Digital Commons Network^™

Loyd Smith

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Fayetteville State University 22nd Winter Commencement 2011, Fayetteville State University

Graduation Exhibit

Fayetteville State University 22nd Winter Commencement December 10th 2011

A Speculative Approach To Parallelization In Particle Swarm Optimization, Matthew Gardner, Andrew Mcnabb, Kevin Seppi

Faculty Publications

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has previously been parallelized primarily by distributing the computation corresponding to particles across multiple processors. In these approaches, the only benefit of additional processors is an increased swarm size. However, in many cases this is not efficient when scaled to very large swarm sizes (on very large clusters). Current methods cannot answer well the question: “How can 1000 processors be fully utilized when 50 or 100 particles is the most efficient swarm size?” In this paper we attempt to answer that question with a speculative approach to the parallelization of PSO that we refer to as …

Adjunct Faculty Perceptions Of Participation In Online Collaborative Research Teams, Rita Hartman, Danielle Sixsmith Edd, Patricia Akojie, Christa Banton

Higher Learning Research Communications

Career professionals who serve as adjunct faculty at the university level are expected to engage in continual research and publishing to maintain their status as adjunct (part-time) faculty, to be considered for potential advancement, and to qualify for additional compensation. One way of meeting this objective is to participate in online collaborative research projects benefiting from a set of multiple lenses, multiple insights, and a multitude of considerations in regard to design, methodology, data interpretations, and broader reaching implications. A narrative inquiry approach was applied to gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of adjunct faculty working in online collaborative …

Web-Based Medical Imaging Simulation System For Education And Research, Xiping Li

Open Access Dissertations

In this work, a major effort has been made to establish an Internet accessible system for medical imaging simulation as a convenient service under the cloud computing environment. First, an Internet accessible, medical imaging education platform has been developed. It includes teaching and dynamic assessment tracking system for five commonly used imaging modalities. The system is integrated by the open source MySQL database software that manages updating materials and also tracks students’ learning engagements, which allow the reliability and appropriateness of the on-line teaching material and assessment methods to be optimized. The evaluation results have shown increased learning gains promisingly. …

Fayetteville State University 22nd Winter Commencement Program December 10th 2011, Fayetteville State University

Fayetteville State University: A Commencement Exhibition

Program from the Fayetteville State University Winter Commencement/Graduation Ceremony, December 2011.

Keynote speaker: Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education

December 10, 2011: “But What If History Has No Logos?”, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ “But what if history has no logos?”“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 10, 2011 (Pages 6657-6756), Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau

Volume 41 (2011)

No abstract provided.

The Lick Agn Monitoring Project 2011: Reverberation Mapping Of Markarian 50, Aaron J. Barth, Anna Pancoast, Shawn J. Thorman, Vardha N. Bennert, David J. Sand, Weidong Li, Gabriela Canalizo, Alexei V. Filippenko, Elinor L. Gates, Jenny E. Greene, Matthew A. Malkan, Daniel Stern, Tommaso Treu, Jong-Hak Woo, Roberto J. Assef, Hyun-Jin Bae, Brendon J. Brewer, Tabitha Buehler, S. Bradley Cenko, Kelsey I. Clubb, Michael C. Cooper, Aleksandar M. Diamond-Stanic, Kyle D. Hiner, Sebastian F. Hönig, Michael D. Joner, Michael T. Kandrashoff, C. David Laney, Mariana S. Lazarova, A. M. Nierenberg, Dawoo Park, Jeffrey M. Silverman, Donghoon Son, Alessandro Sonnenfeld, Erik J. Tollerud, Jonelle L. Walsh, Richard Walters, Robert L. Da Silva, Michele Fumagalli, Michael D. Gregg, Chelsea E. Harris, Eric Y. Hsiao, Jeffrey Lee, Liliana Lopez, Jacob Rex, Nao Suzuki, Jonathan R. Trump, David Tytler, Gábor Worseck, Hassan M. Yesuf

Physics

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011 observing campaign was carried out over the course of 11 weeks in spring 2011. Here we present the first results from this program, a measurement of the broad-line reverberation lag in the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 50. Combining our data with supplemental observations obtained prior to the start of the main observing campaign, our data set covers a total duration of 4.5 months. During this time, Mrk 50 was highly variable, exhibiting a maximum variability amplitude of a factor of ~4 in the U-band continuum and a factor of ~2 in the Hβ …

Veritas Observations Of Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected By Swift, V. A. Acciari, E. Aliu, T. Arlen, T. Aune, M. Beilicke, W. Benbow, S. M. Bradbury, J. H. Buckley, V. Bugaev, K. Byrum, A. Cannon, A. Cesarini, J. L. Christiansen, L. Ciupik, E. Collins-Hughes, M. P. Connolly, W. Cui, C. Duke, M. Errando, A. Falcone, J. P. Finley, G. Finnegan, L. Fortson, A. Furniss, N. Galante, D. Gall, S. Godambe, S. Griffin, J. Grube, R. Guenette, G. Gyuk, D. Hanna, J. Holder, G. Hughes, C. M. Hui, T. B. Humensky, D. J. Jackson, P. Kaaret, N. Karlsson, M. Kertzman, D. Kieda, H. Krawczynski, F. Krennrich, M. J. Lang, A. S. Madhavan, G. Maier, S. Mcarthur, A. Mccann, P. Moriarty, M. D. Newbold, R. A. Ong, M. Orr, A. N. Otte, N. Park, J. S. Perkins, M. Pohl, H. Prokoph, J. Quinn, K. Ragan, L. C. Reyes, P. T. Reynolds, E. Roache, H. J. Rose, J. Ruppel, D. B. Saxon, M. Schroedter, G. H. Sembroski, G. D. Şentürk, A. W. Smith, D. Staszak, S. P. Swordy, G. Tešić, M. Theiling, S. Thibadeau, K. Tsurusaki, A. Varlotta, V. V. Vassiliev, S. Vincent, M. Vivier, S. P. Wakely, J. E. Ward, T. C. Weekes, A. Weinstein, T. Weisgarber, D. A. Williams, M. Wood

Physics

We present the results of 16 Swift-triggered Gamma-ray burst (GRB) follow-up observations taken with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) telescope array from 2007 January to 2009 June. The median energy threshold and response time of these observations were 260 GeV and 320 s, respectively. Observations had an average duration of 90 minutes. Each burst is analyzed independently in two modes: over the whole duration of the observations and again over a shorter timescale determined by the maximum VERITAS sensitivity to a burst with a t^−1.5 time profile. This temporal model is characteristic of GRB …

The Kalamazoo Promise: A New Twist On Tuition Guarantees, Nathan J. Daun-Barnett

Journal of Student Financial Aid

In 2005, Kalamazoo, Michigan launched a bold and innovative economic development strategy, The Kalamazoo Promise (KP), which guarantees tuition to every high school graduate in the district. Since KP inception, high school enrollments are up and college attendance has increased, creating national attention. This paper analyzes the benefits and limitations of six types of tuition guarantees, including KP. For those communities hoping to emulate the success of KP, they should recognize that tuition guarantees are neither a new concept nor work equally well across the board. However, drawing from this paper’s analysis, broad themes of examining the nature, scope, and …

Modeling Criminal Careers As Departures From A Unimodal Population Age-Crime Curve: The Case Of Marijuana Use, Donatello Telesca, Elena Erosheva, Derek Kreager, Ross Matsueda

COBRA Preprint Series

A major aim of longitudinal analyses of life course data is to describe the within- and between-individual variability in a behavioral outcome, such as crime. Statistical analyses of such data typically draw on mixture and mixed-effects growth models. In this work, we present a functional analytic point of view and develop an alternative method that models individual crime trajectories as departures from a population age-crime curve. Drawing on empirical and theoretical claims in criminology, we assume a unimodal population age-crime curve and allow individual expected crime trajectories to differ by their levels of offending and patterns of temporal misalignment. We …

Toxicity Profiling Of Engineered Nanomaterials Via Multivariate Dose Response Surface Modeling, Trina Patel, Donatello Telesca, Saji George, Andre Nel

COBRA Preprint Series

New generation in-vitro high throughput screening (HTS) assays for the assessment of engineered nanomaterials provide an opportunity to learn how these particles interact at the cellular level, particularly in relation to injury pathways. These types of assays are often characterized by small sample sizes, high measurement error and high dimensionality as multiple cytotoxicity outcomes are measured across an array of doses and durations of exposure. In this article we propose a probability model for toxicity profiling of engineered nanomaterials. A hierarchical framework is used to account for the multivariate nature of the data by modeling dependence between outcomes and thereby …

Modeling Protein Expression And Protein Signaling Pathways, Donatello Telesca, Peter Muller, Steven Kornblau, Marc Suchard, Yuan Ji

COBRA Preprint Series

High-throughput functional proteomic technologies provide a way to quantify the expression of proteins of interest. Statistical inference centers on identifying the activation state of proteins and their patterns of molecular interaction formalized as dependence structure. Inference on dependence structure is particularly important when proteins are selected because they are part of a common molecular pathway. In that case inference on dependence structure reveals properties of the underlying pathway. We propose a probability model that represents molecular interactions at the level of hidden binary latent variables that can be interpreted as indicators for active versus inactive states of the proteins. The …

Branding Access Through The Carolina Covenant: Fostering Institutional Image And Brand, Michael S. Harris, Bradley Barnes

Journal of Student Financial Aid

The study demonstrates the ability of financial aid to serve as a key component of institutional image and improve a university’s competitive position while also ensuring the access benefits inherent in supporting low-income students. The implications of this work provide an additional rationale for increasing financial aid budgets and substantiate proof of the market’s ability to improve access.

The Consequences Of Leaving Money On The Table: Examining Persistence Among Students Who Do Not File A Fafsa, Heather Novak, Lyle Mckinney

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Every year, millions of students who would have qualified for financial aid do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Discouragingly, many of these students come from lower-income families and would have qualified for Pell Grants that do not have to be repaid. Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06) and logistic regression analysis, this study examined the relationship between filing a FAFSA and within-year persistence rates of first-year, fulltime college students. Results show that after controlling for background characteristics and college experience variables, students who filed a FAFSA have 72% higher odds of …

Effects Of Tuition Price, Grant Aid, And Institutional Revenue On Low-Income Student Enrollment, Nathan E. Lassila

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Evidence of greater economic stratification brings challenges to higher education’s enrollment of low-income students. With a growing proportion of potential college students coming from low income households, increasing their post-secondary participation rate is vital in developing and growing the pool of educated individuals for the labor force as educated baby boomers retire. Using a combination of IPEDS, NPSAS:08, U.S. Census, and ACT data, this study analyzes three empirical models for public, private not-for-profit, and all institutions (both public and private not-for-profit institutions combined). Findings support previous scholarship in that price and grant aid affect student enrollment. Adding to the research …

Book Vouchers: An Exploratory Analysis Of Their Use And Effectiveness, Peter M. Hurley

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Book vouchers serve as one component of need-based financial aid packages at the College of Southern Nevada, one of the nation’s largest community colleges. This study compared the academic performance of FAFSA applicants in attendance during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years. A basic exploratory analysis was conducted that examined the academic outcomes of seven students groups with different financial aid packaging outcomes. Student groups were ranked by their academic performance, which comprised of grade point average, percentages of full-time attendance, and percentage of successful, full-time attendance completion. Within these measures, book voucher recipients were found to have better overall …

Veritas Observations Of Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected By Swift, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

We present the results of 16 Swift-triggered Gamma-ray burst (GRB) follow-up observations taken with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) telescope array from 2007 January to 2009 June. The median energy threshold and response time of these observations were 260 GeV and 320 s, respectively. Observations had an average duration of 90 minutes. Each burst is analyzed independently in two modes: over the whole duration of the observations and again over a shorter timescale determined by the maximum VERITAS sensitivity to a burst with a t –1.5 time profile. This temporal model is characteristic of GRB afterglows …

The Acs Survey Of Galactic Globular Clusters. Xi. The Three-Dimensional Orientation Of The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy And Its Globular Clusters, Michael H. H. Siegel, Steven R. Majewski, David R. Law, Ata Sarajedini, Aaron Dotter, A Marín-Franch, Brian Chaboyer

Dartmouth Scholarship

We use observations from the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) study of Galactic globular clusters to investigate the spatial distribution of the inner regions of the disrupting Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr). We combine previously published analyses of four Sgr member clusters located near or in the Sgr core (M54, Arp 2, Terzan 7, and Terzan 8) with a new analysis of diffuse Sgr material identified in the background of five low-latitude Galactic bulge clusters (NGC 6624, 6637, 6652, 6681, and 6809) observed as part of the ACS survey. By comparing the bulge cluster color-magnitude …

John Grady Parker

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Weight Status, And Colorectal Cancer Screening., Heather Bittner Fagan, Ronald E Myers, Constantine Daskalakis, Randa Sifri, Arch G Mainous, Richard Wender

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

Background. The literature on colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is contradictory regarding the impact of weight status on CRC screening. This study was intended to determine if CRC screening rates among 2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) respondent racial/ethnic and gender subgroups were influenced by weight status. Methods. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine if CRC screening use differed significantly among obese, overweight, and normal-weight individuals in race/ethnic and gender subgroups. Results. Multivariable analyses showed that CRC screening rates did not differ significantly for individuals within these subgroups who were obese or overweight as compared to their …

The Murray Ledger And Times, December 10, 2011, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.

American Environmentalism And The City: An Ecosystem Services Perspective, Dorothy C. Ibes

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

This study traces the evolution of eight influential American environmental organizations and their relationship with, and conceptualizations of, ‘the city’ and ‘nature.’ Guided by the ecosystem services framework, the organizations’ urban-based initiatives were analyzed to determine what types of ecosystem services they emphasized and what the implications are for cities and environmental health. Results from historical, content, and interview analyses reveal the potential of the ecosystem services framework to unite the interests and efforts of multiple stakeholders, including urbanists, ecologists, economists, and environmentalists in a way that enhances both urban quality of life and conservation efforts overall.

Detection Of Heterogeneous Drug-Protein Binding By Frontal Analysis And High-Performance Affinity Chromatography, Zenghan Tong, K.S. Joseph, David S. Hage

David Hage Publications

This study examined the use of frontal analysis and high-performance affinity chromatography for detecting heterogeneous binding in biomolecular interactions, using the binding of acetohexamide with human serum albumin (HSA) as a model. It was found through the use of this model system and chromatographic theory that double-reciprocal plots could be used more easily than traditional isotherms for the initial detection of binding site heterogeneity. The deviations from linearity that were seen in double-reciprocal plots as a result of heterogeneity were a function of the analyte concentration, the relative affinities of the binding sites in the system and the amount of …

Apa Rhode Island Honors Students, Cpc For Warren Preservation Plan, Brian E. Clark

Featured News Story

2011 Current Topic Award celebrates work of RWU graduate students, Community Partnerships Center on Warren preservation plan.

Volume 47 - Issue 10 - Friday, December 9, 2011, Rose Thorn Staff

The Rose Thorn Archive

The Rose Thorn, Rose-Hulman's independent student newspaper.

The Echo: December 9, 2011, Taylor University

2011-2012 (Volume 99)

More than just a legacy – Manage don’t cope – The Presidential Pursuit – Top 5 News Events of the Week – Child abuse scandal reopens debate – Social work internships overseas – New ways to buy back – The Bubble – Home for Christmas – Syria: Isolated from the inside out – Around The World In 30 Seconds – 12 days of Christmas – It’s beginning to look a lot like Mordor – Christmas Ins & Outs – ‘Twas the night before finals – Dear Ronnie – Trend of the Week – Quick Question? – Social Media gone Taylor …

Monsoon Rainfall Manipulation Experiment (Mrme) Meteorology Data From A Chihuahuan Desert Grassland At The Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (7/2007 - 8/2009), Scott Collins

Sevilleta LTER Program Data

The Monsoon Rainfall Manipulation Experiment (MRME) is to understand changes in ecosystem structure and function of a semiarid grassland caused by increased precipitation variability, which alters the pulses of soil moisture that drive primary productivity, community composition, and ecosystem functioning. The overarching hypothesis being tested is that changes in event size and variability will alter grassland productivity, ecosystem processes, and plant community dynamics. In particular, we predict that many small events will increase soil CO2 effluxes by stimulating microbial processes but not plant growth, whereas a small number of large events will increase aboveground NPP and soil respiration by providing …

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (12/9/2011), University Of Rhode Island

The Good 5 Cent Cigar (Student Newspaper Archives)

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island school newspaper.