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Laboratory Schools Annual Report, 2008-2009, Laboratory Schools, Illinois State University

Annual Reports – Laboratory Schools

Illinois State University Laboratory Schools annual report

Youth Volunteerism: By Looking At Who Volunteers And Why Organizations May Be Able To Recruit Youth To Become Long-Standing Volunteers, Kathryn M. Zimmerly

Graduate Research Papers

In 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville suggested volunteerism could reduce antisocial or criminal behavior (Uggen and Janikula, 1999). When looking at volunteerism today researchers have concluded similar aspects; for example, Uggen and Janikula found in their 1999 research that volunteers had increased self -acceptance, instrumentality, and civic identity.

Research by the Independent Sector suggests that 70 percent of youth volunteers feel volunteering is important because it gives them a new perspective, allows them to participate for a good cause, and gives them a greater respect for the people they are helping. Youth volunteer levels have increased (to 70 percent from 59 …

Living Originalism, Peter J. Smith, Thomas Colby

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Originalists routinely argue that originalism is the only coherent and legitimate theory of constitutional interpretation. This Article endeavors to undermine those claims by demonstrating that, despite the suggestion of originalist rhetoric, originalism is not a single, coherent, unified theory of constitutional interpretation, but is rather a disparate collection of distinct constitutional theories that share little more than a misleading reliance on a common label. Originalists generally agree only on certain very broad precepts that serve as the fundamental underlying principles of constitutional interpretation: specifically, that the “writtenness” of the Constitution necessitates a fixed constitutional meaning, and that courts that see …

Determination Of Partition And Activity Coefficients Using Headspace- Gas Chromatography, Gregory Paul Bullock

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Freshwater Mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionidae) Of The Channelized Missouri River, Ellet Hoke

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The lower Missouri River has historically been viewed as a fauna! barrier for unionids due to high sediment load. However this survey of the lower (channelized) Missouri River documented the presence of 14 unionid species and the exotic Corbicula fluminea (Muller, 1774). Unionids are present in stable substrates sheltered from the effects of the river's strong currents. Analysis of early literature on the Missouri River suggests reports of an absence of unionids were not based upon thorough fieldwork, and the most commonly cited rationale for their reported absence, the high sediment load in the river, is not convincing. Pre-1938 unionid …

Casino Royale And Franchise Remix: James Bond As Superhero, Robert P. Arnett

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

The article discusses the role of the film "Casino Royale" in remixing the James Bond franchise. The author believes that the remixed Bond franchise has shifted its genre to a superhero franchise. When Sony acquired MGM in 2004, part of its plan was to transform the 007 franchise at par with "Spiderman." The remixed franchise re-aligns its franchise criteria with those established by superhero films. The author cites "Casino Royale's" narrative structure as an example of the success of the film as franchise remixed for the future. The portrayal of Bond as a superhero by actor Daniel Craig is discussed.

Powered Mobility As An Intervention For Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review ; The Smart Wheelchair: Is It An Appropriate Mobility Training Tool For Children With Cerebral Palsy?, Sarah Mcgarry

Theses : Honours

Purpose. To systematically review the effectiveness of powered mobility training interventions in improving driving skills and psychosocial outcomes in children with cerebral palsy. Method. Electronic searches of CINAHL, Medline and Meditext were conducted. Using two assessment tools, two independent reviewers assessed the quality of selected studies and level of evidence. Studies were included if a powered mobility training intervention was described, at least one participant had cerebral palsy and if the majority of participants were aged between 18 months and 18 years old. A narrative analysis was conducted. Results. Seven articles were eligible for inclusion. Intervention protocols included computer simulator …

Children's Exposure To Lead And Nickel In Esperance - A Case Study, Matthew Tristan Winters

Theses : Honours

This is a cross-sectional study of lead and nickel exposure of children aged 2-12 years living at varying distances from a point source of pollution in Esperance. Esperance was an ideal case study location because of previous environmental contamination with lead and nickel above background levels. Non-invasive biological samples of hair, toenails and urine were collected from participating children, and environmental samples, including house dust, soil and drinking water were also sampled from each participant household. Exposure was assessed by measuring the concentration of metals found in the biological samples, and determining their relationships with the environmental samples from each …

An Investigation Into Student Reactions Towards Rad Versus Traditional Programming Environments For Novice Developers, Pansy Colkers

Theses : Honours

The traditional approach to programming using text editors is widely used in many institutions to teach introductory programming. These types of traditional programming environments provide fundamental programming concepts for learning, especially in the context of novice developers. In recent years, teaching institutions have seen a trend towards the introduction of visual "drag-and-drop" rapid application development (RAD) environments for teaching novice programmers. These 'environments capture student interest in programming by allowing the construction of workable programs within a short time frame based on minimal pre-existing coding knowledge. However, some have argued that these visual RAD environments might not be suitable for …

Making The Invisible, Visible : Exploring Liminality Of Mind And Body Through Glass, Naomi Hunter

Theses : Honours

It is through the discipline of visual arts that I research the subject of the mind-body relationship and the notion of liminality- this is the space in-between. To that end, the aim of this research is to investigate and construct a visible means of exhibiting liminal space. This creative work will be used as a metaphor for the synergy between body and mind, which I contend occurs within an internal liminal space. I investigate these concepts through the double articulation of creative practice and a written exegesis, based on the following research questions: 'In what ways can glass be used …

Using Decision Analytic Modelling To Simulate Pregnancy, Jeffrey Cannon

Theses : Honours

Decision analytic modelling enables decision makers to assess the cost-effectiveness associated with a proposed change in a cunent system without physically implementing the changes. This can be achieved by formulating a mathematical model that represents all the major events occuning in the system through fmmulas and algorithms, and estimating the likely outcomes along with their costs. This type of modelling has been identified by the State Health Research Advisory Council (SHRAC) of the Western Australian Depmiment of Health as an asset for the plmming of health care investments in the future. One such area in which the Western Australian Department …

Quc-Tree: Integrating Query Context Information For Efficient Music Retrieval, Jialie Shen, Dacheng Tao, Xuelong Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we introduce a novel indexing scheme-query context tree (QUC-tree) to facilitate efficient query sensitive music search under different query contexts. Distinguished from the previous approaches, QUC-tree is a balanced multiway tree structure, where each level represents the data space at different dimensionality. Before the tree structure construction, principle component analysis (PCA) is applied for data analysis and transforming the raw composite features into a new feature space sorted by the importance of acoustic features. The PCA transformed data and reduced dimensions in the upper levels can alleviate suffering from dimensionality curse. To accurately mimic human perception, an …

Relatedness And Competence As Positive Developmental Relatedness And Competence As Positive Developmental Outcomes Of College Learning, Melissa Lopez Reyes, Adrianne Galang

SDRC Publications

For virtually all Filipinos, a college diploma symbolizes the attainment of a major life's goal, along with the hard work that led to its attainment, and the promise of professional success, financial stability, and personal stature.  Completion of a college education being a developmental milestone in actuality or from the perception of students and their families, it behooves human developmental specialists studying the transition from adolescence to adulthood to examine the Filipino college experience.  In particular, it is important to characterize, in the context of school experience, how Filipino youth develop the competencies and outlook for effectively recognizing and assuming …

A Framework For Temperature Imaging Using The Change In Backscattered Ultrasonic Signals, Yuzheng Guo

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Hyperthermia is a cancer treatment that elevates tissue temperature to 40 to 43oC. It would benefit from a non-invasive, safe, inexpensive and convenient thermometry to monitor heating patterns. Ultrasound is a modality that meets these requirements. In our initial work, using both prediction and experimental data, we showed that the change in the backscattered energy: CBE) is a potential parameter for TI. CBE, however, was computed in a straightforward yet ad hoc manner. In this work, we developed and exploited a mathematical representation for our approach to TI to optimize temperature accuracy. Non-thermal effects of noise and motion confound the …

Factors Affecting Size And Swelling Of Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Hydrogel Microspheres Formed In Aqueous Sodium Sulfate Solutions, Michael Nichols

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The lower critical solution temperature: LCST) behavior of poly(ethylene glycol): PEG) in aqueous sodium sulfate solutions was exploited to fabricate hydrogel microspheres under mild conditions without the use of other monomers, polymers, surfactants or organic solvents. Reactive PEG derivatives underwent thermally induced phase separation to produce spherical PEG-rich domains that coarsened pending gelation, resulting in stable hydrogel microspheres that were polydisperse in size. The degree of reaction prior to phase separation, reaction rate within the PEG-rich domains, and duration of the reaction were independently varied to elucidate their effects on final microsphere size and gain insight regarding the mechanism of …

Affirmative Action Plan 2009, Illinois State University

Affirmative Action Plans

Illinois State University Affirmative Action Plan

Making Metal And Semiconductor Contacts On Alkanethiolate Self-Assembled Monolayer Adsorbed On Au, Peng Lu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Understanding and controlling the interactions of metals and semiconductors with organic substrates is critical to many technological applications. The primary goal of the research described in this dissertation is to understand the metal/organic and semiconductor/organic interactions and to develop methods to fabricate stable and robust metallic and semiconducting contacts on organic thin layers. Alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers: SAMs) adsorbed on Au, which have highly organized structures with a uniform density of terminal organic functional groups, were employed as model organic systems. Chemical vapor deposition: CVD) was employed to deposit selectively aluminum and alumina on functionalized SAMs. Methods were also developed to …

Modeling And Identification Of Differentially Regulated Genes Using Transcriptomics And Proteomics Data, Thanura Elvitigala

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Photosynthetic organisms are complex dynamical systems, showing a remarkable ability to adapt to different environmental conditions for their survival. Mechanisms underlying the coordination between different cellular processes in these organisms are still poorly understood. In this dissertation we utilize various computational and modeling techniques to analyze transcriptomics and proteomics data sets from several photosynthetic organisms. We try to use changes in expression levels of genes to study responses of these organisms to various environmental conditions such as availability of nutrients, concentrations of chemicals in growth media, and temperature. Three specific problems studied here are transcriptomics modifications in photosynthetic organisms under …

An Energy Economic Model For Electricity Generation In The United States, Lee Chusak

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Improving Biocompatibility By Controlling Protein Adsorption: Modification And Design Of Biomaterials Using Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Microgels And Microspheres, Evan Scott

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Guided by the clinical needs of patients and developments in biology and materials science, the primary focus of the biomaterials field remains at the solid/liquid interface between biomaterial surfaces and biological fluids. For blood-contacting devices, biological responses are initially elicited and directed by proteins that adsorb from this multicomponent solution to form thin films on their surfaces. The identity, conformation, and quantity of adsorbed proteins are related to the properties of a material's surface. For example, hydrophobic surfaces tend to be thrombotic via interactions between platelets and adsorbed fibrinogen, while surface-activation of specific enzymes initiates the coagulation cascade on hydrophilic …

An Oversampled Analog To Digital Converter For Acquiring Neural Signals, Grant Williams

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

A third order delta-sigma modulator and associated low-pass digital filter is designed for an analog to digital converter: ADC) for sensing bioelectric phenomena. The third order noise shaping reduces the quantization noise in the baseband and the digital lowpass filter greatly attenuates the out of band quantization noise, increasing the effective number of bits. As part of a neural signal acquisition system designed by The BrainScope Company to capture Electro-Encephalogram: EEG) and Automated Brainstem Response: ABR) signals, this paper describes the design of a third order Delta-Sigma modulator which meets or exceeds the low noise specifications mandated by previous BrainScope …

Aerosol Filtration And Separation, Tachih Hsiao

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Aerosol Filtration and Separation by Ta-Chih Hsiao Doctor of Philosophy in Energy, Environmental, & Chemical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, 2009 Professor Da-Ren Chen, Advisor Particle control technologies are essential in many manufacturing industries: chemical, electronic, mineral, and food and beverages) as well as in pollution abatement and environmental control: for example, clean rooms and post processing of power plant emissions). A variety of particle control technologies using different physical forces and various collection substrates have been developed over the last 100 or so years. Among these technologies, filtration is known as the most economical …

Optical Measurements In Gas-Liquid Stirred Tanks, Sean Mueller

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation outlines the development of novel, in-situ and relatively inexpensive optical measurement techniques for use in opaque multiphase reactors at elevated temperature: 350 ┬░C) and pressure: 180 bar) environments where conventional measurement techniques either cannot be used or are difficult or expensive to implement. Important parameters: such as gas holdup, specific interfacial area, bubble velocity, bubble chord lengths, liquid level, and phase transition) in opaque, multiphase reactors at industrially relevant conditions are lacking in the literature. A miniaturized 4-point probe is developed and methodology outlined that can simultaneously capture local gas holdup, interfacial area, size, and velocities of bubbles …

Health Service Utilization Among Chinese, Filipino, And Asian Indian Older Adults In The United States, Jing Tan

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The United States is becoming more ethnically diverse, with a rapidly growing Asian population. At the same time, the graying of America brings with it special consideration for America's ethnic minorities. The current research on service utilization among Asian American older adults is very limited. The purposes of this study are:: 1) to describe and compare health service needs and health insurance coverage among Chinese, Filipino, and Asian Indian older adults;: 2) to use modified Andersen's behavior model to identify what predisposing factors, enabling factors, need factors, and immigrant-related factors are associated with health service utilization; and: 3) to test …

Phase Formation, Liquid Structure, And Physical Properties Of Amorphous- And Quasicrystal-Forming Alloys, Victor Wessels

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Since the discovery of quasicrystals in 1985 and the development of commercially viable bulk metallic glasses: BMGs) in the mid 1990's a great deal of attention has been given to the characterization of new alloys with desirable properties, such as larger amorphous casting thickness, higher mechanical strength, or hydrogen storage capacity. Here, the results of a number of investigations into the structures and properties of some noncrystalline solid alloys will be presented and analyzed. Beamline electrostatic levitation: BESL), a method for determining supercooled liquid structure and phase formation insitu, was used. Using BESL, the development of structural and chemical inhomogeneity …

Cedar Rapids Flood Of 2008: Manmade Or Statistical Anomaly?, Beth Kolsrud

Honors Program Theses

One of the main research questions for this thesis is what factors caused the flooding last summer and why was it so extreme? This is an important question to answer because it is vital to understand what causes a flood of this magnitude so communities can take steps to avoid or minimize damage that may result from floods in the future. The second question is what impact does this flood have on flood insurance? Flood insurance is one tool used to protect property owners from substantial loss due to flooding and plays a vital role in recovery after a flood, …

Telos: An Interactive Platform For Broadcast Management, Andrew L. Knight

Honors Program Theses

The following thesis project is an attempt to consolidate a number of media management tools under a single interface, allowing for a streamlined, yet powerful, approach to the organization and distribution of multimedia content. The Total Electronic Listing Operations Suite, or Telos, is the main component of the thesis and the result of over a year of research and development. The two adjunct components are this review article (a commentary on the process, design, and implementation of the software), and the product overview, available at http://www.uni.edu/unitv/guide.html

Investing In Culture: Underwater Cultural Heritage And International Investment Law, Valentina S. Vadi

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Underwater cultural heritage (UCH), which includes evidence of past cultures preserved in shipwrecks, enables the relevant epistemic communities to open a window to the unknown past and enrich their understanding of history. Recent technologies have allowed the recovery of more and more shipwrecks by private actors who often retrieve materials from shipwrecks to sell them. Not all salvors conduct proper scientific inquiry, conserve artifacts, and publish the results of the research; more often, much of the salvaged material is sold and its cultural capital dispersed. Because states rarely have adequate funds to recover ancient shipwrecks and manage this material, however, …

Quality Improvement In Small Office Settings: An Examination Of Successful Practices., Daniel Wolfson, Elizabeth Bernabeo, Brian Leas, Shoshanna Sofaer, Gregory Pawlson, Donna Pillittere

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Physicians in small to moderate primary care practices in the United States (U.S.) (<25>physicians) face unique challenges in implementing quality improvement (QI) initiatives, including limited resources, small staffs, and inadequate information technology systems 23,36. This qualitative study sought to identify and understand the characteristics and organizational cultures of physicians working in smaller practices who are actively engaged in measurement and quality improvement initiatives.

METHODS: We undertook a qualitative study, based on semi-structured, open-ended interviews conducted with practices (N = 39) that used performance data to drive quality improvement activities.

RESULTS: Physicians indicated that benefits to performing measurement and …

Quality Improvement In Small Office Settings: An Examination Of Successful Practices., Daniel Wolfson, Elizabeth Bernabeo, Brian Leas, Shoshanna Sofaer, Gregory Pawlson, Donna Pillittere

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Physicians in small to moderate primary care practices in the United States (U.S.) (<25 >physicians) face unique challenges in implementing quality improvement (QI) initiatives, including limited resources, small staffs, and inadequate information technology systems 23,36. This qualitative study sought to identify and understand the characteristics and organizational cultures of physicians working in smaller practices who are actively engaged in measurement and quality improvement initiatives.

METHODS: We undertook a qualitative study, based on semi-structured, open-ended interviews conducted with practices (N = 39) that used performance data to drive quality improvement activities.

RESULTS: Physicians indicated that benefits to performing measurement and …