Digital Commons Network^™

A Case Study Of North Dakota Interactive Video Network At North Dakota State University, Tamara Annette Cummings

Education

North Dakota State University (NDSU) has delivered courses utilizing the North Dakota Interactive Video Network (IVN) since 1989. The technology used an Integrated Services Digital Network but switched to Internet Protocol in 2001, greatly expanding the locations served. NDSU student and institutional data was collected but never examined. The collected data examined for this study included course and credit numbers, undergraduate and graduate student enrollments, and IVN locations. An analysis of the data found that the student enrollments did not increase at the same rate as the IVN locations. There were differences in the findings of the undergraduate and graduate …

Exploring Religious Education And Health And Physical Education Key Learning Area Connections In Primary Schools., Tj Lynch

Plymouth Institute of Education

This study explored if connections were made by teachers and students in schools between religious education (RE) and health and physical education (HPE) key learning areas (KLA). The research was conducted within three Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) Catholic primary schools of varying enrolment size. It is argued that within Catholic education, the HPE curriculum documents are strongly connected to the RE curriculum material (Lynch 2004). The spiritual dimension of the HPE curriculum is defined in the syllabus as the “sense of connection to phenomena and unusual events beyond self and usual sensory and rational existence; a sense of place within the …

Informal Material Convergence Behavior And Emergency Management: Looking A Gift Horse In The Mouth, Aleczandre Nikoluas Cole-Corde

Emergency Management

Informal material convergence behavior is the spontaneous movement of unsolicited donations from donors to emergency management for disaster relief activities. This behavior is widely accepted as an appropriate social response after disasters. However, this behavior frequently results in excessive amounts of unsolicited donations which create numerous problems for emergency management. Most donors appear unaware of the issues associated with contributing unsolicited donations. The challenge is to reeducate the media and the public about what are considered the appropriate types of donations to contribute for disaster survivors. Informal material convergence behavior is a problem that can be resolved through social-psychological approaches. …

Infrared Conformality And Bulk Critical Points: Su(2) With Heavy Adjoint Quarks, Biagio Lucini, Agostino Patella, Antonio Rago, Enrico Rinaldi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Automatic Method For Testing Struts-Based Application, Shweta Tiwari

Computer Science

Model based testing is a very popular and widely used in industry and academia. There are many tools developed to support model based development and testing, however, the benefits of model based testing requires tools that can automate the testing process. The paper propose an automatic method for model-based testing to test the web application created using Strut based frameworks and an effort to further reduce the level of human intervention require to create a state based model and test the application taking into account that all the test coverage criteria are met. A methodology is implemented to test applications …

Optimization Modeling For Wireless Sensor Scheduling, Srujan Kumar Raju Chekuri

Computer Science

Wireless sensor networks, consisting of sensing devices which sense the environment and communicate information among each other, is an emergent field in wireless networking with many potential applications. The efficiency of energy consumption is an important objective for wireless sensor networks. All the sensor nodes have limited battery supplies with limited sensing capabilities and communication ranges. A sensor network has a large numbers of nodes, allowing some nodes to sleep for particular time intervals can result in an increased network lifetime. In this paper, a mathematical model using integer linear programming and a coverage algorithm is developed and implemented to …

Red River Flood Monitor Ios Application, Saumya Singh

Computer Science

The Flood Monitor system is designed to help people share photos and information in case of a flood in the basin of the Red River. This work is part of the redesign of an application that has the goal of enabling mobile and web-based interactions. My contribution to this project is to develop the iOS interface of the flood monitor system. The main components of the iOS application consist of an interface to view existing data and another interface to upload new markers. The information exchange between the server and application happens via XML communication. The paper discusses features of …

An Unmanned Air Vehicle Simulator In C#, Sudesh Mukhami

Computer Science

Simian is an agent based legacy simulator developed in Java used to develop scenarios involving unmanned air vehicles. The goal of this paper is to host the Simian simulator on a C# platform and also to extend the currently existing functionality using C# by adding more behaviors to the UAVs. The Java code is converted into C# code in order to run the simulator on a visual studio framework, but the structure and interfaces defined in the Java version have been retained in the new framework. The scenarios added to the UAV include: 1. the ability to exhibit a swarm …

Using Mapreduce Streaming For Distributed Life Simulation On The Cloud, Atanas Radenski

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable …

Development Of Self-Assembling Mixed Protein Micelles With Temperature-Modulated Avidities, Allyson S.C. Soon, Michael H. Smith, Emily S. Herman, L. Andrew Lyon, Thomas H. Barker

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are polypentapeptides that undergo hydrophobic collapse and aggregation above a specific transition temperature, T_t. ELP diblocks sharing a common “core” block (I60) but varying “outer” blocks (A80, P40) were designed, where T_t,I < T_t,A < T_t,P. The formation of ~55 nm diameter mixed micelles from these ELP diblocks was verified using dynamic light scattering (DLS), multiangle light scattering (MALS) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). To confer affinity to the blood circulating protein fibrinogen, a fibrinogen-binding tetrapeptide sequence (GPRP) was fused to A80-I60, while P40-I60 was fused to a non-binding control (GPSP). The …

Plastic Deformation, Wrinkling, And Recovery In Microgel Multilayers, Jeffrey C. Gaulding, Mark W. Spears Jr., L. Andrew Lyon

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Microgel multi-layer films assembled from anionic particles and linear polycation were prepared on elastomeric substrates and their self-healing properties studied. Dried films were imaged in situ during mechanical deformation and were determined to undergo plastic deformation in response to linear strain, leading to film buckling upon strain relaxation. Hydration leads to rapid reorganization of the film building blocks, permitting recovery of the film to the undamaged state. Additionally, films were determined to heal in the presence of high relative humidity environments, suggesting that film swelling and hydration is a major factor in the restoration of film integrity, and that full …

Solid-Phase Organic Matter Reduction Regulates Anaerobic Decomposition In Bog Soil, Jason K. Keller, Kimberly K. Takagi

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Peatlands store globally significant amounts of carbon and are important sources of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. However, for reasons which are not well understood, many peatland soils produce smaller amounts of CH4 than theoretically predicted, and carbon dioxide (CO2) produced during anaerobic decomposition in peatland soils cannot be accounted for by commonly measured microbial processes. Here we show that the reduction of solid-phase organic matter (i.e., humic substances) suppresses CH4 production in a bog soil and can be responsible for 33–61% of the total carbon mineralization in this soil. These results demonstrate that the reduction of …

Leaf Traits Within Communities: Context May Affect The Mapping Of Traits To Function, Jennifer L. Funk, William K. Cornwell

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) has revolutionized the way many ecologists think about quantifying plant ecological trade-offs. In particular, the LES has connected a clear functional trade-off (long-lived leaves with slow carbon capture vs. short-lived leaves with fast carbon capture) to a handful of easily measured leaf traits. Building on this work, community ecologists are now able to quickly assess species carbon-capture strategies, which may have implications for community-level patterns such as competition or succession. However, there are a number of steps in this logic that require careful examination, and a potential danger arises when interpreting leaf-trait variation among species …

Air-Sea Dimethylsulfide (Dms) Gas Transfer In The North Atlantic: Evidence For Limited Interfacial Gas Exchange At High Wind Speed, T. G. Bell, Warren J. De Bruyn, S. D. Miller, B. Ward, K. Christensen, E. S. Saltzman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Shipboard measurements of eddy covariance dimethylsulfide (DMS) air-sea fluxes and seawater concentration were carried out in the North Atlantic bloom region in June/July 2011. Gas transfer coefficients (k(660)) show a linear dependence on mean horizontal wind speed at wind speeds up to 11 m s(-1). At higher wind speeds the relationship between k(660) and wind speed weakens. At high winds, measured DMS fluxes were lower than predicted based on the linear relationship between wind speed and interfacial stress extrapolated from low to intermediate wind speeds. In contrast, the transfer coefficient for sensible heat did not exhibit this effect. The apparent …

Cultural Differences And Switching Of In-Group Sharing Behavior Between An American (Facebook) And A Chinese (Renren) Social Networking Site, Lin Qiu, Han Lin, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Prior research has documented cultural dimensions that broadly characterize between-culture variations in Western and East Asian societies and that bicultural individuals can flexibly change their behaviors in response to different cultural contexts. In this article, we studied cultural differences and behavioral switching in the context of the fast emerging, naturally occurring online social networking, using both self-report measures and content analyses of online activities on two highly popular platforms, Facebook and Renren (the “Facebook of China”). Results showed that while Renren and Facebook are two technically similar platforms, the Renren culture is perceived as more collectivistic than the Facebook culture. …

Cardiovascular Disease In Late Survivors Of Tetralogy Of Fallot: A Tertiary Care Center Experience, Elisa Bradley, Jeff Parker, Eric Novak, Philip Ludbrook, Joseph Billadello, Ari Cedars

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

Patients with tetralogy of Fallot can survive to late adulthood; however, there are few data on cardiovascular outcomes in this population. We conducted a single-center retrospective analysis of cardiovascular outcomes and risk factors in 208 patients with tetralogy of Fallot to better evaluate the burden of cardiovascular disease in this group. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the prevalence of relevant cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes, including a composite analysis of cardiovascular disease. Rates and mean values from the American Heart Association 2011 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update were used as population estimates for comparison.

In tetralogy of Fallot …

The Psychology Of The 3d Experience, Sophie Janicke, Andrew Ellis

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

With 3D televisions expected to reach 50% home saturation as early as 2016, understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying the user response to 3D technology is critical for content providers, educators and academics. Unfortunately, research examining the effects of 3D technology has not kept pace with the technology’s rapid adoption, resulting in large-scale use of a technology about which very little is actually known. Recognizing this need for new research, we conducted a series of studies measuring and comparing many of the variables and processes underlying both 2D and 3D media experiences. In our first study, we found narratives within primetime …

Extending The Taxation-Of-Risk Model To Timing Options And Marked-To-Market Taxes, Eric D. Chason

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Does Breastfeeding Offer Protection Against Maternal Depressive Symptomatology? A Prospective Study From Pregnancy To 2 Years After Birth, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Martie G. Haselton, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Depression is the leading cause of disability in women (Nobel 2005) and is the most prevalent of all childbearing-related illnesses, affecting approximately 13% of women worldwide within the first 12 [...] Mothers who breastfeed typically exhibit lower levels of depressive symptomatology than mothers who do not. However, very few studies have investigated the directionality of this relationship. Of the prospective studies published, all but one focus exclusively on whether maternal depression reduces rates of subsequent breastfeeding. This study again examines this relationship, but also the reverse--that breastfeeding might predict lower levels of later depression. Using multilevel modeling, we investigated the …

Placental Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Mediates The Association Between Prenatal Social Support And Postpartum Depression, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Chander Arora, Calvin J. Hobel

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Three decades of research point to both biological and psychological risk factors for postpartum depression, but very little research integrates the two. This study bridged this gap by testing whether prenatal social support predicted depressive symptoms at 8 weeks postpartum in a multiethnic sample of 210 women and whether the stress hormone placental corticotropinreleasing hormone (pCRH), measured at 19, 29, and 37 weeks’ gestation, mediated this relationship. We found that prenatal family support predicted significantly fewer depressive symptoms postpartum and more gradual increases in pCRH from 29 to 37 weeks’ gestation. Furthermore, steeper increases in pCRH during this same period …

The Importance Of Female Choice: Evolutionary Perspectives On Constraints, Expressions, And Variations, David Frederick, Tania A. Reynolds, Maryanne L. Fisher

Psychology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This chapter introduces the reader to some of the influential perspectives on female mate choice in human evolutionary biology, including parental investment theory. We then present two key theories in evolutionary psychology that have been applied to understand variations in women’s mating preferences and choices: sexual strategies theory and strategic pluralism theory. Although the importance of female choice has gained widespread acceptance in the biological sciences, the influence that female choice has on mating systems can be limited by many factors, such as control over mating decisions by parents and men’s control over women’s sexuality. Despite these constraints on female …

Assessment Of Postural Stability Using Inertial Measurement Unit On Inclined Surfaces In Healthy Adults, Chris Frames, Rahul Soangra, Thurmon Lockhart

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Fatal and nonfatal falls in the construction domain remain a significant issue in today’s workforce. The roofing industry in particular, annually ranks amongst the highest in all industries. Exposure to an inclined surface, such as an inclined roof surface, has been reported to have adverse effects on postural stability. The purpose of this preliminary study was to investigate the intra-individual differences in stability parameters on both inclined and level surfaces. Postural Stability (PS) and Limit of Stability (LOS) were assessed in seven healthy subjects (aged 25-35 years) on inclined and level surfaces using embedded force plates and an Inertial Measurement …

Comparison Of Intra Individual Physiological Sway Complexity From Force Plate And Inertial Measurement Unit, Rahul Soangra, Thurmon E. Lockhart

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Center of Pressure (COP) is a clinical measure to investigate the effect of sensory input disturbances on postural stability in healthy, old population as well in people suffering from neuromuscular disease. Increased center of pressure velocity and sway area are interpreted as decreased stability or poor balance and are associated with fall risk. Body mounted inertial sensors have shown great promise as an easily implemented clinical measure of balance. The aim of the present study is to investigate if force plate and accelerometer measurements provide similar physiological information when approximate entropy (ApEn) are valuated from the time series. Seven Young …

Wavelet Based Automated Postural Event Detection And Activity Classification With Single Imu (Tempo), Thurmon E. Lockhart, Rahul Soangra, Jian Zhang, Xuefang Wu

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Mobility characteristics associated with activity of daily living such as sitting down, lying down, rising up, and walking are considered to be important in maintaining functional independence and healthy life style especially for the growing elderly population. Characteristics of postural transitions such as sit-to-stand are widely used by clinicians as a physical indicator of health, and walking is used as an important mobility assessment tool. Many tools have been developed to assist in the assessment of functional levels and to detect a person’s activities during daily life. These include questionnaires, observation, diaries, kinetic and kinematic systems, and validated functional tests. …

Intramuscular Manual Therapy After Failed Conservative Care: A Case Report, Brent Harper

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Background and Purpose: During intramuscular manual therapy (IMT), an acupuncture needle is inserted into the skin and muscle. The direct mechanical stimulation may interrupt the pathogenic mechanisms of myofascial trigger points (MTrPs). The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the application and efficacy of IMT on a patient suffering from right chronic elbow lateral epicondylalgia. Methods: A case study of a 26-year-old male presenting with a 6-month history of right elbow pain who failed 11 conservative physical therapy sessions and previous site-specific acupuncture. The patient received 5 IMT sessions over 4 weeks. Findings: The patient had …

Fluid Boundaries And The Assertion Of Difference In Low-Caste Religious Identity, Nancy M. Martin

Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"The boundaries of religious traditions are being actively contested in India today, though in practice their internal and external structures are fl uid and open. Each religion takes a wide array of forms, refl ecting the diversity of the communities and adherents who fi nd relevance and meaning within it, and symbols and practices fl ow readily across what prove to be very permeable and overlapping boundaries between religious traditions. However, religion has been used by the powerful to assert and maintain dominance and in national and regional communal politics, at times fanning the fl ames of extreme violence. Fundamentalists …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

Seed Burial Physical Environment Explains Departures From Regional Hydrothermal Model Of Giant Ragweed (Ambrosia Trifida) Seedling Emergence In U.S. Midwest, Adam S. Davis, Sharon Clay, John Cardina, Anita Dille, Frank Forcella, John Lindquist, Christy Sprague

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Robust predictions of weed seedling emergence from the soil seedbank are needed to aid weed management. A common seed accession (Illinois) of giant ragweed was buried in replicate experimental gardens over 18 site years in Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota to examine the importance of site and climate variability by year on seedling emergence. In a nonlinear mixed-effects modeling approach, we used a flexible sigmoidal function (Weibull) to model giant ragweed cumulative seedling emergence in relation to hydrothermal time accumulated in each site-year. An iterative search method across a range of base temperature (T_b) …

Annual Patterns Of Atmospheric Pollutions And Episodes Over Cairo Egypt, Y. Aboel Fetouh, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed El Raey, Mohamed Allali, W. A. Sprigg, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Nile Delta major cities, particularly Cairo, experienced stagnant air pollution episodes, known as Black Cloud, every year over the past decade during autumn. Low-elevated thermal inversion layers play a crucial role in intensifying pollution impacts. Carbon monoxide, ozone, atmospheric temperature, water vapor, and methane measurements from the tropospheric emission spectrometer (TES) on board the Aura have been used to assess the dominant component below the inversion layer. In this study, time series analysis, autocorrelations, and cross correlations are performed to gain a better understanding of the connections between those parameters and their local effect. Satellite-based data were obtained for …

Cancer Quasispecies And Stem-Like Adaptive Aneuploidy, Domenico Napoletani, M. Signore, Daniele C. Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper we develop a theoretical frame to understand self-regulation of aneuploidy rate in cancer and stem cells. This is accomplished building upon quasispecies theory, by leaving its formal mathematical structure intact, but by drastically changing the meaning of its objects. In particular, we propose a novel definition of chromosomal master sequence, as a sequence of physically distinct whole or fragmented chromosomes, whose length is taken to be the sum of the copy numbers of each whole or fragmented chromosome. This fundamental change in the functional objects of quasispecies theory allows us to show that previously measured aneuploidy rates …