Digital Commons Network^™

Effectively Using Recurrently-Connected Spiking Neural Networks, Eric Goodman, Dan A. Ventura

Faculty Publications

Recurrently-connected spiking neural networks are difficult to use and understand because of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the system. Through empirical studies of spiking networks, we deduce several principles which are critical to success. Network parameters such as synaptic time delays and time constants and the connection probabilities can be adjusted to have a significant impact on accuracy. We show how to adjust these parameters to fit the type of problem.

Librarians As Disciplinary Discourse Mediators: Using Genre Theory To Move Toward Critical Information Literacy, Michelle H. Simmons

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Governance In The Restructured Electricity Industry, Charles H. Koch Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

International Courts And Tribunals, Nancy Amoury Combs, Carl Magnus Nesser, Ucheora O. Onwuamaegbu, Mark B. Rees, Jacqueline Weisman

Faculty Publications

This article reviews and summarizes significant developments in 2004 concerning international courts and tribunals, particularly events relating to tbe International Court of Justice, tbe United Nations Compensation Commission, the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, and tbe Claims Resolution Tribunal. Significant developments relating to the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, proposed additional ad hoc international criminal tribunals, the International Tribunal for the Law of tbe Sea, and tbe World Trade Organization dispute settlement system and other trade dispute settlement systems are detailed in other articles in this issue.

Acculturation To Western Society As A Risk Factor For High Blood Pressure: A Meta-Analytic Review, Timothy B. Smith, Patrick R. Steffen, Michael Larson, Leon Butler

Faculty Publications

Objective: A number of studies have documented that acculturation to Western society is related to an increase in blood pressure. Although there is evidence that higher socioeconomic status appears related to better cardiovascular health, increasing acculturation to Western society appears related to worse cardiovascular health. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between acculturation and blood pressure.

Method: Literature searches yielded 125 relevant research manuscripts, which were coded by teams of two independent raters. Measures of association (effect sizes) were extracted for both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) readings. Random effects models were …

Slicing The Pie: A Discussion Of Seminary Book Budget Allocation At Andrews University, Terry Dwain Robertson

Faculty Publications

The allocation of a materials budget is a challenge. This paper discusses a solution for Andrews University that accounts for the more specialized needs of Ph.D. students, even though the materials may see less usage.

Introduction To Product Design And Innovation: A Cross Disciplinary Mini Curriculum, Patricia Backer, Seth Bates

Faculty Publications

For the past two years, faculty at San Jose State University (SJSU) have implemented a three- semester minicurriculum in Product Design and Manufacturing. The project follows the Project- Based Learning (PBL) model and is central to the Certificate Program in Product Design in the Mechanical Engineering Department, the Manufacturing Systems concentration in the Department of Aviation and Technology, and the Industrial Design Program in the School of Art and Design. Students in the three courses in the minicurriculum face design challenges while being instructed about the constraints of manufacturability. In each course, students develop three to four products. All products …

A Shift In Teaching Methodology: From Instructor Led To Student Driven Multimedia Instruction, Patricia Backer

Faculty Publications

Multimedia can be a powerful tool in exploring the nature of the world around us, including its technological systems. This paper describes the design, development, and evaluation of self- paced multimedia and web-based modules that are used in an advanced General Education (GE) course in the College of Engineering at San José State University. The design and development cycle of these modules began in 1994 and spanned nine years. The General Education course, Technology and Civilization (TECH 198), is designed to introduce students to the realm of history and usage of technology in society and to increase their awareness of …

How To Start A University Business Plan Competition: The Experience Of San Jose State University, Michael Solt, Asbjorn Osland, Anuradha Basu

Faculty Publications

San Jose State University’s Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship has hosted a business plan competition for the last two academic years. The purpose of the Silicon Valley Business Plan Competition (SVBPC) is to stimulate interest in entrepreneurship among students and help to create new start-ups. The winners have typically been MBA students with an engineering background. This paper documents the process of planning and implementing the SVBPC as it has evolved at San Jose State University (SJSU), the resources required, and the key challenges encountered in organizing this annual event and widening participation in the competition. The paper reports on …

San Jose State University Based Incubators: Loosely Coupled Elements In Silicon Valley’S Entrepreneurial System, Asbjorn Osland, Burton Dean

Faculty Publications

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency (RDA) fostered and continues to nurture incubators. In partnership with the RDA, San Jose State University (SJSU), through its Foundation, operates four fairly autonomous loosely coupled university based incubators (UBIs). Their primary mission is to develop start-ups. They also provide excellent learning opportunities for students. What they have not done is commercialize university or faculty intellectual property. The incubator directors are experienced business people who have the business acumen to nurture start-ups successfully, which they have done. The RDA, SJSU, the UBIs, and the incubator directors are all part of the entrepreneurial system that characterizes …

Integration Of Computer-Based Electronics Laboratory In A Control Systems Course, Julio Garcia, Patricia Backer

Faculty Publications

The goal of this project is to adapt the work of other researchers to improve the delivery of electronics lecture and laboratory content in the Electronics & Computer Technology (ECT) area of the BS in Industrial Technology at San Jose State University. There are several other demographic factors that serve to make the delivery of instruction challenging for the department. Approximately 70% of ECT students work at least 30 hours a week. SJSU also has a diverse student population with 62% of all undergraduates identified as having non-White ethnicity. A higher percentage (69%) of the undergraduate students in the BSIT …

Development Of Project-Based Introductory To Materials Engineering Modules, Stacy Gleixner, Elliot Douglas, Olivia Graeve, Hilary Lackritz, Laura Demsetz, Amy Moll

Faculty Publications

This paper will discuss the progress of curriculum development under an NSF, CCLI-EMD sponsored work, “Development of Project-Based Introductory to Materials Engineering Modules” (DUE # #0341633). A multi-university team of faculty are developing six lecture and three laboratory modules for use in Introductory to Materials courses. This course is required by most engineering programs in the U.S., with an annual enrollment of 50,000 students. This freshman/ sophomore class is an ideal place to excite students about their engineering majors and expose them to engineering design experiences. PRIME Modules, Project Based Resources for Introduction to Materials Engineering, are being developed that …

Beyond Interdisciplinarity, Interactivity, And Interoperability: Some Options For Digital Libraries Education, Anita Coleman

Faculty Publications

This is a presentation delivered at the Developing a Digital Libraries Education Program Workshop on June 7th held in conjunction with the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries 2005, June 7-11 at Denver, CO. It is based on Coleman's paper titled Beyond Interdisciplinarity, published in D-Lib Magazine, 2002. The D-Lib paper discussed how interdisciplinarity was used as the primary strategy to develop a Knowledge Organization track at the School of Information Resources & Library Science at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Besides highlighting some aspects of the paper, the presentation also draws on two other papers published in D-Lib Magazine …

Taking Tough Choices Seriously: Public Administration And Individual Moral Agency, Ciarán O’Kelly, Melvin J. Dubnick

Faculty Publications

Using the concepts of thick and thin relationships as the basis for ethical behavior, this paper critiques the emphasis on discretion in the mainstream administrative ethics literature and argues that moral and other dilemmas facing public administrators provides a more useful frame. Two examples drawn from the UK Hutton Investigation into the death of David Kelly are used to demonstrate the relevance and usefulness of this approach.

Active Contours Using A Constraint-Based Implicit Representation, Weiming Liu, Bryan S. Morse, Kalpathi Subramanian, Terry S. Yoo

Faculty Publications

We present a new constraint-based implicit active contour, which shares desirable properties of both parametric and implicit active contours. Like parametric approaches, their representation is compact and can be manipulated interactively. Like other implicit approaches, they can naturally adapt to non-simple topologies. Unlike implicit approaches using level-set methods, representation of the contour does not require a dense mesh. Instead, it is based on specified on-curve and off-curve constraints, which are interpolated using radial basis functions. These constraints are evolved according to specified forces drawn from the relevant literature of both parametric and implicit approaches. This new type of active contour …

A Scenario-Based Performance Evaluation Of Multicast Routing Protocols For Ad Hoc Networks, Manoj Pandey, Daniel Zappala

Faculty Publications

Current ad hoc multicast routing protocols have been designed to build and maintain a tree or mesh in the face of a mobile environment, with fast reaction to network changes in order to minimize packet loss. However, the performance of these protocols has not been adequately examined under realistic scenarios. Existing performance studies generally use a single, simple mobility model, with low density and often very low traffic rates. In this paper we explore the performance of ad hoc multicast routing protocols under scenarios that include realistic mobility patterns, high density and high traffic load. We use these scenarios to …

The Delphi Method, Linda Stone Fish, Dean M. Busby

Faculty Publications

Dear Reader,

We would like to ask your help in a research study of considerable significance for family therapy researchers and clinicians. The present study is designed to compare and contrast the various research methodologies in the field by examine the opinions of prominent family therapists. The completion of the three questionnaires that will make up this study will require a total of no more than 1 1/2 hours of your time. In appreciation of your participation, a complete summary of the findings and a list of the other panelists will be sent to you.

This study will employ the …

Effects Of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor On 3t3-L1 Adipocytes, Jessica C. Hogan, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a member of the gp130 cytokine family and signals through the receptor complex of gp130 and the LIF receptor (LIFR) to activate the JAK/STAT signaling cascade. Since LIF activates STATs 1 and 3 in adipocytes, we examined the effects of LIF on 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Our studies clearly demonstrate that LIF treatment had minimal effects on adipocyte differentiation as judged by marker gene expression, but did inhibit triacylglyceride (TAG) accumulation during adipogenesis. Acute treatment with LIF resulted in increased expression of suppressors of cytokine signaling-3 (SOCS3) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-δ (C/EBPδ) mRNA in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Moreover, the …

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Of Cancer: Current Status And Future Prospects, Rolf F. Barth, Jeffrey A. Coderre, M. Graça H. Vicente, Thomas E. Blue

Faculty Publications

Background: Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on the nuclear reaction that occurs when boron-10 is irradiated with low-energy thermal neutrons to yield high linear energy transfer α particles and recoiling lithium-7 nuclei. Clinical interest in BNCT has focused primarily on the treatment of high-grade gliomas and either cutaneous primaries or cerebral metastases of melanoma, most recently, head and neck and liver cancer. Neutron sources for BNCT currently are limited to nuclear reactors and these are available in the United States, Japan, several European countries, and Argentina. Accelerators also can be used to produce epithermal neutrons and these are …

Two Hundred Years Of Young Adult Library Services: A Chronology, Anthony Bernier, M. K. Chelton, C. A. Jenkins, J. B. Pierce

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Forest Fire Monitoring With Multiple Small Uavs, David W. Casbeer, Randal W. Beard, Timothy W. Mclain, Sai-Ming Li, Raman K. Mehra

Faculty Publications

Frequent and detailed updates of the development of a forest fire are essential for effective and safe fire fighting. Since a forest fire is typically inaccessible by ground vehicles due to mountainous terrain, small Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as a promising solution to the problem of monitoring large forest fires. In this paper we present an effective path planning algorithm for a UAV utilizing infrared images that are collected on-board in realtime. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our path planning algorithm in realistic scenarios, we implemented the forest fire propagation model EMBYR to simulate the time …

Credit Cards As Lifestyle Facilitators, Matthew J. Bernthal, David Crockett, Randall L. Rose

Faculty Publications

Credit cards are an increasingly essential technology, but they carry with them the paradoxical capacity to propel consumers along lifestyle trajectories of marketplace freedom or constraint. We analyze accounts provided by consumers, credit counselors, and participants in a credit counseling seminar in order to develop a differentiated theory of lifestyle facilitation through credit card practice. The skills and tastes expressed by credit card practice help distinguish between the lifestyles of those with higher cultural capital relative to those with lower cultural capital. Differences in lifestyle regulation practice are posited to originate in cultural discourses related to entitlement and frugality.

Differentiation Between Melt And Freeze Stages Of The Melt Cycle Using Ssm/I Channel Ratios, David G. Long, Ivan S. Ashcraft

Faculty Publications

Microwave remote sensing detection of snow melt and ablation generally focuses on the detection of liquid moisture in the snow-pack. For ablation estimation, it is important to determine if wet snow is in the process of melting or freezing. The different stages of the melt cycle are observed in the diurnal variation of Tb measurements from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) over Greenland. SSM/I channel ratios exhibit patterns indicating that they are sensitive to melt and freeze stages of the daily melt cycle. The horizontal to vertical polarization ratio is sensitive to surface wetness associated with melting. The 19-37-GHz …

Information Technology, Cognition, And Communication, Anita Coleman

Faculty Publications

This is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation of about 27 slides used in conjunction with a talk at UCI-CRITO on 18 May 2005, and the research reported is from a previously published study of mine. Information technology is varied and human use and impact can be examined at different levels. I report on a study that examines the ubiquitous hyperlinks as instruments of cognition in e-learning.  

Generalist Function In Intelligence Analysis, F. Matthew Mihelic

Faculty Publications

While there has been an increasing need to integrate and synthesize the rapidly expanding complexity within intelligence analysis, there has developed an antithetical contemporary deemphasis of generalist orientation and function that can decrease analytical effectiveness. Increases in knowledge and information have naturally led to an increased demand for specialization with consequent increased influence of specialty experts, but this has been at the expense of generalist function, which is becoming increasingly limited to progressively higher administrative levels. A generalist is more than an individual with an eclectic background, rather, successful generalists are best understood by their functional characteristics which include a …

Phytochrome Evolution In Green And Nongreen Plants, Sarah Mathews

Faculty Publications

Photoreceptors are critical molecules that function at the interface between organism and environment. Plants use specific light signals to determine their place in time and space, allowing them to synchronize their growth, metabolism, and development to the environments in which they occur. Thus, innovation in light sensing mechanisms is expected to coincide with adaptation and diversification. Three studies involving the well-characterized phytochrome photoreceptor system in plants indicate that much work is yet needed to test this expectation. In early diverging dowering plants, episodic positive selection influenced the evolution of phytochrome A, but little of the functional data needed to link …

Transformative Professional Development: Negotiating Knowledge With An Inquiry Stance, Amy Donnelly, Denise N. Morgan, Diane E. Deford, Janet Files, Susi Long, Heidi Mills, Diane Stephens, Mary E. Styslinger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Using Computer-Mediated Communication To Establish Social And Supportive Environments In Teacher Education, Nike Arnold, Lara Ducate, Lara Lomicka, Gillian Lord

Faculty Publications

This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning communities among foreign language teachers. We present the findings of two studies investigating cross-institutional asynchronous forums created to engage participants in online dialogues regarding their foreign language teacher preparation experiences in and out of the classroom. Both studies took place during Fall 2003 and were conducted between first-time teacher/graduate students in four methodology courses at three large state universities. In the first study, students participated in weekly online exchanges in the form of dialogue journals for reflective teaching. In the second study, students were provided with specific topics to address using …

Validation Of A Brief Telephone Battery For Neurocognitive Assessment Of Patients With Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, Ramona O. Hopkins, Joanne White, Jennifer Mortensen, Darren B. Taichman, Jason Christie, Rosette Biester, Sandra Kaplan, John Hansen-Flaschen, Harold I. Palevsky, C. Gregory Elliott

Faculty Publications

The effects of pulmonary arterial hypertension on brain function are not understood, despite patients' frequent complaints of cognitive difficulties. Using clinical instruments normally administered during standard in-person assessment of neurocognitive function in adults, we assembled a battery of tests designed for administration over the telephone. The purpose was to improve patient participation, facilitate repeated test administration, and reduce the cost of research on the neuropsychological consequences of acute and chronic cardiorespiratory diseases. We undertook this study to validate telephone administration of the tests. Methods: 23 adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension underwent neurocognitive assessment using both standard in-person and telephone test …

Tb3+-Doped K Pb2Br5: Low-Energy Phonon Mid-Infrared Laser Crystal, U. N. Roy, R. H. Hawrami, Y. Cui, S. Morgan, A. Burger, K. C. Mandal, C. C. Noblitt, S. A. Speakman, K. Rademaker, S. A. Payne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.