Digital Commons Network^™

Judging Firearms Evidence, Brandon L. Garrett, Eric Tucker, Nicholas Scurich

Faculty Scholarship

Firearms violence results in hundreds of thousands of criminal investigations each year. To try to identify a culprit, firearms examiners seek to link fired shell casings or bullets from crime scene evidence to a particular firearm. The underlying assumption is that firearms impart unique marks on bullets and cartridge cases, and that trained examiners can identify these marks to determine which were fired by the same gun. For over a hundred years, firearms examiners have testified that they can conclusively identify the source of a bullet or cartridge case. In recent years, however, research scientists have called into question the …

King, Christian Ethics, And The Promise Of Positive Fundamental Rights, H. Timothy Lovelace Jr., Patrick T. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

On February 6, 1968, leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference drafted a letter addressed to the president, Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The letter argued that the U.S. constitution facilitated economic and social second-class citizenship because the constitution did not protect economic and social rights but instead protected only civil and political rights. The letter’s authors demanded that the nation repent for its continued subordination of the poor and minorities and atone by recognizing economic and social rights. In this article, the authors recover the draft letter—a proposed economic and social bill of rights—and assert it was and …

Rethinking Behavior - Winter 2024, Midwest Symposium For Leadership In Behavior Disorders

ReThinking Behavior Magazine

A magazine for professionals serving children and youth with behavioral needs.

Winter 2024, Volume 7, Issue 2

Senegambia And The American South: Where Identity Belongs, Malika David

Master's Theses

When you think of identity, what is the first thing that comes to mind? While I knew the dictionary definition, the actual meaning of identity remained unclear to me. I couldn't quite grasp the concept or how it related to me. That changed when I visited my mother’s homeland of Senegambia in December 2022. There was always a hunch that identity was connected to a sense of belonging and self-discovery, and I was surprised to realize how similar Senegambian. culture. was to my own southern upbringing. Ultimately, that provided a lot of curiosity and shaped my perspective on identity and …

A Roadmap For Sex Workers’ Rights Reform: Lessons Learned From Recent Legal Advancements, Chi Adanna Mgbako

Faculty Scholarship

The past decade has witnessed unprecedented growth in the legal recognition of sex workers’ rights. Recent legislation and court judgments strengthening sex workers’ rights protections have occurred in the Australian jurisdictions of the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Victoria, as well as in Belgium, India, and Malawi. These legal advancements conform with the goals of the global sex workers’ rights movement. They include newly decriminalized legal frameworks governing sex work, groundbreaking labor and anti-discrimination protections for sex workers, the striking down of vagrancy laws that indirectly target sex workers, and judicial directives on state protection of sex workers’ rights. Despite the …

Empowering Providers To Empower Their Patients: One Model To Expand Knowledge, Competency, And Awareness For The Perinatal Substance Use Workforce, Jacqueline Jacobs

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Perinatal substance use (PSU) is a serious and growing public health concern. It is associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes for both mother and child and has been shown to negatively impact the parent-child relationship. Despite the growing prevalence of PSU, there are notable deficits in provider knowledge regarding, and comfortability with, PSU. Moreover, providers report feelings of judgment, resentment, fear, and hesitancy related to their work with women with PSU. Subsequently, women with PSU struggle to find appropriate, compassionate, and effective treatment for their substance misuse. Widespread and accessible training is needed to bolster provider knowledge base, …

Documents From The January 31. 2024 Meeting Of The Associated Students Of The University Of Montana (Asum), University Of Montana--Missoula. Associated Students

Senate Meeting Agendas and Minutes, 2007-Present

Agenda and meeting minutes from the January 31, 2024 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Masking Identity At Public Protests, Deborah R. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

This Article will explore these issues to assist those seeking to enact constitutionally valid mask policies. To situate today’s mask regulation challenges in the context of American history, Part I reviews events that led to enactment of anti-mask laws many years ago. Part II explains when the First Amendment protects the right to wear a mask in public and when such permission may be lawfully abridged. The section explains the importance of analyzing whether wearing a mask in public is sufficiently expressive to merit First Amendment protection. When it is, the next challenge is to identify the constitutional standard for …

Evaluation And Treatment Of Central Auditory Processing And Sound Tolerance Disorders, Aaliyah Gladney, Antony Joseph

AuD Capstone Projects - Communication Sciences and Disorders

Abstract 1

Introduction: Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) affects how a listener understands speech even though their peripheral auditory system is intact. Case Presentation: An adult female was seen for a CAPD evaluation after experiencing recent listening difficulties following an automobile accident while 20 weeks pregnant. Results from a comprehensive audiological evaluation revealed audiometrically normal hearing in both ears. Results from the CAPD evaluation suggested a prosodic deficit. Discussion: Although results from testing were consistent with a prosodic deficit, the patient’s case history, original complaints, and recommendations were more consistent with an integration deficit. Conclusion: This case demonstrates that clinicians …

New Recruitment Approach Based On Logistic Regression Model, Ishraq Hatif Abd Almajed, Ghalia Nassreddine, Joumana Younis

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a pivotal technological advancement developed by humans with the aim of enhancing the quality of human existence.  It signifies the capacity of a computerized machine resembling a robot to execute tasks typically performed by humans and replicate human behavior. Machine learning (ML), a subfield of AI, involves the construction of systems that acquire the ability to make predictions about new output values by leveraging existing data, without the need for human interaction. Currently, ML has been incorporated into various fields, including but not limited to medical diagnosis, image processing, prediction, classification, learning association, commerce, finance, and …

Latine Psychology Specialty Program Development, Leeza Rojas

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

According to the 2020 United States Census, the Latine community is the second largest ethnic represents 18.9% of the total United States population and is expected to grow to 28% by the year 2060 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). Despite this, the Latine community continues to be underserved and often underutilize behavioral health services (Blanco et al., 2007). For this reason, it is imperative that psychologists and other behavioral health providers have specialized training to best meet the community’s needs. The current literature fails to explore how Latine psychology concentrations are curated to train and inform future clinicians. This study examined …

Youth Resilience Toward Climate Smart Agriculture Technology Adoption In Brunei Darussalam, Rosita Hassan, Wida S. Suhaili, Beston F. Nore, Mohamad A. Basuni

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

Climate change and food security are critical issues to be addressed, nationally and globally, to reach sustainable agricultural development goals to feed the growing human population. The great challenge is to adapt to the climate change and in the meantime increase food production with sustainable farming practices that require farmers to have a paradigm shift toward climate smart agricultural technology (CSAT). Encouraging farmers to adopt and implement CSAT have become a priority for governmental policy making programmes. The question is what are the measures that can be taken for Brunei to leapfrog into this technology bandwagon to revitalise farmers for …

Innovative Approaches And Challenges In Brunei's Agricultural Management, Nuramalina Manshor, Ulaganathan Subramanian

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

The management and development in agriculture attract agricultural economic science for the pricing, business, farm policy, and financial knowledge. It conjointly draws on plant and animal sciences for soil, seed and fertilizer information, weed control, insect management, and rationing and breeding; agricultural engineering knowledge for farmhouses, vehicles, irrigation, field drying, drainage, and management of erosions; and data on human behavior in Science and Social Science.

Factors Affecting The Adoption Of Information Technology In Medium And Small Enterprises: A Case Study In Mekong Delta, Vietnam, Thy-Lieu Nguyen-Thi, Duy-Dong Le, Kieu-Chinh Nguyen-Ly, Trung-Tien Nguyen, Mohamed Saleem Haja Nazmudeen

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

This research endeavors to discern the determinants influencing the adoption of information technology in the management practices of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) situ-ated within the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Leveraging the Unified Theory of Ac-ceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), PLS-SEM, and ANN models, this study ranks the pivotal factors that impact the decision to integrate information technology into SME management. The identified factors, in order of significance, encompass (1) Support from State Agencies, (2) Managerial Qualifications, (3) Competitive Landscape, (4) Enterprise Scale, and (5) Employee Qualifications. The investigation encompasses 496 SMEs across the Mekong Delta and evaluates …

Social Media Marketing Audiences And Adaptive Behavior In Brunei: Sem Analysis Using Smartpls, Shahid Anjum, Asmah Ahmad, Jefri Basiuni, Najeeba Tazeen

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

The social media and Internet technology penetrations and usage are quite high in Brunei Darussalam. The use of social media marketing among micro, small, and relatively medium businesses to promote their products has also grown as businesses desire to engage and build relationships with customers through social media. This has generated an interest in studying the adaption of social media marketing campaigns among customers, which indirectly determines the effectiveness of social media marketing itself, as well as in studying the facilitation factors for such an adaption. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used extensively because of its simplicity and usefulness. …

Environmental Enrichment For Farmed Animals, Alexandra Schauer

Animal Law Review

Environmental enrichment standards are set in many animal welfare laws, but such protections are generally withheld from farmed animals. Instead, farmed animals are subject to substandard enclosures that are under-stimulating and inappropriate for their species-specific behavioral needs. Scientific studies have shown that the inclusion of environmental enrichment in an animal’s enclosure balances their production of stress hormones, which has beneficial implications for the overall health and wellbeing of the animal. Establishing enclosure standards for farmed animals that include provisions relating to environmental enrichment would improve farmed animal well-being and, subsequently, the health of the humans who consume products deriving from …

Striking A Balance: Why Federal And State Laws Should Be Revised To Effectively Deter Puppy Mills, Kaitlyn Cameron

Animal Law Review

The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was passed in 1966 with the purpose of ensuring the humane care and treatment of animals. The AWA delegates licensing responsibilities to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Services (APHIS), who have the authority to investigate violations of the AWA and penalize relevant organizations, such as puppy mills, when necessary. Unfortunately, the AWA sets forth minimum standards for the humane care and treatment of these animals and the USDA has exercised its own discretion in penalizing violations of the AWA. The AWA establishes standards for compliance, but …

A Critical Assessment Of Bill S-203, Ending The Captivity Of Whales And Dolphins Act: Challenging The Exclusivity Of Anthropocentrism And Science-Based Justifications, Rachel De Graaf

Animal Law Review

Bill S-203, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and other Acts (ending the captivity of whales and dolphins) became Canadian law in 2019, banning the captivity of cetaceans. This Article critically examines Bill S-203, arguing that it is underpinned by anthropocentric and science-based justifications that will work as exclusionary forces against many animals in need of legal protection. Instead, the Article advocates for an empathetic and multi-jural approach that accounts for human-animal interconnectedness and the unique cultures of animals. This argument is theoretically rooted in vegan ecofeminism’s empathic and non-binaristic perspective. As such, this Article scrutinizes the reasoning behind …

Exploited: The Unexpected Victims Of Animal Agriculture, Caitlin Kelly

Animal Law Review

Awareness of how nonhuman animals suffer in animal agriculture has been growing for years. But are they the only victims? Selling the products and parts of hundreds of millions of animals in the United States every year requires someone to manage those animals. It requires someone to kill those animals. And it requires someone to dismember those animals long before they ever reach the neat rows of plastic wrapped packaging at the grocery store. To accomplish this process at an industrial scale means hundreds to thousands of animals are together in barns which reek of their waste and create biohazards …

Incomplete Streets, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Over 1700 complete streets policies have been adopted by state and local government; these policies typically provide that streets shall be designed to benefit all users, not just motorists. This article analyzes some complete streets policies, and concludes that even above-average policies are often too vague and underfunded to significantly change the status quo. The article suggests a variety of reforms that might make complete streets policies more effective.

Phenotypic Mismatch Between Suspects And Fillers But Not Phenotypic Bias Increases Eyewitness Identifications Of Black Suspects, Jennifer M. Jones, Jacqueline Katzman, Margaret Bull Kovera

Publications and Research

Despite converging evidence that people more closely associate the construct of criminality with Black people who exhibit a more African facial phenotype than Black people who express a more European phenotype, eyewitness researchers have largely ignored phenotypic bias as a potential contributor to the racial disparities in the criminal legal system. If this form of phenotypic bias extends to eyewitness identification tasks, eyewitnesses may be more likely to identify Black suspects with an African rather than European phenotype, regardless of their guilt status. Further, in cases where the witness’s description of the perpetrator does not contain phenotypic information, phenotypic mismatch …

From Margins To Center: Elevating The Voices Of Disadvantaged Families In Child Welfare, Jerron R. Wheeler

Faculty Articles

This essay sheds light on the systemic challenges faced by indigent, minority families within the child welfare system, using personal experiences from my time as a student at the University of Florida Levin College of Law as a lens. This essay aims to highlight the intersection of poverty, race, and the child welfare system, showing how these factors can hinder parents' ability to reunite with their children despite their best efforts. The essay seeks to underscore the urgent need for a more nuanced, multidisciplinary approach to child welfare advocacy that includes legal professionals, social workers, and health professionals working collaboratively …

An Assessment Of The Hotel Customers’ Robotic Service Quality Perceptions: Scale Development And Validation, Ahmet Hacikara

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

"Hotel customers' interactions with service robots are becoming increasingly common, raising questions about how these interactions impact their experience. To address this gap in knowledge, this dissertation develops and validates a novel robotic service quality (ROBOQUAL) scale. Drawing on social exchange theory, the study examines the reciprocal relationship between hotel customers and artificially intelligent service robots, exploring how robotic service quality influences customers' perceptions of experience quality, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth intentions. The research employs focus-group studies, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and partial least squares equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to develop and validate the ROBOQUAL scale."

Through Smoke And Mirrors: Excluding Malingering Expert Testimony Under The Daubert Standard, Chunlin Leonhard, Christoph Leonhard

Georgia Law Review

Because of science’s claim to objectivity, scientific testimony is persuasive and often outcome-determinative. Our adversarial system incentivizes litigants to proffer scientific evidence to support their positions. The task falls on trial judges as gatekeepers to distinguish valid scientific evidence from junk science. Drawing this line is difficult because scientific evidence covers a broad spectrum. The United States Supreme Court has set forth the standard of admissibility of scientific evidence in Daubert and its progeny (the Daubert Standard). Trial judges are supposed to admit scientific evidence only if reliable and relevant under the Daubert Standard. But three decades after Daubert, …

Statutory Solutions For Stealthing: How States Should Amend Their Laws To Address Nonconsensual Condom Removal, Lauren Harter

Georgia Law Review

In recent years, growing awareness of “stealthing”—a term used to describe the act of removing a condom before or during sex without a partner’s consent—has led to widespread condemnation of the act as a form of sexual assault. However, legislatures across the United States have been slow to amend or add to their laws to specifically address stealthing, leaving countless victims without recourse. To date, only four states have successfully amended their laws to create civil penalties for stealthing, and not one treats stealthing as a crime. In an age where bodily autonomy seems increasingly at risk, it is imperative …

Rethinking Tax Information: The Case For Quarterly 1099s, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Faculty Publications

When an electricity provider wants customers to pay their bills monthly, it sends them a bill each month. Yet, this is not how the tax system works— at least not for independent contractors. Their taxes are due quarterly, but they receive a tax statement (Form 1099) only one time a year. It is up to the individual, then, to know when their taxes are due and how to pay them, and it is on that individual to estimate how much they owe each quarter. As a result, compliance for independent contractors—particularly for online platform workers—tends to be lacking. Failure to …

Natural Objects And Testamentary Freedom, Kevin Bennardo

Faculty Publications

This Article explores the tension between inheritance law’s designation of certain beneficiaries as natural and unnatural for certain purposes and its organizing principle of testamentary freedom. Either inheritance law is primarily concerned with effectuating the preference of the decedent or it is primarily concerned with safeguarding the economic health of the family. It cannot be both. Ultimately, one of these two must yield. Either we acknowledge that decedents don’t have the level of dispositional freedom that is advertised or we change the law’s designation of some devises as natural and other as unnatural.

This Article proposes a pathway to relieve …

Automated Feedback For Formative Excel Assignments

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

No abstract provided.

How Business Schools Can Address Gender Gap In The Finance Profession: A Mission-Driven Undergraduate Student-Managed Investment Program

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper proposes a way to address gender gap in the finance profession through the Investment Challenge program. The survey results reveal that the perception toward pursuing a career in Finance among female high school students positively changes after completing the Investment Challenge. After participating in the Investment Challenge program, the survey respondents have expressed a significantly stronger belief that they can succeed professionally if they choose a career in Finance, and this result is more pronounced among female high school students. The proposed program offers a proactive solution to the gender gap challenge in finance at its roots.

The Influence Of Intensive Treatment In A Cohort Model On Psychosocial Well-Being Of Patients With Aphasia: An Investigation Of Patients’ Quality Of Life Across Three Service Delivery Models, Helena Riley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Aphasia, a common communication disorder following a stroke, significantly impacts psychosocial wellbeing and quality of life. Despite advancements in rehabilitation frameworks, traditional impairment-based interventions prevail, leaving gaps in addressing holistic needs. This study aims to compare patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) between intensive comprehensive aphasia programs (ICAP), modified ICAPs (mICAPs) and individual usual care (UC) service delivery models for aphasia intervention. Eighteen participants with aphasia were broadly recruited for this study. Each completed a series of PROMs pre-and post-treatment examining psychosocial wellbeing, communicative participation, and health related quality of life. Results indicate that intensive programs show potential for greater gains in …