18693 research outputs found
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Securities Practice: Federal and State Enforcement (2025-2026 edition)
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Gain insight into the workings of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). This reference describes the SEC’s approach to enforcement to help you respond effectively to an SEC investigation or enforcement action. Features Regulation of futures trading SEC subpoena enforcement practice Administrative remedies and injunctions Applicability of non-securities laws to SEC enforcement practice Covers multiple representation and conflicts of interest; attorney-client privilege Discusses SEC investigations Criminal and related enforcement practic
Recollections of a Tejana Life
No full textThis thesis encompasses the life of a young woman navigating life in Texas through various political and social barriers. My interdisciplinary practice analyzes the historical context of Mexicans in Texas from its Revolutionary period into current injustices. Through fiber, printmaking, and photography I create a visual diary to illustrate what the political has made personal. These works display the beauty of Tejano culture, but also the power struggles that threaten communities I care for, as well as my own existence that persists against far-right wing agendas.
Current politics and government leadership in Texas have inspired me to make artwork calling out ongoing xenophobia and the whitewashing of a state that has deep Mexican lineage and once belonged to my people despite the pressure to push us out and silence us. It is crucial for me to vocalize issues many Tejanos face today.
In a society plagued by capitalism, misogyny, xenophobia, and governmental overreach, I use photography, silkscreen prints, sewing, and hand embroidered work to combat harmful rhetoric and propaganda. I address my choices in materiality and how the topics such as immigration, labor, reproductive justice, and environmentalism have been addressed.
The body of work expresses the experiences I face as a Gen-Z Tejana woman living in the 21st century and in a country on the brink of a cultural collapse. Recollections of a Tejana Life recognizes Texas history’s role in shaping the state today in addition to emerging threats to Mexicans, women, and everyday Texans. My art affirms Tejanos/as belongingness in visual culture and historical narratives that make Texas vibrant, diverse, and a home worth saving
PlaySense-ID: Haptic-Enhanced Multimodal Biometric Authentication for Gaming Controller Users
No full textIn this work, we propose a multimodal biometric authentication system leveraging sig nals from inertial sensors and audio-based haptic responses collected through standard gaming controllers. To enhance the biometric representation, we introduce a haptic-enhanced chirp signal and design a feature fusion strategy that integrates inertial and MFCC-based audio features. Our approach employs a novel LSTM-based architecture with multi-head self-attention, dual cross-modal attention, dynamic feature fusion, and residual correction, significantly improving model performance over traditional method without haptic input. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a substantial improvement in authentication accuracy, achieving an accuracy of 98.5% and reducing Equal Error Rate (EER) to 0.4%. Robustness and generalization tests, conducted under varying environmental conditions and background noise scenarios, further validate the model’s resilience to real-world disturbances. Moreover, the proposed method provides practical advantages for deployment, offering a seamless, low-cost, and non-intrusive authentication experience suitable for immersive gaming environments
Atomically Precise Metal Nanoclusters For Light-Driven Applications: Fluorescence Chemosensing, Triplet Sensitization, and Aggregation-Induced Emission
No full textAtomically precise metal nanoclusters (MNCs) represent a new regime of highly versatile synthetic materials, with far-reaching applications. Distinct from polydisperse nanoparticles, nanoclusters are molecularly pure compounds which lie on the 1-3 nm scale. This small size enables nanoclusters to exhibit definable HOMO/LUMO band gaps and discrete optical transitions, similar to semiconductor quantum dots. Their fluorescence and phosphorescence characteristics allow them to be used as molecular recognition agents for environmental and bodily contaminants/toxins; this “chemosensing” ability is industrially desirable for the sensitive detection of pesticides, heavy metals, etc., in drinking water, soil, blood, urine, and other settings. Additionally, bimetallic and trimetallic alloyed nanoclusters have been shown to exhibit increased photoluminescence properties. Specifically, NIR-emissive nanoclusters are coveted for medicinal applications such as bioimaging and therapeutics. Further, photoactive clusters can be used as homogeneous catalysts for organic syntheses. However, studies of alloyed nanoclusters remain underexplored, necessitating both more syntheses of multimetal nanoclusters as well as careful cross examination of the effects of heteroatoms by identity, number, and placement in the crystal structure. Herein is a background review of the use of nanoclusters as fluorescent chemosensors, followed by the synthesis and characterization of three novel bimetallic clusters. Each clusters’ optical and luminescence properties are evaluated, including applications in triplet sensitization for singlet oxygen catalysis
Risky Business for the Almighty ROI: Alternative Assets in Higher Education Endowments
No full textHigher education institutions (HEI) are heavily reliant on alternative revenue streams to mitigate rising operational costs. One alternative revenue source is the endowment, an aggegation of assets invested to support the institutional objectives of an HEI through generated income. Before the 21st century, institutions have typically sought after more conservative investment strategies via traditional asset classes like bonds and equities. The growing financial obligations to educate students has led endowment managers to make a shift in their investment strategies towards alternative assets classes – private equity, venture capital, secondaries – in order to gain advantage in generating alpha (α) and a great return on investment. This study examines the institutional characteristics that influence these decision makers to invest in alternative assets as well as the relationship between alternative assets allocation and endowment returns. Using a secondary dataset provided by the 2023 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments, this study analyzed institutional traits and alternative assets allocation through quantitative methods. Findings indicate that HEIs with larger endowments allocate a greater percentage of their portfolios to alternative assets and that HBCUs are more likely to invest in alternative assets – though this finding was nuanced due to the institutions that reported into the dataset. In addition, this study revealed that while alternative asset investment strategies may yield a negative return in the short term, positive relationship in net return begin in as little as three years and significant advantage in alpha (α) generation over a five-year time horizon when investing 15% or more of a portfolio in alternative assets. These results provide insights for institutional leaders and policy makers regarding endowment management strategies, as well as emphasize the importance of balancing risk tolerance to long term, institutional objectives
Analyzing the Global Happiness Index
No full textThis study explores the Global Happiness Index using data compiled from the OECD and Our World in Data to identify key factors contributing to societal well-being. Six primary predictors were analyzed: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption. Regression and clustering techniques were employed to uncover patterns among countries. By expanding the analytical scope beyond conventional economic and social indicators, this study helps identify new pathways for improving well-being across diverse cultural and economic landscapes. Additional variables such as perceived safety, political engagement, and values related to family and leisure were integrated to enrich the analysis. Environmental quality and income inequality were also considered to provide a more comprehensive view of life satisfaction determinants. Our findings highlight the most statistically significant predictors of happiness and reveal two primary country clusters: one characterized by traditional values and lower satisfaction, and another marked by modern, leisure-oriented societies with higher well-being. These insights offer a data-driven framework for comparing nations and understanding the multidimensional nature of happiness. Ultimately, this analysis provides actionable recommendations for policymakers aiming to implement more targeted, effective, and sustainable interventions to improve life satisfaction globally
Crowning the Queen or King of Citation! Identifying the Most-Cited Authors and Publications in Marketing
No full textCitations have long been recognized as an indicator of an academic work\u27s impact. The logic behind equating citation count to impact is that if the authors find value in the publication\u27s content, they will use it to advance their research and cite it—i.e., refer to the publication in their works. In the academic field, an author’s reputation, faculty tenure and promotion, and journal quality have all based their impact measure on citation counts. Even a department\u27s reputation depends on the collective citation counts of its faculty members. One reputed marketing department even advertises itself as the most cited faculty in the world. Given its significance, on behalf of the Sethuraman family, it is my pleasure and honor to institute an annual citation award that identifies the most-cited authors and publications each year, starting from 2024. This award is launched (in 2024) in fond memory of my father late Shri. G. Sethuraman. Born in 1924 in a family of 10+ children, my father’s parents could not afford a college education, and so he joined the military, fought in World War II, and entered the government workforce as a veteran. He had five children and always wondered when I would grow up! Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to see me graduate with a doctorate and passed away in 1986. This award is instituted in 2024 to commemorate his100th birthyear
Human Capital and Local Credit Supply: Evidence from the Mortgage Industry
No full textThis paper investigates the interaction between the labor market for loan officers and local residential mortgage markets. We find that shocks to local mortgage demand have little effect on the number of local loan officers but affect their average workloads and the fraction of remotely originated mortgages. However, evidence from shocks to the supply of local loan officers shows that these responses are not perfect substitutes for the presence of loan officers. Local loan officers increase access to mortgage credit, the efficiency of the mortgage application process, and households\u27 refinancing decisions. Overall, our findings suggest that labor immobility can distort local credit supply and reduce capital allocation efficiency
Mapping Food Justice: Urban Farms and the Examination of Equitable Food Access
No full textIn this project, we worked alongside members from an urban farm in South Dallas to learn about issues related to food justice, urban farming, and food deserts. Using participatory design research methods, we created data visualizations showing how society can reduce inequities relating to food access produced in historically underserved neighborhoods. The research goals guiding this study are: a) to identify food deserts and urban farms in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region (DFW) and b) to determine which urban farms service the needs of these food deserts. To identify food deserts, we took two steps: First, we used open-access data sources and web-scraping tools to map grocery store locations and identify food deserts consistent with the USDA’s definition (Morrison, 2016). Second, we examined the economic status (income and percentage of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients) and transit conditions (car ownership and access to public transportation) of residents within each food desert using data from the American Community Survey (ACS). This yielded a sub-selection of food deserts with low-income and low-mobility residents. To identify urban farms, we used web-scraping tools to collect and map their locations across DFW. Finally, we examined the proximity of urban farms to food deserts with low-income and low-mobility residents. This allowed us to discern which urban farms are best suited to service the needs of these areas. This study complicates and refines the USDA’s definition of a food desert and positions urban farms as stakeholders who can improve food access
Drip Hoses and Discipleship: Rethinking the Future of Theological Education with Justo González
No full textIn early February 2020 I spent a day with Justo González at his home in Decatur, Georgia, to discuss the future of theological education. The following piece showcases the disciplined imagination of one of the greatest church historians of our generation as he explains how drip hoses, worship, baptism, online learning, and more could guide the next generation of theological educators. In what follows, the reader will get a sense for why González thinks theological education is in a place of promise rather than peril.
A principios de febrero de 2020, pasé un día con Justo González en su casa en Decatur, en Georgia (USA), para hablar sobre el futuro de la educación teológica. El siguiente articulo muestra la disciplinada imaginación de uno de los más grandes historiadores de la iglesia de nuestra generación mientras explica cómo las mangueras de irrigación, la adoración, el bautismo, el aprendizaje en línea y más podrían guiar a la próxima generación de educadores teológicos. En lo que sigue, el lector tendrá una idea de por qué González cree que la condición de la educación teológica es más prometedora que peligrosa