Digital Commons Network^™

An Investigation Into The Application Of Data Mining Techniques To Characterize Agricultural Soil Profiles, Rowan J. Maddern

Theses : Honours

The advances in computing and information storage have provided vast amounts of data. The challenge has been to extract knowledge from this raw data; this has led to new methods and techniques such as data mining that can bridge the knowledge gap. The research aims to use these new data mining techniques and apply them to a soil science database to establish if meaningful relationships can be found. A data set extracted from the WA Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFW A) soils database has been used to conduct this research. The database contains measurements of soil profile data from …

Nutrition And Eating Behaviour In Older Adulthood, Catherine Helene Matringe

Theses : Honours

In response to increasing number of older Australians (from 13% over 65 in 2004 to 28% by 2051), policy makers have been exploring strategies aimed at maintaining older adults' quality of life. Nutrition has been recognised as an effective preventive measure to promote well-being among older adults. The purpose of the current paper is to review relevant literature in the area of nutrition and eating behaviour in older adulthood. Biological issues, psychological factors, and social as well as environmental aspects are reviewed. Issues related to the ageing process, mental illness, chronic conditions, body image, social isolation and poverty represent barriers …

Commentary On History Of The Minnow Litigation And Its Implications For The Future Of Reservoir Operations On The Rio Grande, Michael Connor

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Summary: S664 Case-Ih Maxxum 155 Value, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Nebraska Summary: S693 Agco Rt110 A, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Stormwater Influence On Phytoplankton Composition And Dynamics In Lake Joyce, Virginia, Lewis F. Affronti Jr., B. Thomas Duquette

Virginia Journal of Science

A three year study of Lake Joyce, Virginia revealed relationships between the timing, duration, and amount of stormwater runoff and phytoplankton abundance and composition. Major phytoplankton taxa were identified and cyanophytes dominanted during periods of decreased rainwater input and increased lake water retention times. Increased freshwater input was associated with the growth of a diverse assemblage of both chlorophytes and diatoms. Phytoplankton dynamics as a result of significant rain events (i.e., hurricanes Floyd and Irene, 1999) were documented and specific taxa involved in nuisance algal blooms were identified.

Biogeochemical Consequences Of Rapid Microbial Turnover And Seasonal Succession In Soil, S. K. Schmidt, E. K. Costello, D. R. Nemergut, Cory C. Cleveland, S. C. Reed, M. N. Weintraub, A. F. Meyer, A. M. Martin

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Soil microbial communities have the metabolic and genetic capability to adapt to changing environmental conditions on very short time scales. In this paper we combine biogeochemical and molecular approaches to reveal this potential, showing that microbial biomass can turn over on time scales of days to months in soil, resulting in a succession of microbial communities over the course of a year. This new understanding of the year-round turnover and succession of microbial communities allows us for the first time to propose a temporally explicit N cycle that provides mechanistic hypotheses to explain both the loss and retention of dissolved …

Assessing The Carbon Balance Of Circumpolar Arctic Tundra Using Remote Sensing And Process Modeling, Stephen Sitch, A. D. Mcguire, John S. Kimball, Nicola Gedney, J. A. Gamon, Ryan Engstrom, Annett Wolf, Q. Zhuang, J. Clein, Kyle C. Mcdonald

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group Publications

This paper reviews the current status of using remote sensing and process-based modeling approaches to assess the contemporary and future circumpolar carbon balance of Arctic tundra, including the exchange of both carbon dioxide and methane with the atmosphere. Analyses based on remote sensing approaches that use a 20-year data record of satellite data indicate that tundra is greening in the Arctic, suggesting an increase in photosynthetic activity and net primary production. Modeling studies generally simulate a small net carbon sink for the distribution of Arctic tundra, a result that is within the uncertainty range of field-based estimates of net carbon …

Recent Climate-Driven Increases In Vegetation Productivity For The Western Arctic: Evidence Of An Acceleration Of The Northern Terrestrial Carbon Cycle, J. S. Kimball, M. Zhao, A. D. Mcguire, F. A. Heinsch, J. Clein, M. Calef, W. M. Jolly, S. Kang, S. E. Euskirchen, K. C. Mcdonald, Steven W. Running

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Northern ecosystems contain much of the global reservoir of terrestrial carbon that is potentially reactive in the context of near-term climate change. Annual variability and recent trends in vegetation productivity across Alaska and northwest Canada were assessed using a satellite remote sensing–based production efficiency model and prognostic simulations of the terrestrial carbon cycle from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) and BIOME–BGC (BioGeoChemical Cycles) model. Evidence of a small, but widespread, positive trend in vegetation gross and net primary production (GPP and NPP) is found for the region from 1982 to 2000, coinciding with summer warming of more than 1.8°C and …

Conditions For Caribou Persistence In The Wolf-Elk-Caribou Systems Of The Canadian Rockies, Mark Hebblewhite, Jesse Whittington, Mark Bradley, Geoff Skinner, Alan Dibb, Clifford A. White

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Woodland caribou populations are considered threatened in Alberta and have declined in the Canadian Rocky Mountain National Parks of Banff and Jasper despite protection from factors causing caribou populations to decline outside of parks. Recent research emphasizes the importance of the numeric response of wolves to moose in moose-caribou-wolf systems to caribou persistence. Moose are rare in the Canadian Rockies, where the dominant ungulate prey for wolves is elk. Few studies have explored wolf-elk dynamics and none have examined implications for caribou. We used data collected in Banff to estimate the numeric response of wolves to elk from 1985 to …

Controls Over Foliar N:P Ratios In Tropical Rain Forests, Alan R. Townsend, Cory C. Cleveland, Gregory P. Asner, Mercedes M. C. Bustamante

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Correlations between foliar nutrient concentrations and soil nutrient availability have been found in multiple ecosystems. These relationships have led to the use of foliar nutrients as an index of nutrient status and to the prediction of broadscale patterns in ecosystem processes. More recently, a growing interest in ecological stoichiometry has fueled multiple analyses of foliar nitrogen : phosphorus (N:P) ratios within and across ecosystems. These studies have observed that N:P values are generally elevated in tropical forests when compared to higher latitude ecosystems, adding weight to a common belief that tropical forests are generally N rich and P poor. However, …

Mathematical Modeling Of Magnetohydrodynamic Micropumps, Juan Katoff Afonien

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) system is a minute chemical processing plant consisting of interconnected networks of microchannels and reservoirs operating with small volumes of reagents. In many LOC systems, it is necessary to propel fluids from one part of the device to another, control fluid motion, stir and interact various reagents, and detect the presence of target analytes. In LOC systems, these tasks are far from trivial; This thesis focuses on fluid propulsion under the action of electric and magnetic fields. Both Non-RedOx and RedOx-based Magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) micropumps, in which the flow is directed by judicious interplay between electric and magnetic …

Economic Analysis Of Cellulase Production Methods For Bio-Ethanol, Jun Zhuang, Mary A. Marchant, Sue E. Nokes, Herbert J. Strobel

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The cost of cellulase enzymes has limited the feasibility of producing ethanol from fibrous biomass. Traditional submerged fermentation (SmF) was compared to an alternative method of producing cellulase, solid state cultivation (SSC). Results from an economic analysis indicated that the unit costs for cellulase enzyme production were $15.67 (The prices are all 2004 prices in this article, except otherwise stated. We deflated newer prices to 2004 prices using a deflation factor 0.9 per year and inflated older prices to 2004 prices using an inflation factor 1.1.) per kilogram ($/kg) and $40.36/kg, for the SSC and SmF methods, respectively, while the …

Patently Wrong: The U.S. Supreme Court Punts In The Case Of Labcorp V. Metabolite, John G. New

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In June 2006, after having granted certiorari and hearing oral arguments, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the case of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc. as having been improvidently granted a writ of certiorari. Dissenting from this extraordinary step was Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Stevens and Souter. At issue in the case was a patent, the owners of which claimed that a physician's use of any test to infer vitamin deficiency by raised blood serum levels of the chemical homocysteine infringed the patent. This Article argues that the Supreme Court was itself improvident in dismissing …

Representing The Object Of Controversy: The Case Of The Molecular Clock, Michael Dietrich

Dartmouth Scholarship

Through a case study of the controversies surrounding the molecular clock, this paper examines the role of visual representation in the dynamics of scientific controversies. Representations of the molecular clock themselves became objects of controversy and so were not a means for closure. Instead visual representations of the molecular clock became tools for the further articulation of an ongoing controversy.

Representando El Objeto De La Controversia. El Caso Del Reloj Molecular, Michael Dietrich

Dartmouth Scholarship

This collection of specially commissioned essays puts top scholars head to head to debate the central issues in the lively and fast growing field of philosophy of biology.

Cframp's Large Pelagic Fish Tagging Program, Susan Singh-Renton, John Renton

Gulf and Caribbean Research

CFRAMP's Large Pelagic Fish Tagging Program was established to examine the distribution and movement patterns of Thunnus atlanticus (blackfin tuna), Acanthocybium solandri (wahoo), Coryphaena hippurus (dolphinfish), and Scomberomorus cavalla (king mackerel), large pelagic fish species of commercial importance to several Caribbean countries. The Program explored several means to facilitate fish tag and release activities, involving collaborative partnerships with national fisheries administrations, the recreational fishing sector, and individual commercial fishers. A Iotal of 1,143 fish were tagged and released in the coastal waters of several islands within the Eastern Caribbean: 787 blackfin tuna, 250 wahoo, 89 dolphinfish, and 17 king mackerel. …

Factors Associated With Atypical Moles In New Hampshire, Usa, L Titus-Ernstoff, J Ding, A. E. Perry, S. K. Spencer, B. F. Cole, M. S. Ernstoff

Dartmouth Scholarship

Only a few studies, conducted in Sweden, assessed factors associated with the presence of atypical moles in the general population. We conducted a population-based, case-control study in New Hampshire, USA, to identify factors associated with atypical moles. In our study, atypical moles affected 14% of the study population. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) was 0.34 (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.14-0.80) for those with the highest adulthood recreational sun exposure, relative to the lowest. The OR for any freckles, compared to none, was 2.24 (95% CI=1.18-4.25). We found a linear relationship between the number of benign moles and the presence of atypical …

Development Of An Immunoturbidimetric Particle Enhanced Assay For Detection Of C-Reactive Protein, Maria Nicholas

Theses

Background: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a well-known marker for inflammation. Recent studies have demonstrated that increases in CRP concentrations are associated with future coronary events in apparently healthy men and women. The requirement for assays, capable of testing CRP concentrations within the range 1-lOmg/l, is therefore great.

Methods: Two CRP assays were developed. The Sensitive assay is capable of measuring CRP concentrations as low as lmg/l for use as a potential cardiac marker test. The Normal assay can measure concentrations from 5-400mg/l for establishing levels of inflammation. Both assays developed are latex particle enhanced immunoturbidimetric assays designed for use on …

Microsoft Windows Vista: The Beginning Or The End Of End-User License Agreements As We Know Them Recent Development., Rebecca K. Lively

St. Mary's Law Journal

Microsoft Windows Vista’s widespread use and influence on the market represents an ideal case study on the enforceability, pitfalls, and future of the End-User License Agreement (EULA). Since the release of the Windows Vista operating system in early 2007, Microsoft consumers often do not realize they are entering into a contract with Microsoft when they install Windows Vista onto their computer. Microsoft consumers probably do not realize that they may be clicking away valuable rights. In analyzing the enforceability of the specific terms of the Windows Vista EULA, Washington law will be the primary source because the Windows Vista EULA …

Preparation And Derivatization Of Novel Sydnonimines And Their Esters, Timothy Luke Teschler

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Some years ago, we reported that 3-phenylsydnone underwent dilithiation to yield the dilithio species, upon treatment with n-butyllithium. Subsequent reactions with electrophiles led to variously substituted aryl sydnones, dependent on the nature of the electrophile employed. Sydnonimines, exocyclic nitrogen analogs of sydnones, exhibit interesting biological properties and, accordingly, it was of value to explore whether or not the dilithiation approach could be extended to such species. In the present work a series of N-6-ethoxycarbonyl-3-arylsydnonimines were synthesized from the corresponding sydnonimine hydrochlorides in moderate yields (22-77%). Attempted dilithiations of N-6-ethoxycarbonyl-3-arylsydnonimines and trapping with iodine proved to be problematic, yielding only the …

Hypoxic Induction And The Role Of Hifs In The Activation Of Luciferase Constitutive Reporters In Placental Stem Cells, Diane Michelle Doran

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Hypoxia is critically important to the development of the embryo and placenta. Proper placental development is critical for normal fetal growth and embryonic survival. Abnormal placental development has been implicated in numerous obstetric complications, including preeclampsia, which affects about 7% of all pregnancies and can be fatal for both mother and baby. Rodent and murine trophoblast stem cells differentiate into three distinct cell lineages: giant cells, spongiotrophoblasts, and labyrinthine cells, which form different layers and have different functions within the placenta. Recent studies in our laboratory have focused on the invasive giant cell layer using the rodent Rcho-1 choriocarcinoma stem …

Rem.Nants, Melody R. Tiemann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ecocritical Perspectives On African Literature : Place, Literary Identity, And The Natural World / Anna K. Smith, Anna K. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Psychological Effects Of Not Having Equal Rights And Privileges In The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community: Activism As An Antidote?, David E. Baker

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Despite the prevalence of discrimination in American society, little is known about the effects of equal rights activism on mental health. Within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community, discrimination against marriage, adoption, employment, and other rights and privileges given to heterosexual individuals is still legal and socially accepted in most American communities. Previous research has suggested that these individuals have higher incidences of depression, anxiety, and substance use than the general population. The experience of discrimination and punishment responses learned from societal messages is believed to contribute to these clinical issues within this community. This qualitative study found that equal …

Examination Of One District's Identification, Assessment Practices, Preventative Interventions, And Longitudinal Literacy Learning Of At-Risk Readers, Lori J. Lennon

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to profile Reading Recovery students in one district to examine: (1) the content and predictability of the district’s early intervention screening assessments and progress monitoring tools, (2) the initial and (3) sustained effectiveness of the Reading Recovery preventative program relative to student achievement in first through third grades (4) rates of identification of educational disabilities and special education placements and (5) common variables in intellectual, process, and achievement characteristics of those students who were slow to respond to reading interventions. Participants consisted of students from fifteen elementary schools, within the years 2000 to …

Fcs 5852 : Adolescence And The Family, Fcs

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Deep Purple: Religious Shades Of Family Law, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

"Deep Purple" examines the impact of religion on the politics and jurisprudence of abstinence education. Abstinence education is one of the many locations (issues) in the contemporary culture wars between red and blue state values. Families who live in red and blue states are experiencing divergent life patterns, and religion affects the development of these patterns. Frequency of church attendance has been tied to likelihood of marriage, and, as this paper shows, has been profoundly influential in approaches to teen sexuality. Religion decreases the opportunity for dialogue and compromise on these issues because people use underlying values - such as …

Beyond Invisibility: Afro-Argentines In Their Nation's Culture And Memory, Robert J. Cottrol

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay examines recent works on the history and culture of Afro-Argentines. It discusses why the study of Afro-Argentines has traditionally been an underexamined topic by scholars specializing in Argentina and why there has been a recent renewal of interest in the topic. Essay explores influence of Africans and Afro-Argentines on Argentine culture and the question of the so-called disappearance of the Afro-Argentines.

Behavioral Biology, The Rational Actor Model, And The New Feminist Agenda, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In this paper, we will incorporate gender consciousness into critiques of the rational actor model by revisiting Carol Gilligan's account of moral development. Economics itself, led by the insights that have come from game theory, is reexamining trust, altruism, reciprocity and empathy. Behavioral economics, defined as "the combination of psychology and economics that investigates what happens in markets in which some of the agents display human limitations and complications," further explores the implications of a more robust conception of human motivation. We argue that the most likely source for a comprehensive theory will come from the integration of behavioral economics …