Digital Commons Network^™

Teenage Life In The Fat Lane, Kristi Shreffler

Graduate Research Papers

Young adult fiction may not portray obese characters accurately. Research questions used to explore this issue focused on how obese characters were portrayed in young adult fiction. One set of questions asked whether characters in the books in this study will suffer from ridicule and peer rejection. A second set of questions asked whether any the books in this study will suggest that losing weight will ensure personal happiness. A third set of questions asked whether any of young adult fiction books in this study will portray obesity in a negative manner. After compiling the information, the researcher found that …

Strategies For Fresh-Cow Management, Nicholas R. Bork

AS Series – Animal Science

No abstract provided.

Low-Stress Cattle Working Facilities, Vernon L. Anderson, Breanne Ilse

AS Series – Animal Science

No abstract provided.

Meso-Scale Weather And Climate Observations In Kentucky For Societal Benefit, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Coupled Mm5-Noah And Surface Model-Based Assessment Of Sensitivity Of Planetary Boundary Layer Variables To Anomalous Soil Moisture Conditions, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Equilibrium Sampling Used To Monitor Malodors In A Swine Waste Lagoon, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Dgge-Cloning Method To Characterize Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Community Structure In Soil, Zhanbei Liang, Rhae A. Drijber, Donald J. Lee, Ismail M. Dwiekat, Steven D. Harris, David A. Wedin

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Although arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are crucial for ecosystem functioning, characterizing AMF community structure in soil is challenging. In this study, nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) were combined with cloning of fungal 18S ribosomal gene fragments for the rapid comparison of AMF community structure in soil. Reference AMF isolates, representing four major genera of AMF, were used to develop the method. Sequential amplification of 18S rDNA fragments by nested PCR using primer pairs AM1-NS31 and Glo1-NS31GC followed by DGGE analysis yielded a high-resolution band profile. In parallel, 18S rDNA fragment clone libraries were constructed …

One Share, One Vote And The False Promise Of Shareholder Homogeneity, Grant M. Hayden, Matthew T. Bodie

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Shareholder democracy has blossomed. The once moribund shareholder franchise is now critical in takeover contests, merger decisions, and board oversight. However, the mechanisms of this vote remain largely undertheorized. In this Article, we use voting rights and social choice theory to develop a new approach to the corporate franchise. Political democracies typically tie the right to vote to the level of a person's interest in the outcome of the election. Corporate democracies, on the other hand, tend to define the requisite institutional interest quite narrowly, and thus restrict the right to vote to shareholders alone. This restriction has found its …

Chapter 6: Nebraska Experience, S. R. Walker, J. C. Lund, D. G. Schumacher, P. A. Brakhage, B. C. Mcmanus, J. D. Miller, M. M. Augustine, J. J. Carney, R. S. Holland, Kyle D. Hoagland, John C. Holz, Todd M. Barrow, Donald C. Rundquist, Anatoly A. Gitelson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Nebraska agencies and public health organizations collaboratively addressed cyanobacterial issues for the first time after two dogs died within hours of drinking water from a small private lake south of Omaha on May 4, 2004. A necropsy on one of the dogs revealed that the cause of death was due to ingestion of Microcystin toxins. Within two weeks after the dog deaths, state and local officials jointly developed strategies for monitoring cyanobacterial blooms and issuing public health alerts and advisories. Weekly sampling of public lakes for microcystin toxins and cyanobacteria was initiated during the week of May 17, 2004. ELISA …

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 …

Agricultural Systems: Agroecology And Rural Innovations For Development [Book Review], Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

To welcome yet another book on sustainable development, a reviewer must look for what is unique and what adds value to the volumes already published. In Agricultural Systems, editors Sieglinde Snapp and Barry Pound have assembled a collection of chapters that goes beyond the usual praise and criticism of the green revolution and the focus on economic development. Their book provides a first-hand story by people with lengthy experiences in the field, especially in Africa, who have developed and tested grassroots, participatory development approaches. The result is a valuable set of principles, strategies and case studies that paint a new …

Hydrogen Energy: A Study Of The Use Of Anaerobic Digester Gas To Generate Electricity Utilizing Stand-Alone Hydrogen Fuel Cells At Wastewater Treatment Plants, Charles W. Emerson

Theses

Not provided.

Counting And Sampling Paths In Graphs, T. Ryan Hoens

Theses

Since Euler began studying paths in graphs, graph theory has become an important branch of mathematics. With all of the research into graph theoretic problems, however, counting – exactly or approximately – the number of simple paths in finite graphs has been neglected. This thesis investigates an approximation technique known as Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for the specific purpose of approximating the number of simple paths in graphs. Due to the paucity of research into the subject, the thesis will make the conjecture that this cannot be done exactly in an efficient manner (assuming that the longstanding conjecture P …

Weee And Rohs: Are They Spurring Innovation Among Small And Medium Sized Electronics Businesses In The U.S.?, Frances L. Cabrera

Theses

Eight small businesses in the electronics industry from Rochester, NY were studied in order to determine whether the European Union’s directives, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directives (RoHS) are spurring innovation in the US. Innovation was defined as any change in the design and manufacturing of the products, in the internal organizational structure and management of the business, or in the market strategies pursued by the small businesses that created a benefit beyond RoHS and WEEE compliance. Because WEEE and RoHS are based upon extended producer responsibility principles, this innovation would complement the findings …

Computational Model Of Mst Neuron Receptive Field And Interaction Effect For The Perception Of Self-Motion, Chen-Ping Yu

Theses

Biologically plausible approach is an alternative to conventional engineering approaches when developing algorithms for intelligent systems. It is apparent that biologically inspired algorithms may yield more expensive calculations when comparing its run time to the more commonly used engineering algorithms. However, biologically inspired approaches have great potential in generating better and more accurate outputs as healthy human brains. Therefore more and more new and exciting researches are being experimented everyday in hope to develop better models of our brain that can be utilized by the machines. This thesis work is an effort to design and implement a computational model of …

An Overview Of Packaging Sustainability Topics, Alexandros Astropekakis

Theses

This thesis presents the global challenges behind the need of sustainable development. It links packaging to this need and describes the way packaging can positively contribute to this process. It presents industry examples of "green packaging" that claim to or may actually contribute to sustainable development. It monitors the understanding of packaging professionals for what is called "packaging sustainability" through a custom made on-line survey. Finally it presents a comparison of environmental impacts for different polymer materials used for the production of rigid containers (HDPE, PP, PET, PVC and PLA) through an analysis of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data for …

Strategies For Success In The E-Grocery Industry, Tong Niu

Theses

US e-grocers have been testing different business models with varying results. This research conducted a meta-analysis of six online grocers (Peapod, Tesco, Safeway, FreshDirect, Webvan and Streamline) to identify the pattern of strategies that contribute to their performance. Each company's management capabilities, expansion and market selection strategy, order-picking method, delivery method, website design and Customer Relations Management (CRM) are explored and compared to identify the factors that provide these businesses with a greater chance of success. The findings suggest that knowledge of and experience in the grocery business play an important role in the success of an online grocer. Using …

Extension Of The Poiseuille Formula For Shear-Thickening Materials And Application To Self-Compacting Concrete, Dimitri Feys, Ronny Verhoeven, Geert De Schutter

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In Practice, While Placing Concrete in a Formwork by Pumping, the Pressure Generated by the Pump is Not Controlled. in Order to Enhance the Safety on the Worksite, and in View of the Current Economic and Ecologic Arguments, It Would Be Useful to Dispose of an Equation Able to Predict Pressure Losses based on the Rheological Properties of the Concrete and the Pipe Configuration. This Paper Describes the Derivation of an Extended Version of the Poiseuille Formula, for Shear-Thickening Materials with a Yields Stress, Described by the Modified Bingham Equation. This Formula is Applied to Flow-Tests with Self-Compacting Concrete. the …

A Needs Assessment & Exploration For Incorporating Tablet Pc Technology To Improve Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students Cooperative Learning Experiences In The Mainstream Classroom, Sarah B. Remelt

Theses

This project focuses on qualitative exploratory research that analyzes the possible inclusion of Tablet PC technology and teaching strategies to enhance cooperative learning in the mainstream classroom environment. After 3 observations, suggestions for use of Tablet PC technology and teaching strategies were shared and modeled for the classroom Teachers of the Deaf(TODs). Feedback via interview and survey were solicited from the TODs involved in the study and a final report written. The report showed the findings that the Tablet PC is perceived to have the ability to enhance deaf and hard of hearing student experiences, participation and communication during cooperative …

Investigations Of Cellular Automata-Based Stream Ciphers, Joseph S. Testa

Theses

In this thesis paper, we survey the literature arising from Stephan Wolfram's original paper, “Cryptography with Cellular Automata” [WOL86] that first suggested stream ciphers could be constructed with cellular automata. All published research directly and indirectly quoting this paper are summarized up until the present. We also present a novel stream cipher design called Sum4 that is shown to have good randomness properties and resistance to approximation using linear finite shift registers. Sum4 is further studied to determine its effective strength with respect to key size given that an attack with a SAT solver is more efficient than a bruteforce …

Deep Freeze And The Nssa Labs, Jay Snell

Theses

This work represents a formative evaluation of the effect of Deep Freeze on the labs in the Networking, Security, and Systems Administration department. This department maintains 4 labs for student use and has implemented Deep Freeze, a software package intended to maintain a standard set of configurations on each computer. In order to provide a proper focus to the evaluation, the process consisted of identifying specific evaluation questions, first through a diverging process, including the input of key stake holders, followed by a converging process. The data was collected using both a survey instrument and interviews, providing both quantitative 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 …

Data Assimilation And Visualization For Ensemble Wildland Fire Models, Soham Chakraborty

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

This thesis describes an observation function for a dynamic data driven application system designed to produce short range forecasts of the behavior of a wildland fire. The thesis presents an overview of the atmosphere-fire model, which models the complex interactions between the fire and the surrounding weather and the data assimilation module which is responsible for assimilating sensor information into the model. Observation plays an important role in data assimilation as it is used to estimate the model variables at the sensor locations. Also described is the implementation of a portable and user friendly visualization tool which displays the locations …

Food For Thought: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Binge Eating And Psychological Variables In A Diverse College-Student Population, Valentina Ivezaj

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Binge eating is associated with a host of adverse outcomes, but little is known about sex and racial differences among those who binge eat. The present study examined sex and racial group differences in binge eating within a college-student population. It was hypothesized that White women would endorse higher rates of binge eating than the other groups, and that predictors of binge eating would differ across groups. Participants completed a web-based survey assessing depression, anxiety, body image, weight history, physical activity, smoking, and body mass index. Findings highlight sex and racial differences in the predictors of binge eating, with depression …

A School-Based Approach To Increasing Fruit And Vegetable Intake Of High School Students, Rebecca Larson

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to establish whether nutrition education would increase high school student consumption of fruits and vegetables, increase knowledge and self-efficacy, and advance students through the stages of change. Additionally, factors that influence intake were studied.

Students (n=260) enrolled in Health and Nutrition & Wellness classes were randomly assigned to intervention or control by class. Intervention consisted of 1 ½ hours for five days of fruit and vegetable focused education. Students completed pre- and post-surveys.

Results showed that fruit and vegetable intake did not change in intervention classes but significantly decreased (p<0.0484) in control classes. Knowledge significantly increased (p<0.0151) in intervention classes. No changes in self-efficacy or stage of change were observed.

Nutrition education must be …

Differential Virtualization For Large-Scale System Modeling, Jason Koppe

Theses

Today’s computer networks become more complex than ever with a vast number of connected host systems running a variety of different operating systems and services. Academia and industry alike realize that education in managing such complex systems is extremely important for computer professionals because, with computers, there are many levels of detailed configuration. Configuration points can occur during all facets of computer systems including system design, implementation, and maintenance stages. In order to explore various hypotheses regarding configurations, system modeling is employed – computer professionals and researchers build test environments. Modeling environments require observable systems that are easily configurable at …

Evaluation Of Virtual Routing Appliances As Routers Virtual Environment, Ahmed Al-Amoudi

Theses

A virtual routing appliance is a system for the rapid, automated management and employment of virtual networks. Virtual routing appliances utilize virtual machines to enable virtual infrastructure, and they have been used commonly in order to implement experimental networks and devoted subnets over a virtual network. Existing research in this area such as cluster-based virtual routers, and Xen routers require the use of physical resources to establish connectivity and to guarantee efficient resource utilization. The virtual routing appliance uses dynamic routing protocols such as RIP, and OSPF to forward traffic between different subnets and manage IP packets at the IP …

The Development Of A Graduate Course On Identity Management For The Department Of Networking, Security, And Systems Administration, Marsha Mitchell

Theses

Digital identities are being utilized more than ever as a means to authenticate computer users in order to control access to systems, web services, and networks. To maintain these digital identities, administrators turn to Identity Management solutions to offer protection for users, business partners, and networks. This paper proposes an analysis of Identity Management to be accomplished in the form of a graduate level course of study for a ten-week period for the Networking, Security, and Systems Administration department at Rochester Institute of Technology. This course will be designed for this department because of its emphasis on securing, protecting, and …

On The Spectra Of Certain Directed Paths, Carlos Martins Da Fonseca, J. J. P. Veerman

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We describe the eigenpairs of special kinds of tridiagonal matrices related to problems on traffic on a one-lane road. Some numerical examples are provided.

Perceptions Of Advertising In Online Social Networks: In-Depth Interviews, Zeljka Hadija

Theses

Advertising in online social networks is a major unexplored advertising area. However, interactivity on the Internet shifts the ways in which users perceive advertising, and whether they perceive it at all. This research study focuses on college students, users of online social networks, as main sources of information that helps advertisers understand the ways in which advertisements are perceived online. Through the personal in-depth interviews, using Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, it has been revealed that only 20% of online social network users notice advertisements while using online social networks. The content found in online social networks inhibits viewing advertisements. This …