Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands – Phase Ii: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering October 1 – December 31, 2007, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• The number of records in the volunteer database increased 12% over last quarter. The database now contains 4,937 records.
• Website activity decreased, recording an average of 82,859 hits per month, a decrease of 31% from last quarter, with an average of 8,191 pages viewed per month.
• Volunteer fall training has been completed.
• Three National Public Land Day Events have been completed.
• Two hundred and ten people attended the Volunteer Recognition Event.

Interagency Science And Research: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2007, Margaret N. Rees

Interagency Science and Research Strategy

• Meetings were held with the SNAP Recreation Team and the SNAP Cultural Resources Team to request assistance in the development of the science strategy. Draft versions of interagency goals, subgoals, science questions, and associated tasks were given to each team for review and input.
• Plans were prepared for the peer review of science proposals submitted for consideration as Conservations Initiatives in SNPLMA Round 9.
• Proceedings of the natural resources management workshop held on September 13 were completed and sent to the Science & Research Team for review by members.
• An important focus of the Science and Research Team was the …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2007, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Minerva 2007, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes an article on the hiring of first-ever full-time Honors faculty members, Mimi Killinger and Mark Haggerty; an article on Honors alumna Molly Barker '00; and a reflection by former Honors Program Director Sam Schuman.

Semantic Web For Health Care And Biomedical Informatics, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Systematic Reviews Of Animal Experiments Demonstrate Poor Human Clinical And Toxicological Utility, Andrew Knight

Experimentation Collection

The assumption that animal models are reasonably predictive of human outcomes provides the basis for their widespread use in toxicity testing and in biomedical research aimed at developing cures for human diseases. To investigate the validity of this assumption, the comprehensive Scopus biomedical bibliographic databases were searched for published systematic reviews of the human clinical or toxicological utility of animal experiments. In 20 reviews in which clinical utility was examined, the authors concluded that animal models were either significantly useful in contributing to the development of clinical interventions, or were substantially consistent with clinical outcomes, in only two cases, one …

Privacy In Location Aware Computing Environments, Denise Anthony, Tristan Henderson, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

As location-aware and pervasive computing technologies become more prevalent, privacy concerns are becoming increasingly more important. User preferences about location privacy may depend on place, not only in terms of their physical location but also in terms of their social context: how they define where they are, what they are doing, and whom they are with at the time. Using the experience sampling method, the authors explored the privacy preferences of 25 users during one week. They found that participants were more willing to share location information when at home or alone than when at other locations or with friends. …

Towards Tractable Local Closed World Reasoning For The Semantic Web, Matthias Knorr, Jose Julio Alferes, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Recently, the logics of minimal knowledge and negation as failure MKNF [12] was used to introduce hybrid MKNF knowledge bases [14], a powerful formalism for combining open and closed world reasoning for the Semantic Web. We present an extension based on a new three-valued framework including an alternating fixpoint, the well-founded MKNF model. This approach, the well-founded MKNF semantics, derives its name from the very close relation to the corresponding semantics known from logic programming. We show that the well-founded MKNF model is the least model among all (three-valued) MKNF models, thus soundly approximating also the two-valued MKNF models from …

Role Of Group A Streptococcus Htra In The Maturation Of Speb Protease, J. N. Cole, J. A. Aquilina, P. G. Hains, A. Henningham, K. S. Sriprakash, M. G. Caparon, V. Nizet, M. Kotb, S. J. Cordwell, S. P. Djordjevic, Mark J. Walker

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The serine protease HtrA (DegP) of the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes (group A Streptococcus; GAS) is localized to the ExPortal secretory microdomain and is reportedly essential for the maturation of cysteine protease SpeB. Here we utilize HSC5 (M5 serotype) and the in-frame isogenic mutant HSC5ΔhtrA to determine whether HtrA contributes to the maturation of other GAS virulence determinants. Mutanolysin cell wall extracts and secreted proteins were arrayed by 2-DE and identified by MALDI-TOF PMF analysis. HSC5ΔhtrA had elevated levels of cell wall-associated M protein, whilst the supernatant had higher concentrations of M protein fragments and a reduced amount of mature …

Changing Cultures Of Water In Eastern Australian Backyard Gardens, Lesley M. Head, Pat Muir

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Research into diverse cultural understandings of water provides important contributions to the pressing global issue of sustainable supply, particularly when combined with analysis of relationships between everyday household practice and larger sociotechnical networks of storage and distribution. Here we analyse semi-structured interviews with 298 people about their 241 backyards in the Australian east coast cities of Sydney and Wollongong, undertaken during the 2002-03 drought. Water emerged as an important issue in both consciousness and practice. In contrast to a number of other environmental issues which stimulate more polarised responses, a commitment to reducing water consumption was shared across the study …

On The Total Duration Of Negative Surplus Of A Risk Process With Two-Step Premium Function, Pavlina Jordanova

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

We consider a risk reserve process whose premium rate reduces from c_d to c_u when the reserve comes above some critical value v. In the model of Cramer-Lundberg with initial capital u ≥ 0, we obtain the probability that ruin does not occur before the first up-crossing of level v. When u < v, following H. Gerber and E. Shiu (1997), we derive the probability that starting with initial capital u ruin occurs and the severity of ruin is not bigger than v. Further we express the probability of ruin in the two step premium function model - ψ (u,v), by the last two probabilities. Our assumptions imply that the surplus process will go to infinity almost surely. This entails that the process will stay below zero only temporarily. We derive the distribution of the total duration of negative surplus and obtain its Laplace transform and mean value. As a consequence of these results, under certain conditions in the Model of Cramer-Lundberg we obtain the expected value of the severity of ruin. In the end of the paper we give examples with exponential claim sizes.

Video On The Semantic Sensor Web, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth, Prateek Jain, Josh Pschorr, Terry Rapoch

Kno.e.sis Publications

Millions of sensors around the globe currently collect avalanches of data about our world. The rapid development and deployment of sensor technology is intensifying the existing problem of too much data and not enough knowledge. With a view to alleviating this glut, we propose that sensor data, especially video sensor data, can be annotated with semantic metadata to provide contextual information about videos on the Web. In particular, we present an approach to annotating video sensor data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the W3C and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and …

Sharing A Landscape: The Construction Of Sense Of Place On The Maine Coast, Andrea Jane Ednie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Motivated by interest and concern over the changing coastline in Maine, this study uses the concept of sense of place to develop an understanding of how a range of users share the resource, and to explore how place meanings are associated with their social experiences and perceptions. The site for this study was the Stonington region archipelago, an area that has not yet experienced the same amount of development as seen on the southern Maine coast, yet one that has witnessed a boom in recreational use and an influx of people from other areas. Using a mixed methodology, two groups …

Combining Geospatial And Temporal Ontologies, Kripa Joshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Publicly available ontologies are growing in number at present. These ontologies describe entities in a domain and the relations among these entities. This thesis describes a method to automatically combine a pair of orthogonal ontologies using cross products. A geospatial ontology and a temporal ontology are combined in this work. Computing the cross product of the geospatial and the temporal ontologies gives a complete set of pairwise combination of terms from the two ontologies. This method offers researchers the benefit of using ontologies that are already existing and available rather than building new ontologies for areas outside their scope of …

A General Boosting Method And Its Application To Learning Ranking Functions For Web Search, Zhaohui Zheng, Hongyuan Zha, Tong Zhang, Olivier Chapelle, Keke Chen, Gordon Sun

Kno.e.sis Publications

We present a general boosting method extending functional gradient boosting to optimize complex loss functions that are encountered in many machine learning problems. Our approach is based on optimization of quadratic upper bounds of the loss functions which allows us to present a rigorous convergence analysis of the algorithm. More importantly, this general framework enables us to use a standard regression base learner such as decision trees for fitting any loss function. We illustrate an application of the proposed method in learning ranking functions for Web search by combining both preference data and labeled data for training. We present experimental …

Ua35/1 Doers & Deeds Vol. 7, No. 3, Wku Provost

WKU Archives Records

Newsletter created by the WKU Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs to highlight the activities of faculty, staff and alumni.

An Empirical Analysis Of Mobile Voice Service And Sms: A Structural Model, Youngsoo Kim, William B. Vogt, Ramayya Krishnan, Rahul Telang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In addition to the wireless telephony boom, a similar exponential increasing trend in wireless data service - short message service (SMS) - is visible as technology advances. We develop a structural model to understand how mobile users behave, especially how they consume voice, and services. Specifically, we measure the own- and the cross-price elasticities of these services. The cross-price elasticity is of significant importance because marketing activities are critically influenced by whether the goods are substitutes or complements. The research context poses significant econometric challenges due to three-part tariff, sequential discrete plan choice and continuous quantity choices. Using detailed individual …

Commuting Analysis In A Small Metropolitan Area - A Case Study Of Bowling Green/Warren County, Kentucky, Caitlin Hagar

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In previous studies of urban commutes, little attention has been paid to commute patterns in smaller urban areas. In this study, the concept of "excess commute" (EC) is applied to the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Statistical Area (BGWCMSA) in Kentucky. EC quantifies the portion of commute distance explained by the overall spatial separation of jobs and households. Results in this thesis research show that approximately 65% of commute distance by persons driving alone in the study area can be explained by the physical locations of homes relative to job sites as well as the existing roadway network, leaving an EC …

A Study Of The Relationship Between American Evangelicals And Human Rights, Amy Rachel Timmons Stumpf

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Human rights violations and abuses affect every region of the globe. The most recent Amnesty International Annual Report details violations in 149 countries. While there are no simple solutions to a problem of this magnitude and complexity, the support of powerful social groups can help in providing relief to the victims, pressure on abusive governments, legal consequences for abusers, and other resources in combating the violence that seems to chronically plague over our world. One of the most powerful groups, with tremendous social capital, is American evangelicals. Evangelicalism, even given the loose and informal organizational structures, is one of the …

Efficacy Of Cognitive Therapy And Pharmacotherapy In Depression: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel B. Michel

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

A meta-analysis comparing the long-term effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy in preventing relapse following treatment discontinuation was performed using published studies of depressed participants. Twenty-three articles met inclusionary criteria and were included in the analyses. Weighted effect sizes and moderators, treatment type, were calculated using statistical analysis software. Initially, fixed effects models were applied to the data, but due to significant between-group heterogeneity that could not be fully explained by treatment type, mixed effect models were used to account for the residual heterogeneity. Results indicated that overall, depressed individuals treated to remission with CBT evidence decreased relapse …

Roles And Responsiblities For Vicses In Flood Education (Report), Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Correction: Using Participatory Design To Develop (Public) Health Decision Support Systems Through Gis, S. Michelle Driedger, Anita Kothari, Jason Morrison, Michael Sawada, Eric J. Crighton, Ian D. Graham

Anita Kothari

Background: Organizations that collect substantial data for decision-making purposes are often characterized as being 'data rich' but 'information poor'. Maps and mapping tools can be very useful for research transfer in converting locally collected data into information. Challenges involved in incorporating GIS applications into the decision-making process within the non-profit (public) health sector include a lack of financial resources for software acquisition and training for nonspecialists to use such tools. This on-going project has two primary phases. This paper critically reflects on Phase 1: the participatory design (PD) process of developing a collaborative web-based GIS tool.

Methods: A case study …

[Accepted Article Manuscript Version (Postprint)] The Social Implications Of Enjoyment Of Different Types Of Music, Movies, And Television Programming, Alice Hall

Communication and Media Faculty Works

This study investigated how information about an individual’s enjoyment of various genres of music, film, and TV programming could influence an observer’s expectations of that individual. An online survey of young adults found that the influence of information about another person’s genre preferences varied across genres. Enjoyment of some genres, including jazz music, film comedies, and television comedies, tended to raise expectations of the individual, whereas enjoyment of others, including heavy metal music, anime films, and television soap operas, tended to lower them. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to uses and gratifications perspectives as well as …

The Social Implications Of Enjoyment Of Different Types Of Music, Movies, And Television Programming, Alice Hall

Alice Hall

Leveraging Semantic Web Techniques To Gain Situational Awareness, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of A Switchgrass Buffer Strip On Soil Microorganisms Near A Field Applied With Endosulfan, Cristina Clark-Cuadrado

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A field study to determine the effects of a switchgrass buffer strip (SBS) on soil microorganisms near a field applied with endosulfan was carried out. Soil samples were taken from a SBS and bare soil area downslope from a field applied with endosulfan at different distances, days, and two seasons (wet and dry). Soil samples were analyzed for endosulfan, soil fungi, and bacteria. Analysis of endosulfan concentrations was done by reversed-phase liquid chromatography. No endosulfan runoff was detected by this method. Analysis of soil fungi and bacteria was done by fungal and bacterial enumeration by plate count method on rose …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 83, No. 19, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news

The Librarian As Hacker, Getting More From Google, R Philip Reynolds

Librarian and Staff Publications

This paper will cover four areas. First it will discuss the research habits of search engine users and some of the problems with these habits. Then it will discuss librarians' use of search engines. Here we encounter the real question: Do we do much better? Can we use a search engines to their full potential? When needed, can we hack an engine to make it perform beyond its intended function? Can we use a clever workaround to solve a problem? Or are we on a level playing field with our patrons once we get outside traditional database searching? Google currently …

Biomass And Biofuels In Maine: Estimating Supplies For Expanding The Forest Products Industry, Jonathan Rubin, Kate Dickerson, Jacob Kavkewitz

Energy & the Environment

This paper estimates the renewable energy potential of Maine’s forest resources, and how much energy these resources could potentially provide the state. Using the most recent state-specific data available, and a methodology similar to the Billion Tons Report, we find that ethanol production from Maine’s forest residues could potentially provide 18% of Maine’s transportation (gasoline) fuels with a fermentation wood to ethanol process. Making Fischer-Tropsch diesel (F-T diesel) using forest residues can replace 39% of Maine’s petro-diesel consumption. Actual levels of biofuels that can be produced will depend on conversion factors and forestry residue removals that are subject to uncertainty.

Time-Series Intervention Analysis Using Itsacorr: Fatal Flaws, Bradley E. Huitema, Joseph W. Mckean, Sean Laraway

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The ITSACORR method (Crosbie, 1993, 1995) is evaluated for the analysis of two-phase interrupted time-series designs. It is shown that each component of the ITSACORR framework (including the structural model, the design matrix, the autocorrelation estimator, the ultimate parameter estimation scheme, and the inferential method) contains fatal flaws.