Digital Commons Network^™

Determination Of Variables Which Predict Success On The National Council Licensure Examination (Nclex-Pn)., Mary A. Kleber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nursing is one of the most frequently chosen programs by those entering postsecondary institutions in preparation for a career. This is in part due to the job opportunities available, interest in healthcare, and a pending shortage of nurses in healthcare. One strategy for meeting this shortage is the career pathway which encompasses the concept of lifelong learning and provides a mechanism for advancement of nurses along a continuum. Regardless of the level that a student enters the nursing education continuum, failure on the national licensure exam becomes a burden to both graduates and faculty in time and resources expended. Whereas …

The Role Of Genetic And Environmental Oxidative Stress Factors In Prostate Cancer., Nicole A. Lavender

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prostate cancer (PCA) development may be influenced by genetic variations within oxidative stress response (OSR) related mechanisms, such as antioxidation (e.g., carcinogen metabolism/detoxification), DNA repair, and apoptotic regulation. Excessive oxidative stress can produce DNA base changes, damage tumor suppressors, enhance proto-oncogene expression, and induce malignant transformation of cells. Persistent oxidative stress may even trigger apoptosis. Environmental reactive oxygen species (ROS) exposure attributable to lifestyle factors may exacerbate this situation by increasing oxidative stress. Therefore, it is likely that genetic variation resulting in compromised ROS capacity combined with increased environmental ROS exposure may increase PCA risk and disease aggressiveness. Consequently, this …

Adult Perceptions Of The Impact Of Kentucky Education Reform Act Initiatives On Achievement : Insights Of Rural Gifted Students., Jan Kathryn Weaver Lanham 1954-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study investigated perceptions regarding the impact of the tenets of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) on the self-reported achievement and underachievement among adults who had been identified and served as gifted students in a rural Kentucky school district between 1994 and 2004. Through a series of interviews of 30 young adults selected through purposive sampling, the study addressed three research questions relating to (a) the perceptions of the former students regarding each of six KERA initiatives--Portfolios [writing and mathematics], Ungraded Primary, KIRIS/CATS assessment, Proficiency as a performance goal, School Based Decision Making [SBDM] council policies--in fostering or …

The Oldham County Learning Institute : Strengthening High School And Middle School Teachers' Abilities To Teach Their Students Powerful Thinking Strategies., Lynda Emery Redmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Oldham County Learning Institute (OCLI), a 3-day professional development experience for teachers, was provided during four sessions spanning two school years. The OCLI training focused on three interrelated strands: thinking strategies – what to do, gradual release of responsibility – how to do it, and building a classroom community of learners – in what context. This study investigated the impact of OCLI on teachers’ instructional practices with regard to implementation of the three strands. Participants were exposed to seven research-based thinking strategies: a) monitoring for meaning, b) determining importance, c) inferring, d) activating background knowledge, e) visualizing, f) questioning, …

A Comparative Study Of Diversity In Evolutionary Algorithms, Jayakanth Jayachandran, Steven Corns

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

For many evolutionary algorithms a key obstacle to finding the global optima is insufficient solution diversity, causing the algorithm to become mired in a local optimum. Solution diversity can be influenced by algorithm parameters including population size, mutation operator and diversity preservation techniques. This study examines the combined effect of population size, mutation value and the geography imposed by the combinatorial graphs on a set of five standard evolutionary algorithm problems. a tradeoff can be seen between the initial diversity of the population size, introduction of new diversity from mutation, and the preservation of diversity from combinatorial graph. with an …

On The Cover

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Conference Report From Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award Winner, Shantanu Ganguly Ph.D.

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Science Today In Verse, Hope Leman

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Chemistry Division, Teri Vogel

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Materials Research & Manufacturing Section, Bette Finn

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Considerations On Unsupervised Spectral Data Unmixing And Complexity Pursuit, Stefan Robila

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Hyperspectral sensors carry the distinctive advantage of recording hundreds of contiguous spectral images for the same scene providing an extraordinary amount of information that leads to precise differentiation of materials present in the scene even when such materials contribute only to few pixels [1]. With the advent of more and more powerful sensing platforms, coupled with reduction in manufacturing costs and diversification of technologies, hyperspectral imaging has become a powerful approach in remote sensing with applications spanning all traditional fields (such as agriculture, mining, military, resource management, etc.) as well as new ones (manufacturing quality control, pollution detection, health and …

Parallel Unmixing Of Hyperspectral Data Using Complexity Pursuit, Stefan Robila, Martin Butler

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Accurate and fast data unmixing is key to most applications employing hyperspectral data. Among the large number unmixing approaches, Blind Source Separation (BSS) has been employed successfully through a variety of techniques, yet most of these approaches continue to be computationally expensive due to their iterative nature. In this context, it is imperative to seek efficient approaches that leverage the accuracy of the algorithms and the availability of off-the-shelf computationally performant systems such as multi-cpu and multi core. In this paper we tackle the spatial complexity based unmixing, a new technique shown to outperform many BSS solutions. We develop a …

Framing The Social, Political, And Environmental Risks And Benefits Of Geoengineering: Balancing The Hard-To-Imagine Against The Hard-To-Measure, Gareth Davies

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

Libstatmech And Applications To Astrophysics, Tianhong Yu

All Theses

In this work an introduction to Libstatmech is presented and applications especially to astrophysics are discussed. Libstatmech is a C toolkit for computing the statistical mechanics of fermions and bosons, written on top of libxml and gsl (GNU Scientific Library). Calculations of Thomas-Fermi Screening model and Bose-Einstein Condensate based on libstatmech demonstrate the expected results. For astrophysics application, a simple Type Ia Supernovae model is established to run the network calculation with weak reactions, in which libstatmech contributes to compute the electron chemical potential and allows the weak reverse rates to be calculated from detailed balance. Starting with pure 12C …

Analysis Of Part Consolidation Techniques For Automotive Body In White Panels Based On Advanced Sheet Metal Forming Technologies, Harish Thiruvengadam

All Theses

The automotive industry is looking to move from mass production to mass customization in order to manufacture and sell a variety of products in different markets on a global scale. This requires a robust and cost effective manufacturing system which would help design new products in the shortest possible lead time. This thesis tries to investigate the current sheet metal forming process for body in white, identify the limitations and propose an alternative which would help the industry cut down product lead time and costs. Decision making tools are used to identify the technical requirements of a BIW manufacturing system …

Exploring Mathematical Competencies, Ross Turner

Research Developments

The author describes a set of competencies that are fundamental to the development of ‘mathematical literacy’, or a person’s ability to apply their mathematical knowledge to practical situations.

Best-First Heuristic Search For Multicore Machines, Ethan Burns, Sofia N. Lemons, Wheeler Ruml, Rong Zhou

Computer Science

To harness modern multicore processors, it is imperative to develop parallel versions of fundamental algorithms. In this paper, we compare different approaches to parallel best-first search in a shared-memory setting. We present a new method, PBNF, that uses abstraction to partition the state space and to detect duplicate states without requiring frequent locking. PBNF allows speculative expansions when necessary to keep threads busy. We identify and fix potential livelock conditions in our approach, proving its correctness using temporal logic. Our approach is general, allowing it to extend easily to suboptimal and anytime heuristic search. In an empirical comparison on STRIPS …

Use Of Mobile Phone Computing For Development Of Student 21st Century Skills, Susan M. Merritt, R. Lara Lee

Cornerstone 2 Reports : Community Outreach and Empowerment Through Service Learning and Volunteerism

Mobile phone computing enables immediate capture and transfer of data, images, notes and experiences from the field to a repository where retrieval, analysis, edits, aggregation, and further development are possible. Immediate findings and later results can be shared on the Web with local and global communities, and development of integrated service learning projects in concert with underserved communities is possible using this mode of information gathering and sharing.

Mobile phone computing incorporates moments when participants build tomorrow's skills while addressing today's learning goals. Use of digital tools and supporting resources bring real world problems into focus. Mobile phone computing enables …

Pilot-Scale Constructed Wetland Treatment System For Ammonia Removal From Oil-Field Produced Water, Yun Song

All Theses

This investigation examined the feasibility of using free-water surface constructed wetland systems (CWTSs) to decrease the ammonia concentration in oil-field produced water. The objective of this research was to design constructed wetland experiments to determine specific conditions that decrease aqueous ammonia concentrations in simulated oilfield produced water. The design of these experiments was based on biogeochemical pathways of nitrification and denitrification. The experiments included three scales: bench-scale, single-cell, and pilot-scale. Bench-scale reactors contained wetland plants (Typha latifolia) and hydrosoil in 5-gallon buckets. Single wetland cells were constructed by adding hydrosoil and plants (T. latifolia and Schoenoplectus californicus) to 70-gallon containers. …

Message From The Senior Vice Provost And Dean Of Undergraduate Studies, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Graduate Scholar Profile, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Batch Testing, Adaptive Algorithms, And Heuristic Applications For Stable Marriage Problems, John Dabney

All Dissertations

In this dissertation we focus on different variations of the stable matching (marriage) problem, initially posed by Gale and Shapley in 1962. In this problem, preference lists are used to match n men with n women in such a way that no (man, woman) pair exists that would both prefer each other over their current partners. These two would be considered a blocking pair, preventing a matching from being considered stable. In our research, we study three different versions of this problem.
First, we consider batch testing of stable marriage solutions. Gusfield and Irving presented an open problem in their …

Reporting Results Of Data Analysis, Preparing Scientific Manuscripts, And Website Development Efforts, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

Preparation of scientific manuscripts and use and presentation of statistics have been topics of several commentaries from previous journal Editors-in-Chief, and have been submitted as invited papers, so I would like to share my perspective as the current Editor-in-Chief (Editor) of The Prairie Naturalist (Journal). Because there is not complete consensus among the experts about when hypothesis testing versus information theoretic methods, or Bayesian versus frequentist methods are suitable, previous Editors have avoided presenting their perspectives (Thompson 2010). I also will avoid presenting my perspective as Editor. I will, however, present my perspective on several of these approaches and then …

Cropland Nesting By Long-Billed Curlews In Southern Alberta, James H. Devries, Steven O. Rimer, Elizabeth M. Walsh

The Prairie Naturalist

Long-billed curlews (Numenius americanus) are described primarily as a grassland nesting species. However, no studies to date have quantified nest habitat selection among available habitats. During a study of waterfowl nest habitat selection and success in landscapes ranging from cropland to grassland-dominated, we found 9 curlew nests of which 8 were located in active cropland within cropland-dominated landscapes. Cropland nests occurred in fall-seeded winter wheat and spring-seeded barley and nests were clumped in distribution. Four cropland nests and 1 nest in native grass pasture hatched young. Further research is needed to characterize nesting habitat selection and reproductive success …

Review Of Weeds Of The Midwestern United States & Central Canada, Edited By Charles T. Bryson And Michael S. Defelice, James Stubbendieck

The Prairie Naturalist

This volume is the culmination of work by more than 40 weed scientists and botanists. Its stated purpose is to help identifY the great diversity of weedy and invasive plants that interface with agriculture, industry, and natural ecosystems in central North America. The geographic range covered by this book extends from southeastern Saskatchewan to eastern Kansas, northern Kentucky, northwestern Pennsylvania, and southwestern Quebec. This is a welcome edition because a current book on unwanted plants has not been available for the eastern two-thirds of this region. The book is arranged taxonomically by family and alphabetically by species within each family. …

Summer Activity Pattern And Home Range Of Northern Pocket Gophers In An Alfalfa Field, Jon C. Pigage, Helen K. Pigage

The Prairie Naturalist

AIlocation of time for feeding, resting and reproduction in subterranean animals is difficult to determine. Although pocket gophers (Thomomys spp.) are among the most widely studied subterranean rodents, there are conflicting reports on activity measurement in these animals. Activity studies have included opening gopher burrows (Tryon 1947), laboratory studies of activity (Vaughan and Hansen 1961), telemetry studies (Anderson and McMahon 1981, Bandoli 1987, and Cameron et al. 1988), and subcutaneously implanted radioactive gold wires (Gettinger 1984). The diversity of techniques reflects the difficulty of generalizing results from different species of pocket gophers in natural and artificial environments. Patton and …

The Recordlinkage Package: Detecting Errors In Data, Murat Sariyar, Andreas Borg

The R Journal

Record linkage deals with detecting homonyms and mainly synonyms in data. The package RecordLinkage provides means to per form and evaluate different record linkage methods. A stochastic framework is implemented which calculates weights through an EM algorithm. The determination of the necessary thresholds in this model can be achieved by tools of extreme value theory. Furthermore, machine learning methods are utilized, including decision trees (rpart), bootstrap aggregating (bagging), ada boost (ada), neural nets (nnet) and support vector machines (svm). The generation of record pairs and comparison patterns from single data …

Bingroup: A Package For Group Testing, Christopher R. Bilder, Boan Zhang, Frank Schaarschmidt, Joshua M. Tebbs

The R Journal

When the prevalence of a disease or of some other binary characteristic is small, group testing (also known as pooled testing) is frequently used to estimate the prevalence and/or to identify individuals as positive or negative. We have developed the binGroup package as the first package designed to address the estimation problem in group testing. We present functions to estimate an overall prevalence for a homogeneous population. Also, for this set ting, we have functions to aid in the very important choice of the group size. When individuals come from a heterogeneous population, our group testing regression functions can be …

Stringr: Modern, Consistent String Processing, Hadley Wickham

The R Journal

String processing is not glamorous, but it is frequently used in data cleaning and preparation. The existing string functions in R are powerful, but not friendly. To remedy this, the stringr package provides string functions that are simpler and more consistent, and also fixes some functionality that R is missing compared to other programming languages.