Digital Commons Network^™

Ecological And Oceanographic Influences On Leatherback Turtle Behavior And Scyphozoan Jellyfish Distributions In The Gulf Of Mexico, Katrina Aleksa

Dissertations

Leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are a wide-ranging, oceanic species that feed exclusively on gelatinous zooplankton. Leatherback have been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) for several decades and consistently had a high level of interactions with longline fisheries. However, no quantitative studies have been performed to address the spatiotemporal distribution of these turtles in the GoM. This research determines 1) leatherback movements and high-use areas in the GoM, 2) their association with oceanographic features, 3) the distribution and density of two abundant medusae in the northern GoM and any association with biophysical parameters, and 4) the body …

Race, Socioeconomic Status, And Implicit Bias: Implications For Closing The Achievement Gap, Elizabeth Schlosser

Dissertations

This study accessed the relationship between race, socioeconomic status, age and the race implicit bias held by middle and high school science teachers in Mobile and Baldwin County Public School Systems. Seventy-nine participants were administered the race Implicit Association Test (race IAT), created by Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R., (2003) and a demographic survey. Quantitative analysis using analysis of variances, ANOVA and t-tests were used in this study. An ANOVA was performed comparing the race IAT scores of African American science teachers and their Caucasian counterparts. A statically significant difference was found (F = …

Widespread Theta Synchrony And High-Frequency Desynchronization Underlies Enhanced Cognition., E. A. Solomon, J. E. Kragel, Michael R. Sperling, Ashwini Sharan, G. Worrell, M. Kucewicz, C. S. Inman, B. Lega, K. A. Davis, J. M. Stein, B. C. Jobst, K. A. Zaghloul, S. A. Sheth, D. S. Rizzuto, M. J. Kahana

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

The idea that synchronous neural activity underlies cognition has driven an extensive body of research in human and animal neuroscience. Yet, insufficient data on intracranial electrical connectivity has precluded a direct test of this hypothesis in a whole-brain setting. Through the lens of memory encoding and retrieval processes, we construct whole-brain connectivity maps of fast gamma (30-100 Hz) and slow theta (3-8 Hz) spectral neural activity, based on data from 294 neurosurgical patients fitted with indwelling electrodes. Here we report that gamma networks desynchronize and theta networks synchronize during encoding and retrieval. Furthermore, for nearly all brain regions we studied, …

Annual Report State Fiscal Year July 2016-June 2017, Tennessee. Department Of Children's Services.

Department of Children's Services

No abstract provided.

Computational Analysis Of Spray Jet Flames, Utsav Jain

Open Access Theses

There is a boost in the utilization of renewable sources of energy but because of high energy density applications, combustion will never be obsolete. Spray combustion is a type of multiphase combustion which has tremendous engineering applications in different fields, varying from energy conversion devices to rocket propulsion system. Developing accurate computational models for turbulent spray combustion is vital for improving the design of combustors and making them energy efficient. Flamelet models have been extensively used for gas phase combustion because of their relatively low computational cost to model the turbulence-chemistry interaction using a low dimensional manifold approach. This framework …

Ultrafast Laser-Induced Damage Threshold Of The Optical Materials In Near Infrared Region, Yun Jo Lee

Open Access Theses

Ultrafast optics is widely used in nowadays for optical communication, tomography, remote sensing and ranging, and even fabrication methods. In order to generating the ultrafast optical signals from such applicable devices, we need to understand the threshold that the material consisting the devices can bear without any damages. Materials’ Laser-Induced Damage Thresholds (LIDT) are varying with the laser’s characteristics that irradiated onto the material and the materials’ band gap energy. Abundant journals and papers had been published with this topic, however, it was not well studied in optical communication wavelength range. In this thesis, existing widely-accepted LIDT theory will be …

Physical Aggressiveness And Gray Matter Deficits In Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex, David S. Chester, Donald R. Lynam, Richard Milich, C. Nathan Dewall

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

What causes individuals to hurt others? Since the famous case of Phineas Gage, lesions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) have been reliably linked to physically aggressive behavior. However, it is unclear whether naturally-occurring deficits in VMPFC, among normal individuals, might have widespread consequences for aggression. Using voxel based morphometry, we regressed gray matter density from the brains of 138 normal female and male adults onto their dispositional levels of physical aggression, verbal aggression, and sex, simultaneously. Physical, but not verbal, aggression was associated with reduced gray matter volume in the VMPFC and to a lesser extent, frontopolar cortex. Participants …

The Work Ethic Gap: Comparing Perceptions Of Students, Educators, And Employers, Joseph Routhier

All NMU Master's Theses

Work ethic has been a constant, but elusive topic for decades. This study sought to identify the differences in perception of work ethic in between students, educators, and employers. Seventy-two participants observed videos of workers in various tasks and rated the perceived work ethic of the person in the video by using a sliding Likert scale. Additionally, participants were asked to comment as to why they rated the worker the way they did. Quantitative analyses were used to determine differences in the participant’s work ethic ratings. Qualitative analyses interpreted respondents’ comments to better understand the results. Results indicated that while …

Delayed Effects Of Sub-Lethal Lampricide, 3-Trifluoromethyl-4-Nitrophenol (Tfm), Exposure On The Metabolic Physiology Of Juvenile Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser Fulvescens), Matthew J. Symbal

All NMU Master's Theses

The lampricide 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) can be lethal to juvenile lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) at high concentrations used to control invasive sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus). Little is known about how TFM would affect juvenile lake sturgeon (age-0) at the sub-lethal concentrations encountered during routine lampricide treatments; specifically, its effects on growth, stress response, and metabolism. Age-0 lake sturgeon were exposed to TFM concentrations at levels 0.0x, 0.5x, and 1.0x the minimum lethal concentration (mlc) of TFM required to kill 99.9% of sea lamprey larvae during a routine stream treatment. The mlc was estimated based on pH and alkalinity …

Op Ed-Opinions And Editorials-Educators, Not Engineers, Should Lead The Fight Against Fake News, Adam Blackwell

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Library Analytics: Shaping The Future-How Analytics Helped Smith College Discover The Best Bento, John Mcdonald, Kathleen Mcevoy

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews-Monographic Musings, Regina Gong

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Random Ramblings-Peer Reviewing Of Articles From Third World Countries: My Personal Experience, Bob Holley

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Biz Of Acq-Evidence-Based Collection Development On A Large Scale: A Use Factor Allocation Formula, Michelle Flinchbaugh, Cindy Shirkey

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Pcor Partnership Atlas, Wesley D. Peck, Earl P. Battle, Megan M. Grove, Kyle A. Glazewski, Joyce M. Riske, Charles D. Gorecki, Edward N. Steadman, John A. Harju

EERC Maps and Infographics

The Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Atlas provides a regional profile of CO₂ sources and potential CO₂ storage locations across the PCOR Partnership region. The revised fifth edition provides an up-to-date look at PCOR Partnership activities, including additional regional characterization and updates on full-scale demonstration projects. Additional background information on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is included to give a better understanding of how CCUS addresses concerns about climate change while allowing future energy needs to be met.

Assessing Information Literacy Skills: A Survey Of Undergraduate Education Students At The University Of Livingstonia In Malawi, Donald Flywell Malanga Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of this study was to assess the information literacy skills of Education Students at the University of Livingstonia. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive survey design in which questionnaire was used to collect data. Stratified sampling technique was used to sample students from their respective degree programmes under the faculty of education. Altogether 160 questionnaires were distributed proportionally to respondents and 123 were successfully returned with a response rate of 76.9%.Data was analysed using IBM SPSS where percentages, charts and tables were obtained to present and interpret data. The findings revealed that Faculty of Education students (ES): (1) …

Exome Sequences Of Multiplex, Multigenerational Families Reveal Schizophrenia Risk Loci With Potential Implications For Neurocognitive Performance, Mark Kos, Melanie A. Carless, Juan M. Peralta, Joanne E. Curran, Ellen E. Quillen, Marcio Almeida, August N. Blackburn, Lucy Blondell, David Roalf, Michael F. Pogue-Geile, Harald H. H. Goring, Laura Almasy

School of Medicine Publications

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness, involving disruptions in thought and behavior, with a worldwide prevalence of about one percent. Although highly heritable, much of the genetic liability of schizophrenia is yet to be explained. We searched for susceptibility loci in multiplex, multigenerational families affected by schizophrenia, targeting protein-altering variation with in silico predicted functional effects. Exome sequencing was performed on 136 samples from eight European-American families, including 23 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. In total, 11,878 non-synonymous variants from 6,396 genes were tested for their association with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Pathway enrichment analyses were conducted on gene-based …

Sell Side Benchmarks, Ohad Kadan, Leonardo Madureira, Rong Wang, Tzachi Zach

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Sell-side analysts employ different benchmarks when defining their stock recommendations. For example, a ‘buy’ for some brokers means the stock is expected to outperform its peers in the same sector (“sector benchmarkers”), while for other brokers it means the stock is expected to outperform the market (“market benchmarkers”), or just some absolute return (“total benchmarkers”). We explore the validity and implications of the adoption of these different benchmarks. Analysis of the relation between analysts’ recommendations and their long-term growth and earnings forecasts suggests that analysts indeed abide by their benchmarks: Sector benchmarkers rely less on across-industry information, and focus more …

A Multiagent-Based Approach For Vehicle Routing By Considering Both Arriving On Time And Total Travel Time, Zhiguang Cao, Hongliang Guo, Jie Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Arriving on time and total travel time are two important properties for vehicle routing. Existing route guidance approaches always consider them independently, because they may conflict with each other. In this article, we develop a semi-decentralized multiagent-based vehicle routing approach where vehicle agents follow the local route guidance by infrastructure agents at each intersection, and infrastructure agents perform the route guidance by solving a route assignment problem. It integrates the two properties by expressing them as two objective terms of the route assignment problem. Regarding arriving on time, it is formulated based on the probability tail model, which aims to …

Advertising Effect On Consumer Emotions, Judgements, And Purchase Intent, Tamilla Curtis, Anke Arnaud, Blaise P. Waguespack

Publications

Advertising has been found to induce consumer reactions, including emotions and judgements, which in turn are believed to relate to important outcomes, such as purchase intents. Marketing researches seek to understand these consumer reactions and their decision-making processes to influence purchase intents. This study focuses on the information role of emotion in understanding advertising effects and influencing consumer choices. Individuals use affective responses to evaluate information and to form judgements, which are critical in the decision-making process. This research further expands the Informative Strategy Model by adding judgement as a mediator. The results of a multiple mediation analysis provide support …

Identification Of Aspergillus Fumigatus Udp-Galactopyranose Mutase Inhibitors, Julia S.Martin Del Campo, Meital Eckshtain-Levi, Nancy J. Vogelaar, Pablo Sobrado

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic human pathogen responsible for deadly, invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. The A. fumigatus cell wall is a complex network of polysaccharides among them galactofuran, which is absent in humans. UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM) catalyzes the conversion of UDP-galactofuranose (UDP-Galf) to UDP-galactopyranose (UDP-Galp) and is an important virulence factor. UGM is a flavin-dependent enzyme that requires the reduced flavin for activity; flavin reduction is achieved by reaction with NADPH. The aim of this work was to discover inhibitors of UGM by targeting the NADPH binding site using an ADP-TAMRA probe in a high-throughput screening assay. The flavonoids …

Inferring Social Media Users’ Demographics From Profile Pictures: A Face++ Analysis On Twitter Users, Soon-Gyo Jung, Jisun An, Haewoon Kwak, Joni Salminen, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this research, we evaluate the applicability of using facial recognition of social media account profile pictures to infer the demographic attributes of gender, race, and age of the account owners leveraging a commercial and well-known image service, specifically Face++. Our goal is to determine the feasibility of this approach for actual system implementation. Using a dataset of approximately 10,000 Twitter profile pictures, we use Face++ to classify this set of images for gender, race, and age. We determine that about 30% of these profile pictures contain identifiable images of people using the current state-of-the-art automated means. We then employ …

A Hybrid Parallel Approach To High-Performance Compression Of Big Genomic Files And In Compresso Data Processing, Sandino N. Vargas Pérez

Dissertations

Due to the rapid development of high-throughput low cost Next-Generation Sequencing, genomic file transmission and storage is now one of the many Big Data challenges in computer science. Highly specialized compression techniques have been devised to tackle this issue, but sequential data compression has become increasingly inefficient and existing parallel algorithms suffer from poor scalability. Even the best available solutions can take hours to compress gigabytes of data, making the use of these techniques for large-scale genomics prohibitively expensive in terms of time and space complexity.

This dissertation responds to the aforementioned problem by presenting a novel hybrid parallel approach …

The Relative Importance Of Fire History, Management Treatments, Biotic, And Abiotic Factors On The Abundance Of Key Vegetative Components In An Endangered Sagebrush-Steppe Ecosystem, Ann Marie Raymondi

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Dryland ecosystems are globally distributed and occupy nearly half of Earth’s terrestrial surface. Drylands are particularly vulnerable to degradation and their restoration has become a global concern. Sagebrush-steppe ecosystems in the intermountain western United States have been subject to decades of active management efforts to address invasive species and restore plant communities, and can serve as a relevant case study to investigate dynamics between fire, invasive species, and management treatments in a representative dryland system. My objective was to determine the relative importance of fire history, management treatment history, abiotic, and biotic factors in relation to the abundance of key …

Effects Of The Fitdesk On Work Performance In College Students, Brittany Maxine Price

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Being sedentary is a behavior that is practiced far too often by individuals. This is worrisome because evidence suggests that uninterrupted periods of sitting can be harmful to one’s health. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a cycling workstation, the FitDesk, on work performance, blood pressure, heart rate, and the energy expenditure of college students. It was hypothesized that pedaling with the FitDesk would not have an effect on college students’ typing performance, reading comprehension, and attention/information processing when compared to those sitting at the FitDesk. In addition, an acute reduction in blood pressure, increase …

Thermodynamics And Kinetics Of Dna Origami Cross-Tile Array Formation, Brett Michael Ward

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As the cost to continue scaling photolithography to pattern smaller semiconducting devices increases exponentially, new materials and fabrication approaches are being sought to extend and enhance current capabilities. DNA nanostructures have been identified as a promising material for patterning nanoscale devices, and several studies have demonstrated the ability to program DNA nanostructures to self-assemble into large scale arrays. These DNA arrays can be designed to create the patterns necessary for fabricating semiconductor device features. However, these structures are far from ideal and contain a number of defects that limit the adoption of this approach for manufacturing. In order to create …

We Aren't Living Happily Ever After: Embodying Characters In Readers Theater To Promote Comprehension, Cassandra Angley

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Readers Theater is an old genre of Theater integrating oral interpretation and presentational Theater. The high interest of the scripts chosen for a Readers Theater production and the repetition of rehearsing text promotes fluency, expressiveness, and motivation. Readers Theater is one method that may support comprehension by developing students’ understanding of character. Very few Readers Theater studies measure comprehension. I set-up a study where nine fifth and sixth-grade students from a summer literacy program each embodied a character. I wanted to know if Readers Theater could help teach character comprehension. I created a comprehension assessment tool, called a Character Map, …

Research-Based Stem Educator Professional Development Rubrics For The Selection Of High-Quality Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Study Of Teacher Perceptions And Outcomes, Angela Hemingway

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Idahoans failed to recognize approximately $240M in 2016 when over 3,800 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs, with a median wage of $30 per hour, went unfilled. This further caused Idaho to lose $14M in state income tax receipts from these unclaimed positions (Idaho Department of Labor, 2016). To mitigate these economic losses, the Idaho STEM Action Center (STEM AC) was created to develop the STEM-skilled workforce that Idaho employers demand. High-quality, STEM-educator professional development (PD) is a critical component in ensuring students are equipped with the skills required to successfully thrive in the workforce and fill industry demands. …

Variance: Secure Two-Party Protocol For Solving Yao's Millionaires' Problem In Bitcoin, Joshua Holmes

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Secure multiparty protocols are useful tools for parties wishing to jointly compute a function while keeping their input data secret. The millionaires’ problem is the first secure two-party computation problem, where the goal is to securely compare two private numbers without a trusted third-party. There have been several solutions to the problem, including Yao’s protocol [Yao, 1982] and Mix and Match [Jakobsson and Juels, 2000]. However, Yao’s Protocol is not secure in the malicious model and Mix and Match unnecessarily releases theoretically breakable encryptions of information about the data that is not needed for the comparison. In addition, neither protocol …

The Use Of Visual Arts In World Language Instruction To Increase Student Motivation And Attitude, Marilena Bevilacqua Martello

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Because of the complexity and changeability that characterize languages, language learners face a number of various factors in their quest to acquire a new language. Nevertheless, it is the level of motivation and personal attitude toward language learning that will determine their rate of success (Dörnyei & Csizér, 1998). The purpose of this study was to find out (1) whether there was a relationship between the use of visual art in world language instruction and student motivation, and (2) whether student writing skills improved when visual art was used for Content Based Instruction. The study used a mixed method research …