Digital Commons Network^™

Foster Youth And The "Aging Out" Age In Rhode Island, Kelsey Creeden

Social Work Theses

Foster care is a temporary placement of children and youth with others outside of their home due to child abuse or neglect. Since its 19th century origins, the foster care system has evolved to focus on three goals of providing safety, well-being, and permanency until the child leaves the system, either by reunification, adoption, or “aging out”. Because these youth often “age out” without a home, job, or support system, programs such as the Life Skills Program and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative are working toward providing this population with skills that will assist them in successfully aging out …

Social Work With Affluent And Low-Income Families: Attribution Theory, Katharine Terbush

Social Work Theses

A study to assess attribution theory and the work done by social workers with wealthy and poor families was performed using two vignettes identical in information suggesting abuse, with one described as a wealthy family and the other a family living in poverty. Attribution theory suggests that humans label and assume certain traits to be true of different persons based on their status in our society. A person with a wealthy status may be viewed by their social worker as less likely to be abusive to their children because of their status, while a person living in poverty would be …

The Role Of Elementary School Physical Activity In Combating Childhood Obesity, Bridget Freeman

Social Work Theses

Childhood obesity is currently on the rise because of the lack of emphasis on physical activity, overeating and malnutrition; it has especially been escalating in children of low income families. Physical education and recess in elementary and high schools are being eliminated or reduced as the requirements of the “No Child Left Behind Act”. This study compared the opportunities available to exercise in eleven low income, medium income, high income, and private elementary schools hypothesizing that low Socioeconomic status children may be at greater risk due to the cost of healthy food, neighborhood safety, and issues restricting at home physical …

Front Matter, Jmasm Editors

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

No abstract provided.

Vol. 7, No. 1 (Full Issue), Jmasm Editors

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

No abstract provided.

Seventeenth Annual Faculty And Staff Recognition Dinner, 2008, University Of Minnesota Morris. Chancellor's Office

Faculty And Staff Recognition Dinner Programs

Award winners:

Horace T. Morse Award: Janet Schrunk Ericksen and Barry McQuarrie

UMM Alumni Association Teaching Award: Julie Pelletier

Mary Martelle Memorial Award: Elizabeth Spohr and Miracle Obeta

Outstanding Staff Awards: Joyce Amborn, Darla Peterson, and David Raths

Morris Academic Staff Award: LeAnn Dean

Retirees: David Dylla, Charles Grussing, David Hoppe, Craig Kissock, Andy Lopez, Dian Lopez, Jean Sasek

2008-2009 Ursinus College Course Catalog, Office Of The Registrar

Ursinus College Catalogues, 1869-Present

A digitized copy of the 2008-2009 Ursinus College Catalog. It contains details of the curriculum, departmental requirements and courses of instruction as well as lists of faculty, students and administrators. Student life, terms of admission, expenses and financial aid are also included as well as descriptions of the buildings and equipment available to students.

Location-Based Hashing For Querying And Searching, Felix Ching

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The rapidly growing information technology in modern days demands an efficient searching scheme to search for desired data. Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH) is a method for searching similar data in a database. LSH achieves high accuracy and precision for locating desired data, but consumes a significant amount of memory and time. Based on LSH, this thesis presents two novel schemes for efficient and accurate data searching: Locality Sensitive Hashing-SmithWaterman (LSH-SmithWaterman) and Secure Min-wise Locality Sensitive Hashing (SMLSH). Both methods dramatically reduce the memory and time consumption and exhibit high accuracy in data searching. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the …

Short Report: Detection Of Plasmodium Falciparum Histidine-Rich Protein Ii In Saliva Of Malaria Patients, Nana Wilson, Andrew Adjei, Winston Anderson, Stella Baidoo, Jonathan Stiles

Department of Biology Faculty Publications

Detection of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in patients with malaria necessitates drawing blood, which increases the risk of accidental infections and is poorly accepted in communities with blood taboos. Thus, non-invasive, cost-effective malaria tests that minimize the need for blood collection are needed. Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein II (PfHRP II) levels in plasma and saliva were compared in malaria-positive and -negative patients in Ghana. Plasma and saliva obtained from 30 thick-film positive and 10 negative children were evaluated for PfHRP II by ELISA. Among the 30 children with positive blood smear, 16 (53%) were PfHRP II positive in plasma and 13 …

Defining Acquaintance Rape: College Students' Perceptions Of Sexual Consent And Coercion, Sara Elizabeth Buck Doude

Dissertations

Perceptions of rape have evolved dramatically over the past decade. Prior to the second wave of the feminist movement, rape was perceived to be committed by a psychotic man against a woman. The feminist movement brought the term "acquaintance rape" into the popular lexicon and into the forefront of women's consciousness. As a result, throughout the 1970s and 1980s state governments enacted laws to prohibit "sexual assault," or expanded existing rape laws to include a variety of relationships or sexual acts. However, public perceptions of rape did not evolve as rapidly. Despite legislative efforts, there is no universally understood definition …

A Systematic And Taxonomic Review Of The Family Pseudotanaidae (Crustacea: Peracarida: Tanaidacea) Based Primarily On Morphometry Cladistic Analyses, Jerry Alan Mclelland

Dissertations

Species of the tanaid family Pseudotanaidae, established by Jurgen Sieg in 1973, have been reported from all the world's oceans in depths ranging from near the surface to below 6,000 m. The family currently consists of 46 characteristically small tanaidomorph species residing in two subfamilies, the Cryptocopinae (seven species) and the Pseudotanainae (39 species). Members of the more ancestral Crytocopinae differ from the Pseudotanainae by having females with four rather than three antennule articles and a complete separation of the maxilliped endites. The primary objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that the current structure of the family …

Evaluating Vascular Plant Composition And Species Richness On Horn Island, Mississippi, Using Passive And Active Remote Sensing In Conjunction With Ground Based Measurements, Kelly Lynn Lucas

Dissertations

Barrier island vegetation is subjected to chronic abiotic stressors combined with periodic storm events that favor species adapted to harsh environments. These islands are the first landforms to be affected by changes in coastal subsidence and sea-level rise. Evaluating changes in vegetation is important for understanding the impact of global climate change on coastal environments.

This study assesses vegetation composition and plant species richness on Horn Island, Mississippi using ground data in conjunction with remotely sensed spectral and LIDAR data. The goals of this research are to: 1) classify and map vegetation composition on Horn Island using hyperspectral and LIDAR …

Differences In Learning Motivations Of Professionals And Nonprofessionals Participating In Two South Mississippi Institutes For Learning In Retirement, Constance Marie Farmer

Dissertations

This study investigated the differences in learning motivations of (a) professional and nonprofessional, and (b) urban and rural members of two south Mississippi Institutes for Learning in Retirement (ILR) programs in an attempt to expand C. O. Houle's conceptual model of continuing professional education into the retirement years and to determine if the life transitions of the older adult unite the learning orientations of these subpopulations into self-actualizing (growth) motives as part of the maturation process identified y Abraham Maslow.

Ninety urban ILR and 60 rural ILR members were recruited. Professional was defined as having completed a bachelor's degree or …

Time Post-Hatch Caloric Value Of Artemia Salina, Jessie M. Sanders

Senior Honors Projects

In aquatic animal collections, such as those in the collection of Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration’s Fish & Invertebrate department, live food is an essential part of the diet of animals that are on display, used in education, and kept in reserve for exhibits. For Mystic Aquarium’s Fish & Invertebrate department, newly hatched Artemia salina, or brine shrimp, are fed to an assortment of fishes and invertebrates, including soft corals and jellyfish. Hatch brine is an important source of fatty acids, which are essential for proper growth and development. Hatch brine starts encapsulated in a cyst form and are …

Confronting Death: Co-Infection With Hiv/Aids And Hepatitis C, Ian Parker

Social Work Theses

This paper discusses a qualitative study completed by the researcher revealing the need for assistance for people living with a co-infection of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. It is the role of a social worker to assist this at-risk population. Services must be made available to those co-infected, including courses on end of life coping skills, substance abuse, stigma, and depression and anxiety. Included in this article is a study that documents qualitative data from clients at a Drop-in Center in Providence, Rhode Island for people living with HIV/AIDS. The data proved inconclusive with regards to co-infection and death and dying, …

Sex-Role Reversal In Song? Females Sing More Frequently Than Males In The Streak-Backed Oriole, J. J. Price, L. Yunes-Jimenez, M. Osorio-Beristain, K. E. Omland, Troy G. Murphy

Biology Faculty Research

Birds in which both sexes produce complex song are more common in the tropics than in the temperate north, where typically only males sing. Yet surprisingly little is known about female song characteristics in most tropical species. Here we present a comparison of female and male singing behaviors in the Streak-backed Oriole (Icterus pustulatus), a tropical songbird in which both sexes perform solo songs. Females sing much more frequently than males and produce songs with similar acoustic complexity. Rates of singing by both sexes were higher during breeding than postbreeding while the rates of most other vocalizations did …

Integrating Across Life-History Stages: Consequences Of Natal Habitat Effects On Dispersal, Michael F. Benard, Shannon J. Mccauley

Biological Sciences

Ecological and evolutionary processes are affected by forces acting at both local and regional scales, yet our understanding of how these scales interact has remained limited. These processes are fundamentally linked through individuals that develop as juveniles in one environment and then either remain in the natal habitat or disperse to new environments. Empirical studies in a diverse range of organisms have demonstrated that the conditions experienced in the natal habitat can have profound effects on the adult phenotype. This environmentally induced phenotypic variation can in turn affect the probability that an individual will disperse to a new environment and …

Sandspur, Vol 114, No 24, May 01, 2008, Rollins College

The Rollins Sandspur

Rollins College student newspaper, written by the students and published at Rollins College. The Sandspur started as a literary journal.

Inhibition Of Barnacle (Amphibalanus Amphitrite) Cyprid Settlement By Means Of Localized, Pulsed Electric Fields, Rodolfo E. Perez-Roa, Marc A. Anderson, Dan Rittschof, Beatriz Orihuela, Dean Wendt, Gregory L. Kowalke, Daniel R. Noguera

Biological Sciences

The increasing needs for environmental friendly antifouling coatings have led to investigation of new alternatives for replacing copper and TBT-based paints. In this study, results are presented from larval settlement assays of the barnacle Amphibalanus (= Balanus) amphitrite on planar, interdigitated electrodes (IDE), having 8 or 25 mum of inter-electrode spacing, upon the application of pulsed electric fields (PEF). Using pulses of 100 ms in duration, 200 Hz in frequency and 10 V in pulse amplitude, barnacle settlement below 5% was observed, while similar IDE surfaces without pulse application had an average of 40% settlement. The spacing between the electrodes …

Alcohol Content In Fruit-Feeding Lepidoptera: Preferences And Effects On Flight Time, Pattern, And Speed, May 2008, Lena Gottesman

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Fruit-feeding Lepidoptera live and feed on rotting fruit and tree sap flows. Eating fermented food is expected to alter their flight behavior making them sluggish and thus more susceptible to predation (Young 1979). Rotting food sources have similar chemical compositions but in different proportions. Ethanol is present in rotting fruits and sap flows (Omura and Honda 2003) and is most likely the agent causing sluggish or groggy behavior (Young 1979). In this study, I examine preference of fruit feeding Caligo spp. (Nyphalidae: Brassolininae) on different baits of varying ethanol concentrations. Furthermore, I examine whether alcohol content and time spent feeding …

Identification Of Guanylate Cyclases And Related Signaling Proteins In Sperm Tail From Sea Stars By Mass Spectrometry, Mia Nakachi, Midori Matsumoto, Philip M. Terry, Ronald L. Cerny, Hideaki Moriyama

Hideaki Moriyama Publications

Marine invertebrates employ external fertilization to take the advantages of sexual reproduction as one of excellent survival strategies. To prevent mismatching, successful fertilization can be made only after going though strictly defined steps in the fertilization. In sea stars, the fertilization process starts with the chemotaxis of sperm followed by hyperactivation of sperm upon arriving onto the egg coat, and then sperm penetrate to the egg coat before achieving the fusion. To investigate whether the initiation of chemotaxis and the following signaling has species specificity, we conducted comparative studies in the protein level among sea stars, Asterias amurensis, A. forbesi …

The Faculty Notebook, May 2008, Provost's Office

Faculty Notebook

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost.

The Visual Perception Of Elasticity, Elizabeth Y. Wiesemann

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two experiments were designed to evaluate human sensitivity to elasticity. Elastic objects bend when a force is applied to them. Observers saw two computer-generated bending rods (defined by the motions of 50 dots) on any given trial and were required to judge which rod was more flexible. Elasticity difference thresholds were calculated for each observer for each of three bending conditions. The rods bent in a plane that was either frontoparallel or oriented 42.5 or 85 degrees from frontoparallel. The results showed that observers could precisely discriminate between bending rods of different elasticities, independent of whether the bendings occurred in …

Effects Of Barren Reservoir On Upstream Fish Assemblages Of Barren River Tributaries, Mario Sullivan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The effects of dams have long been investigated by aquatic ecologists. However, most of the research has focused on the physio-chemical changes when a lotic system is turned into a lentic system, dams as barriers to migratory fishes, and the influence of introduced species often stocked into reservoirs. It has not been until relatively recently that the upstream effects have been studied. The central theme here is that while the dam proper creates a barrier it is possible that the resulting zone of standing water may also fragment streams from an otherwise connected river system. Stream adapted species that encounter …

Socioeconomic Determinants Of Hiv Status In Kenya, Kimberly Fletcher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is one of the greatest threats to stability and development in Kenya. The country's infection rate is estimated between seven and eight percent, making it one of the highest in the world. Several studies have been done that examine subpopulations such as truck drivers, sex workers, and migrants. However, to date there is little research that examines who, across the country, is contracting HIV. Kenya's 2003 Demographic and Health Survey includes data that make it possible to determine which groups have the highest odds of being infected. The question of who is contracting …

Longitudinal Variation In Fish Community Along The Upper Green River Below The Green River Lake, Joshua Wilsey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The impoundment of flowing waters can cause decreased variation in flow and temperature, reduce habitat availability, and decreased mean temperature below a reservoir. These types of alterations can influence fish communities. Twelve sites were sampled along the Upper Green river in order to address the potential influence of impoundment on fish communities below the Green River Lake. The habitat features: mean depth, flow, dominant substrate, embeddedness, percent riffle, run and pool were measured. Temperature probes were placed at each site in order to measure temperature over an extended period of time. Backpack electrofishing and seining was used to obtain fishes. …

Otter Realm, May 1, 2008, California State University, Monterey Bay

The Otter Realm

Student Involvement Declining on Campus -- Students Fight to Terminate Governor's Budget Cut Proposal -- Price Check on Smuggled Coke -- CSUMB Students Test the Waters with New Software -- Positive Role Models: Antidote for Salinas Gang Violence -- Creative Financial Schemes for Capstone -- ASAP Extends Student Resources -- Sexual Healing Will Spawn for Cash -- Olympic Host Ignites Controversy Across the Globe -- Rebelution: Rebels With a Cause -- LGBT Club Comes "Out and About" -- Women Making a Difference Through Art -- Zombie Voodoo Scream Party Brings Fun and Frights to The Golden State Theatre -- Monologues …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 84, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Blackworld, V. 28, I. 03, Stony Brook University

Blackworld

v. : ill. ; 38-43 cm (original analog pub.),Black world, v.28;n.3

Ua35/1 Doers & Deeds Vol. 7, No. 5, Wku Provost

WKU Administration Documents

Newsletter created by the WKU Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs to highlight the activities of faculty, staff and alumni.