Updating the Social Network: How Outdated and Unclear State Legislation Violates Sex Offenders’ First Amendment Rights

Readily available on computers, phones, tablets, or television, social media has become a necessary platform of expression for many. But, for others, social media is an inaccessible tool whose very use has criminal repercussions. To protect innocent children, many states have enacted legislation restricting sex offenders’ access to social media. Unfortunately, this legislation is often outdated, overly restrictive, and unconstitutional under the First Amendment. North Carolina has recently attracted national attention, as its statute highlights the potential constitutional issues states face in drafting such legislation. To avoid the constitutional concerns that North Carolina faces, state legislators must draft statutes narrowly and provide ample alternative channels of communication for sex offenders. This Note first analyzes current state legislation restricting sex offenders’ social media usage, focusing specifically on North Carolina’s statute. It then discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Packingham v. North Carolina, challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina’s statute under the First Amendment. This Note explains how Packingham offers the Supreme Court an opportunity to clarify and instruct states on how to properly draft future legislation. Specifically, the Court must address what constitutes a narrowly tailored statute and what type of alternatives must be available for sex offenders whose social media access is restricted. This Note ultimately concludes that North Carolina’s statute is not narrowly tailored and does not leave ample alternative channels of communication. To help avoid these issues in the future, this Note concludes by suggesting a model statute for constitutionally restricting sex offenders’ social media use

Updating the Social Network: How Outdated and Unclear State Legislation Violates Sex Offenders’ First Amendment Rights

Readily available on computers, phones, tablets, or television, social media has become a necessary platform of expression for many. But, for others, social media is an inaccessible tool whose very use has criminal repercussions. To protect innocent children, many states have enacted legislation restricting sex offenders’ access to social media. Unfortunately, this legislation is often outdated, overly restrictive, and unconstitutional under the First Amendment. North Carolina has recently attracted national attention, as its statute highlights the potential constitutional issues states face in drafting such legislation. To avoid the constitutional concerns that North Carolina faces, state legislators must draft statutes narrowly and provide ample alternative channels of communication for sex offenders. This Note first analyzes current state legislation restricting sex offenders’ social media usage, focusing specifically on North Carolina’s statute. It then discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Packingham v. North Carolina, challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina’s statute under the First Amendment. This Note explains how Packingham offers the Supreme Court an opportunity to clarify and instruct states on how to properly draft future legislation. Specifically, the Court must address what constitutes a narrowly tailored statute and what type of alternatives must be available for sex offenders whose social media access is restricted. This Note ultimately concludes that North Carolina’s statute is not narrowly tailored and does not leave ample alternative channels of communication. To help avoid these issues in the future, this Note concludes by suggesting a model statute for constitutionally restricting sex offenders’ social media use

Investigating expert bias toward statistical group feedback in the Delphi Technique

In this thesis, effects of deception on convergence in the Delphi Technique have been investigated through an e-Delphi experiment where Prescribed Deceptive Feedback was given as the statistical group response. The subject of the e-Delphi experiment was to estimate areas of irregular shapes by a panel of participants who had more than sufficient expertise in the subject matter - in this case background in mathematics - to reach reasonable responses. It was demonstrated that most of the participants had a tendency to move toward the group response, although such a move was unwarranted. The primary conclusion from this exercise is that a well-defined qualification for expertise in the subject matter is not enough to become a good Delphi panelist. The effect of deception was strengthened by iteration, and for the most part self-ratings of confidence of responses increased over the rounds

The American futures studies movement (1965-1975); its roots, motivations, and influences

In the 1960s and 1970s many Americans of widely dissimilar motivations used the study of possible futures as an open forum to express their desires, fears, and visions. Their efforts led to new organizations, publications, conferences, and university programs, which constituted an intellectual movement with far-reaching influences. The emergence of post-WWII futurism is a multi-stranded history involving people with diverse motivations and backgrounds who aspired to revolutionize policymaking at all levels. Their efforts crossed national borders and often transcended Cold War divisions. Many futurists hailed from governmental, business, or scientific backgrounds and advocated for issues ranging from national economic planning boards, or future-consciousness at corporate levels of decision-making, to sustainable ecological practices. One of their many historical strands went back to the early Cold War years and the philosopher-mathematicians employed by the RAND Corporation. Given the sensitive forecasting challenges brought by Cold War unknowns, these architects of futurist methodologies believed they needed to devise better - more scientific - opinion technologies. Their search for improving the tools, such as the Delphi method, of future-minded decision-making continued into the 1960s and 1970s. While qualitative assessments still reigned supreme in the social sciences, quantitative analysis became increasingly important during the 1960s. Futurists used social, political, and economic indicators to study alternative futures and comment on their presents. These futures researchers prized the quantification of past and present values both for physical and social concepts. From these numbers, they aspired to clarify the future: how to predict and understand it, and ultimately how to change it for the better. Futurists cared about many things, not only about perfecting their methodologies or epistemic foundations, but also about addressing current, pragmatic, and popular issues. The desire to disseminate their ideas more widely and have their methodology gain greater influence compelled futurists to organize and formalize their field. The field\u27s momentum slowed down by the 1980s as many critics disapproved of futurist methods and the deterministic, wishful, or simplistic outlooks that some futurists imagined. Although the movement in the United States was unique, other international case-studies developed in distinct yet comparable ways. Although futures researchers around the globe for centuries had enjoyed speculating about the future, this twentieth-century movement promised better predictions that were more systematic, detailed, controlled, quantitative, and expert

Comparision of urban upgrading projects on development cooperation in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the only African country that has not been colonized, except for a 4-years period by the Italians of Mussolini. It has a population of 76.5 million (2007) and has an extension of 1.1 sq km. Urban development cooperation began in Addis Ababa through the World Bank, who financed in the early 80’s the first upgrading project in the capital city, due to the bad urban conditions and the acute existing housing shortage. This factor, among others, leaded to the entrance of other international NGO engaged on urban upgrading programmes. In this context, this study aims to compare and analyze five upgrading projects carried out in Ethiopia. This letter is part of an extensive research carried out by GRECDH, a research team on human development cooperation of the “Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya”. Particularly, the aim of this paper is to study the Ethiopian urban profile, to evaluate five urban upgrading projects, and to identify the different actors involved in these projects. For this study, a two months visit was done between October and November 2007 for the identification of the analysed projects. These projects are located in Sole Chefa, Wukro, Alamata and Addis Ababa. The first two projects are both water supply projects. The first one, is a rural water supply project carried out in Sole Chefa, 200 km south from Addis Ababa, by the local NGO EOC-DICAC, in the context of a country level Water Bank programme of the international NGO Intermón Oxfam (IO). Even though this is not an urban project, it has been analyzed as the first step for upgrading programmes since water is required for any urban area. The project ended satisfactory providing water to a town of 9,000 inhabitants for € 140,000. The second project is a water supply project carried out in the city of Wukro by the Spanish NGO “Ingenieros para la Cooperación”. The project was about the extension of a water network for 30,000 people with the approximate cost of € 300,000. However, it is not finished yet due to the delay of many actuations because of misunderstandings with the municipality of Wukro. The third one is a housing project done by the Missionaries of Charity in the city of Alamata. It was about the construction of 64 housing units for the poorest of Alamata. The project cost € 54,000 and was fund by many German Organizations and by the Spanish foundation “Fundació Homac”. The last two projects are in Addis Ababa. The first is an integrated urban development programme in the Entoto area. It was carried out by the local NGO PRO PRIDE, with the support of ActionAid Ethiopia, between 1997 and 2004. It cost million € 1 and beneficiated to around 50,000 people. The second programme of Addis Ababa is a huge municipal housing programme launched in 2005 by the municipality with the technical advice of GTZ IS, a branch of the German Cooperation Agency GTZ, who works closely with the Ethiopian government. Initial plan was to build over 50,000 housing units in 5 years for million € 60. Currently, 60,000 housing units have been built and the plan is to build 400,000 more. The results and conclusions are that the analysis of the projects through the iterative urbanization theory (Magrinyà, 2005) locates the different projects in the different stages of urban evolution, from rural water supply to G+4 housing provision in the capital city. Furthermore, in general terms, the investment per beneficiary increases as the level of urban infrastructure or shelter provided does: € 10-15 in water projects, € 20-30 in general upgrading programmes such as access road and drainage improvement, € 40-50 when other service facilities such as schools are provided; and up to € 250-350 when housing is provided. The analyse has identified the development cooperation organizations as financiers of services and infrastructures (Missionaries of Charity, “Ingenieros para la Cooperación”), as community empowers through the upgrading activities (PRO PRIDE, EOC-DICAC) and as organizations with the aim of changing the country policies, from outside (IO) and from inside (GTZ)

Comparision of urban upgrading projects on development cooperation in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the only African country that has not been colonized, except for a 4-years period by the Italians of Mussolini. It has a population of 76.5 million (2007) and has an extension of 1.1 sq km. Urban development cooperation began in Addis Ababa through the World Bank, who financed in the early 80’s the first upgrading project in the capital city, due to the bad urban conditions and the acute existing housing shortage. This factor, among others, leaded to the entrance of other international NGO engaged on urban upgrading programmes. In this context, this study aims to compare and analyze five upgrading projects carried out in Ethiopia. This letter is part of an extensive research carried out by GRECDH, a research team on human development cooperation of the “Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya”. Particularly, the aim of this paper is to study the Ethiopian urban profile, to evaluate five urban upgrading projects, and to identify the different actors involved in these projects. For this study, a two months visit was done between October and November 2007 for the identification of the analysed projects. These projects are located in Sole Chefa, Wukro, Alamata and Addis Ababa. The first two projects are both water supply projects. The first one, is a rural water supply project carried out in Sole Chefa, 200 km south from Addis Ababa, by the local NGO EOC-DICAC, in the context of a country level Water Bank programme of the international NGO Intermón Oxfam (IO). Even though this is not an urban project, it has been analyzed as the first step for upgrading programmes since water is required for any urban area. The project ended satisfactory providing water to a town of 9,000 inhabitants for € 140,000. The second project is a water supply project carried out in the city of Wukro by the Spanish NGO “Ingenieros para la Cooperación”. The project was about the extension of a water network for 30,000 people with the approximate cost of € 300,000. However, it is not finished yet due to the delay of many actuations because of misunderstandings with the municipality of Wukro. The third one is a housing project done by the Missionaries of Charity in the city of Alamata. It was about the construction of 64 housing units for the poorest of Alamata. The project cost € 54,000 and was fund by many German Organizations and by the Spanish foundation “Fundació Homac”. The last two projects are in Addis Ababa. The first is an integrated urban development programme in the Entoto area. It was carried out by the local NGO PRO PRIDE, with the support of ActionAid Ethiopia, between 1997 and 2004. It cost million € 1 and beneficiated to around 50,000 people. The second programme of Addis Ababa is a huge municipal housing programme launched in 2005 by the municipality with the technical advice of GTZ IS, a branch of the German Cooperation Agency GTZ, who works closely with the Ethiopian government. Initial plan was to build over 50,000 housing units in 5 years for million € 60. Currently, 60,000 housing units have been built and the plan is to build 400,000 more. The results and conclusions are that the analysis of the projects through the iterative urbanization theory (Magrinyà, 2005) locates the different projects in the different stages of urban evolution, from rural water supply to G+4 housing provision in the capital city. Furthermore, in general terms, the investment per beneficiary increases as the level of urban infrastructure or shelter provided does: € 10-15 in water projects, € 20-30 in general upgrading programmes such as access road and drainage improvement, € 40-50 when other service facilities such as schools are provided; and up to € 250-350 when housing is provided. The analyse has identified the development cooperation organizations as financiers of services and infrastructures (Missionaries of Charity, “Ingenieros para la Cooperación”), as community empowers through the upgrading activities (PRO PRIDE, EOC-DICAC) and as organizations with the aim of changing the country policies, from outside (IO) and from inside (GTZ)

A Causal Model on Work Behaviour of Teachers in Relationship to Professionalism, Organizational Commitment Work Behavior

The study determined the best fit model for the work behaviour of public secondary teachers in Davao City based on experience professionalism, organizational commitment, and school culture. The structural equation model (SEM) was employed in this study in a stratified, random technique with a sample of 400 teachers. Using the Google Forms, data was collected from the teachers using a set of modified survey questionnaires that were tested for content validity and reliability. This study used a quantitative descriptive and causal method of research. The findings of the study with mean, standard deviation, Pearson product-moment correlation and structural equation model (SEM) as statistical tools revealed the following: the level of professionalism among teachers was very high; the level of organizational commitment was high; the level of school culture was very high; and, the level of work behaviour of teachers was very high. Moreover, a significant relationship existed between these variables.  In addition, professionalism, organizational commitment, and school culture significantly influence work behaviour of the teachers. Of the five (5) generated models, Model 5 best fits work behaviour among public secondary teachers with professionalism through indicators professional challenge and work engagement; organizational commitment through indicators affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment; and, school culture through indicators professional collaboration and self-determination / efficacy. The model successfully passed all the conventions of a reasonable fit; hence, it is deemed the most parsimonious model. Keywords:education, experience professionalism, organizational commitment, school culture, work behavior, structural equation model, Philippines DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-21-13 Publication date:June 30th 202

Artificial Neural Network Approaches For Slope Stability

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2007Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2007Bu çalışmada 170 tane lokal bölgenin şev profili dataları kullanılarak yapay zeka mantığı yaklaşımlarından beş tane yapay sinir ağı mimarisi kullanılmıştır. Bunlar BPNN, geri yayılmalı sinir ağı mimarisi ve GRNN, genel regresyonlu yapay sinir ağı mimarisi, GMDH, gruplama methodu, Kohonen ve PNN, olasılık yöntemidir. Ancak sadece BPNN, geri yayılmalı sinir ağı mimarisi ve GRNN, genel regresyonlu yapay sinir ağı mimarisi model oluşturmakta kullanılmıştır. Bu yaklaşımlarda 9 adet girdi ve 1 tane çıkış parametreleri verilmiştir. Çıkış parametresi şev güvenlik katsayısı olup, girdi parametreleri şev yüksekliği ( H ), şev eğimi ( β ), yeraltı suyu derinliği ( Hw ), sağlam zemin derinliği ( Hb ), kohezyon ( c ), zemin içsel sürtünme açısı ( Φ ), kuru birim hacim ağırlığı ( γ ), düşey ve yatay sismik zemin katsayıları ( Kh , Kv )‘dır. Bu çalışmadaki amaç sismik zemin katsayılarının şev stabilitesindeki önemlerinin incelenmesidir. Sonuç olarak genel regresyon yapay sinir ağı modelinin daha başarılı olduğu ve % 92.5 başarı yüzdesine sahip olduğu görülmüş, düşey ve yatay sismik zemin katsayılarının şev yüksekliği, şev eğimi ve yeraltı suyu derinliğinden sonra şev stabilitesindeki etkisinin önemli olduğu görülmüştür.In this study 170 slope data and their properties are used by Artificial Intelligence approach five neural network approaches architecture These approaches are Back propagation neural network architecture ( BPNN ), General regression neural network ( GRNN ), Group method of data handling ( GMDH ), Kohonen learning paradigm and Probabilistic neural network ( PNN ) architectures. But only 2 of them used, these are the back propagation neural network architecture ( BPNN ) and the general regression neural network ( GRNN ). There are 9 input parameters and 1 output parameter. The output parameter is the factor of the safety of the slopes ( F.S. ), the input parameters are the height of slope ( H ), the inclination of slope ( β ), the height of water level ( Hw ), the depth of firm base ( Hb ), the cohesion of soil ( c ), the friction angle of soil ( Φ ), the unit weight of soil ( γ ), but the important input parameters are horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients ( kh , kv ).Trying to be obtained in this study is to see the importance of the seismic coefficients for a slope stability safety. In conclusion this study shows that general regression neural network (GRNN) approach is more useful model and have % 92.5 success rate for seeing the effect of earthquake for slope stability safety and generally horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients importance seen after the height of the slope ( H ), the inclination of slope ( β ), the height of water level (Hw) importance.Yüksek LisansM.Sc

Avaliação do ambiente gerado pelo resfriamento adiabatico em maternidade de suinos e determinação de modelos de previsão de parametros de conforto

Orientador: Irenilza de Alencar NaasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia AgricolaDoutoradoConstruções Rurais e AmbienciaDoutor em Engenharia Agrícol

Sağlık Sektöründe Hizmet Kalitesinin “SERVQUAL” Ölçeği İle Değerlendirilmesine Yönelik Bir Araştırma A Research On The Evaluatıon Of Servıce Qualıty Wıth "Servqual" Measurement In The Health Sector

Sağlık sektöründe artan rekabet beraberinde işletmelerin sağlık hizmetlerinden yararlanan müşteriler ve hastaların memnuniyetinin ölçülmesi ve analiz edilmesi için kalite, onlara bu kalitenin yansıtılması içinde pazarlama biliminden yararlanılmasını zorunluluk haline getirmiştir. Sağlık hizmetlerinde kalite ölçmede hastaların hem beklenti hemde algısının değerlendirilebildiği bir ölçek olması nedeni ile bu çalışmada Servqual ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Servqual sonuçları sağlık işletmelerinin doğru yönetim stratejisi belirlemesine ve kaynaklarını müşterilerin istek ve ihtiyaçları doğrultusunda doğru kullanılmasında yol göstericidir. Bu çalışmada 288 kişi ile yapılan servqual anket çalışmasının sonuçları doğrultusunda bulgular analiz edilmiş, hastaların beklentileri ve hastanenin sunmuş olduğu hizmete göre algılama düzeyleri belirlenerek hem genel hem boyutlar bazında lişkilendirilerek değerlendirilmiştir. Hastaların mükemmel bir hastaneden beklentilerinin tüm boyutlar için genel servqual skoru 4,592 çıkmıştır. Buna karşılık olarak genel algılama skoru da 4,352’dir. Beklenti ve algı düzeyi arasındaki farklar düşünüldüğünde beklentinin mükemmel olduğu 5 düzeyi için 4,592 seviyesindeki beklentiye sahip olan hastaların, beklentileri karşılanarak algılama düzeyleri genel ortalaması 0,24 puan yükseltilirse çok boyutlu ve bütünsel açıdan hastalar tatmin edilmiş olur. With increasing competition in the health sector, quality and quality of the satisfaction of customers and patients benefiting from the health services of the enterprises has made the necessity of using the marketing science in reflecting this quality to them.Servqual scale was used in this study with the reason that the quality of the health care services is a scale where both expectation and perception of the patients can be evaluated. Servqual results are a guide for healthcare organizations to identify the right management strategy and ensure that their resources are used correctly to meet customer needs and needs.In this study, findings were analyzed according to the results of the SERVQUAL questionnaire conducted with 288 people, and the level of perception according to the expectations of the patients and the services offered by the hospital were determined and evaluated in relation to both general and dimensions. The overall servQual score for all dimensions of patients' expectation from a perfect hospital was 4,592. In contrast, the overall perception score is 4,352. Considering the differences between expectation and perception level, patients who have an expectation level of 4.592 for 5 levels of expectancy are excellent, the patients are satisfied in terms of multidimensional and holistic if their perception levels are raised and the general average is raised by 0.24 point