Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

Effectiveness Of Multiple Restoration Techniques In Reducing The Abundance Of Kentucky Bluegrass And Smooth Bromegrass In The Northern Great Plains, Corie Beth Lund

Range Science

Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) and smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermus L.) are cool-season, perennial, non-native grasses that are invading North Dakota grasslands. Two studies evaluated different restoration techniques aimed at reducing Kentucky bluegrass and smooth bromegrass abundance. The initial study, located on five different plant communities in a mixed grass prairie near Mandan, ND, noted some success at reducing Kentucky bluegrass through a combination of fire and chemicals. Therefore, a second study was initiated near Lisbon, ND to evaluate the effectiveness of fire and herbicides, alone or in combination, and the sequence for applying fire and herbicide. These treatments were …

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

"There Arose A Mist Of Darkness": The Narrative Of Lehi's Dream In Christ's Theophany, Dan Belnap, Daniel Belnap

Faculty Publications

The events surrounding Christ’s theophany as recounted in 3 Nephi describe the creation of a new world, both physically and socially. In particular, chapters 8–18 depict a series of events that are reminiscent of the creation of the earth as described in Genesis and elsewhere. From the all-pervasive darkness experienced during the cataclysmic destruction to the glorious, light-filled arrival of Christ and the institution of new laws and ordinances delivered during his first day among the people, the Book of Mormon text reflects this biblical narrative. Yet the manner in which it is presented echoes a creation narrative unique to …

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 …

Spiritual Diversity In Couple And Family Therapy Training: Student Perspectives, Nicole Lea Roberts

Human Development and Family Science

The current study assessed couple and family therapy (CFT) students' levels of self-reported competence working with clients from non-Christian spiritual traditions, levels of content that students reported receiving related to preparing them to work with Christian and non-Christian clients, and perceptions of the training students received on working with clients of diverse spiritual faith traditions. Participants were CFT students from accredited Master's and doctoral programs of the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). Results indicated that there were significant differences in the content students reported receiving regarding working with clients of Christian faith traditions compared to …

Evaluation Of Hard Red And White Spring Wheat Genotypes For Tolerance To Pre-Harvest Sprouting, Mory Rugg

Plant Sciences

Each genotype was exposed to controlled PHS conditions for evaluation of susceptibility or tolerance to sprouting, falling number, kernel color, test weight, and yield. The 24 genotypes were grown in replicated trials at three locations over three years, all data subjected to an analysis of variance. Over three years the genotypes were rated for visual PHS using a 1 to 9 scale, with 1 equivalent to no visual PHS and 9 equivalent to maximum visual PHS. The red genotypes exhibited a higher tolerance to PHS than white genotypes with a mean PHS score of 4.46 compared with 5.16 for white …

On K-Means Clustering Using Mahalanobis Distance, Joshua Nelson

Statistics

A problem that arises quite frequently in statistics is that of identifying groups, or clusters, of data within a population or sample. The most widely used procedure to identify clusters in a set of observations is known as K-Means. The main limitation of this algorithm is that it uses the Euclidean distance metric to assign points to clusters. Hence, this algorithm operates well only if the covariance structures of the clusters are nearly spherical and homogeneous in nature. To remedy this shortfall in the K-Means algorithm the Mahalanobis distance metric was used to capture the variance structure of the clusters. …

Teaching Conversations, Contemporary Art, And Figure Drawing, Mark Graham

Faculty Publications

An important problem for high school art teachers is deciding what belongs in the art curriculum. What works of art, media, or ideas will inspire their students to more fully develop their own artistic potential and critically engage with contemporary art and culture? What artifacts of art, visual culture, or material culture should be included and how can these artifacts be connected to student interests? This article will visit these questions and contextualize figure drawing within contemporary art practice and emerging discussions about art education curricula. Although new media and technologies have important and unexpected places within the art curriculum, …

Lease Transaction Structuring, Earnings Management, And Management Credibility, Susan D. Krische, Paula R. Sanders, Steven D. Smith

Faculty Publications

Despite recent regulatory concerns regarding off-balance sheet financing, and concerns about lease accounting in particular, relatively little is known about how financial statement users view lease transaction structuring compared to other forms of earnings management. We examine sell-side financial statement analysts’ views on lease transaction structuring and its impact on their assessments of management credibility. Although operating leases often act as the prototypical example of transaction structuring, survey responses suggest that lease structuring and related voluntary reconciliations do not raise the same concerns for analysts as do other earnings management activities (which lower analysts’ perceptions of management credibility). Our findings …

Measuring Life Skills: Standardizing The Assessment Of Youth Development Indicators, Mat D. Duerden, Peter A. Witt, Mariela Fernandez, Marie Jolliff Bryant, Daniel Theriault

Faculty Publications

While the development of life skills (e.g., communication, problem solving, etc.) is a commonly targeted youth program outcome, the lack of standardized conceptualizations and instrumentation make it difficult to compare impacts across programs and develop validated best practices. In order to promote a more unified approach to life skill development, literature reviews were conducted for 10 life skill domains to identify common definitions and, if available, appropriate outcome measures. Data were then collected from an ethnically diverse sample (N = 758) of elementary, middle, and high school aged youth for the 10 identified instruments. Analyses were conducted to ascertain the …

Soft Strategic Information And Ipo Underpricing, James C. Brau, James Cicon, Grant Mcqueen

Faculty Publications

Using content analysis we measure the impact of soft information, derived from words in IPO registration documents, on IPO pricing efficiency. First, using 2,298 U.S. IPOs from 1996 to 2008, we find that an IPO document’s strategic tone correlates positively with the stock’s first-day return; more frequent usage of positive and/or less frequent usage of negative strategic words lead to more IPO underpricing. Second, we find that an IPO document’s strategic tone is negatively correlated with the stock’s long-run return. Together, these findings imply that investors initially misprice soft information in registration statements, which mispricing is eventually corrected. Additionally, we …

Small-Firm Uniqueness And Signaling Theory, James C. Brau, J. Troy Carpenter

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we develop a theory of small firm uniqueness. Instead of using an exogenous definition of firm size typical of the extant literature, we allow firms

Did Securitization Affect The Cost Of Corporate Debt?, Taylor Nadauld, Michael S. Weisbach

Faculty Publications

This paper investigates whether the securitization of corporate bank loan facilities had an impact on the price of corporate debt. Our results suggest that loan facilities that are subsequently securitized are associated with a 17 basis point lower spread than that of facilities that are not subsequently securitized. We consider facility characteristics that are associated with the likelihood of securitization and estimate the extent to which these characteristics are related to spreads. We document that Term Loan B facilities, facilities of B-rated firms, and facilities originated by banks that originate CLOs are securitized more frequently than other facilities. Spreads on …

The Effects Of Digital Intensity On Combinations Of Sequential And Configural Process Variety, James Gaskin, Kalle Lyytinen, Youngjin Yoo, Brian Pentland

Faculty Publications

Two forms of variety have been noted in organizational processes: sequential and configural. These describe variations in how a work process is ordered (sequential) or what is involved in enacting each work activity (configural). Each has been mainly studied in isolation. In organizations, these two types of variety are always co-present and scholars will miss important insights if their dependencies and interactions are not examined. This calls for theorizing and empirical inquiries regarding how these two types of variety are related and how digitalization influences them. Our contribution in this paper is to call attention to the need to analyze …

Global Representation In Psychiatric Research, Bruce L. Brown, Michael Zhang, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

To monitor global representation in the psychiatric literature, we compared publication rates in the ten psychiatric journals with the highest impact factors in 1998 and 2008 by world regions. In both 1998 and 2008, North America, Northern Europe, Western Europe and Oceania produced the majority of psychiatric research papers published in these journals, despite representing only a small fraction of the world’s population. This suggests that much of the world’s population continues to be underrepresented in highly influential psychiatric journals.

Heritage | Heart Of The Community, Christa Pojanowski

Landscape Architecture Theses

This thesis explores small urban city revitalization. When small cities outlast the function of their own infrastructure, city revitalization needs to focus on how the city is functioning overall. City infrastructure is the basis for structure and function of a city. City revitalization plays an important part in reorganizing the forms and patterns of a city to create networks and connections for a successfully functioning community.

Healing Life, Kristen Ketterling

Landscape Architecture Theses

This project aims to explore the design of healing gardens with plant materials and paths, as well as the role they play in the healing process. Landscape architects have the ability and knowledge to create usable spaces for hospitals that can encourage the healing process. Studies have shown that nature and plant materials are known to have a calming effect on patients and can be used to help in the healing process. The Jamestown Regional Medical Center will be redesigned as an example of how using plant material and suggestive paths can be applied.

Not Just Ticking The Box: An Investigation Into Safeguarding Adults Training Transfer In Cornwall, Uk, Lindsey Anne Pike

School of Health Professions Theses

Safeguarding adults is a priority in adult social care, and training is one of the main ways in which policy and guidance around it is implemented. Training transfer refers to the use of new learning on the job, and while the transfer literature is well developed, it does not extend to safeguarding adults training. This research aimed to identify, develop and refine a programme theory of safeguarding adults training transfer by identifying factors that facilitate or inhibit the use of safeguarding adults training in practice, and the impact that the training has. A cross sectional mixed methods realist synthesis approach …

Multisine Excitation Design To Increase The Efficiency Of System Identification Signal Generation And Analysis, Michael J. Schmitz

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Reducing sample frequencies in measurement systems can save power, but reduction to the point of undersampling results in aliasing and possible signal distortion. Nonlinearities of the system under test can also lead to distortions prior to measurement. In this dissertation, a first algorithm is presented for designing multisine excitation signals that can be undersampled without distortion from the aliasing of excitation frequencies or select harmonics. Next, a second algorithm is presented for designing undersampled distributions that approximate target frequency distributions. Results for pseudo-logarithmically-spaced frequency distributions designed for undersampling without distortion from select harmonics show a considerable decrease in the required …

Producing Multimedia Resources For Teaching Medical Students About The Social Context Of Medicine: A Partnership Approach, Tracey J Collett, Priska Schoenborn, Verity Campbell Barr, Fiona Dalton, Valerie Huggins, Oxana Poverjuc, Lynne Wyness

Plymouth Institute of Education

The UK General Medical Council (GMC) requires medical school graduates to be able to apply social science principles to medical practice (1993, 2009). At the policy level it is recognised that understanding of the social context of medicine results in drastic improvements to health care, morbidity and mortality (see, for example, Russell, 2009) but many undergraduate students tend to see the social sciences as ‘nice to know’ rather than ‘need to know’ (Armstrong 1979, Bolman et al, 1995, Benbassett et al, 2003, Litvia and Peters, 2008). The emphasis on disciplinary integration (Harden, 2000) and pedagogic transition from didactic to ‘problem …

The Application Of Writing As Method Of Inquiry And Pedagogic Practice: The Promotion And Enhancement Of Teaching, Learning, Research And Scholarly Activity Within A Framework Of Continuing Professional Development., Ken Gale, Rebecca Turner, Liz Mckenzie, Andrew Edwards-Jones

Plymouth Institute of Education

The project aimed to inquire into the application of different forms of writing as both method of inquiry and pedagogic practice. Therefore, the intended outcome of the project was measured in terms of the promotion and enhancement of teaching, learning, research and scholarly activity within a framework of continuing professional development. The focus group for the research activity will be HE in FE practitioners, who were identified as interested in undertaking scholarly professional development. The research considered: • How writing could be used as a method to inquire into learning; • How this could contribute to individual teaching practice and …

An Investigation Of Mechanics Of Collagen And Fibril In Bone And Interactions In Swelling Clays: A Molecular And Multiscale Modeling Study, Shashindra Man Pradhan

Engineering

A fundamental study of the mechanics at the molecular scale and bridging it to the continuum level through multiscale modeling is the focus of this work. This work investigates how the material properties of nanoscale systems are influenced by the nonbonded interactions and molecular conformations. The molecular model is then bridged with the finite element model to link mechanics at nanoscale with the continuum scale. This work provides an unprecedented insight into how the interactions at the molecular scale influence mechanical properties at higher scales. Two materials are considered for the molecular modeling study: bone and Na-montmorillonite swelling clay. Bone …

Human Mating, Peter K. Jonason, Katherine A. Valentine, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Theories and empirical findings of human mating are addressed in this article. Because of differential parental investment, men generally prefer short-term mating and women generally prefer long-term mating, and therefore must negotiate between their differential ideals. Booty-calls, friends-with-benefits, and consensual nonmonogamy are presented as compromises between male and female relationship type ideals. Sexual conflict in the form of infidelity, jealousy, sexual harassment, and rape occur when there is a break-down in negotiations. The adaptive reasons behind these behaviors and preferences are explored.

Beyond Minority Report: Pre-Crime, Pre-Punishment And Pre-Desert, John N. Williams

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Utilitarian ethics are apparently incommensurable with other ethical perspectives. Faced with a choice between maximizing general benefit to society and committing an act of injustice, those of us who reject utility in favor of justice are powerless to change the viewpoint of someone who rejects justice in favor of utility. Since there are no higher ethical principles that overarch both principles of utility and principles of justice, both sides must run out of reasons when deciding which principles should be put first. But the unreasoned decision is ineluctable, because there are possible cases in which the principles conflict.1 This kind …

Cultural Construction Of Success And Epistemic Motives Moderate American-Chinese Differences In Reward Allocation Biases, Angela K. Y. Leung, Young-Hoon Kim, Zhi-Xue Zhang, Kim-Pong Tam, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

When the relative contribution of the self and the group to a group success is unclear, Americans tend to exhibit a self-serving bias (rewarding the self more than what the self deserves), whereas the Chinese tend to exhibit an other-serving bias (rewarding the group more than the group deserves). In a study comparing the reward allocation biases of Americans and Chinese in different group outcome conditions, the authors showed that the abovementioned cultural difference is found (a) only for culturally congruent success experience (attaining approach goals for Americans and avoidance goals for Chinese) and (b) among individuals who are motivated …

Does The Expression Of Transforming Growth Factor Β-1: Affect The Outcome Of The Radiofrequency Modified Maze Procedure In Patients With Rheumatic Atrial Fibrillation?, Wei Wang, Lei Liu, Yuan Li, Sheng-Shou Hu, Yun-Hu Song, Xin Wang

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

We investigated whether the expression of transforming growth factor β-1 in the left atrial appendage affected the outcome of the radiofrequency modified maze procedure in patients with rheumatic valve disease and long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation.

Messenger RNA and protein expression of transforming growth factor β-1 and volume fractions of collagen types I and III were measured in 80 patients with rheumatic valve atrial fibrillation who underwent valve surgery with the radiofrequency modified maze procedure; the same was done in a control group of 20 patients with rheumatic valve disease and sinus rhythm who underwent valve surgery alone.

At 6 months' …

Bioabsorbable Atrial Septal Occluder For Percutaneous Closure Of Atrial Septal Defect In Children, Osman Baspinar, Mehmet Kervancioglu, Metin Kilinc, Ahmet Irdem

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

The BioSTAR bioabsorbable septal repair implant is a new transcatheter secundum atrial septal defect occlusion device that is absorbed and replaced by healthy native tissue. This retrospective analysis was designed to determine the most significant factors for its successful use in children. From October 2009 through December 2010, 33 children underwent catheterization to close secundum atrial septal defects by means of the BioSTAR. The mean age of the patients was 6.8 ± 3.4 years (range, 2.5-13 yr), and the mean body weight was 22.6 ± 11 kg (range, 11-55 kg). The device was successfully implanted in 91% of patients (30/33). …