Digital Commons Network^™

Positive Definiteness On Spheres And Hyperbolic Spaces, Walter R Bloom, N J Wildberger

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Conditions For Stationarity And Ergodicity Of Two-Factor Affine Diffusions, Beáta Bolyog, Gyula Pap

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Review Of The Tawny Crazy Ant, Nylanderia Fulva, An Emergent Ant Invader In The Southern United States: Is Biological Control A Feasible Management Option?, Zinan Wang, Lori Moshman, Emily C. Kraus, Blake E. Wilson, Namoona Acharya, Rodrigo Diaz

Faculty Publications

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The tawny crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), has invaded states of the U.S. including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Native to South America, N. fulva is considered a pest in the U.S. capable of annoying homeowners and farmers, as well as displacing native ant species. As it continues to expand its range, there is a growing need to develop novel management techniques to control the pest and prevent further spread. Current management efforts rely heavily on chemical control, but these methods have not been successful. A review …

Crapemyrtle Bark Scale: A New Threat For Crapemyrtles, A Popular Landscape Plant In The U.S, Zinan Wang, Yan Chen, Mengmeng Gu, Erfan Vafaie, Michael Merchant, Rodrigo Diaz

Faculty Publications

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Crapemyrtle bark scale, Acanthococcus (=Eriococcus) lagerstroemiae (Kuwana) (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae), is a newly introduced insect pest on crapemyrtles, Lagerstroemia spp. (Myrtales: Lythraceae), one of the most popular flowering shrubs in the U.S. Since first detected in Texas in 2004, this pest has spread to twelve states causing losses to stakeholders. To develop a management plan, we reviewed current knowledge about the pest’s biology and ecology, and suggested research approaches including studying its thermal tolerance, host range, plant resistance and biological control. Parasitoids and predators have been reared from A. lagerstroemiae in the …

Bovine Herpesvirus Type-1 Glycoprotein K (Gk) Interacts With Ul20 And Is Required For Infectious Virus Production, Muzammel Haque, Brent Stanfield, Konstantin G. Kousoulas

Faculty Publications

© 2016 We have previously shown that the HSV-1 gK and UL20 proteins interact and function in virion envelopment, membrane fusion, and neuronal entry. Alignment of the predicted secondary structures of gKs encoded by BoHV-1, HSV-1, HSV-2, EHV-1 and VZV indicated a high degree of domain conservation. Two BoHV-1 gK-null mutant viruses were created by either gK gene deletion or stop codon insertion. In addition, a V5 epitope-tag was inserted at the carboxyl terminus of gK gene to detect gK. The engineered gK-null mutant viruses failed to replicate and produce viral plaques. Co-immunoprecipitation of gK and UL20 expressed via different …

Treescaper: Visualizing And Extracting Phylogenetic Signal From Sets Of Trees, Wen Huang, Guifang Zhou, Melissa Marchand, Jeremy R. Ash, David Morris, Paul Van Dooren, Jeremy M. Brown, Kyle A. Gallivan, Jim C. Wilgenbusch

Faculty Publications

© The Author 2016. Modern phylogenomic analyses often result in large collections of phylogenetic trees representing uncertainty in individual gene trees, variation across genes, or both. Extracting phylogenetic signal from these tree sets can be challenging, as they are difficult to visualize, explore, and quantify. To overcome some of these challenges, we have developed TreeScaper, an application for tree set visualization as well as the identification of distinct phylogenetic signals. GUI and command-line versions of TreeScaper and a manual with tutorials can be downloaded from https://github.com/ whuang08/TreeScaper/releases. TreeScaper is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

No.38 - December 2016, Center Of Civil Law Studies

The Center of Civil Law Studies Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Prison Stories: A Qualitative Study Of Women’S Experiences In Prison, Lizeth Chapa

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study to provide a meaningful profile of women offenders that will deliver a comprehensive understanding on the problems women face while in prison so that treatment can address these issues. Qualitative methodology, specifically the use of an open-ended questionnaire is used to examine the lives and issues that women in prison face. The sample consists of females who have previously been incarcerated in the state of Texas. They completed a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire in order to assess their perceptions of: (a) factors that contributed to their criminal behaviors, (b) how being incarcerated has positively or negatively …

Sustainable Management Of Lithium-Ion Batteries After Use In Electric Vehicles, Kirti Richa

Theses

In recent years, many forecasts have predicted a large scale adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), which would predominantly be powered by lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), owing to their high energy and power density and long cycle life. While use of EVs could reduce dependence on fossil based transportation fuels, there is a need to understand the end-of-life (EOL) implications of retired EV LIBs entering the waste stream in future in the battery-driven vehicle regime. To proactively address impending waste management issues and inform related policy, this dissertation explored the sustainable management of LIBs after use in EVs and the challenges and …

A Study Of Sintered Copper Porous Surfaces For Pool Boiling Enhancement, Felix Liu

Theses

Miniaturization in microelectronics demands effective thermal management from high energy density devices. While current cooling solutions employ single-phase heat transfer, they are often limited by high fluid temperature differences and pressure drops. Alternatively, two-phase cooling schemes offers attractive solutions to dissipate high heat fluxes at small temperature differences. Specifically, pool boiling has the potential to dissipate high heat fluxes without using pumps and other complex header configurations.

Two performance criterion that govern the heat transfer in pool boiling systems are the (i) Critical Heat Flux (CHF), and the (ii) Heat Transfer Coefficient. The CHF is the upper limit in nucleate …

Navigating Institutional Complexity In The Health Sector: Lessons From Tobacco Control In Kenya, Raphael Lencucha, Peter Magati, Jeffrey Drope

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction  This research examines the institutional dynamics of tobacco control following the establishment of Kenya’s 2007 landmark tobacco control legislation. Our analysis focuses specifically on coordination challenges within the health sector.

Methods  We conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants ( n  = 17) involved in tobacco regulation and control in Kenya. We recruited participants from different offices and sectors of government and non-governmental organizations.

Results  We find that the main challenges toward successful implementation of tobacco control are a lack of coordination and clarity of mandate of the principal institutions involved in tobacco control efforts. In a related development, the …

Enabling Marker Assisted Breeding (Mab) For Phytochemical Compounds In Peach [Prunus Persica (L.) Batsch], Asma Abdelghafar

All Dissertations

Genetic control and location of QTLs associated with phytochemical compounds in peach were evaluated using bi-parental mapping and genome wide association (GWAS). The bi-parental mapping was conducted in an F2 population (ZC2) derived from cross between ‘Zin Dai’ x ‘Crimson Lady’. GWAS was performed on an association panel representing modern peach cultivars available and/or produced for the U.S. market. Antioxidant capacity and phenolic compound accumulation (total phenolics, flavonoids and anthocyanins) were evaluated for two years on all materials. The ZC2 progeny were genotyped using IPSC 9K peach SNP array v1., and the association panel was genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing. The genetic …

Investigating Materials That Promote New Organic Methodology And Remediation Of Volatile Organic Compounds, Mckenzie Louise Campbell

All Dissertations

The need for environmentally safe reagents for the promotion of organic transformations is critical in order to reduce hazardous waste and byproducts associated with industrial-scale chemical processes. We have developed two practical methods that obviate the need for harsh oxidative and toxic brominating reagents in electrophilic halogenation reactions.

In our hands, a catalytic loading of the inexpensive, commercially available V2O5 (~$0.25/g) promotes the bromolactonization of a series of substituted alkenoic acids in isolated yields up to 97% by means of the in situ generation of bromenium (Br+) from bromide (Br−) at room temperature. This process obviates the need for molecular …

Simulation Of Reverse Osmosis And Osmotically Driven Membrane Processes, Peng Xie

All Dissertations

To address the increasingly severe global water shortage and pollution problem, reverse osmosis (RO) has been widely used because of its ability to produce high quality water. Meanwhile, related technologies have been developed, called osmotically driven membrane processes (ODMPs). These include forward osmosis (FO), which has potential for wastewater purification and desalination, and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), which has the capacity to produce energy. The main problems associated with RO and ODMPs are concentration polarization and membrane fouling which deteriorate the quality and quantity of the permeate flux and increase the operating cost of the system. The task of this …

Investigation Into The Ecological And Toxicological Constraints On A Population Of Lesser Flamingos (Phoeniconaias Minor) At Kamfers Dam In Kimberley, South Africa, Lindsay Hill

All Dissertations

This study investigates the threats to a breeding population of lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) at Kamfers Dam in Kimberley, South Africa. The main threats include water quality/quantity, algal food source abundance and exposure to contaminants accumulating in the dam. Water quality testing and analysis of historical water quality reports were used to analyze the effects of the physical and chemical parameters on the algal assemblage at Kamfers Dam and determine if changes in the water quality could predict changes in the algal assemblage. Arthrospira fusiformis, the flamingos preferred food, was positively correlated with conductivity, total dissolved salts …

A Probabilistic-Based Approach To Monitoring Tool Wear State And Assessing Its Effect On Workpiece Quality In Nickel-Based Alloys, Farbod Akhavan Niaki

All Dissertations

The objective of this research is first to investigate the applicability and advantage of statistical state estimation methods for predicting tool wear in machining nickel-based superalloys over deterministic methods, and second to study the effects of cutting tool wear on the quality of the part. Nickel-based superalloys are among those classes of materials that are known as hard-to-machine alloys. These materials exhibit a unique combination of maintaining their strength at high temperature and have high resistance to corrosion and creep. These unique characteristics make them an ideal candidate for harsh environments like combustion chambers of gas turbines. However, the same …

Functional Analysis Of Human Long Non-Coding Rnas And Their Associations With Diseases, Steven Cogill

All Dissertations

Within this study, we sought to leverage knowledge from well-characterized protein coding genes to characterize the lesser known long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes using computational methods to find functional annotations and disease associations. Functional genome annotation is an essential step to a systems-level view of the human genome. With this knowledge, we can gain a deeper understanding of how humans develop and function, and a better understanding of human disease. LncRNAs are transcripts greater than 200 nucleotides, which do not code for proteins. LncRNAs have been found to regulate development, tissue and cell differentiation, and organ formation. Their dysregulation has …

Change Detection And The Causal Impact Of The Yield Curve, Stan Hurn, Peter C.B. Phillips, Shu-Ping Shi

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Causal relationships in econometrics are typically based on the concept of predictability and are established in terms of tests for Granger causality. These causal relationships are susceptible to change, especially during times of financial turbulence, making the real-time detection of instability an important practical issue. This paper develops a test for detecting changes in causal relationships based on a recursive rolling window, which is analogous to the procedure used in recent work on financial bubble detection. The limiting distribution of the test takes a simple form under the null hypothesis and is easy to implement in conditions of homoskedasticity, conditional …

Iv And Gmm Estimation And Testing Of Multivariate Stochastic Unit Root Models, Offer Lieberman, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Lieberman and Phillips (2016; Journal of Econometrics; LP) introduced a multivariate stochastic unit root (STUR) model, which allows for random, time varying local departures from a unit root (UR) model, where nonlinear least squares (NLLS) may be used for estimation and inference on the STUR coefficient. In a structural version of this model where the driver variables of the STUR coefficient are endogenous, the NLLS estimate of the STUR parameter is inconsistent, as are the corresponding estimates of the associated covariance parameters. This paper develops a nonlinear instrumental variable (NLIV) as well as GMM estimators of the STUR parameter which …

Selling To Intermediaries: Optimal Auction Design In A Common Value Model, Dirk Bergemann, Benjamin Brooks, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We characterize revenue maximizing auctions when the bidders are intermediaries who wish to resell the good. The bidders have differential information about their common resale opportunities: each bidder privately observes an independent draw of a resale opportunity, and the highest signal is a sufficient statistic for the value of winning the good. If the good must be sold, then the optimal mechanism is simply a posted price at which all bidders are willing to purchase the good, and all bidders are equally likely to be allocated the good, irrespective of their signals. If the seller can keep the good, then …

Pedagogías Críticas Para Nuevos Horizontes Emancipadores, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

En una sociedad como la nuestra fuertemente marcada por los efectos de la globalización neoliberal, ¿cuál es el papel de una educación crítica para contribuir a un cambio cultural que acabe con todas las visiones androcéntricas, eurocéntricas y productivistas que tan profundamente han calado en nuestro pensamiento?

On The Battlefield Of Merit: Harvard Law School, The First Century, By Daniel R. Coquillette And Bruce A. Kimball, John Henry Schlegel

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Selected Characteristics For Nebraska Legislative Districts From The 2011-2015 American Community Survey, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Past Publications

On December 8, 2016 the U.S. Census Bureau released five‐year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates for the combined years of 2011 through 2015, making available social, economic, housing and demographic statistics for Nebraska’s Legislative Districts. Also available are estimates for every community and county in Nebraska and the nation.

The charts and tables in this report are based on the Legislative District boundaries for the 103^rd Legislature that were approved by the Legislature in 2011 and were based on data from the 2010 Census. Because of changes in Legislative District boundaries, the charts and tables in this report are …

An Analysis Of Morphometric Differentiation In Lake And River Populations Of The Emerald Shiner, Notropis Atherinoides, John J.V. Lang

Biology Theses

Understanding mechanisms that account for phenotypic variation has been of interest to biologists since the advent of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. It is now understood that adaptive divergence is a key driving force of intraspecific differentiation. Further, differences in habitat (e.g., flow regime, prey regime) have been shown to drive adaptive divergence in fish. For instance, fish inhabiting faster flowing water generally exhibit more fusiform bodies than their lake counterparts. Similarly, the partitioning of benthic and pelagic morphs generally results in smaller heads with the latter. This study used geometric shape analysis to assess morphological differences between …

December 2016; Buffalo-Niagara Lgbtq History Project Minutes, Buffalo-Niagara Lgbtq History Project

Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project Minutes

The Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project is a collective network of peers documenting LGBTQ history in the Buffalo-Niagara Region. This page maintains archival copies of all meeting minutes and is a part of the Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archives of WNY, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State.

Rethinking The Jurisdiction Of The National Industrial Court In Human Rights Enforcement In Nigeria: Lessons From South Africa, Abdullahi Saliu Ishola, Adekumbi Adeleye, Dauda Momodu

The Transnational Human Rights Review

In 2009, the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009were introduced to improve administration of justice in human rights cases in Nigerian courts. The Rules established that all human rights cases could be filed in any High Court in the State where the violation occurred. Depending on the parties involved and the place of the violation, this gives wide opportunity for victims to file a case either at the Federal, State, or the Federal Capital Territory High Court. However, in 2011, the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria was altered and thereby vested with exclusive jurisdiction over human rights cases arising from …

The International Dimension Of The Right To Development: Where Is The Gapping Crack Of Accountability For Non-State Actors, Maxwel Miyawa

The Transnational Human Rights Review

Mainstream legal scholarship has paid much attention to clarifying the meaning of the right to development by placing a great deal of scrutiny primarily on obligations of states to the neglect of non-state actors, as if states are the only integral players in the global economy necessary for realizing the right to development. This entrepreneurship steered clear of assessing viability of the right’s founding vision of redressing institutional imbalances and unfairness of the global economic order. If the discourse took a global order reform trajectory, it would have injected thoughts on how accountability of international economic institutions and transnational corporations …

The Fourth Industrial Revolution By Klaus Schwab, Jake Okechukwu Effoduh

The Transnational Human Rights Review

No abstract provided.

Livd: Issue 15.2: "Letting Go", Portland State University. School Of Art + Design

LIVD

Layout, imagery, and editing: Meredith James

LIVD is a semi/annual publication produced in the Pacific Northwest, dedicated to the intersection of art, design, culture and how these influence lived experience.

LIVD pays hommage to the inspiring and idealistic efforts of the early twentieth century avant-garde, balancing the academic with the personal and experimental.

Issue 15.2 includes contributions responding to the following prompt: screwing up, messing up, vulnerability, shame... that sort of thing. Why isn't the prompt simply: failure? Because something strange happens when you ask people to talk about failure, they start talking about something else entirely.

Contributions by: Roz …

Psychological Contract Violation And Affective Commitment: The Mediating Effect Of Cynicism And The Moderating Effect Of Employees’ Expectations, Sahar Mohamed Badawy, Mohamad Saad Mohamad Pro

Business Administration

This research is building on the previous research by examining both the mediating effect of cynicism and the moderating effect of employees’ expectations on the psychological contract violations–affective commitment relationship among academic staff in private universities in Egypt. A sample of 395 academic members responded to a four-part questionnaire measuring research variables (psychological contract violation, affective commitment, cynicism, and employees’ expectations). Cynicism was found to partially mediate the violation – affective commitment relationship. Further, employees’ expectations were found to moderate the violation – cynicism relationship. These results were discussed in light of extant literature. Research limitations and implications were reported