Digital Commons Network^™

The Exoskeleton Of Environmental Law: Why The Breadth, Depth, And Longevity Of Environmental Law Matters For Judicial Review, Sanne H. Knudsen

Utah Law Review

Environmental law is pragmatic, inevitable, and intentional. In the aggregate, the numerous federal environmental statutes are not simply a patchwork of ad hoc responses or momentary political breakthroughs to isolated public health problems and resource concerns. Together, they are a group of repeated, legislatively-backed commitments to embrace selfrestraint for self-preservation.

Self-restraint and discipline are the essence of environmental law. Indeed, if one studies the patterns and repeated choices in environmental law’s many statutory texts, one can start to appreciate environmental law’s indispensable role in society: it serves as an enduring “exoskeleton,” a sort of protective armor created over time to …

Evaluating The Returns Of Emerging Market Mutual Funds, Constantinos (Dean) Athanailos

Business/Business Administration

In this paper, the returns of mutual funds invested in emerging markets and the returns of emerging market ETFs are measured. The rates of returns of 133 emerging market mutual funds are taken from the PSN network and the return, risk, and diversification are evaluated for the emerging market mutual funds. The findings are that Southeast Asian countries dominate the proportion of investments for emerging markets. Of the countries invested in, China is the primary country invested in by a large margin. The highest rate of returns was for funds who had invested in India primarily followed by Taiwan and …

Communicating Multiplicative Reasoning Through Semiotic Resources, Emilie N. Eisenberger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The importance of fostering in students the requisite language to understand what is being communicated and how to communicate their understanding requires educators to conceptualize themselves as teachers of language and content. It is possible to engage in activities of the mathematics classroom and through that participation engage in language practices and mathematical practices simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of semiotic resources, and modality, with a student-generated tool on students’ communication of multiplicative reasoning.

The study design was a qualitative case study that included a single third-grade class with an in-depth look at six …

Tinkering Towards Theories: The Role Of Tinkering In Building Scientific Models, Shakayla Moran

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Tinkering and modeling have increasingly gained traction within science education. For this study, I adopt the construct of tinkering, which is usually applied to the development of tangible artifacts and consider how this activity might apply to the development of novel models and theoretical objects in science. Data was collected from student artifacts and coding of transcripts was performed to identify how students design models in science, with a focus on how students engage in tinkering when doing so. Using a multiple case study approach, I examined two cases of undergraduate pre-service science teachers’ development of models of light and …

Primate Olfaction: A Phylogenetic Analysis Of Cribriform Plate Morphology, Amber Cooper

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Decreased olfaction, or smell, is a diagnostic characteristic of primates. Despite this, olfaction remains important for diet and social behaviors in primates. To assess how morphological changes impact olfactory-based behaviors between the two major clades of primates, Strepsirrhini and Haplorrhini, this study examined the surface area of the cribriform plate, the bony interface between the brain and nasal cavity. Previous work has found several functional associations between cribriform plate morphology and species diet/ ecology, making this structure possibly more reflective of a species reliance on olfaction in its environment. Primate social structure, such as average group size, mating system, and …

Study Of Sustainable Development In Paper, Printing And Packaging Material Applications To Support Circular Economy, Prashant Ramesh Kotkar

Dissertations

To support circular economy and sustainability, the use of suitable material in paper, printing, and packaging industries, for several types of industrial printing material and printed product applications, plays a significant role for end user applications. Several types of packaging printing materials, specifically those finished with different printing technologies and exposed to different environmental conditions are targeted.

The purpose of this research study is to improve design and evaluation for paper, printing, and packaging material sustainability in end-user applications, to deal with the addressed sustainability issues brought by the paper, printing and packaging products end user groups. As the impacts …

Dangerous Alliances: Russia’S Strategic Inroads In Latin America, Douglas Farah, Marianne Richardson

INSS Strategic Perspectives

Russia’s strategic interests in Latin America center on establishing a multisector, persistent presence in the Western Hemisphere as a counterweight to U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence in the former Soviet Union and bordering states. The engagement focuses on aggressive implementation of what the West calls the doctrine of “hybrid warfare.” This approach fuses hard and soft power across multiple domains, recognizing the existence of a permanent state of confrontation with the West. This strategy undergirds the rationalization and operationalization of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Inevitable U.S. Return And The Future Of Great Power Competition In South Asia, Thomas F. Lynch

INSS Strategic Perspectives

More than a year after America’s painful Afghanistan withdrawal, the future of U.S. and Western security interests in South Asia no longer relates mainly to the terrorism threat from Salafi jihadism, which has receded and reoriented there to be most menacing toward Pakistan and China. Instead, American security interests now require the proper posture for long-term Great Power competition (GPC) with China. Such a posture in South Asia requires patient, persistent growth in the slowly maturing, overt strategic security partnership with India and a quiet regeneration of a transactional one with Pakistan.

Full Issue: 14(5) 2022 - Special Issue: Foreign Interference In Higher Education

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

The Applicability Of Joint Source-Channel Coding Systems To Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry Data, Jesse Richmond

Theses and Dissertations

Broadcast spectrum restrictions require greater efficiency from wireless transmission systems, particularly in applications where sections of spectrum previously reserved for military purposes have been sold to private interests. A joint source-channel coding system, in tandem with smart data selection techniques, is proposed as a potential solution to this problem. The workings of this joint source-channel coding system are detailed, with particular attention given to the decoding process.

Building Software Compliant Multidimensional Datasets Through Programmatic Solutions, Jon Enoch Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Meteorological and other multidimensional, georeferenced data is used extensively in science and engineering. These datasets are produced, shared, and used by organizations all over the world. Conventions have been developed specifying the metadata and format of these datasets in an effort to standardize the data and make it compatible with current and future software and web services. By necessity, the conventions are complex and difficult to implement correctly, resulting in useful datasets that are unusable in many applications due to lack of compliance with the conventions. By programmatically assigning metadata and guiding the dataset creator through the dataset creation process, …

Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2021/2022, Tennessee. Department Of Safety & Homeland Security.

Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Palara Guest Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Teaching The Relationship Between Multiplication And Division Through Differentiated Instructional Strategies, Teagan Vaughan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies that were integrated throughout a math unit. The capstone will report the effectiveness of two instructional strategies that were integrated into a math unit that focused on students’ understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division. The math unit had 12 lessons taught over three weeks between the pre-and post-assessment. I will report how the strategies worked and the effect the strategies had on students learning. I collected and analyzed the pre/post-test data and found that nonlinguistic representations and multi-level questioning are effective instructional strategies for increasing student learning.

Keywords: instructional …

Effectiveness Of Accommodations For Students With Adhd At Uno, Kayla Farley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder which can impair ability to sustain attention, inhibit impulses, plan and organize, and complete tasks. These deficits can create barriers to academic success for students with ADHD. Accommodations are often offered to alleviate these disadvantages. However, current research has called into question the effectiveness of commonly offered accommodations for students with ADHD. The purpose of this study was to determine how helpful UNO students found these accommodations and how to better help this student population. The study surveyed 27 UNO students with ADHD on their learning problems, their experiences with the accommodations and why they …

A Machine Learning Approach For Predicting Patient Mortality With Heart Rate Variability Statistics, Matthew Thiele, Dario Ghersi

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The prediction of patient mortality in the healthcare system provides a metric by which hospitals can better manage patient care and assess the needs of each individual patient. As such, the development of better predictive methods is vital for improving patient outcomes and overall quality of care. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of the heart’s complex beating patterns, giving medical professionals additional insight into patient health. Previous research has demonstrated the potential use of heart rate variability as a metric for patient mortality prediction for various conditions, however more work is necessary to validate HRV as a metric …

Personalized Breast Cancer Onset Prediction From Lifestyle And Health History Information, Shi Ang Qi, Neeraj Kumar, Jian Yi Xu, Jaykumar Patel, Sambasivarao Damaraju, Grace Shen-Tu, Russell Greiner

Faculty Publications

We propose a method to predict when a woman will develop breast cancer (BCa) from her lifestyle and health history features. To address this objective, we use data from the Alberta's Tomorrow Project of 18,288 women to train Individual Survival Distribution (ISD) models to predict an individual's Breast-Cancer-Onset (BCaO) probability curve. We show that our three-step approach-(1) filling missing data with multiple imputations by chained equations, followed by (2) feature selection with the multivariate Cox method, and finally, (3) using MTLR to learn an ISD model-produced the model with the smallest L1-Hinge loss among all calibrated models with comparable C-index. …

A Systematic Literature Review Of Anti-Discrimination Design Strategies In The Digital Sharing Economy, Miroslav Tushev, Fahimeh Ebrahimi, Anas Mahmoud

Faculty Publications

Applications of the Digital Sharing Economy (DSE), such as Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit, have become a main facilitator of economic growth and shared prosperity in modern-day societies. However, recent research has revealed that the participation of minority groups in DSE activities is often hindered by different forms of bias and discrimination. Evidence of such behavior has been documented across almost all domains of DSE, including ridesharing, lodging, and freelancing. However, little is known about the underlying design decisions of DSE platforms which allow certain demographics of the market to gain unfair advantage over others. To bridge this knowledge gap, in …

Callaway Measurement Device, Andre S. Fisher, Roman Hays, Blake Sousa, Grant Gabrielson

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to illustrate the Callaway Measurement Device senior project from start to finish. The challenge given to the team was to update and improve a gauge used by Callaway employees to measure the loft, lie, and face angle of their full spectrum of golf clubs. Once the team understood how the pre-existing gauge operates, the team conducted background research into other technologies that could improve the gauge. The team decided to digitalize the device amongst other tweaks to reduce error. Because the CAD files were not available for the pre-existing device, the team began reverse …

Gasifier Wall Wash Manifold, Ashley Sieu Che, Gintaras Julius Baipsys, Peyton Joseph Archibald, Michael Thomas Kieran

Mechanical Engineering

The objective of our Gasifier Wall Wash Manifold Project is to design three different manifolds that will uniformly distribute water on the inner diameter of a pressure vessel. Also, the distributed water should completely cover the circumference of the inner walls. From extensive research of current solutions as well as the conduction of technical analyses, we were able to produce three designs that would be able to meet our engineering specifications. Time constraints led to the fabrication of one manifold design along with a test rig. With a fully functional test rig, we saw positive results from our design verification …

A Drought-Tolerant Nitrogen-Fixing Symbiont For Sustainable Soybean Production, Christian James Peterson

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Bradyrhizobia are an ideal model organism to study plant-microbe interactions due to dual lifestyles as free-living soil organisms and as endosymbionts for valuable cropping systems in agriculture. Farmers have been utilizing the Soybean-Bradyrhizobium japonicum mutualism for decades to revitalize marginal soils, increase yields, and establish a regenerative approach to farming by mitigating the use of synthetic nitrogenous fertilizers. The largest impediment to bio-fertilizer success is desiccation (e.g., drought) stress before the symbiosis can be established. Due to climate change, fluctuating high temperatures and drought occur seasonally in many growing regions and are becoming a growing concern for modern agriculture. Thus, …

Commercial Transportation, Madeline E. Mcneeley, Joshua H. Dorminy, Spencer P. Mead, Caitlyn B. Clark, Stephen G. Lowry

Mercer Law Review

Commercial transportation involves all the significant forms of passenger and freight transportation across the United States. This Article surveys significant judicial, regulatory, and legislative developments in Georgia commercial transportation law from June 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022.

Construction Law, Peter M. Crofton, David R. Cook, C. Jackson Parker

Mercer Law Review

In addition to common issues of construction law, cases from this year’s Survey period address novel issues such as the interplay of construction law and constitutional law and mandatory COVID-19 vaccines. As predicted in last year’s survey article, cases covered this year address the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, while construction projects resumed, the industry faced normal problems as well as unprecedented supply-chain difficulties.

Criminal Law, J. Scottt Key

Mercer Law Review

This Article reviews some of the most important opinions impacting the practice of criminal law delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Georgia covering the period from June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022, as well as legislation adopted by the Georgia General Assembly during the 2021 session. This Article is designed to be a mere overview to both prosecutors and defense attorneys of decisions and new statutes and serves as a broad guideline to how these decisions will affect the practices.

Local Government, Russell A. Britt, Jennifer D. Herzog, Nick Kinsley, Jacob Stalvey O'Neal, Pearson K. Cunningham, Stuart Sumner, Rebekah Ditto, Philip E. Friduss

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Real Property, Erica L. Burchell

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys developments in Georgia real property law between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022. The 2021 Calendar year saw interest rates on a fixed-rate thirty-year mortgage hover at or around roughly 3%—oftentimes actually being below 3%. Since the beginning of 2022, those rates have continued on a nearly steady climb, with the average rate for a thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage for the week of May 26, 2022, clocking in at over 5%, a staggering difference from the year before. Rising interest rates have likely cooled demand for refinances. Nationally, while 2022 is showing a decline in new purchase …

Zoning And Land Use, Newton M. Galloway, Steven L. Jones, Joshua Williams

Mercer Law Review

Since 2017, this Georgia Survey of zoning law has annually chronicled judicial decisions transforming legislative zoning decisions into quasi-judicial actions, starting with City of Cumming v. Flowers, which held that a local government decision on a variance is quasi-judicial and may only be appealed by writ of certiorari. Subsequently, the Georgia Court of Appeals in York v. Athens College of Ministry held that consideration of a special/conditional use permit is also a quasi-judicial decision, thus extending the holding of City of Cumming. Though the appeal of a zoning decision has traditionally been de novo, York prohibited parties from …

When The Dust Has Settled: Fallout From The 2020 Presidential Election And S.B. 202 Placed Georgia’S Election Code In The Nation’S Crosshairs, William L. Wheeler

Mercer Law Review

Long regarded as a “safe” red territory, Georgia was thrust into the center of a national debate on federal and state elections when President Joe Biden flipped the state blue in the 2020 presidential election. In the wee hours of the morning on November 4, 2020, as the final votes were tallied and the electorate results became clear, the Peach State became the ignition point for a fiery, and often hyper-partisan, national debate over federal elections and how states conduct such contests. Due in part to the contrived rhetoric espoused by acolytes of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) party, …

Development Of A Tissue Engineered Cardiac Patch, Howard Herbert

All Dissertations

Cardiovascular Disease(CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in the developed world. CVD is most commonly manifested as atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries leading to Myocardial Infarction(MI). After MI, fibrosis of the ventricular wall leads to heart failure(HF), a pandemic affecting 26 million people globally. While therapies are continuously developed to combat HF, the treatment of choice, whole heart transplant, is limited by the availability of donor hearts. It is clear that there is a need to develop a long-term solution to combat HF and its enormous economic burden. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine holds promise as a possible solution …

The Laryngeal Mask Airway And Laryngeal Mask Airway Fastrach®: An Objective Structured Clinical Examination For Nurse Anesthesia, Kayla Williamson Beech, Katie Busby

Doctoral Projects

Patient safety is the primary factor that guides the clinical practice of anesthesia. To optimize patient safety and outcomes, the use of supraglottic airway devices (SAD), like the Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) and Laryngeal Mask Airway Fastrach^® (LMA Fastrach^®), may be necessary to implement within the clinical setting. The utilization of SADs would be appropriate in the following scenarios: a failed attempt to bag-mask ventilate, inability to maintain a patent airway, or use as a bridge for airway management during encounters of difficult airway situations.

At the time the study was conducted, The University of Southern Mississippi …