Digital Commons Network^™

The Collective Origins Of Toxic Air Pollution: Implications For Greenhouse Gas Trading And Toxic Hotspots, David E. Adelman

Indiana Law Journal

This Article presents the first synthesis of geospatial data on toxic air pollution in the United States. Contrary to conventional views, the data show that vehicles and small stationary sources emit a majority of the air toxics nationally. Industrial sources, by contrast, rarely account for more than ten percent of cumulative cancer risks from all outdoor sources of air toxics. This pattern spans multiple spatial scales, ranging from census tracts to the nation as a whole. However, it is most pronounced in metropolitan areas, which have the lowest air quality and are home to eighty percent of the U.S. population. …

Threshold Responses Of Forest Birds To Landscape Changes Around Exurban Development, Todd R. Lookingbill, Marcela Suarez-Rubio, Scott Wilson, Peter Leimgruber

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Low-density residential development (i.e., exurban development) is often embedded within a matrix of protected areas and natural amenities, raising concern about its ecological consequences. Forest-dependent species are particularly susceptible to human settlement even at low housing densities typical of exurban areas. However, few studies have examined the response of forest birds to this increasingly common form of land conversion. The aim of this study was to assess whether, how, and at what scale forest birds respond to changes in habitat due to exurban growth. We evaluated changes in habitat composition (amount) and configuration (arrangement) for forest and forest-edge species around …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2012 Annual Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Stephen K. Wilson, Daniel J. Swanson, Michael Prowatzke, Phil Graeve

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) plays a vital role in protecting and managing some of the last remnants of native mixed-grass prairie in the region. The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Fire Ecology Program (FireEP) surveyed 12 long-term monitoring plots in Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in 2012 as part of an effort to better understand the condition of plant communities in the park. We measured plant diversity and cover, looked for the presence of exotic species that may be newly invading the park, and evaluated the amount of human and natural disturbance …

China's Soft Power Offensive In The United States: Cultural Diplomacy, Media Campaigning, And Congressional Lobbying, Kalika A. Tullock

CMC Senior Theses

As China’s economic and military power develops and expands, it has been focusing recent efforts on upgrading its soft power in order to quell concerns and apprehensions about its rise. As the two most powerful nations in the world, China and the United States have both attached great importance to Sino-U.S. relations, recognizing that the structure of the future global community will be largely dependent upon these two countries effectively collaborating in shaping the global structure and improving global issues. Facing an American public that views China as a threat and competitor, as well as Western media that consistently paints …

Strangers In Their Own Native Land: Joseph Smith, Mormons, And The Orientalizating Of An American People, Mahala Ruddell

Master's Theses and Capstones

Emerging stronger than ever in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, "orientalism" was more than just pictures of Turkish girls in a sultan's harem; it was a process of information sharing through art, literature, military campaigns, and politics. Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, colloquially known as Mormonism, in the midst of this information exchange. A product of his era, he used orientalist rhetoric and imagery to connect the ideas he preached to ancient Judaism, thereby legitimizing the new religion within the context of a much older and more respected holy past. But he was …

Daughters Of Charity: Women, Religious Mission, And Hospital Care In Los Angeles, 1856-1927, Kristine Ashton Gunnell

Vincentian Digital Books

A captivating story, culled from extensive historical research, documents how ingenuity, determination, and faith enabled mission-driven Daughters of Charity to establish, develop, and provide healthcare in Los Angeles. This work contains multiple examples of their flexibility to overcome barriers of culture, religion, language, and scarce resources in the context of frontier politics but without comprise of their faith-based mission of service to persons in need.

Stories Of Self And Other: Four In-Service Social Studies Teachers Reflect On Their International Professional Development, Timothy Patterson

Education Faculty Publications

This study is an examination of the stories four social studies teachers told after participating in one international professional development program. Drawing on theories of postcolonialism, this narrative inquiry uses interviews, observations, and artifacts to investigate if and to what degree travel to and study in China influences the understandings of one group of in-service social studies teachers. Its focus is the extent to which meeting the Other influenced the participants’ conceptualizations of global education and whether or not this experience allowed one group of American teachers to challenge their perceptual lenses with regards to their social studies curricula. An …

The Indian States Of America: Parallel Universes & Overlapping Sovereignty, Joseph William Singer

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Firearm Localism, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

Second Amendment doctrine is largely becoming a line-drawing exercise, as courts try to determine which “Arms” are constitutionally protected, which “people” are permitted to keep and bear them, and in which ways those arms and people can be regulated. But the developing legal regime has yet to account for one potentially significant set of lines: the city limits themselves. In rural areas, gun crime and gun control are relatively rare, and gun culture is strong. In cities, by contrast, rates of violent gun crime are comparatively high, and opportunities for recreational gun use are scarce. And from colonial Boston to …

The Crucial But (Potentially) Precarious Position Of The Chief Compliance Officer, Deborah A. Demott

Faculty Scholarship

This Article, written for a symposium on compliance issues in financial-services firms, focuses on the role of the chief compliance officer (“CCO”). Contrasting the position with that held by a firm’s general counsel or Chief Legal Officer (CLO), the article argues that a CCO’s position holds distinct challenges. Additionally, although internal compliance systems and personnel may be characterized as functional substitutes for external regulation, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of internal compliance requires a willingness to look deep within firms. The article argues that the law and regulation may enhance firms’ incentives to invest in effective internal compliance but may …

When "Reasonableness" Is Not So Reasonable: The Need To Restore Clarity To The Appellate Review Of Federal Sentencing Decisions After Rita, Gall, And Kimbrough, Craig D. Rust

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2012 Annual Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Michael Prowatzke, Stephen K. Wilson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

the last remnants of native mixed-grass prairie in the region. The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network (NGPN) surveyed 8 long-term monitoring plots in Scotts Bluff National Monument in 2012 as part of an effort to better understand the condition of plant communities in the park. We measured plant diversity and cover, estimated tree and shrub density, looked for the presence of exotic species that are of concern to park management, and evaluated the amount of human and natural disturbance at all plots. This effort was the second year in a multiple-year venture to document the current …

Do U.S. Firms Fly Higher When Bypassing The U.S. Capital Markets? An Investigation Of The Short- And Long-Run Performance Of Foreign Ipos?, Robert N. Killins

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation studies the performance of U.S. firms that partake in a foreign IPO – bypassing their domestic exchanges and raising their equity in a foreign market. Chapter one provides an introduction and brief review of the main research questions and results. Chapter 2 provides a detailed literature review on initial public offerings-IPOs. This includes relevant studies on the long- and short-run performance of IPOs, theories for IPO underpricing and an international component of the IPO literature. Additional cross-listing literature is also reviewed to provide a more complete and balanced understanding of the international market for equity. Chapter 3 develops …

Montesquieu's Theory Of Government And The Framing Of The American Constitution , Matthew P. Bergman

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Cave And Karst Studies, Volume 74, No. 3, December 2012, Table Of Contents, National Speleological Society

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

The Era Of Boundlessness At St. Mary’S Of The Barrens, 1818-1843: A Brief Historical Analysis, Richard J. Janet Ph.D.

Vincentian Studies

Richard Janet analyzes the early history of Saint Mary’s of the Barrens according to the historian Philip Gleason’s view of the development of American Catholicism. Gleason sees the arc of American Catholicism as moving from a period of “boundlessness,” in which institutions engaged in all types of works, to the mid-nineteenth-century period of “consolidation,” in which leaders tried to manage growth in a way that would stabilize those institutions. Gleason’s thesis is discussed in detail. The work of Felix De Andreis, Joseph Rosati, and John Timon is examined. They faced many problems inherent in maintaining a Vincentian community while ministering …

The 2012 U.S.-Mexico Agreement On Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs In The Gulf Of Mexico: A Blueprint For Progress Or A Recipe For Conflict?, Jorge A. Vargas

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article is divided into four parts. Parts I and II describe each of the four previous U.S.-Mexico maritime delimitation treaties of 1970, 1976, 1978, and 2000. These treaties represent different degrees of progress in the process of completing the maritime boundaries that geographical contiguity imposes upon these contiguous countries. This was a slow and careful process that spanned almost half a century. Part III analyzes the 2012 U.S.-Mexico Agreement on Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico from an international law perspective, with special reference to the interests of the United States and Mexico. Finally, Part IV advances …

Setting The Agenda: Asia And Latin America In The 21st Century, Ariel C. Armony

Center for Latin American Studies Publications

Latin America and Asia are among the world’s fastest growing regions. Trade between Asia and Latin American and Caribbean countries has risen dramatically in recent years. It is undeniable that Asia now plays a formidable role in the economic development of the region. This publication emerges out of the University of Miami’s 2012 “Asia and Latin America in the 21^st Century” conference, where leaders from academic, policy, business, and media communities from around the world convened to address the macroeconomic trends, trade relations, and sociopolitical trends that have emerged as the links between Asia and Latin America strengthen. Organized …

Journal Of Cave And Karst Studies, Volume 74, No. 2, August 2012, Table Of Contents, National Speleological Society

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

Orientalism And Media Representations Of Iran In The Usa, Ashutosh Mishra

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to understand the phenomenon called Orientalism and reviews how Edward Said elucidates this subject. Its key argument is that certain forms of representation, including those through mass media, can and often do consist of efforts to represent reality in a subtle manner, which may distort the picture to the disadvantage of one group, or set of persons, or even states. The efforts at such representation succeed on account of an existing power differential as well as a body of texts having already established what "knowledge" is, what truth is about a subject, without any countervailing capacity or …

Two Boundaries Separate Borrelia Burgdorferi Populations In North America, Gabriele Margos, Jean I. Tsao, Santiago Castillo-Ramirez, Yvette A. Girard, Anne G. Hoen

Dartmouth Scholarship

Understanding the spread of infectious diseases is crucial for implementing effective control measures. For this, it is important to obtain information on the contemporary population structure of a disease agent and to infer the evolutionary processes that may have shaped it. Here, we investigate on a continental scale the population structure of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis (LB), a tick-borne disease, in North America. We test the hypothesis that the observed d population structure is congruent with recent population expansions and that these were preceded by bottlenecks mostly likely caused by the near extirpation in the 1900s …

Historical Ecology With Real Numbers: Past And Present Extent And Biomass Of An Imperiled Estuarine Habitat, Philine S. E. Zu Ermgassen, Mark D. Spalding, Brady Blake, Loren D. Coen, Brett Dumbauld, Kay Mcgraw, William Rodney, Jennifer L. Ruesink, Sean P. Powers, Robert Brumbaugh

Jackson Estuarine Laboratory

Historic baselines are important in developing our understanding of ecosystems in the face of rapid global change. While a number of studies have sought to determine changes in extent of exploited habitats over historic timescales, few have quantified such changes prior to late twentieth century baselines. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first ever large-scale quantitative assessment of the extent and biomass of marine habitat-forming species over a 100-year time frame. We examined records of wild native oyster abundance in the United States from a historic, yet already exploited, baseline between 1878 and 1935 (predominantly 1885–1915), and a current …

Bringing The Market To Students: School Choice And Vocational Education In The Twenty-First Century, Lia Epperson

Notre Dame Law Review

An essay is presented on the need of providing students with material and industrial foundation through higher education. The history of technical and vocational education in public schools, related federal legislation and the current state of education system is discussed. The issues related to college matriculation, employment status in young people and the mismatch between the education and the economic and industrial requirement of the nation is also discussed.

Federal Home Loan Bank Advances And Commercial Bank Portfolio Composition, W. Scott Frame, Diana Hancock, Wayne Passmore

Documents

No abstract provided.

Factors Affecting Social Attainment Among Individuals: Evidence From The National Educational Longitudinal Study 1988-2000, Michael Foleng Ndofor

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study draws from extant literature on social attainment to examine what factors affect the attaining of higher incomes, education, and occupational ranks. Research on five distinct factors is examined and analyzed using a sample of about 6,000 students from a national longitudinal study across the United States between 1988-2000 as they transitioned from eight grade through high school and into the labor force: (1) background characteristics: household type, race, and gender, (2) social capital, (3) cultural capital, (4) academic ability, and (5) parental social class. The results revealed that these factors affect social attainment. I also examined if parental …

Human Trafficking Post 9/11 Policy And Practice Beyond Cutting The Tail Off The Snake, Alexandra Caitlin Rice

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The U.S. Department of State estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 14,500 to 17,500 of which are trafficked into the United States. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (VTVPA) was created to combat human trafficking in the country, and as a result created the T-visa to provide immigration relief to non-citizen victims of trafficking. In this work I analyze U.S. government efforts to combat trafficking in the twelve years following implementation of the VTVPA. I expand my analysis beyond T-visa distribution data to incorporate interviews with high-level government …

Pictures From The Past: Saint Vincent’S College, Los Angeles, Stafford Poole C.M.

Vincentian Studies

The history of Saint Vincent’s College is recounted with a special focus on its problems with local bishops and the reasons leading to its closure. Eighteen images are included.

Droughtscape, Spring 2012, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report.

Climate Masters 1

Ranch plan workshop . 3

Winter climate summary 4

Winter impacts summary . 6

Zhao research.

Getachew research 0

Other international news

Wardlow move 13

IPCC disaster report .

Journal Of Cave And Karst Studies, Volume 74, No. 1, April 2012, Table Of Contents, National Speleological Society

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

‘‘Ticketed Through’’ The Commodification Of Travel In The Nineteenth Century, Will Mackintosh

History and American Studies Articles

This article discusses the commodification of travel in United States during the 19th Century and the impact created by the rise of canals, steamboats, and commercial railroads.