Digital Commons Network^™

The Virtues Of Medicare, Jill R. Horwitz

Reviews

Most of us look forward to a heaven where people don't get sick. But if they do, health care would be traded among fully informed patients and providers in perfectly competitive and frictionless markets. In that perfect world, sick citizens simply shop for doctors the way they shop for other consumer goods. The better doctors, like the most elegant hotel rooms and fanciest cars, would cost more than inferior doctors. Patients would consult their utility meters and, with appropriate attention to discounting over an infinite lifetime, choose accordingly. After each treatment, the patients would know the quality of their outcome …

"Swallowing Mexico Without Any Grease": The Absence Of Controversy Over The Feasibility Of Annexing All Mexico, 1847--1848, Timothy Evans Buttram

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study contributes to the historiography of the "all Mexico" movement by showing that America's ability to annex its southern neighbor was never a part of the all Mexico debate. The thesis argues that common American perceptions of the United States and Mexico during the Mexican-American War undermined any grounds on which to challenge the achievability of annexation. Chapter I shows that no politician, regardless of his stance on the value of absorbing Mexico, questioned the feasibility of doing so. Chapter II then demonstrates that portrayals of the United States and Mexico in American newspapers supported confidence in the American …

Watchmen Of The New Jerusalem: Jedidiah Morse, The Bavarian Illuminati And The Refashioning Of The Jeremiad Tradition In New England, Rachel A. Snell

Master's Theses and Capstones

On May 9, 1798, the Reverend Jedidiah Morse of Charlestown, Massachusetts introduced a threat to both American government and religion in the form of the Bavarian Illuminati. This thesis argues that the Bavarian Illuminati sermons represent an attempt by the orthodox Congregational clergy in Massachusetts to mediate between republican ideology and traditional New England religious expectations by utilizing the clerical role of social watchmen to instill a sense of virtue in the American public and guide the development of a New Jerusalem in republican America. The goals of the clergy in propagating the Bavarian Illuminati threat ultimately failed catastrophically. Although …

Court Appointed Forensic Interviewers Of Non-Victim Child Witnesses: Weighing The Needs Of Reliability, Child Protection, And Litigant's Rights, Joseph J. Taylor

Master's Theses and Capstones

A child can be caused great harm by multiple interviews and the trauma associated with testifying in court. A child's statements may be inaccurate due to suggestive interview methods and trauma. Despite these facts children find themselves involved in the court system every day. The testimony of children cannot be ignored just as their testimony cannot be given too much weight without infringing the rights of litigants. More specialized procedures can be developed to give children's testimony its proper weight while ensuring reliability, child protection, and litigant's rights. A specialized procedure such as a Court Appointed Forensic Interviewer of non-victim …

Teachers Of Latino Students Reflect On The Implementation Of A Mathematical Task, Leslie H. Kahn, Sandra I. Musanti, Laura Kondek Mcleman, José María Menéndez-Gómez, Barbara Trujillo

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Teachers in two multi-grade study groups in elementary schools with large populations of Latino students reflect on the implementation of an open-ended mathematical task. IN this research, interviews and study group discussions provide the teachers’ reflections on the implementation of the task and on their practices in general that create learning environments for their Latino students. Multiple categories representing the teacher reflections were developed and our focus is on those practices that teachers consider effective and specific factors that impact practice. The design of this study proved to be especially useful in promoting teacher reflective conversation.

An Examination Of Principal Leadership Practices And School-Level Variables In Connecticut Schools With Achievement Gains Above And Below The State's Average Performance Gain On State Assessments, David R. Cormier

Dissertations

Problem

Effective-schools research has demonstrated that a building level administrator’s leadership practices contribute to the success or failure of change efforts and impact school culture and student achievement. Research in this area has focused primarily on comparing high and low performing schools and the various antecedent/context variables of such schools. This study examined schools with annual achievement gains above and below the state’s average gain in student performance and sought to determine if there were significant differences in school antecedent/context variables, leadership practices, and mediating variables between these schools.

Method

Research participants represented a sample of Connecticut elementary schools with …

Resting Cd4+ Effector Memory T Cells Are Precursors Of Bystander-Activated Effectors: A Surrogate Model Of Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial T-Cell Function., Fionula M. Brennan, Nicola M.G. Smith, Sally Owen, Ching Li, Parisa Amjadi, Patricia Green, Anna Andersson, Andrew C. Palfreeman, Philippa Hillyer, Andrew Foey, Jonathan T. Beech, Marc Feldmann

School of Biomedical Sciences

BACKGROUND: Previously we described a system whereby human peripheral blood T cells stimulated for 8 days in a cytokine cocktail acquired effector function for contact-dependent induction of proinflammatory cytokines from monocytes. We termed these cells cytokine-activated (Tck) cells and found that the signalling pathways elicited in the responding monocytes were identical whether they were placed in contact with Tck cells or with T cells isolated from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial tissue. METHODS: Here, using magnetic beads and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, we extensively phenotype the Tck effector cells and conclude that effector function resides within the CD4+CD45RO+, CCR7-, CD49dhigh population, and …

Can We Improve Emotional Intelligence? Addressing The Positive Psychology Goal Of Enhancing Strengths - Chapter 2 From "Emotional Intelligence: Perspectives On Educational And Positive Psychology", Kelly B.T. Chang

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

No abstract provided.

Systems Biology Meets Stress Ecology: Linking Molecular And Organismal Stress Responses In Daphnia Magna, L-H Heckmann, Rm Sibly, R Connon, Hl Hooper, Et Al

School of Biomedical Sciences

BACKGROUND: Ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been designed to interrupt eicosanoid metabolism in mammals, but little is known of how they affect nontarget organisms. Here we report a systems biology study that simultaneously describes the transcriptomic and phenotypic stress responses of the model crustacean Daphnia magna after exposure to ibuprofen. RESULTS: Our findings reveal intriguing similarities in the mode of action of ibuprofen between vertebrates and invertebrates, and they suggest that ibuprofen has a targeted impact on reproduction at the molecular, organismal, and population level in daphnids. Microarray expression and temporal real-time quantitative PCR profiles of key genes …

Implementation And Comparison Of Iscsi Over Rdma, Ethan Burns

Master's Theses and Capstones

iSCSI is an emerging storage network technology that allows for block-level access to disk drives over a computer network. Since iSCSI runs over the very ubiquitous TCP/IP protocol it has many advantages over its more proprietary alternatives. Due to the recent movement toward 10 gigabit Ethernet, storage vendors are interested to see how this large increase in network bandwidth could benefit the iSCSI protocol.

In order to make full use of the bandwidth provided by a 10 gigabit Ethernet link, specialized Remote Direct Memory Access hardware is being developed to offload processing and reduce the data-copy-overhead found in a standard …

The Relationship Between Autonomy And Job Satisfaction Among Registered Nurses, Morgan A. Taylor

Master's Theses and Capstones

With the state of health care today, it is essential to determine the level of job satisfaction among registered nurses as they are important members of the health care team. With the ongoing nursing shortage, identifying strategies to improve retention among nurses will help retain well qualified nurses and recruit the new generation of nurses. Autonomy is a factor that often plays a role in the quality of an individuals work environment, thus the current study was conducted to determine if a relationship exists between nursing job satisfaction and autonomy.

A quantitative, correlational study was conducted with 100 registered nurses …

Component-Dependent Fréchet Sensitivity Kernels And Utility Of Three-Component Seismic Records, Yang Shen, Zhigang Zhang, Li Zhao

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

With the exception of shear-wave splitting and receiver function analyses, the phase or amplitude anomaly of a particular arrival is usually measured on only one of the three-component seismic records. Perfectly good waveforms on the other components are often unused. In this article we show that the different components of the same arrival at the same receiver have different travel-time and amplitude sensitivities to variations in the velocity structure. This is a finite-frequency phenomenon for measurements derived from waveforms. It is important where the scales of velocity heterogeneities are comparable or smaller than the width of the Fresnel zone. We …

Observations Of Kuroshio Flow Variations In The East China Sea, Magdalena Andres, Mark Wimbush, J.-H. Park, K.-I. Chang, B.-H. Lim, D. Randolph Watts, H. Ichikawa, W. J. Teague

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Kuroshio velocity structure and transport in the East China Sea (ECS) were investigated as part of a 23‐month study using inverted echo sounders and acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) along the regularly sampled PN‐line. Flow toward the northeast is concentrated near the continental shelf with the mean surface velocity maximum located 30 km offshore from the shelf break (taken as the 170 m isobath). There are two regions of southwestward flow: a deep countercurrent over the continental slope beneath the Kuroshio axis and a recirculation offshore which extends throughout the whole water column. There is a bimodal distribution to the …

Comment On “Current System East Of The Ryukyu Islands” By A. Nagano Et Al., Xiao-Hua Zhu, Jae-Hun Park, Mark Wimbush, Cheng-Hao Yang

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving The Ocean Initialization Of Coupled Hurricane–Ocean Models Using Feature-Based Data Assimilation, Richard M. Yablonsky, Isaac Ginis

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Coupled hurricane–ocean forecast models require proper initialization of the ocean thermal structure. Here, a new feature-based (F-B) ocean initialization procedure in the GFDL/University of Rhode Island (URI) coupled hurricane prediction system is presented to account for spatial and temporal variability of mesoscale oceanic features in the Gulf of Mexico, including the Loop Current (LC), Loop Current eddies [i.e., warm-core rings (WCRs)], and cold-core rings (CCRs). Using only near-real-time satellite altimetry for the “SHA-assimilated” case, the LC, a single WCR, and a single CCR are assimilated into NAVOCEANO’s Global Digitized Environmental Model (GDEM) ocean temperature and salinity climatology along with satellite-derived …

Others In The Making Of Selves, Roberta L. Coles

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Languages Under Siege: The Native American Experience, Allison M. Dussias

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

How have Native American languages, like the languages of other indigenous peoples around the world, arrived at this crisis stage? Is this simply the result of the passage of time, in an environment in which non-Native American society's sheer numbers, and its ever-present English-language media, including the "cultural nerve gas of television, inevitably swamp Native American languages and lead to their replacement by English? Or has this situation resulted from more deliberate action on the part of the dominant society, acting through its laws and other mechanisms of government power? We should also ask, given that so many Native American …

Fuzzyshrinking: Improving Shrinking-Based Data Mining Algorithms Using Fuzzy Concept For Multi-Dimensional Data, Yong Shi

Faculty Articles

In this paper, we present continuous research on data analysis based on our previous work on the shrinking approach. Shrinking[19] is a novel data preprocessing technique which optimizes the inner structure of data inspired by the Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation[16]in the real world. It can be applied in many data mining fields. In this approach data are moved along the direction of the density gradient, thus making the inner structure of data more prominent. It is conducted on a sequence of grids with different cell sizes. In this paper, we applied the Fuzzy concept to improve the performance …

E-Quality Control: A Support Vector Machines Approach, Kalyan Reddy Aleti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The web-enabled quality control process presents many benefits to industry, such as universal access, remote control capability, and integration of production equipment into information networks for improved efficiency. This capability has a great potential, since engineers can access and control the equipment anytime, anywhere as the design stages evolve. In this context, this work uses innovative methods in remote part tracking and quality control with the aid of the modern equipment and application of Support Vector machine learning approach to predict the outcome of the quality control process. The classifier equations are built on the data obtained from the experiments …

Developing Lexical Competition Resolution Mechanisms Through Reading Experiences, Ana B. Areas Da Luz Fontes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether competition resolution mechanisms are improved throughout a student's college years. For this purpose, I bilingual participants with a range in the number of college credits completed (e.g., freshmen to seniors) were recruited. Participants were presented with sentences that biased the less frequent, or subordinate meaning of an ambiguous word (e.g., novel, fast) (e.g., novel: something new; fast: to not eat). The ambiguous word was either a Spanish-English cognate (e.g., novel/novela) or a noncognate control (e.g., fast). These sentences were followed by target words that, on critical trials, were related to …

Attorneys' And Jurors' Perceptions Of Juvenile Offenders' Culpability, Catherine Camilletti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Factors affecting attorneys' and mock jurors' perceptions of a juvenile offender's culpability were investigated. In study one, 30 attorneys from Texas responded to a survey in which they rated how likely 20 factors were to mitigate a juvenile offender's culpability in jurors' eyes. In study two, college students, serving as mock jurors, saw a photo of a juvenile offender and read a trial transcript. This study determined whether a juvenile offender's appearance (youthful vs. adult-like) and mock jurors' perceptions of the current crime trend would affect their verdict and sentence recommendations. Attorneys thought a juvenile offenders' youthful appearance would mitigate …

Study Of Structural And Spectroscopic Properties Of Small Zns Clusters By Dft, Venkata Ramana Chaganti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The small clusters (aggregates of atoms containing a few tens of atoms) of semiconductors and metals often adopt very different shapes than the fragments of these materials in the bulk phase. Due to their large surface to volume ratio and unsaturated bonds, the small clusters often have properties that are very different from their bulk. Semiconductor clusters are extensively studied for their potential applications in a wide variety of systems from opto-electronic devices to spintronics. The present work is devoted to understanding the structural and electronic properties of small clusters of the zinc sulfide ZnnSn where n = 1 …

Regional Electricity In The United States, Sergio Luis Contreras

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Elasticity coefficients are estimated for the different regions in the United States. Residential, commercial, industrial, and the nonprofit sectors are examined. Demographic, climatic, and regional variables are used to estimate electricity demand. The negative income estimator that appears when paired with the number of households estimator implies that residential electricity is an inferior good. Even though it is a substitute good, natural gas does not show any significance for any sectors in the economy.

A Distributed Reconstruction Of Ekg Signals, Gabriel Cordova

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this Thesis the parallel computing methodology is applied to an algorithm used in the reconstruction of electrocardiographic (EKG) measurements. The reconstructions are being performed to obtain a better understanding of the source and behavior of the electrical activity that generates the EKG measurements. The contribution of this Thesis is to identify and eliminate inefficiencies present in the current reconstruction algorithm. Additionally, this Thesis reduces the computation times of the EKG reconstruction by applying distributed computing through the use of Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). Lastly, it provides an analysis of the speed-up and efficiency of the distribution implemented using parallel …

Unlocking Creativity In The Classroom, Rose Marie De La Cruz-Bechtel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Creativity is a process involving skills that can be presented and strengthened in a classroom setting. An overview of various research strands regarding creativity since 1950 is included. The pragmatic approach of Roger von Oech forms the basis for a selection of strategies useful for unlocking and encouraging creative thinking in the 4-8 classroom.

Homography Based Multiple Camera Detection Of Camouflaged Targets, Jesus Flores Guerra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis proposes an improvement on segmentation of camouflaged objects by combining information from multiple static cameras with overlapping views onto a common reference plane. Previous camouflage detection work relies on a single camera and focuses on pattern recognition, gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) computation, convexity detection and operations such as connected components or morphology. These methods make real-time implementation computationally expensive. The proposed work diverges from these techniques, taking advantage of the added information from several viewpoints. Background subtraction is performed on each individual camera and then, the segmentation result is transformed onto a common plane using homography. A …

Evaluation Of An Image Processing Algorithm For Scene Change Detection, Daniel Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite the efforts to reduce traffic accidents by government entities and automobile manufactures, the numbers of accidents are not considerably reduced. An evaluation of an algorithm based on the fly's eye is done on this research applying its principles to detect scene change on images for printed circuit boards providing initial steps to implement this algorithm on vehicular traffic to keep track of objects moving on the field for collision avoidance purposes. The effectiveness of the algorithm is addressed through a comparison of its performance with that found in experimental data.

A Comparison Of The Profiles And Career Pathways, Terri Kaylene Jordan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Overview

The purpose of this descriptive study was to compare the personal characteristics and career pathways of the superintendents of the fifty largest public school districts in the United States and the chief executive officers (CEO's) of the top fifty Fortune 500 companies in the United States. The research questions that guided this study were: (1) What are the similarities and dissimilarities in the profiles of public school superintendents and CEO's of Fortune 500 companies? and, (2) What are the similarities and dissimilarities in the career pathways of public school superintendents and CEO's of Fortune 500 companies? Demographic information …

Quantifying Anisotropy In Asphalt Concrete Pavements Using An Ultrasonic Method, Monica C. Jurado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Asphalt concrete is a bonded granular material whose internal structure is anisotropic. Such anisotropy is due to anisotropic particles and void's structure, particle distribution and orientation, and restrain and force pattern used during compaction. Even with this knowledge asphalt concrete design is made considering asphalt concrete as an isotropic material. The biggest difference between an isotropic and anisotropic material is that, an isotropic material is characterized by two independent constants and an anisotropic material could be characterized by up to 81 constants. An extensive research to characterize and quantify anisotropy is only available for some composite materials. Based on the …

A Multi-Tracer Study Of Saltwater Origin, Cross-Formational Flow, And The Geochemical Evolution Of Groundwater In The Southern High Plains Aquifer Along The Western Caprock Escarpment, East-Central New Mexico, Jeff Langman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Sustainable management of groundwater resources requires sufficient knowledge of the distribution of fresh and saline groundwater and the processes affecting saltwater intrusion that may influence the beneficial use of groundwater. A hydrogeologic investigation that coupled various chemical and isotopic tracers, including 3H/3He, 14C, δD, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr, and δ11B, with the physical characteristics of the aquifer was conducted to determine source waters, the origin of saltwater and its influence through cross-formational flow, and water-rock interactions in the Southern High Plains aquifer along the Western Caprock Escarpment. Sub-aquifers or local flow systems are present along the Western Caprock Escarpment, and the study …