Digital Commons Network^™

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Point Patterns, Abdul-Nasah Soale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the basic tools of spatial statistics and time series analysis are applied to the case study of the earthquakes in a certain geographical region and time frame. Then some of the existing methods for joint analysis of time and space are described and applied. Finally, additional research questions about the spatial-temporal distribution of the earthquakes are posed and explored using statistical plots and models. The focus in the last section is in the relationship between number of events per year and maximum magnitude and its effect on how clustered the spatial distribution is and the relationship between …

Insights Summer 2016

Insights

Notes from the Dean; Alumna Promotes People as Our Greatest Resource; The Echo of Translation: LAS Faculty Translators Discuss the Challenges and Creativity of Their Work; Plugged-In Pedagogy; Access Art: Under a New DePaul-Art Institute Partnership, Undergraduates Get Unlimited Free Access to the Museum; Faculty Team Up for Innovative Research; Can Our Political System Be Saved?; Supporting Faculty Research: Social Science Research Center; Faculty Publications; New LAS Dean Named; Mowat Mellon Fellowship; In Memoriam: Ellin M. Kelly; Boren and Fulbright Scholars; French Language and Culture Award; DePaul Night at the Art Institute of Chicago; Byzantine Studies Director;

Why We Follow: Exploring How Culture Shapes Users’ Motivation For Following Sport Organizations On Twitter And Weibo, Bo Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how culture shapes Social media users’ usage as they follow sport organizations on two similar microblogging services - Twitter and Weibo. In particular, the study attempted to measure whether Social media users exhibited different usage pattern, points of attachment, and usage motivations within two different cultural environments known as individualism and collectivism.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Social media followers were selected and invited to participant in this study. There were 839 the Lakers’ Weibo followers and 334 Twitter followers who completed an online survey facilitated on Qualtrics. The results of Multivariate analysis …

Incorporating A New Class Of Uncertainty In Disaster Relief Logistics Planning, Emre Kirac

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a growing interest among emergency managers in using Social data in disaster response planning. However, the trustworthiness and reliability of posted information are two of the most significant concerns, because much of the user-generated data is initially not verified. Therefore, a key tradeoff exists for emergency managers when considering whether to incorporate Social data in disaster planning efforts. By considering Social data, a larger number of needs can be identified in a shorter amount of time, potentially enabling a faster response and satisfying a class of demand that might not otherwise be discovered. However, …

A Safety Analysis Of Spatial Phenomena About The Residences Of Drivers Involved In Crashes, Kweku Tekyi Brown

All Dissertations

This research was conducted to assist in transportation safety planning at both a macro (statewide) and micro (neighborhood) level of geography. Addressing safety issues at high crash incidence locations through crash countermeasures or better geometric design helps to make our roadways safer; however, the most influential and ever-present factor in most crashes, the human factor, is not directly addressed. Therefore, the primary goal of this research was to identify and analyze phenomena about the residences of drivers involved in crashes using spatial and statistical methods. These phenomena include socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of neighborhoods where these drivers live and the …

Intervention Strategies For The Participation Of People With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Communal Worship Experiences, James Thomas Lowery Iii

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Northwest Coast Native American Art: The Relationship Between Museums, Native Americans And Artists, Karrie E. Myers

Museum Studies Theses

Museums today have many responsibilities, including protecting and understanding objects in their care. Many also have relationships with groups of people whose items or artworks are housed within their institutions. This paper explores the relationship between museums and Northwest Coast Native Americans and their artists. Participating museums include those in and out of the Northwest Coast region, such as the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the Burke Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum. Museum professionals who conducted research for some of these museums included Franz Boas, …

The Effect Of Stereoscopic Three-Dimensional Images On Recall Of Second Language Vocabulary, Regina Kaplan-Rakowski

Dissertations

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate the effect of stereoscopic three-dimensional (S3D) images on productive and receptive recall of foreign language vocabulary. S3D images are highly-realistic and differ from non-stereoscopic three-dimensional (NS3D) images in that they provide the impression of the added third dimension of depth. This within-subject study exposed the participants (N = 82) in a controlled setting to a series of carefully designed and randomly distributed NS3D and S3D images. The subjects were then given immediate productive and receptive tests of foreign language vocabulary items that were represented by NS3D and S3D images. Quantitative data …

Female Veterans Transition To College, Diane Recinos

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the transition experience of female veterans into college. The participants of the study were eight female veterans, receiving veteran benefits and that have completed at least one year of college. Four of the participants were combat veterans. Female veterans bring with them not only their individual experiences, but also challenges and problems they observed or experienced in the military. The female veteran population attending college continues to increase and there is limited research regarding their transition experience as they pursue their college degree. The researcher utilized Schlossberg’s (1988) transition theory …

2016 August, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for August of 2016.

Treasury Should Exclude Income From Discharge Of Student Loans, John R. Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There are several ways that a student loan borrower can have a federal student loan discharged. In some cases, that cancellation of student debt creates taxable income, but in others it does not. This Article argues that taxing cancellation of student debt undermines the purposes of loan discharge and income-driven repayment programs like IBR and PAYE. This Article further argues that, if Congress does not act to provide a clear exclusion, Treasury has sufficient statutory and common law authority to exclude that income, and that it should do so.

Profit Based Simulation Model For The Rail Transportation Industry, Mark Patrick Doran

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Schedules often conflict in the rail transportation industry. Operations managers assign resources and make scheduling decisions with no visibility of the revenue, cost, and profitability characteristics of the route they are manipulating. Transit speed decisions focus on ensuring trains safely reach their destination on time with little regard given to the actual service needs of the customer. Although all customers want on-time deliveries, few actually pay a premium to garner this level of preferential treatment. Operating in this type of environment results in decisions that severely erode profits.

In this dissertation, a simulation model referred to as the Rail Profit …

Complex Traffic Network Modeling & Area-Wide Hierarchical Control, Saumya Gupta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis presents a novel methodology to divide a traffic region into subregions such that in each subregion a Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) can be used to determine the state of that subregion. The region division is based on the theory of complex networks. We exploit the inherent network characteristics through PageRank centrality algorithm to identify the most significant nodes in the traffic network. We use these significant nodes as the seeds for a Voronoi diagram based partitioning mechanism of the network. A network wide hierarchical control framework is then presented which controls these sub regions individually and the network …

Reader Engagement With Data Journalism: Comparing The Guardian And Washington Post's Coverage Of People Killed By Police, Dan Michalski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The issue of people killed by police has become a focus of current political and social discourse related to criminal justice reform in the United States. Two data journalism projects attempting to track previously missing data have been central to a changing discussion. The Guardian’s The Counted and The Washington Post’s Investigation: Police Shootings have each attempted to create a running log of fatalities resulting from law enforcement activities. Such endeavors have added to a collective consciousness about the scope and commonality of deadly police encounters, and has provided empirical reference points for various legislative pushes related to police accountability. …

Enhancing The Methane Yield Of A Landfill Leachate Bioreactor, Paul Vecchiarelli

All Theses

Our thriving modern society requires unprecedented amounts of natural resources to maintain pace with rapidly evolving standards of living in industrialized regions. Due to population growth and wide-scale urbanization, over 3.5x106 metric tons of solid wastes are produced daily around the world. In addition to land, water, and raw material strain generated by solid waste dumping, pristine resources are needed for food, energy, and potable water — instead being used through waste management. Reducing landfill leachate volume and toxicity while deriving value-added products from leachate is a sustainable alternative to traditional solid waste management. Carbon mass balances of biomass grown …

Cloud Abstraction Libraries: Implementation And Comparison, Udit Agarwal

All Theses

Vendor lock-in makes it difficult for an organization to port their services, application or data. Cloud providers are in race to provide the best-in-class storage, networking and compute resources. Many organizations are moving towards micro-services and cloud services architecture. It is very important for an infrastructure platform to offer a high-quality cloud computing environment consistently across multiple cloud platforms. To enable this, a collaborative yet an independent cloud abstraction service is required. The cloud abstraction library should support the basic use cases of delivery pipeline, service management, cloud operations and security service. Cloud interoperability standards helps to improve availability and …

Population Dynamics Of Black Bears In Northwestern South Carolina, Shefali Azad

All Theses

Black bears (Ursus americanus) are managed as a game species in the northwestern region of South Carolina. However, no formal research study has examined their long-term population trends. I used the Downing harvest population reconstruction technique to establish abundance trends. The total population in 2013 was estimated at about 412 bears, increasing from about 97 bears in 1998. I also derived abundance, density, average age, and sex ratios at a county-level to investigate differential stages of recovery. Overall my results suggest that in 1998-2013 Oconee county had a rapidly expanding population, Pickens county requires further investigation into potential bear overharvest, …

Spatially Resolved Mid-Ir Spectra From Meteorites; Linking Composition, Crystallographic Orientation And Spectra On The Micro-Scale, Nr Stephen

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Spectral data from spacecraft are often used to infer the surface mineralogy of a body by unmixing the bulk spectrum into constituent components and comparing these to spectral databases [e.g. 1, 2]. It is widely accepted that mineral spectra derived from meteorites can provide a more accurate match to their parent body than terrestrial databases alone [3, 4]. Recent work has sought to resolve mid-IR spectra in Martian pyroxenes in terms of crystallographic orientation [3] and zonation [5], and more generally for Martian meteorites using the increased spatial resolution of synchrotron-source µFT-IR [6]. Linking these studies together, one can extract …

Brexit: Surname Diversity And Voting Patterns, Mario Cortina Borja, Julian Stander, Valle L Dalla

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Ancient Mediterranean Crossroads In Deronectes Diving Beetles, David García-Vázquez, David T. Bilton, Rocío Alonso, Cesar J. Benetti, Josefina Garrido, Luis F. Valladares, Ignacio Ribera

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Bird Pollinators, Seed Storage And Cockatoo Granivores Explain Large Woody Fruits As Best Seed Defense In Hakea, Byron B. Lamont, Mick E. Hanley, Philip K. Groom, Tianhua He

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Nutrient-impoverished soils with severe summer drought and frequent fire typify many Mediterranean-type regions of the world. Such conditions limit seed production and restrict opportunities for seedling recruitment making protection from granivores paramount. Our focus was on Hakea, a genus of shrubs widespread in southwestern Australia, whose nutritious seeds are targeted by strong-billed cockatoos. We assessed 56 Hakea species for cockatoo damage in 150 populations spread over 900 km in relation to traits expected to deter avian granivory: dense spiny foliage; large, woody fruits; fruit crypsis via leaf mimicry and shielding; low seed stores; and fruit clustering. We tested hypothesises centred …

The Ostroms' Commons Revisited, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Elinor and Vincent Ostrom spent most of their careers working in fields other than third sector studies. Even so, a significant amount of their work has implications for our field. Together they founded the Workshop on Political Theory and Policy at Indiana University and with students and colleagues built a large body of research and theory on a range of topics including self-governance, collaboration, co-production, polycentrism, federalism, and commons. The Ostroms, the Workshop and their networks of students and colleagues, also constitute an interesting example of one of their latest and most recent contributions, the knowledge commons. Their highly regarded …

High School Gpa And English Graduation Examinations: Predicting College English Placement And English 101 Final Course Grades, Elizabeth Vinaja

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This multiple regression study examined the various signals that high school students typically receive from grades and assessments, indicating whether they are prepared for high school graduation and for the academic challenges of introductory college-level courses. This study used archival data collected from two community colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system that met the criteria for the study. High school grade point average (GPA) and New York State Comprehensive English Regents Examination scores were examined to see if they predict student placement into college-level English and eventual English 101 final course grades. College English placement was …

The Road To Gentrification

DePaul Magazine

Recent development in Logan Square have certainly bettered the general quality of life. But to others, including residents and housing market experts, such as the Geoff Smith, executive director of the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) at DePaul, and Winifred Curran, gentrification expert and associate professor in the Department of Geography and the sustainable urban development master’s program, the influx of young, mostly white professionals is a warning sign of gentrification. It’s happening around the country—areas of disrepair are renewed and rebuilt, and people of higher socioeconomic status move in, driving up housing prices and rent rates and, perhaps unintentionally, …

Hidden Depaul

DePaul Magazine

Like any old and venerable institution, DePaul has housed its fair share of secretive nooks and crannies over the years. This article reveals some of the wackiest, weirdest and most wonderful hidden places on campus, including a firing range, a weather station, a Christmas elevator, and secret gardens.

Estimates Of Global, Regional, And National Incidence, Prevalence, And Mortality Of Hiv, 1980–2015: The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2015, Gbd 2015 Hiv Collaborators

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: Timely assessment of the burden of HIV/AIDS is essential for policy setting and programme evaluation. In this report from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (GBD 2015), we provide national estimates of levels and trends of HIV/AIDS incidence, prevalence, coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART), and mortality for 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015. METHODS: For countries without high-quality vital registration data, we estimated prevalence and incidence with data from antenatal care clinics and population-based seroprevalence surveys, and with assumptions by age and sex on initial CD4 distribution at infection, CD4 progression rates (probability of progression from …

Notes From The Border: Writing Across The Administrative Law/Financial Regulation Divide, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

A central feature – if not the central feature – of legal scholarship today is analysis across divides.

It is surprising, then, how little has been written across the divide that separates administrative law and financial regulation. That is perhaps especially so, given the modest nature of the relevant divide: one that is intra- rather than interdisciplinary, one that operates within rather than across geographic boundaries, and one that involves no temporal dimension but operates entirely within current-day law.

For all the proximity in their interests, targets of study, and even analytical tools, however, scholars of administrative law and of …

Fuzzy Logic In Health Care Settings: Moral Math For Value-Laden Choices, Sarah Voss

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This essay is intended as an example of “moral math”, i.e., ideas culled from mathematics which can positively impact social behavior. Specifically, it combines fuzzy logic with the ethical decisions which hospital staff and others are sometimes forced to make about health care (e.g., euthanasia issues following Hurricane Katrina). The assumption is that such decisions involve value-laden choices which lend themselves to “fuzzy” or “smart” protocols. The article discusses the history of fuzzy logic – what it is, how it is used, and how it might be even better-used as a support basis for making difficult choices …

Al-Khwarizmı And The Hermeneutic Circle: Reflections On A Trip To Samarkand, Asuman G. Aksoy

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this paper we discuss al-Khwarzmi's life and aspects of his work and suggest a possible hermeneutic avenue into his contribution to mathematics.

Humanizing Mathematics Through Ethnomodelling, Milton Rosa, Daniel Clark Orey

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Ethnomathematical techniques and modelling tools allow us to examine systems taken from the real world and offer us insight into forms of mathematics performed in holistic contexts [3]. A pedagogical approach that connects a diversity of cultural forms of mathematics can be implemented by the use of ethnomodelling, a process of translation and elaboration of problems and questions taken from non-academic systems. Here, we offer examples of studies conducted in Brazil and in the United States that explore this pedagogical approach. Our goal is to broaden the discussion of possibilities for ethnomathematics and associated ethnomodelling perspectives that respect the …