Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Scleractinian Coral Abundance Between Natural And Artificial Substrata In A High-Latitude Environment Off Broward County, Florida, Usa, Deron James Bauer

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The Dania Beach Erojacks Artificial Reef was deployed off the coast of Broward County, Florida on December 31, 1967 as a way to help combat beach erosion. Over the last forty years, the linear pile of concrete hexapods has become an important habitat, for scleractinian corals, octocorals, algae, crustaceans, mollusks, and fish. This study focuses on the density and size of the scleractinian corals found on this artificial reef and how it compares to that of the nearby natural reef. In addition, the impact of two hurricanes on the shallow portion of the artificial reef was documented. In the 2-year …

An Analysis Of Dwarf And Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia Sp.) Stranding Data In The Southeast United States, Nicole M. O'Brien

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf sperm whales (Kogia sima) strand frequently in the southeastern United States (SEUS). To detect seasonal trends in Kogia sp. strandings across the SEUS, all 979 stranding events from 1977 through 2005 were segregated by month. A peak in strandings occurred in the late summer and early fall (July – October). The entire SEUS was divided into segments of similar coastline orientation, 1) North and South Carolina, 2) Georgia and the east coast of Florida, 3) Florida Keys, 4) west coast of Florida, 5) Florida panhandle, Alabama and Mississippi, 6) …

Smart Classroom Technology: Instructional Effectiveness And Faculty And Student Satisfaction, Jon Preston Mckamey

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Numerous designs, practices, stakeholders, and technology options make it difficult for higher education institutions to find direction and established standards for classroom construction and remodeling projects. Different models of technology-enhanced classrooms are being adopted as various managers, integrators, and architects develop new classroom spaces. A planning process, standardized classroom model, and effective support structure will be valuable elements in meeting the needs of faculty and students.

The goal was to establish a best practices classroom model to meet the needs of community college faculty, students, and technology support personnel. Information collected from community colleges was used to determine the state …

Web 2.0 Tools Improve Teaching And Collaboration In High School English Language Classes, Mahmud Shihab

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Web 2.0 tools, namely blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS were introduced to change teaching practices of in-service high school teachers to improve the collaboration of today's students in the English language classroom. Two high school teachers of English language and their classes participated. The teachers were interviewed about their current teaching practices and provided with training to develop teaching units that use Web 2.0 to engage students as active collaborators in their learning. They integrated blogs, podcasts, wikis, and RSS into their teaching. Additional interviews were conducted during and after the implementation stage. Implementation strategies, changes in teaching practices, challenges …

An Event Monitor And Response Framework Based On The Wsloga Architecture, Todd Christopher Brett

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Web services provide organizations with a powerful infrastructure by which information and products may be distributed, but the task of supporting Web service systems can be difficult due to the complex nature of environment configuration and operation. Tools are needed to monitor and analyze such Enterprise environments so that appropriate engineering, quality control, or business activities can be pursued.

This investigation resulted in the development of a software development kit, the WSLogA Framework, which is inspired by the vision of Cruz et al. (2003, 2004). The WSLogA Framework provides distributed Enterprise systems with a platform for comprehensive information capture and …

Use And Analysis Of Expected Similarity Of Semantic Web Ontological Annotations, Joe Lynn Look

CCE Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studied various means of calculating similarity in the annotations of web pages compared to the similarity of the document text. A software tool, named Semantic Web Analysis of Similarity (SW AS), was developed and utilized to perform the analysis of similarity in annotated documents published from the first three years of the International Semantic Web Conference. Rules concerning the ontological concepts of the documents were specified and these rules as well as other parameters were varied to determine the effect on overall similarity measures. Traditional measures of similarity as well as enhanced measures of similarity proposed for this …

Assessing Quality Indicators In Asynchronous Undergraduate Distance Education Courses, Donna J. Myers

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine quality indicators within asynchronous distance education undergraduate courses at an accredited institution. The definition of quality is in and of itself obscure. Therefore, the identification of indicators or characteristics of quality in courses was a primary focus. The identification of such characteristics was based on input from the primary stakeholders in distance education, namely, the students, the administrators, and the instructors. Collecting data from each stakeholder group allowed for a comparison of those characteristics of quality deemed most important by each group. Initially an expert panel meeting was conducted to help categorize …

Application Of Computer Simulation Modeling To Evaluate Business Continuity Plans, Jose Francisco Molina Garcia Plaza

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Business continuity plans (BCP) help organizations plan for and withstand the occurrence of unexpected events that interrupt the normal operation of business. Managers typically develop several alternate plans to minimize the business impact of unexpected events. The problem for decision makers is that comparative evaluation of BCP is typically done using subjective judgments.

This research uses a case study approach focusing on a single organization and a single business continuity application to propose the use of computer simulation as a tool for managers to identify and evaluate different BCP prior to committing resources. In the context of an insurance firm, …

Reducing Cognitive Load Using Hypervariate Display, William Garrabrants

CCE Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the application of hypervariate display principles to human-computer interfaces with the intent of reducing the cognitive load placed on the operator during high-intensity activity. This research extended the existing body of knowledge relevant to reducing the cognitive load using human-computer interfaces. Existing research has explored the application of techniques that, when used in isolation, contribute to a computer operator's understanding of the data or efficiency in execution of tasks. This research studied the collaborative use of proven display techniques to improve a computer operator's ability to understand large amounts of data more rapidly and react to that …

Improving Knowledge Management Programs Using Marginal Utility In A Metric Space Generated By Conceptual Graphs, Jeffrey A. Schiffel

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge management has emerged as a field of endeavor that blends a systems approach with methods drawn from organizational management and learning. In contrast, knowledge representation, a branch of artificial intelligence, is grounded in formal methods. Research in the separate behavioral and the structural disciplines – knowledge management and knowledge engineering - has not traditionally cross-pollinated. This has prevented the development of many practical practices useful in organizations. Organization managers - line and senior - lack guidance in where to direct improvement efforts targeted at specific groups of company knowledge workers. Demonstrated here is Knowledge Improvement Measurement Space (KIMS), a …

The Colonial Zoanthid Palythoa Caribaeorum: Population Dynamics On Southeast Florida Reefs, Joanna C. Walczak

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The colonial zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum (Cnidaria, Zoanthidea) (Duchassaing and Michelotti 1861) is a major benthic component of most Caribbean reefs and is an extremely aggressive spatial competitor (Suchanek and Green 1981). This study looks at annual visits to 16 permanent monitoring sites over 3 reef designations (Inshore Ridge Complex, Middle Reef, and Outer Reef) in Broward County, Florida from 2002-2006. The data obtained in this study fills an informational void regarding the role of zoanthids in the southeast Florida reef benthic community. The study was conducted in two parts. Part One used digital imagery analysis to quantify the spatial cover …