Digital Commons Network^™

Musi 108a.01: University Orchestra, Luis Milan

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Musi 395.24: Applied Study Iii - Voice, David T. Cody

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Heo 148.01: Operational Skill Building, Timothy M. Peterson

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of International Business and Law

No abstract provided.

Broken Trust - A $500,000 Lesson In How Banks As Trustees Fail Beneficiaries While Enriching Themselves And While Regulators Ignore The Abuse, Bruce Cahan

Journal of International Business and Law

U.S. households own or control USD $140 trillion (TN).1 Their financial assets under management (AUM) are being managed today through the complex circuitry of global financial markets. Real estate, art and other assets also are being managed. For estate and wealth management planning, for security of long-term asset appreciation and asset protection against bankruptcy, divorce, death, incapacity and exposure of assets to litigation risks, lawyers recommend establishing trusts and rely on the professional expertise, responsibility and ethical clarity of corporate trustees. In the U.S., private trusts typically are formed pursuant to the trust codes of the various states, often modeled …

Sovereign Debt Speculation: A Necessary Limitation Justified By A Concern For Debt Sustainability, Justin Vanderschuren

Journal of International Business and Law

The actions of funds speculating in sovereign debt, frequently nicknamed “vulture funds”, are often roundly criticized. These funds purchase distressed debts on the secondary market at reduced prices and then seek payment in court at face value plus interest and fees. Although their actions are legally justified, so-called “vulture funds” are vilified due to the negative impact of their activities on sovereign debtors and their population. While there is a strong demand for regulating sovereign debt speculation, various solutions already exist but are, in many ways, insufficient. This article argues for the adoption of a tailored regulation of the speculative …

Never Again Is Now: Comparing International Law And Guidelines Of Genocide To The United States’ Treatment Of The Transgender Community To Find A Charge Of Genocide, Kassandra Caton

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

Since 2020, there has been an exponential increase in the proposed legislation at the state and federal levels that directly targets the transgender community. In 2023 alone, 609 different pieces of legislation were put forth for debate, some of which would make being transgender a felony offense. This trend has continued into 2024, with 620 pieces of legislation put forth as of July. The United States’ lawmaking bodies have become a feedback loop of persecution against a vulnerable community, which, if left unchecked, will likely result in the outright extermination of this community. The only concrete action that would potentially …

Legitimacy Of International And Hybrid Criminal Tribunals: Political, Normative, Economic, And Sociological Perspectives, Suhong Yang

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

This article examines the legitimacy of international and hybrid criminal tribunals that try atrocities crimes in post-conflict situations. It addresses legitimacy from political, normative, economic, and sociological perspectives. Political legitimacy focuses on the creation of authority. Normative legitimacy emphasizes the criteria for justifications, considering justice, independence, fairness, legality, and effectiveness as metrics. Economic legitimacy explores the cost, i.e., time and money, to address cases, as delayed or expensive justice suffers. Sociological legitimacy reflects the acceptance of the institution by the public, focusing on audiences’ perceptions of legitimacy. Multi-layered audiences make determinations about an institution’s legitimacy based on their cognitions, which …

Access To Audiology Care In Rural And Urban Communities: A Methodology Paper, Molly Whitcomb, Antony Joseph

AuD Capstone Projects - Communication Sciences and Disorders

The ability of those affected by hearing loss to access audiology care is imperative as the effects of unmanaged hearing loss are deleterious, and the prevalence is high. Despite the abundance of individuals affected by hearing loss and the implications of the condition when untreated, barriers to access to care remain primarily unresolved, affecting groups disproportionately. These barriers include knowing when a hearing problem warrants intervention, transportation, geographical barriers, a lack of hearing health care providers, affordability, and insurance coverage. Rural and urban communities are each predisposed to a unique set of social determinants of health, which affect their ability …

Getting Personal With Personnel: The Need For Stricter Employee Privacy Rights As Surviellance By Employers Expand, Amber Makda

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fighting For Their Lives, Even Outside Of The Octagon: How The Ufc Violates Antitrust Laws To Undermine Fighters' Compensation, Joseph A. Diez

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Orange Is The New Bruise: Abuse In Correctional Facilities By Employees And How New York's Adult Survivors Act Can Become A Deterrent, Michael Zanni

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome In Doctoral Classrooms, Carol Rogers-Shaw, Corinne Brion, Colissa Jordan, Megan Burden-Cousins

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The intersectional identities of Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC) affect their sense of belonging in doctoral study as they face microaggressions and unwelcoming institutional structures. Imposter Syndrome (IS), resulting from situational, institutional, and dispositional factors, is often the result of exclusion and self-doubt. Program directors, peers, and faculty members all have a role in creating an inclusive community that mitigates IS.

宋玉"負俗"與《文心雕龍•雜文》立篇之義, Yanyan Shen, Yunhe Xu

嶺南學報 Lingnan Journal of Chinese Studies

“負俗”是劉勰對宋玉的評價，也是其設置的解讀對問一體的重要語境。負俗意即與世俗相違而遭受譏議，負俗者則多爲含才高士，他們不媚俗、不合衆，往往能做出超越俗衆的卓越成就。宋玉負俗不僅體現在其爲人與世不諧，亦體現在其負俗、抗俗的文學創作當中，具體言之，則是開創對問一體、關注世俗題材、創作導向諧趣化以及敘述虚構化、戲劇化。此外，在劉勰列舉的七體、連珠及創作者本人身上，也可見出其含才負俗的鮮明特徵，説明在劉勰的思想意識中，負俗是作家可貴的爲人品質與文學品格，而雜文則是文人含才負俗的綜合體現，是其以遊戲心態創作、表現文人情志、展示文學技藝的文類。認識雜文的特徵，劉勰所謂“負俗”無疑是一個重要的基點。

The term "contrarianism" (fusu 負俗) is Liu Xie's description of Song Yu, and it is also a crucial context for his theory of interpretation through the unity of question and answer. Contrarianism means opposing worldly norms and often facing criticism as a result. Contrarians are often talented scholars who neither pander to popular tastes nor conform to the majority and often achieve exceptional success. Song Yu's contrarianism is not only evident in his personal discordance with societal norms but also manifests in his literary works, which are characterized by innovative dialogic structures, a focus on secular themes, an …

尊體與復古 : "詞樂恢復"視域下的清初自度曲現象, Jia-Yun Yu

嶺南學報 Lingnan Journal of Chinese Studies

清初自度曲的興盛，既是針對明人自度曲的俗陋率意所做出的修正，同時也是清人重視音聲之學，主張以“詞樂復古”爲尊體的路徑展現。本文以清初詞樂恢復的風氣爲背景基礎，觀察清初自度曲現象的形成背景、發展概況與創作特徵。清初文人批評明人混淆詞曲，多爲妄作，嘗試通過自度曲重新建立詞與音樂的連結。由“上附風騷”爲論，清人之尊體除將詞體的起源追溯自詩騷外，自度曲的製作、製曲樂器，乃至於對姜、張自度曲的讚賞，皆是“繼聲音之秘響”的自我作古表現。接著以雲間詞人與西陵詞人兩個文人群體爲例，其間交遊唱和的自度曲作品，除凝結文人群體認同外，亦直接有助於自度曲的流傳，達到了“用廣新聲”的作用。要之，清初文人所謂詞樂恢復，是將詞體重新納入合樂而歌，合律而作的音樂文學傳統。惟在康熙晚期譜律之學確立與其後浙西詞學的盛行影响之下，自度曲的創作亦隨之衰微。

The flourishing of self-composed tunes in the early Qing dynasty was both a correction to the perceived vulgarity and capriciousness of Ming-dynasty compositions and a demonstration of the Qing scholars' emphasis on the study of sound, advocating for a "revival of lyrics and music" (ci yue fugu 詞樂復古) as a revered practice. This paper builds on this observation and explores the context of early Qing self-composed tunes' emergence, developmental overview, and creative characteristics from the perspective of the " revival of lyrics and music." Early Qing literati critiqued the Ming predecessors ' confusion of lyrics and music, largely …

League Of Women Voters Of The Huntington Area E-Mail Bulletin, September 2024, League Of Women Voters Of The Huntington Area

League of Women Voters of the Huntington Area Bulletin 2020 - Present

The periodical is published by the League, which is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

Reducible Operators, Irreducible Operators, And Generators In Von Neumann Algebras, Sukitha Adappa

Doctoral Dissertations

Let $\mathcal{H}$ be a complex Hilbert space, and let $\mathcal{B(H)}$ be the set of all bounded linear operators on $\mathcal{H}$. An operator $T\in\mathcal{B(H)}$ is said to be reducible if there exists a nontrivial projection that commutes with $T$. Otherwise, it is said to be an irreducible operator in $\mathcal{B(H)}$. Halmos showed that the set of irreducible operators is an operator norm-dense subset in $\mathcal{B(H)}$ and raised the question of whether the set of reducible operators is an operator norm-dense subset in $\mathcal{B(H)}$. In this dissertation, we extend the notion of reducible and irreducible operators in the von Neumann algebra setting …

Neural Retrieval Through Entities And Text Understanding, Pooja Himanshu Oza

Doctoral Dissertations

For various artificial intelligence systems, automatic text understanding algorithms that go beyond mere pattern recognition are helpful. For instance, understanding web pages is beneficial for Information Retrieval (IR) systems to retrieve relevant information. In the most common form, IR systems retrieve relevant information as entities or documents in response to keywords-based queries. Traditional IR models use lexical matching between the query terms and document terms to identify relevant documents. With the emergence of neural networks, Neural IR approaches utilize deep learning techniques to learn high-dimensional representations of documents and queries that go beyond term matching.

On the other hand, with …

Flexibility And Accountability: Lessons On Accessibility From Pandemic Learning, Ashley Barry

Doctoral Dissertations

While the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, disrupted the writing education of many students, students with disabilities were particularly impacted. During this same period, college writing instructors worked to adapt and make their pedagogies more accessible in new educational contexts. This IRB-approved qualitative study utilizes principles of Universal Design for Learning to cultivate a methodology that is flexible enough to meet a wide variety of participant needs. The datasets consist of a pilot survey and focus groups of college instructors along with classroom artifacts and a series of interviews with short journal entries from four undergraduate students with disabilities. In …

Environmental Change And Population Dynamics Of Small Mammals In Northern Alaska, Jess K. Steketee

Doctoral Dissertations

Rodent populations at northern latitudes undergo cyclic dynamics characterized by high amplitude interannual fluctuations every 3-5 years. Population cycles have puzzled mammalogists for over a century and disentangling their drivers remains a central goal. Understanding which factors drive rodent populations and how these dynamics might change with warming is essential for predicting the impacts of climate change on arctic ecosystems as herbivore pressure shapes plant community composition, soil nutrient availability and carbon concentrations. My research focused on potential drivers of brown lemming (Lemmus trimucronatus) and tundra vole (Microtus oeconomus) population fluctuations in Arctic Alaska. I combined field techniques with laboratory …

Molecular Re(I) Catalysts On Semiconductor Surfaces For Solar Co2 Reduction, Esraa Ahmad

Doctoral Dissertations

Utilization of CO2 by photocatalytic reduction to generate energy-rich fuels is a rapidly growing area of interest. Diimine-tricarbonyl Re(I) complexes are well-known CO2-reduction catalysts with excellent selectivity toward CO production. In this thesis, various strategies for coupling molecular Re(I) catalysts with semiconductor surfaces are investigated.In Chapter II, four molecular Re(I) catalysts are evaluated in photocatalysis. The effect of immobilizing these catalysts on TiO2 is studied. These Re(I) catalysts showed excellent activities in photocatalytic CO2 reduction in the presence of Ru(II) photosensitizer giving turnover numbers (TONs) ranging from 368 to 738 in 2 hours. In Chapter III, a Re(I) complex with …

Algebraically Doubly Stochastic Matrices Over Principal Ideal Domains, Eric Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

A doubly stochastic matrix over the real numbers is a matrix $A=[a_{ij}]$ such that $0\leq a_{ij}\leq1$ for all $i,j$ and all rows and columns sum to 1. The classical Birkhoff-von Neumann theorem states that every doubly stochastic matrix over $\R$ can be expressed as an affine combination of permutation matrices, matrices with a single 1 in each row and column and 0's elsewhere. Over a general commutative ring with identity $R$ we drop the condition that $0\leq a_{ij}\leq1$ and consider matrices with only the row and column sum condition; we refer to such matrices as \textit{algebraically doubly stochastic} and denote …

Three Essays On Disability Policy And Employment Of People With Disabilities, Xueting Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

The employment of people with disabilities is substantially and persistently lower than the employment of people without disabilities (Burkhauser et al., 2002; Houtenville & Bach, 2024; Livermore & Honeycutt, 2015). In 2022, using American Community Survey data, the employment-to-population ratio of people with disabilities ages 18-64 was 44.5 percent, compared to 78.9 percent for their counterparts without disabilities (Houtenville & Bach, 2024). This dissertation consists of three essays on disability policy and employment of people with disabilities. The first essay (Chapter 2) explores the effect of the Medicaid expansion, authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, on employment …

Development Of A Layered Unsupervised Classifier Of Plasma Regions And A Bootstrap-Ensemble Neural Network Bow Shock Mode, James Andrew Edmond

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of supervised methods in space science have demonstrated powerful capability in classification tasks, but purely unsupervised methods have been less utilized for the classification of spacecraft observations. We use a combination of unsupervised methods, being principal component analysis, self-organizing maps, and hierarchical agglomerative clustering, to classify THEMIS and MMS observations as having occurred in the magnetosphere, magnetosheath, or the solar wind. The resulting classification are validated visually by analyzing the distribution of classifications and studying individual time series as well as by comparison to the labeled dataset of a previous model, against which ours has an accuracy of …

Evaluation Of Rockfall Trajectories Using Smart Rocks And Measurement While Drilling, Bruma Morganna Mendonca De Souza

Doctoral Dissertations

This doctoral research investigates rockfall movement under laboratory and field-controlled conditions as well as in situ natural field environments in an effort to better understand the movement described by falling blocks. Although previously published research identified several factors that affect rockfall movement (block characteristics, ground characteristics, and impact kinematics), the lack of a standardized methodology to evaluate rockfall behavior upon impact on different ground materials increases the difficulty of establishing realistic parameters in modeling approaches and ultimately in selecting representative model input parameters. In order to measure rockfall movement under different test conditions, concrete fabricated test blocks ranging in mass …

Sustainable Energy Transition In Grid Connected And Off-Grid Communities, Roozbeh Ghasemi

Doctoral Dissertations

Decentralized energy systems, such as solar PV and wind, are often seen as key to improving the sustainability and resilience of energy systems in both urban and remote communities. This research aims to enhance the sustainability of adopting these systems in both grid-connected and off-grid contexts. In urban communities, a choice experiment model was developed for Boston, MA, and Atlanta, GA, and the results were analyzed using latent class analysis to understand household preferences for two decentralized renewable energy systems. For islanded communities, a process-based dynamic model was developed to simulate the operation of the decentralized energy system on Appledore …

Innovative Approaches To Dna-Based Materials: Development Of Bottlebrush Polymers, Supramolecular Hydrogels, And Psoralen-Enhanced 3d Printing Of Dna Bioinks, Nicholas Pierini

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis explores innovative approaches to enhancing the functionality and applications of DNA-based materials through the development of DNA bottlebrush polymers (BBPs), DNA-intercalating supramolecular hydrogels (DISHs), and psoralen-based 3D printing techniques. The first chapter presents the synthesis and characterization of linear and cyclic DNA BBPs using a grafting-to approach. Plasmid DNA (pDNA) is used as the polymeric backbone, grafted with polyethylene glycol (PEG) side chains of varying molecular weights (750 Da, 2000 Da, and 5000 Da) to improve stability and functionality. Achieving high graft densities, up to 24% for mPEG750-CEA, and purifying the PEG-DNA conjugates were significant challenges addressed through …

Oscillatory Boundary Layer And Sediment Dynamics Over And Within Mobile Rippled Beds, Savannah Devoe

Doctoral Dissertations

In nearshore environments, small-scale bedforms, or ripples, are important contributors to net morphologic change by means of bedload and suspended load sediment transport. In this dissertation, new characterizations of boundary layer and sediment dynamics are made using high-resolution observations of mobile, rippled beds subjected to oscillatory flow for the purpose of evaluating existing parameterizations of bedload transport. The spatiotemporal distribution of shear stress at and within a mobile, rippled bed is obtained via the derivation and application of a new Momentum Integral Method (“MIM”) expression for bed shear stress to data from a two-phase Large Eddy Simulation and Discrete Particle …

Unlocking The Permafrost Nutrient Bomb: Determining Plant And Microbial Transformations In Response To Manipulative Arctic Experiments, Natalie Kashi

Doctoral Dissertations

High latitude ecosystems are characterized by permafrost (perennially frozen ground), short growing seasons, and slow decomposition, and these characteristics of arctic ecosystems make them particularly sensitive to climate change. Alterations to arctic ecosystem functions are responding to recent climate disturbances such as increased active soil depths caused by thawing permafrost, transformation of dry ombrotrophic ecosystems to wetland communities, increased occurrence of wildfires in areas where wildfires are historically scarce, increased vegetation productivity, and shifts in plant phenology. Despite major ecosystem transformations and extreme climatic events in the Arctic during the previous decades, uncertainties persist largely because of nuances with climate …

Two-Way Coupling Of The National Water Model (Nwm) And Semi-Implicit Cross-Scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (Schism) For Enhanced Coastal Discharge Predictions, Hongyuan Zhang, Dongliang Shen, Shaowu Bao, Pietrafesa Len

Marine Science

This study addresses the limitations of and the common challenges faced by one-dimensional river-routing methods in hydrological models, including the National Water Model (NWM), in accurately representing coastal regions. We developed a two-way coupling between the NWM and the Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM). The approach demonstrated improvements in modeling coastal river dynamics, particularly during extreme events like Hurricane Matthew. The coupled model successfully captured tidal influences, storm surge effects, and complex river–river interactions that the standalone NWM missed. The approach revealed more accurate representations of peak discharge timing and magnitude as well as water storage and release …