dyke, Bradley R. Adams

Faculty Publications

Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) have developed a software framework for modeling dust emission and transport using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system in conjunction with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and other utility programs. This framework uses meteorological data, land use data, and soil properties to predict dust concentrations for a specified area. This User Guide describes the start-to-finish process required to install and utilize relevant software to calculate and visualize dust concentrations. Note that the examples and figures provided in the guide are specific to Utah in the western United States, where this …

The Effects Of New Teacher Induction Programs On New Teacher Retention In Urban School Districts, Lisa Maria Smith-Sherrod

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to determine the effect of new teacher inductions programs on new teacher retention in urban school districts. Teachers are leaving urban school districts at alarming rates. The expectation that every student will receive a quality educational experience is becoming increasingly less common for the neediest students, who are often minorities in rural or urban settings, or who have special needs (Snodgrass, 2018). Urban school districts and institutions of higher education need to determine strategies that will retain highly effective educators in the field. This applied dissertation was designed to provide insight into how to improve …

Gender Disparity In Studying Chemistry, Carlo Semerzier

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to determine if there is a difference between students’ gender, ethnicity, and age and their performance in General Chemistry I at a Christian University in Florida. Many scientific studies reveal the existence of a gender performance gap in chemistry: women mostly underperform men. Certain factors reported by researchers and cited in this study that might contribute to this gap include self-efficacy, math ability, prior conceptual knowledge in chemistry, attitude toward chemistry, spatial ability, discrimination, learning styles, and exam types.

This quantitative research study used retrospective data from 113 students from eight sections (2016-2019) of a …

Teaching Strategies Leading To Success In Self-Contained Classrooms, Sonja Michelle Robinson-Madden

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation addressed the strategies used in self-contained classrooms that lead to the success of students with intellectual disabilities in Jamaica. The study was prompted by the poor performance of primary schools in teaching delivery as evidenced in the National Inspectorate Report. The views of successful teachers were collated in order to provide meaningful research data that can be used to improve the effectiveness of teachers regarding their teaching strategies and engagement of their students in the teaching-learning process. In addition, the research findings may be used to inform policies regarding the education of special needs students who are …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of African American Women In Undergraduate Stem Degree Programs, Vernon H. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide a better understanding of the lived experiences of African American women in STEM undergraduate degree programs at a 4-year degree granting institution in the southernmost part of central Virginia. The central problem is that there is disparity between the number of African American women with STEM degrees and that of other races in the STEM job market. The existing literature has gaps in the research of African American women’s perception of undergraduate STEM programs. Further, the researcher posits there is a lack of consideration for diversity that is detrimental to the United States; …

Perceptions, Attitudes, And Experiences Of A High-Performing High School Successful In Increasing Graduation Rates, Nikita Michelle Mccaskill

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation study was designed to assess a high-performing high school’s dropout prevention program that increased graduation rates and decreased dropout rates among high school students. The high-performing high school was chosen because the target site achieved a 90% or higher graduation rate over 5 school years. Four of 19 high schools within the target school district achieved less than a 90% graduation rate. The purpose of this case study was to describe the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of teachers, guidance counselors, and school-based administrators at a high-performing high school within the target school district—inclusive of a time frame …

Broadening The Impact Of Plant Science Through Innovative, Integrative, And Inclusive Outreach, Joanna Freisner, Adán Colón-Carmona, Alexandra M. Schnoes, Victoria L. May

Institute for School Partnership: Research & Publications

Population growth and climate change will impact food security and potentially exacerbate the environmental toll that agriculture has taken on our planet. These existential concerns demand that a passionate, interdisciplinary, and diverse community of plant science professionals is trained during the 21st century. Furthermore, societal trends that question the importance of science and expert knowledge highlight the need to better communicate the value of rigorous fundamental scientific exploration. Engaging students and the general public in the wonder of plants, and science in general, requires renewed efforts that take advantage of advances in technology and new models of funding and knowledge …

Evaluating The Impacts Of Dam Construction And Longshore Transport Upon Modern Sedimentation Within The Rio Grande Delta (Texas, U.S.A.), Samantha Moore, Elizabeth A. Heise, Marty Grove, Anthony Reisinger, Jude A. Benavides

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The modern Rio Grande delta system has experienced a century of dam construction, water removal for irrigation and municipal use, and land use modifications that have dramatically reduced its sediment load. This study examines whether damming has sufficiently limited delivery of upstream sediment to permit locally eroded sources and/or littoral transport along the coast to influence the provenance signal of the Rio Grande delta. Changes in sediment provenance within the Rio Grande’s delta can be detected and quantified by measurement of detrital zircon Uranium–lead dating age distributions. Previous provenance studies indicate that modern Rio Grande river sand upstream of Falcon …

2022 Viewbook, Office Of Admissions

Viewbook

IMSA fosters the discoverers. The thinkers. The problem-solvers of the future who can change the world. Our mission is to ignite and nurture creative, ethical, scientific minds that advance the human condition. We are a diverse community that promotes curiosity and exploration. We’re about more than great college prospects and great jobs, we’re about making our families proud. We’re about a better world for everyone through immersive learning experiences.

2021 Viewbook, Office Of Admissions

Viewbook

EXPLORA, APRENDE Y IMPACTA AL MUNDO. IMSA fomenta a los descubridores. Los pensadores. Los solucionadores de problemas del futuro quien puede cambiar el mundo. Nuestra misión es encender y nutrir mentes creativas, éticas y científicas que promueven la condición humana. Somos una comunidad diversa que promueve la curiosidad y la exploración. Estamos a punto más que excelentes perspectivas universitarias y excelentes trabajos, estamos a punto de hacer nuestras familias orgullosas. Se trata de un mundo mejor para todos a través de la inmersión experiencias de aprendizaje.

Using A Digital Application To Refresh Knowledge Of Abuse For Individuals With Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, Thomas J. Howard Iii

Open Access Master's Theses

Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) are abused more frequently than individuals without disabilities. One potential reason for this discrepancy, is the low rate at which instances of abuse are reported by those with I/DD. It has been shown that learning about abuse and how to report it, can cause an individual with I/DD to feel more confident about reporting any future instances of abuse. Within this work a digitized version of the current in-person abuse prevention training program, called the Awareness and Action (A&A) training, is developed and evaluated. The hope is that providing an application capable of refreshing an …

Characterizing The Seasonal And Environmental Effects On High Frequency Acoustic Fish Tag Detection In Shallow Water Settings, Jacob Bonney

Open Access Master's Theses

Networks of high frequency (69kHz) acoustic fish tracking tags and receiver arrays are commonly used by marine biologists and fisheries management programs to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of a marine species. Despite the widespread use of these networks for monitoring fish movement ecology, there is often limited information to inform suitable receiver array spacing for optimal detection probability, or confidence estimates in tag detections. This is further confounded by the effects that seasonal and environmental changes can have on acoustic propagation. To evaluate these effects, the effective range of high frequency acoustic transmitters for medium and large fish …

Effects Of Modified Schema-Based Instruction On Mathematical Percentage Calculation For Students With Extensive Support Needs In An Ipse Program, Jennifer Anne Graves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Students with extensive support needs often struggle with the reading comprehension and mathematics reasoning skills needed to approach real life word problems. There has been research completed on appropriate educational pedagogies to utilize with students at the elementary and middle school levels, but none were found discussing methodologies to use for young adults in inclusive post-secondary education programs. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of using modified schema-based instruction on mathematical percentage calculation for students with extensive support needs (i.e., moderate to severe intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, multiple disabilities) in an IPSE program. Upon visual …

Dislocation Mechanics Of Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Combined Experimental And Computational Analysis, Michael Scinto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While total hip arthroplasty is considered a successful procedure, dislocation remains a serious complication as recurrent dislocations may require additional surgeries. Knowledge on dislocation events as they occur in vivo are limited, therefore researchers rely on experimental and computational methods. A custom MATLAB script and an experimental procedure utilizing a six-degree of freedom actuator were developed to further understand how various surgical considerations affect dislocation mechanics in total hip arthroplasty. Computationally, it was determined that impingement free range of motion is limited during internal rotation in flexion and during external rotation in extension. Experimentally, our results suggest that the posterior …

First Destination Survey 2021: For Degrees Awarded December 2020-August 2021, Hart Career Center, Illinois Wesleyan University

First Destination Survey

[from the email sent by Warren Kistner] "The Hart Career Center is responsible for producing an annual First Destination (graduate) survey that tracks the post-graduate activity of our students within a six-month window of commencement. Following this collection period, we work to produce a report that provides our university community with vital information about the success of our graduates and allows us to address questions posed by prospective students and families. I am pleased to share our report for the class of 2021. Based on data obtained for 90.5% of our graduates, 96.8% are either employed or in graduate/professional school …

Variable Selection In Big Data With Applications To Develop A New Epigenetic Clock, Zhenghong Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Big data is known for 5V's: (1) "volume" with huge quantity/amount (large n) and/or large number of variables (large p), (2) "variety" with various type, nature, and format, (3) "velocity" with ultra-high speed of data generation/collection, (4) "veracity" for its trustworthiness and quality of big data, and (5) "value" for its insights, usefulness and impact. Current computational resources, traditional methodologies and techniques are hard to keep up with the extraordinary volume of data being generated. Therefore, it is challenging to extract useful information from the big data with current computational resources. In this dissertation, we propose procedures to address some …

Charging Of Fine Aerosol Particles, Li Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The particle electric charge distribution plays a critical role in electrical mobility measurements of nanoparticle size distribution functions, where it is usually estimated by empirical regression equations. However, there are still lack of methods to accurately calculate nanoparticle-ion collision rates in the presence of strong attractive potentials and to calculate aerosol particle charge distributions with detailed consideration of ion properties. This dissertation consists of three main parts and aims to address the pending issues. The main purpose is to obtain a precise prediction on the aerosol particle charge under various conditions of charging, along with the collision kernel expressions developed …

Using A Person-Centered Approach To Explore Patterns Of Ptsd, Sexual Functioning And Sexual Satisfaction In College Women Exposed To Sexual Violence, Alexandra Lipinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Elevated symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, impairment in sexual function, and decreased sexual satisfaction are common among female survivors of sexual violence. Although these symptoms frequently co-occur, little is known regarding whether patterns of symptom comorbidity exist across these conditions. The present study identified empirically-derived profiles of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and domains of sexual function and satisfaction among 348 college women who had experienced sexual violence. A four-profile solution was identified. The first profile, Resilient (RES), was characterized by low severity of PTSD and sexual functioning complaints. A second profile, Sexual Distress (SEXDISS), was characterized by greatest endorsement of …

Multivariate Analysis For Understanding Cognitive Speech Processing, Md Sultan Mahmud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Categorical perception (CP) of audio is critical to understand how the human brainperceives speech sounds despite widespread variability in acoustic properties. Most studiesthat examine cognitive speech processing have applied methodological approaches that focuson specific or a set of brain regions. Departing from hypothesis-driven approaches, in thisdissertation, we proposed multivariate data-driven approaches to identify the spatiotemporal(i.e., when in time and where in the brain) and spectral (i.e., frequency-band power levels)characteristics of auditory neural activity that reflects CP for speech (i.e., differentiatesphonetic prototypes from ambiguous speech sounds). We recorded 64-channel EEG aslisteners rapidly classified vowel sounds along an acoustic-phonetic continuum. We usedparameter …

Implementing A Community Of Inquiry Professional Development Course To Improve Adjunct Facilitation Of Online Courses, Stephanie Shipley Markowitz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Community colleges are experiencing an influx of online course enrollments. To meet this demand, colleges are hiring adjunct faculty who are experts in their field of study. Unfortunately, most adjunct instructors have no teaching experience or training, especially within online learning environments. To facilitate an effective online learning environment that promotes student learning, community college online adjunct faculty need formal educational experience or professional development (PD) that focuses on the facilitation of critical thinking and community within an online environment. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) Model provides a foundation upon which to build a PD course to train faculty who …

Factors That Impact First-Generation College Student Engagement While Attending A Technical College, Laura Denise Monks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

First-generation college students are associated with lower educational outcomes leading to decreased career aspirations. Student engagement has been linked to positive college retention outcomes. The present study surveyed 6,421 technical and two-year college students, who were in their first term of college, to determine if there are differences in the factors that impact student engagement of those students that identify as first-generation or continuing generation. Framed by Astins (1999) Student Involvement Theory and Bourdieus (1986) Social Capital Theory, and using a quantitative, non-experimental correlational design with a cross-sectional survey, this study examined several constructs from the student engagement conceptual model …

The Association Of Gendered Racism And Resilience On Sense Of Belonging And Academic Self-Efficacy In Black Women At Predominantly White Institutions, Kanesha La'shunta Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The current study examined the moderating effects of resilience on the relationships between gendered racism and sense of belonging and gendered racism and academic self-efficacy for Black women at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Data from 118 Black women (22.9%, undergraduate students, 26.5% graduate students, and 50.6% alumni/graduated students) were collected from PWIs across the United States and analyzed using PROCESS 3.2 for SPSS. Gendered racism was negatively associated with both sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy, and resilience did not moderate the relationships between the predictor and outcome variables. Findings from this study contradict previous literature by indicating that resilience …

Probabilistic Analysis Of Self-Assembly, Tyler Garrett Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Self-assembly is a pervasive process in natural phenomena that builds complex structures from very simple components. These processes are central to nanoscale manufacturing and crystallography and rely on stochastic self-assembly to bring order out of molecular chaos. In particular, the algorithmic models of self-assembly (for example, the aTAM) employ highly nondeterministic dynamics in an attempt to emulate the massively parallel physical feats effected by DNA {\it in vivo} to support life. In this work, we define a new object in algorithmic self-assembly called the synoptic pattern to explore structural properties and the long-term behavior of algorithmic self-assembly systems. The synoptic …

Exploring New Approaches To The Problem Of Plant Awareness Disparity In Undergraduate Students, Kathryn Mckenna Parsley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the tendency not to notice plants in ones environment. PAD is made of four components: attention (not noticing plants), attitude (not liking plants), knowledge (not understanding why plants are important), and relative interest (being less interested in plants than in animals). This can lead to a host of misconceptions regarding plants, such as plants do not evolve, or that humans do not need plants. Previously, many interventions have been suggested to address PAD in undergraduate students. However, the success of these interventions cannot be fully determined without a way to measure PAD. …

Hyporheic Exchange Flow In River Bars: Depicting Travel Times At High Temporal And Spatial Resolutions, Eatedal Alqusaireen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The movement of river water into subsurface, near-streambed sediments and its return to the main channel after relatively short travel pathways is known as Hyporheic Exchange Flow (HEF). Hyporheic exchange brings both solutes and particles into high specific surface area environments, where they suffer biogeochemical transformations which impact a streams water quality and ecology. These processes, which are the basis for the self-purification capacity of river systems, depend on the quantity and travel time of flow within the sediments. Most previous research has focused on the net, larger-scale exchange processes between stream water and sediments, but not on the flow …

Expert-Generated And Auto-Generated Socratic Tutoring Systems For Code Comprehension, Zeyad Alshaikh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Programming skills are a vital part of many disciplines but can be challenging to teach and learn. Thus, the programming courses are considered difficult and a major stumbling block. To overcome these challenges, students could benefit from extensive individual support such as tutoring, but there are simply not enough qualified tutors available to meet rising demands.A potential solution is the development of intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), which offer individualized, one-on-one instruction. Such systems can offer the support to make programming instruction more effective, scalable and reduce existing teachers' workloads.This dissertation demonstrates how conversational ITSs and the Socratic method of teaching …

Difference And Necessity: Dispositionalism, Deleuze, And The Finite Genesis Of Transfinite Truths, Michael J. Ardoline

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation attempts to resolve a central problem in the metaphysics of science. This problem is the conflict in ontologies that our best scientific theories seem to imply. Our best scientific theories tell us that the universe and everything in it is contingent, changing, and finite. Yet this model of the universe cannot even be formulated without the tools of contemporary mathematics. The objects that mathematics describes are necessary, unchanging, and involve infinities. If we take the statements of mathematics literally, we find all sorts of fantastic objects which cannot possibly fit within the bounds of our scientific picture of …