Digital Commons Network^™

Scale, Ecological Fallacy, And The River Continuum Concept, Hope M. Childers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Concern over scale is not new, and it is not restricted to geographers. Spatial and temporal scaling is a conceptual and methodological problem for all sciences using geographic information. This paper teases out issues of scale and ecological fallacy from the literature and discusses how these issues influence the applicability of an influential theoretical framework in stream ecology, the River Continuum Concept (RCC). Investigators are faced with decisions regarding scale during sampling location selection, field data capture, and subsequent data interpretation. A thorough understanding of the heterogeneity of stream habitats and the life histories of the organisms being studied could …

Dynamical Analysis Of Infant Social Referencing, Melissa Sue Atkins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of the present study was to examine relations between joint attention, language, maternal sensitivity, and temperament and the emergence of social referencing in infants and to closely observe variability in social referencing. Five infants, 7 months of age, were observed on a weekly basis for a period of four months. All five infants were engaging in social referencing behavior at the beginning of the study, which is much earlier than the literature indicates; therefore, the onset of the behavior was missed. However, results did indicate variability in social referencing behavior, in that infants referenced more in the laboratory …

Determination Of Phenols In Water Using Solid Phase Microextraction And Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy And Measurement Of Distribution Constants For Solid Phase Microextraction Using A Successive Extraction Technique, Betsy J. Bannier

Theses and Dissertations

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) is an effective method for concentrating organic compounds prior to analysis by a variety of detection methods, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography (GC). The first part of this work focused on the selection of an infrared-compatible solid phase that would partition phenols out of aqueous solutions. The criteria we employed dictated that potential solid phases be polar yet insoluble in water, have open regions in their IR spectra between 400-1200 cm·', 3010-3095 cm·', or 3200-3650 cm·' and be less than 200 μm thick.

Infrared spectra of a variety of proprietary epoxies and …

Observation Of Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Associated With Delta Ii Rocket Emissions, Martin N. Ross, Darin W. Toohey, W. T. Rawlins, E. C. Richard, K. K. Kelly, A. F. Tuck, M. H. Proffitt, Donald E. Hagen, Alfred R. Hopkins, Philip D. Whitefield, J. R. Benbrook, W. R. Sheldon

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ozone, chlorine monoxide, methane, and submicron particulate concentrations were measured in the stratospheric plume wake of a Delta II rocket powered by a combination of solid (NH₄ClO₄/Al) and liquid (LOX/kerosene) propulsion systems. We apply a simple kinetics model describing the main features of gas-phase chlorine reactions in solid propellant exhaust plumes to derive the abundance of total reactive chlorine in the plume and estimate the associated cumulative ozone loss. Measured ozone loss during two plume encounters (12 and 39 minutes after launch) exceeded the estimate by about a factor of about two. Insofar as only the …

Reliability-Based Method For Stability Of Mine Entry Design And Evaluation, Zhouming (Victor) Sun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Variability in the physical properties of coal/rock is a major source of uncertainty encountered around mining environment. It causes a considerable variation in strength/stress estimations of mining structures when the coal/rock properties are used. Therefore, the conventional safety factor method on stability assessment of mining structures is a special case of the more general probabilistic method in that it assumes the variability of coal/rock properties is zero. Although the use of probability and statistical methods in the analysis and design of geotechnical structures has grown rapidly in recent years, its application to mining structure design has been slow due to …

Assessment And Grading Practices Among High School Band Teachers In The United States: A Descriptive Study, Edward G. Simanton

Theses and Dissertations

The recent movement in academic reform and accountability has brought assessment and grading to the forefront in most academic disciplines. While assessment and grading appear to be important topics in music education professional journals, little is known about actual practice or local satisfaction with current practices. Findings from a few small regional assessment and grading studies indicated that assessment practices tended to diverge from currently understood best practices; for example, attendance was the primary source of grading information.

The purposes of this study were to (a) examine current assessment and grading practices in American high school bands, (b) gauge local …

A Child Centered Approach To Education, Carolyn J. Fischer

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Inference Engine-Based Subscription Service, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

A Distributed Network Architecture (DNA) forms the basis of many decision-support systems available today. Such architecture excels at providing an application environment rich in transparency, performance, and expandability (Gray and Lievano 1997). However, efforts at the Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center in San Luis Obispo, California have found that for this architecture to be successfully applied to agent-based, decision-support systems two additional ingredients must be present, namely a query service and a subscription service. These two mechanisms support the extensive collaboration inherent in agent-based, decision-support systems. Although primarily utilized as a means of agent-to-agent interaction these two services can …

Collection Development Annual Report 1999-2000, William T. O'Malley

Collection Development Reports and Documents

Annual report of collection development activities for 1999-2000 in the University Library, University of Rhode Island.

Adapting To The Information Age, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper draws attention to the profound changes that human civilization is experiencing as it moves from an industrial environment into an information environment, in which unprecedented emphasis is placed on the knowledge and capabilities of the individual. A clear distinction is drawn between data and information in relationship to computer-based facilities, and the transition of data-processing to the higher levels of information and knowledge representation in quasi intelligent decision-support systems. It is argued that the cultivation of its human capital becomes a foundational requirement for the success of a knowledge-based organization. In such an organization traditional practices of hierarchical, …

July 31, 2000 Reporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Mechanical Mouse Lure For Brown Treesnakes, Alexandria C. Lindberg, John A. Shivik, Larry Clark

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The importance of prey movement for stimulating feeding behavior of Brown Treesnakes was tested by using a mechanical mouse model in combination with and without prey odor. Prey movement was found to be important in stimulating brown treesnake feeding behavior. Prey movement combined with prey odor was not significantly different than prey movement alone. In the development of simple artificial lures based on the stimulus of live mice, visual lures lacking movement are likely to be ineffective. Lures that combine a visual moving stimulus with prey odor are likely to be the most effective artificial lure for trapping brown treesnakes.

The Problematic Role Of Dna Testing In Unraveling Human History, John L. Sorenson

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Over the last century, new techniques of scientific analysis have been developed that have been applied with the intent to clarify the course of human history. Immediately after World War II, blood group data seemed to provide a magic key to open up the history of the world’s populations, but by the 1960s such studies were shown to be unrealistic and misleading. The new tool in human biology and anthropology is DNA analysis. Despite cautions from the best scientists about the limits the new findings have for interpreting human history, some enthusiasts continue to claim too much for DNA study.

Deafdigest Gold: Vol. 4, No. 52 July 30, 2000, Barry Strassler

DeafDigest Gold 2000

No abstract provided.

42nd Rocky Mountain Conference On Analytical Chemistry

Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance

Abstracts from the 42nd annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Conference on Analytical Chemistry, co-sponsored by the Colorado Section of the American Chemical Society and the Rocky Mountain Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. Held in Broomfield, Colorado, July 30 - August 3, 2000.

Epscor Year 4 And Year 5, Hank Lehrer, Brent D. Bowen

Reports

Native Impact - Reports - EPSCoR Year 4 and Year 5

Commencement Convocation Exercises - July 2000, Prairie View A&M University

Commencement and Convocation Exercises

No abstract provided.

2000 Summer Commencement, Harding University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Commencement on July 29.

Commencement Speaker: Harold Smethills

Driven Vortices In Confined Geometry: The Corbino Disk, M. Cristina Marchetti

Physics - All Scholarship

The fabrication of artificial pinning structures allows a new generation of experiments which can probe the properties of vortex arrays by forcing them to flow in confined geometries. We discuss the theoretical analysis of such experiments in both flux liquids and flux solids, focusing on the Corbino disk geometry. In the liquid, these experiments can probe the critical behavior near a continuous liquid-glass transition. In the solid, they probe directly the onset of plasticity.

Soundings 2000-07-28 (V.13 No.15), N/A N/A

Soundings

No abstract provided.

The Inkwell, Armstrong Atlantic State University

The Inkwell

No abstract provided.

Final Quantum Nf State Analysis For Multiply Charged Ion-Circular Rydberg Target Collisions, K. R. Cornelius, Ronald E. Olson

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The classical trajectory Monte Carlo method has been used to simulate fully stripped ion-circular Rydberg atom collisions. We report that the mechanisms that govern the capture process for ions colliding with aligned Rydberg targets, namely direct and indirect velocity matching, alternate as to which is dominant. Previous experimental and theoretical results for singly charged ion-Rydberg atom collisions demonstrate that direct capture processes dominate at intermediate collision speeds. We have found that for highly charged ion-Rydberg atom collisions electron capture via indirect velocity matching is dominant at intermediate collision speeds and contributes up to 90% of the total capture cross-section.

The Daily Egyptian, July 27, 2000, Daily Egyptian Staff

July 2000

No abstract provided.

Summer Mustang, July 27, 2000

Cal Poly Student Newspaper

Student newspaper of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Trajectory Mapping: A Tool For Validation Of Trace Gas Observations, Gary A. Morris, James F. Gleason, Jerald Ziemke, Mark R. Schoeberl

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We investigate the effectiveness of trajectory mapping(TM) as a data validation tool. TM combines a dynamical model of the atmosphere with trace gas observations to provide more statistically robust estimates of instrument performance over much broader geographic areas than traditional techniques are able to provide. We present four detailed case studies selected so that the traditional techniques are expected to work well. In each case the TM results are equivalent to or improve upon the measurement comparisons performed with traditional approaches. The TM results are statistically more robust than those achieved using traditional approaches since the TM comparisons occur over …

Western News, July 27, 2000, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: New indoor athletic center will be named for Don Seelye, Lansing Regional Center moves to new home next week, Diversity is focus of Aug 16-17 program.

An Evaluation Of Coastal Community Response To Sea Level Rise On The Delmarva Peninsula, Timothy Villanueva

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the response of coastal community comprehensive plans to the threats posed by sea level rise. The communities evaluated are Chincoteague, VA, Ocean City, MD, and Rehoboth Beach, DE. The results of the evaluations illustrate to what extent these communities are prepared to deal with sea level rise and provide a basis for recommendations to improve plan quality. The level of community risk and the components of the individual comprehensive plans are evaluated using new models created for this project. Risk level is measured using computer disaster simulations, topographic and demographic data. The …

The Inefficiency Of Batch Training For Large Training Sets, Tony R. Martinez, D. Randall Wilson

Faculty Publications

Multilayer perceptrons are often trained using error backpropagation (BP). BP training can be done in either a batch or continuous manner. Claims have frequently been made that batch training is faster and/or more "correct" than continuous training because it uses a better approximation of the true gradient for its weight updates. These claims are often supported by empirical evidence on very small data sets. These claims are untrue, however, for large training sets. This paper explains why batch training is much slower than continuous training for large training sets. Various levels of semi-batch training used on a 20,000-instance speech recognition …

Rescaling The Energy Function In Hopfield Networks, Tony R. Martinez, Xinchuan Zeng

Faculty Publications

In this paper we propose an approach that rescales the distance matrix of the energy function in the Hopfield network for solving optimization problems. We rescale the distance matrix by normalizing each row in the matrix and then adjusting the parameter for the distance term. This scheme has the capability of reducing the effects of clustering in data distributions, which is one of main reasons for the formation of invalid solutions. We evaluate this approach through a large number (20,000) simulations based on 200 randomly generated city distributions of the 10-city traveling salesman problem. The result shows that, compared to …

State Standards, Socio-Fiscal Context And Opportunity To Learn In New Jersey, William A. Firestone, Gregory Camilli, Michele Yurecko, Lora Monfils, David Mayrowetz

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

A survey of 245 New Jersey teachers provides a baseline for examining how the introduction of state standards and assessments affects the teaching of math and science in the 4th grade. These policies are promoting teaching of additional topics in both areas. The changes in the delivery of professional development have not yet been sufficient to lead to substantial changes in instructional practice. ...