Digital Commons Network^™

The Psychological Characteristics Of Obese Children, Thomas Taylor Mitchell

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Several studies along with the surgeon general of the United States have identified obesity as a national health issue. Research indicates that adult obesity treatment has relatively poor long-term effects. Consequently increased attention has been given to addressing obesity in children. This focus is particularly vital due to the fact that children are one of the populations showing the most rapid increase in overweight and obesity. The purpose of this study was to identify the some of the unique psychological characteristics of obese children by analyzing the intake data of children and adolescents attending the Loma Linda University Growing Fit …

An Experimental Study On Network Intrusion Detection Systems, Peng Fu

Theses

A signature database is the key component of an elaborate intrusion detection system. The efficiency of signature generation for an intrusion detection system is a crucial requirement because of the rapid appearance of new attacks on the World Wide Web. However, in the commercial applications, signature generation is still a manual process, which requires professional skills and heavy human effort. Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining methods may be a solution to this problem. Data Mining and Machine Learning algorithms can be applied to the network traffic databases, in order to automatically generate signatures.

The purpose of this thesis and the …

Fear And Loathing: The Modulatory Effect Of Stress On Memory Formation And Its Wildlife Management Implications, Arla G. Hile

Bird Strike Committee-USA/Canada Joint Annual Meeting: 5th (2003)

An ongoing challenge for wildlife managers is that target species habituate to or forget about hazing, even though the animals must be somewhat stressed by the hazing. Although stress and efficient memory formation/retrieval are considered to be incompatible, research suggests that the effect of stress on memory is complex. Mild and intense stress can impair memory formation and chronic stress can disrupt memory retrieval. Intermediate stress, however, actually enhances the formation of new memories, particularly long-term memories. Unfortunately, these conclusions are based data from only a very few domesticated species under highly controlled conditions. In nature the variation in baseline …

The John Muir Newsletter, Fall 2003, The John Muir Center For Environmental Studies

Muir Center Newsletters (1981-2015)

LETTER UwiVfeRsnYoFTHfi Pacific, Stockton, CA- Volume 13, Number 4 Fall 2003! uir & his Reading Interests by Ronald Limbaugh (Editor's note: Ronald Limbaugh retired in 2000 after thirty-four years at the University of the Pacific, serving concurrently as director of the John Muir Center for Regional Studies and Rockwell Hunt Professor of California History) ven without considering his published works, John Muir's surviving journals and private correspondence demonstrate that he was a voluminous writer with unusual gifts. With his family and friends— and with himself— he carried on an effusive dialog, describing events, recalling anecdotes, lecturing and philosophizing, opening a …

An Extended General Location Model For Causal Inference From Data Subject To Noncompliance And Missing Values, Yahong Peng, Rod Little, Trivellore E. Raghuanthan

The University of Michigan Department of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Noncompliance is a common problem in experiments involving randomized assignment of treatments, and standard analyses based on intention-to treat or treatment received have limitations. An attractive alternative is to estimate the Complier-Average Causal Effect (CACE), which is the average treatment effect for the subpopulation of subjects who would comply under either treatment (Angrist, Imbens and Rubin, 1996, henceforth AIR). We propose an Extended General Location Model to estimate the CACE from data with non-compliance and missing data in the outcome and in baseline covariates. Models for both continuous and categorical outcomes and ignorable and latent ignorable (Frangakis and Rubin, 1999) …

Inside Unlv, Gian Galassi, Carol C. Harter, Gale Sinatra

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

A Study On Tolerable Waiting Time: How Long Are Web Users Willing To Wait?, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The WWW has become an important channel for information access, electronic commerce, and publication. With an exponential increase in the number of Web users and the popularity of multimedia technology, users often face a long waiting time for downloading Web pages. Although various technologies and techniques have been implemented to alleviate the situation and to comfort the impatient users, little research has been done to assess what constitutes an acceptable and tolerable waiting time for Web users. This research reviews the literature on computer response time and users’ waiting time, and assesses Web users’ tolerable waiting time in information retrieval. …

Information Systems Requirements Determination And Analysis: A Mental Modeling Approach, Keng Siau, X. Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Regardless of the system development methodology adopted, being able to understand users’ informationrequirements is vital to the success of an information systems project. The intrinsic communications obstaclesexist within an individual user, among users, and between users and systems analysts. Different requirementsdetermination and analysis (RDA) techniques have been widely used with different outcomes. Some limitations of these techniques can be identified. In this paper, we propose a mental modeling approach to support RDA. Popular in other disciplines, mental modeling techniques have some distinct advantages to overcome some intrinsic communication obstacles in RDA, and to complement other techniques.

The Effect Of Domain Knowledge On Icon Visualization, Keng Siau, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Iconic interfaces are now the de facto interface for most computer systems. Despite the popularity of iconic interfaces and the widespread belief that iconic interfaces are easier to comprehend than non-iconic interfaces, we have not come across any published study that has examined the effect of domain knowledge on end users’ interpretation of icons. An understanding of the relationship between domain knowledge and its effect on interpretation will enable us to design better icons to not only facilitate end users’ interpretation but also reduce misinterpretations of icons. This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the effect of domain …

Behavioral Evaluation Of The Psychological Welfare And Environmental Requirements Of Agricultural Research Animals: Theory, Measurement, Ethics, And Practical Implications, Lesley A. King

Experimentation Collection

The welfare of agricultural research animals relies not only on measures of good health but also on the presence of positive emotional states and the absence of aversive or unpleasant subjective states such as fear, frustration, or association with pain. Although subjective states are not inherently observable, their interaction with motivational states can be measured through assessment of motivated behavior, which indicates the priority animals place on obtaining or avoiding specific environmental stimuli and thus allows conclusions regarding the impact of housing, husbandry, and experimental procedures on animal welfare. Preference tests and consumer demand models demonstrate that animal choices are …

Entropic Characterization Of Distributive Mixing In Polymer Processing Equipment, Winston Wang, Ica Manas Zloczower, Miron Kaufman

Physics Faculty Publications

Mixing is an integral component of most polymer processing operations as material properties are highly influenced by the quality of mixing. The degree of distributive mixing (system homogeneity) is assessed by calculating the evolution of Renyi relative entropies for the minor component along a continuous processing equipment. The Renyi entropy involves a β parameter, which represents weighting given to the concentration of the minor component in small, localized regions. Different aspects of mixing can thus be analyzed, from the amount of void spaces to the concentration of the region where mixing is the worst in terms of the minor component. …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 45 Number 1, Summer 2003, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

8 - MASS APPEAL By Erin Ryan. Each week hundreds of students close their books for the night and crowd into Mission Santa Clara for an informal 10 p.m. Mass. The service has drawn students and the community to church for more than 30 years.

10 - BREAKING THROUGH By Francisco Jimenez. An excerpt from the autobiography of Jimenez, who faced many challenges since he and his family entered the United States from Mexico when he was 4. Through work in the fields, to deportation, to struggles in English class, he persevered. And now he's a professor at SCU.

16 …

Integrating Multiple 3d Views Through Frame-Of-Reference Interaction, Matthew D. Plumlee, Colin Ware

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Frame-of-reference interaction consists of a unified set of 3D interaction techniques for exploratory navigation of large virtual spaces in nonimmersive environments. It is based on a conceptual framework that considers navigation from a cognitive perspective, as a way of facilitating changes in user attention from one reference frame to another, rather than from the mechanical perspective of moving a camera between different points of interest. All of our techniques link multiple frames of reference in some meaningful way. Some techniques link multiple windows within a zooming environment while others allow seamless changes of user focus between static objects, moving objects, …

Transformation: The Human Obstacles, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper addresses the human aspects of change at a time when the rapid wide-spread implementation of a new infostructure has become the cornerstone of national security policies. The author explores the behavioral characteristics of human beings from a point of view that is not based on inter-human comparisons, but on an examination of the innate physical, biological, intellectual, emotional, and social characteristics of our species. It is argued that the experience-based nature of the human cognitive system greatly reduces our ability to adapt to changes in our environment, exploit opportunities, and create new knowledge. A fundamental biological survival instinct …

Cultural And Psychological Influences On Diabetic Adherence, Keikilani Mcmillin-Williams

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Diabetes mellitus is a serious disease that poses a particular healthcare challenge because progression is considered controllable (Cox, et al, 1985; Vinicor, et al, 1996) yet treatment adherence, and thus outcome, is very poor (Gonder-Frederick, Cox, & Ritterband, 2002; Goodall, 1991). Culture is a lethal risk factor for diabetic contraction and treatment maintenance. Latinos within the United States are two-to-three times more likely to develop complications and die than non-Latinos (Haffner et al, 1996; Rubin, Peyrot, & Saudek, 1991) and are less likely to adhere to treatment (Lipton, Losey, Giachello, Mendez, & Girotti, 1998). Efforts to eliminate health disparities have …

Inside Unlv, Kevin Force, Gian Galassi, Carol C. Harter, Stuart Mann

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Rationale For Preserving Neighborhood Open Space In Newark, New Jersey's North Ward, Stephen M. Wiessner

Theses

A study was conducted to determine the shifts in open space availability between 1950 and 2003 in four neighborhoods in the North Ward of Newark, New Jersey. Total open space in square feet and open spaces ten thousand square feet and less were quantified to determine the extent of usable open space for the creation of community gardens or vest pocket parks.

The study identified large reductions of open space recently in the two least affluent study areas. The two more affluent study areas have also lost open space recently, but not at the magnitude of the poorer study areas. …

A Noise Filtering Method Using Neural Networks, Tony R. Martinez, Xinchuan Zeng

Faculty Publications

During the data collecting and labeling process it is possible for noise to be introduced into a data set. As a result, the quality of the data set degrades and experiments and inferences derived from the data set become less reliable. In this paper we present an algorithm, called ANR (automatic noise reduction), as a filtering mechanism to identify and remove noisy data items whose classes have been mislabeled. The underlying mechanism behind ANR is based on a framework of multi-layer artificial neural networks. ANR assigns each data item a soft class label in the form of a class probability …

You Think You’Ve Got Trivials?, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations of Education Faculty Publications

Effect sizes are important for power analysis and meta-analysis. This has led to a debate on reporting effect sizes for studies that are not statistically significant. Contrary and supportive evidence has been offered on the basis of Monte Carlo methods. In this article, clarifications are given regarding what should be simulated to determine the possible effects of piecemeal publishing trivial effect sizes.

A Different Future For Social And Behavioral Science Research, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations of Education Faculty Publications

The dissemination of intervention and treatment outcomes as effect sizes bounded by conf idence intervals in order to think meta-analytically was promoted in a recent article in Educational Researcher. I raise concerns with unfettered reporting of effect sizes, point out the con in confidence interval, and caution against thinking meta-analytically. Instead, cataloging effect sizes is recommended for sample size estimation and power analysis to improve social and behavioral science research.

Without Supporting Statistical Evidence, Where Would Reported Measures Of Substantive Importance Lead? To No Good Effect, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Joel R. Levin

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Although estimating substantive importance (in the form of reporting effect sizes) has recently received widespread endorsement, its use has not been subjected to the same degree of scrutiny as has statistical hypothesis testing. As such, many researchers do not seem to be aware that certain of the same criticisms launched against the latter can also be aimed at the former. Our purpose here is to highlight major concerns about effect sizes and their estimation. In so doing, we argue that effect size measures per se are not the hoped-for panaceas for interpreting empirical research findings. Further, we contend that if …

Not All Effects Are Created Equal: A Rejoinder To Sawilowsky, J. Kyle Roberts, Robin K. Henson

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In the continuing debate over the use and utility of effect sizes, more discussion often helps to both clarify and syncretize methodological views. Here, further defense is given of Roberts & Henson (2002) in terms of measuring bias in Cohen’s d, and a rejoinder to Sawilowsky (2003) is presented.

A Different Future For Social And Behavioral Science Research, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The dissemination of intervention and treatment outcomes as effect sizes bounded by conf idence intervals in order to think meta-analytically was promoted in a recent article in Educational Researcher. I raise concerns with unfettered reporting of effect sizes, point out the con in confidence interval, and caution against thinking meta-analytically. Instead, cataloging effect sizes is recommended for sample size estimation and power analysis to improve social and behavioral science research.

The Trouble With Interpreting Statistically Nonsignificant Effect Sizes In Single-Study Investigations, Joel R. Levin, Daniel H. Robinson

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In this commentary, we offer a perspective on the problem of authors reporting and interpreting effect sizes in the absence of formal statistical tests of their chanceness. The perspective reinforces our previous distinction between single-study investigations and multiple-study syntheses.

Incorporating Sampling Weights Into The Generalizability Theory For Large-Scale Analyses, Christopher W. T. Chiu, Ronald S. Fesco

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Large scale studies frequently use complex sampling procedures, disproportionate sampling weights, and adjustment techniques to account for potential bias due to nonresponses and to ensure that results from the sample can be generalized to a larger population. Survey researchers are concerned about measurement error and the use of weights in developing models. Consequently, multiple weighting factors are used and these weighting factors are manifested as a final survey (composite) weight available for analysis. We developed a method to incorporate an external weighting factor like this for analyses of measurement errors in the theory of generalizability to provide researchers with a …

Using Multinomial Logistic Models To Predict Adolescent Behavioral Risk, Chao-Ying Joanne Peng, Rebecca Naegle Nichols

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Multinomial logistic regression was applied to data comprising 432 adolescents’ self reports of engagement in risky behaviors. Results showed that gender, intention to drop from the school, family structure, self-esteem, and emotional risk were effective predictors collectively. Three methodological issues were highlighted: (1) the use of odds ratio, (2) the absence of an extension of the Hosmer and Lemeshow test for multinomial logistic models, and (3) the missing data problem. Psychologists and educators can utilize findings to plan prevention programs, as well as to apply the versatile and effective logistic technique in psychological, educational, and health research concerning adolescents.

Was Monte Carlo Necessary?, Thomas R. Knapp

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

In the critique that follows, I have attempted to summarize the principal disagreements between Sawilowsky and Roberts & Henson regarding the reporting and interpreting of statistically non-significant effect sizes, and to provide my own personal evaluations of their respective arguments.

Trivials: The Birth, Sale, And Final Production Of Meta-Analysis, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

The structure of the first invited debate in JMASM is to present a target article (Sawilowsky, 2003), provide an opportunity for a response (Roberts & Henson, 2003), and to follow with independent comments from noted scholars in the field (Knapp, 2003; Levin & Robinson, 2003). In this rejoinder, I provide a correction and a clarification in an effort to bring some closure to the debate. The intension, however, is not to rehash previously made points, even where I disagree with the response of Roberts & Henson (2003).

Trivials: The Birth, Sale, And Final Production Of Meta-Analysis, Shlomo S. Sawilowsky

Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations of Education Faculty Publications

The structure of the first invited debate in JMASM is to present a target article (Sawilowsky, 2003), provide an opportunity for a response (Roberts & Henson, 2003), and to follow with independent comments from noted scholars in the field (Knapp, 2003; Levin & Robinson, 2003). In this rejoinder, I provide a correction and a clarification in an effort to bring some closure to the debate. The intension, however, is not to rehash previously made points, even where I disagree with the response of Roberts & Henson (2003).

A Parametric Bootstrap Version Of Hedges’ Homogeneity Test, Wim Van Den Noortgate, Patrick Onghena

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Hedges’ Q-test is frequently used in meta-analyses to evaluate the homogeneity of effect sizes, but for several kinds of effect size measures it does not always appropriately control the Type 1 error probability. Therefore we propose a parametric bootstrap version, which shows Type 1 error control under a broad set of circumstances. This is confirmed in a small simulation study.