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2012

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Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Study Of The Ultraviolet Exposure Of Ballistic Resistant Polymer Matrix Composites, Drew Adam Pavlacky Jan 2012

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Study Of The Ultraviolet Exposure Of Ballistic Resistant Polymer Matrix Composites, Drew Adam Pavlacky

Materials and Nanotechnology

This study examined the effect of ultraviolet radiation on ballistic resistant polymer matrix composites. Two composite systems studied included a phenolic matrix with either S2 Glass® or Kevlar® fiber laminates. These composites were weathered in ultraviolet conditions and the effects were quantified with multiple destructive and non-destructive testing. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used as a non-destructive evaluation method which is a commonly used experiment in the corrosion community. Circuit modeling the EIS spectra produced both resistive and capacitive characteristics inherent of the composite materials. Surface characterization was performed to determine if degradation was occurring at the composite surface. Techniques …

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Lubrication And Wear At Metal/Hdpe Contacts, Aydar Akchurin Jan 2012

Lubrication And Wear At Metal/Hdpe Contacts, Aydar Akchurin

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

In the thesis lubrication and wear at metal/HDPE contacts was addressed. In particular this type of contact occurs in artificial joint replacements. Wear of HDPE was recognized as a major factor limiting device performance. In the thesis, fully implicit fully coupled numerical approach was developed to simulate lubrication and wear. Approach allows solving stationary and transient problems for rough surfaces in a wide range of parameters. Wear coefficients were estimated from experimental data. Wear particles formed in wear process were investigated. Particles were found to be approximately 100 nm in diameter and spherical in shape. Considering theoretical solutions, it was …

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Drought, Depression, And Relief: The Agricultural Adjustment Wheat Reduction Program In North Dakota During The Great Depression, Brent Alan Gostanzik Jan 2012

Drought, Depression, And Relief: The Agricultural Adjustment Wheat Reduction Program In North Dakota During The Great Depression, Brent Alan Gostanzik

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the Agricultural Adjustment Wheat Reduction Program functioned in North Dakota from May of 1933 to January of 1936, why it ran so smoothly, and why it was such a success within the state. By using county Extension Agent reports that date from the time period this thesis uses an extensive number of primary sources that have not been used before. These reports, along with farmer journal accounts, newspaper articles, and Agricultural Adjustment Administration reports show that North Dakota wheat farmers openly embraced the policies of the Wheat Reduction Program and participated …

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But The Roots Remain: The Wisconsin Progressives In The Great Depression And Post-War Era, Daniel David Mccollum Jan 2012

But The Roots Remain: The Wisconsin Progressives In The Great Depression And Post-War Era, Daniel David Mccollum

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

This work is concerned with the development of the Progressives, a political faction of the Republican Party which was active in Wisconsin during the first half of the 20th century, throughout the Great Depression, and the Post-War era. It was during this period that the Progressives broke with the Republican Party, formed the Progressive Party and gained control of the state from 1934 through 1938, before finally dissolving in 1946, with many members moving into the Democratic Party, where they rejuvenated that moribund state party. This work, furthermore, focuses on the those Progressive leaders who operated in Wisconsin’s northern counties, …

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The Effect Of Title Ix At The University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Sarah Jean Sebranek Jan 2012

The Effect Of Title Ix At The University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Sarah Jean Sebranek

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

Title IX sought to end discrimination on the basis of gender in the realm of education and extra-curricular activities provided by academic institutions. This research examines the impact of Title IX at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and determines the success of the legislation. Title IX is a significant topic as it offered an equitable experience for females in an otherwise male dominated arena of athletics. The end result provides a case study on the effect of Title IX at a Midwestern public university, which begins in the 1920s and concludes in the early 2000s. Most importantly, the research …

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The Upper Musselshell Valley: A Grassroots And Bioregional History, Miles Dwight Lewis Jan 2012

The Upper Musselshell Valley: A Grassroots And Bioregional History, Miles Dwight Lewis

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

The Upper Musselshell Valley: A Grassroots and Bioregional History chronicles the history of central Montana's Upper Musselshell Valley in an attempt to craft a viable history of region. As a corrective measure or alternate explanation that revises not only historical interpretation, but also takes into account who, or what group, is the driving force behind each distinct narrative stream (i.e. grand narrative history--histories penned by professional scholars and academics--or grassroots perspectives, the history of region as told by local dwellers), which stream is or is not authoritative, and how to modify, adjust, or meld the various interpretations in order to …

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Our Sister Republic: Creating Mexico In The Minds Of The American Public And The Role Of The Press, Derek Ystebo Jan 2012

Our Sister Republic: Creating Mexico In The Minds Of The American Public And The Role Of The Press, Derek Ystebo

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

During the Mexican War, Americans radically transformed their ideas about Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. The Mexican War offered itself up as the first of such interactions between the neighboring republics. The Mexican during the War was met largely with criticism from the American public, a criticism aided by the work of the press. While a vast majority of the presses disparaged the Mexican populace on a variety of subjects, not all papers denigrated the Mexicans as some inferior population in need of assistance from the United States in order to survive and reach a proper level of civilization. Papers such as …

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A Numerical And Analytical Analysis Of The Physics Of Phase-Separation Fronts, Eric Merlin Foard Jan 2012

A Numerical And Analytical Analysis Of The Physics Of Phase-Separation Fronts, Eric Merlin Foard

Physics

My dissertation is an investigation into the basic Physics of phase separation fronts. Such phase-separation fronts occur in many practical applications, like the formation of immersion precipitation membranes, Temperature induced phase-separation of polymeric blends, or the formation of steel. Despite the fact that these phenomena are ubiquitous no generally acceptable theory of phase-separation front exists. I believe the reason lies in the complexity of many of these material systems where a large number of physical effects (like phase-separation, crystallization, hydrodynamics, etc) cooperate to generate these structures. As a Physicist, I was driven to develop an understanding of these systems, and …

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Hot Electron Effect In Ultrathin Photovoltaic Junctions, Deyan Ivov Mihaylov Jan 2012

Hot Electron Effect In Ultrathin Photovoltaic Junctions, Deyan Ivov Mihaylov

Physics

The focus of the research work described in the following thesis is increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic devices by reducing hot carrier thermalization losses. In principle this can be achieved by reducing the size of the absorber down to lengths comparable to the thermalization length for hot carriers. With the use of ultrathin absorbers hot carrier can be collected before they have reached thermal equilibrium with the lattice. The theoretical work on the subject is comprised of improving the empirical relationship developed in the most recent publication on the topic by. By making the assumption that the energy loss rate …

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Fluctuations In The Lattice Boltzmann Method, Goetz August Kaehler Jan 2012

Fluctuations In The Lattice Boltzmann Method, Goetz August Kaehler

Physics

The implementation of fluctuations in the lattice Boltzmann method has made significant progress in the last 10 years. The significance of incorporating noise to all non-conserved degrees of freedom was a significant recent discovery that was based on a simplified Langevin treatment of the linarized Boltzmann equation. However, for non-vanishing mean velocities significant deviations in the correlation functions were observed. In this thesis we show how we can largely alleviate these deviations by incorporating fully velocity dependent moment transforms and thus recover a fluctuation dissipation theorem that is valid for a larger range of velocities. Furthermore we show that the …

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Assessing Changes In Within Individual Variation Over Time For Nutritional Intake Data Using 24 Hour Recalls From The National Health And Examination Survey, Kyal Scott Brandt Jan 2012

Assessing Changes In Within Individual Variation Over Time For Nutritional Intake Data Using 24 Hour Recalls From The National Health And Examination Survey, Kyal Scott Brandt

Statistics

Nutritional surveys often use 24 hour recalls to assess the nutritional intake of certain populations. The National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) collects two 24-hour recalls for each individual in the study. This small sampling can lead to a great deal of variation due to day-to-day differences in an individual’s intake, making it difficult to assess “usual intake.” The ISU method is implemented in the PC-Side software package, breaking our observed variation into two components: within individual variation (WIV) and between-individual variation (BIV). In this paper, we will use the PC-Side software to get WIV estimates for several different age, …

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Three-Dimensional Seismic Attribute-Assisted Fracture Detection In The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale, Greene And Washington Counties, Pa, Central Appalachian Basin., Albert S. Babarsky Jan 2012

Three-Dimensional Seismic Attribute-Assisted Fracture Detection In The Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale, Greene And Washington Counties, Pa, Central Appalachian Basin., Albert S. Babarsky

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The analyses of conventional structural attributes (first derivative, ant-tracking, curvature, and variance) indicate very complex fracture systems within a Middle Devonian unconventional gas reservoir of the Central Appalachian Basin. In this study, the investigation of such complexity and the implications of fault networks to the exploration for and production of hydrocarbons are outlined. Spectral decomposition (iso-frequency) amplitude analysis was utilized in order to define spectral amplitude response to the fracture facies. The results are useful to characterize fractured reservoir properties such as fault networks and fracture intensity. The calibration of spectral decomposition attributes using previous petrophysical studies or using structure …

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How Big Is Big Coal? Public Perceptions Of The Coal Industry's Economic Impact On West Virginia., Debra R. Blaacker Jan 2012

How Big Is Big Coal? Public Perceptions Of The Coal Industry's Economic Impact On West Virginia., Debra R. Blaacker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The coal industry has played a major role in the culture and history of the state of West Virginia, establishing an identity as the “backbone” of the economy in this region. However, as the mining process has become more mechanized, employment has declined and risks have increased, but support for the industry continues. This study explores research that could provide explanations for this phenomenon, and examines whether there is an overestimation of the role of the coal industry in the regional economy. I also examine factors that may affect one’s perceptions of the economic impact of the industry. In particular, …

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It's The Process, Not The Project: The Role Of Social Capital In Adaptive Co-Management In Northwest Minnesota, Molly Frances Macgregor Jan 2012

It's The Process, Not The Project: The Role Of Social Capital In Adaptive Co-Management In Northwest Minnesota, Molly Frances Macgregor

Sociology and Anthropology

Changing behavior to improve water quality must be endogenous, arising from a balancing or integration of self-interest and shared interests. The subject of this study is the public who are not organized, affiliated or represented by any government agency or special interest group. Property owners living upstream and downstream of a water management control structure were surveyed to determine experiences and opinions about that project. Respondents supported the project, but expressed greater support for the process used to develop the project. The adaptive co-management process used to develop the project built a social organization including norm-based processes, shared goals, and …

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Perceptions Of Gender In Collegiate Coaching: How Men’S And Women’S Experiences Are Different, Christie Mikyla Chappell Jan 2012

Perceptions Of Gender In Collegiate Coaching: How Men’S And Women’S Experiences Are Different, Christie Mikyla Chappell

Sociology and Anthropology

The number of men in collegiate coaching, in comparison to women, is overwhelmingly unbalanced. The accessibility men have to the profession of collegiate coaching at a high level in comparison to women’s’ greatly affects women’s’ ability to achieve similar jobs. The ease at which men attain jobs coaching both genders is perpetuated through the desire to maintain collegiate athletics as a male dominated profession. The women’s perspective broadens the profession itself and helps to break down the societal roles that have been assigned to women. The lack of women in collegiate coaching discourages other women from entering the profession and …

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Nature’S Best: An Analysis Of A Lactation Education Needs Assessment, Ashley Rae Wiertzema Jan 2012

Nature’S Best: An Analysis Of A Lactation Education Needs Assessment, Ashley Rae Wiertzema

Sociology and Anthropology

This thesis explores the perceptions of nurses regarding the importance of breastfeeding, the need for lactation education, and the barriers that may be preventing nurses from obtaining lactation education. Nurses working in Minnesota, North Dakota, or South Dakota were the focus. Secondary data from a lactation education needs assessment was used to explore the perceptions and barriers in these states. It was determined that 290 surveys were useable. The Health Belief Model was used to explore the relationship between the nurse's characteristics, perceived breastfeeding importance, perceived need for lactation education, likelihood to take action to obtain lactation education, and perceived …

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Understanding Child Work And Child Labor In The 21st Century, Courage Chikomborero Mudzongo Jan 2012

Understanding Child Work And Child Labor In The 21st Century, Courage Chikomborero Mudzongo

Sociology and Anthropology

Child labor is on the increase and this is exacerbating an already desperate situation in Africa. Past research has focused on which levels of determinants are most effective in influencing the decision on children's activities. Using the Malawi Integrated Household Survey and the Tanzania National Panel Survey, this research seeks to unearth the factors that influence the number of hours that child workers and laborers work. I can conclude that the greatest degrees of change are at the individual level as child's enrollment status is significant for child workers from Malawi and Tanzania and laborers from Tanzania. At the community …

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Perceived Social, Economic And Environmental Costs/Benefits Of A Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Plan, Andrew Kubas Jan 2012

Perceived Social, Economic And Environmental Costs/Benefits Of A Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Plan, Andrew Kubas

Sociology and Anthropology

Flooding has long been an issue in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota. Recently, leaders in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area called for a permanent solution to the annual flooding woes. This solution took the form of a proposed diversion channel, an extensive ditch designed to divert a portion of the Red River west of the metro in order to lower river levels in the urban core during flooding events. This project seeks to understand how residents in the Fargo-Moorhead community perceive the costs and benefits of the diversion plan when compared to current strategies that are in …

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Community Perspectives On Girls' Dropout In Tajikistan, Madhurim Thapa Jan 2012

Community Perspectives On Girls' Dropout In Tajikistan, Madhurim Thapa

Sociology and Anthropology

Girl's dropout from school is problematic towards the overall wellbeing of those who drop out and to the society as whole. The goal of this study is to uncover some of the underlying factors that hinder girls from attending school in Tajikistan. For reference I used secondary data collected by UNICEF which was conducted to analyze the demand side of the drop out girls in Tajikistan. There were thirteen focus group discussions and seven individual interviews were conducted with the participants. The results from the analysis indicated that political and institutional factors, culture, poverty and school factors are the key …

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The Examination Of The Effect Of Nostalgia On Risk Factors For Suicide, Elizabeth Claire Sand Jan 2012

The Examination Of The Effect Of Nostalgia On Risk Factors For Suicide, Elizabeth Claire Sand

Psychology

In order to investigate the relationship between nostalgic tendencies and risk factors for suicide, two studies were completed. Study 1 examined nostalgic tendencies among individuals with depression symptoms in order to see if those with nostalgic tendencies might have less risk factors for suicide. The Study 2 sought to examine if actually experiencing nostalgia reduced the risk factors for suicide and whether the effect was moderated by dysphoric symptoms. Results of Study 1 indicated that nostalgic tendencies do not have an impact on suicide risk above and beyond other factors like depression. Study 2 found that at medium and high …

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To Be Or Not To Be: An Empirical Test Of English Prime As Theory, Ryan Lee Boyd Jan 2012

To Be Or Not To Be: An Empirical Test Of English Prime As Theory, Ryan Lee Boyd

Psychology

English Prime is a language prescription advocating the abolition of all forms of the verb “to be” from usage. Such benefits of a “to be”-less form of communication might include an increased appreciation for the essential complexity of reality and the intangibility of certain forms of knowledge. However, to date, no English Prime claims have been rigorously examined in an empirical manner. A program of research systematically assessed individual differences in the use of the verb “to be” to determine their relationship to outcomes described by English Prime scholars. Relations between English Prime violations and the following theoretically relevant measures …

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Genomics And Management Of Fusarium Root Rot Of Field Peas, Kishore Chittem Jan 2012

Genomics And Management Of Fusarium Root Rot Of Field Peas, Kishore Chittem

Plant Pathology

Dry Pea or field pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important cool season legume crop grown in the United States. Field peas are vulnerable to many diseases of which, soil borne diseases including wilt and root rot are of major economic importance and can cause significant reduction in yield. There is a dearth of satisfactory methods for control of root rot and no varieties with complete resistance to Fusarium root rot are currently available. Root rot disease was found to be prevalent in all the major pea growing counties of North Dakota surveyed in 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011. Fusarium …

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Evaluation Of A Climate-Sensitive Disease Control Strategy And Investigation Of Multi-Drug Resistance In Infectious Bacterial Diseases: A Us-Africa Experience, Herbert Mukiibi Jan 2012

Evaluation Of A Climate-Sensitive Disease Control Strategy And Investigation Of Multi-Drug Resistance In Infectious Bacterial Diseases: A Us-Africa Experience, Herbert Mukiibi

Microbiological Sciences

This paper presents two research projects that explore avenues of controlling infectious diseases both in Africa and the United States. In Uganda, a retrospective study of Otuboi Sub County patient data to evaluate the impact of Stamp Out Sleeping sickness (SOS) intervention was performed. Polymerase Chain Reaction to detect the conjugatively transferred virulence factors from MDR E. coli to Salmonella was performed in North Dakota. Human African Trypanosomiasis prevalence was significantly reduced at intervention year (2006) compared to the pre-intervention years; 2004 (P = 0.00024) and 2005 (P = 0.000001). Of the 22 screened virulence factor genes, eight genes were …

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Drivers Of Infectious Disease Outbreaks: How Climate, Environment And Disease Control Programs Influence Occurence Of Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Michael Muleme Jan 2012

Drivers Of Infectious Disease Outbreaks: How Climate, Environment And Disease Control Programs Influence Occurence Of Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Michael Muleme

Microbiological Sciences

This research study described the factors driving infectious disease outbreaks using Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Uganda and Lyme disease in North Dakota (ND), Minnesota (MN) and Wisconsin (WI) as case studies. Retrospective data on FMD vaccines and outbreaks in Uganda (2001 – 2010) and Lyme disease in ND, MN and WI (1990 – 2011) was used. The time (7.5 weeks) taken to respond to FMD outbreaks, limited serotyping/subtyping (9/121) of outbreaks and the low percentage of cattle vaccinated (2.1 – 21.2%) portray ineffective control programs. Similarly, increase in fall temperature (P = 0.0189) and annual precipitation (P = 0.0250) were …

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International Infectious Disease Management And Its Role In The 'One World, One Health, One Medicine' Concept, Emma Louise Swanson Jan 2012

International Infectious Disease Management And Its Role In The 'One World, One Health, One Medicine' Concept, Emma Louise Swanson

Microbiological Sciences

The knowledge that almost 75% of all new human pathogens have animal origins, requires health professionals from all fields, (i.e. human medicine, veterinary medicine, and public health professionals), to work on solving the major problems associated with infectious disease threats by utilizing the ‘One World, One Health, One Medicine’ approach. It is clear that the lack of surveillance systems, proper training, and communication presents the biggest obstacles when dealing with pathogens. In accordance with the goals of the Master’s of International Infectious Disease Management and Biosecurity program at North Dakota State University, the objectives of this paper are to examine …

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Cycles Of Electronic Health Records Adaptation By Physicians: How Do The Positive And Negative Experiences With The Ehr System Affect Physicians’ Ehr Adaptation Process?, Cherie Noteboom, Dhundy Bastola, Sajda Qureshi Jan 2012

Cycles Of Electronic Health Records Adaptation By Physicians: How Do The Positive And Negative Experiences With The Ehr System Affect Physicians’ Ehr Adaptation Process?, Cherie Noteboom, Dhundy Bastola, Sajda Qureshi

CAHIT

The integration of EHR in IT infrastructures supporting organizations enable improved access and recording of patient data, enhanced ability to make improved decisions, improved quality and reduced errors in patient care. Despite these benefits, there are mixed results as to the use of EHR. The literature suggests that the reasons for the limited use relate to policy, financial and usability considerations, but it does not provide an understanding of reasons for physicians’ limited interaction and adaptation of EHR. Following an analysis of qualitative data, collected in a case study at a hospital using interviews, this research explains how physicians interact …

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Bifurcation Portrait Of A Hybrid Spiking Neuron Model, Brandon Grae Goodell Jan 2012

Bifurcation Portrait Of A Hybrid Spiking Neuron Model, Brandon Grae Goodell

Mathematics

A bifurcation portrait classifies the behavior of a dynamical system and how it transitions between different behaviors. A hybrid dynamical system displays both continuous and discrete dynamics and may display nonsmooth bifurcations. Herein, we analyze a novel hybrid model of a spiking neuron proposed by E.M. Izhikevich [9] that is based on a previous hybrid model with a convex spike-activation function f(x), but modified with a conductance reversal potential term. We analyze the model proposed by Izhikevich and obtain a bifurcation portrait for the continuous dynamics for an arbitrary convex spike activation function f(x). Both subcritical and supercritical Andronov-Hopf bifurcations …

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Nak For Ext, Ascent Of Module Structures, And The Blindness Of Extended Modules, Benjamin John Anderson Jan 2012

Nak For Ext, Ascent Of Module Structures, And The Blindness Of Extended Modules, Benjamin John Anderson

Mathematics

This dissertation investigates the interplay between properties of Ext modules and ascent of module structures along ring homomorphisms. First, we consider a flat local ring homomorphism ϕ: (R, [special characters omitted], k) → (S, [special characters omitted]S, k). We show that if M is a finitely generated R-module such that [special characters omitted](S, M) satisfies NAK (e.g. if [special characters omitted](S, M) is finitely generated over S) for i = 1,…, dimR( M), then [special characters omitted](S, M) = 0 for all i ≠ 0 and M has an S-module structure via ϕ. We also provide explicit computations of [special …

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An Ontology-Based Model Management Architecture For Service Innovation, Omar F. El-Gayar, Amit Deokar Jan 2012

An Ontology-Based Model Management Architecture For Service Innovation, Omar F. El-Gayar, Amit Deokar

Research & Publications

Organizations have indicated renewed interest in service innovation, design and management, given the growth of service sector. Decision support systems (DSS) play an important role in supporting this endeavor, through management of organizational resources such as data and models. Given the global nature of service value chains, there have been ever increasing demands on managing, sharing, and reusing these heterogeneous and distributed resources, both within and across organizational boundaries, through DSS consisting of database management systems (DBMS) and model management systems (MMS). Analogous to DBMS, model management systems focus on the management of decision models, dealing with representation, storage, and …

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Using Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Technology To Assess Bird-Habitat Relationships: A Case Study From The Northwoods Of Maine, Wesley Eugene Newton Jan 2012

Using Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Technology To Assess Bird-Habitat Relationships: A Case Study From The Northwoods Of Maine, Wesley Eugene Newton

Natural Resources Management

Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is a remote sensing technology that quantifies the travel time of photons emitted in pulses from a LiDAR instrument to travel to and reflect back from objects. Knowing the travel time for the photons and accounting for the speed of light, distances to objects from the instrument can be quantified. When LiDAR is acquired over forested areas some of the pulses will find canopy openings and "penetrate" to the ground with others striking the canopy at various heights above the ground, generating an XYZ point-cloud of eastings, northings, and elevations. Capitalizing on the information …

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