Science and Technology Policy Commons^™

Green Chemistry As A Tool For Understanding The Toxic Substances Control Act: A Lecture Module For Undergraduate Students, Molly R. Blessing

Honors Scholar Theses

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the central form of chemical regulation existent in the United States today, yet scientists are often unaware or uncertain of its provisions. Violations of TSCA by unknowing chemists set industry and government unnecessarily at odds. A lecture on TSCA was developed for undergraduate students that uses the concept of green chemistry to promote interest and incentivize learning. Green chemistry methods are cleaner and less wasteful than traditional chemical ones, and many companies using them are at the forefront of technological innovation. The lecture explains both green chemistry and TSCA, includes company case studies, …

The Snowden Effect: The Conflict In A Free Society, Who Values Privacy Versus Who Values Security?, Matthew C. Blake

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The Obama Administration has come under scrutiny by both the public and Congress, since former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden made known the scope of government surveillance programs being utilized by the U.S. government to gather intelligence on domestic citizens. Snowden’s disclosures about the government’s surveillance practices to the mainstream media began in June 2013. I focus on how public opinion towards the government’s surveillance practices and an individual’s reasonable right to privacy has shifted after revelations made by Edward Snowden on the practices of the NSA. Individuals may show support for more government surveillance in the name …

Comparative Analysis Of Accident And Non-Accident Pilots, David C. Ison

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The purpose of this study was to investigate potential differences between two pilot groups; the first was a sample of individuals who have not been involved in an accident and the second was a sample of pilots from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident database. Factors investigated included flight time, pilot flight review status, pilot certification, employment as a professional pilot, gender, and age. This study was guided by the exigent literature on aviation accidents with a primary focus on general aviation pilot accident attributes. Non-accident pilot participation was solicited through various aviation-related websites and a total of 1,829 …

Signed Peer Reviews As A Means To Improve Scholarly Publishing, Linwood H. Pendleton

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Peer review is a necessary process with a long history of complaints, including over-solicitation of a small number of reviewers, delays, inadequate numbers of reviewers, and a lack of incentives to provide strong reviews or avoid reviews with little helpful information for the author. In the era of Web-based distribution of research, through working paper or project reports, anonymous peer reviews are much less likely. The Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics will use signed peer reviews and an open communication process among authors, reviewers, and editors. This approach, to be developed over time, should lead to stronger communication of …

Waste And Duplication In Nasa Programs: The Need To Enhance U.S. Space Program Efficiency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The U.S. Government faces acute budgetary deficits and national debt problems in the Obama Administration. These problems have been brought about by decades of unsustainable government spending affecting all agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (NASA). An outgrowth of this fiscal profligacy is the presence of wasteful and duplicative programs within NASA that prevent this agency from achieving its space science and human spaceflight objectives. These problems occur due to mismanagement of these programs from NASA and the creation of these programs by the U.S. Congress and congressional committees. This occurs because congressional appropriators tend to be more …

Consumer Protection And Cybersecurity: The Consumer Education Gap, David Serabian

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Consumer cyber protection as it relates to the threat of cyber insecurity is an increasingly critical issue with cyberattacks on major businesses such as Target and Sony. Over 100 million Americans to date have had their financial information compromised, and in the ten-year history of Verizon’s Payment Card Industry investigations no companies were compliant with Payment Card Industry standards at the time of the attack. In March 2015, the FCC fined AT&T $25 million for failing to adequately provide cybersecurity that resulted in almost 300,000 people having their personal and financial information compromised. It was the largest in FCC history …

Faculty Research Productivity In Saudi Arabian Public Universities: A Human Capital Investment Perspective, Abad Alzuman

Theses and Dissertations

In an attempt to transition from its oil-based economy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking further steps towards building a knowledge-based economy. Saudi universities play a pivotal role toward the country’s attempts to achieve the desired sustainable economic growth. And because knowledge production is dependent on the human capital embedded in faculty members working at theses universities, the recommendations of the Saudi National Science and Technology Policy stressed the importance of enhancing research skills of faculty members and researchers at public universities using different means and initiatives. However, a little is known about the impact of the implemented initiatives …

Framing The Question, "Who Governs The Internet?", Robert J. Domanski

Publications and Research

There remains a widespread perception among both the public and elements of academia that the Internet is “ungovernable”. However, this idea, as well as the notion that the Internet has become some type of cyber-libertarian utopia, is wholly inaccurate. Governments may certainly encounter tremendous difficulty in attempting to regulate the Internet, but numerous types of authority have nevertheless become pervasive. So who, then, governs the Internet? This book will contend that the Internet is, in fact, being governed, that it is being governed by specific and identifiable networks of policy actors, and that an argument can be made as to …

Where Is Space? And Why Does That Matter?, Bhavya Lal, Emily Nightingale

Space Traffic Management Conference

Despite decades of debate on the topic, there is no consensus on what, precisely, constitutes the boundary between airspace and outer space. The topic is mired in legal and political conundrums, and the easy solution to-date has been to not agree on a definition of space. Lack of a definition, some experts claim, has not limited space-based activities, and therefore is not a hurdle that must be overcome. There are increasing calls however in light of increasing (and expectations of increasing) space traffic, both orbital and sub-orbital. This paper summarizes the proposed delimitation of space, the current debate on whether …

The Original Intent Of The Wire Act And Its Implications For State-Based Legalization Of Internet Gambling, Michelle Minton

Occasional Papers

Recognizing the growing threat of organized crime, then U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought to get the “bankrollers and kingpins” by introducing the Federal Wire Act in 1961, which sought to target the mob’s most profitable racket—bookkeeping on horseracing and sports gambling by prohibiting such gambling on the nation’s communication system at the time (telephone and telegraph). More than 30 years later members of Congress sought to use the Wire Act to stop the rise of casino-style gambling on the Internet. However, the scope of the Wire Act has been disputed among lawmakers, courts, and federal agencies. In 2011 …

Support When It Counts: Library Roles In Public Access To Federally Funded Research, Kristine M. Alpi, William M. Cross, Hilary M. Davis

Charleston Library Conference

In November 2012, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it would begin enforcing its April 2008 mandate of public access to NIH-funded research by delaying processing of investigators’ grants reporting noncompliant publications. In response, the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries offered to assist the University’s sponsored research administration in supporting NCSU researchers who had publications stemming from NIH funding and had not achieved compliance. Since the 2008 NIH mandate, over 1,000 articles based on NIH-funding have been published by NCSU across research areas including veterinary medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, engineering, textiles, design, math, and statistics. …

Exploring The Factors That Influence And Motivate Female Students To Enroll And Persist In Collegiate Stem Degree Programs: A Mixed Methods Study, Rosemary L. Edzie

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nationally, the need for an increase in interest, enrollment, and degrees awarded from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs continues to suffer. While students are enrolling in collegiate STEM degree programs, it is not occurring at a rate that meets the workforce demand. In addition to the concern that there is not a sufficient amount of collegiate STEM majors, there is a concern over too few females enrolling and persisting in collegiate STEM degree programs.

This mixed methods sequential exploratory research study considered the factors that influence and motivate undergraduate female students to enroll and persist in collegiate …

Facing The Apocalypse: Bomb Shelters And National Policy In Eisenhower’S Second Term, Angela A. Badore

Student Publications

This paper explores the issues of civilian defense from a federal perspective during Eisenhower’s second term, particularly focusing on the issue of bomb shelters during the period from 1956-1958. Despite widespread efforts to promote bomb shelters, or fallout shelters, during this period, no significant progress was made toward a federal program. By examining federal efforts such as the Holifield Committee, the Gaither Committee, Operation Alert, and the National Shelter Policy, this paper shows that efforts to set up shelter programs actually made the public and the Eisenhower administration less likely to trust such programs at all.

Does Access To Information Technology Make People Happier? Insights From Well-Being Surveys From Around The World, Carol Graham, Milena Nikolova

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

This lecture summarizes new research on the relationship between access to cell phones, TV, and the internet and subjective well-being worldwide. Technology access is positive for well-being in general, but with diminishing marginal returns for those who already have much access. It is also associated with increased stress and anger among cohorts for whom access to the technologies is new. The increased financial inclusion in very poor countries that comes with cell phones and mobile banking also has effects on well-being. Well-being levels are higher in the countries with higher levels of access to mobile banking, but so are stress …

Here We Are Now, Entertain Us: Defining The Line Between Personal And Professional Context On Social Media, 35 Pace L. Rev. 398 (2014), Raizel Liebler, Keidra Chaney

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow individuals and companies to connect directly and regularly with an audience of peers or with the public at large. These websites combine the audience-building platforms of mass media with the personal data and relationships of in-person social networks. Due to a combination of evolving user activity and frequent updates to functionality and user features, social media tools blur the line of whether a speaker is perceived as speaking to a specific and presumed private audience, a public expression of one’s own personal views, or a representative viewpoint of an entire …

Science And Public Policy Of Earthquake Hazard Mitigation In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Alice M. Orton

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

In the central United States, undefined earthquake sources, long earthquake recurrence intervals and uncertain ground motion attenuation models have contributed to an overstatement of regional seismic hazard for the New Madrid Seismic Zone on the National Seismic Hazard Maps. This study examined concerns regarding scientific uncertainties, overly stringent seismic mitigation policies and depressed local economy in western Kentucky through a series of informal interviews with local businessmen, public officials, and other professionals in occupations associated with seismic mitigation. Scientific and relative economic analyses were then performed using scenario earthquake models developed with FEMA’s Hazus-MH software. Effects of the 2008 Wenchuan …

Open Source And Electronic Voting: A New Strategy Toward Technical Procurement For Voting Systems, Andor Kesselman

CMC Senior Theses

Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems (DRE) are some of the most popular forms of electronic voting and yet they are riddled with problems. Current voting systems are poorly designed and migration to newer software can be costly. Inadequate software solutions in voting systems have led to security flaws, bad tabulation, and partisan software design. As government proceeds into an increasingly sophisticated era of voting technology, it needs to consider a better platform. This thesis explores the government procurement strategy associated with modern Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems. The thesis argues that governments should adopt an open source solution (OSS) for …

Data Protection In The European Union: A Closer Look At The Current Patchwork Of Data Protection Laws And The Proposed Reform That Could Replace Them All, Christina Glon

Faculty Articles

Laws protecting a European's right to control the flow of their own personal data (also known as "data privacy") date back as early as 1950. In the 65 years since the Council of Europe declared that every person has the fundamental "right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence," a patchwork of conventions, directives, treaties and communications have been created to ensure the ongoing protection of this right. However, in recent years, this patchwork approach has been unable to keep up with the pace of technology and has created confusion and concern for the …

Cosee Ocean Inquiry Group Report: Opportunities For Creating Lifelong Ocean Science Literacy, Paul Boyle, Vince Breslin, Lisa Craig Brisson, John Fraser, Alan J. Friedman, Katie Gardner, Sarah Schoedinger, Jerry Schubel, Steve Uzzo, Steven Yalowitz

School for the Environment General Publications

This Inquiry Group Report for the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence Ocean Communities in Education And Social Networks (COSEE OCEAN) provides a fresh look at how broader ocean science literacy can be developed, especially through less-recognized channels such as opportunistic learning, the private and “third” sectors, and the enormously varied activities under the heading of informal science education. The 10 authors of this report (see Contributors section) have been working together for two years to find and review a range of issues and resources for current and potential ocean science literacy providers, both professional and volunteer.

Several chapters provide …

Much Ado About Cyber-Space: Cyber-Terrorism And The Reformation Of The Cyber-Security, Christian Pedersen

Pepperdine Policy Review

The threats residing in cyber-space are becoming well understood by policymakers and security experts alike. However, cyber-security defenses and strategies cannot solely be directed towards nation states, as non-governmental actors – such as transnational crime groups and terrorist organizations are becoming increasingly reliant upon internet technologies. Attacks on the digital components of the critical infrastructure, have the potential to unleash devastation on the United States. In a time when reliability and ethnicity of the National Security Administration, the Nation’s leading digital intelligence organization, are becoming increasingly questioned; defensive measures need to be improved to prevent future attacks and improve the …