Digital Commons Network^™

Intellectually Retarded Education In Nigeria: Past, Present, And Future, Dada Olubukola

Essays in Education

Historically, the persons with intellectual retardation have been neglected in most cultures. In our African culture for instance families were concerned about their image in the society. So, they manage to hide their retarded members in the home environment. Today, the education of the intellectually retarded has recorded significant achievement despite the undeniable successes education of children with intellectual retardation is still being hindered by social prejudices and discriminations. This paper highlights the myriads of obstacles and challenges facing their education. The presenter therefore recommends way to improve the quality of their education for the future.

Complexity And Chaos Theories As Metaphoric Lenses: An Alternative In Exploring The Voices Of Marginalized Populations, Dannielle Joy Davis

Essays in Education

Through the metaphoric lenses of complexity and chaos theories, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation’s (CIC) Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) is evaluated in terms of its breadth of influence within and without institutional walls, as well as social dogma that pervades this program and its various host institutions. Application of these theories as metaphoric lenses, unveil patterns of influence and dogma at both programmatic and individual levels. Such an application promises to assist in understanding the effectiveness of the SROP program. For decades, minority enrichment programs have sought to promote equity within education through programs such as SROP. By examining …

The Youth Urban Planning Institute, Fred Nastvogel

Essays in Education

This is a heuristic reflection on the challenge of increasing student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) as a meta-discipline. A simulation at the high school level is proposed to the end of meaningful integration of divers student capacities, urban melioration, long range networking, and individual portfolio development. There is a recognized need to encourage American youth to pursue careers in engineering and related fields of technology, mathematics, and science. One helpful tack would be to engage potential high school candidates in a design event addressing the real world issues of their own day-to-day environments. The strategy is …

Gas Feedback On Stellar Bar Evolution, Ingo Berentzen, Isaac Shlosman, Inma Martinez-Valpuesta, Clayton Heller

Physics & Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We analyze evolution of live disk-halo systems with gas fractions, fgas ≤ 8% of the disk mass, for 5 Gyr. Specifically, we have addressed the issue of angular momentum (J) transfer from the gas to the stellar bar and its effect on the bar. We find that the bar weakening, reported in the literature, is not related to the gas, but is caused by the vertical buckling instability in the gas-poor disks and by a steep stellar heating by the central mass concentration (CMC) in the gas-rich disks. However, the gas has a profound effect on the …

Temporal Factors To Evaluate Trustworthiness Of Virtual Identities, Luca Longo, Pierpaolo Dondio, Stephen Barrett

Conference papers

In this paper we investigate how temporal factors (i.e. factors computed by considering only the time-distribution of interactions) can be used as an evidence of an entity’s trustworthiness. While reputation and direct experience are the two most widely used sources of trust in applications, we believe that new sources of evidence and new applications should be investigated [1]. Moreover, while these two classical techniques are based on evaluating the outcomes of interactions (direct or indirect), temporal factors are based on quantitative analysis, representing an alternative way of assessing trust. Our presumption is that, even with this limited information, temporal factors …

Dynamic Treatment Effect Analysis Of Tv Effects On Child Cognitive Development, Fali Huang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate whether TV watching at ages 6-7 and 8-9 affects cognitive development measured by math and reading scores at ages 8-9 using a rich childhood longitudinal sample from NLSY79. Dynamic panel data models are estimated to handle the unobserved child-specific factor, endogeneity of TV watching, and dynamic nature of the causal relation. A special emphasis is put on the last aspect where TV watching affects cognitive development which in turn affects the future TV watching. When this feedback occurs, it is not straightforward to identify and estimate the TV effect. We adopt estimation methods available in the biostatistics literature …

Cross-Language And Cross-Media Image Retrieval: An Empirical Study At Imageclef2007, Steven C. H. Hoi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper summarizes our empirical study of cross-language and cross-media image retrieval at the CLEF image retrieval track (ImageCLEF2007). In this year, we participated in the ImageCLEF photo retrieval task, in which the goal of the retrieval task is to search natural photos by some query with both textual and visual information. In this paper, we study the empirical evaluations of our solutions for the image retrieval tasks in three aspects. First of all, we study the application of language models and smoothing strategies for text-based image retrieval, particularly addressing the short text query issue. Secondly, we study the cross-media …

Higher-Order Threshold Corrections For Single Top Quark Production, Nikolaos Kidonakis

Faculty Articles

I discuss single top quark production at the Tevatron and the LHC. The cross section, including soft-gluon threshold corrections through NNNLO, is presented for each partonic channel. The higher-order corrections provide significant contributions to the single top cross sections at both colliders.

On G-Open Set, Jalal Hatem Hussein

Baghdad Science Journal

A new class of generalized open sets in a topological space, called G-open sets, is introduced and studied. This class contains all semi-open, preopen, b-open and semi-preopen sets. It is proved that the topology generated by G-open sets contains the topology generated by preopen,b-open and semi-preopen sets respectively.

Oscillation Of Nonlinear First Order Neutral Differential Equations, Njlaa Issa Tawfiq

Baghdad Science Journal

In this paper, the author established some new integral conditions for the oscillation of all solutions of nonlinear first order neutral delay differential equations. Examples are inserted to illustrate the results.

On Solution Of Min-Max Composition Fuzzy Relational Equation, N.M. Niama

Baghdad Science Journal

In this paper, Min-Max composition fuzzy relation equation are studied. This study is a generalization of the works of Ohsato and Sekigushi. The conditions for the existence of solutions are studied, then the resolution of equations is discussed.

Generating A Strong Key For A Stream Cipher Systems Based On Permutation Networks, Kadhem M. Hashem

Baghdad Science Journal

The choice of binary Pseudonoise (PN) sequences with specific properties, having long period high complexity, randomness, minimum cross and auto- correlation which are essential for some communication systems. In this research a nonlinear PN generator is introduced . It consists of a combination of basic components like Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR), β-element which is a type of RxR crossbar switches. The period and complexity of a sequence which are generated by the proposed generator are computed and the randomness properties of these sequences are measured by well-known randomness tests.

Measurement Of The Tt̅ Production Cross Section In Pp̅ Collisions Using Dilepton Events, V. M. Abazov, Kenneth A. Bloom, Gregory R. Snow, D0 Collaboration

Gregory Snow Publications

We present a measurement of the tt̅ pair production cross section in pp̅ collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV utilizing approximately 425 pb^-1 of data collected with the D0 detector. We consider decay channels containing two high _pT charged leptons (either ℯ or μ) from leptonic decays of both top-daughter W bosons. These were gathered using four sets of selection criteria, three of which required that a pair of fully identified leptons (i.e., ℯμ, ℯℯ, or μμ) be found. The fourth approach imposed less restrictive criteria on one of the lepton candidates and required that at least …

Combined D0 Measurements Constraining The Cp-Violating Phase And Width Difference In The BS0 System, V. M. Abazov, Kenneth A. Bloom, Gregory R. Snow, D0 Collaboration

Gregory Snow Publications

We combine the D0 measurement of the width difference between the light and heavy B_s⁰ mass eigenstates and of the CP-violating mixing phase determined from the time-dependent angular distributions in the B_s⁰ → J/ψφ decays along with the charge asymmetry in semileptonic decays also measured with the D0 detector. With the additional constraint from the world average of the flavor-specific B_s⁰ lifetime, we obtain ΔΓ_s ≡ (Γ_L - Γ_H) = 0.13 ± 0.09 ps^-1 and ∣φ_s∣ = 2.44_-0.39^+0.47. The data sample corresponds …

Illuminating The Kapitza-Dirac Effect With Electron Matter Optics [Colloquium], Herman Batelaan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The observation of the Kapitza-Dirac effect raises conceptual, theoretical, and experimental questions. The Kapitza-Dirac effect is often described as diffraction of free electrons from a standing wave of light or stimulated Compton scattering. However, for the two-color Kapitza-Dirac effect these two interpretations appear to lead to paradoxical conclusions. The discussion of this paradox deepens our understanding of both of these versions of the Kapitza-Dirac effect.

Departures From Gibrat’S Law, Discontinuities And City Size Distributions, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Craig R. Allen, Colin M. Gallagher, John Mittelstaedt

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Cities are complex, self-organizing, evolving systems and the emergent patterns they manifest provide insight into the dynamic processes in urban systems. This article analyses city size distributions, by decade, from the south-eastern region of the US for the years 1860–1990. It determines if the distributions are clustered into size classes and documents changes in the pattern of size classes over time. A statistical hypothesis test was also performed to detect dependence between city size and growth using discrete probability calculations under the assumption of Gibrat’s law. The city size distributions for the south-eastern region of the US were discontinuous, with …

Adaptive And Economic Management Methods For Feral Hog Control In Florida, Richard M. Engeman, Bernice U. Constantin, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Henry T. Smith, John Woolard, John Allen, John Dunlap

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) negatively impact the environment in most places around the world where they have been introduced into the wild. In many places, hog removal is essential to protect special habitats, in particular, wetlands. This paper describes techniques developed for use in adaptive management approaches to enhance hog removal efforts in Florida, as well as methods to evaluate the economic impacts from hog management. A valuable adaptive management tool that can be an easily applied index to monitor feral hog activity is track plots. This method has been effective for monitoring hog distribution and relative abundance, …

A Fence Design For Excluding Elk Without Impeding Other Wildlife, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Nathan W. Seward, Michael J. Lavelle, Justin W. Fischer, Gregory W. Phillips

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Concentrated herbivory by elk (Cervus elaphus) can degrade vegetative communities and alter ecosystem processes. Areas severely damaged by elk are commonly protected with woven wire fence, which can exclude other animals. Complete exclusion and prevention of large mammal herbivory might not always be necessary to restore vegetative communities. We designed and evaluated a simple fence that excluded elk, but maintained access for deer and other species. We enclosed a 1-ha stand of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux) with our fence in an area with a high density of elk. We monitored effectiveness of the fence with trackplots, …

Thermal Stability Of Nanostructurally Stabilized Zirconium Oxide, Fereydoon Namavar, Gonghua Wang, Chin Li Cheung, Renat F. Sabirianov, Xiao Cheng Zeng, Wai Ning Mei, Jaeil Bai, Joseph R. Brewer, Hani Haider, Kevin L. Garvin

Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications

Nanostructurally stabilized zirconium oxide (NSZ) hard transparent films were produced without chemical stabilizers by the ion beam assisted deposition technique (IBAD). A transmission electron microscopy study of the samples produced below 150 °C revealed that these films are composed of zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) nanocrystallites of diameters 7.5 ± 2.3 nm. X-ray and selected-area electron diffraction studies suggested that the as-deposited films are consistent with cubic phase ZrO₂. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) indicated the formation of stoichiometric ZrO₂. The phase identity of these optically transparent NSZ films was in agreement with cubic ZrO₂, …

A Diatom Record Of Late Holocene Climate Variation In The Northern Range Of Yellowstone National Park, Usa, Brandi B. Bracht, Jeffery R. Stone, Sherilyn C. Fritz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The changes in diatom species composition in a sediment core from Crevice Lake, Yellowstone National Park, spanning the past 2550 yr, were used to reconstruct long-term limnological and ecological conditions that may be related to late Holocene climate variability. Planktic forms dominate the fossil diatom assemblages throughout this record, but changes in species dominance indicate varying nutrient levels over time, particularly phosphorus. The changes in the nutrient concentrations in the lake were probably driven by changes in temperature and wind strength that affected the duration of watercolumn mixing and thus the extent of nutrient recycling from deep waters. Prior to …

The State Of The Region: Hampton Roads 2007, James V. Koch, Vinod Agarwal, John R. Broderick, Christopher B. Colburn, Vicky Curtis, Steve Daniel, Susan Hughes, Elizabeth Janik, Feng Lian, Sharon Lomax, Trish Manthey, Janet Molinaro, Ken Plum, Maurice Seaton, Lowell Singh, Qian Sun

Economics Faculty Books

This is Old Dominion University's eighth annual State of the Region report. While it represents the work of many people connected in various ways to the university, the report does not constitute an official viewpoint of Old Dominion or it's president, Roseann Runte. The report maintains the goal of stimulating thought and discussion that ultimately will make Hampton Roads an even better place to live. We are proud of our region's many successes, but realize that it is possible to improve our performance. In order to do so, we must have accurate information about "where we are" and a sound …

Cellular Automata For Dynamic S-Boxes In Cryptography., William Matthew Luckett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's world of private information and mass communication, there is an ever increasing need for new methods of maintaining and protecting privacy and integrity of information. This thesis attempts to combine the chaotic world of cellular automata and the paranoid world of cryptography to enhance the S-box of many Substitution Permutation Network (SPN) ciphers, specifically Rijndael/AES. The success of this enhancement is measured in terms of security and performance. The results show that it is possible to use Cellular Automata (CA) to enhance the security of an 8-bit S-box by further randomizing the structure. This secure use of CA …

Robust Tuning Of Modern Power System Stabilizers Using Bacterial Foraging Algorithm, B. Sumanbabu, S. Mishra, B. K. Panigrahi, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

IEEE Std 421.5, revised by the IEEE excitation system subcommittee introduced a new type of power system stabilizer model, the multiband power system stabilizers (IEEE PSS4B). Although it requires two input signals, like the widely used IEEE PSS2B, the underlying principle of the new IEEE PSS4B makes it sharply different. This paper presents a method based on Bacterial Foraging Algorithm (BFA) to simultaneously tune these modern power system stabilizers (PSSs) in multimachine power system. Simulation results of multi-machine power system validate the efficiency of this approach. the proposed method is effective for the tuning of multi-controllers in large power systems.

A Memetic Algorithm Configured Via A Problem Solving Environment For The Hamiltonian Cycle Problems, X. S. Chen, Meng-Hiot Lim, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Algorithm Development Environment for Permutation-based problems (ADEP) is a software environment for configuring meta-heuristics for solving combinatorial optimization problems. This paper describes the key features of ADEP and how the environment was used to generate a Memetic Algorithm (MA) solution for Hamiltonian Cycle Problems (HCP). The effectiveness of the MA algorithm is demonstrated through computer simulations and its performance is compared with backtracking and other heuristic techniques such as Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, and Ant Colony Optimization.

Self-Healing Control With Multifunctional Gate Drive Circuits For Power Converters, Peng Xiao, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Keith Corzine, Robert S. Woodley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Many commercial and military transport systems have fault diagnostic functions implemented to help protect the device when a severe fault occurs. However, most present systems do not contain prognostics capability which would allow operators to observe an unhealthy system component in its pre- fault condition. In industry applications, scheduled downtime can result in considerable cost avoidance. The next technology step is self-healing system components which observe not only potential problems, but can also take steps to continue operation under abnormal conditions - whether due to long-term normal wear-and-tear or sudden combat damage. In this paper, current and voltage information using …

Using Author Topic To Detect Insider Threats From Email Traffic, James S. Okolica, Gilbert L. Peterson, Robert F. Mills

Faculty Publications

One means of preventing insider theft is by stopping potential insiders from becoming actual thieves. This article discusses an approach to assist managers in identifying potential insider threats. By using the Author Topic [Rosen-Zvi Michal, Griffiths Thomas, Steyvers Mark, Smyth Padhraic. The author-topic model for authors and documents. In: Proceedings of the 20th conference on uncertainty in artificial intelligence; 2004. p. 487–94.] clustering algorithm, we discern employees' interests from their daily emails. These interests then provide a means to create an implicit and an explicit social network graph. This approach locates potential insiders by finding individuals who either (1) feel …

Emerging Industries: Looking Beyond The Usual Suspects: A Report To Wired, George A. Erickcek, Brad R. Watts

Reports

No abstract provided.

Reliability Modeling For The Advanced Electric Power Grid, Ayman Z. Faza, Sahra Sedigh, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The advanced electric power grid promises a self-healing infrastructure using distributed, coordinated, power electronics control. One promising power electronics device, the Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS), can modify power flow locally within a grid. Embedded computers within the FACTS devices, along with the links connecting them, form a communication and control network that can dynamically change the power grid to achieve higher dependability. The goal is to reroute power in the event of transmission line failure. Such a system, over a widespread area, is a cyber-physical system. The overall reliability of the grid is a function of the respective reliabilities …

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Update: September 2007, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2007

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates from September 2007.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: September 2007, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2007

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from September 21 and 28, 2006.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.