Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2007

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 29431 - 29460 of 29652

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Foraging Habitat Modeling And Nesting Ecology Of Wood Storks In Everglades National Park, Heidi K. Herring Jan 2007

Foraging Habitat Modeling And Nesting Ecology Of Wood Storks In Everglades National Park, Heidi K. Herring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Understanding the foraging and nesting ecology of Wood Storks will play an important role in Everglades restoration because this species has specific resource requirements during the breeding season which ultimately affect nest success. I conducted a foraging habitat use and selection study, which indicated that Wood Storks from coastal colonies, Paurotis Pond and Rodgers River Bay, require a narrow range of water depths in the mangrove-saltwater marsh ecotone near their colonies as well in the freshwater marsh habitats of the inland Everglades. Wood Storks nesting at the inland colony, Tamiarni West, relied heavily upon nearby freshwater marsh habitat and selected …

Go to article

Exploring Diachronic Change In The Population-Specific Vocalizations Of Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)., Andrew R. Halloran Jan 2007

Exploring Diachronic Change In The Population-Specific Vocalizations Of Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)., Andrew R. Halloran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Chimpanzees have long been documented as using population-specific vocalizations, implying learning rather than just genetics in chimpanzee calls. In order for population-specific vocalizations to arise, diachronic change, or evolution, of the various features of the vocalizations must occur. When a population is split, as they were in the current study, there are changes of social structure, environment, and emotional stress (all factors which can lead to rapid phonological change in humans). These factors can act as a catalyst for punctuated diachronic change. A vocal survey was performed on two groups of chimpanzees who had been separated from each other two …

Go to article

Factors Affecting Registered Nurses' Job Satisfaction And Intent To Leave, Joy Longo Jan 2007

Factors Affecting Registered Nurses' Job Satisfaction And Intent To Leave, Joy Longo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

It is estimated that there will be a 20% shortage of full time equivalent registered nurses (RN) by 2015. Retention of nurses is a priority in health care, so a better understanding of factors that contribute to job satisfaction and intent to leave is needed. One possible factor is the quality of the interpersonal relationships that occur among managers, peers, and nurses. A negative quality would be acts of hostility or horizontal violence, which is nurse-to-nurse aggression. This is theorized to be a result of oppressed group behavior. These behaviors may influence job satisfaction and the intent to stay on …

Go to article

Ftir Diffuse Reflectance Quantitative Analysis Of Nitric Acid Oxidation Of Paraffin Oil Supported On A Polytetrafluoroethylene (Ptfe) Substrate, Larry Smith Jan 2007

Ftir Diffuse Reflectance Quantitative Analysis Of Nitric Acid Oxidation Of Paraffin Oil Supported On A Polytetrafluoroethylene (Ptfe) Substrate, Larry Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Nitric acid can drive oxidation reactions of paraffins producing nitroparaffins and other oxidation products. Presented here is a study on the aqueous liquid phase nitric acid oxidation of paraffin oil supported on PTFE particles. The goals ofthis study are: 1. To evaluate the effectiveness of nitric acid in removing paraffin oil from PTFE particle surfaces. 2. To evaluate the effects of nitric acid driven reactions with paraffin oils under varying reaction conditions. 3. To evaluate FTIR Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy, DRIFT, as a tool to accomplish the quantitative analysis of this process. These goals have been achieved employing analysis by FTIR …

Go to article

Gender Stereotypes And Gender Identity As Interacting Influences On Children's Self-Concepts: A Self-Socialization Model Of Gender Development, Desiree Denise Tobin Jan 2007

Gender Stereotypes And Gender Identity As Interacting Influences On Children's Self-Concepts: A Self-Socialization Model Of Gender Development, Desiree Denise Tobin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

The goal of this study was to test the gender self-socialization model (GSSM). This model suggests that gender identity motivates children to strive for cognitive consistency between their gender stereotypes and their self-efficacy for those stereotypes. This study presents a novel approach to stereotype assessment by focusing on children's idiosyncratic stereotypes (as opposed to number of commonly shared stereotypes, which do not provide detailed information about the types of stereotypes individual children hold). Participants were 305 children in grades three through eight (Mage = 10.8 years). Independent variables included children's stereotypes of 62 contextually tagged behaviors and gender identity (comprising …

Go to article

From Economics To Resources: Teaching Environmental Sustainability In Peru's Public Education, Ana Adriazola-Rodriguez Jan 2007

From Economics To Resources: Teaching Environmental Sustainability In Peru's Public Education, Ana Adriazola-Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

This dissertation examines the teaching of environmental awareness in Peru's public educational system and how it needs to be consciously taught and improved in order to overcome contamination and pollution of resources and decrease poverty. This is a situation afflicting a significant percentage of Peruvians, who face difficulty in surviving and living well because the scarcity of clean air and water, unpolluted land, and affordable energy, which are basic environmental resources. The teaching of environmental awareness, as mandated by Educational Peruvian Laws and curriculum, should be redesigned to promote environmental ethical awareness and sustainability to guard Peru's natural and cultural …

Go to article

Head Lines Of The Extra Ordinary: Collisions And Miracles, Kathrine Leone Wright Jan 2007

Head Lines Of The Extra Ordinary: Collisions And Miracles, Kathrine Leone Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

"Head Lines of the Extra Ordinary: Collisions and Miracles" is a language-driven 15-story fiction collection that experiments with intertwining the traditions of oral and written storytelling. Within these stories, ordinary people step up to the extraordinary because of an unusual occurrence that requires a moment of change. Several of the stories within the collection take their premise from actual news headlines. To lend cohesion to the collection, multiple stories contain one or more reappearing characters.

Go to article

Heeding The Antiheroine's Call: The Rise Of The Antiheroine In Literature And Popular Culture, Cynthia C. Lyles-Scott Jan 2007

Heeding The Antiheroine's Call: The Rise Of The Antiheroine In Literature And Popular Culture, Cynthia C. Lyles-Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

In my thesis, I argue three assertions: 1) that the 21 st Century antiheroine who has figured so prominently in literature and film is an evolution of the heroine archetype that combines both the action-oriented traditional male hero archetype and the tragically flawed, antagonistic anti-heroine archetype, 2) that the foundation for this newly modified pop culture antiheroine can be traced back to Margaret Mitchell's iconic character, Scarlett O'Hara, and finally 3) that this new modem heroine archetype, the antiheroine, has become an integral part of popular culture, both in literature and film as well as other popular media. As my …

Go to article

Improving Cooperation In P2p Networks: A Social Network Approach, Victor Ponce Jan 2007

Improving Cooperation In P2p Networks: A Social Network Approach, Victor Ponce

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Due to the dynamic nature of P2P systems, it is impossible to keep an accurate history of the transactions that take place while avoiding security attacks such as whitewashing and collusion, and abuse such as freeriding . This is why it is important to develop a mechanism that rewards cooperative peers and punishes misbehaving peers. Modeling P2P networks as social structures can allow incentive mechanisms to be used that prevent the negative behaviors mentioned. In this thesis, we extend a social network algorithm to include credit transfer between peers in order to reduce the path length of queries. We also …

Go to article

High-Speed High-Frequency Acoustic Communications In Ports And Shallow Water, Patrick Michael Blue Jan 2007

High-Speed High-Frequency Acoustic Communications In Ports And Shallow Water, Patrick Michael Blue

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

A detailed study of a novel method for high-speed acoustic communications in ports and shallow water is presented. A series of field experiments, coupled with simulated results using an acoustic channel model have been conducted to outline the optimal modulation schemes for use in the highly reverberant and Doppler dominated shallow water acoustic channel. Field experiments were conducted in the vicinity of the SeaTech marina and the Port Everglades turning basin in water depths of 2 to 15 meters and ranges of between 25 and 75 meters. An automated FAU acoustic modem transmitted BPSK and QPSK modulated messages centered at …

Go to article

Innovative Expansion Of Landfill Capacity Using Geogrid Reinforcements, R. Hayes Templeton Jan 2007

Innovative Expansion Of Landfill Capacity Using Geogrid Reinforcements, R. Hayes Templeton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

An analytical investigation was conducted to evaluate the geotechnical safety and stability of MSW landfills constructed with significantly steepened slopes achieved through geosynthetic reinforcement. The primary motivation for this endeavor was to propose a new design/construction methodology for innovative expansion of landfill capacity. A 2-D plane strain linear elastic analysis was performed with ANSYS finite element software on full-scale MSW landfill structures (with and without geogrids), having slopes of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3. Both local and global factors of safety were determined employing the Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria, and compared with traditional solutions using the Bishop's Modified Method. It was found …

Go to article

In Their Own Words: Older Adults' Perceptions Of Effective And Ineffective Learning Experiences, Deborah L. Duay Jan 2007

In Their Own Words: Older Adults' Perceptions Of Effective And Ineffective Learning Experiences, Deborah L. Duay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

The percentage of older adults in the American population is expected to increase from about 12% now to 22% by the year 2030 (Eisen, 2005). Educators can play an important role in managing the effec.,ts of this demographic shift by designing learning opportunities that increase older adults' motivation to participate and their ability to learn. Because older adults themselves can otTer important insights on what helps and hinders their learning, the purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of adults over age 64 residing in a large metropolitan area in the southeastern United States on effective and ineffective …

Go to article

Knowledge Discovery Through Drive Test Data Visualization, Shalini Saxena Jan 2007

Knowledge Discovery Through Drive Test Data Visualization, Shalini Saxena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

With the increasing number of cellular phone service subscribers, the telecommunications service providers have placed immense emphasis on improving audio quality and ensure fewer dropped calls. Handoff behavior of all handsets is an important factor in quality of service of a mobile phone service. This thesis focuses on the analysis of large volumes of diagnostic data collected from mobile phones in the real world and the identification of aberrant behavior of a mobile handset under test by means of drive test data visualization. Our target was to identify poor mobility decisions that are made by the handsets in calls. Premature, …

Go to article

Ivest A: Interactive Data Visualization And Analysis For Drive Test Data Evaluation, Yongsuk Lee Jan 2007

Ivest A: Interactive Data Visualization And Analysis For Drive Test Data Evaluation, Yongsuk Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

In this thesis, a practical solution for drive test data evaluation and a real application are studied. We propose a system framework to project high dimensional Drive Test Data (DTD) to well-organized web pages, such that users can visually review phone performance with respect to different factors. The proposed application, iVESTA (interactive Visualization and Evaluation System for driven Test dAta), employs a web-based architecture which enables users to upload DTD and immediately visualize the test results and observe phone and network performances with respect to different factors such as dropped call rate, signal quality, vehicle speed, handover and network delays. …

Go to article

A Biometrics Based Secure Communication Scheme For Bluetooth Environment, Puneet Soni Jan 2007

A Biometrics Based Secure Communication Scheme For Bluetooth Environment, Puneet Soni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

A novel personnel authentication and verification system for devices communicating through Bluetooth protocol has been proposed in this thesis. Unlike existing verification systems which provide password or a PIN as a key, the system uses biometrics features as a key. In the implementation of the scheme, ridges and bifurcation based parameters are derived to generate a 128 bit Bluetooth pairing PIN. In this thesis a unique translational and rotational invariant feature set has been developed. These extracted feature data, unlike traditional systems which include the extracted data into payload, is used for device connection by generating the 128 bit PIN. …

Go to article

A Comparative Analysis Of Science-Technology-Society Standards In Elementary, Middle, And High School Science Curriculum Frameworks, Karen Marie Tobias Jan 2007

A Comparative Analysis Of Science-Technology-Society Standards In Elementary, Middle, And High School Science Curriculum Frameworks, Karen Marie Tobias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

An analysis of curriculum frameworks from the fifty states to ascertain the compliance with the National Science Education Standards for integrating ScienceTechnology- Society (STS) themes is reported within this dissertation. Science standards for all fifty states were analyzed to determine if the STS criteria were integrated at the elementary, middle, and high school levels of education. The analysis determined the compliance level for each state, then compared each educational level to see if the compliance was similar across the levels. Compliance is important because research s)lows that using STS themes in the science classroom increases the student's understanding of the …

Go to article

"Heart Of My Race:" Questions Of Ldentity In Sicilian/American Writings, Chiara Mazzucchelli Jan 2007

"Heart Of My Race:" Questions Of Ldentity In Sicilian/American Writings, Chiara Mazzucchelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Throughout the 1900s, the sense of a distinct sicilianita-or Sicilian-nessmanifested itself in writings by Italian authors such as Giovanni Verga, Luigi Pirandello, Leonardo Sciascia, Vincenzo Consolo, and Andrea Camilleri, among others. Interestingly, a parallel phenomenon has emerged in the United States in the broader field of Italian-American literature. While attempting to redefine the concept of Americanness and expand the canon of American literature so that it embraces articulations of ethnic identities, many Sicilian-American writers have turned their works into literary manifestations of their Sicilian Americanness, or, as I have called it, sicilianamericanita. In this study, I try to answer questions …

Go to article

A Study Of School Improvement Plans, School Decisionmaking And Advocacy, And Their Correlation To Student Academic Achievement, Maribel Marcos Curry Jan 2007

A Study Of School Improvement Plans, School Decisionmaking And Advocacy, And Their Correlation To Student Academic Achievement, Maribel Marcos Curry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Parent involvement literature reveals that parents play an important role in student academic achievement. The School Advisory Councils are the major outlet for parents to engage in decision-making and advocacy skills in Broward County. The School Improvement Plans are the major output of the School Advisory Councils and this document contains many strategies that schools should follow in order to increase achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if School Improvement Plans and school decision-making and advocacy had any correlation to academic achievement. The researcher investigated this utilizing two research methods: a survey to investigate if school decision-making …

Go to article

A Study On Random Sum Statistics: Application To Wireless Network Performance Analysis, Suwat Pattaramalai Jan 2007

A Study On Random Sum Statistics: Application To Wireless Network Performance Analysis, Suwat Pattaramalai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

The statistics of random sum is studied and used to evaluate performance metrics in wireless networks. Pertinent wireless network performance measures such as call completion/dropping probabilities and the average number of handovers usually require the probability distributions of the cell dwell time and call holding time; and are therefore not easy to evaluate. The proposed performance evaluation technique requires the moments of the cell dwell time and is given in terms of the Laplace transform function of the call holding time. Multimedia services that have Weibull and generalized gamma distributed call holding times are investigated. The proposed approximation method uses …

Go to article

Activity And Habitat Selection By Loggerhead (Caretta Caretta L.) And Green Turtle (Chelonia Mydas. L.) Hatchlings: A Laboratory And Field Study., Morgan M. Smith Jan 2007

Activity And Habitat Selection By Loggerhead (Caretta Caretta L.) And Green Turtle (Chelonia Mydas. L.) Hatchlings: A Laboratory And Field Study., Morgan M. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Loggerhead and green turtle neonates migrate from Florida's coast during a 24-36 h frenzy. Post-frenzy loggerheads are often found in flotsam (Sargassum), while postfrenzy green turtles "disappear." This study compared the frenzy and post-frenzy activity of each species, their response to flotsam (in the laboratory and field), and the role of experience in habitat selection. Both species were most active during day I; activity thereafter declined (especially in loggerheads). Inactive loggerheads occupied Sargassum and open water (day or night) whereas inactive green turtles occupied Sargassum by day and both habitats at night. Exposure to Sargassum had no effect on the …

Go to article

“We Are On The Circumference Of The Union, But The Union Suffers Nothing From Coldness In The Extremities” The Civil War In California, Cathleen Compton Wineinger Jan 2007

“We Are On The Circumference Of The Union, But The Union Suffers Nothing From Coldness In The Extremities” The Civil War In California, Cathleen Compton Wineinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

When the Civil War began in 1861, the California Legislature pledged the state’s loyalty to the Union cause, and that allegiance never wavered. Location insulated the state from the major conflicts, and for most people, life remained relatively unchanged. Location also determined that California fought a different Civil War, faced a different enemy, and confronted challenges unique to its geography and position in the nation. California mines financed the Union war effort, and California Volunteers kept the peace throughout the West. The loyal population and the military monitored the activities of the large pro-southern minority, prevented any linkup with rebel …

Go to article

Approach, A Voidance, And The Mouse Paradigm: An Examination Of Wording And Relationships With Other Hedonic Constructs, Elizabeth Anne Saigal Jan 2007

Approach, A Voidance, And The Mouse Paradigm: An Examination Of Wording And Relationships With Other Hedonic Constructs, Elizabeth Anne Saigal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

The two principal areas of research addressed by this study were: a) further validation of Nowak and Vallacher's mouse paradigm, and b) comparison of literatures all theoretically derived from principles of hedonics. Validation of the mouse paradigm included examination of the instructional set and detection of individual differences in various hedonically derived measures of personality. The mouse instructions were framed in terms of approach ('less good ' versus ' more good') or in terms of avoidance (' more bad' versus ' less bad ' ). Inclusion of inventories based on the principles of approach and avoidance allowed for examination of …

Go to article

An Application Of Artificial Neural Networks For Hand Grip Classification, Robbie R. Gosine Jan 2007

An Application Of Artificial Neural Networks For Hand Grip Classification, Robbie R. Gosine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

The gripping action as performed by an average person is developed over their life and changes over time. The initial learning is based on trial and error and becomes a natural action which is modified as the physiology of the individual changes. Each grip type is a personal expression and as the grip changes over time to accommodate physiologically changes, it can be considered to be a grip-signature. lt is postulated that an ANN can deliver a classification mechanism that is able to make sense of the varying gripping inputs that are linearly inseparable and uniquely attributed to user physiology. …

Go to article

An Investigation Into The Acoustic Variability And The Attenuation Of An Acoustic Signal Within A Port Environment Focusing On Port Everglades, Florida, Daniel Sheahan Jan 2007

An Investigation Into The Acoustic Variability And The Attenuation Of An Acoustic Signal Within A Port Environment Focusing On Port Everglades, Florida, Daniel Sheahan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

A methodology for characterizing the acoustical properties of a port environment, namely Port Everglades, has been proposed and carried out. This approach includes both a port-wide analysis of how the basic oceanographic features within the port impact the acoustic properties, and also a more focused sampling methodology within a small region of Port Everglades, allowing for the acoustic characteristics, including ambient noise, and an approximate signal absorption to be computed. The results documented through the duration of this research indicate that the temperature variation throughout the port is the principal contributor to the characteristics of the sound velocity profile. Ambient …

Go to article

Assessment Of A Nearshore And An Offshore Queen Conch (Strombus Gigas) Habitat In The Florida Keys Using Field And Laboratory Techniques, Gretchen A. Kowalik Jan 2007

Assessment Of A Nearshore And An Offshore Queen Conch (Strombus Gigas) Habitat In The Florida Keys Using Field And Laboratory Techniques, Gretchen A. Kowalik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

Queen conch in the Florida Keys are slowly recovering from overfishing. This study assessed habitat characteristics, metamorphosis and postlarval growth of queen conch in a nearshore and an offshore habitat. The nearshore habitat was dominated by macroalgae while the offshore habitat was dominated by areas of open coarse sediment and seagrass. There was a significant difference among the top six diatom families at each habitat (p < 0.001). The diatom family Naviculaceae was dominant at both sites. No difference in microbial populations was observed (p>0.05). Larvae metamorphosed when exposed to sediment from nearshore and offshore locations (10-40%). Larvae exposed to offshore sediment at 27°C exhibited the highest metamorphic response (~40%). There was no significant difference in growth rate …

Go to article

Articulation, Narrative, Integrity, And The Practice Of Self-Formation In The Work Of Charles Taylor, Alasdair Macintyre, And David L. Norton, David Glen Miller Jan 2007

Articulation, Narrative, Integrity, And The Practice Of Self-Formation In The Work Of Charles Taylor, Alasdair Macintyre, And David L. Norton, David Glen Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

This dissertation addresses the following questions and concerns related to the formation of the moral self: (1) The relationship between certain moral choices and a person's sense of personal or moral identity: specifically, how is it that certain choices, actions, character traits, or goods come to be interpreted as either constituting, or as being inseparable from, one's conscience, one's moral identity, or one's moral self? (2) The relationship between the conception of the good with which one identifies and the conception of the good of one's community of origin: how does one develop a conception of the good, how does …

Go to article

Automatic Station Keeping Of Small Twin Screw Boats, James H. Vanzwieten Jan 2007

Automatic Station Keeping Of Small Twin Screw Boats, James H. Vanzwieten

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

This work details the development of tools and controllers for station keeping control of twin screw vessels. A fundamental analysis is conducted of the dynamics of twin screw displacement hull vessels and their actuator systems, where the response characteristics and maneuverability are quantified through a series of full scale trials conducted in different environmental conditions while recording the environmental conditions, actuator states, and geodetic and inertial measurements. The data from these maneuvers were repeatable from run to run and thus provide valuable benchmarks for several maneuvers and the measured actuator response provides valuable set points of performance characteristics/limitations for control …

Go to article

Belongingness And Integrative Motivation In Second Language Acquisition, Robb. Kvasnak Jan 2007

Belongingness And Integrative Motivation In Second Language Acquisition, Robb. Kvasnak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009

This study investigates the perceptions that second language students have of those who speak the language that these students are trying to acquire and examines how these perceptions relate to students' progress in acquiring the target language. The study is based on the psychological theory of the need to belong, i.e. belongingness as well as on the concept of integrative motivation. This study is a qualitative investigation that uses the Repertory Grid Technique and Personal Construct Theory in order to elicit subject perceptions and their constructs. Membership checking was carried out with nine of the originally interviewed 22 subjects in …

Go to article

Toward A Sui Generis View Of Black Rights In Canada? Overcoming The Difference-Denial Model Of Countering Anti-Black Racism, Lolita Buckner Inniss Jan 2007

Toward A Sui Generis View Of Black Rights In Canada? Overcoming The Difference-Denial Model Of Countering Anti-Black Racism, Lolita Buckner Inniss

Publications

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Maximizing Single Opposition Observations Of Asteroids, Steven J. Higley Jan 2007

Maximizing Single Opposition Observations Of Asteroids, Steven J. Higley

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Go to article

First Prev Next Last