Digital Commons Network^™

Radiative Neutron Β-Decay In Effective Field Theory, Susan Gardner, Véronique Bernard, Chi Zhang

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

We consider radiative β-decay of the neutron in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. Nucleon-structure effects not encoded in the weak coupling constants g_A and g_V are determined at next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion, and enter at the O(0.5%)-level, making a sensitive test of the Dirac structure of the weak currents possible.

Music, Mediation, And Superstrings: The Quest For Universal Harmony, John W. Cooley

Journal of Dispute Resolution

It is my thesis that to be an effective mediator, one needs to be a musician at heart (if not in fact)-both a composer and performer. Music is what a mediator does-what a mediator makes. To design or perform well, a mediator must at least understand music composition and performance in all its aspects. A mediator has no choice in the matter, because music, in a broad sense, permeates nature and is considered to be the quintessential ingredient of all matter and energy-of everything or unthing in the universe. To understand how music relates to what he or she does, …

Institutional Data Book 2004-2005, University Of Minnesota, Morris Office Of Institutional Research

Institutional Effectiveness and Research Reports

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Learning Centers And Interactive Bulletin Boards On Student Vocabulary Word Knowledge, Kristin Marie Schleher

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to determine the effect of different vocabulary strategies on student comprehension. A main focus of the research is to determine the impact of learning centers and interactive bulletin boards in helping students develop word knowledge in the subject area of social studies. This study takes place in a fourth grade general education classroom in an elementary school in southern New Jersey. The research includes qualitative data from student surveys and interviews, and teacher questionnaires and interviews, as well as the two vocabulary interventions: a learning center and an interactive bulletin board. The students completed …

Harmonic Generation In Thin Films And Multilayers, William S. Kolthammer '04, Dustin Barnard '03, Nicole Carson, Aaron D. Edens '00, Nathan A. Miller '01, Peter N. Saeta

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

A general method for computing harmonic generation in reflection and transmission from planar nonmagnetic multilayer structures is described. The method assumes plane waves and treats harmonic generation in the parametric approximation. The method is applied in studying the second- and third-harmonic generation properties of thin crystal silicon layers surrounded by thermal oxide. Most independent components of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor have unique signatures with silicon layer thickness d, allowing their strength to be determined in principle by measuring harmonic generation as a function of d. Surface and bulk contributions to third-harmonic generation are cleanly distinguished, with the bulk signal dominating. …

Development Of Duration Models To Determine Rolling Stock Fleet Size, Christopher R. Cherry

Journal of Public Transportation

Transit agencies are looking for analytical tools to improve their rolling stock maintenance programs and fleet size. If agencies underestimate the number of buses out of service for maintenance at any given time, they cannot adequately cover all scheduled service. If agencies overestimate the number of buses requiring maintenance, they overcapitalize the rolling stock fleet, resulting in an inefficient allocation of scarce funds. This article presents a methodology for using a fully parametric duration model to determine the expected amount of time a vehicle is in service and out of service. Additionally, the transition probabilities are calculated using the hazard …

Group Key Distribution Via Local Collaboration In Wireless Sensor Networks, Anuj Chadha

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Wireless sensor networks have been recognized as one of the most important technologies in the networking world. Security of sensor networks is one of the major concerns today. To this end, a whole suite of protocols have been designed to provide various security features which includes key management. This thesis covers the issue of group key management in wireless sensor networks. Traditional cryptographic techniques can be used to provide communication privacy and integrity, but do not provide scalable solutions to group key management. A group key management scheme for sensor networks has been discussed that targets at fast response to …

Distributed Streaming For Video On Demand, Shraddha Rumade

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

With the advent of digital media, implementing reliable Video on Demand (VoD) systems over the best effort Internet is a potential issue. Distributed streaming for Video on Demand presents a combination of two techniques. The first being Distributed Video Streaming using Multicast (DVSM) [1] involves video streaming from multiple servers to overcome path congestion. The second technique, Asynchronous Hybrid mechanism for Video on Demand [2] implements segmentation-based periodic broadcast to effectively share network bandwidth. In this work we aim at providing path diversity of multiple senders and maximizing bandwidth sharing via multicast. We exploit alternate paths in case of congestion …

Statistical Analysis Of Rock Fabrics, Boris Avdeev

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The main goal of the work is to present new procedures for statistical analysis of fabric data for structural geology. After an introduction to the problems of orientation analysis, discussion of different types of the orientation data and a brief review of the existing techniques and statistics for the orientation data, a comprehensive discussion of several proposed methods is given. The first part of the methodology chapter states a general model in terms of a structural frame and introduces some notation. The second part is a detailed description of a pooled estimator, which is intended to assess a structural frame …

The Least-Squares Finite Element Method For Grid Deformation And Meshfree Applications, Dionisio Laeber Fleitas

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Grid adaptation is often needed to improve the numerical solution of a Partial Differential Equation (PDE), due to, for example, shock waves and boundary layers. In moving boundary problems, the grid needs to be regenerated or adapted to fit the new domain. In this work, a LSFEM deformation method is developed for grid generation on fixed or moving domains. The LSFEM is a finite-elements method which seeks to minimize the PDE residual equation through the least-squares method. A new class of numerical methods currently being researched is the meshfree methods, in which the main goal is to numerically solve PDEs …

The Probe, Issue 239 – July/August 2005

The Probe: Newsletter of the National Animal Damage Control Association

The Conceptual Feminization of of Wildlife in the USA -- Dexter K. Oliver
Product Announcement: Coyote Damage & Control in Rural & Urban Settings
Looking for Missing Issues of The PROBE
Video Review: “MOLES: Removal Made Simple!” with Alan A. Huot. By Wildlife Control Supplies. LLC. 43 minutes. VHS Retail $49.95
“Big Cats” Seen Once Again in Kansas: Mountain lion sightings are increasing in frequency in Kansas, a state where the last “verified” report of a cougar was in 1904.

Automating Inhabitant Interactions In Home And Workplace Environments Through Data-Driven Generation Of Hierarchical Partially-Observable Markov Decision Processes, Gregory Michael Youngblood

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Markov models provide a useful representation of system behavioral actions and state observations, but they do not scale well. Utilizing a hierarchy and abstraction through hierarchical hidden Markov models (HHMMs) improves scalability, but these structures are usually constructed manually using knowledge engineering techniques. We introduce a new method of automatically constructing HHMMs using the output of a sequential data-mining algorithm, Episode Discovery, and apply it to solving automation problems in the intelligent environment domain. Repetitive behavioral actions in sensor rich environments such as smart homes can be observed and categorized into periodic and frequent episodes through data-mining techniques utilizing the …

Institutional Data Book 2004-2005, University Of Minnesota, Morris Office Of Institutional Research

Campus Documents and Reports

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Investigation To Detect The Presence Of Confirmation Bias In The Decision-Making Strategies Used By Litigants In Tax Court Memorandum Cases, Mary M. Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations

Normative decision theory describes the judgment and decision-making process as a cost/benefit analysis based upon maximum utility. One assumption of the theory is full rationality for choices made throughout the process. Due to bounded rationality, however, mental shortcuts become necessary. Use of these shortcuts does not necessarily diminish the quality of the decision. However, a suboptimal use of a heuristic results in a biased decision.

Kahneman and Tversky (1979) identify three basic heuristics: availability, representativeness, and anchoring and adjusting. One suboptimal use of the anchoring and adjusting heuristic, confirmation bias, is the unconscious search for and evaluation of information that …

Modeling, Design, And Validation Of Fluorescent Spherical Enzymatic Glucose Microsensors Using Nanoengineered Polyelectrolyte Coatings, Jonathan Quincy Brown

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, the modeling, design, and function of fluorescent spherical enzymatic microsensors for minimally-invasive diabetic monitoring are described. The devices reported herein are novel and their experimental construction and theoretical analysis have not been previously reported, thus laying the foundation for an intensive set of studies. These sensors are based on the encapsulation of an enzymatic fluorescent assay for glucose within hydrogel alginate microspheres with diameters on the order of tens of microns, which are of the appropriate size for intradermal implantation. A novel feature of these sensors is the use of multifunctional nanoengineered ultrathin multilayer polyelectrolyte coatings on …

Does Maine’S Middle School Laptop Program Improve Learning?, David L. Silvernail Phd

Education Technology

No abstract provided.

On Embedding Machine-Processable Semantics Into Documents, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

Most Web and legacy paper-based documents are available in human comprehensible text form, not readily accessible to or understood by computer programs. Here, we investigate an approach to amalgamate XML technology with programming languages for representational purposes that can enhance traceability, thereby facilitating semiautomatic extraction and update. Specifically, we propose a modular technique to embed machine-processable semantics into a text document with tabular data via annotations, resulting sometimes in ill-formed XML fragments, and evaluate this technique vis a vis document querying, manipulation, and integration. The ultimate aim is to be able to author and extract human-readable and machine-comprehensible parts of …

Good Measures On Cantor Space, Ethan Akin

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

While there is, up to homeomorphism, only one Cantor space, i.e. one zero-dimensional, perfect, compact, nonempty metric space, there are many measures on Cantor space which are not topologically equivalent. The clopen values set for a full, nonatomic measure μ is the countable dense subset {μ(U): U is clopen} of the unit interval. It is a topological invariant for the measure. For the class of good measures, it is a complete invariant. A full, nonatomic measure μ is good if whenever U, V are clopen sets with μ(U) < μ(V), there exists W a clopen subset of V such that μ(W) = μ(U). These measures have interesting dynamical properties. They are exactly the measures which arise from uniquely ergodic minimal systems on Cantor space. For some of them there is a unique generic measure-preserving homeomorphism. That is, within the Polish group of such homeomorphisms there is a dense, G δ conjugacy class. ©2004 American Mathematical Society.

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V01n2, Summer 2005, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--EPA Award for Program Director

--Reflections of the Iowa Teacher of the Year

--Opportunities for Teachers

--The Putnam Museum of History and Natural Science

--Inventing Flight: A Workshop for Science Teachers

--IAS Honors New Fellows

--2005 ISTS Fall Conference Update

Melting Temperature Of Ice IH Calculated From Coexisting Solid-Liquid Phases, J. Wang, S. Yoo, Jaeil Bai, James R. Morris, Xiao Cheng Zeng

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to compute the melting temperature (T_m) of ice I_h with both TIP4P and TIP5P models by using the two-phase coexistence method and to compare with previously obtained T_m; (2) to compute the T_m using recently improved TIP4P and TIP5P models, namely, the TIP4P-Ew (Ref. 6) and TIP5P-Ew (Ref. 7) models. Both models are developed specifically for use with Ewald techniques. The TIP4P-Ew model, in particular, has shown substantial improvement over the original TIP4P model as it can reproduce the density maximum at about 274 K, …

The Use Of Multi-Beam Sonars To Image Bubbly Ship Wakes, R Lee Culver, Thomas C. Weber, David L. Bradley

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

During the past five years, researchers at Penn State University (PSU) have used upward-looking multi-beam (MB) sonar to image the bubbly wakes of surface ships. In 2000, a 19-beam, 5° beam width, 120° sector, 250 kHz MB sonar integrated into an autonomous vehicle was used to obtain a first-of-a-kind look at the three-dimensional variability of bubbles in a large ship wake. In 2001 we acquired a Reson 8101 MB sonar, which operates at 240 kHz and features 101-1.5º beams spanning a 150º sector. In July 2002, the Reson sonar was deployed looking upward from a 1.4 m diameter buoy moored …

Response Letter Regarding: “A Secrecy Primer” (May/June 2005 Bulletin), David W. Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

The Reflection Property In Normed Linear Planes With Applications To Generalized Conics, Edward J. O'Neill, Mostafa Ghandehari

Mathematics Technical Papers - Archive

The ancient Greek mathematician Heron was the first to solve the problem of finding the shortest path from point A to point B on one side of the line L, subject to the condition that the path goes from A to L and then to B (figure 1). Figure 1. His solution involved going from A to point R on L and then to B such that the line segments AR and BR make equal angles with L. This is exactly the path a light ray from A to B if L were a mirror. Heron included this proposition in …

The University Of Texas At Arlington Undergraduate Catalog 2005-2007, The University Of Texas At Arlington

UTA Undergraduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

A Conceptual Framework For Digital Libraries For K-12 Mathematics Education: Part 1, Information Organization, Information Literacy, And Integrated Learning, Hsin-Liang Chen, Philip Doty

University Libraries Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article is the first of two that present a six-part conceptual framework for the design and evaluation of digital libraries meant to support mathematics education in K-12 settings (see also pt. 2). This first article concentrates on (1) information organization, (2) information literacy, and (3) integrated learning with multimedia materials. The second article reviews (4) adoption of new standards for mathematics education, (5) integration of pertinent changes in educational policy, and (6) ensuring pedagogic and political accountability. Each article concludes with specific recommendations for digital libraries meant to support K-12 mathematics education appropriate to the topics the article discusses. …

Full Issue 8(3)

Journal of Public Transportation

No abstract provided.

On Discounting Regulatory Benefits: Risk, Money, And Ingergenerational Equity, Cass R. Sunstein, Arden Rowell

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

There is an elaborate debate over the practice of "discounting" regulatory benefits, such as environmental improvements and decreased risks to health and life, when those benefits will not be enjoyed until some future date. Economists tend to think that, as a general rule, such benefits should be discounted in the same way as money; many philosophers and lawyers doubt that conclusion on empirical and normative grounds. Both sides neglect a simple point: Once government has converted regulatory benefits into monetary equivalents, what is being discounted is merely money, not regulatory benefits as such. No one seeks to discount health and …

Ua64/2 The Challenge: Magazine Of The Center For Gifted Studies (No. 15, Summer 2005), Center For Gifted Studies, Tracy Inman Editor

Gifted Studies Publications

No abstract provided.

The Fiscal Management Of Compensation Programs, K. Dow Scott, Thomas Mcmullen, Richard S. Sperling

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Towards Tiny Trusted Third Parties, Alexander Iliev, Sean Smith

Computer Science Technical Reports

Many security protocols hypothesize the existence of a {\em trusted third party (TTP)} to ease handling of computation and data too sensitive for the other parties involved. Subsequent discussion usually dismisses these protocols as hypothetical or impractical, under the assumption that trusted third parties cannot exist. However, the last decade has seen the emergence of hardware-based devices that, to high assurance, can carry out computation unmolested; emerging research promises more. In theory, such devices can perform the role of a trusted third party in real-world problems. In practice, we have found problems. The devices aspire to be general-purpose processors but …