Digital Commons Network^™

Inquiry, November 2005, Office Of Vice President For Research

Research and Discovery News

• Customer service initiative
• Congratulations - Dr. William Cobern
• New process for industrial contracts
• Grant submissions
• Research to commercialization seminar
• Grant awards
• Announcements
• Joining the CTA has benefits for WMU researchers

In-Service Teachers And Computer Mediated Discussions: Range And Purposes Of Reflection, Gaoyin Qian, Liqing Tao

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand discourse types (i.e., factual, prudential, and justificatory) of in-service teachers in the graduate program in literacy education when they engaged in Computer Mediated Discussion (CMD). This study also sought to uncover the kind of support that CID provided, and to identify their attitudes towards and feelings about such forms of discussion based on their online journal entries and responses to a questionnaire. Fourteen graduate students participated in a weekly reflection for 10 weeks on the readings and on the literacy development of the children they selected for case study. Results indicated …

Geosciences Newsletter - 2005, Department Of Geosciences

Geological and Environmental Sciences News

Vol. 2, No. 1

• Mohamed Sultan, Chairperson
• Faculty News
• Emeriti News
• Department News
• Graduate Student News
• Awards & Graduations
• Alumni News
• Professional Meetings
• Outstanding Alumni Academy
• New Faces in the Geosciences

Western News, Oct. 27, 2005, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Campus prepares for Higher Learning Commission visit; ATYP now calls honors college home; Research aids people with communication disorders; On Campus with Penny Schellenberg.

College Of Arts & Sciences Newsletter: Fall 2005, College Of Arts & Sciences

College of Arts and Sciences news

No abstract provided.

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session September 16, 2005, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Minutes of the WMU Board of Trustees meeting include appendices:

• WMU/AAUP Contract
• University Budget 2005-2006
• Enrollment Report
• Higher Learning Commission Visit
• Report - BRCC (Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center)
• Resolution re Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor Core Technology Alliance
• Revised Bylaws - Western Michigan University Foundation
• Resolution re Western Michigan University Research Foundation

Using Picture Storybooks To Support Young Children's Science Learning, Rose M. Pringle, Linda Leonard Lamme

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Children's books are an important classroom resource for the study of animals because it is not practical for students to study many animals in their natural habitat. This article is the result of a collaborative research project undertaken by a science methods specialist and a children's literature specialist. We analyzed books about animals that contained both narrative and expository writing and determined the best books that facilitated science learning. We share our criteria for book selection and examples of books that meet these criteria. Many support science learning in classrooms allowing children to make observations, raise questions and form conclusions …

Education Problems With Urban Migratory Children In China, Fei Yan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In China, due to the Residence Registration System and Segmented Governmental Management of Education, the educatioal problems with urban migratory children have been overlooked for a long time. The results are, on one hand, these children have no access to Public-Funded School because they are not categorized as local residents; on the other hand the illegal Schools for Migrant Workers' Children exist in many cities. The satisfactory solution to the problem will be a win-win process: the promotion of migratory children's education will not only benefit this minority group and the communities in which they live, but also contribute to …

Reforming Welfare Reform Postsecondary Education Policy: Two State Case Studies In Political Culture, Organizing, And Advocacy, Charles Price

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Welfare reform had the unforeseen effect of causing large numbers of public assistance recipients to drop out of college, discouraging their pursuit and acquisition of postsecondary education (PSE) credentials. There is a growing body of research that shows the value of postsecondary education in getting public assistance recipients onto a path toward occupational and social mobility. The restrictions of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families PSE policy, coupled with the recognition that college participation should be an option for qualified welfare recipients, influenced the emergence of many successful state and county-level movements focused on reforming welfare reform PSE policy. Their work …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 32, No. 3 (September 2005)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• EDUCATION PROBLEMS WITH URBAN MIGRATORY CHILDREN IN CHINA - Fei Yan
• CULTURE AS DEFICIT: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL WORK DISCOURSE - Yoosun Park
• APPLYING RAWLSIAN SOCIAL JUSTICE TO WELFARE REFORM: AN UNEXPECTED FINDING FOR SOCIAL WORK - Mahasweta M. Banerjee
• ENGLISH NON-FLUENCY AND INCOME PENALTY FOR HISPANIC WORKERS - Song Yang
• REFORMING WELFARE REFORM POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION POLICY: TWO STATE CASE STUDIES IN POLITICAL CULTURE, ORGANIZING, AND ADVOCACY - Charles Price
• IMPLICATIONS OF MEDIA SCRUTINY FOR A CHILD PROTECTION AGENCY - Lindsay D. Cooper
• IS INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL COLLABORATION ALWAYS A GOOD …

Design, Synthesis And Characterization Of Nanosensors For Nerve Gas Agents, Thushara Gunasinghe

Masters Theses

This research is focused on the design synthesis and characterization of nanosensors to detect the nerve gas agents such as sarin at very low concentration levels (parts per billion and lower) which is very important to combat terrorism. Nanosensors constructed by the bottom up approach could provide the low sensitivity levels and high selectivity required for nerve gas detection. The sensing mechanism exploits the inherent properties of nanomaterials and signal amplification by signal transduction. The components of a nanoparticle-fluorescent monomer-nanomolecule-receptor (NMNR) sensor have been designed, synthesized, and characterized successfully. Interaction of the components of NMNR sensor with a model nerve …

Design Of A Reconfigurable State Transition Algorithm For Fuzzy Automata, Paolo A. Tamayo

Masters Theses

An Ontological Controller, a type of supervisory controller used for complex industrial systems, is usually characterized by a large global state set. Monitoring the global state set of these systems is impractical when the desired goal path is chosen since the decision on the next state depends only on a small section of the total state space. The approach is to operate only in a small moving window of the large state transition path. The Hybrid Fuzzy-Boolean Finite State Machine (HFB-FSM) is part of the solution to implement this scheme. The HFB-FSM models the state graph along with plant data …

Influence Of Uncorrelated Defects On The Vortex Phase Diagram In Yba2Cu3O7-6 Superconducting System, Lucian M. Undreiu

Dissertations

The goal of our work is to gain more insight into the vortex dynamics in YBa₂Cu₃0_7-8 single crystals with point defects induced by 9MeV proton irradiation. The position of the critical points from the first order melting transition line can be shifted in a controlled manner with the induced disorder. In order to accomplish a comparative study, different crystals and irradiation doses were used. The results were correlated using both electrical transport and ac specific heat measurements. Special attention was given to investigating the nature of the vortex state below the lower critical point o …

Evaluating The Operative Mechanisms Underlying The High-Probability Request Sequence, Carrie L. Coleman

Dissertations

Failure to comply with requests in educational settings interferes with the learning process. The high-probability request sequence has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for noncompliance. However, the operative mechanisms underlying this treatment remain unknown. This study sought to further elucidate high-p behavior change mechanisms through the manipulation of reinforcement and response rate variables. The purpose was to determine whether increases in compliance to low-probability requests could be obtained with either the high-p sequence or with the delivery of preferred stimuli on a response-independent basis. Math problems served as high-p and low-p requests, and data were collected on compliance …

Investigating Nickel Partitioning In A Contaminant Aquifer, Suama Ndengu

Masters Theses

Improved prediction of the transport and bioavailability of metals in contaminated sediments demands a better quantitative understanding of how metals partition between aqueous solutions and mineral phases. This research examines the partitioning of nickel in a contaminated aquifer from Grand Rapids, Ml. Contaminated aquifer sediments were examined using the five step Tessier et al. (1979) operationally defined sequential extraction procedure to determine the solid phase distribution of nickel in the aquifer sediments. Models used to guide remediation efforts at the contaminated site assume that Ni behavior can be predicted based on Ni adsorption onto ferrihydrite (HFO). Although sequential extraction results …

Structure-Activity Relationship Studies On Thioxolone Compounds As Inhibitors Of Human Carbonic Anhydrase Ii, Jared Nyabuto Orwenyo

Masters Theses

Carbonic anhydrase II (CA II) is a zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide. The role of this reaction in physiology has made it a target of many therapeutic approaches. Most CA II inhibitors currently known are sulfonamide-based and this is the only functional group incorporated into rationally designed CA II inhibitors. Thioxolone (6-hydroxy-1, 3-benzoxathiol-2-one), is a non-sulfonamide that has been found to have CA II inhibitory activity.

Thioxolone and its analogs were studied to evaluate the inhibition activity that can be achieved upon modification of the thioxolone molecule. IC₅₀ values and dissociation constants were determined …

Resistivity, Induced Polarization, And Spontaneous Potential Study Of Part Of The Calvin 28 Oil Field, Cass County Michigan, Eric M. Larsen

Masters Theses

Some hydrocarbon reservoirs have a documented reducing chimney, extending upward to the surface due to diffusion of hydrocarbon volatiles. This effect reportedly reduces the iron in the soil to magnetite and precipitates fine-grained pyrite if there is sufficient sulfur in the system. This study was conducted to test the detectability of the hypothetical chimney, using electrical geophysics in an environment of relatively recent glacial cover, known depth to an underlying petroleum reservoir, and known faulting.

The Calvin 28 oil field, in Cass County Michigan, is a middle Devonian domal field where reservoir rocks are draped over the central uplift block …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session June 29, 2005, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Minutes of the WMU Board of Trustees meeting include appendices:

• Personnel Report
• Administrative Appointments
• Resignation

Western News, June 2, 2005 , Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Nearly 1,000 bassists come to campus; Charter school research finds wide disparity; Music students score nine Down Beat awards; New coordinator named in alumni relations; On Campus with Pearl DeVries.

High School Seniors’ Perceptions Of Career And Technical Education And Factors Influencing Their Decision To Attend An Area Career Technical Center, David P. Gaunt

Dissertations

This study explored the profile of CTE students with regard to their academic standing and their socioeconomic background, examined high school seniors'perceptions of career and technical education, and identified the people and other factors that influence students in their decision-making about CTE enrollment. A 29-question survey was administered to 451 seniors from seven public high schools served by the Wexford-Missaukee Area Career Technical Center, operated by an intermediate school district in northern lower Michigan.

Significant findings indicate that the typical profile of CTE students with respect to socioeconomic status and academic standing would identify a CTE student as performing somewhat …

Acylpyrazolones: Synthesis, Self-Assembly And Lanthanide Metal Ion Separation, Jun Yang

Dissertations

The central hypothesis that nanoscale self-assemblies can provide excellent metal ion recognition has been substantiated by employing acylpyrazolones and trivalent lanthanide metal ions as model systems. Several novel acylpyrazolones and their amphiphilic analogs have been designed, synthesized, and characterized. Their lanthanide metal ion recognition efficacies have been demonstrated through baseline separations of a mixture of light, middle, and heavy lanthanide metal ions by employing them in the aqueous mobile phase of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with octadecylsilanized silica (ODS) as the stationary phase. The complex separation mechanism is influenced by the structures of acylpyrazolone and amphiphilic moieties, and spontaneous …

A Tool Supporting Validation Of Uml Models, Weng Liong Low

Masters Theses

Software design is an important phase in the computer software development life cycle. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a widely used notation to design software models. As a software system increases in size and complexity it is harder for developers to check that their UML models are correct with respect to the UML metamodel. Consistency among different diagrams in a UML model is also important to ensure that there are no design conflicts that will lead to problems later. Incorrect software design will result in loss of productivity, time and money as developers fix design errors. Therefore, to ensure …

Segmentation Of Thermal Images For Non-Destructive Applications, Solange Yohali

Masters Theses

Infrared Thermogarphy (IR) is used in this project to detect subsurface conditions in concrete specimen for nondestructive testing and evaluations. This thesis goal is to bridge the gap between Infrared Testing and image analysis by developing an algorithm based on the region growing approach to segment the images and identify the voids without human interference or prior knowledge of the conditions. The segmentation algorithm starts with seed points as the hottest pixels in the image, and then regions are grown based on a neighborhood comparison criterion. The algorithm was tested on images collected from concrete specimen containing various man-made defects …

Load Interaction Effects On Fatigue Crack Growth, Stoyan Ivanov Stoychev

Dissertations

Load excursions, in the form of tensile and compressive overloads are known to produce interaction effects during subsequent constant amplitude loading. In this work, the fatigue crack growth and crack closure levels, under both constant amplitude and variable amplitude loading, are investigated in the aluminium-lithium alloy 2090-T84, and the aluminium alloys 2024-T351 and 7150-T651. The crack closure measurements were obtained using both a crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) gauge and a crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) gauge.

Fatigue crack growth tests were performed on specimens of thickness 1.6mm, 3mm, 6mm and 14mm. Tests were performed at load ratios of 0.1 …

Synthesis And Spectroscopic Characterization Of Manganese Doped Zinc Sulfide Quantum Dot Nanocrystals, Pedro A. Gonzalez Beerman

Dissertations

Zinc sulphide quantum dots were synthesized in aqueous media using sodium polyphosphate as the stabilizer. The nanoparticles were 2.5 ± 0.5 nm and 5.0 ± 0.5 nm diameter depending on the synthetic procedure employed and the amount of Mn doped varied from 0.003 to 0.32% (w/w). The nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis absorption, luminescence, EPR, near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These quantum dots show a strong emission at 590 nm due to the ⁴T₁ -⁶A₁ transition characteristic of Mn …

Development Of An Analogue Of A Response-Class Hierarchy, Daniel B. Shabani

Dissertations

Within the operant conditioning literature, there exists the concept of the functional response class. A functional response class is defined as a collection of responses that all produce the same outcome. If the members of a response class occur in a predictable order, a response-class hierarchy is said to exist. A hierarchy refers to a specific type of response class in which each member of the response class may be temporally determined along various dimensions (e.g., response effort, immediacy of reinforcement, magnitude of reinforcer). The response-class hierarchy has received relatively little conceptual attention over the years and, not surprisingly, there …

Single-Electron Capture Processes In Slow Collisions Of He^2+ Ions With Molecular Targets, Osama Abu-Haija

Dissertations

Translational energy-gain spectroscopy (TES) has been used to investigate state-selective dissociative and non-dissociative single-electron capture processes in low-energy collisions of He²⁺ ions with O₂ , H₂ O, CO₂ , N₂ , and NH3 at impact energies between 100 eV and 1600 eV. The measured energy spectra for theHe²⁺ -O₂ and H₂ O collision systems show that the dominant exit channel is due to dissociative transfer ionization (DTI), single-electron captureaccompanied by ionization of the molecular target-ion, at the lowest collision energies. As the impact energy is increased non-dissociative single-electron capture (SEC) into the …

Rank-Based Methods For Repeated Measures Data Under Exchangeable Errors, John Kloke

Dissertations

Rank-based estimation methods provide alternatives to least squares. Estimators derived via least squares are generally not robust to aberrant observations.Rank-based methods for linear models generalize traditional Wilcoxon procedures in the simple location models and are robust.

In the usual linear model it is assumed that the errors are independent. In the case of repeated measures data several observations are taken on each experimental unit. In the case of longitudinal data the measures are taken on the same subject over time. As such an independence assumption does not seem valid. A common solution to this is to make an assumption on …

The Effects Of Brain Gym® Activities On Second-Grade Students' Academic Performance And Handwriting Skills, Kristen Keinath

Masters Theses

Objective: The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the effects of Brain Gym® activities on second-grand students' academic performance and handwriting skills.

Method: Results were obtained by administering the Test of Handwriting Skills (THS) to two classrooms in a Northern Michigan Elementary School and having both teachers complete a self-developed Academic Performance Form on each student participating in the study. The data from was analyzed using a t-test for the THS and mean scores for the self-developed Academic Performance Form.

Results: Findings suggest a significant difference (p < .05) in the number of letters produced in 20 seconds and spacing of letters. Non-standardized testing showed a decrease in attention to task scores between pre- and post-testing.

Conclusion: Brain Gym® activities were shown to positively effect handwriting …

Applications Of Integrated Data Viewer – Idv In An Introductory Meteorology Class For Non-Science Majors, Ricardo C. Nogueira

Masters Theses

Computer products developed to visualize and integrate meteorological products with real-time data can create a virtual reality of the atmosphere. These advanced technologies help educators to improve teaching techniques in the classroom for science and non-science majors and increase the students' interest in learning as well. One of these products, the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), was recently developed by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) project, Unidata, to visualize and integrate geoscience data. This study compares students' performance in the laboratory sessions using IDV-based and MANUAL-based exercises. Comparison of lab scores with exam scores of questions on the same topic …