Digital Commons Network^™

Improving The Instruction And Learning Of Topographic Maps Through The Use Of Geospatial Technologies, Troy Dean Schwemm

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Geographic information technologies (GIT) are spatially based technologies that include geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and global positioning systems (GPS). Though GIT has been used in society for decades, and has grown tremendously in the last 10 years as advancements in technology have become available, its inclusion into the K-12 curriculum has not kept pace. As the educational reform movement places an ever increasing amount of pressure on schools to produce technologically literate, workforce ready graduates, school districts are scrambling to find creative, innovative ways to accomplish this task. Rather than learning passively, GIT allows students to construct their …

Identification Of Virulence Genes In The Corn Pathogen Fusarium Verticillioides, Divya Chouhan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Fusarium verticillioides is a pathogenic fungus that causes infection of crops and vegetables such as corn, wheat, potato, cassava, banana, potato and sorghum. It causes various diseases in corn such as seedling blight, root, stalk, and ear rot. Pathogenic Fusarium species have caused billions of dollars of damage through reduced yield. F.verticillioides also produces mycotoxins such as fumonisin. Consumption of contaminated grain can cause various diseases in animals such as pulmonary oedema in pigs and leukoencephalomalacia in horses, and may be associated with esophageal cancer in humans. Identification of virulence genes in F. verticillioides will help in understanding its biology …

Adrift In The Wake Of Modernism: Music, Mind, And Meaning In The Works Of James Joyce, April E. Cook

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Since Joyce's rise to critical prominence over the course of the twentieth century, a diverse corpus of scholarship has emerged around the Joyce canon that is nearly as vast and as multifaceted as the works themselves. While many have explored Joyce's affinity for music and his unprecedented synthesis of musical and literary modes, relatively few have examined his works' musical properties in the context of the contemporaneous musical developments of the early avant-garde and jazz movements. This study explores the trajectory of Joyce's engagement with musical forms and techniques, ranging from the primarily allusive relations of his early works to …

Comparing The Chelating Abilities Of N-Acetylcysteine And N-Acetylcysteine Amide In Vitro For Lead Poisoning Treatment, Weiqing Chen

Masters Theses

"Lead poisoning is a perennial and serious health problem around the world. The daily widespread use of lead has dramatically increased the degree and longevity of its exposure to humans, exacerbating the task of lead poisoning treatment. Lead exerts adverse effects on cardiovascular, central nervous, renal, gastrointestinal, and reproductive systems. The common treatment for lead poisoning is chelation therapy. Chelators were proposed to treat lead poisoning a very long time ago. However, chelators have severe side effects that could cause more problems, in addition to lead poisoning. Therefore, another group of drugs has been suggested --- antioxidants. This type of …

An Econometric Analysis Of Australian Domestic Tourism Demand, Ghialy C. Yap

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In 2007, the total spending by domestic visitors was AUD 43 billion, which was 1.5 times higher than the aggregate expenditure by international tourists in Australia. Moreover, domestic visitors consumed 73.7% of the Australian produced tourism goods and services whereas international tourists consumed 26.3%. Hence, this shows that domestic tourism is an important sector for the overall tourism industry in Australia. This present research determines the factors that influence domestic tourism demand in Australia and examines how changes in the economic environment in Australia could influence this demand. The main aim of this research is to achieve sustainability of domestic …

School Aged Children: Visual Perception And Reversal Recognition Of Letters And Numbers Separately And In Context, Janet E. Richmond

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Visual discrimination, spatial orientation, and recognition of letters and numbers in context are important issues in helping young students achieve good literacy and numeracy standards. Thus, measures of Visual Discrimination of Upper Case Letters (VDUCL), Visual Discrimination of Lower Case Letters (VDLCL), and Visual Discrimination of Numbers (VDN) as well as Spatial Orientation of Letter and Number Pairs (SOLNP), Form Constancy of Letters and Numbers (FCLNP), Letter and Number Sequencing (LNS), Figure Ground of Letters in Words FGLW) and Figure Ground Numbers in Calculations (FGNC) must be linear and uni-dimensional so that student weaknesses can be identified objectively. The Simple …

Analysis Avoidance Techniques Of Malicious Software, Murray Brand

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Anti Virus (AV) software generally employs signature matching and heuristics to detect the presence of malicious software (malware). The generation of signatures and determination of heuristics is dependent upon an AV analyst having successfully determined the nature of the malware, not only for recognition purposes, but also for the determination of infected files and startup mechanisms that need to be removed as part of the disinfection process. If a specimen of malware has not been previously extensively analyzed, it is unlikely to be detected by AV software. In addition, malware is becoming increasingly profit driven and more likely to incorporate …

Personal Exposure Of Children To Formaldehyde In Perth, Western Australia, Victoria S. Lazenby

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Formaldehyde is a common air pollutant that tends to be found in elevated concentrations in indoor air. Exposure to formaldehyde has the potential to impact on respiratory health, particularly amongst sensitive individuals and populations, including children. Children spend most of their time indoors at home, however, there are very little data on the contribution of formaldehyde concentrations in homes to personal exposure in children. The principal aim of this cross sectional study was to investigate whether the domestic environment is the most significant source of personal exposure of formaldehyde in children. Forty-one primary school children (aged between 8 and 12) …

Siting Green Infrastructure: Legal And Policy Solutions To Alleviate Urban Poverty And Promote Healthy Communities, Alexandra Dapolito Dunn

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Green infrastructure is an economically and environmentally viable approach for water management and natural resource protection in urban areas. This Article argues that green infrastructure has additional and exceptional benefits for the urban poor which are not frequently highlighted or discussed. When green infrastructure is concentrated in distressed neighborhoods—where it frequently is not—it can improve urban water quality, reduce urban air pollution, improve public health, enhance urban aesthetics and safety, generate green collar jobs, and facilitate urban food security. To make these quality of life and health benefits available to the urban poor, it is essential that urban leaders remove …

2,3-Bis(Bromomethyl)-1,4-Diphenylbenzene, Jonathan B. Briggs, Mikael D. Jazdzyk, Glen P. Miller

Chemistry

In the title compound, C(20)H(16)Br(2), the terminal phenyl groups are twisted away from the central ring by approximately 55 and -125 degrees (average of four dihedral angles each), respectively. The crystal structure is stabilized by a combination of interMolecular and intraMolecular interactions including interMolecular pi-pi stacking interactions [C atoms of closest contact = 3.423 ( 5) angstrom].

Assessing The Feasibility Of An Aerotropolis Around Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Technical Report, Claudette Robey, Daila Shimek, James Wyles, Brian A. Mikelbank, Jim Robey, Kevin O'Brien, Et.Al.

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report provides an assessment of the feasibility of developing an aerotropolis around Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Cleveland, Ohio. The report describes the methodology used to assess the feasibility, notes the needs and expectations of community stakeholders, profiles the challenges and successes of six emerging and potential U.S. aerotropolises, and discusses the operating experiences and challenges of 12 additional U.S. airports. Further, this report describes the demographic and economic aspects of the study cities, and discusses potential target industry opportunities. The findings suggest that it is feasible to develop CLE as an aerotropolis, and that CLE may not be suited …

Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities In Northeast Ohio, Mark Salling, Joseph Ahern

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities in Northeast Ohio, Planning & Action, The Center for Community Solutions, Vol. 63, No. 4 (July), 2010, pp. 12-15.

Dynamic System Eigenvalue Extraction Using A Linear Echo State Network For Small-Signal Stability Analysis - A Novel Application, Jiaqi Liang, Jing Dai, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Ronald G. Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A large nonlinear dynamic system usually has complex dynamic modes corresponding to the system's eigenvalues. These eigenvalues govern the system's local behavior and thus are critical information for designing system operation and control strategies. Without the availability of the system's analytical model, which is often the case for large nonlinear systems, the system's eigenvalues need to be estimated. a linear echo state network (ESN) based method for extracting observable eigenvalues of a dynamic system together with the participation factors of these eigenvalues in the accessible system states is presented in this paper. a linear ESN is first trained to track …

Zero-Sum Two-Player Game Theoretic Formulation Of Affine Nonlinear Discrete-Time Systems Using Neural Networks, S. Mehraeen, T. Dierks, S. Jagannathan, M. L. Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the nearly optimal solution for discrete-time (DT) affine nonlinear control systems in the presence of partially unknown internal system dynamics and disturbances is considered. the approach is based on successive approximate solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs (HJI) equation, which appears in optimal control. Successive approximation approach for updating control input and disturbance for DT nonlinear affine systems are proposed. Moreover, sufficient conditions for the convergence of the approximate HJI solution to the saddle-point are derived, and an iterative approach to approximate the HJI equation using a neural network (NN) is presented. Then, the requirement of full knowledge of …

The Nas/Nrc Report On Forensic Science: A Path Forward Fraught With Pitfalls, D. Michael Risinger

Utah Law Review

American forensic science as an organized field is less than a hundred years old. On balance, this relatively young field has almost certainly had a positive impact on the accurate determination of factual guilt and factual innocence in the criminal justice system. However, in the flush of youth, it is not uncommon for claims to outrun capabilities. For several decades now, many from the academy and some from forensic science itself have pointed to weaknesses both in various forensic fields and in the structure of forensic science practice itself—weaknesses that raised the specter of a forensic science that sometimes made …

Evidence Theory And The Nas Report On Forensic Science, Michael S. Pardo

Utah Law Review

The NAS Report recommends a wholesale overhaul of the field of forensic science in the United States. Most of the proposed recommendations for reform focus on activities that take place outside of the courtroom, reforms aimed at improving the quality of the evidence that is used for law enforcement and criminal litigation. In many ways, however, the report invites courts to respond to, and to perhaps improve upon, the ways in which such evidence is admitted and presented currently and in the future. It also invites evidence scholars to develop solid theoretical foundations for possible avenues of response and reform. …

Three Essays On The Determinants Of Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi), Haitao Liang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At first, a literature review of over 150 articles on the determination of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposes the main determinants of FDI. A meta-analysis tests the reliability of the previous studies on FDI.

Then, a cluster analysis on FDI data reveals the necessary to segment economies, especially by income level, in FDI analysis.

A large number of studies emphasize FDI determinants but ignore the income distribution on the results, which biases the estimates. In Chapter 3, I correct for heterogeneity due to income distribution by using the Blundell-Bond System GMM (Generalized Method of Moments), which controls for endogeneity problem …

The Interaction Of Intensity And Deviance On Auditory Event-Related Potentials: Findings Using Principal Component Analysis (Pca) Of Current Source Densities (Csds), Nathan A. Gates

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mismatch negativity (MMN) studies provide insights into the brain's ability to perceive and/or detect deviations from established sensory patterns. Clinical studies investigating the loudness-dependency of auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) have shown a relationship between the intensity of an auditory stimulus and neuro-physiological or -chemical activity of the primary auditory cortex. Unfortunately, these two bodies of literature remain disjointed. The present study integrates elements of each body of literature to a) investigate the impact of varying levels of intensity deviance on N1/P2 with a standard set of intensities used in LDAEP paradigms, and b) assess the extent to which deviance-related processes …

Stability And Change In New York State Regents Mathematics Examinations, 1866-2009: A Socio-Historical Analysis, Robert Stephen Watson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation illuminates relationships between micro-level practices of schools and macro-level structures of society through the socio-historical lens of New York State Regents mathematics examinations, which were administered to public school students throughout the State of New York between 1866 and 2009, inclusive. Fundamental research questions involved in this study are: 1) How has the classification, framing, and assessment of Regents level mathematics curricula in the public schools of New York changed since 1866?: and 2) How has popularization influenced the contents, structure and academic rigor of Regents mathematics examinations? Basil Bernstein's theory of educational transmissions provides a theoretical framework …

Guest Editorial: On Method, Technorealism And Aesthetic Capitalism, Patricia Ticineto Clough

Publications and Research

The guest editorial excerpts the keynote address Professor Clough held at the First Annual Graduate Student Conference hosted by the Graduate Center's Sociology Students Association.

Essays On Economic Policy: Income Inequality And Health Insurance, Eric Doviak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation contains economic analyses of two critical social issues facing the United States at the dawn of the 21st century: income inequality and the affordability of health insurance.

The chapter on income inequality uses the Solow Model of economic growth to model the evolution of inequality over time. In steady state, differences in household saving rates generate differences in household capital income. Households that save more accumulate more capital and have higher steady-state income. Tax policy affects the distribution of income through its influence on household saving rates. Increasing the tax rate on labor income causes a greater percentage …

Solving Continuous Linear Least-Squares Problems By Iterated Projection, Ralf Juengling

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

I present a new divide-and-conquer algorithm for solving continuous linear least-squares problems. The method is applicable when the column space of the linear system relating data to model parameters is “translation invariant”. The central operation is a matrix- vector product, which makes the method very easy to implement. Secondly, the structure of the computation suggests a straightforward parallel implementation.

A complexity analysis for sequential implementation shows that the method has the same asymptotic complexity as well-known algorithms for discrete linear least-squares. For illustration we work out the details for the problem of fitting quadratic bivariate polyno- mials to a piecewise …

Pvw: Designing Virtual World Server Infrastructure, Francis Chang, C. Mic Bowman, Wu-Chi Feng

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper presents a high level overview of PVW (Partitioned Virtual Worlds), a distributed system architecture for the management of virtual worlds. PVW is designed to support arbitrarily large and complex virtual worlds while accommodating dynamic and highly variable user population and content distribution density. The PVW approach enables the task of simulating and managing the virtual world to be distributed over many servers by spatially partitioning the environment into a hierarchical structure. This structure is useful both for balancing the simulation load across many nodes, as well as features such as geometric simplification and distribution of dynamic content.

The Intellectual Property Landscape For Ips Cells, Robin Feldman, Deborah Furth

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Multigrid In A Weighted Space Arising From Axisymmetric Electromagnetics, Dylan M. Copeland, Jay Gopalakrishnan, Minah Oh

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Consider the space of two-dimensional vector functions whose components and curl are square integrable with respect to the degenerate weight given by the radial variable. This space arises naturally when modeling electromagnetic problems under axial symmetry and performing a dimension reduction via cylindrical coordinates. We prove that if the original three-dimensional domain is convex then the multigrid Vcycle applied to the inner product in this space converges, provided certain modern smoothers are used. For the convergence analysis, we first prove several intermediate results, e.g., the approximation properties of a commuting projector in weighted norms, and a superconvergence estimate for a …

On The Integrability Of Orthogonal Distributions In Poisson Manifolds, Daniel Fish, Serge Preston

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We study conditions for the integrability of the distribution defined on a regular Poisson manifold as the orthogonal complement (with respect to some (pseudo)-Riemannian metric) to the tangent spaces of the leaves of a symplectic foliation. Examples of integrability and non-integrability of this distribution are provided.

On The Convergence Of Greedy Algorithms For Initial Segments Of The Haar Basis, S J. Dilworth, E Odell, Th Schlumprecht, Andras Zsak

Faculty Publications

We consider the X-Greedy Algorithm and the Dual Greedy Algorithm in a finite-dimensional Banach space with a strictly monotone basis as the dictionary. We show that when the dictionary is an initial segment of the Haar basis in Lp[0, 1] (1< p < 1) then the algorithms terminate after finitely many iterations and that the number of iterations is bounded by a function of the length of the initial segment. We also prove a more general result for a class of strictly monotone bases.

Stability, Creation And Annihilation Of Charges In Gauge Theories, Anton Ilderton, Martin Lavelle, David Mcmullan

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

We show how to construct physical, minimal energy states for systems of static and moving charges. These states are manifestly gauge invariant. For charge–anticharge systems we also construct states in which the gauge fields are restricted to a finite volume around the location of the matter fields. Although this is an excited state, it is not singular, unlike all previous finite volume descriptions. We use our states to model the processes of pair creation and annihilation.

The Professor On The Sixth Floor : Homer E. Newell, Jr. And The Development Of The U.S. Space Science, John D. Ruley

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Complexity And Thresholding Phenomena In The Partitioning Problem, Scott D. Kerlin

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.