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College Choice: Factors Influencing High School Seniors' Decision To Enroll At Private Colleges In South Carolina, Brian O'Neil Aug 2013

College Choice: Factors Influencing High School Seniors' Decision To Enroll At Private Colleges In South Carolina, Brian O'Neil

All Dissertations

This study explores the influential factors of high school seniors in their college choice. The participants in this study were high school seniors planning on attending a four-year co-educational non-HBCU private higher education institution in South Carolina. The sample included four participant institutions and 202 total participants. A survey instrument was sent to each participant from an institutional gatekeeper. The survey included demographic questions and specific factors that were rated on a 5 point Likert scale. A factor analysis was conducted on the data and resulted in three factor clusters. The three factors were named: (a) family influence, (b) institutional …

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Supplemental Algebra Vocabulary Instruction For Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities, Joanna Stegall Aug 2013

Supplemental Algebra Vocabulary Instruction For Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities, Joanna Stegall

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Vocabulary is vital for success in secondary content area curricula and students with learning disabilities often have limited vocabulary knowledge which inhibits their success in secondary-level content area classes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an explicit algebra vocabulary intervention with graphic organizers on vocabulary knowledge and skills in algebra for students with learning disabilities in high school Algebra I. A single-case repeated acquisition design with pre- and posttest measures was used to determine the effects of the intervention for students with learning disabilities who received special education services. The study included 10 students …

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Analyses Of Multivitamins In Nutraceuticals By Reverse Phase Hplc With Dad, Elsd And Ms, Hsiang-Chi Huang Aug 2013

Analyses Of Multivitamins In Nutraceuticals By Reverse Phase Hplc With Dad, Elsd And Ms, Hsiang-Chi Huang

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ABSTRACT
Vitamins are essential to human beings and support long-term healthy lifestyle. They exist widely in food, but in small amount. Hence, dietary supplements and fortified food products are more and more popular in the nutritional markets. According to the Infant Formula Act of 1980, the range of each of the nutrients should fall within a specific range or above the required minimum, so there is an increasing interest of accurate measurement of vitamins, particularly the B-group vitamins. However, traditional methods for vitamin B analyses are time-consuming and often in poor accuracy. As a result, rapid and reliable analytical methods …

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Recreating And Simulating Digital Costumes From A Stage Production Of Medea, Anuradha Pinisetty Aug 2013

Recreating And Simulating Digital Costumes From A Stage Production Of Medea, Anuradha Pinisetty

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This thesis investigates a technique to effectively construct and simulate costumes from a stage production Medea, in a dynamic cloth simulation application like Maya's nDynamics. This was done by using data collected from real-world fabric tests and costume construction in the theatre's costume studio. Fabric tests were conducted and recorded, by testing costume fabrics for drape and behavior with two collision objects. These tests were recreated digitally in Maya to derive appropriate parameters for the digital fabric, by comparing with the original reference. Basic mannequin models were created using the actors' measurements and skeleton-rigged to enable animation. The costumes were …

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3d Fractal Flame Wisps, Yujie Shu Aug 2013

3d Fractal Flame Wisps, Yujie Shu

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This thesis presents a method for integrating two algorithms, fractal flames and wisps, to create visually rich and interesting patterns with 3D volumetric structure. Twenty-one single 3D flame variations are described and specified. These patterns were used to produce an aesthetically designed animation, inspired by both Hubble Telescope photographs and data from a simulation of a predicted collision between the Milky Way and Sagittarius galaxies. The thesis also describes Python tools and a Houdini pre-visualization pipeline that were developed to facilitate the animation design and production.

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Air Pressure Energy Storage For Reverse Osmosis: Bench-Scale Proof Of Concept, Ying Sun Aug 2013

Air Pressure Energy Storage For Reverse Osmosis: Bench-Scale Proof Of Concept, Ying Sun

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Society faces diminishing access to clean drinking water because of increasing global population and the development of modern industries. At the same time, climate change and other environmental problems caused by the increase in fossil fuel consumption the emphasis on reducing dependency on traditional energy resources in the process of potable water production. To address both problems, a small-scale wind powered reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system with a unique energy storage mechanism was envisioned to provide an energy buffer such that fluctuating and intermittent wind can be utilized. Energy is stored in the form of compressed air in a pressure …

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Black Bear Encounters In The Wildland-Urban Interface Of Upstate South Carolina, Victoria Luke Aug 2013

Black Bear Encounters In The Wildland-Urban Interface Of Upstate South Carolina, Victoria Luke

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As humans move into more remote areas wildlife are displaced and there are an increasing number of human-wildlife interactions. Human dimensions research is important in order to understand social components necessary to maintain healthy wildlife populations while also maintaining healthy relationships between wildlife and the local community. In upstate South Carolina, the number of wildlife nuisance calls received by the Department of Natural Resources has increased. More importantly, wildlife populations, particularly the American black bear (Ursus americanus), continue to move into urban areas. The following study explores black bear encounter report calls coming into the SC Department of Natural Resources …

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Design Optimization Of Geometrical Parameters And Material Properties Of Vibrating Bimorph Cantilever Beams With Solid And Honeycomb Substrates For Maximum Energy Harvested, Jasmin Adeshara Aug 2013

Design Optimization Of Geometrical Parameters And Material Properties Of Vibrating Bimorph Cantilever Beams With Solid And Honeycomb Substrates For Maximum Energy Harvested, Jasmin Adeshara

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The objective of this thesis is to maximize the energy harvested from a vibrating bimorph cantilever beam by optimizing the geometrical parameters and the material properties of the piezoelectric beam. A three-dimensional finite element (FEA) model is developed to design a vibrating bimorph cantilever beam for energy harvesting. The reference piezoelectric material used in the design is Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT-5H) and the substrate sandwiched between the two piezoelectric plates is brass. Three types of models are analyzed and compared in this work by modifying the brass substrate geometry- a solid homogenous substrate, a regular honeycomb substrate and an auxetic …

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Microbial Exo-Enzyme Activities In Soil As Infuenced By Polyphenol Chemistries, Daniella Freese Aug 2013

Microbial Exo-Enzyme Activities In Soil As Infuenced By Polyphenol Chemistries, Daniella Freese

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Soil organic matter decomposition is directly driven by the soil extracellular enzymes excreted by soil microorganisms. Therefore, factors which impede extracellular enzyme activity would result in retarding the rate of soil organic matter decomposition. Several factors in the soil may influence soil extracellular enzymes including the plant secondary metabolites, polyphenols- tannins and lignins. However, thus far few investigations have considered the direct and indirect impacts of polyphenols on soil enzyme activities. Hence, three investigations were conducted to understand the ecological impacts of tannins and lignins on soil extracellular enzyme activities.
Tannins, further classified as condensed and hydrolysable tannins, can hamper …

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Evaluation Of Effects That Can Mask Low Decay Rates Of Tce In Aerobic Groundwater Plumes, Laura Daniels Aug 2013

Evaluation Of Effects That Can Mask Low Decay Rates Of Tce In Aerobic Groundwater Plumes, Laura Daniels

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Current methods for evaluating chlorinated solvent plumes often assume that no TCE degradation occurs under aerobic conditions. It is possible that decay rates with values greater than zero exist in these plumes, but this decay may be masked by effects of parameter values in zero–decay–rate models. This hidden decay can be identified by comparing the zero–decay–rate models with others that have been created with a decay rate greater than zero.
The results of this research and analysis show that it is possible to create matches between the zero–decay–rate models and models with greater than zero decay rates by adjusting model …

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An Optimization Model For Class Scheduling At A Dance Studio, Chirag Ojha Aug 2013

An Optimization Model For Class Scheduling At A Dance Studio, Chirag Ojha

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Scheduling has been a large area of research for decades. A substantial amount of work has been done to express, classify, and solve scheduling problems. Most of these problems are computationally difficult to solve and require complex algorithms. In this thesis, we develop a mixed-integer linear program for a real world optimization problem at a dance studio. Similar to a university, the students in this studio request a particular class and instructors teach the classes under constrained resources such as a limited number of classrooms. The priorities of instructors as well as dancers are included to further mimic reality. Experimental …

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Multi-Scale Defect Engineering And Interface Modifications For Enhancement Of Thermoelectric Properties In Nanostructured Bulk Materials, Pooja Puneet Aug 2013

Multi-Scale Defect Engineering And Interface Modifications For Enhancement Of Thermoelectric Properties In Nanostructured Bulk Materials, Pooja Puneet

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Among various static energy conversion technologies, the thermoelectric (TE) energy conversion has gained the considerable interest due to its reliability and ability to directly convert waste heat into electricity. In TE conversion technology, physical properties such as thermopower (α), electrical (σ) and thermal conductivity (κ) are exploited simultaneously to convert waste heat into electricity. The efficiency of such conversion depends upon various factors such as temperature, figure of merit (ZT= α2σ/ κ) etc. An inherent coupling among α, σ and κ limits ZT and thereby constrains one in achieving high efficiency. Many efforts have been carried out in decoupling TE …

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Objective Bayesian Hypothesis Testing And Estimation For The Risk Ratio In A Correlated 2x2 Table With Structural Zero, Xiaohua Bai Aug 2013

Objective Bayesian Hypothesis Testing And Estimation For The Risk Ratio In A Correlated 2x2 Table With Structural Zero, Xiaohua Bai

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We illustrate the construction of an objective Bayesian hypothesis testing and point estimation for the risk ratio in a correlated 2x2 table with structural zero. We solve the problem using Bayesian method through the reference prior, and corresponding posterior distribution of the risk ratio can be derived. Then combined the intrinsic discrepancy, an invariant inforamtion-based loss function, provides an integrated objective Bayesian solution to both hypothesis testing and point estimation problems.

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Tidal Heating And Mlt Tidal Wind Variability Due To The El Nino-Southern Oscillation, Kristi Warner Aug 2013

Tidal Heating And Mlt Tidal Wind Variability Due To The El Nino-Southern Oscillation, Kristi Warner

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Tides forced by large-scale weather systems in the tropical troposphere in- troduce significant longitudinal and local time variability in the upper atmosphere. This thesis presents the latent tidal heating variability for 2002-2011 due to variation in tropospheric deep convection associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the tidal wind response in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) region. Emphasis is on the strong ENSO cycle 2009-2011. Latent tidal heating rates are computed from TRMM satellite precipitation data, with added radiative heating from MERRA reanalysis, as functions of time, latitude, and altitude. The heating rates for the two most affected nonmigrating tides …

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Continuum Robotic Surface: Forward Kinematic Analysis And Implementation, Jessica Merino Aug 2013

Continuum Robotic Surface: Forward Kinematic Analysis And Implementation, Jessica Merino

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This thesis presents a new class of biologically inspired robots: continuum robotic surfaces. This work is fueled by the question: can the interaction between robot and environment be advanced with “programmable surfaces in space?” The novelty of continuum robotic surfaces lies in their ability to be actively controlled and reconfigured in what we believe is the current “missing dimension” in robot movements — two–dimensional space. We believe that such surfaces will lend themselves to more complex applications. However, to effectively deploy such surfaces for these complex applications, kinematic models will be necessary to plan and control desired configurations. The forward …

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Bond-Centric Modifications To Bond-Order Potentials And Ab-Initio Evaluation Of Nanostructured Materials Properties, Jaewoong Hur Aug 2013

Bond-Centric Modifications To Bond-Order Potentials And Ab-Initio Evaluation Of Nanostructured Materials Properties, Jaewoong Hur

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An improvement to the AIREBO potential for hydrocarbons is presented in which contribu-tions to the bond order are determined by the local bonding environment around the bond, rather than the average of the environments around the two constituent atoms. This bond-centric approach decreases the errors by ∼80% in the fullerene-type systems for which the original approach leads to the most severe errors. With the newly developed and parameterized method, energy errors are less than 0.7eV for a collection of hydrocarbon molecules not used in the fitting. This modified AIREBO potential is expected to be more useful not only for the …

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On The Cuspidality Of Maass-Gritsenko And Mixed Level Lifts, Dania Zantout Aug 2013

On The Cuspidality Of Maass-Gritsenko And Mixed Level Lifts, Dania Zantout

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your words

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Engineering Specifications And Mathematics For Verified Software, Hampton Smith Aug 2013

Engineering Specifications And Mathematics For Verified Software, Hampton Smith

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Developing a verifying compiler---a compiler that proves that components are correct with respect to their specifications---is a grand challenge for the computing community. The prevailing view of the software engineering community is that this problem is necessarily difficult because, to-date, the resultant verification conditions necessary to prove software correctness have required powerful automated provers and deep mathematical insight to dispatch. This seems counter-intuitive, however, since human programmers only rarely resort to deep mathematics to assure themselves that their code works.
In this work, we show that well-specified and well-engineered software supported by a flexible, extensible mathematical system can yield verification …

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Understanding The Antecedent Competencies Of Organizational Risk Management Capabilities, Jason Riley Aug 2013

Understanding The Antecedent Competencies Of Organizational Risk Management Capabilities, Jason Riley

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Hurricanes, tsunamis, and terrorism, are visible catastrophes that disrupt continuity for many organizations. Yet behind the curtain, there are multitudes of smaller events that cause supply chain disruptions. For example, quality issues, shipping delays, information system malfunction, demand spikes, and inventory mismanagement can quickly ripple from one supply chain to another. Practitioners work feverishly to contain small interruptions, while large disruptions can upset the supply chain for multiple organizations and depress an organization's financial valuation by up to 40%.
This study extends risk management thinking by exploring behavioral-based practices, rather than buffer inventory, redundant capacity, or financial countermeasures, as these …

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Ecology And Management Of Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) In Southeastern Farmscapes, Grant Pilkay Aug 2013

Ecology And Management Of Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) In Southeastern Farmscapes, Grant Pilkay

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A three-year study (2009-2011) was conducted to examine the spatial and temporal dynamics of stink bugs in three commercial farmscapes in South Carolina and Georgia. Crops included wheat, Triticum aestivum (L.), corn, Zea mays (L.), soybean, Glycine max (L.), cotton, Gossypium hirsutum (L.), and peanuts, Arachis hypogaea (L.). Farmscapes were sampled weekly using whole-plant examinations for corn, with all other crops sampled using sweep nets. The predominant pest species of phytophagous stink bugs were the brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say), the green stink bug, Chinavia hilaris (Say), and the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.). Chi-square tests indicated …

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Joint Location And Dispatching Decisions For Emergency Medical Service Systems, Hector Toro-Diaz Aug 2013

Joint Location And Dispatching Decisions For Emergency Medical Service Systems, Hector Toro-Diaz

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Emergency Medical Service (EMS) systems are a service that provides acute care and transportation to a place for definitive care, to people experiencing a medical emergency. The ultimate goal of EMS systems is to save lives. The ability of EMS systems to do this effectively is impacted by several resource allocation decisions including location of servers (ambulances), districting of demand zones and dispatching rules for the servers. The location decision is strategic while the dispatching decision is operational. Those two decisions are usually made separately although both affect typical EMS performance measures. The service from an ambulance is usually time …

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Modeling, Control, And Motion Analysis Of A Class Of Extensible Continuum Manipulators, Apoorva Kapadia Aug 2013

Modeling, Control, And Motion Analysis Of A Class Of Extensible Continuum Manipulators, Apoorva Kapadia

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In this dissertation, the development of a kinematic model, a configuration-space controller, a master-slave teleoperation controller, along with the analysis of the self-motion properties for redundant, extensible, continuous backbone (continuum) ``trunk and tentacle' manipulators are detailed. Unlike conventional rigid-link robots, continuum manipulators are robots that can bend at any point along their backbone, resulting in new and unique modeling and control issues. Taken together, these chapters represent one of the first efforts towards devising model-based controllers of such robots, as well as characterizing their self-motion in its simplest form.
Chapter 2 describes the development of a convenient set of generalized, …

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Count Time Series And Discrete Renewal Processes, James Livsey Aug 2013

Count Time Series And Discrete Renewal Processes, James Livsey

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Most data collected over time has some degree of periodicity (i.e. seasonally varying
traits). Climate, stock prices, football season, energy consumption, wildlife sightings, and
holiday sales all have cyclical patterns. It should come as no surprise that models that
incorporate periodicity are paramount in the study of time series.
The following work devises time series models for counts (integer-values) that are periodic
and stationary. Foundational work is rst done in constructing a stationary periodic
discrete renewal process (SPDRP). The dynamics of the SPDRP are mathematically interesting
and have many modeling applications, expositions largely unexplored here. This work
develops a SPDRP …

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Hydrothermal Crystal Growth Of Metal Borates For Optical Applications, Carla Heyward Aug 2013

Hydrothermal Crystal Growth Of Metal Borates For Optical Applications, Carla Heyward

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Crystals are the heart of the development of advance technology. Their existence is the essential foundation in the electronic field and without it there would be little to no progress in a variety of industries including the military, medical, and technology fields. The discovery of a variety of new materials with unique properties has contributed significantly to the rapidly advancing solid state laser field. Progress in the crystal growth methods has allowed the growth of crystals once plagued by difficulties as well as the growth of materials that generate coherent light in spectral regions where efficient laser sources are unavailable. …

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Feeling For Failure: Haptic Force Perception Of Soft Tissue Constraints In A Simulated Minimally Invasive Surgery Task, Lindsay Long Aug 2013

Feeling For Failure: Haptic Force Perception Of Soft Tissue Constraints In A Simulated Minimally Invasive Surgery Task, Lindsay Long

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In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), the ability to accurately interpret haptic information and apply appropriate force magnitudes onto soft tissue is critical for minimizing bodily trauma. Force perception in MIS is a dynamic process in which the surgeon's administration of force onto tissue results in useful perceptual information which guides further haptic interaction and it is hypothesized that the compliant nature of soft tissue during force application provides biomechanical information denoting tissue failure. Specifically, the perceptual relationship between applied force and material deformation rate specifies the distance remaining until structural capacity will fail, or indicates Distance-to-Break (DTB). Two experiments explored …

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Perfluorocyclobutyl Polymer Thin-Film Composite Membrane Fabrication, Plasticization And Physical Aging, Jinxiang Zhou Aug 2013

Perfluorocyclobutyl Polymer Thin-Film Composite Membrane Fabrication, Plasticization And Physical Aging, Jinxiang Zhou

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Membrane technologies have been used widely in industrial practices such as waste water treatment, sea water desalination, gas separations, pharmaceutical separations, and food and beverage processing to name a few. Among the features that make them attractive are that they are cost effective, highly efficient, scalable, and environmentally benign. The focus of this dissertation is to contribute to the understanding and use of polymeric membranes for carbon dioxide separations.
Currently, the largest carbon capture demand lies in the natural gas industry. However, since global warming has become a severe concern for human existence, flue gas cleaning is potentially another very …

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Optimizing Scm Proportions To Meet Multiple Performance Characters Of Ternary Concrete Mixtures Using Simplex-Centroid Design And Analysis Techniques, Sujay Math Aug 2013

Optimizing Scm Proportions To Meet Multiple Performance Characters Of Ternary Concrete Mixtures Using Simplex-Centroid Design And Analysis Techniques, Sujay Math

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High performance concrete mixtures often contain multiple cementitious components. Among these, cement is the most expensive in addition to having a higher carbon footprint. Life cycle assessment of cement production reveals that the cement content is the most important factor in determining a concrete mixture's embodied energy and carbon footprint. Compressive strength, an important property of concrete, is directly related to the quantity of cement used in the mixture. However, higher quantities of cement lead to durability issues. The increased concerns about the durability of concrete over the past decade have increased focus on improving the long-term performance of concrete …

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Long-Term Bald Eagle Monitoring: Assessing Emerging Risks To The Great Lakes Ecosystem By Evaluating Impacts To Tertiary Predators, Latice Fuentes Aug 2013

Long-Term Bald Eagle Monitoring: Assessing Emerging Risks To The Great Lakes Ecosystem By Evaluating Impacts To Tertiary Predators, Latice Fuentes

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Data from the Michigan Bald Eagle Biomonitoring Project (MBEBP) was used to provide ecological evaluations amidst concerns of emerging contaminants and environmental change. Samples and measurements were collected throughout the state of Michigan from 1998-2012. Nestling breast feathers and biometric measurements were used in analytical and statistical analyses which provided a broad assessment of the Great Lakes ecosystem and its resident bald eagles. Bald eagle nestling feathers were taken from Michigan breeding areas, and used to evaluate spatial and temporal trends of mercury (Hg). Overall, remediation has positively affected the Great Lakes region. However, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior …

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The Effects Of Visual Imagery And Keyword Cues On Third-Grade Readers' Memory, Comprehension, And Vocabulary Knowledge, Heather Brooker Aug 2013

The Effects Of Visual Imagery And Keyword Cues On Third-Grade Readers' Memory, Comprehension, And Vocabulary Knowledge, Heather Brooker

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It is estimated that nearly 70% of high school students in the United States need
some form of reading remediation, with the most common need being the ability to
comprehend the content and significance of the text (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004).
Research findings support the use of visual imagery and keyword cues as effective
comprehension strategies (Denner, McGinfly, & Brown, 1989; Gambrell & Jawitz, 1993;
Sadoski, 1985). This study extends the current body of research on these two strategies
by (a) exploring and comparing the combined effects and interactions of training students
in the coordinated use of visual imagery and …

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Design Thinkers Can Save The World: How Understanding Their Interests, Goals, And Motivations Can Inform Engineering Educators, Jacqualyn Blizzard Aug 2013

Design Thinkers Can Save The World: How Understanding Their Interests, Goals, And Motivations Can Inform Engineering Educators, Jacqualyn Blizzard

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The need for more engineers equipped with new skill sets is essential for ensuring our national security, climate sustainability, and maintaining our position as a global leader in innovation and as an economic world power. The design challenges engineers face increasingly require a human-centered, creative, practical, and systems-based approach to find the most elegant solutions; i.e. they require design thinkers. According to Tim Brown of IDEO, the characteristics that distinguish design thinkers include: 'empathy--they imagine the world from multiple perspectives, integrative thinking--they can analyze at a detailed and holistic level to develop novel solutions, optimism--they don't back down from challenging …

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