The proposition 8 definition of “marriage” was misguided and led to its demise

One common argument against gay marriage, most famously used to defend California’s now defunct Proposition 8, is that marriage exists solely for a couple to have and raise children, thereby implying that biological parents are best for child welfare. Using his research into adopted parenting outcomes, Kyle Gibson argues that same-sex couples actually make excellent parents because they must put additional thought and effort into getting children in the first place. He concludes that if the advocates of Proposition 8 are truly concerned with reproduction and childrearing, they are left without a valid argument

The Great New Zealand Botnet: Broadband to the Door an Asset or Security Issue?

This research explores the level of security awareness, of domestic Internet users in New Zealand. Awareness and online security are the top priorities of the New Zealand Cyber Security Strategy, but little research has been conducted to gauge the current level of security awareness in context with common mitigation strategies. The majority of the literature on the subject is primarily focused on organisational technology security and awareness so this had to be put in context with domestic users. A sample set of Facebook friends of the researcher were asked to respond to an online survey. The survey explored the respondents' attitude and selfevaluated level of security awareness, and their awareness of a subset of mitigation strategies from the Australian Defence Signals Directorates' 'Strategies to Mitigate Targeted Cyber Intrusions'. The respondents demonstrated a good level of security awareness regarding patching and anti-virus, but there is a need for more education regarding access control and social engineering

Relationship between corn stalk strength and southwestern corn borer penetration

Studies were conducted to determine if corn stalk strength had an effect on southwestern corn borer (Diatraea grandiosella Dyar) survival during different growth stages. In 2006 southwestern corn borer larvae were placed on corn during the tassel stage near the ear and base of the plant. Survival was higher near the ear than near the base of the plant. In 2007, five varieties of corn were planted at three locations in Mississippi. Plants were infested with five 3rd instar larvae at the ear zone during tassel, dough and dent development stages. After five days stalk strength and borer survival were measured. Survival decreased as the corn progressed from tassel to dent stage. Survival varied among corn varieties. The relationship between stalk strength and borer survival was not consistent, indicating that there are likely factors more directly limiting borer survival than physical stalk strength

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationDemographic factors influence the intensity and duration of conflicts and collective violence is more common where there are high numbers of young men to older men, and where there are more marriageable men to women. The notion that young, unmarried men are more likely than other cohorts to be unattached risk-takers explains these findings. This dissertation investigates whether these same demographic factors increase the likelihood a country will produce suicide attackers. Information on individual attackers was assembled from three earlier studies and corroborated using LexisNexis searches of major world news publications. Personal information, including age, sex, and country of origin, was collected for 1,208 individual suicide attackers who acted between 1981 and 2007. This information was then used to create a second dataset to make comparisons between countries and regions that produced suicide attackers and those that did not. Thirty-three of the 219 countries and regions analyzed produced suicide attackers, and those that did had higher numbers of marriageable men to women, higher polygyny rates, higher percentages of Muslims in their populations, and larger populations overall. Counter to the hypothesis, countries with higher numbers of young men to old were less likely to produce suicide attackers. It may be that the older men in polygynous societies create an even greater scarcity of marriageable women, making it more difficult for young men to marry. Faced with relatively few reproductive and perhaps other alternatives, these young men are more prone to become suicide attackers

Pain and function in knee osteoarthritis : are they related to local intrinsic factors?

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 4, 2009)Vita.Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2008..The study of knee osteoarthritis (OA) has been hampered by the inability to adequately characterize the subject pool with respect to local intrinsic factors and there is little evidence to guide the selection of factors for future study. This study characterized a subject pool by local intrinsic factors and makes an evidence-based recommendation for the inclusion of specific factors in future study of knee OA. Forty six subjects with knee osteoarthritis were examined. Observed function was measured by the Timed Chair Rise Task. Self-reported function was measured by the WOMAC Function Scale and pain was measured by the WOMAC Pain Scale. Local intrinsic factors measured included Varus/Valgus Alignment, A/P Laxity, Proprioception, Knee Extension Strength by Bodyweight, Knee Flexion Strength by Bodyweight, and Knee ROM. Factors were recommended for inclusion in future research if they were significantly correlated with at least one measure of function or pain and if the factor made a significant unique contribution to a regression model when more than one local intrinsic factor was correlated with the same measure of function or pain. Extension Strength by Bodyweight was correlated with observed function (r=0.32, p=0.03). Varus/Valgus Alignment was correlated with pain (r=0.48, p=0.001) and self-reported function (r=0.38, p= 0.009). A/P Laxity was also correlated with pain (r=0.30, p=0.04) and self-reported function (r=0.37, p= 0.01). Knee ROM was correlated to self-reported function (r=-0.35, p= 0.016). Varus/Valgus Alignment made a significant contribution to prediction of pain (p=0.003), A/P Laxity to self-reported function (p=0.004), and Knee ROM to self-reported function (p=0.008). It is recommended that future studies of knee OA characterize the subject pool by Varus/Valgus Alignment, A/P Laxity, Knee ROM, and Extension Strength by Bodyweight.Includes bibliographical reference

Effects of High-Speed Power Training on Muscle Performance and Braking Speed in Older Adults

We examined whether high-speed power training (HSPT) improved muscle performance and braking speed using a driving simulator. 72 older adults (22 m, 50 f; age = 70.6 ± 7.3 yrs) were randomized to HSPT at 40% one-repetition maximum (1RM) (HSPT: n = 25; 3 sets of 12–14 repetitions), slow-speed strength training at 80%1RM (SSST: n = 25; 3 sets of 8–10 repetitions), or control (CON: n = 22; stretching) 3 times/week for 12 weeks. Leg press and knee extension peak power, peak power velocity, peak power force/torque, and braking speed were obtained at baseline and 12 weeks. HSPT increased peak power and peak power velocity across a range of external resistances (40–90% 1RM; P < 0.05) and improved braking speed (P < 0.05). Work was similar between groups, but perceived exertion was lower in HSPT (P < 0.05). Thus, the less strenuous HSPT exerted a broader training effect and improved braking speed compared to SSST

Teachers\u27 Perceptions of School Training on Positive Behavior Supports for Behavior Intervention and Discipline

School staff was concerned that disruptive student behaviors at an urban, middle school in central Ohio had continued even with positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) implementation and professional development (PD) for more than 4 years. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers\u27 perspectives of school training on the implementation of the PBIS system. Skinner\u27s reinforcement theory and Bandura\u27s social learning theory served as the conceptual frameworks for this study. Specifically, this study explored the training of teachers using the PBIS framework in diminishing students\u27 negative behaviors. This study used triangulated data from interviews, observations, and document analysis. Of the 13 study participants, 7 participated in both interviews and observations. The remaining 6 participants were split evenly with 3 participating in the interviews and 3 in the observations for a total of 10 participants in each data source. The findings revealed the following: PBIS was not given full administrative support; PBIS did not have full funding for an effective implementation, and embedded continuous professional development was added to the PBIS program for all staff. Based on 1 of the findings, quarterly professional development programs led by the school leader were developed to address the inconsistent implementation of PBIS and the ongoing professional development that was needed. Effectively implementing PBIS should increase positive behaviors of students. As such, there are implications for social change in the quality of the school environment; change in school rating that results in more attractive neighborhoods; and increase academic achievement due to more instructional time on task

SNAP judgments: A small N acceptability paradigm (SNAP) for linguistic acceptability judgments

While published linguistic judgments sometimes differ from the judgments found in large-scale formal experiments with naive participants, there is not a consensus as to how often these errors occur nor as to how often formal experiments should be used in syntax and semantics research. In this article, we first present the results of a large-scale replication of the Sprouse et al. 2013 study on 100 English contrasts randomly sampled from Linguistic Inquiry 2001–2010 and tested in both a forced-choice experiment and an acceptability rating experiment. Like Sprouse, Schütze, and Almeida, we find that the effect sizes of published linguistic acceptability judgments are not uniformly large or consistent but rather form a continuum from very large effects to small or nonexistent effects. We then use this data as a prior in a Bayesian framework to propose a small n acceptability paradigm for linguistic acceptability judgments (SNAP Judgments). This proposal makes it easier and cheaper to obtain meaningful quantitative data in syntax and semantics research. Specifically, for a contrast of linguistic interest for which a researcher is confident that sentence A is better than sentence B, we recommend that the researcher should obtain judgments from at least five unique participants, using at least five unique sentences of each type. If all participants in the sample agree that sentence A is better than sentence B, then the researcher can be confident that the result of a full forced-choice experiment would likely be 75% or more agreement in favor of sentence A (with a mean of 93%). We test this proposal by sampling from the existing data and find that it gives reliable performance.*American Society for Engineering Education. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowshi

SUBSUMPTION AS DEVELOPMENT: A WORLD-ECOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF THE SOUTH KOREAN "MIRACLE"

This work offers a critical reinterpretation of South Korean "economic development" from the perspectives of Marxian form critique and Jason Moore's world-ecology. Against the "production in general" view of economic life that dominates the extant debates, it analyzes the rise, spread, and deepening of capitalism's historically specific social forms in twentieth-century (South) Korea: commodity, wage-labor, value, and capital. Eschewing the binary language of development and underdevelopment, we adopt Marx's non-stagist distinctions regarding the relative degree of labor's (and society's) subsumption under capital: hybrid, formal, and real. Examining the (South) Korean experience across three dialectically interrelated scales – regional, global, and "national" – we outline the historical-geographical contingency surrounding South Koreas emergence by c.1980 as a regime of (industrialized) real subsumption, one of the only non-Western societies ever to do so. Crucial to this was the generalization of commodification and proletarianization that betokened deep structural changes in (South) Korea's class structure, but also a host of often-mentioned issues such as land reform, foreign aid, the developmental state, and a "heaven sent" position within the US-led Cold War order. Despite agreeing on the importance of these latter factors, however, the conclusions we draw from them differ radically from those of the extant analyses. For although regimes of real subsumption are the most materially, socially, and technologically dynamic, they are also the most socio-ecologically unsustainable and alienating due to the dualistic tensions inherent to capital's "fully developed" forms, in particular the temporal grounding of value. US protestations about the generalizability of these relations aside, moreover, these regimes have always been in the extreme minority and, crucially, have depended on less developed societies for their success. Historically, this has been achieved through widening the net of capitalist value relations; however, four decades of neoliberalization has all but eliminated any further large-scale "frontier strategies" of this sort. Due to its relatively dense population vis-a-vis its geographical size, contemporary South Korea faces stark challenges that render it anything but a model of "sustainable development," but rather signal the growing anachronism of value as the basis for regulating the future of nature-society relations in the "developed world" and beyond