Digital Commons Network^™

Winter 2010

University of Richmond Magazine

No abstract provided.

Phosphorus For High Rainfall Pastures, Mike Bolland, Bill Russell, David Weaver

Bulletins 4000 -

Soil testing for phosphorus provides a reliable indication of when the level of phosphorus in a soil is likely to be adequate for pasture production in the next growing season. It is a waste of money to apply phosphorus fertiliser when soil testing indicates none is required, or to acidified soils, or to undergrazed pastures, or to pastures dominated by poorly productive species.

Legumes have higher phosphorus requirement than grasses.

Critical soil test phosphorus values do not change when nitrogen fertiliser is applied.

Computational Thinking Across The Curriculum: A Conceptual Framework, Amber Settle, Ljubomir Perkovic

Technical Reports

We describe a framework for implementing computational thinking in a broad variety of general education courses. The framework is designed to be used by faculty without formal training in information technology in order to understand and integrate computational thinking into their own general education courses. The framework includes examples of computational thinking in a variety of general education courses, as well as sample in-class activities, assignments, and other assessments for the courses. The examples in the different courses are related and differentiated using categories taken from Peter Denning’s Great Principles of Computing, so that similar types of computational thinking appearing …

Foreign Portfolio Investment Inflows To The United States: The Impact Of Investor Risk Aversion And U.S. Stock Market Performance, Peter V. Egly, David W. Johnk, Daniel Perez Liston

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper examines the relationship of net foreign portfolio investment inflows, namely corporate bonds and stocks, to two pull factors; investor risk aversion and the US stock market. Using a vector autoregressive model, we find that positive shocks to the stock market elicit an insignificant response to the net corporate bond inflow and a significant short term positive response to the net corporate stock inflow. The net corporate stock inflow does not respond to risk aversion, while bond inflows do exhibit a significant midterm response to an increase in risk aversion. Consistent with previous empirical findings, the results show that …

Persuasion And Rhetoric In Cable News Commentary: A Philosophical, Zachary Mark Cruthirds

Honors Theses

There is currently a growing cynicism about objectivity in cable news reporting and commentary, and there have been many allegations of pandering and bias on the part of and concerning commentators on 24-hour news outlets. There have been changing trends in how many American citizens acquire information and analysis from these mediums—leading to what has been coined the '‘infotainment*' of certain comedians, extremists, and any network, corporation, or commentator who would give consideration to giving a target audience what they desire or expect. In the following thesis, we will offer definitions for rhetoric and persuasion founded in a type of …

Doing The Best We Can With What We Have: Lessons From Arkansas On How To Improve Mississippi Student Achievement Through Teacher Mentoring And Induction, Claire Elizabeth Graves

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Communicative Development Through A Comparative Lens: A Snapshot Of Foreign Language Education In The United States And France, Halley Anne Hargrave

Honors Theses

This thesis is an examination of external influences on the foreign language classroom. I evaluate national policy and legislature, textbooks, and national tests as possible determinants of foreign language teaching methods used in the United States and France. I chose to compare the American system to the French system as a result of the relative success of foreign language education in France and my ability to read policy and curriculum in French. By comparing the foreign language education systems in the two countries, I hope to determine what types of weaknesses in American foreign language instruction practices hinder language acquisition. …

Charge Injection And Clock Feedthrough, Jonathan Yu

Master's Theses

Turning off a transistor introduces an error voltage in switched-capacitor circuits. Circuits such as analog-to-digital converters (ADC), digital-to-analog converters (DAC), and CMOS image sensor pixels are limited in performance due to the effects known as charge injection and clock feedthrough. Charge injection occurs in a switched-capacitor circuit when the transistor turns off and disperses channel charge into the source and drain. The source, which is the sampling capacitor, experiences an error in the sampled voltage due to the incoming channel charge. Simultaneously, the coupling due to gate-source overlap capacitance also contributes to the total error voltage, which is known as …

Laguerre Arc Length From Distance Functions, David E. Barrett, Michael Bolt

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

For the Laguerre geometry in the dual plane, invariant arc length is shown to arise naturally through the use of a pair of distance functions. These distances are useful for identifying equivalence classes of curves, within which the extremal curves are proved to be strict maximizers of Laguerre arc length among three-times differentiable curves of constant signature in a prescribed isotopy class. For smoother curves, it is shown that Laguerre curvature determines the distortion of the distance functions. These results extend existing work for the Möbius geometry in the complex plane. © 2010 International Press.

An Environment-Based Education Approach To Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of The Creeks And Kids Watershed Workshop And Its Impact On K-12 Teachers, Tiffany Bridgette Austin

Dissertations and Theses

This research is an in-depth study of an environment-based education (EBE) professional development program titled "Creeks and Kids" that models how to employ thematic instruction about watersheds using the environment of a school and its community as a context to integrate teaching and learning about water across core subject areas. This case study investigates the EBE characteristics of the Creeks and Kids Workshop and explores how they adhere to the National Research Council's Standards for Professional Development for Teachers of Science. A mixed-methods analysis gathered qualitative data about the overall experience of teacher-participants during the Creeks and Kids Workshop and …

Using Knowledge Of Student Cognition To Differentiate Instruction, Silvana M.R. Watson, Robert A. Gable

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

By all accounts, learning is a complex task that requires a student to use and apply a range of cognitive skills. A student's ability to retain information while performing concurrent processing, often referred to as working memory (WM), is critical to the acquisition of increasingly more complex knowledge and skills. Not surprisingly, WM is often linked to successful learning and student academic achievement. According to the academic literature, WM is a very useful measure of a student's capability to acquire new information². Most students are able to successfully respond to classroom instruction that requires them to rely on their WM …

Analysis Of Symmetric Key Establishment Based On Reciprocal Channel Quantization, David Wagner

Theses

Methods of symmetric key establishment using reciprocal quantization of channel parameters in wireless Rayleigh and Rician fading channels are considered. Two important aspects are addressed through generic analysis: impact of a proximity attack by a passive eavesdropper and achievable key establishing rates. The analysis makes use of the National Institute of Standards and Technology statistical test suite applied to the channel quantization bits as the outputs of a random number generator. For proximity attacks, a passive mobile eavesdropper with an ability to approach one of the communicating parties and a possible signal-to-noise ratio advantage is assumed. The minimal required distance …

Neural Network Classification Of Hyperspectral Imagery For Urban Environments: A Case Study, Vijay Lulla

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban environments are complex because many different artificial and natural objects occur in close proximity. Being able to understand the processes and workings of these environments requires the ability to observe and record data with high spatial and spectral resolution. Hyperspectral sensors have been gaining popularity for this task as they are becoming more affordable. In this research, a commonly used maximum likelihood (ML) classifier and artificial neural network (ANN) classifier have been compared for classifying urban land use and land cover (LULC) using AISA+ hyperspectral data. Further, the best set of bands were identified for classification of urban areas …

An Activity Theory Exploratory Of The Differential Impact On Students' And Professors' Experiences In How Laptops Are Used For Instruction, Jean Pierre Niyikora

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examined the differential impact of a laptop initiative in two general education classrooms during the winter term session of the 2009-2010 academic year at Midwest institution of higher learning. Beyond observing these two classrooms, a total of 12 student volunteers and two instructors were selected from the laptop using and non-laptop using classrooms for focus group interviews. In total, the researcher conducted 22 classroom observations per each class. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was used as a tool to analyze different tensions that occurred within or between different components of the laptop activity for both classrooms. The …

Border Pedagogy And The Acculturation Of Korean Students In U.S. Institutions Of High Education, Randy Green

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed at identifying learning and teaching strategies that can promote the process of acculturation for Korean students in institutions of higher education in the United States. In particular, the study attempted to pinpoint ways in which these students and their instructors can become aware of and resist educational tendencies and approaches that promote hegemony and devalue cultural perspectives and experiences as well as construct meaning within the context of a worldview that is influenced by both Korean and U.S. cultures. It was hoped that the identification of these skills and strategies would aid both students and instructors in …

An Exploratory Study Of The Career Aspirations And Self-Perceptions Of University Honors Program Students, Pamela Malone Gresham

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the career aspirations and self-perceptions of University Honors Program students at Indiana State University. The current trend inEducation, especially gifted and talentedEducation, focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). How has this impacted the gifted and talented population when they become young adults ready to pursue college and careers? Are the interests and skills of University Honors Program students aligned with the majors they have chosen? What are their interests and skills? The research was conducted on the campus of Indiana State University. This is a public higherEducation campus whose University Honors Program has about 500 …

Examining Validity Characteristics Of The Mmpi-2 Psy-5 Psychoticism Scale, Enrique G. Covarrubias

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to firmly establish the facet scales of the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) Psychoticism scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Second Edition (MMPI-2). Arnau, Handel, and Archer (2005) recently developed facet scales for the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales using principal component analyses. The results of this study and the original published study were compared to determine if similar facet scales are found for the MMPI-2 PSY-5 Psychoticism scale. Participants were drawn from three different samples: the MMPI-2 normative sample, an inpatient sample from a mid-Atlantic region, and a college sample from a Midwestern university. Item-level principal …

Numerical Simulation Of Capsule Dissolution In The Usp Apparatus Ii, Jasmine Han

Master's Theses

The capsule is the second most common type of drug dosage form, yet detailed research of capsule dissolution in the USP Apparatus II (a paddle dissolution apparatus that mimics the drug dissolution process in an in vivo environment) is not well reported. In this work, a mathematical model was developed that incorporates both the dissolution of the capsule shell and the slug within the capsule shell. Capsule shell dissolution was modeled with the assumption that the shell undergoes an erosion process only. The capsule slug dissolution model incorporated mass transfer principles, Markov chain theory, and the influence of hydrodynamics on …

Study Of The Lasting Effects Of Attending A Leadershape Program, Daniel J. Stoker

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study investigated the long-term learning resulting from participation in a LeaderShape program. The research examined LeaderShape graduates' current practices and definitions of leadership to see if they remain consistent with the program's learning goals. Graduates with five or more years since attendance were studied to provide a separation of time for the social experience to dissipate and to allow for possible application of the material beyond a collegiate setting. An electronic survey was distributed to 1,399 LeaderShape graduates who attended a national session between 1986 and 2004, resulting in 207 (14.8%) responses. Quantitative questions were analyzed utilizing SPSS …

An Analytic Investigation Into Self Organizing Maps And Their Network Topologies, Renee Baltimore

Theses

This paper details master's thesis work involving research and investigation into the approach of self-organizing maps for clustering of data, more specifically, clustering of image data, and how this can be used in understanding image composition. This work will build upon ideas which have previously been explored, such as using self organizing maps for identifying and grouping different regions of an image which may possess similar features. A large part of this research is based upon experimentation with a variety of topological models of the self-organizing map network and investigation into what advantages these different topologies afford the network in …

Emissions And Impacts From Prescribed Fire In A Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, Scott James Strenfel

Master's Theses

Prescribed fire is a frequently utilized land-management tool in the Southeastern US. In this study, effects of seasonal-related variations and of turbulence generation on emissions and impacts from prescribed fires were evaluated. High frequency in situ data were obtained from three summer (July 2008) and three winter (January 2009) fires within the active burn perimeter and downwind by use of a 10 m instrumented tower and 2 m tripod, respectively. Two cases were selected to evaluate the performance of the EPA-approved short-range regulatory dispersion model, AERMOD, for prescribed fire applications.

Results showed that summer fuels were much greener than winter …

The Psychology Of Good Character, Alice Woolley, Jocelyn Stacey

All Faculty Publications

This paper explores the significance of the changing nature of the good character requirement for law society admission in Canada. It posits that good character has shifted from a philosophical concept into a psychological concept, with evidence of past bad acts claimed to be relevant for whether an applicant represents a future risk to the public. This shifting conception of character has, however, been only partial, and the decision-making processes of Canadian law societies have not kept pace with it. Instead, the decision-making process defines character generally and generically, with only occasional emphasis on character as a relevant predictor of …

Positron Autoradiography For Intravascular Vulnerable Plaque Imaging, Peter Petrek

LSU Master's Theses

Purpose: To develop and investigate an intravascular storage phosphor detector for imaging and detection of vulnerable coronary artery plaques. Methods: The concept of the detection of vulnerable plaques (i.e., plaques with inflammation) is based on accumulation of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in inflammation sites. The FDG is labeled with a radioactive isotope 18F (positron source), injected to patient, and accumulated in vulnerable plaques of coronary arteries. The radiation detector is then inserted into coronary artery, records positrons from FDG accumulated in vulnerable plaque, which allows for imaging and detection of the vulnerable plaque. A prototype detector was developed and tested. The detector …

The Impact Of Hurricanes Katrina And Rita On The Louisiana Judicial System, Charles Simon Mccowan, Iii

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is a case study of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Louisiana court system and the response of the court system to the aftermath of these two hurricanes. Although this thesis focuses on one state’s court system’s response to two natural disasters, the research, conclusions and recommendations are transferable to other states. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005 devastating large areas in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. Millions of people, including judges and attorneys, were forced to evacuate their homes, courts and law offices. The Hurricanes caused interruptions to both federal …

Taphonomy And Sedimentology Of Two Miocene Vertebrate Fossil Sites On Fort Polk, Louisiana, Julie Lynn Hill

LSU Master's Theses

The discovery of a terrestrial mammalian fauna in the Miocene deposits on Fort Polk, Louisiana, fills a geographic gap in the Gulf Coast paleontological framework, but the provenance of the fossils, nature of the depositional environments, and relationships between the sites is still debated. This is especially true for the TVOR site cluster. TVOR SE has a mixture of marine and terrestrial vertebrates in association with a partly dissolved, in situ bed of articulated oyster shells, which stands in contrast to the fully terrestrial and freshwater assemblage at TVOR, and the indeterminate site TVOR S. Although limited outcrop may bias …

The Ornamentation Of Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy Of San Lorenzo In Florence, Jessica Lynne Clinton

LSU Master's Theses

The Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy, was constructed during the years 1419-1428 and is considered one of the most influential buildings of the early Italian Renaissance. Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy, in its original design, was pristine and void of the architectural ornamentation that had come to characterize so many buildings that preceded it and which would come to be associated with the sacristy itself on account of later alterations. Indeed, the original sacristy was characterized by a purely articulated space free of additional ornamentation to the architecture. However, shortly after the termination of construction, the Old Sacristy became …

Fraction Competency And Algebra Success, Coretta Thomas

LSU Master's Theses

Abstract In this thesis, I investigated the importance of fraction competence to success in algebra. I studied 107 of the students whom I teach. These students were all enrolled in Algebra I. A fraction pretest and an algebra pretest were given at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. A comparison was done to study the connection between the fraction pretest score and the semester grade as well as the algebra pretest score and the semester grade. The strongest correlation was between the fraction pretest and the semester grade. This supported the theory that fraction competence is a strong predictor …

The Influence Of Two Estrogens On The Sex And Ovarian Development Of Eastern Oysters (Crassostrea Virginica) Maintained In A Closed Recirculating System, Wesley Michael Burnside

LSU Master's Theses

As a multi-million dollar industry, production of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica is significant to the economy of the nation’s coastal regions. The cost of commercial oyster aquaculture has higher inputs than the oyster fishery, but larger, better quality oysters can be produced for culture by the stable availability of triploid individuals.

The goal of this project was to determine if the use of an estrogen, estradiol-17β or estradiol-3-benzoate, at a consistent environmental temperature would increase the percentage of females in a population, as well as ovarian development of eastern oysters. Ultimately, this could be applied to triploids to increase …

The Effects Of Channel Stability On Benthic Macroinvertebrates In Southeastern Louisiana Streams, Peter Markos

LSU Master's Theses

Water chemistry, habitat quality, and channel stability interact to influence a stream’s biological integrity. The goal of this project was to assess how channel stability, together with other physicochemical stream measurements, are associated with the structure and abundance of resident macroinvertebrate communities. I recorded multiple physicochemical parameters and calculated a Pfankuch habitat stability index monthly for a year at potential reference streams in southeastern Louisiana. I assessed the relationships of channels stability with measured physicochemical parameters with multiple regression and principle components analysis. Mixed model multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine associations of habitat characteristics with resident macroinvertebrate …

The Returns And Volatility Of Agribusiness Stocks: How Do They Measure Up To Non-Agribusiness Stocks?, Benjamin Michael Clark

LSU Master's Theses

Little literature exists that analyzes the historical risk and return associated with investing in the US agricultural sector. However, several observable trends have recently made investing in the US agricultural sector an area of interest among investors. Stock price indexes are a commonly used tool for summarizing the historical performance of a specific sector. A market-capitalization weighted stock price index is created to represent the largest US agribusiness firms since 1970, using the US Census Standard Industrial Classification system and the Economic Research Service’s definition of agribusiness. Geometric returns, standard deviation, Sharpe Ratio, and beta values are calculated for one, …