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2014

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Are We Approaching Pit Lake Closure From The Wrong Perspective?, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette Jan 2014

Are We Approaching Pit Lake Closure From The Wrong Perspective?, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Pit lakes are similar to natural lakes formed by faulting, glacial action, volcanic action and asteroid collisions. These natural lakes have, after thousands of years, developed into environmentally significant ecosystems. As artificial constructs, pit lakes can be modified prior to filling to enhance lake attributes, such as modification of catchment size, creation of littoral zones and addition of organic matter. Significant advances could be made in successful closure and relinquishment of pit lakes, by 1) choosing appropriate model lakes, 2) understanding successional processes, 3) designing pit lakes to enhance ecological values, and 4) recognizing that it will take time to …

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Regulation Of Artisanal Small Scale Gold Mining (Asgm) In Ghana And Indonesia As Currently Implemented Fails To Adequately Protect Aquatic Ecosystems, Karunia F. Macdonald, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette, Clinton D. Mccullough Jan 2014

Regulation Of Artisanal Small Scale Gold Mining (Asgm) In Ghana And Indonesia As Currently Implemented Fails To Adequately Protect Aquatic Ecosystems, Karunia F. Macdonald, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette, Clinton D. Mccullough

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Artisanal small scale gold mining (ASGM) operations are largely unregulated, informal and transient. Rudimentary mining and processing techniques used in ASGM often result in degraded environmental, safety, health and social conditions. ASGM requires permanent sources of water, placing most operations close to natural water bodies. Until recently, the impact on these environments has been largely overlooked, with most studies focussing primarily on mercury contamination and health concerns. Based on Ghanaian and Indonesian experiences, regulation of ASGM is a good step toward improvement, but here we argue that regulation alone is insufficient to improve environmental performance, particularly when the impacts of …

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Industry Needs And Tertiary Journalism Education: Views From News Editors, Trevor A. Cullen, Stephen Tanner, Marcus O'Donnell, Kerry Green Jan 2014

Industry Needs And Tertiary Journalism Education: Views From News Editors, Trevor A. Cullen, Stephen Tanner, Marcus O'Donnell, Kerry Green

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This research paper discusses the findings from a 2012 Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) sponsored project that canvassed the views of news editors around Australia about the "job readiness" of tertiary educated journalism graduates. The focus of this paper is limited to responses from news editors in Western Australia. Data was collected via face to face interviews with eleven news editors in Perth, Western Australia. The editors work in print, online, broadcast and television and all of them employ journalism graduates. The aim was to assess whether the five university based journalism programs in Perth provide graduates with the …

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Optimising Stem Education In Wa Schools, Mark Hackling, Karen Murcia, John West, Karen Anderson Jan 2014

Optimising Stem Education In Wa Schools, Mark Hackling, Karen Murcia, John West, Karen Anderson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a powerful and productive driving force for economic growth. A strong STEM education system provides the essential underpinning of an innovative and scientifically literate culture that: develops the capabilities for individuals to function effectively within a science and technology based society; provides an ever widening range of career opportunities; and, builds the productive capacity required to drive a prosperous economy and enhanced well-being in an increasingly competitive world. The STEM education pipeline begins in our schools, therefore there is widespread and deep concern about the unsatisfactory status of STEM education in …

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Owner-Manager Separation And The Structure Of It Governance In Small Business, Jeffrey S. Saffer Jan 2014

Owner-Manager Separation And The Structure Of It Governance In Small Business, Jeffrey S. Saffer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners and small business managers tend to favor different information technology (IT) governance structures. Such differences can lead to ineffective management and control of IT in small businesses. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the extent and nature of the association between owner-manager separation in small businesses and the structure of IT governance in the businesses. Agency theory formed the theoretical framework of this study. Data were collected using a web-based survey and randomly sampled 3,697 small business owners and managers located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Chi-square statistics indicated no significant association between owner-manager …

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A Spatiotemporal Model For Repeated Imaging Data, Brandon George Jan 2014

A Spatiotemporal Model For Repeated Imaging Data, Brandon George

All ETDs from UAB

Longitudinal imaging studies have increased in popularity as clinical researchers seek to investigate how phenomena within the body change over time. Analysis of data from these studies is complicated by correlation between repeated measures over time and different locations in the body. To address this problem we propose the use of a linear model with a separable parametric correlation structure. This model considers spatial and temporal correlation independently and incorporates the correlation using parametric functions that have the potential to be much more efficient than an unstructured approach. Our model also has the ability to control for time- and space-varying …

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Development Of A Concept Exploration Based Teaching Methodology For Undergraduate Chemistry Education, Nicole D. Gray Jan 2014

Development Of A Concept Exploration Based Teaching Methodology For Undergraduate Chemistry Education, Nicole D. Gray

All ETDs from UAB

Science in general has traditionally been noted as a difficult subject because of its specialized language, mathematical and abstract concepts, and the amount of content to be learned in a semester. In particular, students are believed to base their attitudes towards science-related disciplines on their perceived abilities in understanding or succeeding in a course. Other factors may also contribute to this lack of interest, such as students' metacognitive skills. Concept mapping and computer-aided tools may be used to assist students in building hierarchical knowledge bases that allow them to visually represent connections between concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this study …

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Ecology And Physiology Of Antarctic Macrophytes Under The Influence Of Abiotic And Biotic Stressors., Kathryn M. Schoenrock Jan 2014

Ecology And Physiology Of Antarctic Macrophytes Under The Influence Of Abiotic And Biotic Stressors., Kathryn M. Schoenrock

All ETDs from UAB

The physiology of many species of Antarctic marine algae was evaluated under a variety of biotic and abiotic factors found or predicted for the western Antarctic Peninsula. The potential biological stressors, filamentous algal endophytes, had few effects on their macrophyte host's physiology which may be the cause for their persistence in this marine community. Adversely impacted hosts include Pachymenia sp. and Iridaea cordata. In areas of high endophyte infection Pachymenia sp. was significantly less resistant to forces that could penetrate their thalli. Maximum quantum yield near endophyte infection was significantly lower in I. cordata. Endophyte abundance is significantly lower in …

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Password Protected Visual Cryptography Via Cellular Automaton Rule 30, Roman V. Yampolskiy, Jovan D. Rebolledo-Mendez, Musa M. Hindi Jan 2014

Password Protected Visual Cryptography Via Cellular Automaton Rule 30, Roman V. Yampolskiy, Jovan D. Rebolledo-Mendez, Musa M. Hindi

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Visual cryptography depends on two shares. The initial configuration, extra security bits and the number of the rule for the CA along with the number of computed steps serve as a password for a visually encrypted image. The second share could contain a predefined pattern; the developed algorithm uses a snapshot of a CA after a certain number of steps to generate the predefined share. Only one of these shares has to be random. The developed encryption system is a hybrid between visual and classical cryptographic approaches. It requires less storage space compared to a standalone visual encryption system and …

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Manual Choice Reaction Times In The Rate-Domain., Cm Harris, J Waddington, V Biscione, S Manzi Jan 2014

Manual Choice Reaction Times In The Rate-Domain., Cm Harris, J Waddington, V Biscione, S Manzi

School of Psychology

Over the last 150 years, human manual reaction times (RTs) have been recorded countless times. Yet, our understanding of them remains remarkably poor. RTs are highly variable with positively skewed frequency distributions, often modeled as an inverse Gaussian distribution reflecting a stochastic rise to threshold (diffusion process). However, latency distributions of saccades are very close to the reciprocal Normal, suggesting that "rate" (reciprocal RT) may be the more fundamental variable. We explored whether this phenomenon extends to choice manual RTs. We recorded two-alternative choice RTs from 24 subjects, each with 4 blocks of 200 trials with two task difficulties (easy …

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A Proto-Architecture For Innate Directionally Selective Visual Maps., Sv Adams, Cm Harris Jan 2014

A Proto-Architecture For Innate Directionally Selective Visual Maps., Sv Adams, Cm Harris

School of Psychology

Self-organizing artificial neural networks are a popular tool for studying visual system development, in particular the cortical feature maps present in real systems that represent properties such as ocular dominance (OD), orientation-selectivity (OR) and direction selectivity (DS). They are also potentially useful in artificial systems, for example robotics, where the ability to extract and learn features from the environment in an unsupervised way is important. In this computational study we explore a DS map that is already latent in a simple artificial network. This latent selectivity arises purely from the cortical architecture without any explicit coding for DS and prior …

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Utterance-Final Lengthening Is Predictive Of Infants' Discrimination Of English Accents, Laurence White, Caroline Floccia, Jeremy Goslin, Joseph Butler Jan 2014

Utterance-Final Lengthening Is Predictive Of Infants' Discrimination Of English Accents, Laurence White, Caroline Floccia, Jeremy Goslin, Joseph Butler

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

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Combining Motion Analysis And Microfluidics--A Novel Approach For Detecting Whole-Animal Responses To Test Substances., Tabitha S. Rudin-Bitterli, Oliver Tills, John I. Spicer, Phil F. Culverhouse, Eric M. Wielhouwer, Michael K. Richardson, Simon D. Rundle Jan 2014

Combining Motion Analysis And Microfluidics--A Novel Approach For Detecting Whole-Animal Responses To Test Substances., Tabitha S. Rudin-Bitterli, Oliver Tills, John I. Spicer, Phil F. Culverhouse, Eric M. Wielhouwer, Michael K. Richardson, Simon D. Rundle

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Small, early life stages, such as zebrafish embryos are increasingly used to assess the biological effects of chemical compounds in vivo. However, behavioural screens of such organisms are challenging in terms of both data collection (culture techniques, drug delivery and imaging) and data evaluation (very large data sets), restricting the use of high throughput systems compared to in vitro assays. Here, we combine the use of a microfluidic flow-through culture system, or BioWell plate, with a novel motion analysis technique, (sparse optic flow - SOF) followed by spectral analysis (discrete Fourier transformation - DFT), as a first step towards automating …

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The Personality Behind Cheating: Behavioural Types And The Feeding Ecology Of Cleaner Fish, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Jens Krause, Je Herbert‐Read, Ashley J.W. Ward Jan 2014

The Personality Behind Cheating: Behavioural Types And The Feeding Ecology Of Cleaner Fish, Alexander D.M. Wilson, Jens Krause, Je Herbert‐Read, Ashley J.W. Ward

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

AbstractThe complex mutualistic relationship between the cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) and their ‘clients’ in many reef systems throughout the world has been the subject of debate and research interest for decades. Game‐theory models have long struggled with explaining how the mixed strategies of cheating and honesty might have evolved in such a system and while significant efforts have been made theoretically, demonstrating the nature of this relationship empirically remains an important research challenge. Using the experimental framework of behavioural syndromes, we sought to quantitatively assess the relationship between personality and the feeding ecology of cleaner fish to provide novel insights …

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Photon Polarization In Light-By-Light Scattering: Finite Size Effects, Victor Dinu, Tom Heinzl, Anton Ilderton, Mattias Marklund, Greger Torgrimsson Jan 2014

Photon Polarization In Light-By-Light Scattering: Finite Size Effects, Victor Dinu, Tom Heinzl, Anton Ilderton, Mattias Marklund, Greger Torgrimsson

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

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First Results With Twisted Mass Fermions Towards The Computation Of Parton Distribution Functions On The Lattice, C Alexandrou, K Cichy, V Drach, E Garcia-Ramos, K Hadjiyiannakou, K Jansen, F Steffens, C Wiese Jan 2014

First Results With Twisted Mass Fermions Towards The Computation Of Parton Distribution Functions On The Lattice, C Alexandrou, K Cichy, V Drach, E Garcia-Ramos, K Hadjiyiannakou, K Jansen, F Steffens, C Wiese

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

We report on our exploratory study for the evaluation of the parton distribution functions from lattice QCD, based on a new method proposed in Ref. arXiv:1305.1539. Using the example of the nucleon, we compare two different methods to compute the matrix elements needed, and investigate the application of gauge link smearing. We also present first results from a large production ensemble and discuss the future challenges related to this method.

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Development Of Sampling Efficiency And Internal Noise In Motion Detection And Discrimination In School-Aged Children, Hk Falkenberg, Wa Simpson, Gn Dutton Jan 2014

Development Of Sampling Efficiency And Internal Noise In Motion Detection And Discrimination In School-Aged Children, Hk Falkenberg, Wa Simpson, Gn Dutton

School of Psychology

The aim of this study was to use an equivalent noise (EN) to investigate the development and maturation of motion perception, and how the underlying limitations of sampling efficiency and internal noise effect motion detection and direction discrimination in school-aged children (5-14 years) and adults. Contrast energy thresholds of a 2 c/deg sinusoidal grating drifting at 1.0 or 6.0 Hz were measured as a function of added dynamic noise in three tasks: detection of a drifting grating; detection of the sum of two oppositely drifting gratings and direction discrimination of oppositely drifting gratings. Compared to the ideal observer, in both …

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The Antibacterial Effects Of Silver, Titanium Dioxide And Silica Dioxide Nanoparticles Compared To The Dental Disinfectant Chlorhexidine On Streptococcus Mutans Using A Suite Of Bioassays., Alexandros Besinis, Peralta T De, Richard D. Handy Jan 2014

The Antibacterial Effects Of Silver, Titanium Dioxide And Silica Dioxide Nanoparticles Compared To The Dental Disinfectant Chlorhexidine On Streptococcus Mutans Using A Suite Of Bioassays., Alexandros Besinis, Peralta T De, Richard D. Handy

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Metal-containing nanomaterials have the potential to be used in dentistry for infection control, but little is known about their antibacterial properties. This study investigated the toxicity of silver (Ag), titanium dioxide and silica nanoparticles (NPs) against the oral pathogenic species of Streptococcus mutans, compared to the routine disinfectant, chlorhexidine. The bacteria were assessed using the minimum inhibitory concentration assay for growth, fluorescent staining for live/dead cells, and measurements of lactate. All the assays showed that Ag NPs had the strongest antibacterial activity of the NPs tested, with bacterial growth also being 25-fold lower than that in chlorhexidine. The survival rate …

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Wave Farm Impact On The Beach Profile: A Case Study, J. Abanades, D. Greaves, G. Iglesias Jan 2014

Wave Farm Impact On The Beach Profile: A Case Study, J. Abanades, D. Greaves, G. Iglesias

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

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Is Neolithic Land Use Correlated With Demography? An Evaluation Of Pollen-Derived Land Cover And Radiocarbon-Inferred Demographic Change From Central Europe, Jutta Lechterbeck, Kevan Edinborough, Tim Kerig, Ralph Fyfe, Neil Roberts, Stephen Shennan Jan 2014

Is Neolithic Land Use Correlated With Demography? An Evaluation Of Pollen-Derived Land Cover And Radiocarbon-Inferred Demographic Change From Central Europe, Jutta Lechterbeck, Kevan Edinborough, Tim Kerig, Ralph Fyfe, Neil Roberts, Stephen Shennan

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Active Authentication For Mobile Devices Utilising Behaviour Profiling, Fudong Li, Nathan Clarke, Maria Papadaki, Paul Dowland Jan 2014

Active Authentication For Mobile Devices Utilising Behaviour Profiling, Fudong Li, Nathan Clarke, Maria Papadaki, Paul Dowland

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

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Combined Effect Of Rotation And Topography On Shoaling Oceanic Internal Solitary Waves, Roger Grimshaw, Chuncheng Guo, Karl Helfrich, Vasiliy Vlasenko Jan 2014

Combined Effect Of Rotation And Topography On Shoaling Oceanic Internal Solitary Waves, Roger Grimshaw, Chuncheng Guo, Karl Helfrich, Vasiliy Vlasenko

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

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A Professional Learning Community Activity For Science Teachers: How To Incorporate Discourse-Rich Instructional Strategies Into Science Lessons, Elizabeth Lewis, Dale Baker, Nievita Bueno Watts, Michael Lang Jan 2014

A Professional Learning Community Activity For Science Teachers: How To Incorporate Discourse-Rich Instructional Strategies Into Science Lessons, Elizabeth Lewis, Dale Baker, Nievita Bueno Watts, Michael Lang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this article we describe current educational research underlying a comprehensive model for building a scientific classroom discourse community. We offer a professional development activity for a school-based professional learning community, providing specific science instructional strategies within this interactive teaching model. This design activity provides a quick and practical means of transforming science lessons to be more engaging for students. Through this activity teachers can redesign any science lesson by focusing on each of the five core components of a scientific classroom discourse community: (a) scientific inquiry, (b) oral discourse, (c) written discourse, (d) academic language development, and (e) learning …

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The Mathematical Nature Of Reasoning-And-Proving Opportunities In Geometry Textbooks, Samuel Otten, Nicholas J. Gilbertson, Lorraine Males, D. Lee Clark Jan 2014

The Mathematical Nature Of Reasoning-And-Proving Opportunities In Geometry Textbooks, Samuel Otten, Nicholas J. Gilbertson, Lorraine Males, D. Lee Clark

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

International calls have been made for reasoning-and-proving to permeate school mathematics. It is important that efforts to heed this call are grounded in an understanding of the opportunities to reason- and-prove that already exist, especially in secondary-level geometry where reasoning-and-proving opportunities are prevalent but not thoroughly studied. This analysis of six secondary-level geometry textbooks, like studies of other textbooks, characterizes the justifications given in the exposition and the reasoning-and-proving activities expected of students in the exercises. Furthermore, this study considers whether the mathematical statements included in the reasoning-and-proving opportunities are general or particular in nature. Findings include the fact that …

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A Study On The Elementary School Teachers’ Awareness Of Students’ Alternative Conceptions About Change Of States And Dissolution, Chanho Yang, Taehee Noh, Lawrence C. Scharmann, Sukjin Kang Jan 2014

A Study On The Elementary School Teachers’ Awareness Of Students’ Alternative Conceptions About Change Of States And Dissolution, Chanho Yang, Taehee Noh, Lawrence C. Scharmann, Sukjin Kang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Knowledge about students’ conceptions is one of the requisite components of pedagogical content knowledge. A keen awareness of students’ alternative conceptions provides teachers with information about prospective difficulties students may incur as they make attempts to learn more accurate scientific representations of critical concepts. In this study, we investigated elementary school teachers’ understanding of their students’ alternative conceptions about change of states and dissolution. The subjects were 152 elementary school teachers and 529 sixth graders in Korea. A conceptions test and the test of the understanding about students’ conceptions were administered in order to examine students’ alternative conceptions and the …

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Narrative Understandings Of A School Policy: Intersecting Student, Teacher, Parent And Administrator Perspectives, Elaine Chan, Vicki Ross Jan 2014

Narrative Understandings Of A School Policy: Intersecting Student, Teacher, Parent And Administrator Perspectives, Elaine Chan, Vicki Ross

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this article, we examine one school’s experience with policy, as a means of shedding light on the intersection of factors contributing to challenges of implementing policies to support the academic achievement and social adaptation of immigrant and minority students in their school context. We begin with the presentation of a ‘big fight’ between two students of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and consider multiple perspectives of how the disagreement was addressed by teachers and administrators, to offer insight into how issues of race and policy might have been understood by members of the school community. We use a narrative …

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Politics And Aesthetics: Partitions And Partioning In Contemporary Art, Jonathan Owen Clark, Joao Lima Duque Jan 2014

Politics And Aesthetics: Partitions And Partioning In Contemporary Art, Jonathan Owen Clark, Joao Lima Duque

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Jacques Rancière defined the “distribution of the sensible” as the effect of a type of aesthetico-political decision-making that creates a partitioning of the realm of the perceivable in relation to both art and society. The artworld itself constructs its own particular types of curatorial partitioning: between “art” and “non-art,” between “dominant, residual, and emergent,” and between “mainstream” and “periphery.” This essay examines certain “boundary effects” that develop as a result of the act of the partitioning itself and closely examines what arguably are two new categories in contemporary art: “crossover” and “interventionist.” Both categories have a certain relationship to a …

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The New Hampshire Effect: Behavior In Sequential And Simultaneous Election Contests, Zeynep B. Irfanoglu, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta Jan 2014

The New Hampshire Effect: Behavior In Sequential And Simultaneous Election Contests, Zeynep B. Irfanoglu, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

This experimental study compares sequential and simultaneous election contests. Consistent with the theory, we find evidence of the “New Hampshire effect” in the sequential contests, i.e., the winner of the first electoral battle wins the overall contest with much higher probability than the loser of the first battle. However, contrary to the theory, sequential contests generate higher expenditure than the simultaneous contests. This is mainly because in the sequential contests losers of the first battle do not decrease their expenditure in the second battle while winners of the first battle increase (instead of decreasing) their expenditure in the second battle. …

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Behavioral Dimensions Of Contests, Roman M. Sheremeta Jan 2014

Behavioral Dimensions Of Contests, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

The standard theoretical description of rent-seeking contests is that of rational individuals or groups engaging in socially inefficient behavior by exerting costly effort. Experimental studies find that the actual efforts of participants are significantly higher than predicted in the models based on rational behavior and that over-dissipation of rents (or overbidding or over-expenditure of resources) can occur. Although over-dissipation cannot be explained by the standard rational-behavior theory, it can be explained by incorporating behavioral dimensions into the standard model, such as (1) the utility of winning, (2) relative payoff maximization, (3) bounded rationality, and (4) judgmental biases. These explanations are …

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The Meaning Of Deceive In Experimental Economic Science, Bart J. Wilson Jan 2014

The Meaning Of Deceive In Experimental Economic Science, Bart J. Wilson

ESI Working Papers

Two principles distinguish experimental economic science from other experimental social sciences. First, we experimental economists pay our participants based upon the decisions they make… Secondly, we do not use deception, not out of any deontic aversion to dishonesty, but rather because we are “concerned about developing and maintaining a reputation among the student population for honesty in order to ensure that subject actions are motivated by the induced monetary rewards rather than by psychological reactions to suspected manipulation” (Davis and Holt, 1993, pp. 23‐24).1 Again, our concern is for the integrity of the inferences from our observations.

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