A Study of the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003: Can Tort Reform Benefit Arkansas?

Without question, reforming America\u27s civil justice system has become a hot button issue in today\u27s political landscape. While most Americans move about their daily lives without giving the subject a second thought, politicians ranging from aspiring state assemblymen to the recently reelected George W Bush have placed tort reform at the forefront of American political affairs. Although problems plaguing American courts have been discussed for years, criticism of America\u27s current system for adjudicating tort cases has reached a fever pitch. Among the more vocal critics are powerful lobbyist groups, such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), who believe the current civil justice system is responsible for increases in liability insurance, a decrease in the quality of health care, and an overall increase in the cost of doing business. Opposing groups, such as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), believe it is the right of every American consumer to have their day in court and punish corporations and doctors for committing civil offenses against them. And sandwiched in the middle of this fiasco are the thousands of politicians, businessmen, doctors, and ordinary citizens who are left scratching their heads when they try and figure it all out. This paper attempts to explain the debate surrounding tort reform on both the national and state levels. Further, it summarizes each section of Arkansas Act 649 of 2003, better known as the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003 (the Act ), and point to any obvious benefits to the business community as a result of the reforms. A more challenging topic this paper covers is whether or not tort reform, specifically the Act, will provide future economic benefits to the state of Arkansas. This paper attempts to make the direct link been legal reforms and increases in economic output as measured by personal income levels. The model is intended to be very simplistic yet still provide a picture of how tort reform may or may not benefit Arkansas\u27 economy in the future

Anisotropic evolution of D-dimensional FRW spacetime

We examine the time evolution of the D=d+4 dimensional Einstein field equations subjected to a flat Robertson-Walker metric where the 3D and higher-dimensional scale factors are allowed to evolve at different rates. We find the exact solution to these equations for a single fluid component, which yields two limiting regimes offering the 3D scale factor as a function of the time. The fluid regime solution closely mimics that described by 4D FRW cosmology, offering a late-time behavior for the 3D scale factor after becoming valid in the early universe, and can give rise to a late-time accelerated expansion driven by vacuum energy. This is shown to be preceded by an earlier volume regime solution, which offers a very early-time epoch of accelerated expansion for a radiation-dominated universe for d=1. The time scales describing these phenomena, including the transition from volume to fluid regime, are shown to fall within a small fraction of the first second when the fundamental constants of the theory are aligned with the Planck time. This model potentially offers a higher-dimensional alternative to scalar-field inflationary theory and a consistent cosmological theory, yielding a unified description of early- and late-time accelerated expansions via a 5D spacetime scenario.Comment: Title changed from "A possible higher-dimensional alternative to scalar-field inflationary theory". Several new results have been added including a predicted lower- and upper-bound on the time scales marking the end of an early-time inflationary epoch and the beginning of an FRW epoch for d=

The Eagle’s Eye on the Rising Dragon: Why the United States Has Shifted Its View of China

Since 1978, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been viewed as an economic trading partner of the United States of America (US). The PRC has grown to be an economic powerhouse, and the US directly helped with that process and still benefits from it. However, during the mid-2010’s, US rhetoric began to turn sour against the PRC. The American government rhetoric toward the PRC, beginning with the Obama administration, switched. As Trump’s administration came along, they bolstered this rhetoric from non-friendly to more or less hostile. Then, Biden’s administration strengthened Trump’s rhetoric. Over the past ten years or so, the world has seen the US shift its view of China from a trading partner to now an international threat. The question this paper will attempt to answer is why did this switch happen? I hypothesize that the US has switched its view because of seven reasons. Some of the reasons that are listed first are fairly logical, while others are more complex. The factors I examine include: (1) the American capacity to make the switch, (2) the American realization that they must take a realist approach to international affairs in order to maintain hegemony, (3) the rise of Xi Jinping, (4) the China debate in the US, (5) national security concerns taking precedence over US business interests, (6) PRC economic and research espionage, theft, and aggression, and (7) human rights abuses. The following paper will examine these factors one at a time to assess why and how they played a part in the United States shifting its view of China. The results of this paper show that the United States’ shift has been a slow one, however, there are ample reasons why they have shifted. Furthermore, the results show that it is a highly complex issue. Particularly, the most important factors were the American reclamation of realism regarding international affairs, the CCP’s nationalistic rhetoric, and the American’s obtaining a better understanding of the PRC. The factor that is least important, however still contributed to the American switch and provided moral motivation, are the CCP human rights abuses

Bolognini Competition 4th Annual Alumni Recital

Program listing performers and works performe

Application of Reynolds Stress Model Using Direct Modeling and Actuator Disk Approaches for a Small-Scale Wind Turbine

The Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) has been avoided for turbulence closure in CFD simulations of wind turbines, largely due to the computational expense and the high potential for numerical instability. The advantage of using RSM is having access to shear stresses that are not available from two-equation RANS-based closure models like k-e and k-w. Access to the shear stresses will aide in the understanding of how the blade design will affect the wake, particularly in the near-wake region. In this research, the RSM turbulence model has been successfully applied in simulating a three-bladed small-scale wind turbine through a direct-model approach and an actuator disk approach. In the direct-model method, the turbine blades were discretized within a rotating subdomain and in the actuator disk method, the turbine blades were modeled as a rotating disk using the Virtual Disk model available in Star CCM+. The transient Rigid Body Motion (RBM) simulation was able to accurately predict velocity deficit and tip vortices that compared well with hot-wire measurements and high speed images. The actuator disk method is more practical in simulating wind farms due to the simplified mesh and requires accurate information for lift and drag coefficients. Experimental results showed interaction between the tower and rotating blades can create significant turbulence in the wake. Experiments with multiple turbines showed how each turbine contributed to the velocity deficit and total turbulence intensity. For the experimental blade design, the velocity deficit recovered and turbulence intensity had dissipated within three rotor diameters

A Critical Assessment of SPU’s Urban Plunge: A Proposal for the John Perkins Center

This paper is written as an organizational report on the Urban Plunge Program for consideration by the John Perkins Center at Seattle Pacific University. I review Urban Plunge offering a critique and recommendations for re-imagining the program in its future development. I argue that the program needs to be clearly defined as an educational program, grounded in a conceptual framework, given a clarified and expanded mission, and guided by informed curriculum. Beyond critique, I create a proposal for programmatic content and organization to meet these identified needs

He Said, She Said: Investor Reactions to CEO Gender and Earnings Guidance Disclosure in the Presence of Shareholder Activism

This study addresses concerns from the SEC and examines the trend of shareholder activism and its impact on financial players. Specifically, I examine how the nature of the shareholder activism (Profitability-focused versus Environmental/Social-focused) interacts with CEO gender to create perceptions of match or mismatch within nonprofessional investors, in terms of perceived ability to address the shareholder activism. Drawing on role-congruity theory, I predict and find that when a perceived match exists, investment willingness is increased, with the greatest differences occurring when the CEO does not disclose earnings guidance information. Given recent trends that show increased disclosure of earnings guidance in companies threatened by shareholder activism, I examine how this type of disclosure impacts investor judgments. I find that when managers’ optimistic forecasts differ from consensus analyst estimates, this creates an incongruent message and attenuates the heuristic processing associated with the perceived CEO gender-activism match. Additionally, I find evidence that earnings guidance disclosure has a stronger impact on perceptions of female CEOs than male CEOs. Finally, I find that this effect is seen under various types of forecasts (point and range), suggesting that both types of forecasts are capable of acting as incongruent messages to motivate systematic processing

The Eagle’s Eye on the Rising Dragon: Why the United States Has Shifted Its View of China

Since 1978, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been viewed as an economic trading partner of the United States of America (US). The PRC has grown to be an economic powerhouse, and the US directly helped with that process and still benefits from it. However, during the mid-2010’s, US rhetoric began to turn sour against the PRC. The American government rhetoric toward the PRC, beginning with the Obama administration, switched. As Trump’s administration came along, they bolstered this rhetoric from non-friendly to more or less hostile. Then, Biden’s administration strengthened Trump’s rhetoric. Over the past ten years or so, the world has seen the US shift its view of China from a trading partner to now an international threat. The question this paper will attempt to answer is why did this switch happen? I hypothesize that the US has switched its view because of seven reasons. Some of the reasons that are listed first are fairly logical, while others are more complex. The factors I examine include: (1) the American capacity to make the switch, (2) the American realization that they must take a realist approach to international affairs in order to maintain hegemony, (3) the rise of Xi Jinping, (4) the China debate in the US, (5) national security concerns taking precedence over US business interests, (6) PRC economic and research espionage, theft, and aggression, and (7) human rights abuses. The following paper will examine these factors one at a time to assess why and how they played a part in the United States shifting its view of China. The results of this paper show that the United States’ shift has been a slow one, however, there are ample reasons why they have shifted. Furthermore, the results show that it is a highly complex issue. Particularly, the most important factors were the American reclamation of realism regarding international affairs, the CCP’s nationalistic rhetoric, and the American’s obtaining a better understanding of the PRC. The factor that is least important, however still contributed to the American switch and provided moral motivation, are the CCP human rights abuses

Public-Private Partnerships: Instruments to Enhance Education, Training and Employment Opportunities in the Republic of South Africa

Since the fall of apartheid in 1994, government, business leaders and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are in a unique position to engage civil society and link educational institutions with industry-specific partners committed to stimulating economic development and employment options for citizens. This thesis explores the conditions under which public-private partnerships (PPPs) are likely to successfully generate sustainable youth employment and equip citizens with transferrable skills and the conditions under which they are likely not to generate opportunities. The thesis argues that PPPs are most likely to be successful when there is grassroots buy in from local communities. Based on the literature and contemporary international development initiatives, the contention is the country’s current cyber caste system has created a digital elite that has left a swath of the population under age 35 with limited skills and training for jobs in the information, communications and technology sector. Recent advances in ICT, fostered by PPPs, could allow South African citizens to leapfrog forward and train for future jobs—expanding what is now a cloistered, technologically advanced sector for the privileged. Evidence presented in this thesis shows PPPs are becoming more prominent as economic and development tools. PPPs help large numbers of South Africans break free from the shackles of Bantu education practices that have resulted in a new form of “digital apartheid” in which non-white youth have fewer opportunities to access the digital realm than white youth. These partnerships are tremendously important in a global, information and knowledge based economy. When closely aligned with schools, higher education, training programs and the community, PPPs have the opportunity to 6 strategically fit into the country’s economic development process and provide a mechanism by which South African citizens can earn economic equality. Microsoft, General Electric and PACE College are offered as case studies that reveal strategies transnational companies (TNCs) and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) can deploy or refine, resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes for citizens who crave transferrable, portable technology skills and employers who value and reward ICT ready talent

Safety Aware Platooning of Automated Electric Transport Vehicles

Safety is a paramount concern when considering implementation of an automated highway where computers control the vehicles. Even with computer-fast reaction time there is inevitably some delay and if vehicles do not follow at safe distances, emergency braking maneuvers can cause dangerous collisions. This research investigates situations that might make automated vehicles have dangerous collisions and what standards the system design must hold to keep passengers safe