Digital Commons Network^™

N-Gram-Based Search Procedure, Szymon Woznica

Computer Science

Efficient querying and discovery of meaningful patterns in data becomes more and more important with accelerating growth of data published every day on the Internet. Tree pruning-based algorithms used in most popular search programs have troubles when dealing with infrequent query strings, limiting the number of returned results that might be of interest to the user. Furthermore, the existing tools are not capable of finding data patterns that could inform the user about the frequency of occurrence and location of a specific set of words in large, user-defined sets of textual data, in an efficient manner. In this paper, we …

A Graphical Tool For Test Generation From State Models, Qjpeng Wu

Computer Science

This paper presented a graphical tool for generating test cases based on state models. The tool provides users with a user-friendly model editor to create their state model in a tree view structure. The tree based state model can then be saved to a disk in the form of an xml file and any existing model file can be loaded back into the tool. Two different traverse algorithms are explored by this tool, state based coverage and transition based coverage. The tool implements both algorithms and is capable of generating test paths based on different traversal algorithms. The tool also …

Mobile Sensor Movement Using Simulated Annealing, Sri Harsha Yamparala

Computer Science

Movement of mobile sensor nodes is an important aspect in wireless sensor networks, and there is considerable research underway into the design of mobile sensor movement algorithms for wireless sensor networks. Various mobile sensor movement algorithms have been proposed using different combinatorial optimization techniques such as Tahu Search, Ant Colony Optimization, and Genetic Algorithms. In this paper we present a mobile sensor movement Algorithm for Heterogenenous Sensor Networks using a Simulated annealing search technique. This paper also discusses the various factors that are taken into account while making a decision about the movement of a mobile sensor node in the …

Teacher Learning In A Tibetan School In Exile: A Community Of Practice Perspective, Pema Yangchen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Using qualitative field techniques, the researcher explored teacher learning in a small community of English language teachers in a rural Tibetan school in India. From a community of practice perspective teachers were studied in terms of what they practiced, what challenges they faced and how they interacted and learned from and with each other.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to describe practicing teachers' perception of professional development and teacher learning, and (b) to examine teacher learning from a community of practice perspective. Eight female and two male teachers who taught English participated in the study. Prolonged engagement …

Characteristics Of Highly Effective Teachers: A Perspective From Students With Disabilities, David J. Smith

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Teacher quality is a widely discussed topic in education. States, districts, schools, parents, and other stakeholders want to know how to measure, improve, and reward teacher quality. A major factor in the rise in interest about teacher quality is clear evidence that individual teachers are able to positively affect student achievement, specifically in relationship to students' standardized test scores (No Child Left Behind Legislation). Even a cursory look at statewide student achievement data reveals that students with disabilities are achieving at lower levels in comparison to their peers without disabilities.

While several researchers have asked students to identify characteristics of …

The Effectiveness Of Colored Overlays On Reading Achievement And Attitudes Toward Reading For Students With Scotopic Sensitive Syndrome, Hanan Ali Bagabas

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study investigated the effects on students identified with Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS) or Irlen Syndrome (IS) when using colored overlays as an intervention (immediately and over time) to assess reading performance (rate, accuracy, and comprehension); to measure visual-motor integration; and to assess attitude toward reading. SSS/IS is a visual perceptual problem related to a collection of symptoms that affects an individual's performance when reading. Three participants, all males (one 3rd -grade student, one 4th -grade student, and one 5th -grade student), were identified as having SSS/IS and other learning disabilities.

The study involved five test instruments (Irlen Reading Perceptual …

Secondary Preservice Teachers' Understanding Of Euclidean Geometry, Karen Sabey

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The lack of mathematical understanding of elementary preservice teachers with respect to many mathematical topics has been well documented. Far fewer studies have been conducted on any content area of knowledge of secondary teachers and even less in the mathematics content area. The assumption by the general population is that mathematics majors are adequately prepared to teach the content of secondary mathematics because they major in mathematics. Mathematics educators, however, note the lack of conceptual understandings in many content areas in these mathematics teaching majors. While mathematics educators are aware of this deficiency, there is little research data at the …

Investigating The Relationship Between Teacher Self-Efficacy Beliefs In Mathematics And Teacher Reflection: Do Teacher Thinking Dispositions Play A Moderating Role?, Shawna Hufendick

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Previous research has shown a relationship between teacher reflection and teacher acceptance of reform curricula. This study looked at the relationship between the variables of teacher self efficacy and teacher reflection, as they might relate to teacher attitudes towards instructional change. This study also looked at whether teacher thinking dispositions moderate this relationship. First and second grade teachers (N=l6) participating in a professional development opportunity in mathematics completed an efficacy measure, a thinking dispositions measure, and kept a journal to reflect after mathematics lessons taught. The teacher efficacy, thinking disposition, and journal reflection data was analyzed to see whether relationships …

Technology Integration: A Study On The Impact Of Increased Technology Access, Gina Kuker

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Colleges with teacher education programs have struggled to integrate technology into the curriculum. While access to technology has increased and support for technology usage is present, technology integration has not dramatically changed within the majority of classrooms (Cuban, 2001; Opperheimer, 1997; Stenson & Bagwell, 1999). Education faculty members should model effective technology integration within their classrooms in order for their preservice educators to see examples of how to incorporate technology into teaching and learning. Teachers tend to teach the way that they were taught (Judson & Swanda, 2001; Lortie, 1975). Without seeing how to integrate technology use across content areas, …

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.

An Infrared Imaging Method For High-Throughput Combinatorial Investigation Of Hydrogenation-Dehydrogenation And New Phase Formation Of Thin Films, H. Oguchi, Jason R. Hattrick-Simpers, I. Takeuchi, E. J. Heilweil, L. A. Bendersky

Faculty Publications

We have developed an infrared imaging setup enabling in situ infrared images to be acquired, and expanded on capabilities of an infrared imaging as a high-throughput screening technique, determination of a critical thickness of a Pd capping layer which significantly blocks infrared emission from below, enhancement of sensitivity to hydrogenation and dehydrogenation by normalizing raw infrared intensity of a Mg thin film to an inert reference, rapid and systematic screening of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation properties of a Mg–Ni composition spread covered by a thickness gradient Pd capping layer, and detection of formation of a Mg₂Si phase in a …

What's So Great About Sograt?: An Analysis Of The Ethical Issues Created By Tax Patents And A Patently Strict Dilemma, Jason Pill

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Promoting Learning And Achievement Through Self-Assessment, Heidi Andrade, Anna Valtcheva

Educational Theory and Practice Faculty Scholarship

Criteria-referenced self-assessment is a process during which students collect information about their own performance or progress; compare it to explicitly stated criteria, goals, or standards; and revise accordingly. The authors argue that self-assessment must be a formative type of assessment, done on drafts of works in progress: It should not be a matter of determining one's own grade. As such, the purposes of self-assessment are to identify areas of strength and weakness in one's work in order to make improvements and promote learning. Criteria-referenced self-assessment has been shown to promote achievement. This article introduces criteria-referenced self-assessment, describes how it is …

Rubric-Referenced Self-Assessment And Self-Efficacy For Writing, Heidi Andrade, Xiaolei Wang, Ying Du, Robin L. Akawi

Educational Theory and Practice Faculty Scholarship

The authors investigated the relation between long- and short-term rubric use (including self-assessment), gender, and self-efficacy for writing by elementary and middle school students (N = 268). They measured long-term rubric use with a questionnaire. They manipulated short-term rubric use by a treatment that involved reviewing a model and using a rubric to self-assess drafts. The authors collected self efficacy ratings 3 times. Results revealed that girls’ self-efficacy was higher than boys’ self-efficacy before they began writing. The authors found interactions between gender and rubric use: Average self-efficacy ratings increased as students wrote, regardless of condition, but the increase in …

Title Page, Preface

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

No abstract provided.

Understanding Teacher Leadership In Middle School Mathematics: A Collaborative Research Effort, J. E. Pustejovsky, J. P. Spillane, R. M. Heaton, W. J. Lewis

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

We report findings from a collaborative research effort designed to examine how teachers act as leaders in their schools. We find that teachers educated by the Math in the Middle Institute act as key sources of advice for colleagues within their schools while drawing support from a network consisting of other teachers in the program and university-level advisors. In addition to reporting on our findings, we reflect on our research process, noting some of the practical challenges involved, as well as some of the benefits of collaboration.

Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute Project: Evaluation Results On Teacher Content Knowledge, Implementation Fidelity, And Student Achievement, D. Weaver, T. Dick

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute (OMLl) National Science Foundation Mathematics and Science Partnership project partners are Oregon State University, Portland State University, Teachers Development Group, and ten Oregon school districts. The primary activities of the project were a sequence of three intensive three-week residential institutes emphasizing mathematics content knowledge for teaching, collegial leadership, and the building of Professional Learning Communities. Teachers at all levels of grades K-12 participated together in the mathematics content courses. By the conclusion of the. third Summer Institute, teachers had shown significant improvements in mathematical content knowledge for teaching. Analysis of student achievement data in participating …

The Impact Of Early Positive Results On A Mathematics And Science Partnership: The Experience Of The Institute For Chemistry Literacy Through Computational Science, K. S. Murray, M. A. Henry, M. C. Hogrebe

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

After one year of implementation, the Institute for Chemistry Literacy through Computational Science, an NSF Mathematics and Science Partnership Institute Project led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Chemistry, College of Medicine, and National Center for Supercomputing Applications, experienced statistically significant gains in chemistry content knowledge among students of the rural high school teachers participating in its intensive, year-round professional development course, compared to a control group. The project utilizes a two-cohort, delayed-treatment, random control trial, quasi-experimental research design with the second cohort entering treatment one year following the first. The three-year treatment includes intensive two-week summer …

Connecting Mathematics And The Applied Science Of Energy Conservation, R. E. Carbone, J. M. Pearce

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

To effectively teach science in the elementary classroom, pre-service K-8 teachers need a basic understanding of the underlying concepts of physics, which demand a strong foundation in mathematics. Unfortunately, the depth of mathematics understanding of prospective elementary teachers has been a growing and serious concern for several decades. To overcome this challenge, a two-pronged attack was used in this study. First. students in mathematics courses were coupled with physical science courses by linking registration to ensure co-requisites were taken. This alone improved passing rates. Secondly, an energy conservation project was introduced in both classes that intimately tied the theoretical mathematics …

Cd_{1-X}Mn_Xs Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor: Application In Photoelectrochemical Cells, J. S. Dargad, L. P. Deshmukh

Turkish Journal of Physics

A new class of dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS, CdMnS) thin film based photoelectrochemical cell is presented. DMS thin films are synthesized on both glass and stainless steel substrates using a chemical growth process. The preparation parameters, such as growth temperature, time, reaction pH, precursor concentrations, etc., were optimized to yield characteristically oriented films. The layer thickness was found to decrease with increase in Mn^{2+} concentration. Composition of the as-grown samples was determined by an EDS technique. The electrochemical cells were then formed out of these series of films as the active photoelectrodes, an electrolyte and a counter electrode. The cells …

Conversion Efficiency Calculations For Euv Radiation Emitted From Laser-Produced Tin Plasmas, Betül Atalay, Necla Kenar, Ari̇f Demi̇r

Turkish Journal of Physics

Ni-like and Co-like EUV radiation between 11--17 nm emitted from laser produced tin plasmas was modelled by using the hydrodynamic/atomic physics code EHYBRID. The atomic data were obtained using the Cowan code. The effects of driving laser pulse duration and the laser intensity with different wavelengths were investigated. The maximum conversion efficiency was calculated as 13.4% for a 266 nm Nd:YAG laser with 1 \times 10^{13} W/cm^2 pulse intensity and 5 ns pulse duration.

Detrital-Zircon Geochronology Of The Metasedimentary Rocks Of North-Western Graham Land, David L. Barbeau Jr, Justin T. Davis, Kendra E. Murray, Victor Valencia, George E. Gehrels, Khandaker M. Zahid, David J. Gombosi

Faculty Publications

Metasedimentary rocks constitute an important but comparatively poorly understood part of the Antarctic Peninsula. Herein we report single-grain U-Pb detrital-zircon ages from samples of the Trinity Peninsula and Botany Bay Groups of north-western Graham Land. All studied samples are dominated by a large and narrowly defined population of late Palaeozoic zircons. Significant early–middle Palaeozoic and minor Neoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic sub-populations constitute the majority of pre-Carboniferous grains. These detrital-zircon age populations are consistent with sediment derivation entirely from western Gondwana sources. Despite the clear Gondwana signatures, our data suggest that the Trinity Peninsula Group province was either a parautochthonous peri-Gondwanan terrane …

A Remote Sensing And Gis-Assisted Spatial Decision Support System For Hazardous Waste Site Monitoring, John R. Jensen, Michael E. Hodgson, Maria Garcia-Quijano, Jungho Im, Jason A. Tullis

Faculty Publications

Humans produce large amounts of waste that must be processed or stored so that it does not contaminate the environment. When hazardous wastes are stored, waste site monitoring is typically conducted in situ which can lead to a serious time lag between the onset of a problem and detection. A Remote Sensing and GIS-assisted Spatial Decision Support System for Hazardous Waste Site Monitoring was developed to improve hazardous waste site management. The system was designed to be recursive, flexible, and integrative. It is recursive because the system is implemented iteratively until the risk assessment subsystem determines that an event is …

Is Four File Chess A Draw?, Michael Karbushev

Master's Projects

In this work, we prove that in the game of FOUR FILE Chess, White has at least a Draw. FOUR FILE is a chess variant proposed by John Selfridge, in which only the `a', `c', `e', and `g' les are used. All chess rules are as usual, except that all moves must end on one of these les, and the game starts with the other four les vacant. Here, we prove that the White has at least a draw, by showing that White has a strategy to avoid a loss. We also show that Black can avoid a loss for …

Knowledge Engineering From Data Perspective: Granular Computing Approach, Rushin Barot

Master's Projects

The concept of rough set theory is a mathematical approach to uncertainly and vagueness in data analysis, introduced by Zdzislaw Pawlak in 1980s. Rough set theory assumes the underlying structure of knowledge is a partition. We have extended Pawlak’s concept of knowledge to coverings. We have taken a soft approach regarding any generalized subset as a basic knowledge. We regard a covering as basic knowledge from which the theory of knowledge approximations and learning, knowledge dependency and reduct are developed.

Priority Based Power Management And Reduced Downtime In Data Centers, Barath Kuppuswamy

Master's Projects

The project deals successfully with software that performs priority based power management and reduced downtime for virtual machines running in data centers. The software deals with power management only at the processor level. The software automatically performs load distribution among servers in data centers to save power. In addition, the software also lets administrator of data centers to mark certain virtual machines, which run user applications, as critical to minimize downtimes for these virtual machines. The software reveals that energy consumption can be minimized while maintaining high runtime availability for the mission critical applications. The software operates in Green mode …

The Rawlings/Holt Correspondence

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.