Digital Commons Network^™

Territoriality, Prospecting, And Dispersal In Cooperatively Breeding Micronesian Kingfishers (Todiramphus Cinnamominus Reichenbachii), Dylan C. Kesler, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We investigated territoriality, prospecting, and dispersal behavior in cooperatively breeding Pohnpei Micronesian Kingfishers (Todiramphus cinnamominus reichenbachii) throughout the annual cycle using radiotelemetry and color-band resights. Mean home-range size was 6.3 ha and territories were 8.1 ha. Within territories, Micronesian Kingfishers shared 63% of their home-range space with coterritorial occupants, and 3% was shared with extraterritorial conspecifics. Birds on cooperative territories had larger home ranges that overlapped more with coterritory occupants’ home ranges than birds in pair-held territories. Despite evidence suggesting that resources necessary for survival and reproduction occurred on each territory, Micronesian Kingfishers of all age and sex …

Multiscale Habitat Use And Selection In Cooperatively Breeding Micronesian Kingfishers, Dylan C. Kesler, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Information about the interaction between behavior and landscape resources is key to directing conservation management for endangered species. We studied multi-scale occurrence, habitat use, and selection in a cooperatively breeding population of Micronesian kingfishers (Todiramphus cinnamominus) on the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. At the landscape level, point-transect surveys resulted in kingfisher detection frequencies that were higher than those reported in 1994, although they remained 15–40% lower than 1983 indices. Integration of spatially explicit vegetation information with survey results indicated that kingfisher detections were positively associated with the amount of wet forest and grass–urban vegetative cover, …

Microsatellite Loci For Distinguishing Spotted Owls (Strix Occidentalis), Barred Owls (Strix Varia), And Their Hybrids, W. Chris Funk, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Susan M. Haig

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We identified four diagnostic microsatellite loci that distinguish spotted owls (Strix occidentalis), barred owls (Strix varia), F₁ hybrids and backcrosses. Thirty-four out of 52 loci tested (65.4%) successfully amplified, and four of these loci (11.8%) had allele sizes that did not overlap between spotted and barred owls. The probability of correctly identifying a backcross with these four loci is 0.875. Genotyping potential hybrid owls with these markers revealed that field identifications were often wrong. Given the difficulty of identifying hybrids in the field, these markers will be useful for hybrid identification, law enforcement and spotted …

New Insights Into Marine Migration And Winter Habitat Of Gulf Sturgeon, Randy E. Edwards, Frank M. Parauka, Kenneth J. Sulak

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Migrations and movements of Gulf sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi were determined using satellite pop-up archival transmitting (PAT) tags and acoustic telemetry. Adult Gulf sturgeon from four rivers in northwestern Florida were caught with gill nets and were tagged with PAT and acoustic tags in the fall of 2001 and 2002. PAT tags were programmed to release in early February 2002 and 2003 to provide information about location of late-winter marine habitats. However, only 5 of 25 provided meaningful location information. Three of the PAT-tagged fish were relocated acoustically near the PAT tag pop-up locations, one of which was in Choctawhatchee …

Hydrologic Connectivity And The Contribution Of Stream Headwaters To Ecological Integrity At Regional Scales, Mary C. Freeman, Catherine M. Pringle, C. Rhett Jackson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Cumulatively, headwater streams contribute to maintaining hydrologic connectivity and ecosystem integrity at regional scales. Hydrologic connectivity is the water-mediated transport of matter, energy and organisms within or between elements of the hydrologic cycle. Headwater streams compose over two-thirds of total stream length in a typical river drainage and directly connect the upland and riparian landscape to the rest of the stream ecosystem. Altering headwater streams, e.g., by channelization, diversion through pipes, impoundment and burial, modifies fluxes between uplands and downstream river segments and eliminates distinctive habitats. The large-scale ecological effects of altering headwaters are amplified by land uses that alter …

Dune Fields: Mid-Latitudes, J. Sun, Daniel R. Muhs

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Large dune fields, or sand seas, are landscapes often thought to be found only in deserts beneath the great, subtropical high-pressure zones, where subsiding air suppresses rainfall. Dune fields are also quite common in mid-latitude regions, to the north and south of subtropical deserts (Fig. 1). Two major characteristics distinguish many mid-latitude dune fields from the sand seas of lower latitudes. One difference is that many of those in mid-latitudes are in semiarid, rather than arid climates, and therefore are not presently active. In this article, ‘active’ refers to eolian sand bodies that are not covered with vegetation, and where …

Abnormal Trading Volume, Stock Returns And The Momentum Effects, Ying Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper intends to study the intermediate-term momentum and long-term reversal of stock prices by investigating the informational role of unusual trading volume for winner and loser stocks. I argue that unusual trading volume has different implications for winner and loser stocks. Specifically, high trading volume for losers is driven by purchases made by informed investors; while high trade volume for winners could be driven by either information or representativeness bias or both. The arguments are tested in the paper by showing that in the short run, losers/winners with high abnormal trading volume outperform losers/winners with low abnormal trading volume; …

Concept Analysis In Web Documents, Rajesh Singh

Master's Projects

A Keyword within a text/web document represents some human thought. The interaction of keywords leads to narrowing of scope of human thought by forming a more precise semantic entity called concepts. Analyzing a set of document not only requires analysis of the keywords within those documents but also their interactions within a document. In this new approach a set of documents can be analyzed where by the interactions of its keywords is also considered in finding the important concepts. These concepts can be used to cluster them into smaller subsets such that documents in each cluster will be semantically similar.

A Differential Power Analysis Resistant Randomized Algorithm Using Multiple Aes Ciphers, Richard Tran

Master's Projects

Differential power analysis (DPA) side channel attacks have been shown to have great effectiveness in breaking ciphers (such as the Advanced Encryption Standard or AES) that were previously though to be unbreakable. There are currently many methods published that prevent differential power analysis on AES. The method proposed for this project is based on the increased usage of multiprocessors and multicore processors. By using multiple copies of the same AES cipher, a randomly chosen cipher is used to encrypt each plaintext. The other ciphers are then used to obfuscate the data made available to the attacker for DPA in the …

Clustering Blog Information, Mayank Prakash Jaiswal

Master's Projects

Blogs form an important source of information in today’s internet world. There are blogs on different topics such as technical, health, electronic gadgets, shopping, etc. However, most of the blog websites have the blogs arranged in chronological order rather than its contents. Such arrangement of blogs makes it difficult for the user searching information about a particular topic from the blog. To resolve this problem, we propose an approach to cluster the blogs based on its content. We studied several clustering algorithms available. The objective of this report is to understand various steps involved in clustering blog information and working …

Legal Commitments And Religious Commitments, Jospeh Vining

Articles

In his elegant and accessible new book, Law's Quandary, Steven Smith groups our various senses of what is real for us into ontological families: the mundane; the scientific, including mathematics; and the religious. These supply "lumberyards," as it were, for thought and discussion about the world and action in it. Law itself is not one of them. Those involved in law, as citizens or professionals practicing law or speaking for or about law, are presented in the book as looking out from law to the ontological resources available in the lumberyards he describes.

Validation And Verification Of Aircraft Control Software For Control Improvement, Thien-Anh Pham

Master's Projects

Validation and Verification are important processes used to ensure software safety and reliability. The Cooper-Harper Aircraft Handling Qualities Rating is one of the techniques developed and used by NASA researchers to verify and validate control systems for aircrafts. Using the Validation and Verification result of controller software to improve controller's performance will be one of the main objectives of this process. Real user feedback will be used to tune PI controller in order for it to perform better. The Cooper-Harper Aircraft Handling Qualities Rating can be used to justify the performance of the improved system.

Emotional And Domain Concept Enhancements To Alicebot, Alvin Cho

Master's Projects

Extensive research and development have been done in the area of human simulation and artificial intelligence and their related fields, such as common sense knowledge bases, chatterbots, natural language parsing, semantic analysis, synthetic actors, and cognitive sciences. This paper takes part in that extensive research by focusing on the improvement of human simulation in chatterbots, specifically in Alicebot, a prominent non-emotional pattern-matching chatbot. An emotion and personality model is added to Alicebot so that it can make decisions based on its emotions and personality. Alicebot is also augmented with the ability to determine what it likes or does not like …

Operon Prediction With Bayesian Classifiers, Natalia Khuri

Master's Projects

In this work, we present an approach to predicting transcription units based on Bayesian classifiers. The predictor uses publicly available data to train the classifier, such as genome sequence data from Genbank, expression values from microarray experiments, and a collection of experimentally verified transcription units. We have studied the importance of each of the data source on the performance of the predictor by developing three classifier models and evaluating their outcomes. The predictor was trained and validated on the E. coli genome, but can be extended to other organisms. Using the full Bayesian classifier, we were able to correctly identify …

Securing Wireless Networks From Arp Cache Poisoning, Roney Philip

Master's Projects

Wireless networks have become an integral part of today’s networks. The ease of deployment, low cost, mobility and high data rates have contributed significantly to their popularity. The medium of data transmission in wireless networks makes them inherently less secure than wired networks. For wireless networks to access the Internet they must be connected to a wired network via an Access Point or a wireless router. This has led wireless network equipment manufacturers to implement wireless Access Points and wireless routers with a built in switch for wired clients and a WiFi access point for wireless clients. The set up …

A Multiple-Copy Scheme For Multi-Channel Stop-And-Wait Harq, Yucheng Shih

Master's Projects

HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) combines ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) with FEC (Forward Error Correction) to provide a reliable way to ensure that data are received correctly and in sequence. A multiple-copy HARQ scheme is proposed for WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) to reduce the waiting time of erroneously received data in the receivers’ buffer. In this project, the performances of WiMAX multi-channel stop-and-wait HARQ scheme are compared with that of the proposed multiple-copy HARQ scheme. The multiple-copy HARQ can send the same copy of a data burst on contiguous channels during noisy channel conditions so that the required …

A Hierarchical Trusted Third-Party System For Secure Peer-To-Peer Transactions, Khoi Nguyen

Master's Projects

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network is a distributed network of peer computers loosely connected through the Internet. Transactions in a P2P network are often conducted on a no-security basis. Moreover, peer anonymity is often highly desirable, which makes security even more difficult to achieve. In most cases, a peer executes a transaction solely based on the faith that the other peer plays by the rules. Here we propose a hierarchical Trusted Third-Party (TTP) system that facilitates secure transactions between peers in an existing P2P network. This system is designed to provide mutual authentication by using public key cryptography for peers to …

Prediction Of Alternative Splice Sites In Human Genes, Douglas Simmons

Master's Projects

This thesis addresses the problem of predicting alternative splice sites in human genes. The most common way to identify alternative splice sites are the use of expressed sequence tags and microarray data. Since genes only produce alternative proteins under certain conditions, these methods are limited to detecting only alternative splice sites in genes whose alternative protein forms are expressed under the tested conditions. I have introduced three multiclass support vector machines that predict upstream and downstream alternative 3’ splice sites, upstream and downstream alternative 5’ splice sites, and the 3’ splice site of skipped and cryptic exons. On a test …

Case Studies In Proof Checking, Robert Kam

Master's Projects

The aim of computer proof checking is not to find proofs, but to verify them. This is different from automated deduction, which is the use of computers to find proofs that humans have not devised first. Currently, checking a proof by computer is done by taking a known mathematical proof and entering it into the special language recognized by a proof verifier program, and then running the verifier to hopefully obtain no errors. Of course, if the proof checker approves the proof, there are considerations of whether or not the proof checker is correct, and this has been complicated by …

An Epidemiological Model Of Rift Valley Fever, Holly D. Gaff, David M. Hartley, Nicole P. Leahy

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

We present and explore a novel mathematical model of the epidemiology of Rift Valley Fever (RVF). RVF is an Old World, mosquito-borne disease affecting both livestock and humans. The model is an ordinary differential equation model for two populations of mosquito species, those that can transmit vertically and those that cannot, and for one livestock population. We analyze the model to find the stability of the disease-free equlibrium and test which model parameters affect this stability most significantly. This model is the basis for future research into the predication of future outbreaks in the Old World and the assessment of …

Environmental Information Systems And Community-Based Resource Management In Ghana: An Investigation Of Institutional Policy And Implementation In Context, Abednego Ayitey Aryee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study employed a case-study approach and cross-case analysis to investigate the impact of Environmental Information Systems (EIS) and Local Knowledge Systems (LKS) on agro-forestry management and biodiversity conservation. Questionnaire-based interviews with service providers, resource managers and focus group discussions with farmers associated with the United Nations Capacity 21, the Netherlands Tropenbos International (TBI) and the United Nations Project on People Land Management and Conservation (UNPLEC), projects yielded in-depth information on agro-forestry practices in southern Ghana. The findings of the survey revealed that computer-based information systems have been used to identify areas of resource degradation. This has served as a …

Termite Resource Partitioning Related To Log Diameter, Deborah A. Waller

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The termites Reticuliterines virginicus and R. flavipes are sympatric in forests along the eastern United States from Florida to Maryland. These congeners construct subterranean nests, forage on surface and buried wood, and appear to have very similar ecological requirements. In the present study, I examined host-wood selection by these species in a coastal forest over two years. Logs inhabited by R. virginicus had significantly greater diameters than those used by R. flavipes. It is not known whether this pattern resulted from species-specific differences in preference for host size or competition for preferred logs. Host-wood temperature did not differ for …

First Passage Time Problem For Multivariate Jump-Diffusion Processes: Models, Computation, And Applications In Finance, Di Zhang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The first passage time (FPT) problems are ubiquitous in many applications, from physics to finance. Mathematically, such problems are often reduced to the evaluation of the probability density of the time for a process to cross a certain level, a boundary, or to enter a certain region. While in other areas of applications the FPT problems can often be solved analytically, in finance we usually have to resort to the application of numerical procedures, in particular when we deal with jump-diffusion stochastic processes (JDP). The application of the conventional Monte-Carlo procedure is possible for the solution of the resulting model, …

An Institutional Analysis Of Oil And Gas Sector Development And Environmental Management In The Yukon Territory, Jason C. May

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis investigates the ways in which oil and gas development priorities and concern for the environment are integrated within strategic planning and management frameworks, and how associated conflict is addressed, in a case study of the Yukon. Because substantial ground-based oil and gas activity is yet to occur in the territory, a thorough understanding of the institutions and institutional arrangements set to govern future oil and gas development is a valuable tool for gauging the capacity to integrate these priorities. Therefore, this thesis employs the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to analyze the legislation, regulations, policies, and institutions …

Portfolio Selection In Gaussian And Non-Gaussian Worlds, Jing Wang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the case of minimizing risk with a given level of expected return, we discuss the portfolio selection problem with the asset returns are characterized by a Gaussian distribution and heavy tailed distribution.

More specifically, under the Gaussian assupmtion, we give the explicit solutions to the problems of minimizing risk variance, CaR and EaR respectively. When a compound Poisson process is assumed, we derive explicit solutions to the variance, CaR and EaR. Furthermore, we give the explicit soultion for the CaR when a Lévy distribution is considered.

For the more realistic process-normal inverse process, we are able to obtain the …

An Analysis Of Social Aspects Of Forest Stewardship Council Forest Certification In Three Ontario Case Studies, Melanie Venne

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Forest certification is a market-based tool whereby forest management is evaluated against a set of standards that consider environmental, economic and social elements of sustainability. Certificiation is therefore a means of providing customers with the assurance that forest products are originating from sustainability managed forests. It grew out of the ideal of sustainable forest management (SFM) and pulls from its predecessor the concept of multiple dimensions of sustainability. The focus of this project was the international forest certification scheme Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

A comparative case study approach was used to examine the social implications of certification in three FSC …

Planting The Seeds: The Experiences Of Community Psychology Graduates As Agents Of Systemic Social Change, Peggy Ann Weston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social change is a part of human existence, but other than charismatic individuals such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, little has been published about the lived experience of social change agents. Time (era, passage of time, etc.) is often neglected as an important temporal factor of analysis in systemic social change (SSC) activities. The intent is to explore the experience of people working as SSC agents and discover what influences their work. A better understanding of this experience would contribute to more effective SSC work and perhaps address challenges facing change agents. The main research question, “What …

Local And Regional-Scale Societal Dynamics In Grizzly Bear Conservation, Douglas Andrew Clark

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conserving grizzly bear populations is a significant challenge for wildlife managers throughout North America. Much fruitful research has been conducted on the biology of grizzlies, but the human dimensions of bear management remain poorly understood. This imbalance has created conflicts between management agencies and local inhabitants that can jeopardize ecosystem management and planning programs in which grizzlies often feature as key components. Broadly, the goal of this study was to understand how and why such conflicts occur. Qualitative data analysis methods and the policy sciences' interdisciplinary problem analysis framework, along with insights from adaptive governance and co-management concepts, resilience theory, …

Double-Consciousness In Constitutional Adjudication, Richard A. Primus

Articles

Constitutional theorists are familiar with epistemic and consequentialist reasons why judges might allow their decision making to be shaped by strongly held public opinion. The epistemic approach treats public opinion as an expert indicator, while the consequentialistapproach counsels judges to compromise legally correct interpretations so as not to antagonize a hostile public. But there is also a third reason, which we can think ofas constitutive. In limited circumstances, the fact that the public strongly holds a given view can be one of the factors that together constitute the correct answer to a constitutional question. In those circumstances, what the public …

Detection Of Mitochondrial Insertions In The Nucleus (Numts) Of Pleistocene And Modern Muskoxen, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Ross De Macphee, Alex D. Greenwood

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Nuclear insertions of mitochondrial sequences (NuMts) have been identified in a wide variety of organisms. Trafficking of genetic material from the mitochondria to the nucleus has occurred frequently during mammalian evolution and can lead to the production of a large pool of sequences with varying degrees of homology to organellar mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences. This presents both opportunities and challenges for forensics, population genetics, evolutionary genetics, conservation biology and the study of DNA from ancient samples. Here we present a case in which difficulties in ascertaining the organellar mtDNA sequence from modern samples hindered their comparison to ancient DNA …