Digital Commons Network^™

Utilizing Learning Style Preferences And Quality Function Deployment For Curriculum Development, Julie M. Ezzell

Masters Theses

"Workplace requirements continually evolve to keep pace with the developing global market. To meet ever increasing standards, educational institutions have been investigating methods to prepare students for their future employment. Course modifications should be carefully considered to meet the requirements of all stakeholders, including those of the students. The objective of this research was to provide students with an overall better learning experience that tailors the teaching methods to his/her individual learning preferences. To meet this objective, a comprehensive survey was provided to an undergraduate course in quality. The survey documented the student's individuality when learning and made note of …

Investigation Of Decoupling Capacitor Connection Methods Using Peec And Study Of Alien Crosstalk From A Broadr-Reach® Protocol Based System, Tamar Makharashvili

Masters Theses

"Power Distribution Network (PDN) for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design requires proper power integrity analysis. In order to deliver a low-ripple DC voltage from a Voltage Regulator Module (VRM) to an Integrated Circuit (IC), a certain target input impedance should be achieved. Developing simple physics-based equivalent circuit models are essential for understanding how a system works and making crucial design decisions. In this work, the input impedance of a decoupling capacitor due to traces, pads and via discontinuities are investigated using the Physics-based Model Size Reduction (PMSR) method. Various decoupling capacitor connection methods are compared and design guidelines are provided …

Cyber Security Research Frameworks For Coevolutionary Network Defense, George Daniel Rush

Masters Theses

"Cyber security is increasingly a challenge for organizations everywhere. Defense systems that require less expert knowledge and can adapt quickly to threats are strongly needed to combat the rise of cyber attacks. Computational intelligence techniques can be used to rapidly explore potential solutions while searching in a way that is unaffected by human bias.

Several architectures have been created for developing and testing systems used in network security, but most are meant to provide a platform for running cyber security experiments as opposed to automating experiment processes. In the first paper, we propose a framework termed Distributed Cyber Security Automation …

Detection And Cancellation Of Sinusoidal Fading Power Variation In Wireless Communication Systems, Sushruth Sastry

Masters Theses

"Fading channel estimation in wireless communication systems depends on an expected model for fading and any assumptions made about the channel itself. The bit error rate (BER) performance of the communication system is affected by how closely these assumptions made in designing the estimation technique match the deployment environment. Any unforeseen disturbances or hindrances in the environment deteriorate the BER performance of the system when the estimation system is not designed to combat such disturbances. To deal with such unforeseen obstacles, additional mathematical models can be proposed to model such disturbances and then the estimation techniques can either be reinforced …

Chemical Quantification With Ubiquitous Optoelectronic Devices, Altamash Mukhtar Fakki

Masters Theses

"Optical sensing in medical diagnosis and chemical analysis using optoelectronic devices is a growing technology since it offers many advantages including real time analysis, remote sensing capability and low cost approach. This thesis demonstrates that an optical sensing platform utilizing optical mouse, the ubiquitous optoelectronic computer peripheral, can be used in quantitative oxygen and pH analysis.

Work in the first paper includes the use of optical mice for fluorescence intensity imaging of commercial oxygen patch. This involves gray color intensity analysis of filtered images to determine the gaseous oxygen level.

In the second paper, the optical mice is used to …

Discrete-Time Neural Network Based State Observer With Neural Network Based Control Formulation For A Class Of Systems With Unmatched Uncertainties, Jason Michael Stumfoll

Masters Theses

"An observer is a dynamic system that estimates the state variables of another system using noisy measurements, either to estimate unmeasurable states, or to improve the accuracy of the state measurements. The Modified State Observer (MSO) is a technique that uses a standard observer structure modified to include a neural network to estimate system states as well as system uncertainty. It has been used in orbit uncertainty estimation and atmospheric reentry uncertainty estimation problems to correctly estimate unmodeled system dynamics. A form of the MSO has been used to control a nonlinear electrohydraulic system with parameter uncertainty using a simplified …

Biodiversity And Ecosystem Function And The Design Of Tallgrass Restorations For Biomass Production, Dustin Robert Jon Graham

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Biodiversity and ecosystem function research (BEF) suggests species richness may provide high levels of ecosystem functions. However, few studies have applied a BEF perspective of restoration, which utilizes biodiversity to achieve increases in ecosystem functions. In this study, we test the application of the BEF perspective of restoration in the design of tallgrass prairie plantings as a biomass crops. Specifically, we examine the effects of planted species richness on biomass production, resistance to disturbance, and resistance to invasion by weeds.

Four seed mixes which range in species richness (1, 5, 16 and 32 species) were established in four, field-scale (0.33-0.55 …

Stars, Stripes, And Swastikas : The American Turners And National Identity, 1935-1945, Amy Rekward

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Although German Americans were unable to completely recover from the discrimination endured during World War I, the American Turners proved to be a resilient group. Despite the insistence of some scholars that the German-American community in the United States lost the battle for cultural pluralism, from 1935 to 1945, the American Turners continued to craft and foster a unique Turner identity. Composed of what members perceived to be the best aspects of their German and American identities, the Turner identity allowed American Turners to both valorize their German heritage and present themselves as devoted Americans. My research into the American …

Danish Cedar Falls : The Immigrant Experience, Carrie L. Eilderts

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Danish were the largest immigrant group in Cedar Falls. They immigrated to Cedar Falls and the nearby rural village of Fredsville in large numbers between 1870 and 1900. There they formed an immigrant community. The lived near each other, worshipped together, spoke the same language, and carried on Danish traditions. They farmed, found jobs in Cedar Falls businesses, and opened businesses of their own. By the 1930s, as the first generation of Danish immigrants grew old, the younger generations began to identify more as Americans than as Danes. The elements that characterized the Danish immigrant community began to disappear. …

“Our Navy” : Women Accepted For Voluntary Emergency Service At Iowa State Teacher's College, 1942-1945, Marissa Krein

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

During World War II, Iowa State Teacher’s College (now known as University of Northern Iowa) was host to the first indoctrination school and later yeomen school (naval secretaries) of the United States Naval Women’s Reserve or the Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES). The first class of 1,500 WAVES arrived at Iowa State Teacher’s College (ISTC) in December 1942. The women endured five to six weeks of an intensive introductory training. In April 1943, the indoctrination school was replaced by a yeomen school. The yeomen school remained in operation until it was closed in April 1945. During its twenty-nine …

August Becker And Traditional Vs. Modern Culture In The First Decades Of The Twentieth Century, Michelle Lea Becker Smith

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In the first few decades of the twentieth century, American culture changed drastically from the traditional agricultural culture that had sustained it for a century to one that was modern and revolved around the urban landscape, consumer culture, and manufacturing. In this thesis I explore this change in American culture through the life of August Becker, son of a rural German immigrant who chose a life of crime instead of staying in rural Iowa. His life choices are the lens used to explore the changes in American culture through the first decades of the twentieth century.

In Connection With All Things : The Memory Of Alexander Humboldt And His Works In The Context Of 19th Century Thought In Europe And America, Ray Joseph Werner

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis explores the memory of Alexander von Humboldt, the explorer and philosopher who was known for his travels throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. This paper will examine primary and secondary sources throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries that mark a change in just how Humboldt was remembered, once as a great thinker, philosopher, and romanticist, then eventually as little more than an empirical scientist. This thesis will contribute to modern understandings of this man by looking at popular publications and writings that track this change over time. It will contribute to the modern understanding …

Different Levels Of Negative Emotions And Their Impact On Prosocial Behavior, Tsamchoe Dolma

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In this fast and competitive world, people are becoming less likely to help others. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), the volunteerism rate reached the lowest point in 2013 since 2002. This decrease in prosocial behavior makes the study of prosocial behavior important, especially with the increasing numbers of charitable organizations and their competition to attract more donors and volunteers. Public service advertisements (PSA) are used as a common medium to garner help and support, and many of them use emotional appeals to enhance persuasion. The literature on persuasion shows that emotions have persuasive power to change people's …

Implementation Of The Environmental Issues Instruction Model By Elementary Teachers, Barbara Ann Ehlers

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Teachers attend many professional development experiences throughout their professional careers. Many teachers attend because they have a personal desire for professional growth. In addition, in the state of Iowa, they are required to engage in professional development to renew teacher licensure. Professional development is offered on a myriad of topics including the latest educational research on learning, innovations in curriculum, and instructional strategies to use in the classroom. However, just attending does not guarantee improved professional practice. After these experiences teachers may or may not implement the strategies, teaching methods, or information they have learned.

This qualitative study analyzed data …

Identification Of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo By Pre-Service Teachers, Rachel Elizabeth Meisinger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Current research suggests that Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is a distinct attentional disorder from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that is characterized by a hypoactive, sluggish behavior pattern (Barkley, 2014). Further, unlike ADHD, SCT represents a more passive form of inattention that does not overly disrupt classroom learning goals. Thus children with SCT may be ‘falling through the cracks’ in schools. If children with SCT are going unrecognized in the classroom, they are likely not getting referred for treatment and additional educational services. SCT is related to many internalizing, academic, and social difficulties (Becker & Langberg, 2013, 2014) and early identification and …

A Preliminary Investigation Of The Relationship Between Direct Behavior Rating And The Conners 3 Teacher Rating Scale - Short Form, Jessica Stodden Stumme

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A growing body of evidence shows that Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) should continue to be examined as a method of behavior assessment to inform decisions about universal screening as well as progress monitoring for group or individual interventions. Researchers have looked toward DBR as a potential method to capture levels of problem behavior for use in tiered problem solving models. Most research on DBR has focused on comparing its ratings against systematic direct observation. The current study examined the correlation between DBR ratings of academic engagement and disruptive behavior with the Conners 3-Teacher Short (Conners 3-T(S)) form. This is important …

The Ongoing Faculty Development System: A Case Study Exploring Content Methods Teacher Education Faculty Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge Development, Daniel James Mourlam

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Society has changed from manufacturing to information-based, resulting in an emphasis in different knowledge and skills. When entering the profession, new teachers will be expected prepare learners for key 21st century skills using digital technologies. At a time when near technological ubiquity exists, development of these skills using digital tools has become an expectation. As teacher education programs have responded to the demands for more new teachers that can leverage technologies to develop 21st century skills, much of this preparation has occurred in instructional technology focused courses. However, in recent years attention has shifted to developing these skills in content …

The New Stock Market: Sense And Nonsense, Merritt B. Fox, Lawrence R. Glosten, Gabriel Rauterberg

Faculty Scholarship

How stocks are traded in the United States has been totally transformed. Gone are the dealers on NASDAQ and the specialists at the NYSE. Instead, a company’s stock can now be traded on up to sixty competing venues where a computer matches incoming orders. High-frequency traders (HFTs) post the majority of quotes and are the preponderant source of liquidity in the new market.

Many practices associated with the new stock market are highly controversial, as illustrated by the public furor following the publication of Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys. Critics say that HFTs use their speed in discovering changes in …

Equity's Unstated Domain: The Role Of Equity In Shaping Copyright Law, Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Gideon Parchomovsky

Faculty Scholarship

As used today, the term “equity” connotes a variety of related, but nonetheless distinct, ideas. In most contexts, equity refers to the body of rules and doctrines that emerged in parallel with the common law, and which merged with the common law by the late nineteenth century. At a purely conceptual level, some trace the term back to Aristotle’s notion of epieikeia, or the process of infusing the law with sufficient flexibility to avoid injustice. Lastly, at a largely practical level, a few treat equity as synonymous with a set of remedies that courts can authorize, all of which …

Anisotropy Reversal Of The Upper Critical Field At Low Temperatures And Spin-Locked Superconductivity In K₂Cr₃As₃, F. F. Balakirev, T. Kong, M. Jaime, R. D. Mcdonald, C. H. Mielke, A. Gurevich, P. C. Canfield, S. L. Bud'ko

Physics Faculty Publications

We report measurements of the anisotropic upper critical field H_c2(T) for K₂Cr₃As₃ single crystals up to 60 T and T > 0.6K. Our results show that the upper critical field parallel to the Cr chains, H^∥_c2(T), exhibits a paramagnetically limited behavior, whereas the shape of the H^⊥_c2(T) curve (perpendicular to the Cr chains) has no evidence of paramagnetic effects. As a result, the curves H^⊥_c2(T) and H^∥_c2(T) cross at T ≈ 4K, so that the anisotropy parameter _H(T)=H …

Measurement Of The Target-Normal Single-Spin Asymmetry In Quasielastic Scattering From The Reaction ³He↑(E, E'), Y. W. Zhang, E. Long, M. Mihoviloviĉ, G. Gin, M Canan, S. Golge, R. Schiavilla

Physics Faculty Publications

We report the first measurement of the target single-spin asymmetry, A_y, in quasielastic scattering from the inclusive reaction ³He↑(e, e') on a ³He gas target polarized normal to the lepton scattering plane. Assuming time-reversal invariance, this asymmetry is strictly zero for one-photon exchange. A nonzero A_y can arise from the interference between the one-and two-photon exchange processes which is sensitive to the details of the substructure of the nucleon. An experiment recently completed at Jefferson Lab yielded asymmetries with high statistical precision at Q² = 0.13, 0.46, and 0.97 GeV2. These measurements demonstrate, for the first …

Precision Measurement Of The Longitudinal Double-Spin Asymmetry For Inclusive Jet Production In Polarized Proton Collisions At √S= 200gev, L. Adamczyk, J.K. Adkins, G. Agakishiev, S. Bültmann, I. Koralt, Star Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

We report a new measurement of the midrapidity inclusive jet longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, A_LL, in polarized pp collisions at center-of-mass energy √s = 200 GeV. The STAR data place stringent constraints on polarized parton distribution functions extracted at next-to-leading order from global analyses of inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (DIS), semi-inclusive DIS, and RHIC pp data. The measured asymmetries provide evidence at the 3σ level for positive gluon polarization in the Bjorken-x region x > 0.05.

High-Velocity Spoke Cavities, C. S. Hopper, Hyekyoung Park

Physics Faculty Publications

There are several current and recent projects which explore the feasibility of spoke-loaded cavities operating in the high-velocity region. Spoke cavities have a large number of geometric parameters which often influence multiple rf properties. Fabricating, handling, and processing these cavities presents some unique challenges, not unlike other TEM-class structures. This paper will summarize the current efforts toward the design, fabrication, and testing of spoke cavities with optimum beta greater than 0.8.

Developing Student, Family, And School Constructs From Nlts2 Data, Karrie A. Shogren, Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this study was to use data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study–2 (NLTS2) to (a) conceptually identify and empirically establish student, family, and school constructs; (b) explore the degree to which the constructs can be measured equivalently across disability groups; and (c) examine latent differences (means, variances, and correlations) in the constructs across disability groups. Conceptual analysis of NLTS2 individual survey items yielded 21 student, family, and school constructs, and 16 were empirically supported. Partial strong metric invariance was established across disability groups, and in the latent space, a complex pattern of mean and variance differences across …

“Leave Me And My Facebook Alone!” Understanding College Students’ Relationship With Facebook And Its Use For Academic Purposes, Hilary J. Gettman, Virginia Cortijo

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Facebook is by far the most ubiquitous social network in the world. While it has been studied extensively in its native social context, only recently has its use for academic purposes begun to be examined in earnest. In this study we utilize both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in multiple sections of required freshmen and senior courses at a liberal arts college (n = 245). To help delineate factors that cause students to accept (or resist) the use of Facebook by their professors, we draw from the well-established technology acceptance literature, adapting constructs known to predict acceptance and use of technology. …

How And Why Digital Generation Teachers Use Technology In The Classroom: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study, Lan Li, Eric Worch, Yuchun Zhou, Rhonda Aguiton

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

While teachers’ conservative attitude toward technology has been identified as a barrier to effective technology integration in classrooms, it is often optimistically assumed that this issue will resolve when the digital generation enters the teaching profession (Morris, 2012). Using a mixed methodology approach, this study aimed to examine the current technology usage of digital generation student teachers and the impact of possible internal and external barriers (such as self-efficacy, risk taking, and technology access and support) on their use of technology. Seventy-one student teachers first responded to an online survey regarding their technology use in classrooms. Afterwards, six participants were …

Mandatory Disclosure And Individual Investors: Evidence From The Jobs Act, Colleen Honisberg, Robert J. Jackson Jr., Yu-Ting Forester Wong

Faculty Scholarship

One prominent justification for the mandatory disclosure rules that define modem securities law is that these rules encourage individual investors to participate in stock markets. Mandatory disclosure, the theory goes, gives individual investors access to information that puts them on a more equal playing field with sophisticated institutional shareholders. Although this reasoning has long been cited by regulators and commentators as a basis for mandating disclosure, recent work has questioned its validity. In particular, recent studies contend that individual investors are overwhelmed by the amount of information required to be disclosed under current law, and thus they cannot and do …

Through The Looking Glass To A Shared Reflection: The Evolving Relationship Between Administrative Law And Financial Regulation, Gillian E. Metzger

Faculty Scholarship

Administrative law and financial regulation have an uneasy relationship today. It was not always so. Indeed, the two were closely intertwined at the nation's birth. The Treasury Department was a major hub of early federal administration, with Alexander Hamilton crafting the first iterations of federal administrative law in his oversight of revenue generation and customs collection. One hundred and fifty years later, administrative law and financial regulation were conjoined in the New Deal's creation of the modern administrative state. This time it was James Landis, Chair of the newly formed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and author of the leading …

Of Constituents And Contributors, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

In the stirring conclusion to his plurality opinion in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, Chief Justice Roberts pointed to the close connection between campaign contributions and what he called the "political responsiveness at the heart of the democratic process." Quoting Edmund Burke's statement in his famous Speech to the Electors of Bristol that a representative's judgment should be informed by "the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents," the Chief Justice eloquently declaimed that "[c]onstituents have the right to support candidates who share their views and concerns. Representatives are not to follow constituent orders, but can …

Predicting Depression Symptoms Among College Students: The Influence Of Parenting Style, Sarah Whitmire Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined parenting style variables in predicting college students’ depression symptoms. Participants were 989 college students who participated in the first wave of the Spit for Science project (Dick et al., 2011). This study described the prevalence of depression symptoms, including the percentage of the sample endorsing various depression symptoms, and the frequency depression scores were elevated at multiple time points. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to examine whether two dimensions of parenting style, Autonomy Granting and Parental Involvement, would interact in predicting depression symptoms in the Junior year. The present study demonstrates that parenting style predicts a …