Digital Commons Network^™

Western Culture And The Spread Of Serial Murder, Angela Pilson

Honors Theses

Serial murders may have occurred in non-Western cultures, like Japan, South Africa, and Pakistan, before the introduction of Western ideals. These murders would have gone unnoticed and unreported if the populace did not know or understand the significant differences between serial murder and other types of violence and death. The people and authorities in non-Western cultures would not know of these differences unless they were made known to them or if they started to investigate the murders more closely. People from Western cultures who move to non-Western areas or communicate with non-Western natives may introduce these differences and familiarize the …

Empirical Study Of An Intelligent Argumentation System In Mcdm, Xiaoqing Liu, Rubal Wanchoo, Ravi Santosh Arvapally

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Intelligent argumentation based collaborative decision-making system assists stakeholders in a decision-making group to assess various alternatives under different criterion based on the argumentation. a performance score of each alternative under every criterion in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is represented in a decision matrix and it denotes satisfaction of the criteria by that alternative. the process of determining the performance scores of alternatives in a decision matrix for criterion could be controversial sometimes because of the subjective nature of criterion. We developed a framework for acquiring performance scores in a decision matrix for multi-criteria decision making using an intelligent argumentation and …

A Union Of Negatives: Ayatollah Khomeini And The Mobilization Of Dissent In The Iranian Revolution Of 1979, Nicholas G. Sumski

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 eradicated half a century of Westernization in Iran and installed Ayatollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran’s new Islamic Republic. However, the revolutionary forces were not strongly unified under Khomeini’s radical Islamic vision. Indeed, many facets of the opposition simply desired moderate political reforms to increase democratic participation in the government and opposed the imposition of a government directed under the auspices of Islam. By the late 1970s, though, these various moderate revolutionaries realized that the only legitimate means to overthrow the reign of the American-supported Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, would be to join the …

Using Pen Source Data Inputs To Map Food Insecurity In Cumberland County, Maine, Daniel Wallace

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

In 2010, Mapping Food Insecurity’s Project Director (PD) participated in “The Campaign to Promote Food Security in Cumberland County, Maine.” The Campaign drew together a 60 member coalition to address rapidly increasing food insecurity challenges in the county. It produced a report with a series of recommendations grouped under six strategic community goals. One of the recommendations called for the use of ‘mapping and connectivity software to determine location of vulnerable populations and services in order to plan best future delivery and use of food access services in Cumberland County

State V. Gill Appellant's Brief Dckt. 38754

Not Reported

No abstract provided.

A 2d Chaos-Based Visual Encryption Scheme For Clinical Eeg Signals, Chin-Feng Lin, Boa-Shun Wang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this paper, we have developed a two-dimensional (2D) chaos-based encryption scheme that can be applied to signals with transmission bit errors in clinical electroencephalography (EEG) and mobile telemedicine. As opposed to one-dimensional (1D) chaos-based encryption, the proposed 2D schemes uses the concept of parallel processing to increase the encryption speed. An essential feature of the proposed scheme is that signals mapping of a 2D chaotic scrambler and a permutation scheme are used to obtain clinical EEG information that requires high-level encryption. Simulation results show that when the correct deciphering parameters are inputted, EEG signals with a transmission bit error …

Modeling The Miocene Climatic Optimum. Part I: Land And Atmosphere, N. Herold, Matthew Huber, R. D. Müller

Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Faculty Publications

This study presents results from the Community Climate System Model 3 (CCSM3) forced with early to middle Miocene (~20–14 Ma) vegetation, topography, bathymetry, and modern CO₂. A decrease in the meridional temperature gradient of 6.5°C and an increase in global mean temperature of 1.5°C are modeled in comparison with a control simulation forced with modern boundary conditions. Seasonal poleward displacements of the subtropical jet streams and storm tracks compared to the control simulation are associated with changes in Hadley circulation and significant cooling of the polar stratosphere, consistent with previously predicted effects of global warming. Energy budget calculations …

A Qualitative Analysis Of A Junior High School Eating Disorder Prevention Program, Janine Ruth Stickney

Theses and Dissertations

Past research conducted in the areas of diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders have provided information in regards to understanding the epidemiology, base rates, damages and longitudinal course of eating disorders. Few studies, however, have focused on prevention, especially in adolescents. In this particular study, students in a Utah junior high school health class received preventative curriculum called, Eating Disorders: Physical, Social, and Emotional Consequences. Ten, female participants were then interviewed to explore their thoughts and feelings about their experiences and to qualitatively ascertain the success of the prevention program.

Fragile Binary Candidates In The Sdss Dr8 Spectroscopic Archive, J. K. Zhao, Terry D. Oswalt, G. Zhao

Publications

We present a catalog of 80 very wide fragile binary candidates (projected separations >10,000 AU) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Eight spectral archive. The pairs were selected based on proper motion, radial velocity, metallicity, and photometric parallax criteria. The angular separations of these pairs range from 3'' to 250''. The peak in the metallicity distribution of these pairs is about −0.5 dex of solar metallicity. Space motions and reduced proper motion diagrams indicate that all these pairs are members of the disk. The chromospheric activity index S_HK of each component in 38 binary candidates having spectra …

The Use Of Various Failure Criteria As Applied To High Speed Wear, David A. Huber

Theses and Dissertations

This research has been aimed at developing methods to predict mechanical wear of sliding bodies at high velocities. Specifically, wear of test sled slippers at the Holloman High Speed Test Track at Holloman AFB, NM, is being considered. Developing a numerical model to represent the velocity range achieved at the test track is infeasible, so numerical modeling techniques must be adopted. Previous research has made use of finite element codes to simulate the high velocity sliding event. However, the extreme velocities at the test track can create numerical errors in the finite element codes. To avoid the numerical errors, an …

Coupled Radiation-Gasdynamic Solution Method For Hypersonic Shock Layers In Thermochemical Nonequilibrium, Christopher L. Martin Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a highly accurate computational method for calculating the nonequilibrium radiative heat transfer within reentry shock layers. The nonequilibrium state of the flowfield was solved using the multispecies multitemperature nonequilibrium flow solver NH7AIR which is capable of separately tracking the vibrational energy of each diatomic species and the energy of the free electrons. The calculation of radiative heat transfer was performed by utilizing the detailed line-by-line spectral radiation solver SPRADIAN. Two radiative transport schemes were implemented in this coupled code. The first scheme was the standard tangent slab solution method. The second scheme …

Western Faculty Members' Cross-Border Lived Experiences, Xin Bu, Bill Mccaw, Patty Kero

Higher Learning Research Communications

Universities in China and the United States have been engaged in cross-border education through partnerships establishing international branch campuses (IBCs). This qualitative study used Moustakas’s (1994) strategy of inquiry as a framework and explored Western faculty members’ cross-border lived experiences at IBCs in China. IBCs in this study were coestablished by American universities and their Chinese partners. The central research question that guided this study asked about the lived experiences of Western faculty members at IBCs in China. This study purposefully selected 14 participants and data were collected through semistructured, one-on-one, face-to-face interviews. Moustakas’s (1994) seven-level method of analysis involving …

Attention Regulation And Social Competence In Younger Siblings Of Children With Autism, Leena Mohapatra

Open Access Dissertations

Younger siblings of children with autism (Sibs-ASD) are at risk for the development of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or subclinical social and cognitive deficits better known as the Broader Autism Phenotype (BAP).The current study utilized a multi-level approach to examine executive attention and social competence in preschool-aged Sibs-ASD and a comparison group of age-, sex-, and Verbal IQ-matched younger siblings of children without autism (Sibs-COM). Forty-two participants (24 Sibs-ASD, 18 Sibs-COM) completed a modified version of the Children’s Attention Network Task (ANT), with electroencephalograph (EEG) collected simultaneously, and a peer interaction paradigm with an unfamiliar peer.Overall, Sibs-ASD and Sibs-COM …

Access To Health Care And Patient Safety: A Model For Measurement And Analysis, Michelle P. Taveras

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to effectively understand, measure, and model the impact of Access to Care (AC) on Patient Safety (PS) through the creation of a model that evaluates their interdependence. Through the use of statistical tools and through the combination of variables that define patient access to health care and patient safety, a Patient Access and Safety (PACSA) index is developed. The calculated Patient Access and Safety index provides information to both providers and patients about the impact of access and safety on treatment outcomes. The input variables used to support this research are Patient Access Factors …

The Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope And Its Rebirth As A Polarimeter, Nicholas Evan Thomas

Open Access Dissertations

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) is a 1.8 meter Cassegrain telescope that operates in three bands (250, 350, and 500 μm), each with 30% bandwidth. The detection system is comprised of 280 silicon-nitride micromesh bolometers distributed on three focal plane arrays with 30”, 42”, and 60” FWHM (full width at half max) beam sizes, respectively. BLAST's goal is to study the evolutionary history and processes associated with star formation. Earth's atmosphere is opaque to submillimeter radiation and astronomical observations in this wavelength are best conducted at high altitudes. BLAST is designed to be flown above 99.5% of the …

Geochemical Insights Into Multi-Decadal Climate Variability: Proxy Reconstructions From Long-Lived Western Atlantic Corals And Sclerosponges, Amanda J. Waite

Open Access Dissertations

In order to understand and predict climate in a world driven by anthropogenic influences, increased understanding of natural climate variability is vital. The doctoral dissertation presented here focuses on multi-decadal climate modes, and in particular, the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), and how it is expressed in the tropical to sub-tropical western Atlantic Ocean over the last ~700 years. Multi-decadal modes have been linked to weather around the Atlantic, and have also been correlated with the occurrence of anomalous climatic events (in both temperature and precipitation), although the relationship of these modes to anthropogenic impacts is still undefined. The study area …

Wendy Gardiner Research On Urban Teacher Induction, Robert A. Schroeder

Alumni Profiles

No abstract provided.

Flexible Distributed Lag Models Using Random Functions With Application To Estimating Mortality Displacement From Heat-Related Deaths, Roger D. Peng

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Towards Node Cooperation In Mobile Opportunistic Networks, Abderrahmen Mtibaa, Khaled Harras

Computer Science Faculty Works

Mobile devices such as smart-phones and tablets are becoming ubiquitous, with ever increasing communication capabilities. In situations where the necessary infrastructure is unavailable, costly, or overloaded, opportunistically connecting theses devices becomes a challenging area of research. Data is disseminated using nodes that store-carry-and-forward messages across the network. In such networks, node cooperation is fundamental for the message delivery process. Therefore, the lack of node cooperation (e.g., a node may refuse to act as a relay and settle for sending and receiving its own data) causes considerable degradation in the network. In order to ensure node cooperation in such networks, we …

Elementary Teachers’ Mental Models Of Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison Of Two Communities Of Practice, Ann Piening Mcmahon

Dissertations

Educating K-12 students in the processes of design engineering is gaining popularity in public schools. Several states have adopted standards for engineering design despite the fact that no common agreement exists on what should be included in the K-12 engineering design process. Furthermore, little pre-service and in-service professional development exists that will prepare teachers to teach a design process that is fundamentally different from the science teaching process found in typical public schools. This study provides a glimpse into what teachers think happens in engineering design compared to articulated best practices in engineering design.

Wenger’s communities of practice work and …

Impact Of Multiple Children On Parental Supervision Practices, Parental Developmental Competence, And Unintentional Injury Risk, Jennifer L. Taylor

Dissertations

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity in the United States. The effects of injury on children, families and society encompass physical, mental, emotional, and financial consequences. The highest injury rates are among preschool age children, especially preschool children who have siblings. Child injury prevention strategies can reduce the rates of childhood unintentional injuries and minimize the burdens to children, families, and society created by these injuries. To design and implement effective child injury prevention strategies, further investigation is needed to understand the relationship between the variables influencing the occurrence of child injuries. The specific aim …

Obesity: The Anthropometric And Demographic Characteristics Of Insured And Uninsured Individuals, Terra Fox Williams

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

Objectives. This study evaluates the association between Body Mass Index (BMI) and health insurance status in attendees at a local health fair. BMI was also compared among ages, gender, and races.

Methods. Descriptive analysis conducted using data collected at the “Celebrating Life and Health” health fairs between the years 2008 and 2011. Data for this study were collected at the BMI booth staffed by Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine students.

Results. The results of this particular study do not demonstrate a statistical difference between obesity and health insurance status. Consistent with other research articles this study does show that …

Student Doe 1 V. Lower Merion Sch

2011 Decisions

USDC for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

We Are…Marshall, December 14, 2011, Office Of Marshall University Communications

We Are ... Marshall: the Newsletter for Marshall University 1999-2023

No abstract provided.

Chest Tube Dressings: A Comparison Of Different Methods, Susan Kathleen Blackburn Jones

Dissertations

This study is an experimental design with randomization comparing the use of standard gauze dressings (SGD) to transparent adhesive dressings (TAD) to cover chest tube insertion sites in post-operative patients who have undergone cardio-thoracic surgery. The study was conducted in a 400 bed, tertiary non-academic teaching hospital in the Midwestern United States. Seventy-nine patients were enrolled in the study; 39 received TAD and 40 received SGD. The non-inferiority margin was set at 15% in keeping with current recommendations (Kaul & Diamond, 2006). The TAD was found to be not inferior to the SGD with regards to the proportional differences in …

Intellectual Property, Copyright, And Piracy: A Cultural View, Steven W. Staninger

Copley Library: Faculty Scholarship

Religion plays a major role in determining culture, and has an important effect on how laws are both written and enforced. The concept of intellectual property varies in different cultural traditions, and the dominant religion of a culture plays a major role in the how copyright is viewed and if it is respected or enforced. This paper briefly evaluates the cultures of three major religious and intellectual traditions to determine what, if any, effect their beliefs and values have on the respect for and enforcement of laws defending intellectual property and copyright.

Development Of A Strontium-87 Ion Interferometer, Christopher Joseph Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

I present the construction of a low-velocity intense source (LVIS) of laser-cooled neutral strontium using permanent ring magnets. The LVIS consists of a magneto-optical trap from which cold strontium is extracted in a well-collimated beam. I also present the development and implementation of a full suite of low-noise, high-bandwidth laser control electronics including a microcontroller unit. This microcontroller remotely controls and monitors the current driver, temperature controller, and PID lock circuit for each diode laser simultaneously. The current driver output is accurate to within 2 micro-amps and repeatable to with a few nano-amps. The noise spectral density of the current …

Five Year Follow-Up Evaluation Of A Faculty Development Program: A Qualitative Study, Marcia Tennill

Dissertations

This qualitative follow-up evaluation explored the long-term impact of a faculty development program on participants who were five years post program. This study focused on 12 faculty members who participated in the University of Missouri’s New Faculty Teaching Scholars program. The nine month program focused on creating a culture of teaching within the university and enhancing peer networking among participants. Data was collected through the review of existing program documents, interviews with program participants, classroom observations, and the review of participants’ syllabi and curriculum vitae. The primary purpose of this study was to learn how a faculty development program affected …

Leadership Styles Of Female Senior Student Affairs Officers, Montague Theresa Orinthia

Dissertations

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the self-reported leadership styles of female Senior Student Affairs Officers at public and private 4-year institutions. This study sought to determine if (a) there is a dominant leadership frame usage among female SSAO’s, (b) determine if leadership style varies significantly among females with less than 5 years of experience in the profession as compared to those with 5 or more years of experience in the profession and (c) identify whether multi-frame leadership style usage differs between female SSAOs at public and private 4-year institutions. This study employed a cross-sectional research design …

Relating Dynamic Protein Interactions Of Metallochaperones With Metal Transfer At The Single-Molecule Level, J. J. Benítez, A. M. Keller, D. L. Huffman, Liliya A. Yatsunyk, A. C. Rosenzweig, P. Chen

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

Metallochaperones undertake specific interactions with their target proteins to deliver metal ions inside cells. Understanding how these protein interactions are coupled with the underlying metal transfer process is important, but challenging because they are weak and dynamic. Here we use a nanovesicle trapping scheme to enable single-molecule FRET measurements of the weak, dynamic interactions between the copper chaperone Hahl and the fourth metal binding domain (MBD4) of WDP. By monitoring the behaviors of single interacting pairs, we visualize their interactions in real time in both the absence and the presence of various equivalents of Cu(1+). Regardless of the proteins' metallation …