Vegetable Hair: The Spanish Moss Industry in Florida

Some people do not care for Spanish moss. According to an anonymous writer in the American Cyclopedia in 1881 “its effect, on account of its sombre color, is not altogether pleasing.“ However, the moss, eyecatching feature of the southern landscape that it is, has usually been regarded as an aesthetic asset, appealing to tourists and to the romantically-minded. Many people today have forgotten, if they ever knew, that it was once a more direct economic asset, serving a number of utilitarian purposes. Along with its value as a cattle feed and as a cheap packing material for crates of fruits and vegetables, went its value as a processed product. As early as 1773 William Bartram observed that “it seems particularly adapted to the purpose of stuffing mattresses, chairs, saddles, collars, &c; and for these purposes, nothing yet known equals it.

Monge v. Maya Magazines, Inc.: The Demand for Celebrity Gossip and the Doctrine of Transformative Use in the Ninth Circuit

Despite the decreased circulation of traditional newspapers, celebrity gossip magazines continue to flourish in the publishing world. In June 2012, People Magazine reached a paid circulation of over 3.5 million copies, putting the publication at number nine on the top U.S. consumer magazines list for the first half of the year. Public demand for celebrity news and gossip is unwavering. With this popularity come problems - especially for those celebrities whose images end up supplying that high demand. In Monge v. Maya Magazines, Inc., the Ninth Circuit presided over a copyright battle between celebrities and a gossip magazine regarding fair use in the unauthorized publication of photographs in connection with a news story in high public demand. The result was a majority opinion that mischaracterized current Ninth Circuit trends surrounding the application of the transformative-use doctrine, and created the risk of a private use exception for celebrities and their personal photos. Transformative use is an especially potent sub-issue in the concept of fair use; and while a finding of transformativeness is not necessary to trigger an overall finding of fair use, it is sufficient to do so

The Calming Effects of Modified Lighting

This dissertation consists of three articles examining the effects of modified lighting on commonly observed behaviors in children diagnosed with behavior-based disabilities. Prior literature has evaluated the effect of lighting on academic skills. Unfortunately, there is an absence of evidence regarding the effect of lighting on behaviors. Taken together these three articles will clearly display the importance of carefully designing lighting in classrooms, specifically in classrooms that include children with behavior-based disabilities. The first article (Chapter 2) evaluates the effect lighting with low level illumination has on the behaviors commonly observed in a child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The second article (Chapter 3) evaluates the same effect in a child diagnosed with Emotional Disorder (EMD) and ADHD. The third article (Chapter 4) is written with a practitioner focus including recommendation for environmental changes that potentially create a calmer environment. The two studies were conducted using an ABAB design across twenty days in a general education inclusion setting. The researcher requested the general education teacher and special education teacher of record to complete the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition (BASC-3) to determine behaviors that were most comto the student participants. The Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools (BOSS) software was used to track frequency of behaviors throughout each phase of the studies. Visual analysis was used and demonstrated change between baseline and intervention phases and sets of data collected by the BOSS software were statistically analyzed by using a nonparametric measure of nonoverlap called Improvement Rate Difference (IRD). The third article consists of a brief literature review, simplified results from articles one and two, a brief case study, and author suggestions for implementation of variable lighting in additional classrooms. Recommendations regarding administrative responsibility in regard to classroom environment improvement are also discussed

“I wanted my tiara, damn it” : queer kinship and drag royalty in Felicia Luna Lemus’ Trace elements of random tea parties

textThis paper traces La Llorona’s evolution from ancient Aztec cosmology to Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties, a contemporary novel by Felicia Luna Lemus. I argue that the protagonist’s entrenchment in her own Llorona myth ultimately inhibits the development of a queer community in collaboration with the community of her birth. While Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties leaves the tension between familial duty and personal desire unresolved, the constant narrative oscillation between past tea parties with Leti’s grandmothers and present tea parties with Leti’s chosen lesbian familia opens a space for new kinship structures to emerge, remapping the contours of the Mexican-American family and a woman’s role within it.Englis

A methodology for producing reliable software, volume 2

For abstract, see Vol. 1

A methodology for producing reliable software, volume 1

An investigation into the areas having an impact on producing reliable software including automated verification tools, software modeling, testing techniques, structured programming, and management techniques is presented. This final report contains the results of this investigation, analysis of each technique, and the definition of a methodology for producing reliable software

Tax Abatement Disclosures: An Exploratory Study of Professional\u27s Perceptions and Early Disclosures of GASB Statement No. 77

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) adopted Statement No. 77 requiring government disclosure of tax abatements in audited financial reports for years beginning after December 15, 2015. This paper reports survey findings provided by accounting and finance professionals (practitioners) regarding their tax abatement reporting perceptions. We then review early implementation of the abatement disclosure and find the disclosed information does not meet the practitioner’s expectations. Our findings fill a gap in state and local financial reports as it appears the new disclosure requirement does not fulfill the Board’s reporting transparency expectation goals