Digital Commons Network^™

Early Avian Colonization In A Prairie Biofuel Project, James T. Mason

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The steady decline of grassland bird populations has been attributed to agricultural intensification. The establishment of native prairie vegetation for biomass fuel has potential to reverse this decline. The Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa is investigating the potential of perennial native vegetation as a biofuel feedstock. In the spring of 2009, research plots located in seven previously row cropped fields in Black Hawk County, Iowa, were seeded with one of four treatments of native vegetation: 1) switchgrass monoculture, 2) five native warm-season grasses, 3) 16 native species, and 4) 32 native species. Treatments were replicated four …

Hardware Emulation Of Wideband Correlated Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Fading Channels, Fei Ren, Yahong Rosa Zheng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A low-complexity hardware emulator is proposed for wideband, correlated, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels. the proposed emulator generates multiple discrete-time channel impulse responses (CIR) at the symbol rate and incorporates three types of correlation functions of the subchannels via Kronecker product: The spatial correlation between transmit or receive elements, temporal correlation due to Doppler shifts, and inter-tap correlation due to multipaths. the Kronecker product is implemented by a novel mixed parallel-serial (mixed P-S) matrix multiplication method to reduce memory storage and to meet the real-time requirement in high data-rate, large MIMO size, or long CIR systems. We present two practical …

3-Dimensional Intracortical Neural Interface For The Study Of Epilepsy, Jessin Koshy John

Wayne State University Dissertations

Epilepsy is a chronic disease characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures, where seizures are described as storms of uncontrollable neuro-electrical activity within the brain. Seizures are therefore identified by observation of electrical spiking observed through electrical contacts (electrodes) placed on the scalp or the cortex above the epileptic regions. Current epilepsy research is identifying several specific molecular markers that appear at specific layers of the epilepsy-affected cortex. However, technology is limited in allowing for live observation of electrical spiking across these layers. The underlying hypothesis of this project is that electrical interictal activity is generated in a layer- and lateral-specific pattern. …

Phenytoin- And Amlodipine-Induced Gingival Overgrowth, Ching-Wen Chang, Chih-Jen Yang, Yu-Lin Lai

Journal of Dental Sciences

Abstract Drug-induced gingival overgrowth is an adverse event associated with three types of drugs, i.e., anticonvulsants, immunosuppressants, and calcium-channel blockers. It was shown that the combined use of an immunosuppressant (cyclosporine) and a calcium-channel blocker increases the prevalence and severity of gingival overgrowth. However, few reports discussed the effects of the combination of an anticonvulsant (phenytoin) and a calcium-channel blocker (amlodipine). In this case report, we present an epilepsy patient who was using both phenytoin and amlodipine, which caused extensive gingival overgrowth. After periodontal treatment and a gingivectomy, the gingival overgrowth was significantly reduced. A postoperative drug-substitution regimen and intensive …

Accidental Swallowing Of The Head Of A Dental Mirror: Report Of A Rare Case, Murat Oncel, Burhan Apiliogullari, Funda Kont Cobankara, Seza Apiliogullari

Journal of Dental Sciences

Abstract Foreign body ingestion/aspiration episodes are potential complications in all branches of dentistry. We report a case of swallowed head of dental mirror found in the esophagus. In this unusual case, a 26-year-old male who was anxious because of excessive pain accidentally swallowed the head of the dental mirror during examination. Given the absence of immediate clinical complications, the patient underwent a chest radiograph. The head of dental mirror was located in the middle third of the esophagus and was later removed by rigid esophagoscopy. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of a swallowed head of dental …

Screw Hole-Positioning Guide And Plate-Positioning Guide: A Novel Method To Assist Mandibular Reconstruction, Tong-Mei Wang, Hao-Hueng Chang, Yi Ho, Li-Deh Lin

Journal of Dental Sciences

Abstract Reconstruction plates have been used to bridge discontinuity defects after resection of mandibular tumors for many years. However, shaping and adapting the titanium plate during surgery is time consuming and technique sensitive especially for a large defect or a disease-deformed mandible. In this case report, a method is introduced to assist surgeons in pre-shaping a reconstruction plate before surgery, and with the aid of a position guide and drilling guide, the pre-surgically adapted reconstruction plates can be positioned at the planned position during surgery. This method improves surgical outcomes and decreases operating time.

Multiple Maxillary And Mandibular Supernumerary Teeth In Twins: 5-Year Follow-Up, Jeng-Fen Liu, Hui-Ling Chen

Journal of Dental Sciences

Abstract This is a case report of multiple supernumerary teeth of identical twins with 5 years of follow-up. The occurrence of supernumerary teeth in twins is an unusual event. This case report describes 7-year-old Taiwanese twin brothers who both presented with multiple supernumerary teeth in the premaxillary and mandibular premolar regions. The supernumerary premolars developed much later than the premaxillary supernumerary teeth in these twins. The supernumerary premolars caused impaction of the mandibular first premolars. Cases with multiple supernumerary teeth in twins are unusual, especially of supernumerary teeth affecting both the premaxilla and mandible. Such cases imply that heredity plays …

Resilience Modelling Of Networks Against Adaptive Challenges, Egemen K. Çetinkaya, Justin P. Rohrer, James P. G. Sterbenz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Sociology By Any Other Name: Teaching The Sociological Perspective In Campus Diversity Programs, Meghan Burke, Kira Hudson Banks

Scholarship

This article suggests that the way in to sociology may not always be through the front door. The authors demonstrate how students in a three-day campus diversity program develop a sociological imagination despite not having a formal affiliation with the sociology department. In particular, students demonstrate a move from color blindness into racial consciousness and a shift from individual prejudice into institutional privilege when understanding both diversity issues and their own personal biographies. In short, despite not knowing the phrase, they develop a sociological imagination. While the goal is not to diminish the significance of traditional sociology classrooms, the authors …

Kindergarten Teacher Perceptions Of The Quality And Impact Of Mentors In Leading Instructional And Professional Development In Ai Ain - United Arab Emirates, Salama Obaid Ali Al Yabhouni Al Dhaheri

Theses

Mentoring is an important teacher professional development strategy that can produce a pool of quality early childhood educators. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of Kindergarten teachers participating in the mentorship program implemented by Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) on value of mentorship practice, quality of mentor and mentor’s impact on their teaching and professional development. The study was completed at ten Kindergarten schools in Al Ain educational zone. The subjects of 150 teachers participated in a survey to determine if they perceive the mentorship practice and to examine how they perceive the quality of mentors …

January 2012: Congressional Record App For Ipad!, Dacus Library

Dacus Docs News

No abstract provided.

Journalism Education And Children's Rights: New Approaches To Media Development In Cee/Cis Countries, Michael Foley, Noirin Hayes, Brian O'Neill

Articles

This article gives the background to a project entitled Children's Rights and Journalism Practice, which was carried out for UNICEF in university journalism faculties in CEE/CIS countries

By focusing on journalism in the context of the academy and raising awareness of children’s rights from a journalistic perspective, the project seeks to provide a relatively safe space for critical engagement with journalistic ethics and values. Children are targets of, or are implicated in, nearly all aspects of public policy, yet are largely invisible in news-media coverage, and rarely have their voices heard in matters affecting them. By using the UNCRC as …

Disruption And Disintermediation: A Review Of The Collection Development And Management Literature, 2009 And 2010, Marcia Thomas

Scholarly Publications

This paper reviews the literature of collection development and management from 2009 and 2010. Themes and trends reflect the profound effect of environmental forces on libraries, including the economic recession, changes in scholarly communication, and an increasingly networked environment. Libraries reduced print collections and moved them to storage or shared repositories and assessed collections to find efficiencies and demonstrate value. Research libraries moved away from collecting everything to mission-focused collecting, with an emphasis on unique collections. Collaboration across libraries, within institutions, and with non-library partners continued as a key management strategy. Nascent plans emerged to develop a national strategy for …

Stepping Stone Community Education – A Stepping Stone To Third Level Education., Lorraine Perkins

Dissertations

The focus of this research is to explore supports that facilitated participation and retention of learners on a community education course and additional supports needed to progress to third level education. This research was in partnership with Irish National Association of Adult Education (AONTAS) and supported by Community Links, Technological University Dublin. (DIT)

This research is qualitative in nature. For this purpose, a focus group of community learners and semi-structured interviews with community education professionals was conducted. The research gives in-depth insight into learners experiences of what supports facilitated participation in community education and additional supports needed to progress to …

Take Charge Of Change: Being Young And Irish 2012, Full Report, Kevin Lalor, Matt Bowden, Kevin Griffin, Rosaleen Mcelvaney, Bernadette Quinn, Cathy Kelleher

Reports

FOREWORD BY PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. HIGGINS

I initiated the ‘Being Young and Irish’ consultation with the young people of Ireland because of my belief that we are in a period of immense change. How that change is interpreted and how we as citizens respond is crucial to our present challenging circumstances. Our response will define our future.

In the change that takes place, the creativity, the imagination, the decencies, of young people must have an opportunity of being expressed. To be in charge of change is the challenge that faces all of us citizens in Ireland, in Europe, in our …

The Youngest Ages Can Turn Pages, Geraldine French

Reports

We think of literacy as reading and writing, something children learn at school. But literacy is much more basic than that and begins at birth. Children develop the ability to learn and communicate very early in life from their parents and carers. They learn to listen and to speak before they read and write. Not all parents and carers realise the important role they play in the future development of their children. By helping to develop a child’s literacy levels they can give them a really good start not just in school but in life. Simple things like engaging children …

Japanse Assessment Class And Cultural Introduction, Beaver Eller

Graduate Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Investigating Effective Methods Of Pain Management In Emergency Department Clients With Chronic Pain, Tiana Lopez

Graduate Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Fitness Is Fun Club: A Program To Combat Childhood Obesity, Donna Bearden

Graduate Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Trends In The Utilization Of Outpatient Advanced Imaging After The Deficit Reduction Act., David C Levin, Vijay M Rao, Laurence Parker

Department of Radiology Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: After the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) took effect in 2007, there was concern that private office-based imaging facilities would close, that advanced imaging would shift to less convenient hospital-based facilities, and that access to advanced imaging might be restricted. The aim of this study was to see if these developments occurred during the years after the DRA.

METHODS: Using Medicare data, outpatient CT, MRI, and nuclear medicine trends before and after the DRA were studied. Procedure volumes performed in private offices and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) were tabulated separately. Volumes were tracked from 2000 to 2006 (before the DRA) …

"You Got To Be Follow-Worthy Or I Will Unfollow You!” Students’ Voices On Twitter Integration Into Classroom Settings, Tian Luo, Teresa Franklin

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This research centers on a case study where Twitter was integrated in an undergraduate level course. Under the instructor’s specific guidance and ongoing feedback, students actively participate in the course both in and outside of classroom. They perceived the incorporation of Twitter into classroom to be highly engaging and contributive to their learning. During the 10 week course, students’ initiatives in developing self-defined codes of conduct for tweeting, creating user groups, and assisting one another to become proficient in using Twitter, demonstrated a high degree of autonomous social learning in both formal and informal learning environments. Not only were they …

Designing Microblogging-Based Class Activities, Tian Luo, Fei Gao

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Microblogging tools such as Twitter have been frequently adopted in educational settings to facilitate learning. This study examined how a microblogging tool, Twiducate, was incorporated into a graduate-level class of ten students. During the 1.5 hour lesson, students participated in a series of Twiducate-supported collaborative and reflective activities. The analysis of in-class discussion transcripts, text-based posts on Twiducate and a pre- and post-test survey results revealed that students were highly engaged in classroom collaborative learning and there is a high level of interaction. Students reported the challenges of using microblogging tools, such as the possibility of creating distraction and disorder …

Reconsidering Instructional Design With Web 2.0 Technologies, Fei Gao, Kun Li, Tian Luo, Jamie Smith

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 afford interconnections, content creation and remixing, which provide rich opportunities to for more personally meaningful, collaborative, and socially relevant learning (Greenhow, Robelia, & Hudges, 2009). Web 2.0 and other emerging technologies offer new possibilities of designing collaborative activities that engage learners in meaningful learning (Chai & Tan, 2009; Cress & Kimmerle, 2008).

Despite the enthusiasm of integrating Web 2.0 technologies into learning environment design, researchers found that few instructors know the pedagogies that could lead to productive innovation (Collis & Moonen, 2008). This symposium consists of one theoretical paper and three case studies that …

Meaning And The Guiding Of Human Authenticity, Andrew Dwight

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Our basic response as humans to a world we did not create is not a matter of “thought” but rather “intentionality” oriented by affectivity. Our understanding of the nature of this intentionality has profound implications for our educational design and practice, from the level of curriculum development through to individual teaching moments. The work of Bernard Lonergan seeks to understand the constituent elements of the primordial drive that leads to our sense of understanding, understanding that for Lonergan necessarily involves human agency. This paper, in two parts, considers Lonergan’s articulation of the operations of intentionality as we engage our world …

Magis: Creating A Sustainable, Educational And Economic Partnership In Belize, Don Bush, Karl Dakin, Marilynn Force, Luka Powanga

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

In December of 2010, a Regis University student from Belize and a Regis University faculty member launched an entrepreneurial adventure by planting 1,000 teak trees on one acre of land near the town of Punta Gorda in southern Belize. The trees survived four months of drought, and in June of 2011 another 1,000 trees were planted. In June of 2012, the student and professor will do a third planting of 1,000 trees, bringing the grand total to 3,000 trees. Two full-time Mayan Indians are employed; they trim, fertilize, and water the trees. Future expansion will require hiring additional workers. The …

New Tools In Improvised Music Performance., Seán Mac Erlaine

Articles

This paper looks at the synthesis of computer technology and instrumental practice in improvised music performance. The emerging field of performers who use real-time signal processing as a technological extension of their instrument is discussed. How do new tools affect musical practice? Does the use of computers impose an associated aesthetic?

A number of key players are scrutinised including Evan Parker, La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Jon Hassell, Miles Davis, Pauline Oliveros, David Behrman. The research provides a historical context to these practices and explores how pre- and post-digital technologies have shaped their work.

This article identifies an innovative and …

The End Game Of Deregulation: Myopic Risk Management And The Next Catastrophe, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor

Faculty Scholarship

On December 22, 2008, the contents of an enormous impoundment containing coal-ash slurry from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant poured into the Emory River. The proximate cause of the spill was the bursting of a poorly reinforced dike holding back a pit of sludge that towered 80 feet above the river and 40 feet above an adjacent road. The volume and force of the spill were so large that 1.1 billion gallons of the inky mess flowed across the river, inundating 300 acres of land in a layer four to five feet deep, uprooting trees, destroying …

Gender And The Crisis In Legal Education: Remaking The Academy In Our Image, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

American legal education is in the grip of what some have called an “existential crisis.” The New York Times proclaims the death of the current system of legal education. This is attributed, in part, to the incentivizing of faculty to produce increasingly abstract scholarship and the costs this imposes on pedagogy and the mentoring of students. At the same time, despite women graduating from law schools in significant numbers since the 1980s, they continue to lag behind in the most prestigious positions in academia—tenured, full professorships: From academic year 1998-99 to academic year 2007-08, the percentage of women full professors …

The Transformative Power Of Learning: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of The Learning Experience Of Apprentices., Eric Bates

Conference papers

This research set out to examine the learning experience of apprentice painters and decorators on the Irish Standards Based Apprenticeship. It focussed on three painting and decorating apprentices from the DIT who were coming towards the end of their four year apprenticeship. As such, the participants had experienced the full range of possible learning on the programme. The Irish Standards Based Apprenticeship system incorporates work based learning with college based learning. As such, the learning experience is wide and varied. The main aim of the study was to explore the learning experiences of apprentices on the standards based apprenticeship in …

Portraying Migrants’ Experiences In Irish Documentary Film, Agnes Kakasi

Conference Papers

Portraying Migrants’ Experiences in Irish Documentary Film

In this presentation I critically analyse the types of narratives and formal characteristics, as well as the variety of social issues that filmmakers in the Republic of Ireland have engaged in, in creating stories about transnational migration and the immigrant subject in recent Irish documentary film. As a result of the Celtic Tiger economy from the mid-90s until 2008, Ireland has experienced a major transformation in its ethnoscape (Appadurai, 1996) by becoming a ‘country of immigrants’, with an estimated 12% of the population born outside the country. Through the analysis of such documentary …