Digital Commons Network^™

Soundings 2009-12, N/A N/A

Soundings

No abstract provided.

Statement Of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner On Passage Of H.R. 4173, The Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act Of 2009, Timothy F. Geithner

Documents

No abstract provided.

Statement Of Sheila C. Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation On Bank Of America Acquisition Of Merrill Lynch Before The Committee On Oversight And Government Reform And The Subcommittee On Domestic Policy; House Of Representatives; Room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Sheila Bair

Documents

No abstract provided.

Georgetown University Annual Financial Report 2008-2009, Pricewaterhousecoopers (Pwc)

Documents

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Flow Quality In An Open Test Section Wind Tunnel, Christopher Eric Hamm

Theses and Dissertations

The subsonic wind tunnel facility at Mississippi State University has been converted to an open test section configuration. An experimental setup was developed which is easily configurable to allow for further research. Measurements of flow quality over select portions of the test section were made to attain a basic understanding of the performance of the new configuration. A program was developed in LabVIEW to control a 3-axis traverse and perform necessary data reduction. The traverse control program was developed to perform data acquisition using a hotilm probe to facilitate the necessary measurements. Data was gathered at two wind tunnel velocity …

An Empirical Evaluation Of The Progress And Achievement Of English Language Learners In A Suburban School District, Marlynn Kessler Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The legislation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has brought to educators’ attention the need, requirement, and demand that all children are guaranteed an equitable education. In support of this mandate, Assistant Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Education Kathleen Leos (2006) states, “There are approximately 5 ½ million non-English-speaking students in the United States public schools, speaking 440 different languages and 80% of those English language learners speak Spanish” (p. 2). Continuing, Leos reports that English language learners are the fastest growing K–12 population in the United States with 16 states reporting a 200% increase in English …

A Descriptive Study Of Intercollegiate Athletics In Mississippi's Public Community And Junior Colleges, Brian Colson Alexander

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to provide an assessment of the involvement of Mississippi's community and junior colleges in intercollegiate athletics during the academic year 2007–2008. These data could assist community and junior college presidents, vice presidents residing over athletics, athletic directors, and other policy makers in their decision-making processes concerning intercollegiate athletics. They could compare their institution with other institutions in the state. This study included the entire population of Mississippi's public community and junior colleges that offered intercollegiate athletics. Frequencies and percentages were utilized by the researcher to report the information. Data were collected to provide an …

Parallel Viterbi Search For Continuous Speech Recognition On A Multi-Core Architecture, Naveen Parihar

Theses and Dissertations

State-of-the-art speech-recognition systems can successfully perform simple tasks in real-time on most computers, when the tasks are performed in controlled and noiseree environments. However, current algorithms and processors are not yet powerful enough for real-time large-vocabulary conversational speech recognition in noisy, real-world environments. Parallel processing can improve the real-time performance of speech recognition systems and increase their applicability, and developing an effective approach to parallelization is especially important given the recent trend toward multi-core processor design. In this dissertation, we introduce methods for parallelizing a single-pass across-word n-gram lexical-tree based Viterbi recognizer, which is the most popular architecture for Viterbi-based …

Statutory Instrument: Credit Institutions Scheme (Eligible Liabilities Guarantee), Brian Lenihan, Patrick Honohan

Documents

Section 6(4) of the Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008

Bair Testimony On The Bank Of America Acquisition Of Merrill Lynch Before The Committee In The Oversight And Government Reform, Sheila Bair

Documents

No abstract provided.

Fall Commencement Ceremonies, University Of North Florida

Commencement Printed Materials

Program for the Fall Commencement.

The New Hampshire, Vol. 99 [100], No. 26 (Dec. 11, 2009), The New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Print Edition

An independent student produced newspaper from the University of New Hampshire. This volume was printed as 99, but it is the 100th volume in the series. This was corrected in pencil.

The Beacon - Vol 8 No. 7 - December 11, 2009, Merrimack College

The Beacon

The Beacon - the student newspaper of Merrimack College. Volume 8, Number 7 - December 11, 2009. 12 pages

Measuring Marriage Or Measuring Individuals: An Ontological Analysis Of Marital Therapy Outcome Measures, Joseph Andrew Ostenson

Theses and Dissertations

Many scholars have noted the pervasiveness of individualism in American culture, particularly in the marriage culture. Unfortunately, assuming individualism in the marriage culture poses very specific threats to marriage as an institution. Some claim that these individualistic assumptions have also infiltrated the marital sciences, undermining the efforts of researchers who hope to defend marriage. This dissertation explores that claim by analyzing seven of the most popular marital outcome instruments used by marital researchers today for individualistic assumptions. Using a conceptual analysis called "contrasting relations," the meanings of both the content and the process of the instruments are laid out according …

Analysis Of Electromagnetic And Seismic Geophysical Methods For Investigating Shallow Sub-Surface Hydrogeology, Eric M. Parks

Theses and Dissertations

An integrated electromagnetic (EM) and seismic geophysical study was performed to evaluate non-invasive approaches to estimate depth to shallow groundwater in arid environments with elevated soil salinity where the installation of piezometers would be impractical or prohibited. Both methods were tested in two study areas (semi-arid and arid respectively), one in Palmyra, Utah, USA near the shore of Utah Lake where groundwater is shallow and unconfined in relatively homogeneous lacustrine sediments. The other area is Carson Slough, Nevada, USA near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Amargosa Valley. The area is underlain by valley fill, with generally variable shallow depths …

Solar Technology Innovation Meeting Summary, Solar Innovation And Technology Center

Meetings (SI)

On December 11, 2009, Senator Harry Reid and President Neal Smatresk (UNLV) conveyed a group of approximately 60 people (see attached lists) from the public and private sector to provide input on the structure, focus, and need for a Solar Innovation Technology Center. At this meeting, there were small group discussions followed by a larger group discussion on the needs in the areas of Workforce / Training, Marketing and Finance, Economic and Policy Making, Infrastructure and Manufacturing, Technology Transfer and Commercialization, and Research. The notes below summarize the major comments from the group. This represents individual comments and in other …

The Ecological Importance Of Extrinsic And Intrinsic Drivers Of Animal Movement, Josh Earl Rasmussen

Theses and Dissertations

The movement of individuals is foundational to many ecological processes. For example, the movement of an organism from one place to another alters population density at both sites and has potential for affecting the genetic dynamics within the new population. Individual movement events may be in synchrony with overall trends in populations, e.g. spawning migrations, or may be atypical (asynchronous). This latter movement type can affect population and metapopulation dynamics, depending on its prevalence within a population. Nevertheless, given the complexity of interactions, the causative factors of movement are understood vaguely, much less for aquatic organisms. Drivers of movement are …

Environmental Dna Sequencing Primers For Eutardigrades And Bdelloid Rotifers, Byron J. Adams, Jeremy Whiting, Elizabeth K. Costello, Kristen R. Freeman, Andrew P. Martin, Michael S. Robeson, Steve K. Schmidt

Faculty Publications

Background: The time it takes to isolate individuals from environmental samples and then extract DNA from each individual is one of the problems with generating molecular data from meiofauna such as eutardigrades and bdelloid rotifers. The lack of consistent morphological information and the extreme abundance of these classes makes morphological identification of rare, or even common cryptic taxa a large and unwieldy task. This limits the ability to perform large-scale surveys of the diversity of these organisms. Here we demonstrate a culture-independent molecular survey approach that enables the generation of large amounts of eutardigrade and bdelloid rotifer sequence data directly …

The Importance Of Soft Skills In The Workplace As Perceived By Community College Instructors And Industries, Laura Suzanne Tribble

Theses and Dissertations

Soft skills include communication skills, problem-solving skills, conflict resolution, working well with other people, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Employers need employees who have adequate technical skills but who also have soft skills. There is limited information about the perceptions of which soft skills are needed in the workplace. This study attempted to close the gap in the literature concerning the perceptions of instructors and employers in the area of soft skills in the workplace. For this study, the Soft Skills Survey for Instructors and Employers was used to gather the perceptions of information technology instructors and employers in five community …

An Assessment Of Reading Programs In North Mississippi Elementary Schools: A Comparative Analysis, Angela Delentheia Bluitt

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the impact of reading programs of students who used the Reading Program One, Reading Program Two, and Reading Program Three reading programs and those students who were taught using no basal reading program in North Mississippi. The study also assessed teachers’ perceptions of the various reading programs based on gender, age, educational attainment, and years of teaching experience. The research design for this study included a descriptive analysis. Ten elementary schools in North Mississippi using the Reading Program One, Reading Program Two, Reading Program Three, and no basal reading program were analyzed. …

An Examination Of Crisis Preparedness At Christian-Affiliated Institutions Of Higher Education, Stacy M. Burrell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine crisis preparedness at Christian-affiliated institutions of higher education. Second, this study examined Christian-affiliated institutions of higher education presidents’ perspective of their institution’s ability to prepare for crises based upon the four critical indicators of organizational crisis preparedness as described by Zdziarski (2001): a) the types of crisis institutions prepare for, b) the phase of crisis prepared for, c) the systems in place to respond to crisis, and d) the stakeholders involved and considered in preparations. Implications from this study provided recommendations for crisis preparedness that are specific to Christian-affiliated colleges and universities. …

Attitudes Of Female Faculty Toward The Use Of Computer Technologies And The Barriers That Limit Their Use Of Technologies In Girls' Colleges In Saudi Arabia, Taghreed Abdulaziz Almuqayteeb

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine female faculty members’ use of computer technologies, their attitudes toward computers, the factors that best predict their attitudes toward computers, and the barriers that limit their use of computer technologies in girls’ colleges in Dammam and Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Also, this study examined how female faculty members’ attitudes and use of computer technologies differ according to their demographic characteristics. 206 female faculty members participated in this study, and only 197 usable questionnaires were analyzed and used in this study. Descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to analyze …

Visual Perception And Gestalt Grouping In The Landscape: Are Gestalt Grouping Principles Reliable Indicators Of Visual Preference?, Mark Reinhardt Levy

Theses and Dissertations

Landscape visual preference research has indicated many potential indicators of preference; however a comprehensive framework concerning the relationship between visual preference and perception has not been solidified. Gestalt psychology, the predecessor to visual perception, proposes certain visual grouping tendencies to explain how humans perceive the world. This study examines if Gestalt grouping principles are reliable indicators of preference, and if they may be used to develop a broad context for visual assessment. Visual preference for 36 landscape scenes testing the proximity and similarity of landscape elements were ranked one through five by 1,749 Mississippi State University undergraduate, graduate, and faculty …

Swinburne And Catholicism: Unifying The Flesh And The Spirit, James Daniel Gillespie

Theses and Dissertations

Many efforts have been made by nineteenth and twentieth-century critics alike to classify Charles Algernon Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads (1866) as blatantly sacrilegious. This evaluative approach, however, fails to account for the thematic significance of Swinburne’s nuanced use of Christian imagery. Through a reading of three representative poems from the collection – “Dolores,” “Anactoria,” and “Laus Veneris” – this thesis demonstrates that Swinburne appropriates the Catholic concepts of transubstantiation, confession, and suffering for a specific aesthetic purpose. In the Catholic tradition, these concepts symbolically represent a unification of ostensibly antithetical states to achieve transcendence. For instance, the doctrine of transubstantiation …

Ged Students Versus Traditional High School Students: How Do The Ged Graduates Perform After The First Semester Of Attendance At A Rural Community College?, Ericka Akins

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if freshman students based on their age, ethnicity, and gender who enter a community college with a GED credential will have a higher cumulative grade point average (GPA) after their first semester than traditional high school graduates. Findings from this study will aid individuals in developing a more accurate perception of the academic abilities of GED graduates. The academic performance of GED graduates was compared with traditional high school graduates after their first semester at a rural community college in the Fall 2007 semester. Intact data from the students f academic records …

Factors And Perceptions That Affect Enrollment In Career And Technical Education Programs In Rural East Central Mississippi, Aimee Chandler Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the factors and perceptions that affect enrollment in career and technical education (CTE) programs in rural East Central Mississippi. Specifically, the study had four key purposes. First, the academic grades of CTE students and non-CTE students were examined to determine whether academic grades differ significantly between the CTE enrollers and non-CTE enrollers. Secondly, the study determined the perceptions that students in rural East Central Mississippi have toward CTE programs. Next, the study examined the internal and external factors that cause students to enroll or not enroll in a CTE program. Finally, …

A Cross Cultural Validation Of Perceptions And Use Of Social Network Service: An Exploratory Study, Chengqi Guo

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid developments Social Network Service (SNS) have offered opportunities to re-visit many seminal theoretical assumptions of technology usage within socio-technical environment. Online social network is a rapidly growing field that imposes new questions to the existing IS research paradigm. It is argued that information systems research must necessarily evolve in response to the emerging trends (Lyytinen and King, 2004). Specifically, one stream of research has been heavily lacking is SNS usage prediction (Hargittai, 2007). In SNS, the form of social network is realized by computing networks where the individual assumes an identity of an “avatar”. People are merging their …

Labrat™: Miniature Robot For Students, Researchers, And Hobbyists, Paul Robinette, Ryan Meuth, Ryanne Dolan, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

LabRat™ is an autonomous, self-contained mobile robot kit with batteries, motors, two bumper whisker sensors, and three infrared proximity sensors that double as channels for "Rat-to-Rat" communication. the vehicle determines its position with an optical sensor that detects movement in both lateral directions. the LabRat™ design is completely open source, including software examples and libraries. LabRat™ is designed to fit inside the body of a computer mouse and has applications in the classroom, the lab and the home. the device has been successfully used in an undergraduate robotics class. © 2009 IEEE.

Synthesis Of Local Thermo-Physical Models Using Genetic Programming, Ying Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Local thermodynamic models are practical alternatives to computationally expensive rigorous models that involve implicit computational procedures and often complement them to accelerate computation for real-time optimization and control. Human-centered strategies for development of these models are based on approximation of theoretical models. Genetic Programming (GP) system can extract knowledge from the given data in the form of symbolic expressions. This research describes a fully data driven automatic self-evolving algorithm that builds appropriate approximating formulae for local models using genetic programming. No a-priori information on the type of mixture (ideal/non ideal etc.) or assumptions are necessary.

The approach involves synthesis of …

Filtration Performance Of A Niosh-Approved N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator With Stapled Head Straps, Daniel E. Medina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Certain models of NIOSH-approved filtering facepiece air purifying respirators are manufactured with stapled head straps. Depending on the manufacturer, these head straps may be stapled to the filter media itself. This may cause leakage through the filter media of the respirator, potentially exposing the user to an unacceptable level of contaminant. In this study, monodisperse polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres were generated to challenge four replicates of a N95 single use respirator model made by the same manufacturer.

Nominal particle sizes of the PSL spheres used to challenge the respirators were 0.5, 1, and 2 micrometers in diameter. All respirators were …