Digital Commons Network^™

Separator Reconnection At The Magnetopause For Predominantly Northward And Southward Imf: Techniques And Results, A. Glocer, J. Dorelli, G. Toth, C. M. Komar, P. A. Cassak

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In this work, we demonstrate how to track magnetic separators in three-dimensional simulated magnetic fields with or without magnetic nulls, apply these techniques to enhance our understanding of reconnection at the magnetopause. We present three methods for locating magnetic separators and apply them to 3-D resistive MHD simulations of the Earth's magnetosphere using the Block-Adaptive-Tree Solar-wind Roe-type Upwind Scheme code. The techniques for finding separators and determining the reconnection rate are insensitive to interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angle and can in principle be applied to any magnetospheric model. Moreover, the techniques have a number of advantages over prior separator …

Writing About Shakespeare: 1960–2010, Dominic Klyve, Laura Estill

Mathematics Faculty Scholarship

This dataset quantifi es writing (in number of articles, books, dissertations, and monographs) about each of Shakespeare’s plays during each year in the period 1960–2010. The information was extracted from the World Shakespeare Bibliography (www.worldshakesbib.org).

The Bourgain Spaces And Recovery Of Magnetic And Electric Potentials Of Schrödinger Operators, Yaowei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

We consider the inverse problem for the magnetic Schrödinger operator with the assumption that the magnetic potential is in C^λ and the electric potential is of the form p₁ + div p₂ with p₁, p₂ ∈ C^λ. We use semiclassical pseudodifferential operators on semiclassical Sobolev spaces and Bourgain type spaces. The Bourgain type spaces are defined using the symbol of the operator h²Δ + hμ ⋅ D. Our main result gives a procedure for recovering the curl of the magnetic field and the electric potential from the Dirichlet to Neumann …

Who Has The Final Word In Assessing Language Teacher Readiness?: Corporate Standardization Versus Local Expertise, Susan A. Hildebrandt

Faculty Publications – Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

No abstract provided.

Contact Improvisation: Concepts Of Physics Transformed Into Art, Gianna F. Todisco

Dance Department Best Student Papers

No abstract provided.

Efficient Image Processing Via Compressive Sensing Of Integrate-And-Fire Neuronal Network Dynamics, Victor J. Barranca, G. Kovačič, D. Zhou, D. Cai

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

Integrate-and-fire (I&F) neuronal networks are ubiquitous in diverse image processing applications, including image segmentation and visual perception. While conventional I&F network image processing requires the number of nodes composing the network to be equal to the number of image pixels driving the network, we determine whether I&F dynamics can accurately transmit image information when there are significantly fewer nodes than network input-signal components. Although compressive sensing (CS) theory facilitates the recovery of images using very few samples through linear signal processing, it does not address whether similar signal recovery techniques facilitate reconstructions through measurement of the nonlinear dynamics of an …

Grief And Gratitude, Lynne Steuerle Schofield

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

A Cross-Linguistic Preference For Torso Stability In The Lexicon: Evidence From 24 Sign Languages, N. Sanders, Donna Jo Napoli

Linguistics Faculty Works

When the arms move in certain ways, they can cause the torso to twist or rock. Such extraneous torso movement is undesirable, especially during sign language communication, when torso position may carry linguistic significance, so we expend effort to resist it when it is not intended. This so-called “reactive effort” has only recently been identified by Sanders and Napoli (2016), but their preliminary work on three genetically unrelated languages suggests that the effects of reactive effort can be observed cross-linguistically by examination of sign language lexicons. In particular, the frequency of different kinds of manual movements in the lexicon correlates …

Choline Diet And Its Gut Microbe–Derived Metabolite, Trimethylamine N-Oxide, Exacerbate Pressure Overload–Induced Heart Failure, Chelsea L. Organ, Hiroyuki Otsuka, Shashi Bhushan, Zeneng Wang, Jessica Bradley, Rishi Trivedi, David J. Polhemus, W.H. Wilson Tang, Yuping Wu, Stanley L. Hazen, David J. Lefer

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Background—Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut microbe–dependent metabolite of dietary choline and other trimethylamine-containing nutrients, is both elevated in the circulation of patients having heart failure and heralds worse overall prognosis. In animal studies, dietary choline or TMAO significantly accelerates atherosclerotic lesion development in ApoE-deficient mice, and reduction in TMAO levels inhibits atherosclerosis development in the low-density lipoprotein receptor knockout mouse. Methods and Results—C57BL6/J mice were fed either a control diet, a diet containing choline (1.2%) or a diet containing TMAO (0.12%) starting 3 weeks before surgical transverse aortic constriction. Mice were studied for 12 weeks after transverse aortic constriction. Cardiac …

Elevated Soluble Fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase-1 And Placental-Like Growth Factor Levels Are Associated With Development And Mortality Risk In Heart Failure, Muhammad Hammadah, Vasiliki V. Georgiopoulou, Andreas P. Kalogeropoulos, Malory Weber, Xi Wang, Michael A. Samara, Yuping Wu, Javed Butler, W.H. Wilson Tang

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Background—Vascular endothelial dysfunction may play an important role in the progression of heart failure (HF). We hypothesize that elevated levels of vascular markers, placental-like growth factor, and soluble Fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) are associated with adverse outcomes in patients with HF. We also assessed possible triggers of sFlt-1 elevation in animal HF models. Methods and Results—We measured plasma placental-like growth factor and sFlt-1 in 791 HF patients undergoing elective coronary angiogram. Median (interquartile range) placental-like growth factor and sFlt-1 levels were 24 (20–29) and 382 (277–953) pg/mL, respectively. After 5 years of follow-up, and after using receiver operator characteristic curves …

Modeling Cross-Contamination During Poultry Processing: Dynamics In The Chiller Tank, Daniel Munther, Xiaodan Sun, Yanni Xiao, Sanyi Tang, Helio Shimozako, Jianhong Wu, Ben A. Smith, Aamir Fazil

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Understanding mechanisms of cross-contamination during poultry processing is vital for effective pathogen control. As an initial step toward this goal, we develop a mathematical model of the chilling process in a typical high speed Canadian processing plant. An important attribute of our model is that it provides quantifiable links between processing control parameters and microbial levels, simplifying the complexity of these relationships for implementation into risk assessment models. We apply our model to generic, non-pathogenic Escherichia coli contamination on broiler carcasses, connecting microbial control with chlorine sanitization, organic load in the water, and pre-chiller E. coli levels on broiler carcasses. …

Prognostic Value Of Baseline And Changes In Circulating Soluble St2 Levels And The Effects Of Nesiritide In Acute Decompensated Heart Failure, W.H. Wilson Tang, Yuping Wu, Justin L. Grodin, Amy P. Hsu, Adrian F. Hernandez, Javed Butler, Marco Metra, Adriaan A. Voors, Michael G. Felker, Richard W. Troughton, Roger M. Mills, John J. Mcmurray, Paul W. Armstrong, Christopher M. O'Connor, Randall C. Starling

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Objectives: The study sought to investigate the association between soluble growth stimulation expressed gene 2 (sST2) level and adverse outcomes in acute heart failure (HF). Background: Several studies have demonstrated the prognostic utility of sST2 levels in HF.Methods: sST2 levels were measured in sequential baseline and follow-up (48 to 72 h and 30 days) plasma samples from 858 acute HF subjects enrolled in the ASCEND-HF (Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure) trial biomarker substudy and were related to in-hospital and post-discharge clinical outcomes. Results: Higher sST2 levels were associated with increased death risk at 180 …

Curvature-Driven Foam Coarsening On A Sphere: A Computer Simulation, Shawn D. Ryan, Xiaoyu Zheng, Peter Palffy-Muhoray

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

The von Neumann-Mullins law for the area evolution of a cell in the plane describes how a dry foam coarsens in time. Recent theory and experiment suggest that the dynamics are different on the surface of a three-dimensional object such as a sphere. This work considers the dynamics of dry foams on the surface of a sphere. Starting from first principles, we use computer simulation to show that curvature-driven motion of the cell boundaries leads to exponential growth and decay of the areas of cells, in contrast to the planar case where the growth is linear. We describe the evolution …

Unraveling The Dose-Response Puzzle Of L. Monocytogenes: A Mechanistic Approach, S. M.Ashrafur Rahman, Daniel Munther, Aamir Fazil, Ben Smith, Jianhong Wu

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Food-borne disease outbreaks caused by Listeria monocytogenes continue to impose heavy burdens on public health in North America and globally. To explore the threat L. monocytogenes presents to the elderly, pregnant woman and immuno-compromised individuals, many studies have focused on in-host infection mechanisms and risk evaluation in terms of dose-response outcomes. However, the connection of these two foci has received little attention, leaving risk prediction with an insufficient mechanistic basis. Consequently, there is a critical need to quantifiably link in-host infection pathways with the dose-response paradigm. To better understand these relationships, we propose a new mathematical model to describe the …

Delaying Child Marriage Through Community-Based Skills-Development Programs For Girls: Results From A Randomized Controlled Study In Rural Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Johana Ahmed, Jyotirmoy Saha, Md. Irfan Hossain, Eashita Haque

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In Bangladesh, where efforts to prevent child marriage have focused on the enforcement of laws and policies, little research exists on what approaches work best to delay marriage and why. To help fill this evidence gap, in 2012 the Population Council and partners embarked on a four-year study to understand whether skills-building approaches to empower girls can delay marriage in three districts in southern Bangladesh where child marriage rates are high. The BALIKA project reported here is the first rigorously evaluated study to provide evidence on approaches to delay child marriage in Bangladesh. BALIKA results show that programs that educate …

Mathematics Learning Support Across A Multi-Campus Institution: A Prototype Of Virtual Support, Cormac Breen, Ciaran O'Sullivan, Damian Cox

Articles

In this paper, a study on Mathematics Learning Support (MLS) that was undertaken across three institutes intending to form the Technological University for Dublin is outlined. This study consisted of a survey that was circulated to both staff and students in each of the three institutes. The survey had two objectives. Firstly it sought to identify the students’ needs for MLS in each of the three institutes. Secondly, it sought to ascertain the preferred method of provision of MLS, on a scale ranging from exclusively online, to exclusively in person. Following on the results of this survey it was decided …

Development Of Advanced, Clinically Feasible Neuroimaging Methodology With Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging, G. Russell Glenn

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Diffusion MRI (dMRI) is a powerful, non-invasive tool for probing the structural organization of the human brain. Quantitative dMRI analyses provide unique capabilities for the characterization of tissue microstructure as well as imaging contrast that is not available to other modalities. White matter tractography relies on dMRI and is currently the only non-invasive technique for mapping structural connections in the human brain. In this chapter, we will describe diffusional kurtosis imaging, an effective and versatile dMRI technique, and discuss a clinical problem in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) which is insurmountable with current diagnostic approaches. Subsequent chapters will further develop the …

On A Question About Almost Prime Ideals, Esmaeil Rostami, Reza Nekooei

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this paper, by giving an example we answer positively the question ``Does there exist a $P$-primary ideal $I$ in a Noetherian domain $R$ such that $PI = I^2$, but $I$ is not almost prime?", asked by S. M. Bhatwadekar and P. K. Sharma. We also investigated conditions under which the answer to the above mentioned question is negative.

The Drag Language, Weixi Ma

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This thesis describes the Drag language. Drag is a general purpose, gradually typed, lexically scoped, and multi-paradigm pro- gramming language. The essence of Drag is to build the abstract syntax trees of the programs directly and interactively. Our work includes the language specification and a prototype program. The language specification focuses on the syntax, the semantic model, and the type system. The prototype consists of an interactive editor and a compiler that targets several plat- forms, among which we focus on the LLVM platform in this thesis.

Cp-Nets: From Theory To Practice, Thomas E. Allen

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Conditional preference networks (CP-nets) exploit the power of ceteris paribus rules to represent preferences over combinatorial decision domains compactly. CP-nets have much appeal. However, their study has not yet advanced sufficiently for their widespread use in real-world applications. Known algorithms for deciding dominance---whether one outcome is better than another with respect to a CP-net---require exponential time. Data for CP-nets are difficult to obtain: human subjects data over combinatorial domains are not readily available, and earlier work on random generation is also problematic. Also, much of the research on CP-nets makes strong, often unrealistic assumptions, such as that decision variables must …

Preferences: Optimization, Importance Learning And Strategic Behaviors, Ying Zhu

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Preferences are fundamental to decision making and play an important role in artificial intelligence. Our research focuses on three group of problems based on the preference formalism Answer Set Optimization (ASO): preference aggregation problems such as computing optimal (near optimal) solutions, strategic behaviors in preference representation, and learning ranks (weights) for preferences.

In the first group of problems, of interest are optimal outcomes, that is, outcomes that are optimal with respect to the preorder defined by the preference rules. In this work, we consider computational problems concerning optimal outcomes. We propose, implement and study methods to compute an optimal outcome; …

Statistical Properties Of Pseudorandom Sequences, Ting Gu

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Random numbers (in one sense or another) have applications in computer simulation, Monte Carlo integration, cryptography, randomized computation, radar ranging, and other areas. It is impractical to generate random numbers in real life, instead sequences of numbers (or of bits) that appear to be ``random" yet repeatable are used in real life applications. These sequences are called pseudorandom sequences. To determine the suitability of pseudorandom sequences for applications, we need to study their properties, in particular, their statistical properties. The simplest property is the minimal period of the sequence. That is, the shortest number of steps until the sequence repeats. …

Data Persistence In Eiffel, Jimmy J. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This dissertation describes an extension to the Eiffel programming language that provides automatic object persistence (the ability of programs to store objects and later recreate those objects in a subsequent execution of a program). The mechanism is orthogonal to other aspects of the Eiffel language. The mechanism serves four main purposes: 1) it gives Eiffel programmers a needed service, filling a gap between serialization, which provides limited persistence functions and database-mapping, which is cumbersome to use; 2) it greatly reduces the coding burden incurred by the programmer when objects must persist, allowing the programmer to focus instead on the business …

An Optical Character Recognition Engine For Graphical Processing Units, Jeremy Reed

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This dissertation investigates how to build an optical character recognition engine (OCR) for a graphical processing unit (GPU). I introduce basic concepts for both building an OCR engine and for programming on the GPU. I then describe the SegRec algorithm in detail and discuss my findings.

Analyzing The Geo-Dependence Of Human Face Appearance And Its Applications, Mohammad T. Islam

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Human faces have been a subject of study in computer science for decades. The rich of set features from human faces have been used in solving various problems in computer vision, including person identification, facial expression analysis, and attribute classification. In this work, I explore the human facial features that depend on the geo-location using a data- driven approach. I analyze millions of public domain images to extract the geo-dependent human facial features and explore their applications. Using various machine learning and statistical techniques, I show that the geo-dependent features of human faces can be used to solve the image …

Mimicking Of Pulse Shape-Dependent Learning Rules With A Quantum Dot Memristor, P. Maier, F. Hartmann, Mariama Rebello Sousa Dias, M. Emmerling, C. Schneider, L. K. Castelano, M. Kamp, G. E. Marques, V. Lopez-Richard, S. Höfling

Physics Faculty Publications

We present the realization of four different learning rules with a quantum dot memristor by tuning the shape, the magnitude, the polarity and the timing of voltage pulses. The memristor displays a large maximum to minimum conductance ratio of about 57 000 at zero bias voltage. The high and low conductances correspond to different amounts of electrons localized in quantum dots, which can be successively raised or lowered by the timing and shapes of incoming voltage pulses. Modifications of the pulse shapes allow altering the conductance change in dependence on the time difference. Hence, we are able to mimic different …

The Pregnancy Penalty, Michele Goodwin

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Punishing pregnant women increasingly serves as a litmus test in political discourse, inviting more than a metaphor about state sanctioned violence targeted at women. In 2016, candidates for the United States presidency threatened to defund Planned Parenthood if elected and a leading candidate promised he would "punish" pregnant women who seek abortions. Other presidential candidates urged that even victims of rape and incest should be forced to carry their pregnancies to term, imposing yet another penalty or strike against sexually violated women and girls. Local legislatures and governors show equal contempt for and desire to penalize women in the United …

Tantamount To Fraud?: Exploring Non-Disclosure Of Genetic Information In Life Insurance Applications As Grounds For Policy Rescission, Anya E.R. Prince

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Many genetic counselors recommend that individuals secure desired insurance policies, such as life insurance, prior to undergoing predictive genetic testing. It has been argued, however, that this practice is "tantamount to fraud" and that failure to disclose genetic test results, or conspiring to secure a policy before testing, opens an individual up to legal recourse. This debate traps affected individuals in a Catch-22. If they apply for life insurance and disclose a genetic test result, they may be denied. If they apply without disclosing the information, they may have committed fraud. The consequences of life insurance fraud are significant.

Homeschooling: Choosing Parental Rights Over Children's Interests, Martha Fineman, George B. Shepherd

University of Baltimore Law Review

Homeschooling, the most extreme form of privatization of education, often eliminates the possibility of the child gaining the resources essential for success in adult life. It sacrifices the interests of the child to the interests of the parents, allowing them to control and isolate the child’s development. In addition, homeschooling frustrates the state’s legitimate interest in the child’s receiving a sound, diverse education, so that the child can achieve her potential as a productive employee and as a constructive participant in civic life. This Article uses vulnerability theory as a heuristic frame both to reexamine the dominant rhetoric of parental …

The Update, January-March 2016, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Humanities, Arts And Sciences.

Update

Inside This Issue:

--CHAS Briefs
--Spotlight – Faculty Kyle Gray
--CHAS News Diversity Training
--Biology Celeste Underriner
--Featured Story: IEEE Demonstration Awards
--Spotlight – Alumni Meghan Reynolds
--Spotlight – Student Alyssa Adamac
--Theater – Rent
--Spotlight – Student Kyle Spurgeon
--ABC Competition
--UNI Construction
--Management Club