Digital Commons Network^™

Choice Between Schedules Of Reinforcement With And Without Response-Pacing Requirements, Leigh Schrimpf

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) and differential-reinforcement-of-high-rate (DRH) schedules specify a certain pace of responding eligible for reinforcement. The present study assessed the value of a paced schedule of reinforcement using a concurrent-chains schedule. Pigeon's pecks on the left and right initial-link keys led to one of two terminal-link VI 60-s schedules, programmed on the center key. Completion of a terminal-link schedule always led to access to grain. The value of a terminal-link schedule was measured by the initial-link choice proportions. In the baseline, pecks on either initial-link key produced access to one of two unpaced terminal-link schedules every 60 s, on average. …

The Effect Of Attentional Bias On Suggestibility, Elizabeth E. Stacom

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Research implies that individuals with high anxiety levels may be more accurate in response to misleading questions when compared to individuals with low anxiety levels (Ridley & Clifford, 2004; Ridley, Clifford, & Keogh, 2002). This effect may be because individuals with high anxiety levels demonstrate an attentional memory bias toward threatening stimuli. The present study investigated whether a high versus low attentional bias affects suggestibility. Seventy participants completed a visual probe task to measure attentional bias. Next, participants were presented with 11 threatening pictures. Each picture was followed by a distractor task. Participants were then asked two misleading and two …

Characterizing The Relation Between Depressive Symptoms And Parkinson's Disease In A Sample Of Swedish Twins, Rebecca K. Widoe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Depression commonly co-occurs with Parkinson's disease (PD). Psychosocial stressors and biochemical changes associated with PD have both been implicated in the etiology of depression in PD. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether genetic or environmental influences contribute to the increased risk for depressive symptoms among individuals with PD in a population of twins. Among individuals with PD, 24% endorsed a moderate-severe level of depressive symptoms, and 64% endorsed at least a mild level of depressive symptoms. Case-control results indicated that PD is a significant risk factor for both mild (OR = 3.11, CI = 1.82-5.31) and …

Identification Of Chicken Repeat 1 (Cr1) Elements In Forensically Important Carrion Fly Species And Characterization Of One Such Element Within Sarcophaga Bullata, Michelle Lee Thompson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Retrotransposons including CR1 (Chicken Repeat 1) elements mobilize in a genome in a way that makes them useful for phylogenetic analysis and species identification. This study was designed to identify lineages of CR1 elements in the genomes of forensically important carrion fly species and to further characterize the one element, Sarcophaga bullata CR1B, though genome walk techniques.;Using conserved oligonucleotide primers, CR1 fragments from several carrion fly taxa were amplified, cloned and sequenced, and the recovered sequences were analyzed to identify different lineages of elements. A variety of retrotransposon families were recovered that exhibit similarity to known retrotransposon families from other …

A Faster Algorithm For The Single Source Shortest Path Problem With Few Distinct Positive Lengths, Matthew D. Williamson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis proposes an algorithm that involves Dijkstra's algorithm to solve the Single Source Shortest Path Problem in a graph where the length of each edge is positive, and the specific case where there is a distinct number of possible lengths. Given a graph where there are n vertices, m edges, and K distinct edge lengths, the proposed algorithm runs in O(m ) time if nK ≤ 2m and O(m log nKm ) time if nK > 2m. The algorithm is tested and compared with some of the fastest algorithms for the Single Source Shortest Path Problem for graphs with arbitrary …

Understanding Emotional Pain: A Preliminary Investigation, Ben Weinstein

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct of emotional pain, as well as its relation to other affective and sensory states. There were 250 undergraduates who signed into an online data collection mechanism and were randomly assigned to five groups in which they wrote a vignette about a personal experience. Participants who indicated they previously had experienced the situation wrote a personal account about an emotionally painful, physically painful, traumatic, depressing, or joyful situation. Additionally, participants completed questionnaires to describe emotional state, pain descriptions, anxiety sensitivity and possible symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder associated with …

North Dakota Hybrid Corn Performance Results 2008, 70th Ed., R.K. Ransom, Marcelo J. Carena

A Series – Agronomy/Plant Science

No abstract provided.

End -Of -Life Care Training In Medical School: An Examination Of Medical Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, Preparedness To Provide Care, And The Hidden Curriculum., Emily H. Bower

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

End-of-life (EOL) care discussions between physicians and patients promote positive patient health outcomes (Stewart, 1995). However, medical students receive limited training in EOL care (Sullivan, Lakoma, & Block, 2003). To be able to improve curricula, it is important to understand the current training experience and its effects on student attitudes and behavior. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (1) to examine predictors of self-rated preparation to provide EOL care, and (2) to examine predictors of attitudes about EOL care in a medical student population. Additionally, the moderating effect of “hidden” or informal curriculum on the relation between learning …

Assessment Of Social Anxiety In Early Childhood: Initial Test Construction And *Validation., Daniel B. Chorney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Social anxiety is experienced across the lifespan, with many individuals reporting symptoms of anxiety and shyness from a very early age in childhood. A number of measures have been designed to assess social anxiety in children, adolescents, and adults, yet little attention has been focused on children below 8 years of age. While some debate exists concerning children's ability to reliably report symptoms of anxiety in early childhood, recent research has indicated that accurate data can be obtained if the measures utilized are developmentally sensitive and not simply downward extensions of measures used to examine social anxiety in adults. Obtaining …

Dc'sign Of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting And Supercnpacitor Charging Circuits Using Optimized Duty-Cycle Of Buck Converter, Zhou Zhao

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Energy harvesting has been proved to be an innovative solution to replace the batteries in remote power supply applications. Unfortunately, the limited capacity aucl low efficiency of power conversion restrict the practical applications of energy harvesting in daily-life. After a systematic review of research on energy harvesting iu power management perspective, a circuit design, which targets low-frequency mechanical vibrations, is presented. With the classical piezoelectric cantilever setup, the maximum charging current of a supercapacitor can be obtained by optimizing the duty-cycle of a buck converter through software implemented pulse width modulation. The results of experiments prove the capacitive electric model …

Dying To Dine: A Story Of The Suicidal Indian Farmers, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The realities of the food crisis form the background to the discussion of India’s endeavor to tackle the issues relating to agriculture with special emphasis on the nation’s efforts to promote farmers’ rights under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2004 (PPVFA). The story of the PPVFA is interesting because the legislation represents India’s fulfillment of its international obligations by introducing breeders’ rights while simultaneously recognizing farmers’ traditional rights. Thus, Part I of this article outlines the steps India took to promote farmers’ rights as part of enacting a legislation to protect breeders’ rights to fulfill its …

A Tale Of Two Development Agendas, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In October 2004, Argentina and Brazil introduced a proposal to establish the WIPO Development Agenda. Although scholars have focused primarily on this agenda, as well as the WTO Doha Development Agenda, development agendas have also been established at other international fora, such as those governing public health, human rights, biological diversity, food and agriculture, and information and communications. Interestingly, these development agendas bear strong resemblances to another set of development agendas less developed countries advanced in the 1960s and 1970s. Bringing together these two sets of development agendas, this article examines whether the present agenda can avoid the path of …

Judicial Audiences And Reputation: Perspectives From Comparative Law, Nuno Garoupa, Tom Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Whether judges are motivated to make good law or maximize policy goals, they need to develop and maintain a good reputation with some audience. We distinguish internal and external audiences for individual judicial decision-making: internal audiences are those within the judiciary itself, while external audiences include lawyers, the media or the general public. Different legal systems emphasize different audiences: some rely on external audiences that encourage judges to invest in their individual reputations, while others emphasize internal audiences that facilitate the collective reputation of the judiciary as a whole. The article analyzes the interaction between internal and external audiences over …

The Comparative Law And Economics Of Judicial Councils, Nuno Garoupa, Tom Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In recent decades, many countries around the world have institutionalized judicial councils, institutions designed to enhance judicial independence and accountability. Our paper, the first comparative inquiry into this phenomenon, has two aims. First, we provide an economic theory of the formation of judicial councils and identify some of the dimensions along which they differ. Second, we discuss the national experience of several legal systems in light of our theory.

Characterizing Chromosomes For Fusarium Head Blight Resistance In A Spring Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Cultivar, 'Frontana', Dalitso Noble Yabwalo

Plant Sciences

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum, is a major fungal disease of wheat and other cereal crops that causes both yield and quality losses due to shriveled kernels and accumulation of mycotoxins in the seed. 'Frontana', a Brazilian spring wheat cultivar, is a source ofresistance genes to FHB, and it is believed to express resistance to both the establishment and spread of FHB (type I and type II resistance, respectively). Reciprocal backcross monosomic (RBCM) lines developed using Frontana and 'Chris', a susceptible spring wheat cultivar, and involving critical chromosomes 3A, 6A, and 4D from these parents …

Summary Of Soil Fertility Levels For North Dakota, 1991-2001, L. J. Cihacek, D. W. Franzen, J. Seaholm

SF Series – Soils & Fertilizers

No abstract provided.

Site Specific Farming 4: Economics And The Environment, Dave Franzen

SF Series – Soils & Fertilizers

No abstract provided.

Fertilizing Winter Rye, D. W. Franzen

SF Series – Soils & Fertilizers

No abstract provided.

Fertilizing Winter Wheat, D. W. Franzen

SF Series – Soils & Fertilizers

No abstract provided.

Developing, Planting, And Multiplying An Adventist House Church Using Principles Of Missiology In The Florida Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists, W. Milton Adams

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem Church attendance is steadily declining throughout North America. Nevertheless, people are still seeking God, but it is occurring outside the church walls. The same trend is occurring in Florida where church attendance is below the national average. In response to this trend this project was to establish an Adventists house church within the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to assess a house church model’s front-line missionary viability. Method Following pre-launch work, one house church was launched in the North West Orlando area with two families (four adults and five small children). The project was evaluated for health, using Natural …

Manure Spreader Calibration For Nutrient Management Planning, Chris Augustin, Ron Wiederholt, Teresa Dvorak

NM Series – Nutrition Management

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Carbon Sequestration In Crp And Restored Grasslands In The North Central U.S., Jason Allen Riopel

Natural Resources Management

The issue of global climate change raises a need for information on the management and mitigation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The knowledge of carbon (C) characteristics within land resources can be useful for resource managers and policy makers to make informed management decisions. Depending on land use and management, prairie soils can be considered either a source or a sink for atmospheric CO2. Soil sample cores were taken from seven different regions in the north central U.S. Over 1300 samples were analyzed to determine relationships between grassland age and soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. Sample matrices were built to …

Planting Diverse Ethnic Seventh-Day Adventist Churches In Berlin, Germany, Berndt Dietrich Wolter

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a contextualized model for an ethnic church planting process in large cities such as Berlin.

Statement of Problem

The unchurched population of foreigners in Germany stands at around seven million with 450,000 of them living in Berlin. A few existing ethnic Adventist churches in Germany have been established in the past but no strategy has been developed to reach new foreign groups. Although there are some Adventist ethnic churches in Berlin, they have not developed a coherent strategy to reach the rest of the foreigners. The German attitude toward integration of …

Behavior Of Polymer Modified Concrete With Nanoclay Gfrp Bars., Bala Avinash Varma Mavuleti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recent advances in Polymer Modified Concrete (PMC) have enhanced its use in civil infrastructure. These advances are related to improved properties of adhesion, abrasion resistance, impact and flexural strength, durability, and permeability. Similarly, development of lightweight, high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistant, electromagnetically transparent FRP bars with better fatigue performance have made them an excellent alternative to conventional steel bars for reinforcing several types of concrete structures. In this study, performance of nanoclay GFRP bar reinforced in PMC evaluated. This evaluation was achieved through flexural beam test, cylinder pull out test, tension test, aging study and scanning electron microscopy …

Building Intellectual Property Coalitions For Development, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

The adoption of the WIPO Development Agenda in October 2007 has provided less developed countries with a rare and unprecedented opportunity to reshape the international intellectual property system in a way that would better advance their interests. However, if these countries are to succeed, they need to take advantage of the current momentum, coordinate better with other countries and nongovernmental organizations, and more actively share with others their experience, knowledge, and best practices.

Commissioned by the EDGE (Emerging Dynamic Global Economies) Network of the University of Ottawa, this paper begins by explaining how building intellectual property coalitions for development (IPC4D) …

Irreconcilable Differences? The Troubled Marriage Of Science And Law, Susan Haack

Law and Contemporary Problems

There haven't always been scientific witnesses: in fact, there haven't always been witnesses. In early medieval times, courts relied on tests by oath, ordeal, and sometimes by combat. Here, Haack provides a brief historical background to the use of scientific experts in law and then proceeds to discuss in greater detail the values underlying scientific inquiry, the uncertainty in the quest of knowledge and understanding, and the methods by which consensus is reached, even if that consensus is always tentative. She then contrasts scientific inquiry with the law's quest for "truth" in the courtroom and, particularly, the normative and temporal …

Essay: Conventions In Science And In The Courts: Images And Realities, Jerome R. Ravetz

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Science, Law And The Expert Witness, Joseph Sanders

Law and Contemporary Problems

Expert witnessing is a particularly useful place to observe the clash of legal and scientific conventions because it is here that one group of people (scientific experts) who are integrated into one set of conventions are challenged by the expectations of a different set of conventions. Here, Sanders looks at how legal conventions affect the behavior of expert witnesses when they appear in court in both criminal and civil cases. He also reviews differences in scientific and legal conventions as they apply to expert knowledge and discusses two central reasons for these differences: adversarialism and closure.

How Much Evidence Is Enough? Conventions Of Causal Inference, David Kriebel

Law and Contemporary Problems

One of the most important issues for science in the courtroom is the determination of causality. Like science in the courtroom, science in the regulatory arena can also bring a clash of cultures, misunderstanding, and controversy--especially when decisions must be made with some urgency with interested parties watching closely. Here, Kriebel discusses some conventions in the conduct of science and in the ways that scientific information is communicated to nonscientists that can make it difficult for judges, lawyers, regulators, and politicians to do their jobs making decisions about complex environmental and health issues.

In Defense Of “Footnote Four”: A Historical Analysis Of The New Deal’S Effect On Land Regulation In The U.S. Supreme Court, Christopher S. Dodrill

Law and Contemporary Problems

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the US Supreme Court established and reinforced numerous so-called "economic rights." During the Lochner v. New York era, the Court invalidated almost 200 federal and state economic and labor regulations for interfering with the right to contract and for violating substantive due process. In 1937, however, Justice Stone's famous "footnote four" in United States v. Carolene Products Co. closed the coffin on Lochner. After Carolene Products, the Court stopped applying heightened scrutiny to economic legislation, and it began consciously protecting "discrete and insular minorities." Here, Dodrill explains the Lochner-era Supreme Court's standard of …