Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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.

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

An Experimental And Computational Evaluation Of The Importance Of Molecular Diffusion In Gas Gravity Currents, Jeremy Jac Herman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The accidental release of hazardous, denser-than-air gases during their transport or manufacture is a vital area of study for process safety researchers. This project examines the importance of molecular diffusion on the developing concentration field of a gas gravity current released into a calm environment. Questions which arose from the unexpectedly severe explosion in 2005 at Buncefield, England were of particular interest. The accidental overfilling of a large tank with gasoline on a completely calm morning led to a massive open air explosion. Forensic evidence showed that at the time of ignition, a vapor cloud, most of which now appears …

Social Media For Supply Chain Risk Management, Xiuju Fu, Rick S. M. Goh, J. C. Tong, Loganathan Ponnanbalam, Xiaofeng Yin, Zhaoxia Wang, H. Y. Xu, Sifei Lu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid increase of online social network users worldwide, social media feeds have become a rich and valuable information resource and attract great attention across diversified domains. In social media data, there are abundant contents of two-way and interactive communication about products, demand, customer services and supply. This makes social media a valuable channel for listening to the voices from the market and measuring supply chain risks and new market trends for companies. In this study, we surveyed the potential value of social media in supply chain risk management (SCRM) and examined how they can be applied to SCRM …

A Simple Method For Estimation Of Queue Length, S. P. Anusha, Lelitha Devi Vanajakshi, Anuj Sharma

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Urban arterials are characterized by frequent intersections. Queue length and delay are the two primary measures of performance of intersection. These measures play a primary role in determining the arterial performance. This article presents a methodology to determine the number of vehicles in queue at a signalized intersection for under saturated traffic conditions. The results obtained were validated using actual values that are manually extracted. The root-mean-square error is of the range 1.3 vehicles for estimation of number of vehicles in queue. The various aspects that have to be considered in accurate estimation of performance measures are also discussed.

Identifying Emerging Researchers Using Social Network Analysis, Syed Masum Billah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Finding rising stars in academia early in their careers has many implications when hiring new faculty, applying for promotion, and/or requesting grants. Typically, the impact and productivity of a researcher are assessed by a popular measurement called the h-index that grows linearly with the academic age of a researcher. Therefore, h-indices of researchers in the early stages of their careers are almost uniformly low, making it difficult to identify those who will, in future, emerge as influential leaders in their field. To overcome this problem, we make use of Social network analysis to identify young researchers most likely to become …

Attitudes And Behaviors In Online Communities: Empirical Studies Of The Effects Of Social, Community, And Individual Characteristics, Richard Kumi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online communities and communities of practice bring people together to promote and support shared goals and exchange information. Personal interactions are important to many of these communities and one of the important outcomes of personal interactions in online communities and communities of practice is user-generated content. The three essays in the current study examines behavior motivation in online communities and communities of practice to understand how Social and personal psychological factors, and user-generated influence attitudes, intentions and behaviors in online communities.

The first essay addresses two research questions. First, how does Social capital influence exchange and combination behaviors in online …

Study Of Seat-Belt Usage In Nevada & Driver's Performance, Atul Sancheti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), motor vehicle incidents has been reported to be the leading cause of the accidental deaths in the United States accounting for more than 42,000 deaths every year. Distracted driving and Driving under influence (DUI) are the major contributors to these roadway crashes. Moreover, drivers fatigue and drowsiness behind the wheel is another important factor contributing to the high fatality rate. These factors results in significant decline in the driver's abilities of perception, recognition and vehicle control.

It has also been reported by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that about 292,471 …

Performance Comparison Of Design-Build And Construction Manager/General Contractor Highway Projects, Binita Shakya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers have conducted numerous studies comparing project performance of design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB) highway projects. However, little research has been done to compare the performance of DB and construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) highway projects. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted to compare the performance of 55 DB and 34 CM/GC highway projects from various States Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in terms of cost, change orders, and construction intensity. The results showed that contract award cost growth was significantly lower in DB projects than in CM/GC projects. In contrast to this, the total cost growth of DB projects was higher …

Performance Measure For Transportation Network: A Study In Travel Time Dynamics, Anuj Nayyar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Arterial Performance Measurement and Monitoring is one of the leading goals of any transportation agency. The complexity of the differences between performance measures is highlighted and the various data collection methodologies are highlighted. A major performance measure that impacts end users and traffic planners is travel time. This study presents defining a mathematical system for modeling travel time. The modeling in real-time is presented and methods are proposed to evaluate it using vehicle trajectories. Also comparative results are presented between the actual sensor data sets and simulated data to study the effectiveness of the system developed.

The Feasibility Study And Characterziation Of A Two-Dimensional Diode Array In “Magic Phantom” For High Dose Rate Brachytherapy Quality Assurance, A Espinoza, B Beeksma, M Petasecca, I Fuduli, C Porumb, D L. Cutajar, S Corde, M A. Jackson, M Lf Lerch, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Michael L.F. Lerch

High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a radiation treatment technique capable of delivering large dose rates to the tumor. Radiation is delivered using remote afterloaders to drive highly active sources (commonly 192Ir with an air KERMA strength range between 20 000 and 40 000 U, where 1 U = 1 uGy m2/h in air) through applicators directly into the patient's prescribed region of treatment. Due to the obvious ramifications of incorrect treatment while using such an active source, it is essential that there are methods for quality assurance (QA) that can directly and accurately verify the treatment plan and the …

A Real-Time In Vivo Dosimetric Verification Method For High-Dose Rate Intracavitary Brachytherapy Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Zhen-Yu Qi, Xiao-Wu Deng, X Cao, Shao-Min Huang, Michael Lerch, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Michael L.F. Lerch

Purpose: A real-time in vivo dosimetric verification method using metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) dosimeters has been developed for patient dosimetry in high-dose rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods: The necessary calibration and correction factors for MOSFET measurements in 192Iridium source were determined in a water phantom. With the detector placed inside a custom-made nasopharyngeal applicator, the actual dose delivered to the tumor was measured in vivo and compared to the calculated values using a commercial brachytherapy planning system. Results: Five MOSFETs were independently calibrated with the HDR source, yielding calibration factors of 0.48 ± 0.007 cGymV. …

Performance Comparison Of Two Compact Multiplexed Readouts With Sensl's Spmarray4 For High-Resolution Detector Module, Yujin Qi, Xiaohui Zhang, Cuilan Zhao, Lihong Chen, Marco Petasecca, Mitra Safavi-Naeini, Michael Lerch, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Michael L.F. Lerch

The purpose of this study was to investigate a compact readout for silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array in the development of high-resolution imaging detector to reduce the readout channels while maximizing the detectors performance. The detector module was composed of a LYSO scintillation crystal array and a SensL's SPMArray4. The crystal array was coupled to the SiPM array with a 2mm-thick silicone pad to improve the light sharing among the SiPM array elements. Three LYSO crystal arrays of 4x4, 8x8 and 12x12 crystal elements with pixel sizes of 3.2, 1.6 and 1.0 mm were investigated in this study. Two compact multiplexed …

No Limits To Watching?, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

M. G. Michael

Little by little, the introduction of new body-worn technologies is transforming the way people interact with their environment and one another, and perhaps even with themselves. Social and environmental psychology studies of human-technology interaction pose as many questions as answers. We are learning as we go: 'learning by doing' through interaction and 'learning by being'. Steve Mann calls this practice existential learning; wearers become photoborgs, a type of cyborg (cybernetic organism) whose primary intent is image capture from the domains of the natural and artificial. This approach elides the distinction between the technology and the human; they coalesce into one.

No Limits To Watching?, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Little by little, the introduction of new body-worn technologies is transforming the way people interact with their environment and one another, and perhaps even with themselves. Social and environmental psychology studies of human-technology interaction pose as many questions as answers. We are learning as we go: 'learning by doing' through interaction and 'learning by being'. Steve Mann calls this practice existential learning; wearers become photoborgs, a type of cyborg (cybernetic organism) whose primary intent is image capture from the domains of the natural and artificial. This approach elides the distinction between the technology and the human; they coalesce into one.

The Santa Clara, 2013-11-14, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Improving Deaf Accessibility To Web-Based Multimedia, Brent N. Shiver

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Internet technologies have expanded rapidly over the past two decades, making information of all sorts more readily available. Not only are they more cost-effective than traditional media, these new media have contributed to quality and convenience. However, proliferation of video and audio media on the internet creates an inadvertent disadvantage for deaf Internet users. Despite technological and legislative milestones in recent decades in making television and movies more accessible, there has been little progress with online access. A major obstacle to providing captions for internet media is the high cost of captioning and transcribing services.

To respond to this problem, …

Investigation Of Crashes And Identifying The Best Practices For Setting Up Speed Zones In Towns Along Rural Highways In Nevada, Krishna Prasad Shrestha

Joseph Shrestha

In 2010, 51,664 crashes occurred in Nevada. Only about 9% of those crashes occurred in rural areas of the state. However, if only fatal crashes are considered, 41% of those fatal crashes occurred in rural areas. Generally, speed zones are provided in towns along rural highways to reduce speed-related crashes. However, a guideline is necessary for a consistent procedure to setup speed zones throughout the state. The main objectives of this study are to determine factors associated with crashes and to identify the best practices for setting up speed zones in towns along rural highways.

Eleven towns along rural highways …

The Santa Clara, 2013-11-07, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Shear Lag And Eccentricity Effects Of Bolted Connections In Cold-Formed Steel Sections, Lip H. Teh, Veysel Yazici

Veysel Yazici

This paper examines the "three factors" approach previously presented by the senior author for determining the net section efficiency of a bolted cold-formed steel open profile. One objective is to ascertain that the net section efficiency is governed by three factors: the in-plane shear lag associated with stress concentration around a bolt hole that is also present in a flat sheet, the out-of-plane shear lag that is also present in a bi-symmetric I-section bolted at the flanges only, and the bending moment arising from the connection eccentricity with respect to the neutral axis. This paper presents the test results of …

Unconventional Block Shear Failures Of Bolted Connections In Cold-Reduced Steel Sheets, Lip H. Teh, Veysel Yazici

Veysel Yazici

This paper examines the block shear design equation proposed by the first author based on laboratory tests of bolted connection specimens failing in the conventional block shear failure mode. It shows that the explanation regarding the feasible mechanism of block shear failures previously provided by the first author does not necessarily apply to staggered bolted connections, in which the downstream bolts do not have the same edge distance. For staggered bolted connections, a block shear failure may occur through the shear rupture and tensile yielding mechanism for particular configurations, as demonstrated for the first time in this paper. The present …

The Local Index Formula In Noncommutative Geometry Revisited, Alan Carey, John Phillips, Adam Rennie, Fyodor Sukochev

Associate Professor Adam Rennie

In this review we discuss the local index formula in noncommutative geomety from the viewpoint of two new proofs are partly inspired by the approach of Higson especially that in but they differ in several fundamental aspedcts, in particular they apply to semifinite spectral triples for a *s-subalgebra A of a general semifinite von Neumann algebra. Our proofs are novel even in the setting of the original theorem and reduce the hypotheses of the theorem to those necessary for its statement. These proofs rely on the introduction of a function valued cocycle which is 'almost' a (b, B)-cocycle in the …

Semi-Finite Noncommutative Geometry And Some Applications, Alan L. Carey, Adam C. Rennie, John Phillips

Associate Professor Adam Rennie

These notes are a summary of talks given in Shonan, Japan in February 2008 with modifications from a later series of talks at the Hausdorff Institute for Mathematics in Bonn in July 2008 and at the Erwin Schr¨odinger Institute in October 2008. The intention is to give a short discussion of recent results in noncommutative geometry (NCG) where one extends the usual point of view of [22] by replacing the bounded operators B(H) on a Hilbert space H by certain sub-algebras; namely semi-finite von Neumann algebras. These are weakly closed subalgebras of the bounded operators on a Hilbert space that …

The Cost Of Green Infrastructure: Worth The Investment?, Martha Sheils

Green Infrastructure

Is GI worth the investment?

• LID techniques often lead to cost savings when we look at WHOLE PROJECT COSTS

• Natural Infrastructure investments for flood control, drinking water protection and wildlife habitat can yield SIGNIFICANT AVOIDED COSTS and additional co-benefits to communitites

Deployed Communications In An Austere Environment: A Delphi Study, Andrew Soine, James Harker, Alan R. Heminger

Faculty Publications

The information and communications technology (ICT) field is undergoing a period of tremendous change. The exponential growth rate of ICT capability in recent decades, which has had an undeniable effect on every aspect of our society, will likely have ramifications for military operations in austere environments. 1 The Air Force’s 689th Combat Communications Wing commissioned a study to forecast the future of mobile ICT in such environments. Researchers at the Air Force Institute of Technology chose to employ the Delphi technique as the methodology for executing this task. The following scenario, based on the results of that study, demonstrates how …

Comparison Of Three Angle Of Attack (Aoa) Indicators: A Usability Study, Camilo Jimenez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Angle of Attack (AOA) is an important aeronautical concept used to understand the performance status of an aircraft during different flight stages. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has indicated the importance of developing and encouraging the use of affordable AOA based systems to increase inflight safety. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's flight department decided to install AOA indicators in its fleet of Cessna 172S, to increase safety and to help student pilots better understand this important concept. This paper presents a review of AOA, visual display design principles, and usability. This experimental study examined three different AOA indicators provided by the …

Social Listening For Customer Acquisition, Juan Du, Biying Tan, Feida Zhu, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social network analysis has received much attention from corporations recently. Corporations are trying to utilize social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Sina Weibo to expand their own markets. Our system is an online tool to assist these corporations to 1) find potential customers, and 2) track a list of users by specific events from social networks. We employ both textual and network information, and thus produce a keyword-based relevance score for each user in pre-defined dimensions, which indicates the probability of the adoption of a product. Based on the score and its trend, out tool is able to …

The Santa Clara, 2013-10-31, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Feed And Draw Solution Temperature And Transmembrane Temperature Difference On The Rejection Of Trace Organic Contaminants By Forward Osmosis, Ming Xie, William E. Price, Long D. Nghiem, Menachem Elimelech

William E. Price

The effects of feed and draw solution temperature and transmembrane temperature difference on the rejection of 12 trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) by two forward osmosis (FO) membranes were investigated. The membrane structure parameter (S) and the reverse salt (NaCl) flux selectivity (RSFS) were constant over the temperature range of 20-40 1C, suggesting that within this range, the solution temperature did not significantly influence the membrane polymeric structure. Draw solution properties, including diffusivity, viscosity, and osmotic pressure, played an important role in water and reverse salt (NaCl) flux behaviour and TrOC rejection. Pure water and salt (NaCl) permeability coefficients of the …

Coupling Granular Activated Carbon Adsorption With Membrane Bioreactor Treatment For Trace Organic Contaminant Removal: Breakthrough Behaviour Of Persistent And Hydrophilic Compounds, Luong N. Nguyen, Faisal I. Hai, William E. Price, Jinguo Kang, Long D. Nghiem

William E. Price

This study investigated the removal of trace organic contaminants by a combined membrane bioreactor - granular activated carbon (MBR-GAC) system over a period of 196 days. Of the 22 compounds investigated here, all six hydrophilic compounds with electron-withdrawing functional groups (i.e., metronidazole, carbamazepine, ketoprofen, naproxen, fenoprop and diclofenac) exhibited very low removal efficiency by MBR-only treatment. GAC post-treatment initially complemented MBR treatment very well; however, a compound-specific gradual deterioration of the removal of the above-mentioned problematic compounds was noted. While a 20% breakthrough of all four negatively charged compounds namely ketoprofen, naproxen, fenoprop and diclofenac occurred within 1000-3000 bed volumes …