Digital Commons Network^™

Learning Understandable Classifier Models., Jan Chorowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The topic of this dissertation is the automation of the process of extracting understandable patterns and rules from data. An unprecedented amount of data is available to anyone with a computer connected to the Internet. The disciplines of Data Mining and Machine Learning have emerged over the last two decades to face this challenge. This has led to the development of many tools and methods. These tools often produce models that make very accurate predictions about previously unseen data. However, models built by the most accurate methods are usually hard to understand or interpret by humans. In consequence, they deliver …

Predictive Relationships Of Teacher Efficacy, Geometry Knowledge For Teaching, And The Cognitive Levels Of Teacher Practice On Student Achievement., Paul Klein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the predictive relationships of teacher efficacy, teacher knowledge, and teacher practices with student achievement. More specifically, secondary mathematics teachers' efficacy beliefs, geometry knowledge for teaching, and the cognitive complexity of the teachers' classroom practices were examined for 72 teachers in both urban and rural districts across Kentucky, along with the student achievement data of their students. Teacher and student data were obtained from the NSF-funded Geometry Assessment for Secondary Teachers (GAST) project, which administered geometry teacher knowledge assessments at the beginning and end of the school year, and collected cognitive complexity data from lessons through three classroom …

A Study Of The Total Coloring Of Graphs., Maxfield Edwin Leidner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The area of total coloring is a more recent and less studied area than vertex and edge coloring, but recently, some attention has been given to the Total Coloring Conjecture, which states that each graph's total chromatic number xT is no greater than its maximum degree plus two. In this dissertation, it is proved that the conjecture is satisfied by those planar graphs in which no vertex of degree 5 or 6 1ies on more than three 3-cycles. The total independence number aT is found for some families of graphs, and a relationship between that parameter and the size of …

Integrated Modeling And Analysis Methodologies For Architecture-Level Vehicle Design., Rostyslav Lesiv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to satisfy customer expectations, a ground vehicle must be designed to meet a broad range of performance requirements. A satisfactory vehicle design process implements a set of requirements reflecting necessary, but perhaps not sufficient conditions for assuring success in a highly competitive market. An optimal architecture-level vehicle design configuration is one of the most important of these requirements. A basic layout that is efficient and flexible permits significant reductions in the time needed to complete the product development cycle, with commensurate reductions in cost. Unfortunately, architecture-level design is the most abstract phase of the design process. The high-level …

Learning Visual Features For The Avatar Captcha Recognition Challenge, Mohammed Korayem, Abdallah A. Mohamed, David Crandall, Roman Yampolskiy

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Captchas are frequently used on the modern world wide web to differentiate human users from automated bots by giving tests that are easy for humans to answer but difficult or impossible for algorithms. As artificial intelligence algorithms have improved, new types of Captchas have had to be developed. Recent work has proposed a new system called Avatar Captcha, in which a user is asked to distinguish between facial images of real humans and those of avatars generated by computer graphics. This novel system has been proposed on the assumption that this Captcha is very difficult for computers to break. In …

Anthropological Apologetics: A Proposal Of An Anthropological Compendium As Evidence For The Imago Dei, Jeffrey R. Dickson

Masters Theses

Evangelical scholarship has shown great admiration for the work of Gary Habermas and others in their contribution to Christian apologetics by validating the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with a list of minimal facts generally agreed to by historical and biblical scholars. This thesis will explore the methodology of the minimal facts approach and appropriate it as a tool to explore the data within the field of anthropology which offers evidence for the biblical concept of the Imago Dei. This study will focus on Wolfhart Pannenberg in his critically acclaimed work demonstrating the importance of the theological perspective …

Alternative Energy Sources - Integration Of Power Generation Systems Into A Microgrid At Clemson University And An Atmospheric Thermodynamic Driven Mechanical Clock, Shreyas Patel

All Theses

Non-renewable energy sources such as coal, crude oil, and natural gas are being consumed at a brisk pace which is promoting a worldwide energy crisis. The burning of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides as well as soot which contribute to atmospheric pollution. Although fossil fuels will continue to be available for many decades, the amount of petroleum remaining in the earth and its associated cost remains an open issue. The utilization of green energy such as solar and wind offer renewable and pollution free sources. A worldwide shift is slowly underway towards the …

Function Approximation With Artmap Architectures, Lucian M. Sasu, Răzvan Andonie

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We analyze function approximation (regression) capability of Fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) architectures - well-known incremental learning neural networks. We focus especially on the universal approximation property. In our experiments, we compare the regression performance of FAM networks with other standard neural models. It is the first time that ARTMAP regression is overviewed, both from theoretical and practical points of view.

Chemical Contaminants As Stratigraphic Markers For The Anthropocene, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Thousands and even millions of years from now, widespread anthropogenic contaminants in sediments would likely persist, incorporated into the geological record. They would inadvertently preserve evidence of our present era (informally designated as the Anthropocene Epoch) characterized by large human populations engaged in intensive industrial and agricultural activities.

Hypothetical geologists in the distant future would likely find unusually high concentrations of a wide variety of contaminants at stratigraphic levels corresponding to our present time, analogous to the iridium anomaly marking the bolide impact event at the close of the Cretaceous Period. These would include both organic and inorganic substances, such …

Guardians Of Generations: African American Grandparent Caregivers For Children Of Hiv/Aids Infected Parents, Sandra Edmonds Crewe

Journal of Family Strengths

Grandparents, particularly, grandmothers in the African American community have historically provided needed care for their grandchildren (Crewe, 2003). Before there was a child welfare system that addressed the needs of African American children, there were grandmothers who served as the safety net for their biological, informally adopted grandchildren, and other minor relatives. They cared for grandchildren and others whose birth parents were unable or unwilling to care for them. For families of color, HIV/AIDS is an emerging issue that is contributing to the growing numbers of grandparent-headed households. And once again, many African American grandmothers have accepted the challenge of …

The First Cosmic Ray Albedo Proton Map Of The Moon, Jody K. Wilson, Harlan E. Spence, Justin Kasper, Michael Golightly, J. B. Blake, J. E. Mazur, L. W. Townsend, A. W. Case, M. D. Looper, C. Zeitlin, Nathan A. Schwadron

Physics & Astronomy

[1] Neutrons emitted from the Moon are produced by the impact of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) within the regolith. GCRs are high-energy particles capable of smashing atomic nuclei in the lunar regolith and producing a shower of energetic protons, neutrons and other subatomic particles. Secondary particles that are ejected out of the regolith become “albedo” particles. The neutron albedo has been used to study the hydrogen content of the lunar regolith, which motivates our study of albedo protons. In principle, the albedo protons should vary as a function of the input GCR source and possibly as a result of surface …

Dreams Deferred: Deferred Action, Prosecutorial Discretion, And The Vexing Case(S) Of Dream Act Students, Michael A. Olivas

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Animal Services In Arlington, Texas: An Evaluation And Recommendation For Improvements, Angel Aymond

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Graduate Scholar Profiles, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Mcnair Scholars Program: Overview, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Updated Manuscript Submission Guidelines For The Prairie Naturalist, Christopher N. Jacques, Troy W. Grovenburg, Jonathan A. Jenks

The Prairie Naturalist

These guidelines present updated policies and procedures for submitting scientific manuscripts for consideration for publication in The Prairie Naturalist (PNAT). These guidelines incorporate substantial changes that have occurred following a change in Editorial staff during January 2009, and update the online “Suggestions for Contributors” guidelines provided on the PNAT website (http://www.sdstate.edu/nrm/organizations/gpnss/tpn/index.cfm); these instructions supersede all previous guidelines.

Tables and appendices are included for common word expressions with superfluous wording (Table 1), examples of correct format and style guidelines for tables accompanying manuscripts (Table 2, Appendix A), guidance in properly preparing Research notes (Appendix B) and citing literature (Appendix …

Terrestrial And Semi-Aquatic Vertebrates In Diets Of Largemouth Bass In Central Nebraska, Seth A. Lundgren, Keith Geluso, Casey W. Schoenebeck

The Prairie Naturalist

Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) are opportunistic predators often feeding in littoral areas during crepuscular periods (Snow 1971). Adult largemouth bass primarily are piscivorous, whereas juveniles generally consume zooplankton, insects, and small fish (Zweiacker and Summerfelt 1974, Carlander 1977, Post 2003). Age-0 largemouth bass generally consume zooplankton and macroinvertebrates (Keast and Webb 1966, Keast 1985, Phillips et al. 1995, Post 2003) and shift to piscivory at 50-70 mm in length (Phillips et al. 1995, Olson 1996, Post 2003). Few studies have documented detailed accounts of other vertebrates besides fish in diets of largemouth bass, which include amphibians (Hodgson and …

The Incentive And Benefits To Publish Research, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

In the northern Great Plains, December is a month marked by the end of the year and a period of much-needed rest and relaxation during the start of the winter season. Landscapes will soon be blanketed with snow and local floral and faunal species have adapted to the ensuing winter months ahead. Winter is a season that reminds you who you live in the Plains states, and as such, should expect bitter cold temperatures, strong winds, and blowing and drifting snow. However, December is a great time to enjoy the outdoors across the Great Plains, a time to reflect on …

The Crs Package: Nonparametric Regression Splines For Continuous And Categorical Predictors, Zhenghua Nie, Jeffery S. Racine

The R Journal

A new package crs is introduced for computing nonparametric regression (and quantile) splines in the presence of both continuous and categorical predictors. B-splines are employed in the regression model for the continuous predictors and kernel weighting is employed for the categorical predictors. We also de velop a simple R interface to NOMAD, which is a mixed integer optimization solver used to compute optimal regression spline solutions.

Influence.Me: Tools For Detecting Influential Data In Mixed Effects Models, Rense Nieuwenhuis, Manfred Te Grotenhuis, Ben Pelzer

The R Journal

influence.ME provides tools for detecting influential data in mixed effects models. The application of these models has become common practice, but the development of diagnostic tools has lagged behind. influence.ME calculates standardized measures of influential data for the point estimates of generalized mixed effects models, such as DFBETAS, Cook’s distance, as well as percentile change and a test for changing levels of significance. influence.ME calculates these measures of influence while ac counting for the nesting structure of the data. The package and measures of influential data are introduced, a practical example is given, and strategies for dealing with influential data …

Graphical Markov Models With Mixed Graphs In R, Kayvan Sadeghi, Giovanni M. Marchetti

The R Journal

In this paper we provide a short tuto rial illustrating the new functions in the package ggm that deal with ancestral, summary and ribbonless graphs. These are mixed graphs (containing three types of edges) that are important because they capture the modified independence structure after marginalisation over, and conditioning on, nodes of directed acyclic graphs. We provide functions to verify whether a mixed graph implies that A is independent of B given C for any disjoint sets of nodes and to generate maximal graphs inducing the same independence structure of non-maximal graphs. Finally, we provide functions to decide on the …

What's In A Name?, Paul Murrell

The R Journal

Any shape that is drawn using the grid graphics package can have a name associated with it. If a name is provided, it is possible to access, query, and modify the shape after it has been drawn. These facilities allow for very detailed customisations of plots and also for very general transformations of plots that are drawn by packages based on grid.

Frailtyhl: A Package For Fitting Frailty Models With H-Likelihood, Il Do Ha, Maengseok Noh, Youngjo Lee

The R Journal

We present the frailtyHL package for fitting semi-parametric frailty models using h likelihood. This package allows lognormal or gamma frailties for random-effect distribution, and it fits shared or multilevel frailty models for correlated survival data. Functions are provided to format and summarize the frailtyHL results. The estimates of fixed effects and frailty parameters and their standard errors are calculated. We illustrate the use of our package with three well known data sets and compare our results with various alternative R-procedures.

Rfit: Rank-Based Estimation For Linear Models, John D. Kloke, Joseph W. Mckeen

The R Journal

In the nineteen seventies, Jureĉková and Jaeckel proposed rank estimation for linear models. Since that time, several authors have developed inference and diagnostic methods for these estimators. These rank-based estimators and their associated inference are highly efficient and are robust to outliers in response space. The methods include estimation of standard errors, tests of general linear hypotheses, confidence intervals, diagnostic procedures including studentized residuals, and measures of influential cases. We have developed an R package, Rfit, for computing of these robust procedures. In this paper we highlight the main features of the pack age. The package uses standard linear …

It's Not What You Draw, It's What You Don't Draw, Paul Murrell

The R Journal

The R graphics engine has new support for drawing complex paths via the functions polypath() and grid.path(). This article explains what is meant by a complex path and demonstrates the usefulness of complex paths in drawing non-trivial shapes, logos, customised data symbols, and maps.

Debugging Grid Graphics, Paul Murrell, Velvet Ly

The R Journal

A graphical scene that has been produced using the grid graphics package consists of grobs (graphical objects) and viewports. This article describes functions that allow the exploration and inspection of the grobs and viewports in a grid scene, including several functions that are available in a new package called gridDe bug. The ability to explore the grobs and view ports in a grid scene is useful for adding more drawing to a scene that was produced using grid and for understanding and debugging the grid code that produced a scene.

The State Of Naming Conventions In R, Rasmus Bååth

The R Journal

Most programming language communities have naming conventions that are generally agreed upon, that is, a set of rules that governs how functions and variables are named. This is not the case with R, and a review of unofficial style guides and naming convention us age on CRAN shows that a number of different naming conventions are currently in use. Some naming conventions are, however, more popular than others and as a newcomer to the R community or as a developer of a new package this could be useful to consider when choosing what naming convention to adopt.

Gender Differences In The Vocational Interests Of Youth Considering High Job Growth And Green Energy Occupations, Becky S. Robinson

Dissertations

For more than 100 years, vocational psychologists and educational researchers have sought to identify the significant influences shaping occupational interests. This descriptive study used a series of vocational card sort exercises with 139 rural high school youth to identify gender differences in occupational interests toward working in 60 of the nation's fastest growing occupations, including new and emerging 21st century green energy roles. Through a classroom-based exercise, youth sorted cards from four decks into piles (1 - 5) at their desk. Sorting the card into pile (1) expressed Strong Dislike; pile (2) Dislike, pile (3) No Interest, pile (4) Some …

Prediction Of Compressive Creep Bhaviour In Flexible Polyurethane Foam Over Long Time Scales And At Elevated Temperatures, Conor Briody, Barry Duignan, Stephen Jerrams, Stephen Ronan

Articles

Compressive creep gradually affects the structural performance of flexible polymeric foam material over extended time periods. When designing components, it is often difficult to account for long-term creep, as accurate creep data over long time periods or at high temperatures is often unavailable. This is mainly due to the lengthy testing times and/or inadequate high temperature testing facilities. This issue can be resolved by conducting a range of short-term creep tests and applying accurate prediction methods to the results. Short-term creep testing was conducted on viscoelastic polyurethane foam, a material commonly used in seating and bedding systems. Tests were conducted …