Digital Commons Network^™

Dose Dependent Effects Of Caffeine On Cognitive Performance And Neuronal Activation, Stephan Albrecht, Helen Morris, Michelle Vieyra

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Many students assume that the more caffeine you drink, the better your cognitive performance. Over-consumption of caffeine has many negative effects, so if there are no dose related cognitive benefits to large amounts of caffeine, then college students should limit their intake. This study looked at whether ingesting a medium dose (200 mg) versus a lower dose (100 mg) of caffeine improved short term memory as measured by Flanker and n-back tests, compared to a control group. In addition, we looked at whether larger doses of caffeine produced a difference in neuronal activation during these tests as measured by functional …

Public Perception On The State Of Air Quality In Malta, Nikolas Cassar

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Public perception on the state of air quality is an unclear and hazy concept whereby every individual has different opinions and views. In fact, the state of air quality is a major concern in many countries, including in Malta. This problem arises from the emissions of a number of pollutants to the atmosphere from a host of processes such as the combustion of fuel to generate electricity and the internal combustion engines to manoeuvre cars. Amongst these pollutants, there are benzene and nitrogen dioxide, which are very hazardous since they cause problems related to human health and contribute in the …

Simulating Bipartite Networks To Reflect Uncertainty In Local Network Properties, Ravi Goyal, Joseph Blitzstein, Victor De Gruttola

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Flexible Partially Linear Single Index Regression Models For Multivariate Survival Data, Na Lei

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Survival regression models usually assume that covariate effects have a linear form. In many circumstances, however, the assumption of linearity may be violated. The present work addresses this limitation by adding nonlinear covariate effects to survival models. Nonlinear covariates are handled using a single index structure, which allows high-dimensional nonlinear effects to be reduced to a scalar term. The nonlinear single index approach is applied to modeling of survival data with multivariate responses, in three popular models: the proportional hazards (PH) model, the proportional odds (PO) model, and the generalized transformation model. Another extension of the PH and PO model …

Building Sustainable Societies: Exploring Sustainability Policy And Practice In The Age Of High Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

Cindy Isenhour

This dissertation is an attempt to examine how humans in wealthy, post-industrial urban contexts understand sustainability and respond to their concerns given their sphere of influence. I focus specifically on sustainable consumption policy and practice in Sweden, where concerns for sustainability and consumer-based responses are strong. This case raises interesting questions about the relative strength of sustainability movements in different cultural and geo-political contexts as well as the specific factors that have motivated the movement toward sustainable living in Sweden.

The data presented here supports the need for multigenic theories of sustainable consumerism. Rather than relying on dominant theories of …

Ancestor Worship In The Logic Of Games. How Foundational Were Aristotle's Contributions?, John Woods

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Notwithstanding their technical virtuosity and growing presence in mainstream thinking, game theoretic logics have attracted a sceptical question: "Granted that logic can be done game theoretically, but what would justify the idea that this is the preferred way to do it?'' A recent suggestion is that at least part of the desired support might be found in the Greek dialectical writings. If so, perhaps we could say that those works possess a kind of foundational significance. The relation of being foundational for is interesting in its own right. In this paper, I explore its ancient applicability to relevant, paraconsistent and …

Cartoons For E-Health Informatics, Moira Sim, Eric Khong, Ashleigh Mcevoy, Toni Wain, Mick Sim, Patricia A.H. Williams

Australian eHealth Informatics and Security Conference

Not only is Hepatitis B serology often misunderstood because of its complex serological implications, but advances in medical science have revolutionised screening and treatment of hepatitis B. To maximise such evolution however, this new information must be relayed effectively and efficiently to current and future medical professionals. Cartoons have been well regarded as a teaching tool in a variety of different settings as is the use of web based technology. Therefore the delivery of a cartoon based learning tool, accessed via on-line learning modules was considered a novel and potentially effective way of disseminating new knowledge. To increase health professionals’ …

An Investigation Into The Efficiency Of Forensic Data Erasure Tools For Removable Usb Flash Memory Storage Devices, Krishnun Sansurooah, Haydon Hope, Hani Almutairi, Fayadh Alnazawi, Yunhan Jiang

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

Securely erasing data is of key importance to anyone that is concerned with the security of their sensitive information, whether an individual or an organization. Simply deleting the data in question or formatting the storage device is not enough to ensure that the data cannot be recovered. Furthermore, with the uptake of Universal Serial Bus drives (USBs) flash memory based storage devices have replaced previous portable secondary storage media. Therefore, it is of a major concern whether these tools and products developed for securely erasing data secondary storage Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) would be as efficient when targeting the USB …

The Applicability Of Greulich And Pyle Atlas To Assess Skeletal Age For Four Ethnic Groups, Sameem Abdul Kareem

Sameem Abdul Kareem

Background: Recently, determination of skeletal age, defined as the assessment of bone age, has rapidly become an important task between forensic experts and radiologists. The GreulichePyle (GP) atlas is one of the most frequently used methods for the assessment of skeletal age around the world. After presentation of the GP approach for the estimation of the bone age, much research has been conducted to examine the usability of this method in various geographic or ethnic categories. This study investigates on a small-scale and compares the reliability of the GP atlas for assessment of the bone age for four ethnic groups …

A Systems Approach To Countermeasures In Credibility Assessment Interviews, Nathan Twyman, Ryan M. Schuetzler, Jeffrey Gainer Proudfoot, Aaron Elkins

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Countermeasures, or techniques for hiding guilt during a credibility assessment examination, have long been an important topic in cognitive psychology and criminal justice fields. With recent IS research on automated screening systems, understanding the potential for countermeasures in this new paradigm is of increasing importance. This paper reports on a large experiment examining countermeasures in an automated deception detection screening context. The effectiveness of traditional countermeasure types (mental and physical) are examined, as well as an exploratory approach of trying several countermeasures at once. The exploratory approach was tested to investigate a proposed novel systems-inspired solution to countermeasures—triangulating on deception …

Spatial And Temporal Participation In Recreational Fishing, Dustin R. Martin

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Buffering inland fisheries against large-scale changes in ecosystem function, climate regimes, and societal valuations of natural resources requires progressive management approaches that incorporate fish and angler dynamics at large spatial and temporal scales. Current paradigms of inland fishery management generally utilize waterbody-specific, fish-centric frameworks designed to regulate fish populations directly, and anglers indirectly, through fish stock enhancement and harvest regulation. In reality, anglers are the most manageable component of a fishery but management of anglers requires explicit consideration of their behavior (e.g., spatial and temporal patterns of participant use), which, unlike fish populations, operates at a scale larger than a …

Minerva 2013, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes an article on the opening of Charlie's Terrace in honor of former Honors Dean, Charlie Slavin; a discussion on community engagement in the Honors curriculum and community; an article on the student recipients of the Rezendes Travel Scholarship; and several articles catching up with Honors alumni.

Sustainable Development And The Issue Of Water In The Kagera Region Of Tanzania, Teresa M. Dresner

Theses & Dissertations

Over the last five decades, an abundance of research on sustainable development has emerged in multiple disciplinary areas, but few studies on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability have examined water issues for rural communities. Consequently, the purpose of this case study was to understand how a group of rural women from the Kagera region in Tanzania perceived and experienced sustainable development as a result of their improved access to water. The following central questions of the study sought to explore the local meanings of sustainable development and improved water sources: (a) How was life of rural women …

Multiple Hypotheses Testing Procedures In Clinical Trials And Genomic Studies, Qing Pan

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

We review and compare multiple hypothesis testing procedures used in clinical trials and those in genomic studies. Clinical trials often employ global tests, which draw an overall conclusion for all the hypotheses, such as SUM test, Two-Step test, Approximate Likelihood Ratio test (ALRT), Intersection-Union Test (IUT), and MAX test. The SUM and Two-Step tests are most powerful under homogeneous treatment effects, while the ALRT and MAX test are robust in cases with non-homogeneous treatment effects. Furthermore, the ALRT is robust to unequal sample sizes in testing different hypotheses. In genomic studies, stepwise procedures are used to draw marker-specific conclusions and …

Research: South Dakota State University, Winter 2013, Christie Delfanian, Matt Landwehr

Research: South Dakota State University

CONTENTS:

South Dakota expertise integral part of Landsat [Page] 1
West Nile: Researchers help public health officials combat West Nile virus [page] 2
Health care: arteries, corticosteroids, concussions, and preemies [Page] 4
Oilseeds [Page] 6
Undergraduate Research [Page] 8
Organ donation key to helping Native Americans on dialysis [Page] 10
Researchers meet challenge of increased competition: 2012 measurements [Page] 11

The Update, December 2013, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Humanities, Arts And Sciences.

Update

Inside this issue...

-- Milkweed Seed Harvesting and Prairie Restoration
-- Department News
-- Environmental Science B.A. Degree
-- James Davis Presentation at National Convention
-- School of Music Events
-- UNI Women's & Gender Studies Presents CROW Forum
-- Alumni Spotlight: Physics: Cary Pint
-- Student Spotlight: Philosophy & World Religions: Corey Cooling
-- Featured Organization: UNI Interpreters Theatre
-- Interpreters Theatre Productions Schedule
-- Iowa Teachers Named Finalists for Math, Science
-- UNI Marching Band

Optimal Matching Distances Between Categorical Sequences: Distortion And Inferences By Permutation, Juan P. Zuluaga

Culminating Projects in Applied Statistics

Sequence data (an ordered set of categorical states) is a very common type of data in Social Sciences, Genetics and Computational Linguistics.

For exploration and inference of sets of sequences, having a measure of dissimilarities among sequences would allow the data to be analyzed by techniques like clustering, multimensional scaling analysis and distance-based regression analysis. Sequences can be placed in a map where similar sequences are close together, and dissimilar ones will be far apart. Such patterns of dispersion and concentration could be related to other covariates. For example, do the employment trajectories of men and women tend to form …

Consumer Adoption Of Health Information Systems, Sankara Subramanian Srinivasan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At nearly 18 percent of the country's GDP, the U.S. healthcare industry continues to wrestle with growing cost and a quality of care that does not match the increased spending. The dominant focus to date has been on promoting Health IT (HIT) system implementation and digitizing health records at the provider's end, with scant attention to the role of the patient in the healthcare process. The source of inefficiency in the healthcare system is not only on account of shortcomings at the provider's end but also due to non-compliance (such as failing to adhere to medication advice and follow-up visits) …

A Simple Integration Of Social Relationship And Text Data For Identifying Potential Customers In Microblogging, Guansong Pang, Shengyi Jiang, Dongyi Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Identifying potential customers among a huge number of users in microblogging is a fundamental problem for microblog marketing. One challenge in potential customer detection in microblogging is how to generate an accurate characteristic description for users, i.e., user profile generation. Intuitively, the preference of a user’s friends (i.e., the person followed by the user in microblogging) is of great importance to capture the characteristic of the user. Also, a user’s self-defined tags are often concise and accurate carriers for the user’s interests. In this paper, for identifying potential customers in microblogging, we propose a method to generate user profiles via …

A Bandwidth-Conserving Architecture For Crawling Virtual Worlds, Dipesh Gautam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit via avatars. Content in virtual worlds such as Second Life or OpenSimulator is increasingly presented using three-dimensional (3D) dynamic presentation technologies that challenge traditional search technologies. As 3D environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, the need for a data crawler and distributed search service will continue to grow. By increasing the visibility of content across virtual world servers in order to better collect and integrate the 3D data we can also improve the crawling and searching efficiency and accuracy by avoiding crawling unchanged regions …

Extended Book Review: Mathematics In Popular Culture: Essays On Appearances In Film, Fiction, Games, Television And Other Media, Edited By Jessica K. Sklar And Elizabeth S. Sklar; Loving+Hating Mathematics: Challenging The Myths Of Mathematical Life, By Reuben Hersh And Vera John-Steiner; Mathematicians: An Outer View Of The Inner World, By Mariana Cook, Gizem Karaali

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

I was delighted to have the opportunity to review three books on a topic near and dear to my heart. In recent years it has become a passion of mine to think of and speak about the place of mathematics in the real world, in the world of those who are not doing mathematics for a living. I care about the applications and the implications of mathematics, but more than that, I care about the feelings and the impressions attached to it. Often math anxiety or skepticism comes up; the latter may be due to how frequently others (mis)use statistics, …

Educating The Masses: Human Attitudes Affecting Reef Health, Ashley Wiehl

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

About two thirds of the world’s population lives within 60 km of a coastline, however many members of the public do not recognize the importance of the nearby coral reef ecosystems. Although reef degradation is currently occurring at alarming rates, there is hope for the future of coral reef health. It is proven that humans have a large effect on the current health of coral reefs. This thesis aims to determine how marine scientists and educators can best influence the general public to affect behaviors to improve reef health. To do this involves taking analyzing the many effects of human …

Survival Analysis Of Cardiovascular Diseases, Yuanxin Hu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Workforce Preparedness Of Information Systems Students: Perceptions Of Students, Alumni, And Employers, Susan Bristow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employers of newly hired higher education graduates report their new workforce is not prepared. Further research was required to discover insights to the workforce readiness gap. This concurrent mixed methods study explored what competencies influenced employer's perceptions of the work-readiness of Information Systems (ISYS) undergraduate students and discovered ISYS graduates' and current ISYS students' perceptions of their work-readiness. Participants consisted of a convenience sample including 69 ISYS program upperclassmen, 20 ISYS program alumni, and 8 employers of the ISYS program graduates. ISYS program alumni completed an online Qualtrics survey to measure the participants' perception of their workforce preparedness. ISYS program …

Tomato Worker Ergonomics: Reba Panel Evaluation Of Job Tasks Using Video., Leaann Nichole Manz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project tested the hypothesis that non-experts' rankings of ergonomic stressors differ from those of health professionals. Tennessee ranks fifth in the production of tomatoes, an industry in which stoop labor, hand harvesting, and packing predominate. Specific parts of tomato workers' bodies are at risk of ergonomic injury such as, shoulders (loads), backs (stoop labor), lower extremities (posture), and upper extremities (repetitive motion). Of equal importance is our expectation that the scores assigned by non-experts will correlate with those of experts, leading to a community consensus for action and practical intervention research. Video footage of harvesting and sorting was analyzed …

Environmental Literacy Of Sixth Grade Students In Arkansas: Implications For Environmental Education Reform, Lisa Suzanne Wood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental education must be better integrated into K-12 curriculum to advance environmental literacy. Producing a citizenry that can understand and address the complex environmental issues facing the world today and in the future is essential to sustainable life on this planet.

Using the Middle School Environmental Literacy Survey, 6th grade students across Arkansas were surveyed to obtain a baseline measure of environmental literacy based on the four domains of environmental literacy included in the survey; ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. Individual domain scores were combined into a composite environmental literacy score. Results were then compared to the …

Exposing And Mitigating Privacy Loss In Crowdsourced Survey Platforms, Thivya Kandappu, Vijay Sivaraman, Arik Friedman, Roksana Borell

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and Google Consumer Surveys can profile users based on their inputs to online surveys. In this work we first demonstrate how easily user privacy can be compromised by collating information from multiple surveys. We then propose, develop, and evaluate a crowdsourcing survey platform called Loki that allows users to control their privacy loss via atsource obfuscation.

Factors Associated With Parental Decision Making And Childhood Vaccination, Zuwen Qiu-Shultz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In order to better understand factors affecting immunization status, logistic regression was used to assess the association of various socio-demographic factors and whether parents would have their child immunized if not a state mandate. Factors included in the study were race, household income, number of children in the household, number of adults in the household, if the child had a primary provider, if the child had a health check-up in the last twelve months, and medical insurance status of the child. The combined Nevada Kindergarten Health Survey Result of 2009-2010 (Year Two) and 2010-2011 (Year Three) conducted by the Nevada …

Statistical Models For Predicting College Success, Yelen Nunez

Yelen Nunez

Colleges base their admission decisions on a number of factors to determine which applicants have the potential to succeed. This study utilized data for students that graduated from Florida International University between 2006 and 2012. Two models were developed (one using SAT as the principal explanatory variable and the other using ACT as the principal explanatory variable) to predict college success, measured using the student’s college grade point average at graduation. Some of the other factors that were used to make these predictions were high school performance, socioeconomic status, major, gender, and ethnicity. The model using ACT had a higher …

Recreational Angler Perspectives Of Nonnative Fish Species And Mercury Advisories, Christopher J. Edwards

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The central Everglades serve as a Wildlife Management Area and as a Water Conservation Area for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area. It is also home to over 22 nonnative freshwater fish species and carries restrictive fish consumption guidelines for Mercury. In my study, boat anglers and canal bank anglers were personally interviewed in the field, to research their awareness and perspectives of these potential environmental and health threats. The study found 78% of anglers were aware of the presence of nonnative fish species, but favored native fish species, and that 69% were aware of mercury advisories, but did not eat …