Digital Commons Network^™

Plant Networks For Processing Recyclable Materials, Lieven Demeester, Mei Qi, Luk N. Van Wassenhove

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We use a modified optimal market area model to examine how links between material recycling and other aspects of operations strategy can shape plant networks for the processing of recyclable materials. We characterize the complementarity of the recyclate ratio, defined as the maximum recycled content, with material versatility and miniscaling of recycling plants. We also observe that it is beneficial to coordinate investments in recycling- and production-related competencies because colocated recycling and production plants (minimills) eliminate recyclate transport. We therefore consider versatile miniplants, defined as a competency that factors in both material versatility and coordinated miniscaling of recycling and production …

Stonewall Jackson Resort Master Plan: An Ecological Model For Stormwater Management That Engages And Educates Through Context Sensitive Low-Impact Development Strategies, Claire E. Jeran

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park sits in central West Virginia in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. The dammed lake and state park opened to the public over two decades ago and development within the property continues today. The attention to stormwater management, vegetation, and public awareness of their connection to the natural environment become an integral component to an ecologically sustainable landscape. This project focuses on the eighteen acres surrounding the lodge buildings on a lakefront peninsula. The design responded to a thorough analysis and seeks to enhance the visitor's experience through use of new program elements, circulation patterns, …

Institutional Integration As A Predictor Of Success In At-Risk First-Year College Students, Jan-Erin Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As earning a postsecondary degree becomes more necessary in the preparation for future employment, many of this nation's four-year colleges and universities are admitting underprepared students who are at-risk for poor academic performance and early departure from the institutions. There are a myriad of factors and characteristics that can cause students to be labeled at-risk, including being a first-generation student, coming from a lower socioeconomic environment, and having certain personality traits. At-risk college students have higher incidence of departure from the institutions, which can produce emotional distress and long-lasting financial obligations. Over the past thirty years, research in the area …

Trial And Error In Influential Social Networks, Xiaohui Bei, Ning Chen, Liyu Dou, Xiangru Huang, Ruixin Qiang

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper, we introduce a trial-And-error model to study information diffusion in a social network. Specifically, in every discrete period, all individuals in the network concurrently try a new technology or product with certain respective probabilities. If it turns out that an individual observes a better utility, he will then adopt the trial; otherwise, the individual continues to choose his prior selection. We first demonstrate that the trial and error behavior of individuals characterizes certain global community structures of a social network, from which we are able to detect macro-communities through the observation of microbehavior of individuals. We run …

Healthcare Providers Monitoring Of Serum Potassium Levels In The Treatment Of Heart Failure, Sara Burwell, Megan Chaney, Corey Shoemaker

MSN Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine if patients older than 65 years of age received the influenza vaccine.

Suicide Screening In Primary Care With Patients Diagnosed With Depression, Lori Duke, Cindy Patrick

MSN Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to evaluate healthcare providers' compliance with the recommended 2009 ACCF/AHA guidelines for monitoring routine serum potassium levels in heart failure patients.

Influenza Vaccination Of The Older Adult Patient And Documentation By The Healthcare Provider, Sara Burwell, Megan Chaney, Corey Shoemaker

MSN Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine if patients older than 65 years of age received the influenza vaccine.

Healthcare Providers Monitoring Of Serum Potassium Levels In The Treatment Of Heart Failure, Lori Duke, Cindy Patrick

MSN Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to evaluate healthcare providers' compliance with the recommended 2009 ACCF/AHA guidelines for monitoring routine serum potassium levels in heart failure patients.

August 2013 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Defining Characteristics Of An Integrated Stem Curriculum In K-12 Education, Vinson Robert Carter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to obtain consensus concerning the defining characteristics of integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum. This study utilized a three round modified Delphi study to solicit recommendations from experts of STEM education in order to: 1) create a set of categorical and defining curricular components needed to develop and implement appropriate integrated STEM curriculum; 2) identify the characteristics that set integrated STEM education curriculum apart from single-discipline curricula; 3) discuss the components necessary to gauge whether an initiative, project, or curriculum should be referred to as integrated STEM education; and 4) examine whether …

Structure-Function Relationship Of The Ligand-Binding Domain Of The Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor, Ryan Thurman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The interactions between FGF and fibroblast growth factor receptors are responsible for the regulation of key cellular processes. FGF is important in both germ cell and embryonic developments. FGF continues to play important roles during adulthood by regulating embryogenesis, cell differentiation, and wound healing (1-7). The regulations of these cellular events are initiated through FGF binding to the fibroblast growth factor receptors. The complex formed by FGF and the receptor involves a key interaction with heparin. Through interactions with heparin, the FGF, FGFR and Heparin form a 2:2:2 complex (8). This complex formation results in autophosphorylation in the tyrosine kinase …

The Impact Of Parent Education On Parental Feeding Practices, Larra Kolby Brawley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research looked at the potential impact that parent education may have on the feeding practices of parents of young children. Since eating behaviors are a national concern for both children and adults, it's important to examine how we can create not just healthier children but, as a result, healthier adults. This study utilized an intervention that was an adapted version of a healthy eating curriculum created by Sesame Workshop and the California WIC association with the intention of improving parental feeding practices through a behavior-based approach. Previous research with this curriculum has addressed only low-income populations, with a relatively …

Characterization And Quantification Of Monomers, Oligomers, And By-Products From Switchgrass Hemicelluloses During Biomass Pretreatment, Kris Allan Bunnell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Production of fuels and chemicals from biomass is contingent upon economical release of carbohydrates from biomass. Carbohydrates can then be used for production of bio-based products using a biochemical conversion process. Pretreatment, the first step of the biochemical conversion process, has been suggested to be the most costly step of the conversion process. Thus, better understanding the behavior of biomass during pretreatment is imperative for an economically viable production of biofuels and chemicals. Elucidating the physicochemical properties of biomass and developing an understanding the depolymerization patterns of biomass during pretreatment will help progress towards this goal.

In this study, July- …

Genome-Wide Association Mapping Identifies Qtls And Candidate Genes For Salt Tolerance In Soybean, Lei Huang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Salinity is a common abiotic stress causing soybean yield loss worldwide. Use of tolerant cultivars is an effective and economic approach to coping with this stress. Toward this, research is needed to identify salt-tolerant germplasm and better understand the genetic and molecular basis of salt tolerance in soybean. The objectives of this study were to identify salt-tolerant genotypes, to search for SNPs and QTLs associated with salt tolerance, and to identify candidate salt tolerance genes. A total of 192 diverse soybean lines and cultivars were screened for salt tolerance in the greenhouse based on visual leaf scorch scores after 15 …

Hybrid Nanostructured Textile Bioelectrode For Unobtrusive Health Monitoring, Pratyush Rai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coronary heart disease, cardiovascular diseases and strokes are the leading causes of mortality in United States of America. Timely point-of-care health diagnostics and therapeutics for person suffering from these diseases can save thousands of lives. However, lack of accessible minimally intrusive health monitoring systems makes timely diagnosis difficult and sometimes impossible. To remedy this problem, a textile based nano-bio-sensor was developed and evaluated in this research. The sensor was made of novel array of vertically standing nanostructures that are conductive nano-fibers projecting from a conductive fabric. These sensor electrodes were tested for the quality of electrical contact that they made …

Algae To Propellants: Biosynthesis Of 1,2-Propanediol From Algal Derived Sugars, Lauren Rachelle Merriman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Propylene glycol dinitrate (PGDN) is an important component used in the formulation of energetic materials. A renewable, environmentally-friendly and effective production technique for the production of 1,2-propanediol, an important precursor to PGDN, is desired. While fermentation of 1,2-propanediol has been achieved, it suffers from major limitations such as expensive feed sugars and relatively low yields. It is hypothesized that algae sugars could serve as a feedstock for the microbial synthesis of 1,2-propanediol, thereby reducing production costs and enhancing sustainability.

Algal biomass produced from an Algal Turf Scrubber® has proven to have significant potential as a source of fermentable materials. However, …

Influences Of Music Genre And Components On Food Perception And Acceptance, Alexandra Jean Fiegel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Managers of consumer goods companies (i.e., restaurants, grocery stores, and bars) have the potential to effectively utilize environmental factors to stimulate desired consumer behaviors. Background music has been identified as one of the most readily manipulated and influential elements to which a shopper or consumer may be exposed to in a service setting. Nevertheless, little is known about the effect of background sound on food perception and acceptance. This research sought whether background music genre and musical components can alter food perception and acceptance, but also to determine how the effect can vary as a function of food type (i.e., …

2013 August, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for August of 2013.

Self-Organizing Cognitive Models For Virtual Agents, Yilin Kang, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Three key requirements of realistic characters or agents in virtual world can be identified as autonomy, interactivity, and personification. Working towards these challenges, this paper proposes a brain inspired agent architecture that integrates goal-directed autonomy, natural language interaction and human-like personification. Based on self-organizing neural models, the agent architecture maintains explicit mental representation of desires, intention, personalities, self-awareness, situation awareness and user awareness. Autonomous behaviors are generated via evaluating the current situation with active goals and learning the most appropriate social or goal-directed rule from the available knowledge, in accordance with the personality of each individual agent. We have built …

Balancing Conservatism And Innovation: The Pragmatic Analects, Sor-Hoon Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

At the age of 14, I picked up a copy of the Analects for the first time.1 A quickbrowse revealed content that reminded me so much of my mother’s lectures aboutproper behavior that I promptly put it aside as a tract of old fashioned thinking andconservative manners. Through my early adulthood, my feelings about Chineseculture were close enough to the May Fourth intellectuals’ sensibilities that I didnot question interpretations of the Analects, and more generally Confucianism,as teaching a kind of conservatism incompatible with modern life. However,subsequent study has convinced me that such interpretations are one-sided andoften motivated by ideologies that …

2013-2014 Campus Plan

Complete College Georgia Campus Plans

No abstract provided.

Development Of An Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (Elisa) For The Detection Of Pecan Residues In Processed Foods, Denise Tran

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pecan nuts are becoming increasingly popular due to their link to health benefits. However, the presence of undeclared pecan residues in food products can pose serious health risks for pecan-allergic consumers. Currently, analytical methods for the detection of pecan allergens are limited and have not been validated for use by the food industry to assess the effectiveness of allergen control programs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a sandwich-type ELISA to detect and quantify allergenic pecan residues in processed foods. Several varieties of pecan were mixed, roasted, and ground to immunize a goat, sheep, and rabbits. The …

Selecting Drought Tolerant Soybean Genotypes Using Qtls Associated With Shoot Ureide And Nitrogen Concentrations, Alejandro Bolton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In soybean, nitrogen fixation is more sensitive to drought than other physiological processes like photosynthesis. The sensitivity of nitrogen fixation to drought has been associated with high shoot concentrations of ureide and nitrogen under well-watered conditions. Previous research by Hwang et al. (2013) detected quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in a KS4895 by Jackson population associated with shoot ureide and nitrogen concentrations. The present research evaluated the use of these QTLs in selecting genotypes with drought tolerant nitrogen fixation. Our objectives were to compare actual versus expected phenotype of recombinant inbreed lines (RILs) selected using molecular markers, and to evaluate the …

Teachers' Perceptions Toward Implementing English As A Foreign Language At Kindergarten: What Can We Learn From The Case Of Kuwaiti Kindergarten Teachers?, Kawthar M. Habeeb

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The teaching of English as a foreign language has a promising outlook in the nation of Kuwait. Recent policy reflects language development theories that see early childhood as an especially good period for the learning of a foreign language. Thus, English is now taught at 30 public kindergartens in Kuwait. However, the program apparently was implemented quickly, with little consideration for how teachers and other stakeholders would respond to it. This paper explores that program in the context of the perceptions and views of teachers affected by it.

A review of the existing curriculum points towards deficiencies, and investigation of …

A Roadmap To Mindful Consumption Through Informative Labeling Practices: The Effects Of Sustainability Disclosure Formats On Consumer Product Evaluations, Yoon-Na Cho

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the interest of consumers in sustainable and environmentally friendly products, only a limited number of studies have focused on sustainability level disclosures for consumer packaged goods. The general overarching purpose of this dissertation is to extend the internal reference point and information processing literatures to better understand how consumers will process sustainability disclosures. Applying the theoretical lens of assimilation bias in conjunction with self-enhancement offers an important extension to prior work. Across two retail lab studies and four online experiments, I demonstrate that the perceived sustainability utility (i.e., the difference between a specific brand's level of sustainability and category-level …

Ecology And Structure Of Black Bear (Ursus Americanus) Populations In The Interior Highlands Of Arkansas, Thea Vandervelde Kristensen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the Interior Highlands of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, over-harvest, extensive logging, and reductions of habitat availability by other means contributed to the decline of black bears (Ursus americanus). Bears were extirpated from the majority of the region by the 1940's Oklahoma by 1915 and from Missouri by 1931. From 1958-1968, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission undertook a reintroduction to the Ouachita and the Ozark National Forests in Arkansas. The successful growth and expansion of the released population caused these efforts to be considered one of the most successful reintroductions of carnivores. In this dissertation, I sought to examine …

On The Permanence Of Heideggerian Authenticity, Seth Daves

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this essay I pose the following question: is Heideggerian authenticity permanent? To investigate this question I begin with a thorough analysis of what Heidegger means by authenticity. Afterwards I look into the leading figures within the field, seeking guidance in answering the question of the permanence of Heideggerian authenticity. Ultimately I conclude that an amended version of John Haugeland's analysis of resoluteness gives rise to the affirmative response to my question. I conclude by investigating potential problems concluding that Heideggerian authenticity is permanent.

The Meaning Of Play For Adults From A Reversal Theory Perspective, Linda Lane

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Play is important to adults' mental creativity and happiness (Marano, 1999), and stress reduction (Apter, 2009a; Baptiste, 1995). Yet play may be considered as trivial behavior that is not appropriate for the adult population. The purpose of the study was to examine how adults describe the concept of play and to determine whether this description reflects their dominant metamotivational state. According to reversal theory, these states are the frames of mind that characterize an individual's motivation at any given point in time (Apter, 1982). An individual tends to be in a more playful (paratelic) state or serious-minded (telic) state depending …

Characterization Of Host Immune Responses To Eimeria Adenoeides Infection In Turkey Poults, Ujvala Deepthi Gadde

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coccidiosis is a common enteric disease of turkeys that is caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Eimeria. There are about seven species of Eimeria that affect turkeys and of these E. adenoeides is the most pathogenic and commonly recognized. Infection with Eimeria is known to induce a long lasting protective immunity in chickens, but nothing is known regarding the acquisition of immunity to Eimeria in turkeys. The experiments reported here were aimed at investigating the biological and cellular immune response to E. adenoeides in turkey poults under different conditions of exposure. In experiment 1 (Chapter II), 20 …

The Impact Of Selected Academic And Demographic Variables On Mathematics College Readiness Predicted By Act, Marcia Sue Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which academic and demographic variables affected the ACT results used in determining college readiness. This quantitative research study followed a non-experimental correlational design. A multiple regression was used to analyze archival data to determine the impact the combined Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment and Accountability Program (ACTAAP) mathematics end-of-course (EOC) score, high school GPA, and highest mathematics class completed had on the ACT mathematics exam. In addition, a hierarchical multiple regression model was used to determine how English language learner (ELL) status and socio-economic status (SES) impacted students' ACT performance …