Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Towards Reasoning Pragmatics, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

The realization of Semantic Web reasoning is central to substantiating the Semantic Web vision. However, current mainstream research on this topic faces serious challenges, which force us to question established lines of research and to rethink the underlying approaches.

Decolorization Of Anthraquinone Vat Blue 4 By The Free Cells Of An Autochthonous Bacterium, Bacillus Subtilis, Rajee Olaganathan, Jamila Patterson

Publications

Uncontaminated soil, Vat Blue 4 contaminated soil and Vat Blue 4 effluent were screened for heterotrophic bacterial population and the bacterial density were found to be 19.3 £ 104 Colony Forming Units (CFU)/gm, 5.5 £ 104 CFU/gm and 1.1 £ 104 CFU/ml respectively. Student’s ‘t’ test analysis affirmed that significant variation prevailed between the three set of ‘t’ tests conducted (P , 0.001 to 0.002). The heterotrophic bacterial population of dye contaminated soil comprised of 32.5% of Pseudomonas spp. followed by 27.5% of Bacillus spp., 15.0% of Aeromonas spp., 12.5% of Micrococcus spp. and 12.5% of Achromobacter spp. The optimum …

A Contrast Pattern Based Clustering Quality Index For Categorical Data, Qingbao Liu, Guozhu Dong

Kno.e.sis Publications

Since clustering is unsupervised and highly explorative, clustering validation (i.e. assessing the quality of clustering solutions) has been an important and long standing research problem. Existing validity measures have significant shortcomings. This paper proposes a novel contrast pattern based clustering quality index (CPCQ) for categorical data, by utilizing the quality and diversity of the contrast patterns (CPs) which contrast the clusters in clusterings. High quality CPs can characterize clusters and discriminate them against each other. Experiments show that the CPCQ index (1) can recognize that expert-determined classes are the best clusters for many datasets from the UCI repository; (2) does …

Sparql Query Re-Writing For Spatial Datasets Using Partonomy Based Transformation Rules, Prateek Jain, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth, Peter Z. Yeh, Kunal Verma

Kno.e.sis Publications

Often the information present in a spatial knowledge base is represented at a different level of granularity and abstraction than the query constraints. For querying ontology’s containing spatial information, the precise relationships between spatial entities has to be specified in the basic graph pattern of SPARQL query which can result in long and complex queries. We present a novel approach to help users intuitively write SPARQL queries to query spatial data, rather than relying on knowledge of the ontology structure. Our framework re-writes queries, using transformation rules to exploit part-whole relations between geographical entities to address the mismatches between query …

Evaluation Of Best Management Practices To Reduce Nutrients Runoff In Watersheds In Arkansas, Hector German Rodriguez Diaz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are many non point sources (NPS) of pollution issues across the state of Arkansas. Each region of the state has different concerns. Many watersheds have been included in the Arkansas's 2008 303(d) list for NPS impairments with sediment and nutrients being the primary causes of concern. This research hypothesized that there are no cost or net returns risks when adopting best management practices (BMPs) to control nutrients runoff and that selection, timing, placement and cost have no impact on the implementation of BMPs. Using two priority watersheds, the L'Anguille River and the Lincoln Lake, as examples, the environmental benefits …

Using Conservative And Biological Tracers To Better Understand The Transport Of Agricultural Contaminants From Soil Water Through The Epikarstic Zone, Brian Ham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Agriculture contamination is very common in karst systems due to the vulnerability of these aquifers. Animal waste is often spread across crop land to enrich the soil with nitrates and phosphates. Herbicides and pesticides are also applied to the crops. The transport of these pollutants through the soil and epikarst is a difficult process to monitor due to the complex, heterogeneous behavior of the groundwater as it makes its way down to the aquifer below.

An experimental site at Crumps Cave lended a unique opportunity to monitor the vadose zone at a waterfall in the cave below. A previous dye …

Exploring Some Inattended Affective Factors In Performing Nonroutine Mathematical Tasks, John Douglas Butler

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Describes students' attempts to solve nonroutine math problems and explores possible correlates of their performance, focusing on inattended (i.e., intentionally avoided) dimensions underrepresented in the literature, including attitudes, interests, values, aesthetics, metacognition, and representation. Analyzes objective and subjective data gathered from a sample of 9th-grade students at a high school in Rhode Island. Finds strong evidence of students' math-aesthetics in problem solving.

A Local Qualitative Approach To Referral And Functional Trust, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Dharan Althuru, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Trust and confidence are becoming key issues in diverse applications such as ecommerce, social networks, semantic sensor web, semantic web information retrieval systems, etc. Both humans and machines use some form of trust to make informed and reliable decisions before acting. In this work, we briefly review existing work on trust networks, pointing out some of its drawbacks. We then propose a local framework to explore two different kinds of trust among agents called referral trust and functional trust, that are modelled using local partial orders, to enable qualitative trust personalization. The proposed approach formalizes reasoning with trust, distinguishing between …

Democracy And The Environment In Latin America, Javier Albert Escamilla

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the ability of democratic and non-democratic states alike to protect the environment. Democracy has long been an important concept in the study of politics and environmental protection is an increasingly important issue in world politics. Advocates of democracy claim democratic states are better able to protect the environment than non-democracies. In contrast there are those that argue democracy's emphasis on individual rights leads to excessive resource consumption. This thesis employs a mixed methods approach to determine if democratic countries protect the environment more than their non-democratic counterparts. In short democracies do protect the environment better than non-democracies …

The Development Of An Advanced Filial Therapy Model, Amy Cathleen Wickstrom

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study sought to develop an advanced filial therapy model by examining the experiences of seven parents who participated in a preliminary advanced filial therapy intervention. These parents had previously completed a 10-week basic filial therapy model called Child Parent Relationship Therapy. A phenomenological qualitative design was employed, wherein data was obtained from parent playtime notes, researcher field notes, group process transcriptions, and focus groups. Parent experiences of the intervention were examined from a systems-relational lens, and four categories emerged, which include relational epiphanies, enhanced understanding of the playtimes, model format, and skill development. Additionally, a variety of themes were …

Analysis Of Mammoth Cave Pre-Park Communities, Matthew Brunt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Before the creation of Mammoth Cave National Park, this area was home to numerous communities, each with a sense of identity. To prepare for the creation of the National Park, all residents living within these communities were relocated, and many of these communities were lost to the passage of time. Today, public memory of these lost communities is being fostered by the descendents of the pre-park area.

Through the use of a Historical Geographic Information System, 1920 Edmonson County manuscript census data, and statistical analysis, the demographic composition of these lost communities was explored. This project not only brought to …

A Fateful Year For Climate Change, William J. Antholis

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Since 1979, 20% of the polar ice cap has melted away. While the public is aware of climate change, the urgency to action is not there. Climate change is also an issue of national security, but enforcement of the the Kyoto and Copenhagen treaties is hampered.

Lower Tropospheric Temperature Variability Over The Usa: A Gis Approach, Souleymane Fall, Dev Niyogi, Gilbert L. Rochon

GIS Day

We use the high resolution North American Regional Analysis (NARR) dataset to build for the United States a Temperature Change Index (TCI) based on four contributing variables derived from the layer-averaged temperature and lapse rate of the 1000mb - 700mb layer (near-surface to 3000 meters) for the 1979-2008 period. The analysis uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods to identify distinct regional patterns based on aggregate temperature trends and variability scores. The resulting index allows us to identify and compare regions that experience high (low) temperature trends and variability that are referred to as hot spots (cold spots). The upper Midwest …

Climate Change Economics 101, Adele C. Morris

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Outline of Talk:
- Climate change is a market failure
- Climate and energy facts
- Economically efficient policy design
- Economics of Domestic Legislation

2009 Scholars And Artists Bibliography, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Friends Of The Michael Schwartz Library, Michael Schwartz Ph.D.

Scholars and Artists Bibliographies

This bibliography was created for the annual Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library Scholars and Artists Reception, recognizing scholarly and creative achievements of Cleveland State University faculty, staff and emeriti. Dr. Michael Schwartz was the honored guest.

Regional Response To A Statewide Renewable Energy Standard: Status And Trends Of Wind Energy Development In West Michigan, Erik Edward Nordman

Erik Edward Nordman

This project used integrated assessment to explore and analyze regional response to Michigan’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The RPS required electric providers to generate ten-percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Wind was identified as a primary source of renewable energy, and much of the state’s wind resources are concentrated in the West Michigan coastal zone. About 28 percent of the state’s planned wind generation capacity is located in the four-county study area. Local governments vary in their current regulations for siting utility-scale wind farms, as well as in their attitudes toward them. The region has significant offshore …

Functional Transition In The Floral Receptacle Of The Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo Nucifera): From Thermogenesis To Photosynthesis, R. E. Miller, J. R. Watling, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

The receptacle of the sacred lotus is the main source of heat during the thermogenic stage of floral development. Following anthesis, it enlarges, greens and becomes a fully functional photosynthetic organ. We investigated development of photosynthetic traits during this unusual functional transition. There were two distinct phases of pigment accumulation in receptacles. Lutein and photoprotective xanthophyll cycle pigments accumulated first with 64% and 95% of the maximum, respectively, present prior to anthesis. Lutein epoxide comprised 32% of total carotenoids in yellow receptacles, but declined with development. By contrast, more than 85% of maximum total chlorophyll, β-carotene and Rubisco were produced …

Responses Of Plants In Polar Regions To Uvb Exposure : A Meta-Analysis, K. K. Newsham, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

We report a meta-analysis of data from 34 field studies into the effects of UV-B radiation on Arctic and Antarctic bryophytes and angiosperms. The studies measured plant responses to decreases in UV-B radiation under screens, natural fluctuations in UV-B irradiance, or increases in UV-B radiation applied from fluorescent UV lamps. Exposure to UV-B radiation was found to increase the concentrations of UV-B absorbing compounds in leaves or thalli by 7% and 25% (expressed on a mass or area basis, respectively). UV-B exposure also reduced aboveground biomass and plant height by 15% and 10%, respectively, and increased DNA damage by 90%. …

Genetic Structure Of East Antarctic Populations Of The Moss Ceratodon Purpureus, L. J. Clarke, D. J. Ayre, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

The capacity of the polar flora to adapt is of increasing concern given current and predicted environmental change in these regions. Previous genetic studies of Antarctic mosses have been of limited value due to a lack of variation in the markers or non-specificity of the methods used. We examined the power of five microsatellite loci developed for the cosmopolitan moss Ceratodon purpureus to detect genetically distinct clones and infer the distribution of clones within and among populations from the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. Our microsatellite data suggest extraordinarily high levels of variation reported in RAPD studies were artificially elevated by …

Two Cys Or Not Two Cys? That Is The Question; Alternative Oxidase In The Thermogenic Plant Sacred Lotus, Nicole M. Grant, Yoshihiko Onda, Yusuke Kakizaki, Kkikukatsu Ito, Jennifer R. Watling, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) regulates temperature in its floral chamber to 32°C to 35°C across ambient temperatures of 8°C to 40°C with heating achieved through high alternative pathway fluxes. In most alternative oxidase (AOX) isoforms, two cysteine residues, Cys1 and Cys2, are highly conserved and play a role in posttranslational regulation of AOX. Further control occurs via interaction of reduced Cys1 with α-keto acids, such as pyruvate. Here, we report on the in vitro regulation of AOX isolated from thermogenic receptacle tissues of sacred lotus. AOX protein was mostly present in the reduced form, and only a small fraction could …

النتائج المالية لشهادة التسجيل للحصول على الآيزو في الشركات الصناعية المساهمة العامة, Philadelphia University

Philadelphia University, Jordan

No abstract provided.

Climate, Agricultural Strategies, And Sustainability In The Precolumbian Andes, Charles Ortloff, Michael E. Moseley

Andean Past

No abstract provided.

Jmasm29: Dominance Analysis Of Independent Data (Fortran), Du Feng, Normal Cliff

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A Fortran 77 program is provided for an ordinal dominance analysis of independent two-group comparisons. The program calculates the ordinal statistic, d, and statistical inferences about δ. The source codes and an executable file are available at http://www.depts.ttu.edu/hdfs/feng.php.

Markov Modeling Of Breast Cancer, Chunling Cong, Chris P. Tsokos

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Previous work with respect to the treatments and relapse time for breast cancer patients is extended by applying a Markov chain to model three different types of breast cancer patients: alive without ever having relapse, alive with relapse, and deceased. It is shown that combined treatment of tamoxifen and radiation is more effective than single treatment of tamoxifen in preventing the recurrence of breast cancer. However, if the patient has already relapsed from breast cancer, single treatment of tamoxifen would be more appropriate with respect to survival time after relapse. Transition probabilities between three stages during different time periods, 2-year, …

Examples Of Computing Power For Zero-Inflated And Overdispersed Count Data, Suzanne R. Doyle

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Examples of zero-inflated Poisson and negative binomial regression models were used to demonstrate conditional power estimation, utilizing the method of an expanded data set derived from probability weights based on assumed regression parameter values. SAS code is provided to calculate power for models with a binary or continuous covariate associated with zero-inflation.

Assessing Trends: Monte Carlo Trials With Four Different Regression Methods, Daniel R. Thompson

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Poisson, Negative Binomial, and Quasi-Poisson Regression methods were assessed for testing the statistical significance of a trend by performing 10,000 simulations. The Poisson method should be used when data follow a Poisson distribution. The other methods should be used when data follow a normal distribution.

Level Robust Methods Based On The Least Squares Regression Estimator, Marie Ng, Rand R. Wilcox

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Heteroscedastic consistent covariance matrix (HCCM) estimators provide ways for testing hypotheses about regression coefficients under heteroscedasticity. Recent studies have found that methods combining the HCCM-based test statistic with the wild bootstrap consistently perform better than non-bootstrap HCCM-based methods (Davidson & Flachaire, 2008; Flachaire, 2005; Godfrey, 2006). This finding is more closely examined by considering a broader range of situations which were not included in any of the previous studies. In addition, the latest version of HCCM, HC5 (Cribari-Neto, et al., 2007), is evaluated.

Application Of The Truncated Skew Laplace Probability Distribution In Maintenance System, Gokarna R. Aryal, Chris P. Tsokos

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

A random variable X is said to have the skew-Laplace probability distribution if its pdf is given by f(x) = 2g(x)G(λx), where g (.) and G (.), respectively, denote the pdf and the cdf of the Laplace distribution. When the skew Laplace distribution is truncated on the left at 0 it is called it the truncated skew Laplace (TSL) distribution. This article provides a comparison of TSL distribution with twoparameter gamma model and the hypoexponential model, and an application of the subject model in maintenance system is studied.

Least Error Sample Distribution Function, Vassili F. Pastushenko

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Email: The empirical distribution function (ecdf) is unbiased in the usual sense, but shows certain order bias. Pyke suggested discrete ecdf using expectations of order statistics. Piecewise constant optimal ecdf saves 200%/N of sample size N. Results are compared with linear interpolation for U(0, 1), which require up to sixfold shorter samples at the same accuracy.

Impact Of Rank-Based Normalizing Transformations On The Accuracy Of Test Scores, Shira R. Soloman, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The purpose of this article is to provide an empirical comparison of rank-based normalization methods for standardized test scores. A series of Monte Carlo simulations were performed to compare the Blom, Tukey, Van der Waerden and Rankit approximations in terms of achieving the T score’s specified mean and standard deviation and unit normal skewness and kurtosis. All four normalization methods were accurate on the mean but were variably inaccurate on the standard deviation. Overall, deviation from the target moments was pronounced for the even moments but slight for the odd moments. Rankit emerged as the most accurate method among all …