Digital Commons Network^™

Relativistic Magnetic Monopole Flux Constraints From Rice, Daniel P. Hogan, Dave Z. Besson, John P. Ralston, Ilya Kravchenko, D. Seckel

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

We report an upper limit on the flux of relativistic monopoles based on the nonobservation of in-ice showers by the Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment (RICE) at the South Pole. We obtain a 95% C.L. limit of order 10^-18(cm² s sr)^-1 for intermediate-mass monopoles of 10⁷ ≤ γ ≤ 10¹² at the anticipated energy E_tot = 10¹⁶ GeV. This bound is over an order of magnitude stronger than all previously published experimental limits for this range of boost parameters γ and exceeds 2 orders of magnitude improvement over most of the range. We …

Thermodynamics Of Itinerant Magnets In A Classical Spin-Fluctuation Model, Aleksander L. Wysocki, James K. Glasbrenner, Kirill D. Belashchenko

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Thermodynamics of itinerant magnets is studied using a classical model with one parameter characterizing the degree of itinerancy. Monte Carlo simulations for bcc and fcc lattices are compared with the mean-field approximation and with the Onsager cavity field approximation extended to itinerant systems. The qualitative features of thermodynamics are similar to the known results of the functional integral method. It is found that magnetic short-range order is weak and almost independent on the degree of itinerancy, and the mean-field approximation describes the thermodynamics reasonably well. Ambiguity of the phase space measure for classical models is emphasized. The Onsager cavity field …

When Does Nitrate Become A Risk For Humans?, David S. Powlson, Tom M. Addiscott, Nigel Benjamin, Kenneth G. Cassman, Theo M. De Kok, Hans Van Grinsven, Jean-Louis L'Hirondel, Alex A. Avery, Chris Van Kessel

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Is nitrate harmful to humans? Are the current limits for nitrate concentration in drinking water justified by science? There is substantial disagreement among scientists over the interpretation of evidence on the issue. There are two main health issues: the linkage between nitrate and (i) infant methaemoglobinaemia, also known as blue baby syndrome, and (ii) cancers of the digestive tract. The evidence for nitrate as a cause of these serious diseases remains controversial. On one hand there is evidence that shows there is no clear association between nitrate in drinking water and the two main health issues with which it has …

Importance And Effect Of Nitrogen On Crop Quality And Health, Jürg Blumenthal, David D. Baltensperger, Kenneth G. Cassman, Stephen Mason, Alexander Pavlista

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Nitrogen (N) is often the most limiting factor in crop production. Hence, application of fertilizer nitrogen results in higher biomass yields and protein yield and concentration in plant tissue is commonly increased. Nitrogen often affects amino acid composition of protein and in turn its nutritional quality. In cereals, abundant supply of nitrogen decreases the relative proportion of lysine and threonine, thus, reducing the biological value of the protein. Increasing nitrogen supply generally improves kernel integrity and strength, resulting in better milling properties of the grain. In oil seed crops, protein levels are increased upon nitrogen fertilization, whereas oil concentration is …

Harvester Ant Nests Improve Recovery Performance Of Drought Impacted Vegetation In Grazing Regimes Of Semiarid Savanna, Texas, Nancy Nicolai, Fred Smeins, Jerry Cook

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Vegetation composition is often dictated by grazing intensity in semiarid savannas; recovery following drought may depend on pre drought species composition. Nests of the red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, affect the dynamics, composition and recovery of post drought communities due to their larger size, greater seed production and higher perennial grass richness. We hypothesized that vegetation at ant nests would survive drought and recover faster than vegetation in the surrounding grasslands, but that individual and population recovery would depend on plant species composition, which, in turn, would be influenced by grazing intensity. We assessed nest influence on density, cover, …

Modeling Responses Of Dryland Spring Triticale, Proso Millet And Foxtail Millet To Initial Soil Water In The High Plains, S. A. Saseendran, D. C. Nielsen, Drew J. Lyon, L. Ma, D. D. Baltensperger, G. Hoogenboom, L.R. Ahuja

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Dryland farming strategies in the High Plains must make efficient use of limited and variable precipitation and stored water in the soil profile for stable and sustainable farm productivity. Current research efforts focus on replacing summer fallow in the region with more profitable and environmentally sustainable spring and summer crops. In the absence of reliable precipitation forecasts for the crop growing season, farmers rely mainly upon knowledge of plant available water (PAW) in the soil profile at planting for making crop choice decisions. To develop a decision support strategy for crop selection based on initial PAW, experiments were conducted with …

A Case Study To Teach The Diagnostic Process: Determining The Cause Of Chlorosis In A Crop Of Cut Dicentra, Marci Spaw, Kimberley A. Williams, Laurie Hodges, Ellen T. Paparozzi, Ingrid L. Mallberg

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This universally accessible, Web-based decision case presents the challenge of determining the cause of foliar chlorosis in a crop of dicentra (Dicentra spectabilis) being forced as a cut flower for Valentine's Day sales. The case study serves as a tool to promote the development of diagnostic skills for production dilemmas, including nutritional disorders, disease problems, and evaluation of the appropriateness of cultural practices, Cut dicentra is a minor crop and standard production practices are not well established. Solving this case requires that students research production protocol, as well as nutritional and pest problems, and determine whether they have …

Detection And Quantification Of Vitamin K1 Quinol In Leaf Tissues, Chloë Van Oostende, Joshua R. Widhalm, Gilles J.C. Basset

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Phylloquinone (2-methyl-3-phytyl-1,4-naphthoquinone; vitamin K₁) is vital to plants. It is responsible for the oneelectron transfer at the A1 site of photosystem I, a process that involves turnover between the quinone and semi-quinone forms of phylloquinone. Using HPLC coupled with fluorometric detection to analyze Arabidopsis leaf extracts, we detected a third redox form of phylloquinone corresponding to its fully reduced – quinol–naphthoquinone ring (PhQH₂). A method was developed to quantify PhQH₂ and its corresponding oxidized quinone (PhQ) counterpart in a single HPLC run. PhQH₂ was found in leaves of all dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous species tested, …

Viewing Rural Female Superintendents Through An Efficacy Lens, Jean M. Haar, John Palladino, Marilyn Grady, Kaye Lynn Peery

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Rural education is an important part of the American educational system. As noted in the Rural Trust report, Why Rural Matters 2003: The Continuing Need for Every State to Take Action on Rural Education: "Forty~three percent of the nation's public schools are in rural communities or small towns of fewer than 25,000 people, and 31 percent of the nation's children attend these schools". Rural schools are facing a number of challenges. Common concerns among rural schools are poverty, changing demographics, and declining numbers. They are also faced with the issues of accountability and mandates from No Child Left Behind. The …

Comparative Pollination Biology Of Sympatric And Allopatric Andean Iochroma (Solanaceae), Stacey Dewitt Smith, Steven J. Hall, Pablo R. Izquierdo, David A. Baum

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Field studies were conducted for 15 species of Iochroma Benth, and the nested genus Acnistus Schott to quantify the diversity of pollination systems and to assess the potential contribution of pollinator behavior to the persistence of closely related species in sympatry. We combined measures of pollinator visitation and pollen deposition to estimate the importance of major groups of pollinators for each species, and we calculated proportional similarity in the pollinator assemblage among species. We found that 12 species of Iochroma, encompassing a range of flower colors and sizes, were principally pollinated by hummingbirds and, in many cases, by the …

The Spectrum Of Mitochondrial Mutation Differs Across Species, Kristi L. Montooth, David M. Rand

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Mutations are ubiquitous, and many arise during the very process of replicating and transmitting genomes. This process is the source of the genetic variation that provides the raw material for both evolutionary novelty and human disease. Mutation rates are known to vary among nucleotides, across genomic regions, and between taxa. It is conventional wisdom that animal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is one genomic region that has a particularly high mutation rate. Until recently, this high rate of mutation has been predominantly inferred from high levels of mitochondrial sequence divergence between species. However, the apparently simple process of mutation and sequence divergence …

Rapid Rates Of Lineage-Specific Gene Duplication And Deletion In The Α-Globin Gene Family, Federico G. Hoffmann, Juan C. Opazo, Jay F. Storz

Jay F. Storz Publications

Phylogeny reconstructions of the globin gene families have revealed that paralogous genes within species are often more similar to one another than they are to their orthologous counterparts in closely related species. This pattern has been previously attributed to mechanisms of concerted evolution such as interparalog gene conversion that homogenize sequence variation between tandemly duplicated genes and therefore create the appearance of recent common ancestry. Here we report a comparative genomic analysis of the α-globin gene family in mammals that reveal a surprisingly high rate of lineage-specific gene duplication and deletion via unequal crossing-over. Results of our analysis reveal that …

Molecular Evolution Of Cytochrome B In High- And Low-Altitude Deer Mice (Genus Peromyscus), E.J. Gering, J. C. Opazo, Jay F. Storz

Jay F. Storz Publications

Patterns of amino-acid polymorphism in human mitochondrial genes have been interpreted as evidence for divergent selection among populations that inhabit climatically distinct environments. If similar patterns are mirrored in other broadly distributed mammalian species, then adaptive modifications of mitochondrial protein function may be detected in comparisons among locally adapted populations of a single wide-ranging species, or among closely related species that have adapted to different environments. Here, we test for evidence of positive selection on cytochrome b variation within and among species of the ecologically diverse rodent genus Peromyscus. We used likelihood-based comparisons of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution rates …

Wind Through The Buffalo Grass: A Lakota Story Cycle, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard Collection

Wind Through the Buffalo Grass: A Lakota Story Cycle is a narrative history of the Pine Ridge Lakota tribe of South Dakota, following its history from 1850 to the present day through actual historical events and through the stories of four fictional Lakota children, each related by descent and separated from one another by two generations.

The ecology of the Pine Ridge region, especially its mammalian and avian wildlife, is woven into the stories of the children. Illustrated by the author, the book includes drawings of Pine Ridge wildlife, regional maps, and Native American pictorial art. Appendices include a listing …

Expanding Group Support System Capabilities From The Knowledge Management Perspective, Shin-Yuan Hung, King-Zoo Tang, Tsan-Chuan Shu

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

A group support system (GSS) is a computer-based system that enables people in different places to discuss and make decisions on connected computers. Expanding GSS capabilities from the knowledge management perspective is believed to significantly improve the performance and satisfaction of group meetings. This study develops the organizational knowledge management process, proposed by Alavi and Leidner (2001), to expand the capabilities of a GSS. Additionally, a prototype system has been implemented. Finally, an experiment is conducted to evaluate the system and demonstrate its applicability and usability. Experimental results indicate that users perceive a web-based GSS with knowledge management capabilities to …

Technology Support For The Classroom: Technology Alternatives To The Traditional Classroom, Michael L. Gibson, Mari W. Buche, Jerry J. Waite

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

As technology continues to advance, instructors in higher education are able to enhance course instruction. Course support tools can be customized to meet the needs of the instructor, including file sharing, grade tracking, communicating, and making announcements. Blended learning advances course enhancements to include integrated solutions such as links to electronic textbooks and assignments. The most advanced use of technology for educational purposes is found in the distance learning format. This paper describes various uses of technology to support classroom instruction. Examples are provided.

Identifying Opportunities In Multilingual Business Environments Using Environmental Scanning And Text Mining Techniques, Jody Strong, Kaushik Ghosh, Sumali Conlon

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The identification of opportunities for growth can be made easier if comprehensive information relevant to the business environment is available to managers. Such recognition of business opportunities can also help sustain competitive advantage. Information relevant to business environment is usually written and posted in many languages and can be accessed from many sources. The collection of this information is time consuming and labor intensive and techniques such as environmental scanning that are proposed in previous research can facilitate this information search. In this study, we propose a technique to automatically perform tasks using text mining tools that search, translate, and …

Uc: Ubiquitous Collaboration Platform For Multimodal Team Interaction Support, Veton Z. Kepuska, Sabri Gurbuz, Walter Rodriguez, Stephen M. Fiore, Deborah Carstens, Patrick D. Converse, David Metcalf

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

A human-centered computing platform that improves teamwork and transforms the “human- computer interaction experience” for distributed teams is presented. This Ubiquitous Collaboration, or uC (“you see”), platform's objective is to transform distributed teamwork (i.e., work occurring when teams of workers and learners are geographically dispersed and often interacting at different times). It achieves this goal through a multimodal team interaction interface realized through a reconfigurable open architecture. The approach taken is to integrate: (1) an intuitive speech- and video-centric multi-modal interface to augment more conventional methods (e.g., mouse, stylus and touch), (2) an open and reconfigurable architecture supporting information gathering, …

Impact Of Behavioral Performance Management In A Korean Application, Fred Luthans, Shanggeun Rhee, Brett C. Luthans, James B. Avey

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of money, social recognition, and feedback have a similar impact on employee performance in the context of a modern Korean broadband internet service firm.

Design/methodology/approach – The study design was a quasi-field experiment (with control group). First, the leaders of this Korean firm were trained in behavioral performance management. Following the steps of organisational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) they identified, measured, and analyzed critical performance behaviors and then intervened with the following reward incentives: money (n = 38), social recognition and caring attention (n = 41), and …

Beyond Liberals And Conservatives To Political Genotypes And Phenotypes, John R. Alford, Carolyn L. Funk, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

In the past, most political scientists have been oblivious to the growing empirical evidence challenging environmental determinism. Professor Charney, apparently as a result of the fact that genes and the environment interact in a complex fashion, advocates that this passive unawareness be replaced by active denial. Science, however, does not advance by avoiding important relationships merely because they are complicated and, fortunately, science is not heeding Charney’s ideologically-based fears. Molecular geneticists, often working in tandem with political scientists, are quickly moving beyond twin studies to identify the specific suites of genes and biological systems that predict variation in core political …

Twin Studies, Molecular Genetics, Politics, And Tolerance: A Response To Beckwith And Morris, John R. Alford, Carolyn L. Funk, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Beckwith and Morris raise concerns about the value of twin studies for understanding the role of genetics in complex human behavior, but virtually all of their concerns have been raised and rebutted before. When it comes to the equal environments assumption (EEA), the best approach is to test for and control possible violations of the EEA on heritability estimates rather than merely rejecting all empirical evidence because of the possibility of EEA violations. In many respects, since the study of the genetic basis of complex human behaviors now includes many methods in addition to twin studies, Beckwith and Morris’s critique …

Affective Flexibility: Evaluative Processing Goals Shape Amygdala Activity, William A. Cunningham, Jay J. Van Bavel, Ingrid Johnsen Haas

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Although early research implicated the amygdala in automatic processing of negative information, more recent research suggests that it plays a more general role in processing the motivational relevance of various stimuli, suggesting that the relation between valence and amygdala activation may depend on contextual goals. This study provides experimental evidence that the relation between valence and amygdala activity is dynamically modulated by evaluative goals. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants evaluated the positive, negative, or overall (positive plus negative) aspects of famous people. When participants were providing overall evaluations, both positive and negative names were associated with amygdala activation. When …

Isolation Of Microsatellite Loci From The Coqui Frog, Eleutherodactylus Coqui, Maureen B. Peters, Karen H. Beard, Cris Hagen, Eric M. O'Neill, Karen E. Mock, William Pitt

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Thirteen microsatellite loci were isolated from the coqui frog (Eleutherodactylus coqui) and optimized for future research. The loci were screened across 37 individuals from two Puerto Rican populations. Loci were variable with the number of alleles per locus ranging from three to 38. Polymorphic information content ranged from 0.453 to 0.963 and observed heterozygosity for each population ranged from 0.320 to 0.920.

Procedural Justice In Family Conflict Resolution And Deviant Peer Group Involvement Among Adolescents: The Mediating Influence Of Peer Conflict, Jennifer Stuart, Mark Fondarco, Scott A. Miller, Veda Brown, Eve M. Brank

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The involvement of adolescents with deviant peer groups is one of the strongest proximal correlates to juvenile delinquency and stems from a variety of causes. Past research has linked ineffective parenting with peer variables, including deviant peer group involvement and peer conflict during adolescence. In this study, adolescents’ appraisals of procedural justice within the family (adolescents’ appraisals of how fairly they are treated by parents in the process of resolving family conflict) were examined as one aspect of effective parenting that may relate to deviant peer group involvement in early adolescence. Data from 1660 middle school students (ages 11-14, mean …

Legal Aspects Of Using Space-Derived Geospatial Information For Emergency Response, With Particular Reference To The Charter On Space And Major Disasters, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Increasing attention is being paid today to the potential offered by geospatial information in particular if generated with the help of satellites to contribute to mitigation of major disasters—tsunamis and earthquakes as much as man-made disasters. The current contribution seeks to outline some of the major legal issues involved in the use space-derived data for emergency response, focusing on four topics: copyrights, access to remote sensing data, responsibilities and liabilities, and security and dual use-issues involved. This contribution forms part of the Leiden faculty of Law research program “securing the rule of law in a world of multilevel jurisdiction: (coherence, …

Boselaphus Tragocamelus (Artiodactyla: Bovidae), David M. Leslie Jr.

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Boselaphus tragocamelus (Pallas, 1766) is a bovid commonly called the nilgai or blue bull and is Asia’s largest antelope. A sexually dimorphic ungulate of large stature and unique coloration, it is the only species in the genus Boselaphus. It is endemic to peninsular India and small parts of Pakistan and Nepal, has been extirpated from Bangladesh, and has been introduced in the United States (Texas), Mexico, South Africa, and Italy. It prefers open grassland and savannas and locally is a significant agricultural pest in India. It is not of special conservation concern and is well represented in zoos and …

Evaluating The Usability And Security Of A Video Captcha, Kurt Alfred Kluever

Theses

A CAPTCHA is a variation of the Turing test, in which a challenge is used to distinguish humans from computers (`bots') on the internet. They are commonly used to prevent the abuse of online services. CAPTCHAs discriminate using hard articial intelligence problems: the most common type requires a user to transcribe distorted characters displayed within a noisy image. Unfortunately, many users and them frustrating and break rates as high as 60% have been reported (for Microsoft's Hotmail). We present a new CAPTCHA in which users provide three words (`tags') that describe a video. A challenge is passed if a user's …

Implementation Of Active Collections Framework Using .Net, Sushil Magdum

Theses

For many years, large distributed enterprises have faced a common problem of near real time sharing of enterprise data typically stored in databases. As these databases may be located globally, distributed nature of this data makes it difficult to access instantaneously. The Active Collections Framework (ACF) acts as a good foundation on which to build distributed applications. This framework requires distributed applications to view changes to data as events of interest. The ACF framework integrates access to data and data changes through active collections. ACF framework is based on two different research areas: event management in distributed computing and active …

Gender, And Other Variables, Affecting Graduation Outcomes And The Future Of Science. Male Vs. Female Students 1995-2003 Rochester Institute Of Technology’S College Of Science, Catherine Mahrt-Washington

Theses

This thesis focuses on the impact of retention of undergraduate students on the future of science. If there are insufficient numbers of science students pursuing and succeeding in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education and careers, it has been argued that the United States will lose its innovative, competitive, and technological edge. The focus is on the challenges of retaining students, both male and female, in the sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology from 1995-2003. This thesis will describe and analyze existing data in an effort to develop a case specific understanding of retention metrics, student retention dynamics, and consideration …

Age Model And Core‐Seismic Integration For The Cenozoic Arctic Coring Expedition Sediments From The Lomonosov Ridge, Jan Backman, Martin Jakobsson, Martin Frank, Francesca Sangiorgi, Henk Brinkhuis, Catherine Stickley, Matthew O'Regan, Reidar Løvlie, Heiko Pälike, David Spofforth, Jérôme Gattacecca, Kate Moran, John W. King, Chip Heil

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Cenozoic biostratigraphic, cosmogenic isotope, magnetostratigraphic, and cyclostratigraphic data derived from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 302, the Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX), are merged into a coherent age model. This age model has low resolution because of poor core recovery, limited availability of biostratigraphic information, and the complex nature of the magnetostratigraphic record. One 2.2 Ma long hiatus occurs in the late Miocene; another spans 26 Ma (18.2–44.4 Ma). The average sedimentation rate in the recovered Cenozoic sediments is about 15 m/Ma. Core‐seismic correlation links the ACEX sediments to the reflection seismic stratigraphy of line AWI‐91090, on which the ACEX sites …