Digital Commons Network^™

Applying Unoccupied Aircraft Systems To Study Human Behavior In Marine Science And Conservation Programs, Michelle B. Nowlin, Stephen E. Roady, Everette Newton, David W. Johnston

Faculty Scholarship

The declining costs of Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS, aka drones), their ease of use, and their ability to collect high resolution data from a variety of sensors has resulted in an explosion of applications across the globe. Scientists working in the marine environment are increasingly using UAS to study a variety of topics, from counting wildlife populations in remote locations to estimating the effects of storms and sea level rise on shorelines. UAS also provide transformative potential to study the ways in which humans interact with and affect marine and coastal ecosystems, but doing so presents unique ethical and legal …

Detecting And Preventing Insurance Fraud: State Of The Nation In Review, Johnny C. Parker

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Colombia's Post Conflict: A Grassroots Approach To The Implementation Of The Peace Accords As A Necessary Element To Build A Long Lasting Peace, Maria Paula Perdomo Garcia

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Unmanned Aerial And Traversing Vehicle -- A Mobile Platform For Bridge Inspections, Clayton A. Fritsche

Masters Theses

“Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have been rapidly growing in popularity since their creation. This study aimed to create a robotic platform used to assist in the inspection process of the nation’s aging and deteriorating bridges. To this end, a multimodal inspection robot that utilized both flying and driving technologies, was designed, analyzed, and tested for aerial, traversing, and their transitional operability. The design, herein referred to as the “BridgeBot”, was evaluated both computationally and experimentally. A finite element model of the BridgeBot was established and analyzed under static loading scenarios to help determine stress distributions and …

Historicizing Sexual Violence Against Native American Women: Colonization, Intracommunal Shifts, And Creative Forms Of Discourse, Martha Bono

Scripps Senior Theses

The sexual assault and gendered violence Native American women face has started to garner attention from politicians, newspapers, and Hollywood producers. Most of today's discourse, however, ignores history. My historical analysis reveals how sexual violence against Indigenous women has been institutionalized since the very first days of colonization, and how these institutions ensured gendered violence would endure over time. First, I analyze how gender roles within Indigenous communities, specifically the Cherokee, led to Native women's subjugation and enabled intracommunal violence. Next, I examine particular federal Indian policies that have created a complex system of jurisdictional conflict that prevents tribal governments …

The Internationalization Of Tax Disputes Issues And Options Of A Standing International Tax Court, Xueliang Ji

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

With the growing criticisms on the traditional investor-state arbitration mechanism, the European Union has proposed an innovative provision named the Investment Court System ICS, and it has introduced it in some significant bilateral investment treaties, like Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement CETA and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP. In the meantime, as taxation is a component of the investment polies, the protection of the rights enjoyed by the foreign taxpayers matters as well. However, the current tax related dispute settlement methods also have several defects. This article attempts to incorporate the ICS in resolving tax related disputes and taking …

Liberal Democratic Civic Education And Rampage School Gun Violence: Why We Need An Alternative Theory Of Democracy To Guide Contemporary Civic Education, Samantha Deane

Dissertations

In this dissertation, which relies on philosophical inquiry, I use the case of rampage school gun violence to explore democratic education. Drawing a distinction between liberal-foundational democratic education, which aims to educate the individual on how to become an autonomous rational agent and pragmatic-antifoundational democratic education, which looks to help individuals to understand agency as shared, I argue antifoundational democratic education teaches individuals how to affect their environment and take responsibility for the renewal of their democratic society. Rather than allocating blame in the singular individual, antifoundational democracy teaches citizens how to share the blame, take responsibility for unacceptable violence, …

Social Freedom, Democracy And The Political: Three Reflections On Axel Honneth's Idea Of Socialism, Stephen W. Sawyer, William J. Novak, James T. Sparrow

Articles

Axel Honneth’s Idea of Socialism is an important clarion call for an urgent rethinking of the possibilities of a socialism for the twenty-first century. One of the most surprising and satisfying aspects of Axel Honneth’s timely new book is its recovery of the continued vitality of John Dewey’s pragmatic democratic philosophy. These reflections on Honneth’s use of John Dewey for democratizing social freedom, take stock of and explore the political limits of Honneth’s social reconstruction.

มาตรการทางกฎหมายในการกำกับดูแลเนื้อหาการแสดงความคิดเห็นทางการเมืองที่นำเข้าสู่ระบบโดยผู้ใช้บนสื่อสังคมออนไลน์, สุภิณี คงเจริญ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้มีจุดมุ่งหมายเพื่อศึกษาถึงมาตรการทางกฎหมายในการกำกับดูแลเนื้อหาการแสดงความคิดเห็นทางการเมืองที่ถูกสร้างและนำเข้าสู่ระบบโดยผู้ใช้งานบนสื่อสังคมออนไลน์ เนื่องจากการแสดงคิดเห็นทางการเมืองบนสื่อสังคมออนไลน์กลายเป็นเครื่องมือสำคัญในการกระตุ้นความสนใจในการอภิปรายประเด็นสาธารณะ จนนำไปสู่การเชื่อมโยงความคิดของผู้คนจนสามารถสร้างแรงขับเคลื่อนทางสังคมและการเมืองได้ แต่ในขณะเดียวกัน ก็เป็นดาบสองคมที่อาจเป็นเครื่องมือสร้างการสื่อสารในทางลบ ไปจนถึงการสร้างประเด็นเพื่อเน้นย้ำความแตกแยกทางความคิดให้มากขึ้นได้เช่นกัน ด้วยเหตุนี้รัฐบาลในหลายประเทศ จึงได้มีมาตรการทางกฎหมายเพื่อควบคุมและป้องกันปัญหาดังกล่าว โดยมีบทบัญญัติที่ให้อำนาจรัฐสามารถดำเนินการบางประการอันมีผลต่อสิทธิเสรีภาพของประชาชนได้เท่าที่จำเป็นเท่านั้น แต่ในกรณีของรัฐบาลไทย โดยหน่วยงานผู้รับผิดชอบกลับใช้มาตรการทางกฎหมายดังกล่าวเพื่อควบคุม แทรกแซง และปิดกั้นข้อมูลรวมไปถึงการละเมิดเสรีภาพในการแสดงความคิดเห็นของประชาชน นอกจากนี้ยังมีเหตุการณ์ที่ทำให้เชื่อว่ามาตรการดังกล่าวได้ถูกทำให้เป็นกลไกในการใช้อำนาจรัฐเพื่อขจัดผู้มีความคิดเห็นต่างจากตน และเป็นเหตุให้รัฐบังคับใช้กฎหมายอย่างไม่เสมอภาคเท่าเทียมกัน โดยอาศัยช่องว่างความไม่ชัดเจนของถ้อยคำในบทบัญญัติและนโยบายของรัฐ มาเป็นเหตุผลในการลิดรอนสิทธิเสรีภาพขั้นพื้นฐานซึ่งเป็นเรื่องที่ไม่สอดคล้องกับหลักการคุ้มครองสิทธิเสรีภาพของประชาชน วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้จึงขอเสนอแนะให้มีการแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมมาตรการทางกฎหมาย ให้มีความชัดเจนในบทบัญญัติที่ให้อำนาจรัฐในการใช้ดุลยพินิจที่มีผลต่อการลิดรอนสิทธิเสรีภาพในการแสดงความคิดเห็นและการสื่อสารผ่านสื่อสังคมออนไลน์ของประชาชน ถึงความเหมาะสมต่อหลักการสิทธิและเสรีภาพอันรับรองไว้และตามหลักการที่กำหนดไว้ในกฎหมายสิทธิมนุษยชนระหว่างประเทศ รวมไปถึงเสนอให้มีมาตรการบางประการเพื่อคุ้มครองผู้ใช้งานให้มีความชัดเจนและเป็นรูปธรรม เพื่อให้การปกป้องและคุ้มครองสิทธิเสรีภาพของประชาชนเป็นไปตามเจตนารมณ์ของสิทธิเสรีภาพมากขึ้น

The Opioid Crisis: The States' And Local Governments' Response To Bigpharma's Deception And Why The Supremacy Clause May Provide A Cloak For Opioid Manufacturers To Hide Behind, Tracie Childers

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Physical And Chemical Trace Evidence From 3d-Printed Firearms, And Use Of A Quadcopter For Targeted Sampling Of Gaseous Mercury In The Atmosphere, Oscar Beauchamp Black

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My forensic research resulted in the first peer-reviepaper to address the forensic challenges presented by 3D-printed polymer firearms. The work involved a systematic approach to the analysis of evidence stemming from 3D-printed firearms filling a critical void in current forensic knowledge. We used DART-MS to characterize the polymer evidence left behind by 3D-printed firearms as well as an evaluation of pre-existing firearm and toolmark techniques and fingerprint analysis. We demonstrated that 3D-printed firearms leave behind characteristic polymer residue on cartridge cases bullets and the receiving surface which can be identified using DART-MS. The culmination of the work includes a database …

Analyzing Disaster-Related Twitter Data And Identifying Panic Triggers For Cyber Disruption Prevention And Emergency Response Enhancement, Nasser A. Assery

Dissertations

Twitter has emerged rapidly as an ideal platform for news updates especially during natural disasters. During disasters, people exchange endless amount of information on Twitter. This information may include warnings, evacuation orders, updates etc. Making sense of this information is challenging due to the limitations of available tools to analyze high-volume data. There have been studies done to make use of twitter data as it contains valuable information that has the potential to help improve the efficiency of disaster response. This research presents a framework to extract, automatically label, and classify tweets from two recent disaster events in order to …

Students’ Perceptions And Strategies For Success In An Associate Degree Nursing Program, Theresa Hargett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The three-manuscript dissertation is based on perceptions and personal strategies of successful third-semester nursing students about retention interventions at Holmes Community College Associate Degree Nursing Program on the Grenada Campus. Retention and attrition of nursing students is a current area of concern at Holmes Community College in the Associate Degree Nursing Program. Understanding adaptations that led third-semester students in the ADN program to be successful in their first-year is the focus of this study. The research questions seek to answer second-year, third-semester students’ perceptions of their first-year experiences of faculty interventions and personal strategies applied for success. Understanding adaptations and …

Of Mules And Mamas: Four Women, Africana Mothering, And Resistance, Ebony Olivia Lumumba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The black woman’s humanity is unjustly linked to domestic responsibility and, thus, the traditional constraints of mothering. The roles of the mother and the created archetype of the mammy often become marred with the latter role overtaking the former—leaving black children without full benefit and access to their biological maternal parent. With the pervasive threat to black lives present in spaces all over the globe, for women of the African Diaspora, simply deciding to accept the role of a mother to a life that is physically, socially, and economically under siege is revolutionary. Considering this, the act of mothering, especially …

The Relationship Between Witnessing Domestic Violence And Criminal Recidivism Among Juvenile Sex Offenders, Shamyra Marie Shaw

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This correlational archival dissertation focuses on the relationship between exposure to domestic violence and criminal recidivism among juvenile sexual offenders. The study examined archival criminal arrest records and self-reported data gathered from a sample of 67 male juvenile sexual offenders in a residential treatment facility. Given the somewhat limited explanations for and research into the causes of juvenile sexual re-offending and the importance of identifying its determinants, this topic may be viewed as having substantial importance to future research and criminal justice policy. Findings did not support the primary hypothesis that prior exposure to domestic violence would be positively correlated …

Trends In Opioid Use Disorder Among Pregnant Women And Opioid Use During Vaginal Delivery Hospitalization, Ayooluwatomiwa Deborah Adekunle

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Background: The prevalence of opioid use in pregnancy has increased sharply in recent years. Kentucky is one of the hardest hits states and has seen many babies born with withdrawal symptoms over the past decade. Recent years have seen an increase in efforts to decrease opioid use in both inpatient and outpatient settings. However, Kentucky continues to have high rates of opioid prescription. This study aims at looking at trends in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in pregnancy, Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome(NOWS) and the use of opioids during delivery hospitalization at a Kentucky tertiary institution.

Methods- Data on all deliveries between …

Using A Mixed Methods Approach To Study The Evolution Of Party Platforms - 1960-2016, Artour Aslanian

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Every four years, members of political parties convene in order to craft platforms in which they articulate the positions of the parties on a plethora of different issues. While not widely read, the importance of these platforms cannot be understated. They provide a lens for us in order to view the ideological shifts of the parties and often serve as a mechanism by which to guide the legislative agendas of the parties. This dissertation examines Republican and Democratic platforms written between 1960-2016 using a mixed methods approach in order to evaluate the value of using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. …

Deaf Mis-Interpretation During Hurricane Irma: A Case Study And Evaluation, Sherilyn D. Burris

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

In 2017, Manatee County Government (Florida, USA) used an untrained sign language interpreter during a media briefing on Hurricane Irma evacuation orders. The individual signed incorrectly, resulting in confusion for the community and embarrassment for the organization. This case study presents the background of accessible information in crisis management -- why and how disaster preparedness information is interpreted for the deaf community; provides the event's consequences, as well as local and global implications; and discusses ways to incorporate deaf and hard-of-hearing stakeholders and groups into existing structures and programs.

Third-Class Citizenship: The Escalating Legal Consequences Of Committing A "Violent" Crime, Michael O'Hear

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

For many years, American legislatures have been steadily attaching a wide range of legal consequences to convictions—and sometimes even just charges—for crimes that are classified as “violent.” These consequences affect many key aspects of the criminal process, including pretrial detention, eligibility for pretrial diversion, sentencing, eligibility for parole and other opportunities for release from incarceration, and the length and intensity of supervision in the community. The consequences can also affect a person’s legal status and rights long after the sentence for the underlying offense has been served. A conviction for a violent crime can result in registration requirements, lifetime disqualification …

Reading The Prisoner's Letter: Attorney-Client Confidentiality In Inmate Correspondence, Gregory Sisk, Michelle King, Joy Nissen Beitzel, Bridget Duffus, Katherine Koehler

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No one in our society has a more compelling need to communicate in complete confidence with a lawyer than a prisoner, when challenging a conviction as wrongful or prison conditions as unlawful. No one has a greater need to be able to engage in the uninhibited discussion of highly personal matters, tragic events, and official misconduct. A prisoner’s constitutional rights to freedom of speech, access to the courts, due process, and assistance of counsel are placed in unique jeopardy when a correctional system insists on prying into the substantive contents of legal mail.

In this Article, we explain the vital …

Mass Incarceration Paradigm Shift?: Convergence In An Age Of Divergence, Mugambi Jouet

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

The peculiar harshness of modern American justice has led to a vigorous scholarly debate about the roots of mass incarceration and its divergence from humanitarian sentencing norms prevalent in other Western democracies. Even though the United States reached virtually world-record imprisonment levels between 1983 and 2010, the Supreme Court never found a prison term to be “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. By countenancing extreme punishments with no equivalent elsewhere in the West, such as life sentences for petty recidivists, the Justices’ reasoning came to exemplify the exceptional nature of American justice. Many scholars concluded that punitiveness had …

Measuring Change: From Rates Of Recidivism To Markers Of Desistance, Cecelia M. Klingele

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Reducing the incidence of crime is a primary task of the criminal justice system and one for which it rightly should be held accountable. The system’s success is frequently judged by the recidivism rates of those who are subject to various criminal justice interventions, from treatment programs to imprisonment. This Article suggests that, however popular, recidivism alone is a poor metric for gauging the success of criminal justice interventions or of those who participate in them. This is true primarily because recidivism is a binary measure, and behavioral change is a multi-faceted process. Accepting recidivism as a valid, stand-alone metric …

Just Transitions, Ann M. Eisenberg

Faculty Publications

The transition to a low-carbon society will have winners and losers as the costs and benefits of decarbonization fall unevenly on different communities. This potential collateral damage has prompted calls for a “just transition” to a green economy. While the term, “just transition,” is increasingly prevalent in the public discourse, it remains under-discussed and poorly defined in legal literature, preventing it from helping catalyze fair decarbonization. This Article seeks to define the term, test its validity, and articulate its relationship with law so the idea can meet its potential.

The Article is the first to disambiguate and assess two main …

Social Media, Manipulation, And Violence, Allyson Haynes Stuart

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

Maine Law Magazine - Issue No. 95, University Of Maine School Of Law

Maine Law Magazine

• Arctic collaboration
  Building connections benefits Maine Law students
• A strong future
  Report explores strengthening Maine Law
• For the public good
  The Law School plays a crucial role in shaping leaders
• Passing the torch
  Celebrating Jim Burke’s legacy
• The value of experience
  Adjunct professors contribute hands-on wisdom
• Alumni at work
  Graduates make their marks as prosecutors

Adult Justice In Nebraska 2019, Nebraska Center For Justice Research - University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Reports

The Nebraska Center for Justice Research was established in 2014 with a mission to develop and sustain research capacity internal to the State of Nebraska, assist the Legislature in research, evaluation, and policymaking to reduce recidivism, promote the use of evidence-based practices in corrections, and improve public safety. The primary purpose of this report is to provide an overview of recent trends in Nebraska’s adult criminal justice system.

Most of the data in this report is presented statewide as well as separated into Nebraska’s twelve judicial districts. Nebraska’s two most metropolitan counties are represented by District 4 (Douglas County) and …

Vocational And Life Skills Monthly Data Update: January 2019, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Katelynn Towne, Michael Campagna

Reports

Grantees use an online data management system to submit data on participants served under their Vocational and Life Skills programming. This data is due monthly and reflects all services provided during the previous month to participants. Evaluators at the Nebraska Center for Justice Research work with grantees directly to manage data entry errors on an ongoing basis during monthly update calls and regular site visits.

The current data derives from an active database, with live data being entered and updated daily. Data values, including previously submitted information, may fluctuate depending on changes made from data entry oversight. One common example …

Interrogating Police Officers, Stephen Rushin, Atticus Deprospo

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article empirically evaluates the procedural protections given to police officers facing disciplinary interrogations about alleged misconduct. It demonstrates that state laws and collective bargaining agreements have insulated many police officers from the most successful interrogation techniques.

The first part of this Article builds on previous studies by analyzing a dataset of police union contracts and state laws that govern the working conditions in a substantial cross section of large and midsized American police departments. Many of these police departments provide officers with hours or even days of advanced notice before a disciplinary interrogation. An even larger percentage of these …

The Effects Of Voluntary And Presumptive Sentencing Guidelines, Stephen Rushin, Josph Colquitt, Griffin Sims Edwards

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article empirically illustrates that the introduction of voluntary and presumptive sentencing guidelines at the state-level can contribute to statistically significant reductions in sentence length, inter-judge disparities, and racial disparities.

For much of American history, judges had largely unguided discretion to select criminal sentences within statutorily authorized ranges. But in the mid-to-late twentieth century, states and the federal government began experimenting with sentencing guidelines designed to reign in judicial discretion to ensure that similarly situated offenders received comparable sentences. Some states have made their guidelines voluntary, while others have made their guidelines presumptive or mandatory, meaning that judges must generally …

Doctrinal Dynamism, Borrowing, And The Relationship Between Rules And Rights, Luke Smith Morgan, Joseph Blocher

Scholarly Works

The study of "Rights Dynamism," exemplified in Timothy Zick's new book on the First Amendment's relationship with the rest of the Bill of Rights, can enrich our understanding of constitutional rights. It also opens a door to another potentially fruitful arena: what we call "Doctrinal Dynamism." Constitutional rights often interact and generate new meanings and applications by way of importing and exporting one another's doctrinal rules, even when the rights themselves do not intersect directly in the context of a single case. Focusing on these doctrinal exchanges can illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of various rules, the specific interests underlying …