Digital Commons Network^™

Conflict And Cooperation As Social Responses To Ecological Change, Nicholas A. Seltzer

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation examines ways the environment conditions individual incentives to participate in collective action. I hypothesize that as resources become scarce, individuals are more willing to participate in individually-costly collective action, including intragroup cooperation and intergroup hostility. The first and second of three studies establish a unit-of-selection based, game-theoretic foundation for intergroup conflict. The final study explores macro-level implications for the relationship between climate change and violence in Africa. For human beings and other highly social creatures, cooperation is the key adaptation with which we respond to environmental challenges. Faced with resource scarcity, group living becomes increasingly vital for individual …

Attachment's Role In Social Support And Mentoring: An Investigation Among Collegiate Women, Alberto Herrera-Alcazar

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Recent years have seen a concerted effort to increase the number of women pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Although one approach to retention of undergraduates in STEM fields has been formal mentoring programs, other channels, such as naturally occurring mentor relationships, have served to retain students in science and other disciplines as well. The current project investigated the interplay between attachment representations of close relationships, social support and mentor relationships. The first aim was to examine the relationship between attachment and general facets of social support. The second aim was to assess benefits of mentor relationships on …

The Gendered City: The Politics Of Violence Against Women In Mexico City's Public Transportation System, Amy Dunckel

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

According to the World Health Organization as of 2010 more people live in cities than ever before. And yet, also according to them, women are one of the least likely groups to control the wealth and power that is produced in these metropolises. How are women excluded from equal right to the city? Why is gender inequality in cities so persistent and difficult for women to overcome? This research looks at the case of Mexico City -one of the largest cities in the world, hailed as an economic hub for Latin America- to answer these questions. In the last decade …

Upper And Lower Bounds On Sorting And Searching In External Memory, Dzejla Medjedovic

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation presents variants on sorting and searching in external memory. In the first part of the dissertation, we derive lower and upper bounds on sorting with different-sized records. We show that the record size substantially affects the sorting complexity, and so does the final interleaving of the smaller and larger records in the final sorted sequence: sorting costs more when large and small records are segregated than when they are interleaved in the final sorted order. In the second part of the dissertation, we study the batched predecessor problem in external memory. Given the underlying sorted set S of …

Shape-Based Analysis, Krishna Chaitanya Gurijala

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Shape analysis plays a critical role in many fields, especially in medical analysis. There has been substantial research performed for shape analysis in manifolds. On the contrary, shape-based analysis has not received much attention for volumetric data. It is not feasible to directly extend the successful manifold shape analysis methods, such as heat diffusion, to volumes due to the huge computational cost. The work presented herein seeks to address this problem by presenting two approaches for shape analysis in volumes that not only capture the shape information efficiently but also reduce the computational time drastically. The first approach is a …

Learning To Read Recipes : Activity Diagramming With Narrative Event Chains, Ganesa Thandavam Ponnuraj

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In this work, we generate activity diagrams of the recipe text automatically, with the help of narrative event chains. Cooking recipes, that have predominantly imperative sentences, present unique challenges in the form of frequent argument drops and co-reference resolution over evolving (or merging) entities. Here, we introduce an unsupervised approach to automatically recover the recipe flow graphs. Then we illustrate the usefulness of our learned models via narrative cloze task; for the automatic evaluation of our learned models, we make use of one of the oft-used task in Discourse analysis, namely the sentence re-ordering and illustrate their utility. To report …

Understanding Online Fashion Networks, Kota Yamaguchi

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Emergence of online social networks has transformed how people interact with digital media. Any user is a consumer and a publisher of media content, such as texts, images, or videos, in the online community. In such an environment, it is crucial to develop technology to help people by organizing and utilizing plethora of media content to meet the community demands. To this goal, this dissertation studies and tries to establish computational approaches to understand networked content, using large-scale data from a real-world online fashion network, Chictopia. This study focuses on two major challenges of fashion networks: understanding of visual content, …

Visual Association Mining Of Multivariate Data, Zhiyuan Zhang

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The rapid development of information technology produces vast amounts of data with numerous attributes. These multi-dimensional datasets offer tremendous opportunities for studying existing behavioral patterns and for predicting future developments. However, the high-dimensional space exceeds human comprehension. More sophisticated visualization techniques than the arsenal of standard plots are needed. First, we introduce an interactive navigation technique to help the analysts explore within the multi-dimensional data spaces. We employ a network-based interface and pair it with a parallel coordinates plot. In the network interface, the dimensions form nodes that are connected by edges representing the strength of association between dimensions. The …

Sustainable Access To Education For Southern Sudanese Refugee Children Living In Uganda: A Case Of A Refugee Settlement In Arua District, Amuge Edith

Master of Education

Education is considered obligatory and indispensable for the central development of all individuals in spite of their political, economic, religious and social affiliations. Yet for the Southern Sudanese refugee children living in Uganda, opportunities to education seem to narrow from one level to another withstanding the fact that the Southern Sudanese Refugee Children consider education their number one priority. The notion that education is a right seems more of a theoretical documentation than a practical execution. This paper explores sustainable access to education for the Southern Sudanese Children living in Uganda. The argument on this paper is that predictions are …

Examining Teacher Leadership Development In A Government Secondary School In Koboko West-Nile Uganda, Wayi Dragamulai

Master of Education

The ultimate resource of any community is its people and so are the teachers who are a beacon of hope for the future of a school. A case study of examining teacher leadership development in a government secondary school in Koboko District, West Nile Uganda was carried out. This study aimed at determining teacher leadership development opportunities in the school, the factors that enhance and the factors that hamper teacher leadership development in the school. Data collection involved the use of both primary and secondary methods with instruments such as, semi structured interviews, focused group discussion, and document analyses were …

Lived Experiences Of Lower Secondary School Students In Learning Mathematics In English; A Phenomenological Study Of Ward Secondary Schools In Ukerewe District, Tanzania., Josephat Samwel

Master of Education

During this era of globalization where the world is like a village, preparation of competent, efficient and competitive graduates is inevitable. Language of instruction is highly regarded as an important factor in the learning process globally and Tanzania in particular. Language, without doubt, plays a pivotal role in facilitating the process of acquisition of knowledge, skills and values by the learners. This study explored the lived experiences of the lower secondary school students’ in learning mathematics in English in ward secondary school in Tanzania. The study used qualitative approach, whereby a phenomenological design was adopted. The study employed two methods …

The Role Of The Head Teacher In Supporting Teachers To Enhance Language Competences Among The Learners Transiting From Lower To Upper Primary: A Case Of A Government Aided Primary School In Uganda, Sharon Kirabo

Master of Education

Transition from lower to upper primary is challenging both to teachers and learners, especially in a context where that transition involves switching from one language of instruction to another. As learners struggle to master the language of instruction and the subject content, teachers similarly struggle to find suitable methods that would enhance learners‟ understanding. This challenging situation requires massive support from the head teacher. This study sought to explore the role of the head teacher in supporting teachers to enhance language competences among the learners transiting from lower to upper primary. The study adopted a qualitative case study design and …

Dance Usm! Poster [2014], University Of Southern Maine Department Of Theatre

Posters 2014-2015 Season

Directed by Maria A. Tzianabos

Dimensions: 8" x 13"

Postcard included, dimensions 4" x 6"

University Of Dayton Magazine, Winter 2014-15, University Of Dayton Magazine

University of Dayton Alumni Publications

This issue includes information about work UD students are doing in Africa, stories long told on campus, and the death penalty.

New Biography Chronicles The Life Of Teacher-Doctor Tinsley Harrison, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Help Benevolent Fund Award First Community Impact Grant, Traci Bratton

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Jones 'Epitomizes The True Uab Spirit', Natalie Wade

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Cdc Grant To Create Network For Young Breast Cancer Survivors In Southern States, Tyler Greer

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Nippon Foundation / Gebco Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation Project, Rochelle A. Wigley, Norhizam Hassan, Mohammad Chowdhury, Roshan Ranaweera, Xinh Le Sy, Hemanaden Runghen, Jan Erik Arndt

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The Indian Ocean Bathymetric Compilation (IOBC) project, undertaken by Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Scholars, is focused on building a regional bathymetric data compilation, of all publically-available bathymetric data within the Indian Ocean region from 30°N to 60° S and 10° to 147° E. One of the objectives of this project is the creation of a network of Nippon Foundation / GEBCO Scholars working together, derived from the thirty Scholars from fourteen nations bordering on the Indian Ocean who have graduated from this Postgraduate Certificate in Ocean Bathymetry (PCOB) training program training program at the University of New Hampshire. The IOBC …

Volume 34, Number 4, December 2014 Olac Newsletter, Marcy Strong, Heather Pretty, Christina Hennessey, Jan Mayo, T.J. Kao, Jay Weitz, Lisa Romano

OLAC Newsletters

Digitized December 2014 issue of the OLAC Newsletter.

Annie Humphers-Ginther Honors Portfolio, Anastasia June Humphers-Ginther

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Anastasia (Annie) Humphers-Ginther's honors portfolio captured in December 2014.

Monitoring Effects Of Pj Harvest And Utilization - Final Report, Kari E. Veblen, Helga Van Miegroet, Ron Ryel, Darren Mcavoy

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Although Pinyon pine and juniper species (PJ) are endemic to the US, the expansion of these ecosystems into decreasing sage-brush steppe communities has been rapid. For example, due to changes in climate, fire suppression, land-use and decrease of fuels associated with grazing, PJ woodlands have expanded and currently cover 19 million ha as of 2011 in the Intermountain West (Bates et al. 2000, Pierson et al. 2013, Abella et al. 2012). Before settlement, 90% of that area consisted largely of sage-brush steppe communities (Pierson et al. 2013). Not only has acreage increased, but the density per acre has also increased …

Citizen Science Reveals Widespread Negative Effects Of Roads On Amphibian Distributions, Bradley J. Cosentino, David M. Marsh, Kara S. Jones, Joseph J. Apodaca, Christopher Bates, Jessica Beach, Karen H. Beard, Kelsie Becklin, Jane Margaret Bell, Christopher Crockett, George Fawson, Jennifer Fjelsted, Elizabeth A. Forys, Kristen S. Genet, Melanie Grover, Jaimie Holmes, Katherine Indeck, Nancy E. Karraker, Eran S. Kilpatrick, Tom A. Langen, Stephen G. Mugel, Alessandro Molina, James R. Vonesh, Ryan J. Weaver, Anisha Willey

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Landscape structure is important for shaping the abundance and distribution of amphibians, but prior studies of landscape effects have been species or ecosystem-specific. Using a large-scale, citizen science-generated database, we examined the effects of habitat composition, road disturbance, and habitat split (i.e. the isolation of wetland from forest by intervening land use) on the distribution and richness of frogs and toads in the eastern and central United States. Undergraduates from nine biology and environmental science courses collated occupancy data and characterized landscape structure at 1617 sampling locations from the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. Our analysis revealed that anuran species …

Raps Sheet, December 2014, Retirement Association Of Portland State

RAPS Sheet: Monthly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

October To December 2014

All Summaries

No abstract provided.

Correlational Study Between Psychological Birth Trauma And Prenatal Care Among Adolescent Mothers, Brittani Rahndevu

2014 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Research findings to be discussed are from a larger, quantitative study exploring psychological birth trauma (PBT) among adolescents. My study examines prenatal care (PNC) and its effect as a contributing factor in PBT, defined as subjective distress. Research was conducted at John Peter Smith County Hospital (JPS). IRB approval was initially approved by the University of Texas at Arlington and is now held by JPS. The sample included 256 multiethnic adolescents, ages 13-19 years. The Impact of Event Scale was used to measure subjective distress. Little research among adolescents shows the influence of PNC upon PBT. This identified problem statement …

Perceived Stress And Coping Strategies In Nurse Managers Attending The Online Academic Partnership (Ap) Nursing Administration Program, Ngozi Ilondior

2014 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This quantitative study examines perceived stress and coping strategies in nurse managers in the online nursing administration program. Not only do nurse managers have to deal with the stress accompanied by the position, but also the stressful condensed master's program. It is crucial they can cope with different stressors ensuring a healthy and safe work environment for staff nurses. The relationship between perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale [α=.859]) and coping (COPE scale [α=.889]) was investigated using Spearman's rho correlation coefficient. A positive correlation was observed between stress and maladaptive coping p=.031 (r=.416). There was a negative correlation between number of …

Tracking The Movement Of Pseudomonas Syringae Strains- On The Adaxial Leaf Surface Of Arabidopsis Thaliana, Vincent Nguyen

2014 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Detection of population density is a form of communication for certain phytobacteria that usually involves the association of small diffusible chemical signals, particularly N-acyl homoserine lactones. It is pondered whether or not this molecule and the phytotoxin, coronatine, play a significant role in the directional motility of the wild type (Pst DC3000) and mutant strains (Pst DC3118, Pst DB29, and Pst psy/IR-) of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato on the adaxial surface of Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. A leaf assay and in vivo experimentation by spotting a set of leaves for each bacteria and making an imprint on an agar plate following …

Interactions Of Protist And Bacteria: A Mathematical Model, Matthew Le

2014 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Relationships between interacting organisms generally have several key variables that describe the dynamics of their specific relationship. And the results from those symbiotic relationships are important in that both species are affected in a significant, observable way. With this in mind, it is found that the characteristic actions of each of the two species affect the population size of both species. This effect, caused by the species' actions and interactions is qualitatively noted and is further interpreted and quantized. The complicated relationship between a predator and its prey is broken down and analyzed to give better insight to the projected …

The Impact Sex Trafficking Education Has On Reported Cases, Ivette Cervantes

2014 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The purpose of this research study was to determine whether educating the public on the issue of sex trafficking has an impact on cases being reported. Several non-profit organizations located across Texas were interviewed. The organizations' mission is to provide services to sex trafficking victims and raise public awareness. Interviews were conducted with organizations located in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston. A major finding is that failure to properly identify victims is a core issue. Public awareness has increased. The public is aware that sex trafficking is a current issue, but their awareness does not impact cases being reported. …