Digital Commons Network^™

Bhaskara’S Approximation For The Sine, Karel Stroethoff

The Mathematics Enthusiast

The 7th century Indian mathematician Bhaskara (c.600 – c.680) obtained a remarkable approximation for the sine function. Many subsequent ancient authors have given versions of this rule, but none provided a proof or described how the result was obtained. Grover [1] provides a possible explanation, but I think the rule can be explained more clearly. Rather than give the rule first, we will derive it, and then discuss its accuracy, and explore some alternative approximations. Our derivation is simply an exercise in modeling.

Math As A Tool Of Anti-Semitism, Jay Egenhoff

The Mathematics Enthusiast

At Moscow State University’s Department of Mathematics during the 1970’s and 1980’s, there was rampant discrimination against Jewish and other unwanted students. The professors at the math department made a strong effort to keep Jewish students out of the department. They designed "killer" or "coffin" problems and Jewish students had to answer them during an oral exam. These problems have simple solutions, but require a clever strategy to solve them. This paper explores some of the context of this episode and provides several problems with detailed solutions.

An Examination Of Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Conceptions Of Angles, Melike Yigit

The Mathematics Enthusiast

The concept of angles is one of the foundational concepts to develop of geometric knowledge, but it remains a difficult concept for students and teachers to grasp. Exiting studies claimed that students’ difficulties in learning of the concept of angles are based on learning of the multiple definitions of an angle, describing angles measuring the size of angles, and conceiving different types of angles such as 0-line angles, 1- line angles, and 2-line angles. This study was designed to gain better insight into pre-service secondary mathematics teachers’ (PSMTs) mental constructions of the concept of angles from the perspective of Action-Process-Object-Schema …

Common Sense About The Common Core, Alan H. Schoenfeld

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Is the Common Core the best thing since sliced bread, or the work of the devil? Is it brand new, or a rehash of old ideas? Is it anything more than a brand name, or is there substance? Can it work, given the implementation challenges in our political and school systems? Opinions about the Common Core are everywhere, but the op-eds I’ve seen are often short on facts, and equally short on common sense. A mathematician by training, I’ve worked for nearly 40 years as an education researcher, curriculum materials developer, test developer, standards writer, and teacher. What follows is …

Proper Handling And Transportation Of Eggs For Sale At Kentucky Farmers’ Markets, Anthony J. Pescatore, Jacquie Jacob

Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications

Regardless of the number of eggs produced, and whether the eggs are for home use or sale, careful egg handling is very important. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists eggs as a potentially hazardous food, therefore careful handling is important. In Kentucky, if you sell more than 60 dozen eggs a week you need to purchase a retail license. The same holds true if you want to sell your eggs to a retail store to be re-sold or to a distributor that will sell them for you. If you produce fewer than 60 dozen eggs a week …

Full Issue 17(4)

Journal of Public Transportation

No abstract provided.

A New Transit Safety Narrative, Todd Litman

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transportation is, overall, a relatively safe (low crash risk) and secure (low crime risk) transport mode. Transit travel has about one-tenth the traffic casualty (injury or death) rate as automobile travel, and residents of transit-oriented communities have about onefifth the per capita crash casualty rate as in automobile-oriented communities. Transit also tends to have lower overall crime rates than automobile travel, and transit improvements can help reduce overall crime risk by improving surveillance and economic opportunities for at-risk populations. Despite its relative safety and security, many people consider transit travel dangerous and are reluctant to use it or support …

The Experiences Of Gay And Lesbian College Athletes, Channell Barbour

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of gay and lesbian college student athletes. Participants of the study were given an opportunity to share their stories about their lived experiences on college campuses as gay or lesbian student athletes. The primary research question explored was, What are the experiences of gay and lesbian college student athletes on college campuses? Other questions that guided this study included, What impact does self-disclosing as gay or lesbian have on student athletes’ sport participation? How does the larger campus environment impact gay and lesbian student athletes’ overall collegiate experiences? Furthermore, this …

A Tribute To Yonna Windham Shaw, Joseph E. Claxton, Mark L. Jones, Charles R. Adams

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Construction Law, Frank O. Brown Jr.

Mercer Law Review

This Article focuses on noteworthy opinions issued by Georgia appellate courts between June 1, 2013 and May 31, 2014 that are relevant to the practice of construction law. Because condominium projects often result in construction-defect litigation, this Article also briefly discusses an amendment to section 44-3-106(h) of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.), part of the Georgia Condominium Act, which became effective July 1, 2014.

Criminal Law, Bernadette C. Crucilla

Mercer Law Review

In this year's criminal law survey, I have taken a cue from my colleagues of past years and included only the most significant cases and statutory amendments. A body of law born from resolving the inherent conflicts between prosecutors and defenders is necessarily in a constant state of change. It is, therefore, impossible to comment on every development within a specific time period. To that end, this Survey limits the discussion to those legal developments with the widest application to Georgia criminal law practitioners for the time period from June 1, 2013 through May 31, 2014.

Domestic Relations, Barry B. Mcgough, Elinor H. Hitt, Katherine S. Cornwell

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses significant case law that arose during the survey period. There were no extensive statutory changes specific to domestic relations during this period, though legislation was passed by the Georgia General Assembly providing limitations on personal information allowed in court filings.

Trial Practice And Procedure, Brandon L. Peak, Tedra C. Hobson, Mary K. Weeks, Anna W. Howard, Morgan E. Duncan, Joseph M. Colwell

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses several significant cases and legislation of interest to the Georgia civil trial practitioner that occurred during the survey period of this publication.

Workers' Compensation, H. Michael Bagley, J. Benson Ward

Mercer Law Review

While there was no legislation impacting the Workers' Compensation Act during the 2013-2014 survey period, the period featured notable decisions of the appellate courts involving core issues of the Act, including notice, average weekly wage, return to work, and change in condition.

Facilitating Change In The Housing Industry Toward Universal Design, Brittnie Miller

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

The intent of this thesis is to provide an introductory guide for interior designers, homeowners, builders, and those interested in the concepts of universal design. It is tailored to the target markets of interior design and those within the ho using industry, but leaves an open conversation to create a relationship between the housing industry and homeowners.

Looking at the history of universal design and how it has evolved through the years will give readers a beginning point to start a comparison of the residential design standards and universal design measurements. Using the comparison, case studies will be reviewed and …

Homegrown Ingredients: Creating Tools When The Information Literacy Supermarket Fails You, Becky Canovan

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

When established sources change formats, switch platforms, or upgrade, they aren’t always user-friendly, especially for inexperienced researchers. After using ill-fitting and frustrating legal research tools for years, librarians and instructors at the University of Dubuque jumped in and created local homegrown tools. Instead of changing an effective assignment to bend to inadequate search tools, the course coordinator and library liaison created and adapted tools to fit the assignment. Capitalizing on the librarian’s research skills, the professor’s subject expertise, and the plethora of free tools, the learning experience students (and professors and librarians) have is now more rewarding.

Rather than lead …

Ipod Apps, Mobile Learning And Game Dynamics: This Ain’T Your Typical Library Orientation, Anne Burke, Adrienne Lai, Aam Rogers

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Hoping to enliven traditional library orientation, three NCSU Librarians developed the NCSU Libraries’ Mobile Scavenger Hunt, a team-based game that uses iPods with free cloud-based apps to orient students to library spaces, collections, and technologies. The main goal of this project is to demystify this often-overwhelming new environment and reduce library anxiety by using situated, problem-based learning. The activity provides a low-stakes means to promote resources and services critical to academic success and invites students to explore the building and interact with staff. Presenters will share tools, work flow management strategies and feedback with attendees who wish to develop a …

Teaching From The Edge: Transitioning Into The Online Course Utilizing Instructional Design And Rubric Evaluation, Kim Glover, Nikhat J. Ghouse

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Since 2006, the University of Kansas Libraries has offered a traditional, one credit class on information literacy research methods. In 2010, librarians began the process of revising this classroom-based course for online delivery in the spring 2012 semester.

This presentation will walk attendees through the process of online course development of an information literacy class from its creation to completion. The presenters and co-instructors will discuss the shared responsibilities and challenges related to teaching an online course. The design of this online class will be broken down into different aspects related to development from a traditional library class course into …

New Literacies In Our Global Society: Teaching Literacies Beyond Text, Kristine N. Stewart, Alex Mudd

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

In our globalized world, students now have access to a variety of viewpoints in a variety of formats from around the globe. This creates new challenges for students in the evaluation and understanding of information. As a result, it is becoming increasingly more important for our students to understand where their information is coming from and be able to read and interpret the format of this information. This entails having literacies that go beyond text and includes cultural, social, critical, and digital literacies.

This presentation will provide an overview of opportunities to integrate the teaching of new literacies into existing …

Using The Learning Cycle To Engage Students In Library Instruction, Marcia Rapchak

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

What sort of learner are you? Do you like to take notes while listening to a lecture, or do you like to jump into an activity without any instruction? Did you know that your preferred learning style can affect the way you teach? With questions about the validity of the Fleming model of visual, auditory, and tactile learners, instructors should become more aware of other learning style theories that can help them engage students in a class session. Through an introduction to the attributes of each learning style, this session will introduce participants to Kolb’s (1984) Learning Cycle and Learning …

A Gateway To Outcomes Assessment: Collaborating On A Multi-Session Library Instruction Program, Jennifer Hatleberg, Niyati Pandya

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

The Gateway to College (GtC) program at Montgomery College serves at-risk high school students who complete their high school diploma requirements while simultaneously earning college credit.

In Fall 2010, the GtC Program Director, faculty, and instruction librarians launched a semester-long library instruction program. Librarians worked closely with faculty to design six two-hour sessions for GtC students, aligning ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards with the course’s theme and assignments. The program has been repeated each semester, and expanded to all three campuses. In this presentation, we will share details about our collaboration and the resulting opportunities for evaluating student learning outcomes.

Fun Assessment: How To Embed Evaluation With Educational Games, Mary J. Snyder Broussard, Theresa R. Mcdevitt

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Most librarians, and indeed students, tremble at the very mention of the dreaded word “assessment.” This does not have to be the case. When assessment is non-threatening and strategically placed to provide needed feedback, it can be pleasant, rewarding and improve learning outcomes. Many educational games have built-in assessment that turns evaluation into fun. This session will look at specific examples used at two Pennsylvania academic libraries where games help instructional librarians ensure that students are accomplishing what the activity requires and assess student learning. Come to this session prepared to play!

From A “Crusade Against Ignorance” To A “Crisis Of Authenticity”: Cultivating Information Literacy For A 21st Century Democracy, Andrew Battista

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

In this session, I propose ways to present information literacy instruction to students and faculty as an essential component in one’s education, a requirement for life in a civic democracy. I suggest that information literacy instructors should champion the concept of publicly important knowledge. Rather than instruction that privileges task-oriented process information-seeking processes, librarians should cultivate interactions where students develop patterns of curating knowledge that reflect a deep-seated desire to be aware of what matters to educated people. We will discover how social media platforms are the concrete tools we can use to facilitate this paradigm shift in information literacy …

Double, Triple, Quadruple The Recipe: Serve Library Instruction To A Crowd (And Assess It, Too!) With Libguides And Polleverywhere, Melissa Bowles-Terry, Kennedy Penn-O'Toole

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Offering library instruction to a class of over 200 may sound impossible -- or crazy -- but some library instruction recipes can be scaled up to serve a crowd. The presenters (a political science instructor and a librarian) embedded library activities on politics and the media by creating an online guide to help students find news and information on political campaigns and then evaluate that information. Students participated in class discussion and shared their findings and reflections through cellphone voting. In this session we’ll share our strategies and results, and invite the audience to participate with PollEverywhere!

At many institutions …

Stepp Into The Library: Research Assistance For Students With Multiple Learning Disabilities, Jeanne Hoover, Clark Nall, Carolyn Willis

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Librarians strive to address the information needs of diverse populations. At East Carolina University's Joyner Library, we are collaborating with Project STEPP to improve our information literacy services for students with multiple learning disabilities. Project STEPP (Supporting Transition and Education through Planning Partnerships) is an innovative program that offers comprehensive academic, social and life-skills support to a select number of students with learning disabilities who have shown the potential to succeed at the college level. In Fall 2011, Project STEPP relocated to a space with office areas and study rooms in Joyner Library. Our collaboration began with a survey of …

Maximizing Student Engagement And Learning With Team-Based Learning, Trudi Jacobson, Judy Carey Nevin

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Team-based learning (TBL) has the potential to radically reinvent what happens in the classroom and how students learn. TBL is increasingly used in a wide range of disciplines, from the health sciences to criminal justice to art history. While there are few reports of its use in information literacy instruction, librarians who have used it have found it to be transformative. Team-based learning was developed by Larry Michaelsen at the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s. It is distinct from problem-based learning or the informal use of groups.

Team-Based Learning strategies encourage students to take more responsibility for their learning, …

Association Of G-Quadruplex Forming Sequences With Human Mtdna Deletion Breakpoints, D. W. Dong, F. Pereira, Steven Paul Barrett , '13, J. E. Kolesar, K. Cao, J. Damas, Liliya A. Yatsunyk, F. B. Johnson, B. A. Kaufman

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

Background: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions cause disease and accumulate during aging, yet our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying their formation remains rudimentary. Guanine-quadruplex (GQ) DNA structures are associated with nuclear DNA instability in cancer; recent evidence indicates they can also form in mitochondrial nucleic acids, suggesting that these non-B DNA structures could be associated with mtDNA deletions. Currently, the multiple types of GQ sequences and their association with human mtDNA stability are unknown. Results: Here, we show an association between human mtDNA deletion breakpoint locations (sites where DNA ends rejoin after deletion of a section) and sequences with G-quadruplex …

Badge Web Application, Ryan Green

Computer Engineering

This project includes the imagining, design, build, and test of a web application that creates and tracks a user’s progress on completing tasks that an administrator has created for the user. The goal of this project is to have a functioning webpage that is robust and scalable to support many users and many tasks. The application will be developed for use on all modern web browsers, and will have a persistent server to access from any platform. This project was designed to be an exercise in building a modern web application, and as such is written using many different languages, …

Cold Roll Extrusion Machine Redesign Final Design Report, Foja Bains, Bryan Cyr, David Van Schooten

Mechanical Engineering

This report is a comprehensive review of a redesign of subsystems for a Cold Roll Extrusion Machine, a forging operation, for PCC Rollmet. Three subsystems were addressed in this project: A new Loading system, Feed system, and Lubrication system. The Loading system, and support system during developmental design stages, addressed the timely loading process of pipes onto the forging machine. After two quarters of design iteration, the group decided on a lever arm, hydraulic actuated, loading design. In the final quarter of the project, a quarter scale model of this lever arm was constructed to prove the concept of the …

Farmbot, James Cruz, Scott Herrington, Bryan Rodriguez

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to develop the hardware for the current Farmbot to perform its primary functions, and to create a template for a system that would be adaptable for future users and developers. The scope of the project included creating a universal tool mount, a seeding system, and a watering and nutrient mixing system. This project was brought to the students by sponsor Rory Aronson, the creator of Farmbot. The Cal Poly Farmbot team was able to go through an extensive brainstorming and iterative process for each part, where testing was able to be incorporated immediately due …