Digital Commons Network^™

Induction Of Classifiers From Multi-Labeled Examples: An Information-Retrieval Point Of View, Kanoksri Sarinnapakorn

Open Access Dissertations

An important task of information retrieval is to induce classifiers capable of categorizing text documents. The fact that the same document can simultaneously belong to two or more categories is referred by the term multi-label classification (or categorization). Domains of this kind have been encountered in diverse fields even outside information retrieval. This dissertation discusses one challenging aspect of text categorization: the documents (i.e., training examples) are characterized by an extremely large number of features. As a result, many existing machine learning techniques are in such domains prohibitively expensive. This dissertation seeks to reduce these costs significantly. The proposed scheme …

Target Space Duality With Dilaton And Tachyon Field, Blazej Ruszczycki

Open Access Dissertations

We study the target space duality of classical two dimensional sigma models. The models with dilaton and tachyon field are analyzed. As a motivating example the historical electric-magnetic duality is presented. We review the construction of the duality transformation and the integrability conditions for the nonlinear sigma models with target spaces described by general metrics and antisymmetric two-forms. We generalize the formalism for the models whose actions contain the dilaton and tachyon field. For the dilaton field case it is required that the duality is a property solely of the target manifolds, independent of the world-sheet geometry. For both cases …

A Quantitative Description Of The Interaction Of Enhancement And Depression Of Transmitter Release At The Neuromuscular Junction, Alice M. Holohean

Open Access Dissertations

Synaptic transmission alters the strength of the postsynaptic potential, through a process called short-term synaptic plasticity (STP). In this study, endplate potentials (EPPs) from the frog neuromuscular junction were used to resolve and quantify the presynaptic components involved in enhancement and depression of transmitter release during repetitive stimulation under normal quantal release conditions (2 mM Ca2+, 1mM Mg2+). During trains of stimulation given between 10 - 200 Hz, the amplitude of the EPPs first increased then decreased; a maximum increase of 77% was produced after 2-4 stimuli. EPP amplitudes began to increase at ~ 20 Hz, were maximal at ~ …

Analyses Of Dengue Fever And Aedes Aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) Larval Habitats In A Tropical Urban Environment Of Costa Rica Using Geospatial And Mosquito Surveillance Technologies, Adriana Troyo

Open Access Dissertations

Dengue is currently the most important arboviral disease globally and is usually associated with built environments in tropical areas. Control measures are currently focused on community participation in control of the vector Aedes aegypti and larval source reduction. In Costa Rica, dengue fever is a relatively recent re-emerging disease and has become a serious public health problem. Remotely sensed information can facilitate the study of urban mosquito-borne diseases like dengue by providing multiple temporal and spatial resolutions appropriate to investigate urban structure and ecological characteristics associated with infectious disease. Initial studies showed that although dengue is a serious public health …

Sound Transmission Through A Fluctuating Ocean: A Modal Approach, Ilya A. Udovydchenkov

Open Access Dissertations

Sound transmission through a fluctuating deep ocean environment is considered. It is assumed that the environment consists of a range-independent background, on which a small-scale perturbation, due for example to internal waves, is superimposed. The modal description of underwater sound propagation is used extensively. The temporal spread of modal group arrivals in weakly range-dependent deep ocean environments is considered. The phrase "modal group arrival" refers to the contribution to a transient wavefield corresponding to a fixed mode number. It is shown that there are three contributions to modal group time spreads which combine approximately in quadrature. These are the reciprocal …

Development Of A Delivery System And Optical-Thermal Model For Laser Interstitial Thermotherapy Of Breast Tumors, Nelson Salas

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to develop a delivery system optimized for laser interstitial thermotherapy of small tumors of the breast. The proposed approach is to combine laser interstitial thermotherapy with stereotactic imaging for fiber guidance and treatment monitoring. The goals of the dissertation were to design a fiber insertion system for cylindrical diffusing tip optical fibers and to derive optimal laser parameters for coagulation of 1 cm tumor plus a surrounding 1 cm thick rim of healthy tissue. A fiber insertion system compatible with a high resolution stereotactic digital X-ray biopsy system was designed to guide the fiber …

Risk For Exercise Addiction: A Comparison Of Triathletes Training For Sprint-, Olympic-, Half-Ironman-, And Ironman-Distance Triathlons, Jason D. Youngman

Open Access Dissertations

Whereas clinical professionals and the general public recognize exercise in moderate amounts as an important component of a healthy lifestyle, researchers have noted that when taken to an excessive level, exercise may become addictive. Usually considered rare in the broad exercising population, risk for exercise addiction has been found to be more prominent among certain specialized groups, such as runners. This study investigated the risk for exercise addiction in a unique group of endurance athletes-Sprint-, Olympic-, Half-Ironman, and Ironman-distance triathletes. The sample consisted of 1285 male and female triathletes, ranging in age from 18 to 70 years old, recruited through …

An Airborne Investigation Of The Atmospheric Boundary Layer Structure In The Hurricane Force Wind Regime, Jun Zhang

Open Access Dissertations

As part of the ONR sponsored Coupled Boundary Layer/Air-Sea Transfer (CBLAST) experiment, data from the NOAA WP-3D research aircraft measurements into major Hurricanes in the 2002-2004 seasons are analyzed to investigate the structure of the boundary layer. The turbulent fluxes of momentum and enthalpy are derived using the eddy correlation method. For the first time, the momentum and enthalpy fluxes were directly measured in the boundary layer of a hurricane with wind speeds up to 30 m/s. A new bulk parameterization of the momentum and enthalpy flux is developed. The vertical structure of turbulence and fluxes are presented for the …

Lagrangian Coherent Structures And Transport In Two-Dimensional Incompressible Flows With Oceanographic And Atmospheric Applications, Irina I. Rypina

Open Access Dissertations

The Lagrangian dynamics of two-dimensional incompressible fluid flows is considered, with emphasis on transport processes in atmospheric and oceanic flows. The dynamical-systems-based approach is adopted; the Lagrangian motion in such systems is studied with the aid of Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) theory, and results relating to stable and unstable manifolds and lobe dynamics. Some nontrivial extensions of well-known results are discussed, and some extensions of the theory are developed. In problems for which the flow field consists of a steady background on which a time-dependent perturbation is superimposed, it is shown that transport barriers arise naturally and play a critical role in …

Cognitive Functioning, Immune Functioning, And Disease Progression In Perinatally Infected Hiv+ School-Aged Children On Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy, Erin Theresa O'Callaghan

Open Access Dissertations

This study is one of the only investigations to examine the complex inter-relationships between immune status, cognitive functioning, and disease progression in school-aged, perinatally infected, HIV+ children on HAART over time and is the first to conduct long-term follow-up assessments beyond one year after initiating HAART. Previous research has shown that HIV+ children on HAART show stability in cognitive functioning for up to one year. The current study investigated cognitive functioning, as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -III, as a function of immune functioning and disease progression over time in this sample. Overall, results showed that PIQ …

The Dose-Response Of Maternal Exercise Volume On Newborn And Placental Outcomes, Melisa A. Mena

Open Access Dissertations

Current ACOG guidelines recommend exercise during a low-risk pregnancy for 30 minutes on most, if not all days of the week. However, little is known about how the volume of exercise performed during pregnancy affects fetoplacental size. In addition, the confounding effects of maternal nutrient intake and weight gain, and how they interact with exercise volume to influence fetoplacental size have not been appropriately addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of varying maternal exercise volumes on neonatal birthweight and placental volume, while addressing the influence of maternal nutrient intake and weight gain. Subjects evaluated …

Worldview Construction: International Relations Concepts Embedded In Elementary Social Studies Textbooks, Louise Massey Strauss

Open Access Dissertations

Early civic education is crucial for worldview formation compatible with living in an increasingly interdependent world. In U.S. public schools, social studies is the locus of civic education. Social studies textbooks are the container of civic subject matter and teachers are its transmitters. Traditionally, civic education has been linked with national identity creation. In this study, educators are challenged to stimulate a complementary cosmopolitan identity because of social, political, and economic globalization trends and transition to an Information (and instant communication) Age. Using the social constructivist perspective, a content analysis model was developed for multi-state study of elementary social studies …

Predicting Student Perceptions Of School Connectedness: The Contributions Of Parent Attachment And Peer Attachment, Jennifer Anne Dixon

Open Access Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between attachment quality and school connectedness in a high school sample of adolescents. Although there is a literature related to adolescent attachment quality and its effects on adjustment and development, relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship between parent and peer attachment and school connectedness. Further, these attachments and connections have yet to be examined among general and special education populations. Attachment quality has been correlated with identity development, self-esteem, competence, and psychopathology and has been investigated as a mediator in the relation between risk and resilience. School connectedness centers around the theory …

Sexual Selection And Larval Performance Of Two Species Of Red-Eyed Treefrogs, Agalychnis Callidryas And A. Moreletii Of The Chiquibul Forest Reserve, Belize., Venetia S. Briggs

Open Access Dissertations

In species where males do not provide immediate benefits to females in the form of resources or parental care to offspring, adaptive mate choice may be maintained by selection because preferred males sire offspring that are genetically superior. I test the hypothesis that female mating preferences result in enhanced performance of their larvae, owing to genetic variation among sires in two species of red-eyed treefrogs. This variation in males may be manifested as body size or in advertisement call parameters. I examined natural pairing patterns and found that both species display a size-based mating pattern with substantial seasonal effects. In …

Regulation Of The Lactoperoxidase System In The Airway, Miryam A. Fragoso

Open Access Dissertations

The lactoperoxidase (LPO) antimicrobial system has been shown to play an important role in maintaining sterile conditions in several tissues including the mammary gland, the salivary gland, and the airway. The LPO system in the airway consists of the enzyme LPO and its substrates hydrogen peroxide and an anion. LPO catalyzes the oxidation of a halide or pseudohalide ion for example SCN-or I- by hydrogen peroxide producing a product, OSCN- or OI- which have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. In order to have a functional antimicrobial system all the components need to be present at appropriate concentrations. The LPO system …

Excess Noise In The Superconducting Transition Of Tin Films, Hengsong Zhang

Open Access Dissertations

The I-V characteristics of Tin films in the superconducting transition have been measured when ac current was applied. The experimental results suggest that the electrical response in ac is not satisfied with the I-V equation in dc. A new equation was suggested to describe the vortex motion and the vortex pair separation in the two dimensional superconducting transition with ac current, which is satisfied with our experimental results. The excess noises of Tin films in the superconducting transition have been found to depend strongly on the temperature and ac current. An empirical expression of voltage noise density in term of …

Human Activity Recognition And Pathological Gait Pattern Identification, Feng Niu

Open Access Dissertations

Human activity analysis has attracted great interest from computer vision researchers due to its promising applications in many areas such as automated visual surveillance, computer-human interactions, and motion-based identification and diagnosis. This dissertation presents work in two areas: general human activity recognition from video, and human activity analysis for the purpose of identifying pathological gait from both 3D captured data and from video. Even though the research in human activity recognition has been going on for many years, still there are many issues that need more research. This includes the effective representation and modeling of human activities and the segmentation …

The Effect Of "Developmental Speech-Language Training Through Music" On Speech Production In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Hayoung Audrey Lim

Open Access Dissertations

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders demonstrate deficits in speech and language, with the most outstanding speech impairments being in comprehension, semantics, prosody, and pragmatics. Perception and production of music and speech in children with ASD appear to follow the same principles of Gestalt pattern perceptual organization. In addition, common neuroanatomical structures and similar patterns of cortical activation mediate the perception and production of speech and music. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how the perception of musical stimuli would impact the perception and production of speech and language in children with ASD. The study examined the effect …

A Framework For The Creation Of A Unified Electronic Medical Record Using Biometrics, Data Fusion And Belief Theory, Dwayne C. Leonard

Open Access Dissertations

The technology exists for the migration of healthcare data from its archaic paper-based system to an electronic one and once in digital form, to be transported anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. The advent of universally accessible healthcare data benefits all participants, but one of the outstanding problems that must be addressed is how to uniquely identify and link a patient to his or her specific medical data. To date, a few solutions to this problem have been proposed that are limited in their effectiveness. We propose the use of biometric technology within our FIRD framework in …

Communication And Culture: Implications For Hispanic Mothers With Deaf Children, Alliete Rodriguez Alfano

Open Access Dissertations

The majority of deaf children are born to hearing parents. The fact that many of these children use sign language as their primary form of communication poses a unique language barrier between them and their hearing families. In addition, for children who are born into Hispanic families, these children have limited access to Hispanic and Deaf cultures unless their families actively pursue involvement with those communities. Data were collected through ethnographic interviews and limited participant observation and analyzed by means of grounded theory methodology. The study investigated how Hispanic mothers communicate with their deaf children who use ASL as their …

Spatial Dynamics In The Growth And Spread Of Halimeda And Dictyota In Florida Reefs: A Simulation Modeling Approach, Aletta T. Yñiguez

Open Access Dissertations

Macroalgae are an important part of the coral reef ecosystem that has largely been overlooked. However, in the past few decades their abundances have increased and this has been attributed to combinations of coral mortality opening up space in the reef, decreased grazing and increased nutrient load in reefs. This dissertation illustrates a novel means of investigating the effect of various growth and disturbance factors on the dynamics of macroalgae at three different levels (individual, population and 3-species community). Macroalgae are modular and clonal organisms that have differing morphologies depending on the environment to which they are exposed. These traits …

Coral Disease Epizootiology In The Florida Keys (U.S.A.) And Cayman Islands (British West Indies), And The Development Of The Simulation Of Infected Corals Model, Marilyn Elizabeth Brandt

Open Access Dissertations

Understanding coral disease dynamics within the heterogeneous populations in which they act is critical for predicting how the structure of reefs may change as a result of enzootic or epizootic levels of these important sources of mortality. This work focused on combining field studies and the development and testing of a spatially-explicit, individual-based epizootiological computer model with the aim of gaining a greater understanding of the dynamics and impact of white plague, a significant source of mortality on reef-building corals in the Caribbean region. Field studies focused on the incidence and distribution of all sources of coral mortality, including suspect …

Relationship Between Key Variables In Penile Plethysmograph And Viewing Time Measures Of Sexual Arousal In Sex Offending Adult Males, Lisa Loewinger Cloyd

Open Access Dissertations

Penile plethysmography is amongst the best measures for prediction of sexual recidivism and has been extensively researched. However, there are a variety of criticisms regarding use of penile plethysmography (PPG), including financial investment, significant training needs, lack of standardization, intrusive nature of the measure, extensive time for testing, and inability to use PPG with all groups of sexual offenders (e.g., women and adolescents). Viewing time has been studied, though not as extensively as PPG, regarding detection of sexual interest. This study examined the relationship between Monarch 21 PPG and Affinity viewing time variables, including responses to individual stimuli, a sex …

Marijuana Use Among Clinic-Referred Hispanic American Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders: Gender Differences In Predictors Of Growth Trajectory Parameters, Karen Jill Kaczynski

Open Access Dissertations

This study was undertaken to evaluate gender differences in predictors of substance use in clinic-referred, Hispanic American adolescents with substance use disorders. Individual (disruptive behavior disorders, depression) and family variables (family conflict, parental monitoring) were evaluated as predictors of the initial level and change over time in marijuana use, and gender was evaluated as a moderator of the associations. The study involved an analysis of an existing dataset of 113 Hispanic American adolescents (93 boys; age 12 to 17) referred for outpatient treatment for substance abuse and their parental guardian. Participants and parental guardians completed questionnaires and a structured interview …

Marijuana Abuse In Incarcerated Adolescents: Reasons For Use And Implications For Treatment, Rebecca Lebeau

Open Access Dissertations

Research is needed to better understand marijuana use and effective treatment among the incarcerated adolescent population. Preliminary pilot work in detention indicates that a substantial number (83%) of adolescents are reporting daily marijuana use (Stein et al., 2006). This research attempted to gain a better understanding of the reasons for marijuana use among incarcerated adolescents. The design and intent of this study was to extend basic knowledge of the reasons for marijuana use, establish factors related to marijuana use, and examine if relaxation therapy reduces marijuana use in those who use marijuana as a way to regulate emotions.

Participants were …

Effects Of Surf Ace Waves On Air-Sea Momentum And Energy Fluxes And Ocean Response To Hurricanes, Yalin Fan

Open Access Dissertations

In existing ocean models, momentum and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) fluxes through the air-sea interface are parameterized by the bulk formulae, neglecting their dependence on different sea states. However, when the ocean surface wave field is young and complex, the fluxes may significantly differ from the bulk estimates. Furthermore, the fluxes from wind and the fluxes into subsurface currents may be different when the wave field varies in space and in time, since waves take or give up momentum and energy. Numerical experiments are performed to investigate the energy and momentum flux budget across the air-sea interface when wave fields …

Northern Adriatic Circulation And Tides, Jeffrey W. Book

Open Access Dissertations

The circulation of the northern Adriatic Sea is heavily influenced by repetitive bursts of strong wind forcing, making this area a prototype of a wind-forced, shallow marginal sea. Tides also play an important role, with tidal currents being equal to or stronger than non-storm mean flows. From September 2002 to May 2003, an array of 15 Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers was deployed in the northern Adriatic by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the NATO Undersea Research Centre to measure the circulation and dynamics of this important basin. The first manuscript of this dissertation focuses on circulation observations from a …

Computerized, Tailored, Theory-Based Interventions For Health Behavior Change: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, Paul M. Krebs

Open Access Dissertations

Personal behavior accounts for much of the risk associated with chronic disease, thereby providing incentive for development of interventions that offer effective prevention on a large scale. Computer tailored interventions have become increasingly common for facilitating behavior change for a number of health concerns associated with chronic disease. Systematic reviews of tailoring have been completed but a sufficient number of outcomes are now available to facilitate the quantitative analysis of overall effect sizes for this type of intervention. The present study employs meta-analytic techniques to assess the mean effect for tailored interventions focusing on four health behaviors: smoking cessation, increase …

Developmental And Neuropsychological Perspectives On The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test In Normal Children, I. Simona Bujoreanu

Open Access Dissertations

Contemporary efforts in neuropsychological assessment of children are directed towards the use of developmentally sensitive instruments especially when targeting cognitive abilities, such as executive function, which are known to have a protracted period of development. The purpose of the present study was to advance the understanding of the WCST as a measure of executive function in six-year-old children. The test requires subjects to sort cards by three criteria: color, shape, and number of objects on the card. This study investigated the level of difficulty for young children required to use number as a sorting criterion. Based on developmental research on …

Romantic Couples And Partner Use Of Sexually Explicit Material: The Mediating Role Of Cognitions For Dyadic And Sexual Satisfaction, Ana J. Bridges

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relationship between use of sexually explicit material (SEM) and sexual and relationship satisfaction. Three hypotheses were examined: (1) negative interpretations of a partner's SEM use would be related to lower dyadic satisfaction; (2) interactive SEM use would result in more negative partner interpretations of that use; and (3) distressed couples would be less reliable reporters of each other's SEM use. The study also explored how feminist values, depression, and sexual functioning correlated with interpretations of a partner's SEM use. Participants were 217 couples in exclusive heterosexual relationships solicited through Internet sites devoted to psychological studies. Couples …