Digital Commons Network^™

An Anytime Algorithm For Computing Inconsistency Measurement, Yue Ma, Guilin Qi, Guohui Xiao, Pascal Hitzler, Zuoquan Lin

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Measuring inconsistency degrees of inconsistent knowledge bases is an important problem as it provides context information for facilitating inconsistency handling. Many methods have been proposed to solve this problem and a main class of them is based on some kind of paraconsistent semantics. In this paper, we consider the computational aspects of inconsistency degrees of propositional knowledge bases under 4-valued semantics. We first analyze its computational complexity. As it turns out that computing the exact inconsistency degree is intractable, we then propose an anytime algorithm that provides tractable approximation of the inconsistency degree from above and below. We show that …

Itraconazole-Induced Torsade De Pointes In A Patient Receiving Methadone Substitution Therapy, N.Z. Robson, B. Vicknasingam, S. Narayanan

Research Publications (2006 to 2010)

Issues. Methadone, a pharmacological agent used to treat heroin dependence is relatively safe, but may cause cardiac arrhythmias in the concurrent presence of other risk factors. Approach and Key Findings. This case report highlights the risk of Torsade de Pointes, a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia, in a heroin-dependent patient receiving methadone substitution therapy who was prescribed itraconazole for vaginal thrush. The patient presented to the accident and emergency department for chest discomfort and an episode of syncope following two doses of itraconazole (200 mg). Electrocardiogram monitoring at the accident and emergency department showed prolonged rate-corrected QT interval leading to Torsade de …

Graduate Connections- November 2009

Graduate Connections: A Newsletter for UNL Graduate Students

In This Issue:

Click on links to navigate the newsletter

Navigating Graduate School ...... 1

Seven Keys to Success

Non-Traditional Students

Keeping Connected at a Distance

Good Practices in Graduate Education ...................................... 5

Types of Plagiarism

Essential Connections .................. 6

Tips for Forming Your Supervisory Committee

Top Ten Teaching Mistakes

Improving Teaching through Student Feedback

Teaching Tip ................................. 8

MERLOT

Professional Development ......... 11

Writing a Research Article

Transferable Skills

Funding Opportunities ............... 16

Announcements .......................... 17

Fellowship Competition

Insurance for Grad Assistants

Student Accounts

Volunteer Opportunities

Interactions ................................. 18

Fellowship Winners

GSA News

Events .......................................... 19

NAGPS Conference

Calendar …

Reading Horizons Vol. 49 No. 4

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Complete issue of Reading Horizons volume 49, issue 4.

Understanding The Cultural-Linguistic Divide In American Classrooms: Language Learning Strategies For A Diverse Student Population, Kerry P. Holmes, Susan Rutledge, Lane Roy Gauthier

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article addresses critical factors that impact learning for a growing population of students in American classrooms, the English Language Learner (ELL). Even in the smallest school districts, it is common for teachers to have one or more students with limited or no command of the English language in their classrooms. Many students in schools with specialized ELL programs spend the majority of their day in regular classrooms trying to fit in with their peers as they struggle to learn a new language. This article focuses on the five stages of language acquisition and proficiency along with corresponding research-based strategies …

Timing Of Moderate Level Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Influences Gene Expression Of Sensory Processing Behavior In Rhesus Monkeys, Mary L. Schneider, Colleen F. Moore, Julie A. Larson, Christina S. Barr, Onofre T. Dejesus, Andrew D. Roberts

Physics and Astronomy Department Publications

Sensory processing disorder, characterized by over- or under-responsivity to non-noxious environmental stimuli, is a common but poorly understood disorder. We examined the role of prenatal alcohol exposure, serotonin transporter gene polymorphic region variation (rh5-HTTLPR), and striatal dopamine (DA) function on behavioral measures of sensory responsivity to repeated non-noxious sensory stimuli in macaque monkeys. Results indicated that early gestation alcohol exposure induced behavioral under-responsivity to environmental stimuli in monkeys carrying the short (s) rh5-HTTLPR allele compared to both early-exposed monkeys homozygous for the long (l) allele and monkeys from middle-to-late exposed pregnancies and controls, regardless of genotype. …

Genetic Relationship Between Longevity And Objectively Or Subjectively Assessed Performance Traits In Sheep Using Linear Censored Models, W. Mekkaway, Rainer Roehe, Ronald M. Lewis, M. H. Davies, L. Bünger, G. Simm, W. Haresign

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Genetic parameters of longevity in crossbred mule ewes, and genetic relationships among longevity, growth, body composition, and subjectively assessed traits on mule lambs and ewes have been estimated using Bayesian linear censored models. Additionally, the genetic associations between longevity and culling reasons were examined. Data comprised 1,797 observations of mule ewes for longevity, culling reasons, growth, body composition, mouth scores, and type traits. Longevity was defined as the time (in years) from 2 yr of age (the age at first lambing of most ewes) to culling or death. Censored data (i.e., observations for which only the lower bound of the …

Hardly A Walk In The Park: Courts' Hostile Treatment Of Site-Specific Works Under Vara, Virginia M. Cascio

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Linguistic Ambiguity In Language-Based Jokes, Sarah Seewoester

College of Communication Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to (1) identify patterns in joke type, word class, word class progressions, use of morphologic/syllabic mechanisms, and compound word manipulations in the “serious” and “humorous” interpretations of puns, (2) compare results with two previous studies (Attardo et al. 1994b and Bucaria 2004) and delineate discrepancies, and (3) to explore how language pattern(s) in English puns contribute to our theoretical understanding of linguistic interpretation.

From a collection of 6,000 puns published online, 225 were randomly chosen and analyzed for alliterative, phonological, lexical, and syntactic categorizations, as well as for patterns in word class, word class …

Bulletin Ninth District Ny November 2009

Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association

The Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association is published four times annually in the months of March, May, September and November. It is distributed to all Association members from the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester in the state of New York.

The Bulletin keeps our members up-to-date on NDDA activities as well as on a variety of topics important to the profession.

Resisting Civil Death: Organizing For Access To Education In Our Prison Nation, Erica R. Meiners

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Practitioner's Essay: Reflections Of A Chicago Public School Teacher, Marilyn Baker

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Use Of Ground Penetrating Radar For Construction Quality Assurance O Concrete Pavement, George Morcous, Ece Erdogmus

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Center For Terrorism Law: Monthly Activity Report, 2009-11, St. Mary's University School Of Law Center For Terrorism Law

Monthly Report

No abstract provided.

Measuring The Spin Of Grs 1915+105 With Relativistic Disk Reflection, J. L. Blum, J. M. Miller, A. C. Fabian, M. C. Miller, J. Homan, M. Van Der Klis, E. M. Cackett, R. C. Reis

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research Publications

GRS 1915+105 harbors one of the most massive known stellar black holes in the Galaxy. In 2007 May, we observed GRS 1915+105 for ~117 ks in the low/hard state using Suzaku. We collected and analyzed the data with the Hard X-ray Detector/Positive Intrinsic Negative and X-ray Spectrometer cameras spanning the energy range from 2.3 to 55 keV. Fits to the spectra with simple models reveal strong disk reflection through an Fe K emission line and a Compton backscattering hump. We report constraints on the spin parameter of the black hole in GRS 1915 + 105 using relativistic disk reflection models. …

Patent Examination Priorities, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

Measures that discourage excessive patenting and claiming, propose shared examination responsibilities, and increase staffing all have potential to raise examination quality and alleviate the patent application backlog. So far these measures have been too limited to have much impact, and there is insufficient evidence to reliably judge their effectiveness. In this Article, I consider a different approach to examination reform. I take as given a significant scarcity of examiner time, and I ask how the PTO should set examination priorities. In other words, how much of their eighteen hours should examiners devote to the various tasks they are expected to …

Religious Commitment: The Natural-Law Criteria, Howard P. Kainz

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Misuse Of Reasonable Royalty Damages As A Patent Infringement Deterrent, The, Brian J. Love

Missouri Law Review

This Article studies the Federal Circuit's use of excessive reasonable royalty awards as a patent infringement deterrent. I argue against this practice, explaining that, properly viewed in context of the patent system as a whole, distorting the reasonable royalty measure of damages is an unnecessary and ineffective means of ensuring an optimal level of reward for inventors and deterrence for infringers. First, I introduce cases in which the Federal Circuit and other courts following its lead have awarded punitive reasonable royalty awards and explain the Federal Circuit's professed rationale for doing so. Next, I demonstrate that this practice makes little …

Too Much Risk: The Impact Of Class Action Lawsuits On Claims Made Insurance Policies, Sean A. Smith

Missouri Law Review

The dispute between H & R Block and its excess policy insurers presented the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit with an issue of national first impression: does the existence of a series of class action lawsuits prior to the enactment of a claims made insurance policy make it reasonably foreseeable that similar future claims will be filed? 14 The Eighth Circuit's ultimate decision in H & R Block, Inc. v. American International Specialty Lines Insurance Co. will impact insurance coverage of major corporations nationally, in both the narrow context of the upcoming wave of lawsuits against …

Mechanism Of Nsf: New Evidence Challenging The Prevailing Theory, Ben B. Newton, Phd, Sergio A. Jimenez, Md

Scleroderma Center Faculty Papers

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) has been associated with the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents in patients with severely impaired renal function (SIRF), endstage renal disease (ESRD), or acute renal failure (ARF). Since the vast majority of these patients do not get NSF, it is highly likely that patient factors play a role in its development. Although free or dechelated gadolinium is thought by some to be the only trigger of NSF, recent evidence suggests that chelated gadolinium may be important. Chelated gadolinium such as Omniscan (gadodiamide) and Magnevist (gadopentetate) can directly stimulate macrophages and monocytes in vitro to release profibrotic …

Dit News, 1st.-30th. Of November, 2009, Dit:Students Union

DIT Student Union

No abstract provided.

Generating Integrated-Circuit Patterns Via Cutting And Stitching Of Gratings, Lin Zhao, Yi Xuan, Minghao Qi

Birck and NCN Publications

Integrated-circuit patterns, such as those of transistor gates, usually consist of multivertex paths whose line segments are along two orthogonal directions. Such patterns are sometimes called "Manhattan structures" and are typically designed to achieve the highest packing density with a given linewidth. Owing to their arbitrary shapes, these patterns are predominantly generated via electron-beam lithography, a serial process which is inherently slow compared to parallel processes. Moreover, throughput is further reduced with the necessity of proximity correction in electron-beam lithography. On the other hand, interference lithography is a low-cost, parallel process that can achieve small linewidths and pitches, yet the …

Thermodynamics Of Hydrogen Vacancies In Mgh2 From First-Principles Calculations And Grand-Canonical Statistical Mechanics, R Grau-Crespo, K C. Smith, Timothy Fisher, N H. De Leeuw, U V. Waghmare

Birck and NCN Publications

Ab initio calculations and statistical mechanics are combined to elucidate the thermodynamics of H vacancies in MgH2. A general method based on a grand-canonical ensemble of defect configurations is presented to model the exchange of hydrogen between crystalline MgH2 and gas-phase H-2. We find that, even at the lowest hydrogen partial pressures at which the hydride phase is stable, MgH2 is capable of accommodating only very small concentrations of hydrogen vacancies. These vacancies are mainly isolated rather than forming clusters, contrary to what is expected from a simple energetic analysis.

A Domain Adaptive Stochastic Collocation Approach For Analysis Of Mems Under Uncertainties, Nitin Agarwal, N R. Aluru

Other Nanotechnology Publications

This work proposes a domain adaptive stochastic collocation approach for uncertainty quantification, suitable for effective handling of discontinuities or sharp variations in the random domain. The basic idea of the proposed methodology is to adaptively decompose the random domain into subdomains. Within each subdomain, a sparse grid interpolant is constructed using the classical Smolyak construction [S. Smolyak, Quadrature and interpo- lation formulas for tensor products of certain classes of functions, Soviet Math. Dokl. 4 (1963) 240–243], to approximate the stochastic solution locally. The adaptive strategy is governed by the hierarchical surpluses, which are computed as part of the interpolation procedure. …

Forage News [2009-11], Department Of Plant And Soil Sciences, University Of Kentucky

Forage News

• Forages at KCA
• 10th Kentucky Grazing Conference
• KFGC Presents Awards
• KFGC Update
• Caldwell Willig is New Kentucky Forage Spokesman
• Forage Testing A Must for This Years' Hay Crop
• "Growing Alfalfa in the South" & "Understanding Forage Quality" New Available on NAF Website
• It's the Pitts: A Can of Worms
• Estimating Clover Percentage in Your Pasture
• Upcoming Events

Aging Influences The Neural Correlates Of Lexical Decision But Not Automatic Semantic Priming, Brian T. Gold, Anders H. Andersen, Greg A. Jicha, Charles D. Smith

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Human behavioral data indicate that older adults are slower to perform lexical decisions (LDs) than young adults but show similar reaction time gains when these decisions are primed semantically. The present study explored the functional neuroanatomic bases of these frequently observed behavioral findings. Young and older groups completed unprimed and primed LD tasks while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was recorded, using a fully randomized trial design paralleling those used in behavioral research. Results from the unprimed task found that age-related slowing of LD was associated with decreased activation in perceptual extrastriate regions and increased activation in regions associated with …

Can We Make Accounting Relevant Again? Non-Traditional Accounting Systems Can Drive Productivity And Future Prosperity, Mark Doggett

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The financial information used for operational decision-making is inconsistent and current accounting practices encourage tampering. Recent monetary events created turmoil in the stock market and uncertainty in investments. Furthermore, accounting methods seem ineffective in discouraging unscrupulous behavior. Because the financial health of business is measured using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), what other choices exist for measuring fiscal performance? This paper provides an overview on a few potential alternatives to current accounting practice. One such practice is lean accounting. The other accounting systems are Activity Based Costing (ABC), Throughput Accounting (TA), and Resource Consumption Accounting (RCA). This paper will refer …

Shifts In Flowering Phenology In Response To Irregular Precipitation And Temperature Patterns In Monteverde, November 2009, Wynn Moss

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Studies of plant flowering phenology have the potential to provide essential information on the structure and function of communities. Additionally, shifts in flowering phenology as a response to local weather variability have been observed in the tropics, and may worsen as the effects of anthropogenic climate change increase. Unfortunately, comprehensive data on the phenology of many Monteverde plant species is unavailable. This survey of 79 flowering plants of Monteverde in October and November of 2009 aimed to determine the effects of El-Niño on the timing of anthesis as well as provide new information on the phenology of local plant species. …

Spatial Dispersion Of Fruits And Foraging Optimization Of Frugivorous Bats, November 2009, Kristen Omori

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Optimal foraging helps maximize fitness of the disperser and corresponding plant. Fruiting strategies may influence foraging success in order to increase seed dispersal rate. This study examines the spatial dispersion of fruits and its influence on foraging time of frugivorous bats. Five bat species in captivity at the Bat Jungle in Monteverde, Costa Rica, including Carollia brevicauda and Artibeus toltecus, are used to test the foraging time on three spatial arrangements, uniform, random and clumped, using a natural food source, Solanum umbellatum (Solanaceae). Each of the three arrangements were tested for fruit removal rate during one day and two of …

The Upper Lithostratigraphic Unit Of Andrill And-2a Core (Southern Mcmurdo Sound, Antarctica): Local Pleistocene Volcanic Sources, Paleoenvironmental Implications And Subsidence In The Southern Victoria Land Basin, Paola Del Carlo, Kurt Panter, Kari Bassett, Laura Bracciali, Gianfranco Di Vincenzo, Sergio Rocchi

ANDRILL Research and Publications

We report results from the study of the uppermost 37 m of the Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) AND-2A drill core, corresponding to the lithostratigraphic unit 1 (LSU 1), the most volcanogenic unit within the core. We present data on the age, composition, volcanological and depositional features of the volcanic sedimentary and tephra deposits of LSU 1 and discuss their source, mechanisms of emplacement and environment of deposition.

Sedimentary features and compositional data indicate shallow water sedimentation for the whole of LSU 1. Most of LSU 1 deposits are a mixture of near primary volcanic material with minor exotic clasts derived …