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2014

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Designing Magnetically Responsive Ultrafiltration Membranes, Robert William Dong Dec 2014

Designing Magnetically Responsive Ultrafiltration Membranes, Robert William Dong

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes developed out of a need for protein separation processes. Currently, they are used in a variety of industries ranging from food manufacturing to pharmaceuticals for two main purposes: concentration, separation, and buffer exchange. UF membrane processes in product streams undergo frequent use and like all membrane processes experience a gradual decline in performance due to fouling phenomena both irreversible and reversible. Ultimately, performance declines to a point where the UF membrane needs to be replaced. Frequent replacement of UF membranes is detrimental to major industries that require high product throughput using UF processes. Thus, it is important …

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The Role Of Higher Education In Rural Community Development, Anita Faye Thompson Dec 2014

The Role Of Higher Education In Rural Community Development, Anita Faye Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher education institutions commonly play a role in community development. Rural communities may be even more dependent on the university's investment. As higher education has looked to meet demands of stakeholders calling for greater accountability, it has become necessary for universities to be able to justify the effectiveness of these efforts. The purpose of this study was to determine the elements necessary for successful rural community development in Western Oklahoma. Utilizing the Delphi research method, 20 community development experts in rural Western Oklahoma participated in the three-round survey process. In the initial survey, participants collectively submitted a list of 41 …

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A Strategic Approach To Effectively Manage Supplier Quality Within The Construction Industry, Rufaidah Almaian Dec 2014

A Strategic Approach To Effectively Manage Supplier Quality Within The Construction Industry, Rufaidah Almaian

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of the research is to determine the best practices for supplier quality management (SQM) in the construction industry that ensure that the supplied materials and equipment for construction projects are within the quality requirements. The research is based on three main objectives. The first objective is to describe and assess the process of assuring supplier quality inside and outside the construction industry. The second objective is to develop a framework for the supplier quality process based on the collection of SQM practices from multiple data sources. The third objective is to assess the SQM practices within the developed …

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A Deep Search Architecture For Capturing Product Ontologies, Tejeshwar Sangameswaran Dec 2014

A Deep Search Architecture For Capturing Product Ontologies, Tejeshwar Sangameswaran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a method to populate very large product ontologies quickly. We discuss a deep search architecture to text-mine online e-commerce market places and build a taxonomy of products and their corresponding descriptions and parent categories. The goal is to automatically construct an open database of products, which are aggregated from different online retailers. The database contains extensive metadata on each object, which can be queried and analyzed. Such a public database currently does not exist; instead the information currently resides siloed within various organizations. In this thesis, we describe the tools, data structures and software architectures that allowed …

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2013 Middle Rio Grande Songbird Study Report, Hawks Aloft, Inc. Dec 2014

2013 Middle Rio Grande Songbird Study Report, Hawks Aloft, Inc.

Multi-Species Reports (Hawks Aloft)

No abstract provided.

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Security Analysis On Network Systems Based On Some Stochastic Models, Xiaohu Li Dec 2014

Security Analysis On Network Systems Based On Some Stochastic Models, Xiaohu Li

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Due to great effort from mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists, network science has attained rapid development during the past decades. However, because of the complexity, most researches in this area are conducted only based upon experiments and simulations, it is critical to do research based on theoretical results so as to gain more insight on how the structure of a network affects the security. This dissertation introduces some stochastic and statistical models on certain networks and uses a k-out-of-n tolerant structure to characterize both logically and physically the behavior of nodes. Based upon these models, we draw several illuminating results …

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The Conduit, Volume 14, No. 1&2, December 2014, Karst Waters Institute Dec 2014

The Conduit, Volume 14, No. 1&2, December 2014, Karst Waters Institute

The KWI Conduit

Contents: Welcome to The Conduit -- President's Corner -- KWI Happenings -- Upcoming 2015 Karst Award Banquet, March 14, 2015 -- KWI Sponsor for GSA Conference Sessions in 2014 -- 2014 Wilson Scholarship Recipient -- Final Report: "Hypogene Cave Morphologies" Conference -- Meet KWI's New Associates -- Retirement News: Dr. John Mylroie -- Announcement for Upcoming Conference 2016 -- Research Focus: Karst Investigations in Illinois -- Research Report: Storm Response Study, West Virginia -- KWI Members Visit Cuba: Cave Investigations in Cuba -- Update: New Karst Division, Geological Society of America

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Coming Up Short: The United States' Second-Best Strategies For Corralling Purely Speculative Derivatives, Timothy E. Lynch Dec 2014

Coming Up Short: The United States' Second-Best Strategies For Corralling Purely Speculative Derivatives, Timothy E. Lynch

Faculty Works

Purely speculative derivatives (PSDs) are derivatives in which neither counterparty is engaged in hedging. Unless used for entertainment purposes, PSDs are irrational, less-than-zero-sum transactions. Entities that engage in PSDs jeopardize their stakeholders and increase systemic risk. PSDs can also increase moral hazard, be used for regulatory arbitrage, and redirect resources away from efficient allocation of market capital. PSDs should be unenforceable, void for public policy reasons, except where expressly permitted to provide gambling entertainment, enhance price discovery, or increase liquidity for hedgers. In the U.S., however, PSDs are often legal and enforceable, even after the financial crisis of 2008 that …

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A Balanced Approach: Advocating For Middle School Improvement That Levels The Playing Field, Derrik Craun Dec 2014

A Balanced Approach: Advocating For Middle School Improvement That Levels The Playing Field, Derrik Craun

Dissertations

With a large disparity in the rate of suspension incidents received between African American and White students, it is evident why there still exists a gap in academic achievement. Too often we rely heavily on out of school suspensions as a consequence for student misbehavior. This approach leads to students falling behind academically and feeling less connected to their learning environment. My study takes a close look into establishing district policy to help each middle school offer a balanced approach to addressing student discipline in order to improve behavior and increase the amount of instructional time that African American middle …

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Exploring Tissue Engineering Possibilities Using Autologous Progenitor Cells In The Peritoneum, Valene Garr Dec 2014

Exploring Tissue Engineering Possibilities Using Autologous Progenitor Cells In The Peritoneum, Valene Garr

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

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4-H And Aquatic Robotics, Brian Mcneill, Patrick Jirik, Bradley Rugg Dec 2014

4-H And Aquatic Robotics, Brian Mcneill, Patrick Jirik, Bradley Rugg

Journal of Extension

4-H is positioned to engage youth in the areas of environment and engineering. This article shares how Minnesota is engaging youth and adults to identify and solve community issues with the use of an aquatic remotely operated vehicle (ROV). After creating a new program design, the team has attracted new skilled volunteers and new youth to create youth-adult partnerships to take action in the community.

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Encryption And Incrimination: The Evolving States Of Encrypted Drives, Shannon M. Oltmann Dec 2014

Encryption And Incrimination: The Evolving States Of Encrypted Drives, Shannon M. Oltmann

Information Science Faculty Publications

Individuals use encryption to safeguard many valid and legal applications but also to hide illegal activity. Several legal cases have drawn the limits of self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment regarding providing passwords to access illegal information content,such as child pornography. The cases illustrate that certain knowledge of evidence amounts to a compelling need for access and that a subpoena for hard drive contents is more likely to succeed than requiring a witness to provide a password. Since known documents are not legally protected and biometric data can be compelled as evidence, there is no reason that known digital documents, biometric …

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Performance Of Frp-Retrofitted Concrete Bridge Columns Under Blast Loading, R. Zheng, P. Zohrevand, H. Erdogan, Amir Mirmiran Dec 2014

Performance Of Frp-Retrofitted Concrete Bridge Columns Under Blast Loading, R. Zheng, P. Zohrevand, H. Erdogan, Amir Mirmiran

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Contrary to military or essential government buildings, most bridges are designed without any consideration for blast resistance. Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) can provide an effective means for strengthening of critical bridges against such loading. This study has focused on the effectiveness of FRP retrofitting in the dynamic response of reinforced concrete bridge columns under blast loading. Using a simplified equivalent I-section with a virtual material lumped at the two flanges; a lightly meshed uniaxial finite element model was developed and successfully validated against previous studies. The proposed model was then used for a thorough parametric study on the blast resistance of …

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Determining Thresholds Of Annoyance To Tones In Noise, Jennifer Marie Francis Dec 2014

Determining Thresholds Of Annoyance To Tones In Noise, Jennifer Marie Francis

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Building services equipment often produce noise with prominent tones that can lead to complaints from occupants in the built environment. Previous studies have investigated human perception to tones in noise but it is still unclear at what threshold of prominence these tones lead to human annoyance. The goal of this research is to apply two different methods towards defining thresholds of annoyance to two tonal frequencies: 125 Hz and 500 Hz. In Method I – Direct Assessment with Task, subjects are exposed to 10 minutes of broadband noise with a tonal frequency set at a certain level of prominence while …

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From Burma To Berlin: The Development Of U.S. Air Transport 1938–1949, Benjamin J. Johnson Dec 2014

From Burma To Berlin: The Development Of U.S. Air Transport 1938–1949, Benjamin J. Johnson

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work examines the development of U.S. military airlift from unproven curiosity to a transformative system of technologies, tactics and logistical support which enabled the United States to engage diplomatic and military scenarios around the world. Through an examination of contemporary reports, technological advances and statistical analyses of airlift practices it is shown that the period of 1938-1949 witnessed a great leap in tactical and technological innovation within the U.S. air transport community. The capabilities utilized during air supply missions to China during World War II and the Berlin Airlift foreshadowed a transformative capability providing military and diplomatic solutions when …

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Contextualizing Couples: Three Essays On Inequality, Stress, And Dyadic Functioning As A Longitudinal And Reciprocal Process, Deadric T. Williams Dec 2014

Contextualizing Couples: Three Essays On Inequality, Stress, And Dyadic Functioning As A Longitudinal And Reciprocal Process, Deadric T. Williams

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this dissertation, I use an integrated theoretical and conceptual model that consists of several theoretical frameworks to examine the following questions: (1) is there a longitudinal and reciprocal association between parental stress/distress and dyadic functioning? (2) does the association change over time? (3) does the association vary across social contexts (e.g., marital status, race/ethnicity, and poverty)? In order to explore these questions, I use longitudinal and dyadic data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, which follows a cohort of children and their parents from birth to five years of age. Through three separate analytic studies, the results …

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Identification Of Groundwater Sources For Municipal Wells Using Geochemical Data On The Platte Alluvial Aquifer And Underlying Limestone At The Lincoln Water Well Field Near Ashland Nebraska, Juanita Cruz Torres Dec 2014

Identification Of Groundwater Sources For Municipal Wells Using Geochemical Data On The Platte Alluvial Aquifer And Underlying Limestone At The Lincoln Water Well Field Near Ashland Nebraska, Juanita Cruz Torres

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alluvial aquifer systems where pumping of municipal wells induces recharge from the adjacent river are the primary source of water for many cities. The city of Lincoln, NE has a primary water source in an alluvial aquifer adjacent to the Platte River. The Lincoln Water System manages the stream/aquifer system by using integrated models for a better understanding during periods of high stress such as a drought. The integrated models set the limestone aquifer as an impermeable boundary to understand the alluvial aquifer system without having a secondary water source. The limestone aquifer is permeable and the purpose of this …

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“Danger Is My Business”: The Right To Manufacture Unsafe Products, Richard C. Ausness Dec 2014

“Danger Is My Business”: The Right To Manufacture Unsafe Products, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

While no one would dispute that safety is a desirable objective, it may not always be an absolute priority. Rather, in some cases, other societal interests such as personal autonomy, consumer choice, product cost, and performance may trump legitimate safety goals. This is reflected in some of the doctrines and defenses that have evolved to protect the producers of unsafe products against tort liability. Some of these doctrines, such as those determining liability for the producers of optional safety equipment, inherently dangerous products, products with obvious hazards, and prescription drugs and medical devices, are part of the law of products …

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Downregulation Of Prdm16 Is Critical For Hoxb4-Mediated Benign Hsc Expansion In Vivo, Hui Yu Dec 2014

Downregulation Of Prdm16 Is Critical For Hoxb4-Mediated Benign Hsc Expansion In Vivo, Hui Yu

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Overexpression of HOXB4 in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) leads to increased self-renewal without causing hematopoietic malignancies in transplanted mice. The molecular basis of HOXB4-mediated benign HSC expansion in vivo is not well understood. To gain further insight into the molecular events underlying HOXB4-mediated HSC expansion, we analyzed gene expression changes at multiple time points in Lin-Sca1+c-kit+ (LSK) cells from mice transplanted with bone marrow (BM) cells transduced with a MSCV-HOXB4-ires-YFP vector. A distinct HOXB4 transcriptional program was reproducibly induced and stabilized by 12 weeks after transplant. Dynamic expression changes were observed in genes critical for HSC self- renewal as well …

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The Impact Of The Gradual Release Of Responsibility On Graduate Teacher Education Candidates’ Self-Efficacy With Ipads, Wendy L. Loewenstein Dec 2014

The Impact Of The Gradual Release Of Responsibility On Graduate Teacher Education Candidates’ Self-Efficacy With Ipads, Wendy L. Loewenstein

Student Work

Keeping up with technological innovations is a challenge for educational intuitions as they strive to prepare students to be competitive in a future workforce. This is an overwhelming task for educational leaders that extends beyond which technological device to purchase. This study examines the barriers to iPad integration in education and how the gradual release of responsibility method of instruction can be used to increase participants’ self-efficacy with iPads. The participants (N = 41) were teacher education graduate candidates enrolled in a Children’s Literature course in which they were provided access to iPads. Survey results revealed that candidates’ efficacy prior …

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Media Sensationalism And Its Implications On The Public Understanding Of Science, Christopher Barsoum Dec 2014

Media Sensationalism And Its Implications On The Public Understanding Of Science, Christopher Barsoum

HIM 1990-2015

Myths, misinformation, and sensationalism. These are common enemies that directly inhibit the public understanding of science. In particular, the media is often responsible for mishandling or otherwise misrepresenting scientific information, historically and presently speaking. Many sources can combat the public understanding of science through pseudoscientific means. This includes but is not limited to religion, the media, politics, or just simple hearsay. For example, Young Earth creationism is deeply rooted in Christian theology, but the beliefs hold no scientific basis. Yet, almost half of Americans still believe in Young Earth creationism. Another such example is anti-vaccination campaigns due to fears of …

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Predicting Science Literacy And Science Appreciation, Robert Hellmuth Dec 2014

Predicting Science Literacy And Science Appreciation, Robert Hellmuth

HIM 1990-2015

Research has shown that the benefits of having a populace literate in science are great. Even if citizens are not literate in basic science, it is important that citizens still appreciate science and those with expertise in the field for many reasons. Recent research suggests that the United States (U.S.) has lower levels of science literacy than it should. Evidence may also suggest that many U.S. citizens are not appreciative of science. Overall, little research has been conducted on what may predict science literacy and science appreciation which is the aim of this research. Specifically, I have examined socio-personal variables, …

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Investing In An Interconnected Workforce: Global Education Reform, Amelia Klug Dec 2014

Investing In An Interconnected Workforce: Global Education Reform, Amelia Klug

HIM 1990-2015

Regardless of culture, socio-economic background, and quality of life, all students deserve the highest quality of education. But the reality is, many education systems around the world do not offer it. Investing in structural reforms in education has the potential to boost economic growth in countries around the world. By learning from different education systems strengths and weaknesses, policy decisions can be made that ensure students are given the opportunity for higher educational outcomes. This study analyzes high, middle, and low quality education systems around the world and the infrastructures that lead to educational success or failure. Fifteen education systems …

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Cohabitation: Looking Through A Keyhole, Mary Joy Torrecampo Dec 2014

Cohabitation: Looking Through A Keyhole, Mary Joy Torrecampo

HIM 1990-2015

Initially, my developing body of work aimed to redesign the traditions of representational painting, specifically the female nude, to depict the contemporary notions of lesbianism and femininity in an honest and empowering manner as a form of identity and not as vehicle for voyeurism. As an artist who paints the female nude and identifies as a woman and a lesbian, I examine the preexisting notions of the male gaze and the effect of socialization as it pertains to my work. The act of looking from the point of view of a woman, which is not synonymous with a "female gaze", …

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Gross Domestic Product (Gdp) Rebasing And The Impact On Nigeria's Investment Environment, Bismark J. Rewane Dec 2014

Gross Domestic Product (Gdp) Rebasing And The Impact On Nigeria's Investment Environment, Bismark J. Rewane

Bullion

The paper looks at the impact of the rebasing on an important economic variable - investment. This is because investment is necessary for capital accumulation and economic growth. Specifically, this study examines the impact of GDP rebasing on Nigeria's investment environment. ln addition to this introduction section, section 2 considers GDP rebasing and the Nigerian case, section 3 is on the Nigerian Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020, section 4 is on investment types, drivers and the Nigerian environment, section 5 offers some lessons for Nigeria and section 6 is the summary and conclusion.

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Gdp Rebasing And Implications For Fss 2020., Oluwatoyin Jokosenumi Dec 2014

Gdp Rebasing And Implications For Fss 2020., Oluwatoyin Jokosenumi

Bullion

A resilient economy founded upon a reliable financial system, is attainable upon the creation and management of a sound and progressive economic statistics and indicators such as the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and other scholars’ parameters. This paper examines the GDP rebasing and its impact on Nigeria’s investment. The paper explains the concept of GDP; the need to maintain a strategic GDP; how it is computed and / or rebased. This is then followed by examining its implications, on all economic programs.

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The Disappearance Of Corruption And The New Path Forward In Campaign Finance, Eugene D. Mazo Dec 2014

The Disappearance Of Corruption And The New Path Forward In Campaign Finance, Eugene D. Mazo

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

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The Unified-Fft Method For Fast Solution Of Integral Equations As Applied To Shielded-Domain Electromagnetics, Brian J. Rautio Dec 2014

The Unified-Fft Method For Fast Solution Of Integral Equations As Applied To Shielded-Domain Electromagnetics, Brian J. Rautio

Dissertations - ALL

Electromagnetic (EM) solvers are widely used within computer-aided design (CAD) to improve and ensure success of circuit designs. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of Maxwell's equations, they are often computationally expensive. While considerable progress has been made in the realm of speed-enhanced EM solvers, these fast solvers generally achieve their results through methods that introduce additional error components by way of geometric approximations, sparse-matrix approximations, multilevel decomposition of interactions, and more. This work introduces the new method, Unified-FFT (UFFT). A derivative of method of moments, UFFT scales as O(N log N), and achieves fast analysis by the unique combination of …

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Rooting For The Story: Institutional Sports Journalism In The Digital Age, Brian Peter Moritz Dec 2014

Rooting For The Story: Institutional Sports Journalism In The Digital Age, Brian Peter Moritz

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines contemporary daily sports journalism through the lenses of media sociology and new institutional theory. In-depth interviews with 25 sports journalists (reporters and editors) identified the institutionalized norms, values, practices and routines of American sports journalism, demonstrated how that institutionalization affects story selection, and showed how the profession is changing due to digital and social media. The interviews show that although traditional sports journalism is highly institutionalized, digital sports journalism is far less so. Traditional sports journalism is still centered around a story, and digital sports journalism follows Robinson's (2011) journalism-as-process model. The journalists interviewed are expected to …

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Adaptive Power Management For Computers And Mobile Devices, Hao Shen Dec 2014

Adaptive Power Management For Computers And Mobile Devices, Hao Shen

Dissertations - ALL

Power consumption has become a major concern in the design of computing systems today. High power consumption increases cooling cost, degrades the system reliability and also reduces the battery life in portable devices. Modern computing/communication devices support multiple power modes which enable power and performance tradeoff. Dynamic power management (DPM), dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), and dynamic task migration for workload consolidation are system level power reduction techniques widely used during runtime. In the first part of the dissertation, we concentrate on the dynamic power management of the personal computer and server platform where the DPM, DVFS and task …

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