Digital Commons Network^™

Visualising Migrant Voices: Co-Creative Documentary And The Politics Of Listening, Darcy Alexandra

Doctoral

This ethnography of media production explores the challenges of literally and figuratively visualising voice. The labour of a shared production and the distribution of the audio-visual documentary essays unfolded within a field of diverse, and at times, conflicting interests. For this reason, judicious attention to what I name ‘encounters’ of ‘political listening’ (Bickford 1996; Dreher 2009) provides one framework for theorising the challenges of researching with marginalised subjects and stories, and the contradictions of developing shared practices within proprietary contexts. These encounters reveal moments of listening and being heard, struggles over ‘veracity’ and ‘evidence,’ and the power relations inherent in …

An Architectural Perspective On Structured Sacred Space—Recent Evidence From Iron Age Ireland, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

N/A

Real Time Mission Planning, Emad William Saad, Stefan Richard Bieniawski, Riley Pigg, Paul Edward, John Lyle Vian, Paul Michael Robinette, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The different advantageous embodiments provide a system comprising a number of computers, a graphical user interface, first program code stored on the computer, and second program code stored on the computer. The graphical user interface is executed by a computer in the number of computers. The computer is configured to run the first program code to define a mission using a number of mission elements. The computer is configured to run the second program code to generate instructions for a number of assets to execute the mission and monitor the number of assets during execution of the mission.

Evaluation Of Oxidization Of Crumb Rubber-Modified Asphalt During Short-Term Aging, Amir Ghavibazoo, Magdy Abdelrahman, Mohyeldin Ragab

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Asphalt binder is subjected to aging during the construction process and service life of pavement. Aging substantially changes the chemical composition and physical properties of asphalt and leads to premature distresses on pavement. It is speculated that crumb rubber modifier (CRM) reduces the susceptibility of asphalt to aging, but its mechanism is not fully understood. Also, the impact of interaction parameters and exchange of components on the aging behavior of a crumb rubber-modified binder is not fully understood. In this study, the effect of CRM on the short-term aging of asphalt was investigated through an analysis of the distinctions between …

Effect Of Used Motor Oil On The Macro And Micromechanical Properties Of Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt, Magdy Abdelrahman, Mohyeldin Ragab, Daniel Bergerson

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The need to be more environmentally conscious has recently shifted toward the forefront of society. With this new focus on environmentally responsible behavior comes the practice of using recycled materials in construction when possible. Used motor oil (UMO) is an example of waste materials that can be utilized in numerous applications to alleviate its environmental disposal burden. In the current work, the effect of UMO on the internal structure of crumb rubber modified asphalt is investigated. This is carried out by employing rheological analysis including dynamic shear rheometer and microindentation testing. Rheological analysis was employed to determine the change in …

Electrical Resistivity Imaging For Long-Term Autonomous Monitoring Of Hydrocarbon Degradation: Lessons From The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Jeffrey W. Heenan, Lee D. Slater, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Estella A. Atekwana, Babu Z. Fathepure, Sonal Dalvi, Cameron Ross, D. Dale Werkema, Eliot A. Atekwana

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Conceptual models for the geophysical responses associated with hydrocarbon degradation suggest that the long-term evolution of an oil plume will result in a more conductive anomaly than the initial contamination. In response to the Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, an autonomous resistivity monitoring system was deployed on Grand Terre, Louisiana, in an attempt to monitor natural degradation processes in hydrocarbon-impacted beach sediments of this island. A 48-electrode surface array with a 0.5-m spacing was installed to obtain twice-daily images of the resistivity structure of the shallow subsurface impacted by oil. Over the course …

Elastic Personalized Nonfunctional Attribute Preference And Trade-Off Based Service Selection, Kenneth K. Fletcher, Xiaoqing F. Liu, Mingdong Tang

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

For service users to get the best service that meet their requirements, they prefer to personalize their nonfunctional attributes, such as reliability and price. However, the personalization makes it challenging for service providers to completely meet users' preferences, because they have to deal with conflicting nonfunctional attributes when selecting services for users. With this in mind, users may sometimes want to explicitly specify their trade-offs among nonfunctional attributes to make their preferences known to service providers. In this article, we present a novel service selection method based on fuzzy logic that considers users' personalized preferences and their trade-offs on nonfunctional …

Effect Of Nitrogen On Properties Of Na2o-Cao-Sro-Zno-Sio2 Glasses, Ahmed Bachar, Cyrille Mercier, Arnaud Tricoteaux, Jean Christophe Hornez, Anne Leriche, Claudine Follet, Bertrand Revel, Stuart Hampshire, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Glasses in the Na₂O-CaO-SrO-ZnO-SiO₂ system have previously been investigated for suitability as a reagent in Al-free glass polyalkenoate cements (GPCs). These materials have many properties that offer potential in orthopedics. However, their applicability has been limited, to date, because of their poor strength. This study was undertaken with the aim of increasing the mechanical properties of a series of these Zn-based GPC glasses by doping with nitrogen to give overall compositions of: 10Na₂O-10CaO-20SrO-20ZnO-(40-3x)SiO₂-xSi₃N₄ (x is the no. of moles of Si₃N₄). The density, glass-transition temperature, hardness, …

Numerical Simulation Of Prestressed Precast Concrete Bridge Deck Panels Using Damage Plasticity Model, Wei Ren, Lesley Sneed, Yang Yang, Ruili He

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Fly Ash Replacement Level On The Bond Strength Of Reinforcing Steel In Concrete Beams, Mahdi Arezoumandi, Trevor J. Looney, Jeffery S. Volz

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study compares the bond strength of reinforcing steel in high-volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC) mixes. Three mixes with 0% (conventional concrete), 50%, and 70% replacement of Portland cement with a Class C fly ash investigated in this study. Three beams (simply supported four-point loading condition) as well as three pull-out specimens (based on RILEM recommendations) were tested for each mix. Test results evaluated based on different codes as well as a bond database of conventional concrete specimens. These comparisons indicate that with increasing replacement level of fly ash in concrete the bond strength of reinforcing steel in concrete increases. …

2015 Military Family Lifestyle Survey, Cristin Orr Shiffer, Rosalinda V. Maury

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

The Military Family Lifestyle Survey takes a comprehensive look at the current needs and priorities of military families and service members and identifies the key aspects of military life to effectively target resources, services, and programs that support the sustainability of the All-Volunteer Force.

Boron Nitride Colloidal Solutions, Ultralight Aerogels And Freestanding Membranes Through One-Step Exfoliation And Functionalization, Weiwei Lei, Vadym Mochalin, Dan Liu, Si Qin, Yury G. Gogotsi, Ying Chen

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Manufacturing of aerogels and membranes from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is much more difficult than from graphene or graphene oxides because of the poor dispersibility of h-BN in water, which limits its exfoliation and preparation of colloidal solutions. Here, a simple, one-step mechano-chemical process to exfoliate and functionalize h-BN into highly water-dispersible, few-layer h-BN containing amino groups is presented. The colloidal solutions of few-layer h-BN can have unprecedentedly high concentrations, up to 30 mg ml^-1, and are stable for up to several months. They can be used to produce ultralight aerogels with a density of 1.4 mg cm …

A Survey Of Methods For Finding Outliers In Wireless Sensor Networks, Dylan Mcdonald, Stewart Sanchez, Sanjay Kumar Madria, Fikret Ercal

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Outlier detection is a well-studied problem in various fields. The unique characteristics and constraints of wireless sensor networks (WSN) make this problem especially challenging. Sensors can detect outliers for a plethora of reasons and these reasons need to be inferred in real time. Here, we survey the current state of research in this area, compare them and present some future directions for smarter handling of outliers in WSN.

Privacy Policy Inference Of User-Uploaded Images On Content Sharing Sites, Anna Cinzia Squicciarini, Dan Lin, Smitha Sundareswaran, Joshua Wede

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the increasing volume of images users share through social sites, maintaining privacy has become a major problem, as demonstrated by a recent wave of publicized incidents where users inadvertently shared personal information. In light of these incidents, the need of tools to help users control access to their shared content is apparent. Toward addressing this need, we propose an Adaptive Privacy Policy Prediction (A3P) system to help users compose privacy settings for their images. We examine the role of social context, image content, and metadata as possible indicators of users' privacy preferences. We propose a two-level framework which according …

Comparison Of Single- And Dual-Polarization-Based Rainfall Estimates Using Nexrad Data For The Nasa Iowa Flood Studies Project, Bong Chul Seo, Brenda Dolan, Witold F. Krajewski, Steven A. Rutledge, Walter Petersen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study compares and evaluates single-polarization (SP)- and dual-polarization (DP)-based radar rainfall (RR) estimates using NEXRAD data acquired during Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS), a NASA GPM ground validation field campaign carried out in May-June 2013. The objective of this study is to understand the potential benefit of the DP quantitative precipitation estimation, which selects different rain-rate estimators according to radar-identified precipitation types, and to evaluate RR estimates generated by the recent research SP and DP algorithms. The Iowa Flood Center SP (IFC-SP) and Colorado State University DP(CSU-DP) products are analyzed and assessed using two high-density, high-quality rain gauge networks as …

Data-Enabled Field Experiment Planning, Management, And Research Using Cyberinfrastructure, Ibrahim Demir, Helen Conover, Witold F. Krajewski, Bong Chul Seo, Radosław Goska, Yubin He, Michael F. Mceniry, Sara J. Graves, Walter Petersen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the spring of 2013, NASA conducted a field campaign known as Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) as part of the Ground Validation (GV) program for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The purpose of IFloodS was to enhance the understanding of flood-related, space-based observations of precipitation processes in events that transpire worldwide. NASA used a number of scientific instruments such as ground based weather radars, rain and soil moisture gauges, stream gauges, and disdrometers to monitor rainfall events in Iowa. This article presents the cyberinfrastructure tools and systems that supported the planning, reporting, and management of the field campaign and …

Nexrad Nws Polarimetric Precipitation Product Evaluation For Ifloods, Luciana K. Cunha, James A. Smith, Witold F. Krajewski, Mary Lynn Baeck, Bong Chul Seo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The NEXRAD program has recently upgraded the WSR-88D network observational capability with dual polarization (DP). In this study, DP quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) provided by the current version of the NWS system are evaluated using a dense rain gauge network and two other single-polarization (SP) rainfall products. The analyses are performed for the period and spatial domain of the Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS) campaign. It is demonstrated that the current version (2014) of QPE from DP is not superior to that from SP mainly because DP QPE equations introduce larger bias than the conventional rainfall- reflectivity [i.e., R(Z)] relationship for …

Preconception Maternal And Paternal Exposure To Persistent Organic Pollutants And Birth Size: The Life Study, Candace A. Robledo, Edwina H. Yeung, Pauline Mendola, Rajeshwari Sundaram, Jose Maisog

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are developmental toxicants, but the impact of both maternal and paternal exposures on offspring birth size is largely unexplored.

Objective: We examined associations between maternal and paternal serum concentrations of 63 POPs, comprising five major classes of pollutants, with birth size measures.

Methods: Parental serum concentrations of 9 organochlorine pesticides, 1 polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), 7 perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), 10 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and 36 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were measured before conception for 234 couples. Differences in birth weight, length, head circumference, and ponderal index were estimated using multiple linear regression per 1-SD increase in …

Performance Oriented Adaptive Architectures With Guaranteed Bounds, Benjamin Gruenwald, Tansel Yucelen, Mario Fravolini

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

While adaptive control has been used in numerous applications to achieve given system stabilization or command following criteria, the ability to obtain a predictable transient performance is a challenging problem when there is no a priori knowledge about system uncertainties (e.g., their upper bounds and/or domains). In order to address this problem, a new method is presented in [1, 2] utilizing artificial basis functions in the update law of an adaptive control design. This approach is predicated on a gradient minimization procedure and achieves a predictable transient performance without inducing oscillations in the system response as the constant gain due …

Innovative Public Libraries In United Arab Emirates: Taking Library Services In Public Spaces, Mary Sengati-Zimba, Judith Mavodza, Emad Abu Eid

All Works

Public Libraries in the United Arab Emirates are recognized as repositories of human knowledge and heritage especially in today’s knowledge-driven economy where knowledge and innovation are essential drivers of growth and prosperity. Public Libraries provide access to information which may be used for self-development, cultural awareness and enhancement and continuing education. For children and young people they provide a positive alternative to pastime reading, researching and participating in activities organized by the library. United Arab Emirates is a union of seven emirates and public libraries in these emirates are affiliated mainly to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development …

A Domain Decomposition Method For The Steady-State Navier-Stokes-Darcy Model With Beavers-Joseph Interface Condition, Xiaoming He, Jian Li, Yanping Lin, Ju Ming

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes and analyzes a Robin-type multiphysics domain decomposition method (DDM) for the steady-state Navier-Stokes-Darcy model with three interface conditions. In addition to the two regular interface conditions for the mass conservation and the force balance, the Beavers-Joseph condition is used as the interface condition in the tangential direction. The major mathematical difficulty in adopting the Beavers-Joseph condition is that it creates an indefinite leading order contribution to the total energy budget of the system [Y. Cao et al., Comm. Math. Sci., 8 (2010), pp. 1-25; Y. Cao et al., SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 47 (2010), pp. 4239-4256]. In …

Library Annual Report

Library Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Desiring Dual Language Bilingual Education: One Community’S Perspectives On Past And Future Directions For Bilingual Learners, Amy A. Weimer, Daniela Kuri, J. Joy Esquierdo, Francisco Guajardo, Luis A. Correa

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Perceptions and beliefs about past, present, and future bilingual educational programs were gathered from key members of a bilingual community, including teachers, parents, and educational administrators. Participants’ responses were analyzed and three overarching themes emerged. Current perceptions of bilingual education programs are strongly influenced by: (a) sociohistorical and political factors, (b) the effectiveness of instructional techniques; and (c) beliefs about bilingualism in general. Implications of these results are described with a focus on how they can inform policies and practices for bilingual learners.

An Investigation Of The Products And Impact Of Graduate Student Sotl Programs: Observations And Recommendations From A Single Institution, Nancy L. Chick, Cynthia Brame

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This study offers an investigation of three graduate-level SoTL programs offered since 2007 at a mid-size, highly selective, private, research-intensive university in the southeastern United States. We identify patterns in these early experiences with the scholarship of teaching and learning, specifically the choices made while carrying out their first SoTL projects and their perceptions of the impact of the program. We analyzed 72 project posters and 39 impact survey responses. Drawn from the rich particularities of a single institution, this study offers insight into novice SoTL work and recommendations for developing introductory SoTL programs on other campuses.

Sotl Champions: Leveraging Their Lessons Learned, Sara Marcketti, Ann Marie Vanderzanden, Jennifer R. Leptien

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The benefits of conducting SoTL impact individual faculty, staff, students, as well as disciplines, departments, and institutions. In spite of these benefits, colleges and universities, as well as faculty members, do not consistently embrace a broader vision of scholarship, including SoTL. This research explored individual experiences within the institutional framework of one land-grant institution to further institutionalize SoTL practice. A qualitative methodology of individual, semi-structured interviews was used to collect data. Eighteen faculty members with ranks from assistant to full professor revealed why they became involved in SoTL and the personal and professional benefits that went beyond those that “counted” …

Choosing Not To Cheat: A Framework To Assess Students’ Rationales For Abiding By Academic Integrity Policies, Kenneth H. Kolb, Kyle C. Longest, Alexa J. Singer

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Writing intensive first-year seminars are well situated within the curriculum to teach about issues like cheating and plagiarism. Although most research on academic integrity focuses on how—and how much—students cheat, we take a different approach. We assess whether participation in writing intensive first-year seminars produces measurable changes in students’ rationales for choosing not to cheat. Relying upon data collected via pre and post-test in-depth interviews, we propose a framework to measure these changes that is grounded in students’ accounts of how they negotiated real-life opportunities to cheat on campus. In general, we find that writing intensive first-year seminars produce no …

Linking Trajectories: On-Line Learning And Intercultural Exchanges, Nanette Levinson, Kaitlin E. Davidson

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

There has been tremendous growth both in study abroad and intercultural exchange options in the United States and also in on-line learning options in higher education. Reviewing 91 cross-cultural experiences with at least one type of formal on-line component, this paper provides an overview and categorization of these offerings as well as a discussion of trends. It also offers recommendations to help strengthen and shape further offerings and related research.

Contract Remedies In Action: Specific Performance, Yonathan A. Arbel

Articles

How is a right to specific performance of a contract used by parties Despite longstanding scholarly interest in the topic this question has been largely left unexplored This Article presents a qualitative study of parties and attorneys involved in specific performance litigation It investigates how parties choose between remedies whether they negotiate after judgment for specific performance if specific performance is implemented and the difficulties involved in its implementationbrbrThe findings reveal important theoretical oversights and challenges to prevailing law In practice many plaintiffs opt out of specific performance This is puzzling as expectation damages are notoriously under compensatory relative to …

Brain Science And The Theory Of Juvenile Mens Rea, Jenny E. Carroll

Articles

The law has long recognized the distinction between adults and children A legally designated age determines who can vote exercise reproductive rights voluntarily discontinue their education buy alcohol or tobacco marry drive a car or obtain a tattoo The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld such agebased restrictions most recently constructing an Eighth Amendment jurisprudence that bars the application of certain penalties to juvenile offenders and a Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that contemplates an adolescentbased standard of reasonableness for the Miranda v Arizona custody analysis In the cases of Roper v Simmons Graham v Florida Miller v Alabama and JDB v North …

Applications Of Geopolymer In Civil Engineering: Feasibility Study Of Loess Stabilization And Waste Concrete Recycling, Zhen Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The fast growing population and economic development have resulted in an increasing demand for residential and commercial buildings and infrastructures. However, there are problems identified to fulfill this demand, including that (1) problematic soils need to be treated/improved before the construction of building and infrastructures; (2) the Portland cement industry, which is used for concrete production and as the conventional soil stabilizer, is not environment friendly; (3) qualified natural aggregates for concrete production are being depleted; and (4) great amount of construction & demolition waste (C&D waste) is being produced every year. This means that green materials and recycling the …