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Burke, Dewey, And The Experience Of Aristotle's Epideictic: An Examination Of Rhetorical Elements Found In The Funerals Of Lincoln, Kennedy, And Reagan, Xanthe Kristine Allen Farnworth Jun 2010

Burke, Dewey, And The Experience Of Aristotle's Epideictic: An Examination Of Rhetorical Elements Found In The Funerals Of Lincoln, Kennedy, And Reagan, Xanthe Kristine Allen Farnworth

Theses and Dissertations

This article examines the role of epideictic rhetoric as a tool for promoting civic virtue in the public realm through the application of Kenneth Burke's theory of identification and John Dewey's explanation of an aesthetic experience. Long the jurisdiction of Aristotle's logical arguments, civic discussion usually works within the realm of forensic or deliberative persuasion. However, scholarship in the last fifty years suggests there is an unexplored dimension of Aristotle's discussion of epideictic and emotion that needs to be examined in an attempt to identify its usefulness as a tool for examining human experience and practical behavior in the political …

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Automatic Extraction From And Reasoning About Genealogical Records: A Prototype, Charla Jean Woodbury Jun 2010

Automatic Extraction From And Reasoning About Genealogical Records: A Prototype, Charla Jean Woodbury

Theses and Dissertations

Family history research on the web is increasing in popularity, and many competing genealogical websites host large amounts of data-rich, unstructured, primary genealogical records. It is labor-intensive, however, even after making these records machine-readable, for humans to make these records easily searchable. What we need are computer tools that can automatically produce indices and databases from these genealogical records and can automatically identify individuals and events, determine relationships, and put families together. We propose here a possible solution—specialized ontologies, built specifically for extracting information from primary genealogical records, with expert logic and rules to infer genealogical facts and assemble relationship …

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Piezoresistive Nano-Composites: Characterization And Applications, Thomas B. Hyatt Jun 2010

Piezoresistive Nano-Composites: Characterization And Applications, Thomas B. Hyatt

Theses and Dissertations

Innovative multifunctional materials are essential to many new sensor applications. Piezoresistive nano-composites make up a promising class of such materials that have the potential to provide a measurable response to strain over a much wider range than typical strain gages. Commercial strain gages are currently dominated by metallic sensors with a useable range of a few percent strain at most. There are, however, many applications that would benefit from a reliable wide-range sensor. These might include the study of explosive behavior, instrumentation of flexible components, motion detection for compliant mechanisms and hinges, human-technology interfaces, and a wide variety of bio-mechanical …

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The Elan Event-Related Potential In Children 5 To 12 Years Of Age, Melissa Crandall Jun 2010

The Elan Event-Related Potential In Children 5 To 12 Years Of Age, Melissa Crandall

Theses and Dissertations

The examination of Event Related Potentials during language processing tasks provides valuable information of how the brain processes language over time. In the current study, the development of the early left anterior negativity (ELAN) was analyzed in young children. Previous research has described the ELAN as a negative waveform elicited during syntactic processing between 200 and 500 ms post linguistic stimuli. Thirty children from 5 to 12 years of age listened to sentences that were linguistically correct, syntactically incorrect, or semantically incorrect. Sentences were presented for right monaural, left monaural, and binaural ear conditions to determine possible differences related to …

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Phenomenological Intentionality Of Pedro Salinas In His Travels And In His Poem "La Memoria En Las Manos" From Largo Lamento, Andrew W. Bishop Jun 2010

Phenomenological Intentionality Of Pedro Salinas In His Travels And In His Poem "La Memoria En Las Manos" From Largo Lamento, Andrew W. Bishop

Theses and Dissertations

Intentionality, in its various forms, connects the subject with objects as they appear within the subject's view of the world. Poets, like artists, create with their bodies and perceive the world with their senses and with their souls. Subjects allow objects to reveal themselves, to manifest themselves having identities according to the contexts in which they appear. This system is called intentionality—a phenomenological concept in which appearances have ontological meanings. Phenomenology, as explained by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, provides a theoretical framework within which Pedro Salinas's poetry may be understood and interpreted. Pedro Salinas forms part of Spain's Generation of 1927 and …

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Targeting Complex Cyclic Peptides For Synthesis: The Celogentin And Theonellamide Families, Joshua Wayne Robinson Jun 2010

Targeting Complex Cyclic Peptides For Synthesis: The Celogentin And Theonellamide Families, Joshua Wayne Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

Celogentin C and theonellamide F are a class of natural products that have potential antimitotic behavior. They both contain interesting bicyclic structures with unusual linkages within a central moiety. Celogentin C's highly functionalized tryptophan moiety has two unusual linkages, a β-substituted Leu connection to the C6 of the indole structure that makes up the left-hand ring, and a τ-N connection of the imidazole to the C2 of the indole constructing the right-hand ring. This right-hand ring connection was solved via a novel oxidative coupling procedure developed in our group and the left-hand ring was initially constructed via a radical conjugated …

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Sediment Flux Through The Rio Grande River: A Monsoonal Effect, Troy C. Hiatt Jun 2010

Sediment Flux Through The Rio Grande River: A Monsoonal Effect, Troy C. Hiatt

Theses and Dissertations

Climate has historically been recognized as an influence on sediment flux and deposition. The North American Monsoon is suggested as the forcing mechanism of deltaic progradational events of the Rio Grande River delta. Interpretations of reflection seismic profiles reveal that eustatic rise in sea-level from the Last Glacial Maximum to present is accompanied by several regressional events of the Rio Grande delta 5.5, 9.5, and 11.5 ka BP. Much of the migration of depositional facies within a delta system is forced by hinterland tectonics and base-level rise and fall. However, we suggest that the movement of facies within the Rio …

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Natural Fibers And Fiberglass: A Technical And Economic Comparison, Justin Andrew Zsiros Jun 2010

Natural Fibers And Fiberglass: A Technical And Economic Comparison, Justin Andrew Zsiros

Theses and Dissertations

Natural fibers have received attention in recent years because of their minimal environmental impact, reasonably good properties, and low cost. There is a wide variety of natural fibers suitable for composite applications, the most common of which is flax. Flax has advantages in tensile strength, light weight, and low cost over other natural fibers. As with other natural and synthetic fibers, flax is used to reinforce both thermoset and thermoplastic matrices. When flax is used in thermoplastic matrices, polypropylene and polyethylene are the main resins used. Although at first glance flax may seem to be a cheaper alternative to fiberglass, …

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The Minimum Rank, Inverse Inertia, And Inverse Eigenvalue Problems For Graphs, Mark Condie Kempton Jun 2010

The Minimum Rank, Inverse Inertia, And Inverse Eigenvalue Problems For Graphs, Mark Condie Kempton

Theses and Dissertations

For a graph G we define S(G) to be the set of all real symmetric n by n matrices whose off-diagonal zero/nonzero pattern is described by G. We show how to compute the minimum rank of all matrices in S(G) for a class of graphs called outerplanar graphs. In addition, we obtain results on the possible eigenvalues and possible inertias of matrices in S(G) for certain classes of graph G. We also obtain results concerning the relationship between two graph parameters, the zero forcing number and the path cover number, related to the minimum rank problem.

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On The Use Of Cartographic Projections In Visualizing Phylogenetic Treespace, Mark J. Clement, Quinn O. Snell, Kenneth Sundberg Jun 2010

On The Use Of Cartographic Projections In Visualizing Phylogenetic Treespace, Mark J. Clement, Quinn O. Snell, Kenneth Sundberg

Faculty Publications

Phylogenetic analysis is becoming an increasingly important tool for biological research. Applications include epidemiological studies, drug development, and evolutionary analysis. Phylogenetic search is a known NP-Hard problem. The size of the data sets which can be analyzed is limited by the exponential growth in the number of trees that must be considered as the problem size increases. A better understanding of the problem space could lead to better methods, which in turn could lead to the feasible analysis of more data sets. We present a definition of phylogenetic tree space and a visualization of this space that shows significant exploitable …

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Celogentin C And Thioviridamide: Synthetic And Structural Studies, Dmitry Nikolayevich Litvinov Jun 2010

Celogentin C And Thioviridamide: Synthetic And Structural Studies, Dmitry Nikolayevich Litvinov

Theses and Dissertations

Project I Celogentin C, isolated by Kobayashi from the seeds of Celosia argentea in 2001 exhibits strong inhibitory behavior towards polymerization of tubulin – globular protein, which plays crucial role during the cell division cycle. We have attempted synthesis of the left-hand ring of celogentin C via the intramolecular alkylation and the Knoevenagel condensation strategies. Utilizing synthetic methodologies in the field of nitroacetyl chemistry, developed by Kornblum and Rajappa we have successfully prepared the intermolecular Knoevenagel condensation product – the late-stage precursor to the left-hand ring of celogentin C. Synthesis of this key intermediate subsequently led to the preparation of …

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Wild Low-Dimensional Topology And Dynamics, Mark H. Meilstrup Jun 2010

Wild Low-Dimensional Topology And Dynamics, Mark H. Meilstrup

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation we discuss various results for spaces that are wild, i.e. not locally simply connected. We first discuss periodic properties of maps from a given space to itself, similar to Sharkovskii's Theorem for interval maps. We study many non-locally connected spaces and show that some have periodic structure either identical or related to Sharkovskii's result, while others have essentially no restrictions on the periodic structure. We next consider embeddings of solenoids together with their complements in three space. We differentiate solenoid complements via both algebraic and geometric means, and show that every solenoid has an unknotted embedding …

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Commercial Databases In East Asian Studies, Wen-Ling Liu Jun 2010

Commercial Databases In East Asian Studies, Wen-Ling Liu

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

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No. 151 Journal Of East Asian Libraries, Journal Of East Asian Libraries Jun 2010

No. 151 Journal Of East Asian Libraries, Journal Of East Asian Libraries

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

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Simultaneous Foreground, Background, And Alpha Estimation For Image Matting, Bryan S. Morse, Brian L. Price, Scott Cohen Jun 2010

Simultaneous Foreground, Background, And Alpha Estimation For Image Matting, Bryan S. Morse, Brian L. Price, Scott Cohen

Faculty Publications

Image matting is the process of extracting a soft segmentation of an object in an image as defined by the matting equation. Most current techniques focus largely on computing the alpha values of unknown pixels and treat computation of the foreground and background colors as an afterthought, if at all. However, for many applications, such as compositing an object into a new scene or deleting an object from the scene, the foreground and background colors are vital for an acceptable answer. We propose a method of solving for the foreground, background, and alpha of an unknown region in an image …

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Geodesic Graph Cut For Interactive Image Segmentation, Bryan S. Morse, Brian L. Price, Scott Cohen Jun 2010

Geodesic Graph Cut For Interactive Image Segmentation, Bryan S. Morse, Brian L. Price, Scott Cohen

Faculty Publications

Interactive segmentation is useful for selecting objects of interest in images and continues to be a topic of much study. Methods that grow regions from foreground/background seeds, such as the recent geodesic segmentation approach, avoid the boundary-length bias of graph-cut methods but have their own bias towards minimizing paths to the seeds, resulting in increased sensitivity to seed placement. The lack of edge modeling in geodesic or similar approaches limits their ability to precisely localize object boundaries, something at which graph-cut methods generally excel. This paper presents a method for combining geodesicdistance information with edge information in a graphcut optimization …

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Parallel Active Learning: Eliminating Wait Time With Minimal Staleness, Paul Felt, Robbie Haertel, Eric K. Ringger, Kevin Seppi Jun 2010

Parallel Active Learning: Eliminating Wait Time With Minimal Staleness, Paul Felt, Robbie Haertel, Eric K. Ringger, Kevin Seppi

Faculty Publications

A practical concern for Active Learning (AL) is the amount of time human experts must wait for the next instance to label. We propose a method for eliminating this wait time independent of specific learning and scoring algorithms by making scores always available for all instances, using old (stale) scores when necessary. The time during which the expert is annotating is used to train models and score instances–in parallel–to maximize the recency of the scores. Our method can be seen as a parameterless, dynamic batch AL algorithm. We analyze the amount of staleness introduced by various AL schemes and then …

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Scatterometer Image Reconstruction Tuning And Aperture Function Estimation For Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer On The Earth Observing System, Brian Adam Gunn May 2010

Scatterometer Image Reconstruction Tuning And Aperture Function Estimation For Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer On The Earth Observing System, Brian Adam Gunn

Theses and Dissertations

AMSR-E is a space-borne radiometer which measures Earth microwave emissions or brightness temperatures (Tb) over a wide swath. AMSR-E data and images are useful in mapping valuable Earth-surface and atmospheric phenomena. A modified version of the Scatterometer Image Reconstruction (SIR) algorithm creates Tb images from the collected data. SIR is an iterative algorithm with tuning parameters to optimize the reconstruction for the instrument and channel. It requires an approximate aperture function for each channel to be effective. This thesis presents a simulator-based optimization of SIR iteration and aperture function threshold parameters for each AMSR-E channel. A comparison of actual Tb …

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Inhomogeneity-Induced Spin Current In Atomic And Condensed Matter Systems, Bailey Hsu May 2010

Inhomogeneity-Induced Spin Current In Atomic And Condensed Matter Systems, Bailey Hsu

Theses and Dissertations

I derive and apply quantum propagator techniques to atomic and condensed matter systems. I observe many interesting features by following the evolution of a wavepacket. In atomic systems, I revisit the Stern-Gerlach effect and study the spin dynamics inside an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The results I obtained are not exactly the same as the textbook description of the effect which is usually a manifestation of a perfect space and spin entanglement. This discovery can provide insight on more reliable quantum computation device designs. In condensed matter systems, the doping concentration inhomogeneity leads to the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. This makes it …

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Investigation Of Science Education Attitudes In Alternative High School Settings, Sarah Jane Rogers May 2010

Investigation Of Science Education Attitudes In Alternative High School Settings, Sarah Jane Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the attitudes of administrators, teachers and students in school settings for at-risk students. Students are considered at-risk if they are not academically successful. Teacher and student science education attitudes were analyzed by survey data and categorization of teaching practices. Additionally, data from classroom videotapes and teacher interviews was collected to support and triangulate survey data. Study participants were selected from two school settings for at-risk students 1) public alternative schools (PAS) and 2) private residential treatment centers (RTC). When the survey questions were analyzed by school type and teacher classification several differences were found between 1) teacher …

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Transformation Learning: Modeling Transferable Transformations In High-Dimensional Data, Christopher R. Wilson May 2010

Transformation Learning: Modeling Transferable Transformations In High-Dimensional Data, Christopher R. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of learning transfer is to apply knowledge gained from one problem to a separate related problem. Transformation learning is a proposed approach to computational learning transfer that focuses on modeling high-level transformations that are well suited for transfer. By using a high-level representation of transferable data, transformation learning facilitates both shallow transfer (intra-domain) and deep transfer (inter-domain) scenarios. Transformations can be discovered in data using manifold learning to order data instances according to the transformations they represent. For high-dimensional data representable with coordinate systems, such as images and sounds, data instances can be decomposed into small sub-instances based …

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A Lift Of Cohomology Eigenclasses Of Hecke Operators, Brian Francis Hansen May 2010

A Lift Of Cohomology Eigenclasses Of Hecke Operators, Brian Francis Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

A considerable amount of evidence has shown that for every prime p &neq; N observed, a simultaneous eigenvector v_0 of Hecke operators T(l,i), i=1,2, in H^3(Γ_0(N),F(0,0,0)) has a “lift” v in H^3(Γ_0(N),F(p−1,0,0)) — i.e., a simultaneous eigenvector v of Hecke operators having the same system of eigenvalues that v_0 has. For each prime p>3 and N=11 and 17, we construct a vector v that is in the cohomology group H^3(Γ_0(N),F(p−1,0,0)). This is the first construction of an element of infinitely many different cohomology groups, other than modulo p reductions of characteristic zero objects. We proceed to show that v …

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Creating An Expected Profile For Affinity 2.5 From A Sample Of Non-Pedophilic, Exculsively Heterosexual, College-Age Females, Marie Worsham May 2010

Creating An Expected Profile For Affinity 2.5 From A Sample Of Non-Pedophilic, Exculsively Heterosexual, College-Age Females, Marie Worsham

Theses and Dissertations

The Affinity, an instrument designed to measure sexual interest using viewing time, has recently been upgraded from version 2.0 to version 2.5. The Affinity presents slides depicting non-pornographic images of people varying by age and gender. The expected Chi square weights established for Affinity 2.0 for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual females may have been impacted by Affinity 2.5's 42.9% increase in the number of slides. There were two purposes to this study. The first was to establish new expected Chi square weights for non-pedophilic, exclusively heterosexual females using Affinity 2.5. The second purpose was to employ a Chi square procedure (in …

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Design And Analysis Of A Compliant Mechanism Spinal Implant, Eric M. Stratton May 2010

Design And Analysis Of A Compliant Mechanism Spinal Implant, Eric M. Stratton

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces and presents the modeling of a novel compliant spinal implant designed to reduce back pain and restore function to degenerate spinal disc tissues as well as provide a mechanical environment conducive to healing the tissues. The initial objectives for this device development and the focus of this work are modeling and validation of the force-deflection relationships and stress analysis. Modeling was done using the pseudo-rigid-body model to create a 3 degree of freedom mechanism for flexion-extension (forward-backward bending) and a 5 degree of freedom mechanism for lateral bending (side-to-side). These models were analyzed using the principle of …

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Student Content Knowledge Increases After Participation In A Hands-On Biotechnology Intervention, Amber L. Bigler May 2010

Student Content Knowledge Increases After Participation In A Hands-On Biotechnology Intervention, Amber L. Bigler

Theses and Dissertations

Hands-on learning is at the heart of science learning. This study examined increased changes of student content knowledge in biology, particularly biotechnology, after a hands-on biotechnology intervention was implemented into a secondary school. A traditional learning school was selected for a control. Both teachers had participated in a biotechnology professional development program called Project Crawfish. Students from both schools took the same assessment before and after their respective units (biotechnology intervention and genetics unit), and the classroom was the unit of analysis (n=5, n=6, respectively). The assessment was compared as a whole and then divided into five components, eight questions …

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Structure Maps For Hcp Metals From First-Principles Calculations, Gus L. W. Hart, Ohad Levy, Stefano Curtarolo May 2010

Structure Maps For Hcp Metals From First-Principles Calculations, Gus L. W. Hart, Ohad Levy, Stefano Curtarolo

Faculty Publications

The ability to predict the existence and crystal type of ordered structures of materials from their components is a major challenge of current materials research. Empirical methods use experimental data to construct structure maps and make predictions based on clustering of simple physical parameters. Their usefulness depends on the availability of reliable data over the entire parameter space. Recent development of high-throughput methods opens the possibility to enhance these empirical structure maps by ab initio calculations in regions of the parameter space where the experimental evidence is lacking or not well characterized. In this paper we construct enhanced maps for …

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Growth In Students' Conceptions Of Mathematical Induction, John David Gruver May 2010

Growth In Students' Conceptions Of Mathematical Induction, John David Gruver

Theses and Dissertations

While proof and reasoning lie at the core of mathematical practice, how students learn to reason formally and build convincing proofs continues to invite reflection and discussion. To add to this discussion I investigated how three students grew in their conceptions of mathematical induction. While each of the students in the study had different experiences and grew in different ways, the grounded axes (triggering events, personal questions about mathematics, and personal questions about a particular solution) highlighted patterns in the narratives and from these patterns a theoretical perspective emerged. Reflection, both on mathematics in general and …

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Assessing Scientific Inquiry: Teacher Beliefs And Practices, Adam James Mitchell May 2010

Assessing Scientific Inquiry: Teacher Beliefs And Practices, Adam James Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

Science education reform movements have long urged the use of inquiry methods in all science instruction. More recently, standards and accountability reform efforts have emphasized measuring and improving student science achievement. Researchers have questioned the alignment and balance between these reforms (Lane, 2004; Yeh, 2001). This study addresses issues faced by secondary science teachers as they simultaneously meet the goals of these reform movements. Mixed methods were used to answer the questions: 1) Can a teacher's beliefs and practices regarding inquiry teaching methods be correlated with his/her assessment practices?; 2) What item types are most commonly employed by teachers that …

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Contributions Of Father Involvement In Family Leisure To Family Functioning, Lydia Anne Buswell Apr 2010

Contributions Of Father Involvement In Family Leisure To Family Functioning, Lydia Anne Buswell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine to the contribution of fathers' involvement in family leisure to aspects of family functioning. The sample consisted of 647 families of fathers and a youth from throughout the United States. The Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP) was used to measure family leisure involvement. FACES II was used to measure family functioning. Results from the father and youth perspective indicated significant relationships between father involvement in both core and balance family leisure to various aspects of family functioning. Core family leisure involvement was the only family leisure involvement variable related to family adaptability …

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Parameter Estimation In Linear-Linear Segmented Regression, Erika Lyn Hernandez Apr 2010

Parameter Estimation In Linear-Linear Segmented Regression, Erika Lyn Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Segmented regression is a type of nonlinear regression that allows differing functional forms to be fit over different ranges of the explanatory variable. This paper considers the simple segmented regression case of two linear segments that are constrained to meet, often called the linear-linear model. Parameter estimation in the case where the joinpoint between the regimes is unknown can be tricky. Using a simulation study, four estimators for the parameters of the linear-linear model are evaluated. The bias and mean squared error of the estimators are considered under differing parameter combinations and sample sizes. Parameters estimated in the model are …

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