Digital Commons Network^™

Network Interdependency Modeling For Risk Assessment On Built Infrastructure Systems, Vhance V. Valencia

Theses and Dissertations

As modern infrastructures become more interconnected, the decision-making process becomes more difficult because of the increased complexity resulting from infrastructure interdependencies. Simulation and network modeling provide a way to understand system behavior as a result of interdependencies. One area within the asset management literature that is not well covered is infrastructure system decay and risks associated with that decay. This research presents an enhanced version of Haimes' input-output inoperability model (IIM) in the analysis of built infrastructure systems. Previous applications of the IIM characterized infrastructure at the national level utilizing large economic databases. This study develops a three-phased approach that …

Dose Dependent Effects Of Caffeine On Cognitive Performance And Neuronal Activation, Stephan Albrecht, Helen Morris, Michelle Vieyra

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Many students assume that the more caffeine you drink, the better your cognitive performance. Over-consumption of caffeine has many negative effects, so if there are no dose related cognitive benefits to large amounts of caffeine, then college students should limit their intake. This study looked at whether ingesting a medium dose (200 mg) versus a lower dose (100 mg) of caffeine improved short term memory as measured by Flanker and n-back tests, compared to a control group. In addition, we looked at whether larger doses of caffeine produced a difference in neuronal activation during these tests as measured by functional …

An Improved Fibonacci Inequality, Cameron T. Cooper, Fidele F. Ngwane, Wei-Kai Lai

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Fibonacci numbers and Fibonacci sequences play a key role in many areas of mathematics and other sciences. Many inequalities satisfied by Fibonacci sequences have been established. In this paper we prove a new Fibonacci inequality using Candido's identity.

Fourier Analysis Of Phase Resetting Curves Of Neural Oscillators, Robert A. Raidt, Sorinel A. Oprisan

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

We investigated the impact of changes in biologically relevant control parameters, such as the shape of an external perturbation or the conductance values of an individual model neuron, on the shape of the phase resetting curve (PRC) of that neuron. For that purpose, PRCs were generated for groups of Morris-Lecar (ML) model neurons with different conductance values but similar firing periods (within 0.005ms) using external rectangular, triangular, or trapezoidal perturbations of varying areas. These PRCs were numerically described and analyzed as a series of coefficient values using a Fourier Discrete Sine Transform (DST). We found that changes in the shape …

‘Maybe It Was Too Much To Expect In Those Days’: The Changing Lifestyles Of Barnard’S First Female Students, Jennifer Prevete Fcrh '12

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

From 1890 to 1920 higher education witnessed a marked increase in female matriculation among select East Coast institutions. This paper explores the personal narratives of these pioneering women to illustrate how societal forces strongly influenced these women’s college experiences. Existing discourse emphasizes the difficulties female university students faced as they tried to pursue both careers and families. Scholars claim that an unusual number of college-educated women did not marry or married at a later age. This paper examines first-hand perspectives drawn from the Barnard College Archives to supplement current secondary data. Alumnae biographical questionnaires reveal how women reconciled opportunities with …

The Next Generation Laboratory Interface For Students With Blindness Or Low Vision In The Science Laboratory, Cary A. Supalo

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Entry into science education for students with blindness or low vision can present economic and technological barriers to access. This manuscript discusses funding hands-on student experiences in middle school, high school, and post-secondary education. Further, the use of access technologies recently developed for science education is also presented. Partnerships between access technology companies that are committed to working together make access more possible than ever before. The shift from the Director Assisted Approach to independent data collection in a hands-on way to promote interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers is discussed.

School Actvities In Natural Sciences For Students With Special Needs In Bulgaria, M. Zamfirov, Sv. Saeva

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study discusses the influence of classroom activities in the mainstream schools and special schools in Bulgaria. The study presents classroom activities related to the school subject Human and Nature. This school subject is part of the curriculum both at special and at mainstream schools. There are detailed explanations and descriptions as well as concrete methodological directions for each classroom activity. Some photographs are included in the text in order to achieve better visualization of the classroom activities described. The developed classroom activities in Natural Sciences for students with special needs, are just a small step in the understanding of …

Solving Word Problems: As Easy As Pies!, Mary Jane Heater, Lori A. Howard, Ed Linz

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Many students are challenged when tasked to complete a word problem. While they may know the procedural steps to solve an equation, translating a word problem into an appropriate equation and producing a solution may often cause students to become confused or unwilling to try. This article provides a potential solution for teachers by discussing the use of a simple mnemonic tool to help organize the process. Mnemonics are a useful and effective strategy to help students with learning disabilities remember information and process steps. In the strategy presented, the mnemonic PIES is used to describe a 4-step process for …

Teacher Perceptions Regarding Teaching And Learning Of Seasonal Change Concepts Of Middle School Students With Visual Impairments, Tiffany A. Wild

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study examines two classroom teachers’ of students with visual impairments perceptions of middle school students with visual impairments learning of seasonal change and the teaching methods used in their classrooms. These perceptions were compared to data that documented student learning of the science content of seasonal change. The first teacher taught seasonal change concepts to middle school students with visual impairments using traditional instruction methodologies. The second teacher taught the same concepts using inquiry-based methodologies. Both classroom teachers were interviewed in order to probe their thinking about their classroom practices and the strategies they used. Upon completion of the …

Nmr Determination Of Enantiomeric Composition Of Chiral Alcohols Using Camphorsulfonate Esters, Steven Bondi Fcrh '11, Thomas Lobasso Fcrh '09, Christa Iwanoski Fcrh '09, Shahrokh Saba, Donald Clarke

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

Most biologically active compounds, including pharmaceuticals, have chiral molecular structures. With increased recognition that enantiomers of chiral drugs are metabolized differently, there has been enormous interest in the development of enantioselective methodologies for the synthesis of chiral compounds. NMR spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful method for discrimination of enantiomers of chiral compounds. 1 One strategy by which the NMR method is exploited is based on converting the enantiomers of a chiral compound to diastereomers using a chiral derivatizing agent. These diastereomers often display anisochronous NMR signals, which can be identified and integrated affording quantitative measurements of the optical purity …

Energy Of Electrons In A Nanowire Subject To Spin-Orbit Interaction, Ryan Brennan Fcrh '11, Sheehan Ahmed Fcrh '11, Antonios Balassis, Vassilios Fessatidis

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

The Hamiltonian for a particle subject to spin-orbit interaction is more complicated than that of a free particle, containing terms corresponding to the electric dipole and Thomas precession processes. For a thin quantum wire in the x-y plane, a non-zero electric field perpendicular to the plane of the wire gives rise to yet another process of spin-orbit interaction called the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. The contribution of this Rashba mechanism is dictated by a parameter α which is proportional to the perpendicular electric field. Additionally, a strong potential well within the x-y plane may be associated with an electric field, which …

The Spontaneous Formation Of Selenium Nanoparticles On Gallic Acid Assemblies And Their Antioxidant Properties, Stacey Barnaby Fcrh '11, Nazmul Sarker Fcrh '13, Aaron Dowdell Fcrh '12, Ipsita Bannerjee

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

Gallic acid (GA) is a naturally occurring plant phenol known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In this work, we probed the molecular self-assembly of GA for the development of GA based nanocomposites for potential device fabrications and enhanced antioxidant applications. We found that the formation of GA nanostructures was pH dependent. Further, we examined the interactions of selenite with GA and subsequently examined the biomimetic formation of selenium (Se) nanoparticles. We found that in the presence of selenite, the yield of nanofibers was significantly higher, and selenium nanoparticle coated nanofibers were formed. The ability of the nanocomposites to scavenge …

We Are...Marshall, December 18, 2013, Office Of Marshall University Communications

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

No abstract provided.

Identifying Potential Cancer Driver Genes By Genomic Data Integration., Yong Chen, Jingjing Hao, Wei Jiang, Tong He, Xuegong Zhang, Tao Jiang, Rui Jiang

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Cancer is a genomic disease associated with a plethora of gene mutations resulting in a loss of control over vital cellular functions. Among these mutated genes, driver genes are defined as being causally linked to oncogenesis, while passenger genes are thought to be irrelevant for cancer development. With increasing numbers of large-scale genomic datasets available, integrating these genomic data to identify driver genes from aberration regions of cancer genomes becomes an important goal of cancer genome analysis and investigations into mechanisms responsible for cancer development. A computational method, MAXDRIVER, is proposed here to identify potential driver genes on the basis …

Efficiency And Reliability Of The Transit Data Lifecycle: A Study Of Multimodal Migration, Storage, And Retrieval Techniques For Public Transit Data, Matthew Ahrens

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Data Management In Cloud Environments: Nosql And Newsql Data Stores, Katarina Grolinger, Wilson A. Higashino, Abhinav Tiwari, Miriam Am Capretz

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

: Advances in Web technology and the proliferation of mobile devices and sensors connected to the Internet have resulted in immense processing and storage requirements. Cloud computing has emerged as a paradigm that promises to meet these requirements. This work focuses on the storage aspect of cloud computing, specifically on data management in cloud environments. Traditional relational databases were designed in a different hardware and software era and are facing challenges in meeting the performance and scale requirements of Big Data. NoSQL and NewSQL data stores present themselves as alternatives that can handle huge volume of data. Because of the …

The Antelope, University Of Nebraska At Kearney

The Antelope

No abstract provided.

Water Vapor Movement In Freezing Aggregate Base Materials, Maile Anne Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this research were to 1) measure the extent to which water vapor movement results in water accumulation in freezing base materials; 2) evaluate the effect of soil stabilization on water vapor movement in freezing base materials; 3) determine if the corresponding changes in water content are sufficient to cause frost heave during winter; 4) determine if the corresponding changes in water content are sufficient to cause reductions in stiffness during spring; 5) evaluate relationships between selected material properties, freezing conditions, and the occurrence and impact of water vapor movement; and 6) numerically simulate heat and water movement …

Model Spaces: A Survey, William T. Ross, Stephan Ramon Garcia

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

This is a brief and gentle introduction, aimed at graduate students, to the subject of model subspaces of the Hardy space.

A Dynamic Optimization Framework With Model Predictive Control Elements For Long Term Planning Of Capacity Investments In A District Energy System, Jose Luis Mojica Velazquez

Theses and Dissertations

The capacity expansion of a district heating system is studied with the objective of evaluating the investment decision timing and type of capacity expansion. District energy is an energy generation system that provides energy, such as heat and electricity, generated at central locations and distributed to the surrounding area. The study develops an optimization framework to find the optimal investment schedule over a 30 year horizon with the options of investing in traditional heating sources (boilers) or a next-generation combined heat and power (CHP) plant that can provide heat and electricity. In district energy systems, the investment decision on the …

Atmospheric Organic Matter In Clouds: Exact Masses And Molecular Formula Identification Using Ultrahigh-Resolution Ft-Icr Mass Spectrometry, Y. Zhao, A. G. Hallar, Lynn Mazzoleni

Department of Chemistry Publications

Clouds alter the composition of atmospheric aerosol by acting as a medium for interactions between gas- and particulate-phase substances. To determine the cloud water atmospheric organic matter (AOM) composition and study the cloud processing of aerosols, two samples of supercooled clouds were collected at the Storm Peak Laboratory near Steamboat Springs, Colorado (3220 m a.s.l.). Approximately 3000 molecular formulas were assigned to ultrahigh-resolution mass spectra of the samples after using a reversed-phase extraction procedure to isolate the AOM components from the cloud water. Nitrogen-containing compounds (CHNO compounds), sulfur-containing compounds (CHOS and CHNOS compounds) and other oxygen-containing compounds (CHO compounds) with …

Which Biomarkers Reveal Neonatal Sepsis?, Kun Wang, Vineet Bhandari, Sofya Chepustanova, Greg Huber, Stephen O′Hara, Corey S. O′Hern, Mark D. Shattuck, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

We address the identification of optimal biomarkers for the rapid diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. We employ both canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and sparse support vector machine (SSVM) classifiers to select the best subset of biomarkers from a large hematological data set collected from infants with suspected sepsis from Yale-New Haven Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). CCA is used to select sets of biomarkers of increasing size that are most highly correlated with infection. The effectiveness of these biomarkers is then validated by constructing a sparse support vector machine diagnostic classifier. We find that the following set of five biomarkers …

The Bg News December 18, 2013, Bowling Green State University

BG News (Student Newspaper)

The BGSU campus student newspaper. December 18, 2013. Volume 93-Issue 50.

A Study Of The Articulated Leadership Practices Of Principals In Relation To The Literature On The Characteristics Of High Performing Principals, Janet Grooms

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

2013

In the modern world of education and 21st century school systems, improvements in student achievements are recognized as the foremost objective of school reforms and restructuring efforts. The criticism continues to spread across the country for public schools that fail to meet students’ needs, especially in the urban areas where the achievement gap is widening. School communities and educational leaders continue to demand more accountability from principals as instructional leaders because of the decline in student achievement, as measured by states’ standardized achievement tests. The trend in most school systems is that the school principal is required by the …

The Impact Of The K-8 Reconfiguration Of Three Schools On Parent Trust In A Small Urban School District In New Jersey, Frank Ayirebi Asante

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the reconfiguration of three schools, on parent trust, as measured by parent perceptions in a small urban school district in New Jersey.

For this study an interview protocol was developed to elicit parent responses about the reconfigured schools’ ability to meet the middle school needs of their children and it’s impact on one component of the parent school relationship; trust.

The reader is provided with direct quotations from the interview participants which consisted of parents with mixed socio-economic and racial backgrounds from the reconfigured schools whose children attend or …

A Program Like Any Other…Like None Other: Sustaining A Laboratory Science Technology Program For Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Students, Todd Pagano, Annemarie D. Ross

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

A goal of the Laboratory Science Technology program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, is to produce graduates with strong foundations in applied science, hands-on laboratory applications, and “soft skills” necessary for competitive employment as laboratory technicians. Graduates of the program earn Associate degrees, and if qualified, transition to related baccalaureate programs. Those who finish either an Associates of Occupational Science or Associates of Applied Science degree programs tend to go to work in the chemical, biological, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, environmental, forensic, industrial, and food analysis fields. At first glance, the LST …

Using An Inquiry-Based Teaching Approach To Improve Science Outcomes For Students With Disabilities: Snapshot And Longitudinal Data, Jonte Taylor, William J. Therrien, Erica Rochelle Kaldenberg, Sarah J. Watt, Niphon Chanlen, Brian Hand

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Poor science achievement has been an educational issue for a number of years. Students with disabilities have traditionally fared worse. Research suggests that students with disabilities may respond better to instruction using an inquiry-based approach vs. traditional textbook instruction when measuring science achievement on standardized measures. The researchers report achievement data on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills from a target school district for students Individualized Education Program’s (IEP) and non-IEP students, as well as students with IEP’s at the state level. Using an argument-based inquiry approach to science instruction called the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH); the researchers report data …

Ambiguity And Inconsistencies In Mathematics Spoken In The Classroom: The Need For Teacher Training And Rules For Communication Of Mathematics, M.D. Isaacson, S. Srinivasan, Lyle Lloyd

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Mathematics has the potential for being spoken ambiguously. This is problematic for many students, in particular those who have disabilities that inhibit processing of printed material. This paper documents the magnitude of potential ambiguity arising from textbooks and provides a measure of the degree to which potential ambiguity is actualized through teachers’ speech. Inconsistency among teachers in speaking mathematics is also documented. Evidence is provided that teachers are not adequately aware of ambiguity in speaking mathematics and that they believe that they should have training regarding ambiguity in communication of mathematics and how to speak mathematics non-ambiguously.

A Hybrid Course Designed To Increase Managerial Export Motivation And Export Engagement, John Andy Wood, Cyril Logar, William Riley

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The paper reviews and explains a new course format at West Virginia University. The content of this course focuses on initiating exporting by companies located in the home state of the university. The attendees include university students and representatives of companies that are interested in starting to export. The content of the course and the participation by company representatives created the need for an atypical delivery of Friday evenings and all day Saturday meeting at two to four week intervals between class sessions. Practical exporting experience is shared by experts from the Department of Commerce, the Export Council, and representative …

Parsons To Support Cal Poly Initiative To Produce Future Cybersecurity Professionals, Public Affairs Office

Press Releases

No abstract provided.