Digital Commons Network^™

Commencement Convocation Program, Lakeland Campus, December 15, 2006, University Of South Florida

USF Graduation and Convocation Programs

Outstanding Senior - Justin Chantnicki; USF Lakeland Distinguished Service Award - John Ramil

2006 Fall Engr333 Project Final Report, 2006 Fall Engr333

ENGR 333

The objective of this project was to demonstrate Calvin’s interest in alternative energy. The development of a short-term plan to implement a demonstration wind turbine and a long-term plan to determine the feasibility of a larger turbine for the future demonstrates this interest. The class was divided into five teams: management, external relations, long-term technology, short-term technology, and campus infrastructure. While each team had its own objectives, everyone worked together to share information and accomplish the overall project goals. This management technique provided necessary structure and simulated an environment typically found in a career environment.

Advancing The Methodology For Cyclopenta[C]Thiophene Sythesis: A Step Toward Anit-Leukemia Agents And Improved Semiconductiors, Riley Jones

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Metal n5-cyclopenta[c]thienyl complexes are of significant interest in both catalysis and materials chemistry. These relatives of the low-band-gap polymer polybenzo[2,3-c]thiophene show great promise as environmentally stable conductive polymers and as energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) due to their unique electronic properties. Recently, studies have shown that cyclopenta[c]thiophene molecules are effective as photodynamic anticancer agents which are particularly aggressive toward leukemia cells. The current method of synthesizing these compounds is lengthy, costly, and has a very low yield. Our group has developed a novel one-step method to produce precursors of these compounds. This procedure increases product yields, eliminates the use of toxic …

Reporter - December 15th 2006, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

Greenvehicle Team; SEAL Club; RIT Forecast; SG Senate Update; NaNoWriMo; Quest For the Best Bathroom; Pick Of Destiny Review; At Your Leisure; Grade Infl ation; Does Your GPA Matter?; Word on the Street; Sports Desk; Sports Clubs Unfrozen; RIT Rings; Nuclear Proportions

University Of Nebraska At Omaha, December Commencement 2006, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Education Policy Analysis Archives 14/33 , Arizona State University, University Of South Florida

College of Education Publications

Comparison of the enrollment percentages of magnet and non-magnet schools in a large urban school district / Emily Arcia.

2006 Fall Commencement Program: Winona State University, Winona State University

WSU Commencement Programs

This is the Winona State University Fall 2006 commencement program. Commencement was on Friday, Decmeber 15, 2006.

Responses Of Pond-Breeding Amphibians To Wildfire: Short-Term Patterns In Occupancy And Colonization, Blake R. Hossack, Paul Stephen Corn

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Wildland fires are expected to become more frequent and severe in many ecosystems, potentially posing a threat to many sensitive species. We evaluated the effects of a large, stand-replacement wildfire on three species of pond-breeding amphibians by estimating changes in occupancy of breeding sites during the three years before and after the fire burned 42 of 83 previously surveyed wetlands. Annual occupancy and colonization for each species was estimated using recently developed models that incorporate detection probabilities to provide unbiased parameter estimates. We did not find negative effects of the fire on the occupancy or colonization rates of the long-toed …

Measurement Of The BS0 Lifetime Using Semileptonic Decays, V. M. Abazov, Kenneth A. Bloom, Gregory R. Snow, D0 Collaboration

Kenneth Bloom Publications

We report a measurement of the B_s⁰ lifetime in the semileptonic decay channel B_s⁰ → D_s^- μ⁺νX (and its charge conjugate), using approximately 0.4 fb^-1 of data collected with the D0 detector during 2002–2004. Using 5176 reconstructed D_s^- μ⁺ signal events, we have measured the B_s⁰ lifetime to be τ(B_s⁰) = 1.398 ± 0.044(stat) _-0.025^+0.028(syst) ps. This is the most precise measurement of the B_s⁰ lifetime to date.

Pain Affects Spouses Too: Personal Experience With Pain And Catastrophizing As Correlates Of Spouse Distress, Michelle T. Leonard, Annmarie Cano

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

Chronic pain has adverse effects on individuals with chronic pain (ICPs) as well as their family members. Borrowing from an empathy model described by Goubert et al. (2005), we examined topdown and bottom-up factors that may be related to psychological well-being in the spouses of ICPs. A diverse community sample of 113 middle-aged spouses of individuals with chronic pain (ICPs) completed measures on pain severity and spouse pain catastrophizing (PCS-S; Cano et al., 2005). Results showed that almost half (48.7%) of spouses reported chronic pain themselves and that pain in the spouse accounted for within-couple differences on psychological distress. That …

Model For Light Scalars In Qcd, Joseph Schechter, Amir H. Fariborz, Renata Jora

Physics - All Scholarship

We propose a systematic procedure to study a generalized linear sigma model which can give a physical picture of possible mixing between q{\bar q} and qq{\bar q}{\bar q} low lying spin zero states. In the limit of zero quark masses, we derive the model independent results for the properties of the Nambu Goldstone pseudoscalar particles. For getting information on the scalars it is necessary to make a specific choice of terms. We impose two plausible physical criteria - the modeling of the axial anomaly and the suppression of effective vertices representing too many fermion lines - for limiting the large …

Effect Of South Caroline Belt Law On Safety Belt Use, Sourabh Patki

All Theses

A number of factors and accessories help save lives and prevent injuries to road users, yet safety belts have become synonymous with automobile safety today, unlike any accessory before or since their introduction in automobiles. However, the scientific advances in automobile safety, followed by the acceptance of the necessity for safety in automobiles by both the manufacturers and the population, finally leading to the introduction of safety features and their incorporation within the laws occurred over a much longer span, continuing even today. Today's Safety movement aims at increasing safety belt using an awareness campaigns, accompanied by enforcement. Safety belt …

Protecting Mobile Ad Hoc Networks From Spurious Cts Attacks 'Carrier Sensing Based Deferral Mechanism', Sreekanth Pagadala

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Request-To-Send (RTS)/Clear-To-Send (CTS) mechanism is used to combat Hidden/Exposed node problems in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). The popular implementation of the RTS/CTS mechanism may lead to virtual blocking of the wireless medium. Problem arises if a malicious node randomly sends out a large number of spurious CTS frames in order to falsely block regular nodes in its neighborhood. Such an attack is termed as spurious CTS attack. In this thesis, we investigate the effects of such spurious CTS attacks and propose a solution to mitigate the problem. Our proposed solution, Carrier Sensing based Deferral (CSD) mechanism, asks nodes …

Detecting Routing Misbehavior In Mobile Ad Hoc Network, Kejun Liu

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Routing misbehavior in MANETs (Mobile Ad Hoc Networks) is studied in this thesis. In general, routing protocols for MANETs are designed based on the assumption that all par- ticipating nodes are fully cooperative. However, due to the open structure and scarcely available battery-based energy, node misbehaviors may exist. One such routing misbehavior is that some selfish nodes will participate in the route discovery and maintenance processes but refuse to forward data packets. Therefore, we propose the 2ACK scheme that serves as an add-on technique for routing schemes to detect routing misbehavior and to mitigate their adverse effect. The main idea …

Clustering Of Leukemia Patients Via Gene Expression Data Analysis, Zhiyu Zhao

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to cluster some leukemia patients described by gene expression data, and discover the most discriminating a few genes that are responsible for the clustering. A combined approach of Principal Direction Divisive Partitioning and bisect K-means algorithms is applied to the clustering of the selected leukemia dataset, and both unsupervised and supervised methods are considered in order to get the optimal results. As shown by the experimental results and the predefined reference, the combination of PDDP and bisect K-means successfully clusters the leukemia patients, and efficiently discovers some significant genes that can serve as the discriminator of the …

Some Novice Methods For Software Protection With Obfuscation, Saikrishna Aravalli

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Previously software is distributed to the users by using devices like CD.S and floppies and in the form of bytes. Due to the high usage of internet and in order to perform the tasks rapidly without wasting time on depending physical devices, software is supplied through internet in the form of source code itself. Since source code is available to the end users there is a possibility of changing the source code by malicious users in order to gain their personnel benefits which automatically leads to malfunctioning of the software. The method proposed in this thesis is based on the …

Angle Resolved Photoemission Study Of Epitaxial Chromium Dioxide Films, Daniel Borst

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Chromium dioxide is predicted to be a half-metallic oxide. The electronic properties of the surface region of CrO2 have been studied by performing angle-resolved ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy (ARUPS) measurements on epitaxial CrO2 films. The CrO2 thin films were deposited on (100) and (110) – oriented TiO2 substrates by chemical vapor deposition. Previous measurements of the transport properties of devices made from epitaxial CrO2 films have shown very little spin polarization. Possible sources of this low yield are a surface Cr2O3 phase and/or surface contamination. The effects of sputtering the CrO2 films to remove the outer layer of Cr2O3 and any …

Nanocrystalline Transition Metal Ferrites Synthesis, Characterization And Surface Functionalization, Daniela Caruntu

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a new synthetic methodology for the high yield synthesis of spineltype transition metal ferrite nanoparticles has been developed. This approach is based on the complexation of the first-row transition metal cations with diethylene glycol (DEG) followed by the hydrolysis of the resulting chelate iron alkoxide complexes in the presence of an alkaline hydroxide. Due to the passivation of their surfaces with DEG molecules, the as-prepared nanoparticles are stable against agglomeration and can be easily dispersed in polar protic solvents (water, alcohols, etc.). Alternatively, a postsynthesis passivation with carboxylate ions can render the iron oxide nanocrystals highly dispersible …

Becoming And Un-Becoming, Monica Zeringue

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My work is about becoming and un-becoming. I seek to capture a time of transition and possibility. The pre-pubescent girls in my drawings are actually reduced versions of me, going back to a time of innocence and potential, and I multiply them as a means of selfexploration. They split apart, re-combine, and re-configure, trying to make a new whole. They are rendered with detailed accuracy, yet the world around them is empty, like a partially recalled memory. In this thesis, I will explore the use of the self-portrait, twinning, and re-configuration as they relate to identity, memory, and nostalgia. I …

A Program Of Self-Esteem Development For Deaf Children In Rural Areas, Candi Daviton

Theses

Deaf children in rural areas often lack the development of self-esteem essential to their overall development of social and academic skills. Deaf children in rural communities generally have low interpersonal communication and leadership skills. Being isolated with no role model for their identification (deafness) could limit their language acquisition and identity development. The purpose of this project is to develop a special curriculum project which would help initiate a program that would enable deaf children in rural areas to develop self-esteem skills through a one week summer camp program focusing on learning about themselves and related essential self-esteem skills through …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session December 15, 2006, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Minutes of the WMU Board of Trustees meeting include appendices:

• Resolution re Presidential Search
• Sale of Property
• Reassignment of Assumption of Lease
• Lease Agreement between WMU and WMU Foundation re Building 126
• Ratification of AFSCME Contract
• Consent Items (6-11)
• Grant Report
• Revised Research Misconduct Policy
• Gift Report
• Revised Annuity and Life Income Funds Investment Report
• Personnel Report
• Board Meeting Dates for 2007

Development Of An Image Noise Estimation Method And A Sub-Imaging Based Wiener Method, Eric F. Smith

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research consists of three parts. The first part is an investigation of several popular image restoration techniques. The techniques are used to restore 2-D image data, f(x, y), that has been blurred by a known point spread function (PSF), b(x, y) and corrupted by an unknown amount of noise, n(x, y). Several sample images are restored using all of the techniques. Of the methods investigated the one which produces the best restoration results was determined to be the Wiener deconvolution method. The determination of the best method is based on the quality of the restored image and the required …

Adult Education, James Wyatt

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coping With Stress In Children, Tolonda Age

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Unique stressors can prompt child adjustment difficulties. Coping strategies and emotion regulation that impact the adjustment of children in general and military family children were investigated. Eighty children, 36 with deployed parents, their parents and teachers participated. All experienced stress related to hurricane Katrina. Correlational analyses indicate that children with more hurricane-related losses or moves, use some coping strategies less often; hurricane-related child distress is related to lower maternal support; and parental hurricane-related distress is associated with high levels of child externalizing problems. When dealing with general stressors, some coping strategies were positively associated with child internalizing problems. Analyses indicate …

Land Loss: Attachment, Place And Identity In Coastal Louisiana, David Burley

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how people frame environmental change. Specifically, this work explores the identity loss that residents of coastal Louisiana experience due to coastal land loss. I rely on 126 in-depth interviews of residents from communities in six coastal parishes (counties). Respondents convey the meanings they give to land loss through constructing a narrative of place. A phenomenological approach is employed that focuses on how stories are told and the subjective interpretations of societal members. First, Louisiana's coastal communities hold a significant attachment to place that in many cases has been developing for close to three centuries. For most residents, …

An Analytic Image-Technology Inventory Of National Tourism Organizations (Ntos), Lung-Chiuan Chang

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Internet is playing an increasingly crucial role in destination marketing and it is used as a major marketing tool among National Tourism Organizations (NTOs). Website design is influential for consumers' Website preference and destination selection. This study is to understand the application of image-based technology by the major National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) through the collection and comparison of static images and dynamic images presented in their official tourism Websites. Data collected from the sampling of the world's top 25 tourism destination nations reveals that all National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) use either static images or dynamic images for their Websites, …

The Animal Lives Of People, Emily Dziuban

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Mechanical Thermal And Microstructural Behaviors Of The Strip Silicates Reinforced Epoxy-Based Nanocomposites, Man Wai Ho

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Ten different sets of epoxy samples with compositions from 0wt% to 8wt% nanoclay were prepared by mechanical stirring and then casting to mold dog-bone shape samples for tensile and other tests. A gradual trend of changes upon mechanical, thermal and microstructural behaviors were investigated. Introduction of strip silicates inside the epoxy matrix contributed to higher tensile strength, flexural strength and Vickers' hardness. From tensile tests, the ultimate tensile strength of samples from 0wt% to 8wt% nanoclay ranged from 42MPa to 46MPa. The epoxy samples with 1wt%, 4wt% to 6wt% nanoclay had a stepwise increase in the ultimate tensile strength of …

Fire & Flood: How The Lessons Of The Past Can Apply To The Present To Build The Future, Jared Munster

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

On August 29, 2005 the most destructive natural disaster to ever befall the United States made landfall initially near Buras, Louisiana and then ultimately near the mouth of the Pearl River. The associated storm surge caused New Orleans' protective levee system to fail, inundating the City with brackish floodwaters for weeks on end. This was not the first time the City of New Orleans was crippled by disaster. In 1788 and 1794, the city suffered two major fires; the first burning 856 buildings and the second 212. These were significant losses in a city that had a building stock of …

Which Events Constitute Criteria A1 Of Ptsd? The Phenomenology Of Psychological Trauma In Youth, Leslie Katherine Taylor

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to explore the phenomenology of psychological trauma in youth. It was hypothesized that events reported as traumatic could be classified into one of seventeen trauma categories, that levels of impairment in traumatized youth would be higher than levels of impairment in non-traumatized youth, and that traumatic events reported would be differentially related to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and types of cognitive errors. Information regarding traumas and PTSD symptoms was collected through The Child PTSD Checklist from a sample of youth aged 6 to 17. A coding system was developed for classification of traumatic …