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An Evaluation Of Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (Vpk) Participation On Third Grade Reading And Math Performance In A Rural School System, Christy Deberry Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study examined the longitudinal performance of a district-wide cohort of students who had accumulated scores for both kindergarten and third grade analysis. The sample was disaggregated by Pre-kindergarten participation and student demographics such as gender, age, minority status, rural class, and socio-economic status. STAREarly Literacy, STARReading, and STARMath assessment scores were used for the data analysis. Sample data was collected from the beginning of kindergarten and at the end of third grade.Two types of analysis were conducted to complete the study. This study investigated the analysis of student performance measures based on participation in a Pre-kIndergarten program as well …

The Effects Of Teacher-Set And Student-Set Accelerated Reader Goal Setting On Reading Comprehension And Student Attitudes Towards Reading In Fourth- And Fifth-Grade Students, Tiffany Gail Tucker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The purpose of this research study was to compare the impact of Teacher-Set Accelerated Reader goals (TSAR) with Student-Set Accelerated Reader goals (SSAR) of fourth- and fifth-grade students. The goal of this research study was to determine which type of goal setting approach influences reading growth the most as measured by the easyCBM assessment. Student attitudes towards reading were also examined. While the results of a logistic regression provided little support for the idea that student's or his/her teacher's choice of the student's ARgoals enhanced the student's chances of ARgoal attainment, other analyses suggested that the student's choosing had positive …

Arcgis Tool Development To Analyze Freight Corridors Using Truck Gps Data, Karlis Pujats

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The scope of this study is to extend on the works of Boile and Golias (2008), Johnson (2013), and Flaskou (2016) and develop/estimate/calculate FPMs that can contribute to the effective evaluation of freight transportation systems. The contributions of the proposed research included following: 1) Apply link based and trip based algorithm, developed by Dr. Maxim Dulebenets, Dr. Mihalis Golias, Maria Flasko, Dr. Sabyasachee Mishra, using Python programming language to create ArcGIS toolboxes with added option to process GPS data by time of day, in order to estimate FPMs by time of day for freight corridors of transportation network and truck …

Modern Critiques Of Judicial Empathy: A Revised Intellectual History, Brenner M. Fissell

Faculty Publications

The role of “empathy” haunts recent debates about how judges make decisions. Remarkably, however, the intellectual origins of scholarly resistance to empathic judging remain poorly understood. This Article fills that gap. Through historical and theoretical study, it reveals the ways in which the modern anti-emphatic consensus can be seen as a mutated descendent of late-nineteenth century formalism. This Article also marks an irony with significant implications for the empathy debate: Although the anti-empathic view was born of formalism, it has drifted from its source such that it would almost certainly be condemned by the very formalist scholars from whom it …

Computational Model Of Intelligent Behavior, Lindsey Brianna Harris

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

November 28, 2016 Armstrong Faculty Senate Minutes, Armstrong State University

Armstrong Faculty Senate: Minutes (Archived)

November 28, 2016 Armstrong Faculty Senate Minutes

November 28, 2016 Armstrong Faculty Senate Agenda, Armstrong State University

Armstrong Faculty Senate: Armstrong Faculty Senate Agenda (Archived)

November 28, 2016 Armstrong Faculty Senate Agenda

Faculty Senate Bill Fsb-2016-11-28-01: University Curriculum Committee, Armstrong State University

Armstrong Faculty Senate: Bills, Motions & Resolutions (Archived)

Faculty Senate Bill FSB-2016-11-28-01: University Curriculum Committee

Direct Evidence For Microbial-Derived Soil Organic Matter Formation And Its Ecophysiological Controls, Cynthia M. Kallenbach, Serita D. Frey, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Soil organic matter (SOM) and the carbon and nutrients therein drive fundamental submicron- to global-scale biogeochemical processes and influence carbon-climate feedbacks. Consensus is emerging that microbial materials are an important constituent of stable SOM, and new conceptual and quantitative SOM models are rapidly incorporating this view. However, direct evidence demonstrating that microbial residues account for the chemistry, stability and abundance of SOM is still lacking. Further, emerging models emphasize the stabilization of microbial-derived SOM by abiotic mechanisms, while the effects of microbial physiology on microbial residue production remain unclear. Here we provide the first direct evidence that soil microbes produce …

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - November 27, 2016, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the November 27, 2016 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include:

• Latest Issue of CURRents Available Now
• University Physicians Group Recognized
• USA Welcomes Dr. Katie Malozzi
• USA Medical Student Serves as Representative at American Academy of Pediatrics Conference

1975, Bulletin No. 118, California's Ground Water, Department Of Water Resources

State and Federal Documents Relating to Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties

The Bulletin summarizes known technical information on ground water basins in California and the extent of their water supplies throughout the State. It also discusses the ways in which ground water basins have been used and missue in the past and suggests better management mechanisms for the future.

Measuring The Impact Of 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Melissa Johnston-Gross

Student Research – Stevenson Center

This paper investigates the relationship between student achievement and participation in before- and after- school academic enrichment programs funded by the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21CCLC) grant. The 21CCLC program is aimed at students in high-poverty, low-performing schools. I analyzed the first two cohorts awarded the program in school years 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 and compared them to public schools not funded by the program. Using difference-in-differences estimation, I found schools receiving the program experienced a higher percentage of students meeting or exceeding test standards: 1.332% higher in the first year and 2.055% in the second year compared to schools …

An Application Programming Interface For Parliamentary Procedure, Grant David Bourque

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Post-Polymerization Functionalization Of Poly (Ethylene Oxide)–Poly (Β-6-Heptenolactone) Diblock Copolymers To Tune Properties And Self-Assembly, Elizabeth Gillies, Brooke M. Raycraft, Jarret Macdonald

Chemistry Publications

Polyester-based amphiphilic block copolymers and their nanoassemblies are of significant interest for a wide range of applications due to the degradability of the polyester block. However, the commonly used polyesters lack functional groups on their backbones, limiting the possibilities to chemically modify these polymers. Described here are new poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)–poly(β-6-heptenolactone) (PHEL) block copolymers having pendant alkenes at each repeat unit on the PHEL block. First, the self-assembly of these block copolymers in aqueous solution was studied and it was found that they formed solid nanoparticles and vesicles depending on the relative block lengths. Next the alkene moieties of the …

Adjustment And Optimization Of The Cropping Systems Under Water Constraint, Pingli An, Wei Ren, Xiliin Liu, Mengmei Song, Xuemin Li

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

The water constraint on agricultural production receives growing concern with the increasingly sharp contradiction between demand and supply of water resources. How to mitigate and adapt to potential water constraint is one of the key issues for ensuring food security and achieving sustainable agriculture in the context of climate change. It has been suggested that adjustment and optimization of cropping systems could be an effective measure to improve water management and ensure food security. However, a knowledge gap still exists in how to quantify potential water constraint and how to select appropriate cropping systems. Here, we proposed a concept of …

Wetland Invasion By Typha×Glauca Increases Soil Methane Emissions, Beth A. Lawrence, Shane Lishawa, Nancy Tuchman, Nia Hurst, Buck T. Castillo

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Wetland invasion by monotypic dominant plants can alter the physicochemical and biological properties of soils that affect methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. We examined the effects of Typha × glauca invasion on soil methane using laboratory incubation and controlled mesocosm experiments. Typha-invaded soils collected from three Midwestern (USA) wetlands had greater methane production potential during laboratory incubation than soils dominated by native wet meadow vegetation. Ten years post-invasion of native plant-dominated mesocosms, Typha increased methane emissions at least three-fold (native: 15.0 ± 10.5 mg CH₄-C m⁻² h⁻¹, median: 6.1 mg CH₄-C …

Measurement Of Electroweak Production Of A W Boson And Two Forward Jets In Proton-Proton Collisions At √S = 8 Tev, M M. Baarmand, Vallary Bhopatkar, Stefano Colafranceschi, Marcus Hohlmann, H Kalakhety, D Noonan, Tuhin S. Roy, Francisco X. Yumiceva, Cms Collaboration

Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications

A measurement is presented of the cross section for the electroweak production of a W boson in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data set was collected with the CMS detector and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.3 fb−1. The measured fiducial cross section for W bosons decaying to electrons or muons and for pTj1> 60 GeV, pTj2> 50 GeV, |ηj| < 4.7, and mjj> 1000 GeV is 0.42 ± 0.04 (stat) ± 0.09 (syst) ± 0.01 (lumi) pb. This result is consistent with the standard model leading-order prediction of 0.50 ± 0.02 (scale) …

Reflective Inverse Diffusion, Kenneth W. Burgi, Jessica Ullom, Michael A. Marciniak, Mark E. Oxley

Faculty Publications

Phase front modulation was previously used to refocus light after transmission through scattering media. This process has been adapted here to work in reflection. A liquid crystal spatial light modulator is used to conjugate the phase scattering properties of diffuse reflectors to produce a converging phase front just after reflection. The resultant focused spot had intensity enhancement values between 13 and 122 depending on the type of reflector. The intensity enhancement of more specular materials was greater in the specular region, while diffuse reflector materials achieved a greater enhancement in non-specular regions, facilitating non-mechanical steering of the focused spot. Scalar …

A Critical Investigation Of Florida's Nclb Waiver And School Leader Sensemaking, Stacey Mercedes Kesten

Open Access Dissertations

This study used a combination of descriptive statistics and qualitative methods to investigate Florida’s NCLB waiver with respect to its school accountability grading system as it was applied to elementary, middle, and K-8 schools in a large, urban school district. Using publicly accessible school accountability data for the 2013-2014 academic year, the quantitative component of this study examined the extent to which Florida’s school grading system hides or highlights reading performance disparities across student subgroups. Quantitative results indicate that the exclusion of disaggregated data in accountability rating determinations functions to systematically mask critical disparities in reading proficiency between student subgroups, …

Community College Students’ Perspectives On Student-Faculty Relationships And The Development Of Competence And Purpose, Michaela M. Tomova

Open Access Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored community college students’ perspectives on the impact of student-faculty interactions on their development of competence and of purpose (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). The study was conducted at one mid-size campus of a large, predominantly Hispanic-serving community college in Southeastern Florida, where most students are first generation college students. A total of eight student volunteers engaged in one-on-one interviews designed to understand how community college students experienced the influence and effects of student-faculty relationships on the development of (1) their competence and (2) their purpose. Through a combination of coding methods, 13 meaningful categories describing the phenomenon …

Logic Models To Predict Continuous Outputs Based On Binary Inputs With An Application To Personalized Cancer Therapy., Theo A Knijnenburg, Gunnar W Klau, Francesco Iorio, Mathew J Garnett, Ultan Mcdermott, Ilya Shmulevich, Lodewyk F A Wessels

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Mining large datasets using machine learning approaches often leads to models that are hard to interpret and not amenable to the generation of hypotheses that can be experimentally tested. We present 'Logic Optimization for Binary Input to Continuous Output' (LOBICO), a computational approach that infers small and easily interpretable logic models of binary input features that explain a continuous output variable. Applying LOBICO to a large cancer cell line panel, we find that logic combinations of multiple mutations are more predictive of drug response than single gene predictors. Importantly, we show that the use of the continuous information leads to …

Exchange Bias Effects In Iron Oxide-Based Nanoparticle Systems, Manh-Huong Phan, Javier Alsonso, Hafsa Khurshid, Paula Lampen-Kelley, Sayan Chandra, Kristen Stojak Repa, Zohreh Nemati, Raja Das, Óscar Iglesias, Hariharan Srikanth

Physics Faculty Publications

The exploration of exchange bias (EB) on the nanoscale provides a novel approach to improving the anisotropic properties of magnetic nanoparticles for prospective applications in nanospintronics and nanomedicine. However, the physical origin of EB is not fully understood. Recent advances in chemical synthesis provide a unique opportunity to explore EB in a variety of iron oxide-based nanostructures ranging from core/shell to hollow and hybrid composite nanoparticles. Experimental and atomistic Monte Carlo studies have shed light on the roles of interface and surface spins in these nanosystems. This review paper aims to provide a thorough understanding of the EB and related …

Effects Of Road And Land Use On Frog Distributions Across Spatial Scales And Regions In The Eastern And Central United States, David M. Marsh, Bradley J. Cosentino, Kara S. Jones, Joseph J. Apodaca, Karen H. Beard, Jane Margaret Bell, Christine Bozarth, Derrick Carper, Julie F. Charbonnier, Andreia Dantas, Elizabeth A. Forys, Miran Foster, Jaquelyn General, Kristen S. Genet, Macie Hanneken, Kyle R. Hess, Shane A. Hill, Faisal Iqbal, Nancy E. Karraker, Eran S. Kilpatrick, Tom A. Langen, James Langford, Kathryn Lauer, Alison J. Mccarthy, Joseph Neale, Saumya Patel, Austin Patton, Cherie Southwick, Nathaniel Stearrett, Nicholas Steijn, Mohammed Tasleem, Jospeh M. Taylor, James R. Vonesh

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Understanding the scales over which land use affects animal populations is critical for conservation planning, and it can provide information about the mechanisms that underlie correlations between species distributions and land use. We used a citizen science database of anuran surveys to examine the relationship between road density, land use and the distribution of frogs and toads across spatial scales and regions of the United States.

Groundwater Declines Are Linked To Changes In Great Plains Stream Fish Assemblages, Joshuah S. Perkin, Keith B. Gido, Jeffrey A. Falke, Kurt D. Fausch, Harry Crockett, Eric R. Johnson, John Sanderson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Groundwater pumping for agriculture is a major driver causing declines of global freshwater ecosystems, yet the ecological consequences for stream fish assemblages are rarely quantified. We combined retrospective (1950–2010) and prospective (2011–2060) modeling approaches within a multiscale framework to predict change in Great Plains stream fish assemblages associated with groundwater pumping from the United States High Plains Aquifer. We modeled the relationship between the length of stream receiving water from the High Plains Aquifer and the occurrence of fishes characteristic of small and large streams in the western Great Plains at a regional scale and for six subwatersheds nested within …

Essays On Financial Crises, Kayhan Koleyni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The global financial crisis made clear that the financial sector and financial frictions play an integral role in the macroeconomy. Modelers are quickly incorporating these in different ways. This dissertation research also investigates both the causes and effects of financial crises. The first essay, which is mostly empirical, analyzes the impact of the recent U.S. financial crisis on Mexico while the second one, which is theoretical, introduces the Minsky financial friction into the literature as one of the causes of banking and financial crises. In the first essay, we simulate the impact of the U.S. financial crisis on Mexico, a …

Investigation Of Jet Dynamics In Cross-Flow: Quantifying Volcanic Plume Behavior, Graham Freedland

Dissertations and Theses

Volcanic eruption columns inject high concentrations of ash into the atmosphere. Some of this ash is carried downwind forming ash clouds in the atmosphere that are hazardous for private and commercial aviation. Current models rely on inputs such as plume height, duration, eruption rate, and meteorological wind fields. Eruption rate is estimated from plume height using relations that depend on the rate of air entrainment into the plume, which is not well quantified. A wind tunnel experiment has been designed to investigate these models by injecting a vertical air jet into a cross-flow. The ratio of the cross-flow and jet …

The Use Of Official Statistics In Self-Selection Bias Modeling, L Dalla Valle

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

A Nonobvious Approach To Functional Claiming In Software Patents, Jennifer Chiang

American University Intellectual Property Brief

Functional claiming has been the issue at the heart of the software patent problem. Functional claiming is particularly problematic in software patents as inventors may use them to broadly claim an entire goal instead of a particular implementation. The accumulation of such software patents has created a patent thicket, leading to their abuse by patent trolls, causing extended litigation, and making it difficult for patent examiners to search through prior art. This paper presents an alternate approach by using nonobviousness to tackle the software problem in two phases: first during prosecution to prevent functional claims from being issued and second, …

Brand Impersonation Detection By Knowledge Verification On Text Containing Hyperlinks, Sowmya Karunakaran, Francisco Passos

Defensive Publications Series

A system and method are disclosed of verifying authenticity of a message using embedded hyperlinks therein. The method works by checking that the hyperlinks the text points to match the companies/brands the text portrays. The verification makes use of a knowledgebase of company/brand information as a source for retrieving the known sites/pages/domains for those companies/brands. The method then estimates a probabilistic measure of identity checking based on matches between the companies/brands mentioned in the text and the outgoing links from the text. In a variation, the method may additionally use contextual information of the message text to determine authenticity to …

Predicting Post-Fire Change In West Virginia, Usa From Remotely-Sensed Data, Michael Strager P. Strager, Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, Aaron E. Maxwell

Journal of Geospatial Applications in Natural Resources

Prescribed burning is used in West Virginia, USA to return the important disturbance process of fire to oak and oak-pine forests. Species composition and structure are often the main goals for re-establishing fire with less emphasis on fuel reduction or reducing catastrophic wildfire. In planning prescribed fires land managers could benefit from the ability to predict mortality to overstory trees. In this study, wildfires and prescribed fires in West Virginia were examined to determine if specific landscape and terrain characteristics were associated with patches of high/moderate post-fire change. Using the ensemble machine learning approach of Random Forest, we determined that …