Digital Commons Network^™

Cosmology Of The Cappadocian Fathers: A Contribution To Dialogue Between Science And Theology Today, Fr. Vladimir Shmaliy

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Social Entities: An Historical-Sociological Critique, Julian Neylan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In formulating social policy the administrative arm of government relies heavily on number-based significations of knowledge, such as needs indicators and performance measures. Relying on numbers increases administrators' confidence in their decisions and shifts responsibility for error away from the decision-maker and towards the numbers. A close examination of the technology of social quantification reveals instability in many of the definitions and codes that needs analysts and program evaluators adopt when numerically inscribing social entities. To deal with these risks, bureaucracies must establish ways of explicitly assessing the uncertainty, imprecision and social construction that often lies behind the evidence presented …

The Opacity Of Spiral Galaxy Disks. Vi. Extinction, Stellar Light And Color., Benne W. Holwerda, R. A. Gonzalez, P. C. Van Der Kruit, R. J. Allen

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In this paper we explore the relation between dust extinction and stellar light distribution in disks of spiral galaxies. Extinction influences our dynamical and photometric perception of disks, since it can distort our measurement of the contribution of the stellar component. To characterize the total extinction by a foreground disk, González et al. (1998, ApJ, 506, 152) proposed the "Synthetic Field Method" (SFM), which uses the calibrated number of distant galaxies seen through the foreground disk as a direct indication of extinction. The method is described in González et al. (1998, ApJ, 506, 152) and Holwerda et al. (2005a, AJ, …

Measuring The Evolution Of The Most Stable Optical Clock G 117-B15a, S. O. Kepler, Ted Von Hippel, Et Al.

Publications

We report our measurement of the rate of change of period with time () for the 215 s periodicity in the pulsating white dwarf G 117-B15A, the most stable optical clock known. After 31 years of observations, we have finally obtained a 4 σ measurement observed = (4.27 ± 0.80) × 10-15 s s-1. Taking into account the proper-motion effect of proper = (7.0 ± 2.0) × 10-16s s-1, we obtain a rate of change of period with time of = (3.57 ± 0.82) × 10-15 s s-1. This value is consistent with the cooling rate in our white dwarf …

Book Review: Stargazer: The Life And Times Of The Telescope, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of Stargazer : the Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson. Da Capo, 2004 342p, 0306814323 $24.95

Menopause And Methodological Doubt, Sheila Spence

The Qualitative Report

Menopause and methodological doubt be gins by making a tongue-in- cheek comparison between Descartes' methodological doubt and the self- doubt that can arise around menopause. A hermeneutic approach is taken in which Cartesian dualism and its implications for the way women are viewed in society are examined, both through the experiences of women undergoing menopause and through the commentary of several contributors in Feminist Interpretations of Réné Descartes by Susan Bordo (1999). This examination is located inside the story of the paper, which was written over the duration of a university hermeneutics course, and reflects the author's evolving understanding of …

Selected Georgia High School Principals' Perceptions Of Student Diversity, Ronald James Wiggins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study was conducted to identify Georgia high school principals' perceptions of student diversity. The student demographics of many Georgia school districts and schools are changing rapidly, while some school districts and schools have not experienced much, if any, demographic change. As a result, it is important for principals to be aware of what other principals perceive as advantages and disadvantages, the types of policies/programs that impact principals in regard to student diversity as well as to be familiar with artifactual evidence that may represent an appreciation or awareness of student diversity. The data displayed in this study was gathered …

Remapping Hand Movements In A Novel Geometrical Environment, Kristine M. Mosier, Robert A. Scheidt, Santiago Acosta, Ferdinando A. Mussa-Ivaldi

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The issue of how the Euclidean properties of space are represented in the nervous system is a main focus in the study of visual perception, but is equally relevant to motor learning. The goal of our experiments was to investigate how the properties of space guide the remapping of motor coordination. Subjects wore an instrumented data glove that recorded the finger motions. Signals generated by the glove operated a remotely controlled endpoint: a cursor on a computer monitor. The subjects were instructed to execute movements of this endpoint with controlled motions of the fingers. This required inverting a highly redundant …

Mathematical Functions: An Interactive Emodule, Sarah Jean Moody

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM, http://nlvm.usu.edu/) is a widely used and highly praised teaching/learning resource for school mathematics. The NLVM is the result of a four-year USU project, funded primarily by the National Science Foundation, Award #9819107, to create a web-based, freely accessible, library of interactive virtual manipulatives to help students learn basic mathematics concepts. During a typical school day, the NLVM server receives more than 3 million hits.

Soft-Gluon Corrections To Hard-Scattering Cross Sections Through Nnnlo, Nikolaos Kidonakis

Faculty Articles

I present a systematic approach to calculating soft-gluon corrections through next-to-next-to-nextto-leading order for arbitrary hard-scattering cross sections. Using a unified approach, master formulas are derived for processes with both simple and complex color flows. Applications and numerical results are given for some processes of interest, including charged Higgs production and top quark production in the Standard Model and beyond.

J2me Programming, Chong-Wei Xu

Faculty Articles

Handheld devices, such as programmable cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), have already become more numerous than PCs. Students need to be prepared today to work on the most widely available computing platforms of tomorrow. With their small size and mobility, these handheld devices present both new opportunities and unique software engineering challenges. J2ME stands for Java 2 Micro Edition that is one of the three Java Editions (J2SE, J2EE, and J2ME) specially designed for handheld devices. J2ME plus handheld devices are the platforms for wireless Internet and mobile business in the future.

Studying The Performance Of A Firewall In Network Courses, José M. Garrido

Faculty Articles

This paper presents a simple simulation model of a firewall to derive several performance metrics and briefly argues on the importance and value of modeling and simulation in courses that study various aspects of perimeter defense in network security.

The simulation model mentioned previously is part of an effort by faculty of our department to develop a multi-disciplinary repository of computational models that includes object-oriented discrete-event simulation models. One of the goals of this repository is to build resources that help educate students of computer science, software engineering, and information technology, in modeling and information security.

This and other network …

Lattice Quantum Algorithm For The Schrodinger Wave Equation In 2+1 Dimensions With A Demonstration By Modeling Soliton Instabilities, Jeffrey Yepez, George Vahala, Linda L. Vahala

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A lattice-based quantum algorithm is presented to model the non-linear Schrödinger-like equations in 2 + 1 dimensions. In this lattice-based model, using only 2 qubits per node, a sequence of unitary collide (qubit-qubit interaction) and stream (qubit translation) operators locally evolve a discrete field of probability amplitudes that in the long-wavelength limit accurately approximates a non-relativistic scalar wave function. The collision operator locally entangles pairs of qubits followed by a streaming operator that spreads the entanglement throughout the two dimensional lattice. The quantum algorithmic scheme employs a non-linear potential that is proportional to the moduli square of the wave function. …

Assessing The Relationships Between The Spatial Variation In Land-Use Spatial Patterns And Surface Water Quality, Majed A. Khater

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the association between the spatial patterns of urban land uses and surface water quality parameters at the watershed outlet. The aim of the study was to understand the strength and nature of this relationship, and examine new methods of classifying and quantifying contributing urban land-uses and their spatial patterns. The hypothesis of this research was: in an urban watershed, the variation in the spatial patterns of contributing land uses will have a significant impact on the surface water quality parameters at the watershed outlet.

This relationship between urbanization and water quality is …

Agro-Pastoralists’ Wrath For The Prosopis Tree: The Case Of The Il Chamus Of Baringo District, Kenya, D. Layne Coppock, Abdillahi A. Aboud, Phillip K. Kisoyan

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Indigenous to Peru, Chile, and Argentina, the woody plant called Prosopis juliflora (also known by the American common name of “Honey Mesquite”) has spread world-wide in recent decades, including rangelands throughout Latin America, North America, south and central Asia, Australia, and sub-Saharan Africa. A species known for rapid establishment, high adaptability, and fast rates of growth, its dispersal has primarily been a consequence of intentional introduction by well- meaning “technical experts” who wanted to provide a new source of fodder, fuel wood, or a means to combat desertification in arid and semi-arid lands. One problem, however, is that unless Prosopis …

Linking Pastoralists And Exporters In A Livestock Marketing Chain: Recent Experiences From Ethiopia, D. Layne Coppock, Solomon Desta, Getachew Gebru, Seyoum Tezera

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The Boran of southern Ethiopia have been traditionally viewed as unwilling or unable to engage in large scale, commercialized livestock trade. Here we report on the creation of a new livestock marketing chain from the Borana Plateau to export outlets largely serving the Gulf States. Since 2003 various meetings and exchange tours were organized by collaborating agencies and PARIMA to directly link pastoral producers with livestock exporters and policy makers. This occurred against a backdrop of growing export demand for small ruminants, rapid development of private export industry, formation of well-trained pastoral marketing groups (often dominated by women), and provision …

Using An Easy-To-Use And Free Tool In Teaching And Researching Networks And Security Issues, Victor A. Clincy

Faculty Articles

ITGuru is a powerful simulation environment developed by OpNET Corporation. ITGuru is unique because of its ability to model the entire networking domain, including its routers, switches, protocols, servers, and the individual applications they support. ITGuru improves network researchers' and instructors' ability to identify and solve problems throughout the network. The OpNET Corporation provides a FREE academic copy of their simulation environment to universities for both teaching and research.

Action Research Analysis Of The Forces Affecting Farmer Participation In A West Virginia Cooperative Extension Service Farmer Education Program, John Robert Edalgo

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study uses action research principles and Kurt Lewin's field theory to investigate the forces dictating farmer participation in the Decision Enabling Data Collection and Management System Initiative (DEDCMSI). These forces were classified in Chapter IV under the following project categories: Hardware, Software, Perception of DEDCMSI, Perception of Technology, and Sociocultural. This West Virginia University Cooperative Extension Service (WVUCES) initiative organized four farm finance groups located in the following counties: Ohio, Jefferson, Mineral, and Monroe. Data collection methods used to identify forces occurring within this seven-month pilot project is listed here as follows: structured, semi-structured, and un-structured interviews. A total …

Understanding Mindfulness: Implications For Instruction And Learning, Todd Lyle Stoops

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This Dissertation examines the literature concerning Mindfulness as it relates to Educational Psychology and overviews a research study conducted to add empirical research on Mindfulness instruction and learning. The literature review is divided into three categories of Mindfulness which are defined and discussed according to applications and implications for education. These three categories are (a) Mindfulness as a meditative practice for teachers and in its use in teacher education programs, (b) clinical and therapeutic applications of Mindfulness in contemporary psychology, and (c) Mindfulness in Educational Psychology. Established constructs from the literature of psychology and education are related to the concepts …

Supporting Awareness In Heterogeneous Collaboration Environments, Vijayanand Bharadwaj

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Rapid technological advancements have made it possible for humans to collaborate as never before. However demands of group work necessitate distributed collaboration in very heterogeneous environments. Heterogeneity as in various applications, platforms, hardware and communication infrastructure. User mobility, lack of availability and cost often make imposing a common collaboration environment infeasible. Awareness is essential for successful collaboration. Awareness is a key design criterion in groupware but often collaboration occurs with applications not designed to support useful awareness. This dissertation deals with the issue of effective group awareness support in heterogeneous environments.;Awareness propagation is effective if the appropriate amount of information, …

Maximum Size T-Cross-Intersecting And Intersecting Families With Degree Conditions, Yongbin Ou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

We present four main results: (1) A solution to the problem of finding two set systems A and B such that A is r1-intersecting, B is r2-intersecting, A,B are t-cross-intersecting and A+ B is a maximum; (2) A solution to the problem of finding two set systems A and B such that A,B are Sperner, t-cross-intersecting and A+ B is a maximum; (3) A solution to the problem of finding the maximum size of an intersecting set system F such that the complementary degree c( F ) = s for a specified value s; (4) An asymptotic result on the …

Cooperative Diversity For The Cellular Uplink: Sharing Strategies, Performance Analysis, And Receiver Design, Kanchan G. Vardhe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this thesis, we propose data sharing schemes for the cooperative diversity in a cellular uplink to exploit diversity and enhance throughput performance of the system. Particularly, we consider new two and three-or-more user decode and forward (DF) protocols using space time block codes. We discuss two-user and three-user amplify and forward (AF) protocols and evaluate the performance of the above mentioned data sharing protocols in terms of the bit error rate and the throughput in an asynchronous code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular uplink. We develop a linear receiver for joint space-time decoding and multiuser detection that provides full …

Reduced Order Strapdown Terrestrial Ins Algorithm, Salam A. Ismail

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Strapdown system algorithms are the mathematical definition of processes which convert the measured outputs of Inertial Navigation System (INS) sensors that are fixed to a vehicle body axis into quantities which can be used to control the vehicle. In this work, a reduced and fast terrestrial strapdown INS algorithm was developed and implemented for three-degree of freedom (3DOF). The evaluation of the algorithm is based on the accuracy of the proposed algorithm with real data.

A Dynamic Economic Dispatch Solution Method Using Hopfield Neural Network, Q. M. Alias, F. Ben Hameda

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

This paper analyzes and tests a proposed neural network (NN) to solve the Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED) as part of the unit commitment problem. The proposed NN is a fast and direct computation solver using a Hopfield model for solving the dynamic economic dispatch problem of thermal generators which is a dynamic optimization problem taking into account the constraints imposed on system operation by generator ramping rate limits. Formulations for solving the ED and DED problems are explored. Through the application of these formulations, direct computation instead of iterations for solving the problem becomes possible. Not like the usual Hopfield …

Design And Implementation Of Real-Time Executive (Rtdm) For Multitask System, Dhuha Basheer Abdullh, Basil Shukur Mohammed

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

The purpose of this paper is to design an efficient, reliable, fast, easy to extend, and small size experimental real-time operating system kernel for uniprocessor multitask system. It is a kernel with an underlying formal model based on periodic and sporadic tasks with guaranteed response time requirements to tasks and shared software resources. It is distinguished by the programming model it supports and its use of a new processor scheduling and resource allocation.The kernel represents a nucleus of supervisory software to perform the required real–time functions. It logically runs and coordinates concurrent and physically asynchronous activities. It offers appropriate synchronization …

Design And Implementation Of A Single Layer Feed Forward Neural Network Using Stand-Alone Architecture Fpgas-Based Platform, Waleed A. Mahmood, Monther H., Mothana H.

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

A single layer feed-forward neural network are proposed and implemented using the schematic editor of the Xilinx foundation series 2.1i. First the mathematical model of the data set (weights and inputs) is presented in a matrix multiplication format. Secondly the five design stages are presented and implemented without using the finite state machine, which control the processes of the forward propagation phase, error calculation, and the training algorithm. Finally the design can be optimized to decrease the total execution time and to minimize the cost, which eventually will increase the performance and improve the function density.

Multiagent Autonomous Energy Management, Shilpa B. Ganesh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this thesis is to design distributed software agents for reliable operation of integrated electric power systems of modern electric warships. The automatic reconfiguration of electric shipboard power systems is an important step toward improved fight-through and self-healing capabilities of naval warships. The improvements are conceptualized by redesigning the electric power system and its controls. This research focuses on a new scheme for an energy management system in the form of distributed control/software agents. Multiagent systems provide an ideal level of abstraction for modeling complex applications where distributed and heterogeneous entities need to cooperate to achieve a common …

Development Of A Vehicle Road Load Model For Ecu Broadcast Power Verification In On-Road Emissions Testing, Nathan A. Moynahan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

West Virginia University (WVU) has become an industry leader in heavy-duty emissions testing and is continuously improving and updating their testing goals, procedures, and quality. As emissions testing is conducted at WVU in a real-world, on-road environment, engine parameter values are read through the test vehicle's electronic control unit (ECU) and recorded for use in data reductions. One significant value that is recorded by the WVU emissions measurement system is the ECU engine power output. Theses values are recorded and used to report vehicle's brake specific emissions values over a prescribed open-road test route. Because of the fact that the …

Ensemble Learning For Ranking Interesting Attributes, Erik W. Sinsel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Machine learning knowledge representations, such as decision trees; are often incomprehensible to humans. They can also contain errors specific to the representation type and the data used to generate them. By combining larger; less comprehensible decision trees, it is possible to increase their accuracy as an ensemble compared to the best individual tree. The thesis examines an ensemble learning technique and presents a unique knowledge elicitation technique which produces an ordered ranking of attributes by their importance in leading to more desirable classifications. The technique compares full branches of decision trees, finding the set difference of shared attributes. The combination …

Properties Of Chain Programs Over Difference Constraints, John E. Argentieri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Chain Programming is a restricted form of linear programming in which there exists a total ordering over the program variables. In other words, the constraints x1 ≤ x 2 ≤ ... ≤ xn are either implicitly or explicitly part of the constraint system. At the present juncture, it is not clear whether an arbitrary Chain Program is easier to solve than a linear program, either asymptotically or computationally. This thesis presents a variety of interesting properties pertaining to the case in which a Chain Program is constituted entirely of difference constraints. Deciding the feasibility of a system of difference constraints …