Digital Commons Network^™

An Abridged Study, Jacob Guzan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This MFA thesis addresses work completed and presented in a thesis exhibition at West Virginia University, the conceptual underpinnings of this work, and the personal motivations for such conceptual lines of inquiry. Focusing on traditional fine art practices of drawing and intaglio printmaking, the accurate reproduction of reality is a strategy for changing the context in which utilitarian infrastructural objects are seen. The goal of this project is to shift infrastructure from "eyesore" status to a state of aesthetic appreciation. Through visual isolation, these objects are given the opportunity to stand as discrete and sublime forms. The objects cease to …

Healing Pathways: The Journey To Completely Healing, Nathan Eversman

Architecture Theses

Technology has impacted the human perception of health through monumental advancements, but the process of healing has been diminished to where the sole focus of health care has become “to resolve” instead of “to heal”. “To resolve” is finding the most efficient, cost effective, short-termed solution and move on to the next customer, whereas, “to heal” means aiding in the rebalancing of an imbalance within one’s life. “To heal” is a pathway that mediates a process of healing, oriented towards a solution, but not an immediate one. The healing path created, by architectural expression, will express cultural ideologies and emphasize …

A Discussion Of Art Therapy Approaches Used In Classroom Activities To Help Students With Emotional And Behavioral Issues, Ashley Nichol Elliott

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this paper was to inform the reader of the benefits of using art therapy activities in art lessons as a way to help students' process emotional and behavioral issues. New and future art educators are not equipped to handle the wide range of issues that students face everyday. This is especially true for the students in the West Virginia public school system. As in larger, more urban locations, many students here deal with drugs, violence, bullying, abuse, and others contemporary social stressors. In this paper, I utilized my own personal experiences, literary research, experimentation, and observations of …

Elementary Educators' Attitudes About The Utility Of Educational Robotics And Their Ability And Intent To Use It With Students, Todd I. Ensign

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Educational robotics (ER) combines accessible and age-appropriate building materials, programmable interfaces, and computer coding to teach science and mathematics using the engineering design process. ER has been shown to increase K-12 students' understanding of STEM concepts, and can develop students' self-confidence and interest in STEM. As educators struggle to adapt their current science teaching practices to meet the new interdisciplinary nature of the Next Generation Science Standards, ER has the potential to simultaneously integrate STEM disciplines, engage and inspire students in mathematics and science, and build connections to STEM careers. One challenge is a lack of documented models for preparing …

Analyzing Holographic Wills In The Digital Age: Should Florida's Antagonistic Stance Be Liberalized In Light Of Other Jurisdictions' Leniency?, Aubrey G. Smith

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book 2015-2016, Tennessee. Higher Education Commission.

Higher Education Fact Book

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Promise Annual Report 2017, Tennessee. Higher Education Commission.

Financial Aid Reports

No abstract provided.

Crypto-Currencies: The 21st Century's Money Laundering And Tax Havens, Edgar G. Sánchez

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Study Of The Development Of Negation In Bilingual Spanish/English And Monolingual English Speakers, Isabel Cristina Verduzco

Master's Theses

Problem

Negation is one of the first concepts learned early during childhood and one of the most important ones for communication. Current studies focus on how negation is developed universally in each specific language and how it is governed by patterns of acquisition, however, there are factors that may affect this process. How does learning two languages simultaneously affect the normal development of negation? Analyzing how the exposure to two different languages affects the normal development of negation is important for understanding how bilingualism influences normal language development. This study is also important for the analysis of speech and language …

An Evaluation Of The Definition Of Exhaustive Foreknowledge In The Writings Of Richard Rice, Dennis E. Akawobsa

Master's Theses

Problem

This thesis addresses the conflict of interpretation between Richard Rice’s model of God’s exhaustive knowledge of the future as a realm of possibilities and the generally accepted traditional model of God’s exhaustive definite knowledge of the future. In harmony with the traditional perspective, Richard Rice has affirmed God’s exhaustive knowledge of the past and the present. However, in contrast to the traditional perspective, he has denied God’s exhaustive definite foreknowledge of future free choices. According to Rice, God can know everything there is to know. This implies that, on one hand, the future does not yet exist, so God …

Grief Management: The Divine And The Human Factor, Ransom Khanye

Master's Theses

Problem

When someone is bereaved, friends, comforters and sympathisers at times try to make sense of the situation. Some people theoretically deal with issues surrounding the death of someone and grief of the surviving ones without any personal experience of these events. Hypothetical and imaginative reasoning in comforting other people is insufficient for making a real impact and a significant and lasting difference to the bereaved. The current study was to try to identify the most effective way to help and console people who have lost their loved ones.

Method

The process of collecting data for this thesis was online …

Temperature Measurements In A Manufactured Rf Plasma Jet In Various Ar/N$_{2}$ Mixtures, Mohammad Nasir Rostami Ravari, Alireza Ganjovi, Farideh Shojaei, Amir Falahat

Turkish Journal of Physics

In this paper, using the optical emission spectroscopy technique, a comparative study is performed on the argon excitation and nitrogen vibrational temperatures in the plasma discharge medium of a manufactured RF plasma jet. The argon contribution in the Ar/N$_{2}$ mixture is varied from 70% to 98% and the obtained optical emission spectra from argon and molecular nitrogen are analyzed. The highest emission intensities of neutral argon (Ar I) are recorded in the wavelength range of 790-850 nm. It is seen that, at the higher argon percentages in the mixture, the emission intensity from all the formed species in the plasma …

Genomic Perspectives On Amphibian Evolution Across Multiple Phylogenetic Scales, Paul Michael Hime

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Genomes provide windows into the evolutionary histories of species. The recent accessibility of genome-scale data in non-model organisms and the proliferation of powerful statistical models are now providing unprecedented opportunities to uncover evolutionary relationships and to test hypotheses about the processes that generate and maintain biodiversity. This dissertation work reveals shallow-scale species boundaries and population genetic structure in two imperiled groups of salamanders and demonstrates that the number and information content of genomic regions used in species delimitation exert strong effects on the resulting inferences. Genome scans are employed to test hypotheses about the mechanisms of genetic sex determination in …

Searching For Prompt Gamma Ray Signals Around Gravitational Wave Triggers, Eric Burns

Dissertations

One of the next great discoveries in astrophysics will be the first detection of an event in both gravitational waves and photons. I investigate the most promising event for a joint detection: the merging of a neutron star with another neutron star or a black hole, thought to produce short gamma ray bursts. We investigate the possibility of sub-populations of short gamma-ray bursts by comparing the bursts observed by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope and the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor. We find no evidence that these instruments are observing different short gamma-ray bursts, allowing us to use the Swift redshift …

Employee Benefit Plans Industry Developments - 2017; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Mat 3400 : Teaching Secondary Mathematics, Mathematics And Computer Science

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Improvements In Inverter Modeling And Control, Xiao Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

In this dissertation, the generalized averaging method models for inverters, reactive power control methods for photovoltaic inverters, and a noise immunity improvement for hybrid position observers for brushless dc motor drives are studied.

Models of inverters and other converters based on averaging have been widely used in numerous simulation applications. Generalized averaging can be applied to model both average and switching behavior of converters while retaining the faster run times associated with average-value models. Herein, generalized average models for single- and three-phase pulse width modulation inverters are proposed. The modulation signal for the proposed model could be either a sinusoidal …

Real-Time Capture And Rendering Of Physical Scene With An Efficiently Calibrated Rgb-D Camera Network, Po-Chang Su

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

From object tracking to 3D reconstruction, RGB-Depth (RGB-D) camera networks play an increasingly important role in many vision and graphics applications. With the recent explosive growth of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) platforms, utilizing camera RGB-D camera networks to capture and render dynamic physical space can enhance immersive experiences for users. To maximize coverage and minimize costs, practical applications often use a small number of RGB-D cameras and sparsely place them around the environment for data capturing. While sparse color camera networks have been studied for decades, the problems of extrinsic calibration of and rendering with sparse RGB-D …

Hybrid Parallelization Of The Nasa Gemini Electromagnetic Modeling Tool, Buxton L. Johnson Sr.

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Understanding, predicting, and controlling electromagnetic field interactions on and between complex RF platforms requires high fidelity computational electromagnetic (CEM) simulation. The primary CEM tool within NASA is GEMINI, an integral equation based method-of-moments (MoM) code for frequency domain electromagnetic modeling. However, GEMINI is currently limited in the size and complexity of problems that can be effectively handled. To extend GEMINI’S CEM capabilities beyond those currently available, primary research is devoted to integrating the MFDlib library developed at the University of Kentucky with GEMINI for efficient filling, factorization, and solution of large electromagnetic problems formulated using integral equation methods. A secondary …

Real-Time Sensing And Control Of Developing Weld Penetration Through Reflection Vibration In Gtaw, Jinsong Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) weld pool surface is believed to contain sufficient information to determine the weld penetration, from which skilled welders are able to control the welding process to desired penetration states. However, it is unclear how human welders extract the weld penetration from the observed weld pool surface. In this research, a novel method is studied to determine the weld penetration based on the dynamic change of the weld pool surface.

This study observes/measures/analyzes the development of a weld pool from partial to full penetration and correlates such change to the weld penetration. Similar trends in the …

Materials Discovery Of Reduced Early Transition Metal Compounds: Crystal Growth And Characterization, Dileka Abeysinghe

Theses and Dissertations

Materials discovery via crystal growth is an active area of research that has led to the preparation of many novel materials along with the determination of their crystal structures. One sub-category in this diverse field of materials is the preparation of early transition metal reduced oxides. These reduced oxides often exhibit unusual electronic and magnetic properties. Due to the synthetic challenges associated with early transition metal reduction, new and facile methods to prepare reduced oxides is of great interest. These limitations can be overcome by using a carefully selected redox neutral flux, a vacuum sealed fused silica tube, and metal …

A Study Of Two Digital Hydrological Networks In South Carolina And An Assessment Of Site Reconnaissance Results From The Sc Department Of Health And Environmental Control Probability Survey For Streams And Rivers, Caitlin Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), Surface Water Monitoring Section utilizes a probability survey to assess water quality conditions of streams and rivers in the state. The Generalized Random-Tessellation Stratified survey design prioritizes specific stream order (size) subpopulations and spatial distribution in the generation of potential sample sites, and is intended to survey only perennial stream reaches. Site reconnaissance is conducted to assess site suitability and accessibility. The stream characteristics associated with accepted and rejected sites have been recorded since the late 1990s/early 2000s. Data from 2001-2016 was analyzed to assess apparent trends in both rejected …

Drivers Of Sediment Accumulation And Nutrient Burial In Coastal South Carolina Residential Stormwater Detention Ponds, William Schroer

Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater detention ponds are widely utilized as control structures to manage runoff waters during storm events. These sediments also represent significant sites of organic carbon and nutrient burial. Here, carbon (C) and nutrient sources and burial rates were determined in 14 residential stormwater detention ponds throughout coastal counties of South Carolina. Bulk sediment accumulation was directly correlated with catchment impervious surface coverage (R2 = 0.90) with sediment accumulation rates ranging from 0.06 to 0.50 cm y-1. These rates of sediment accumulation and subsequent pond volume loss are lower than expected indicating that required maintenance dredging schedules be reassessed. Strong, positive …

The Relationship Between Physical Fitness And School Performance, Jamie A. Donnelly

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Past research has indicated a significant relationship between physical fitness and standardized test scores; however, the relationship between physical fitness and other aspects of school performance has yet to be empirically examined in a population specifically composed of middle school girls. Because girls have a harder time transitioning through the middle school years, they are an important group to study in this context. This study examined several factors that contribute to school success, such as classroom behavior, attendance, and grades, in relation to physical fitness among a group of adolescent girls. It was specifically designed to examine the statistical relationship …

Department Of Natural Resource Management Newsletter, Department Of Natural Resource Management

NRM Newsletter

Public-Private Partnership Trains Award-Winning Students [p] 1
New Wetland Restoration Highlights Annual Research Retreat [p] 2
Wetlands Inventory Project Returns [p] 2
Dr. Phillip Fay, USDAARS, Temple, TX visit [p] 2
SDSU researchers examine how land use changes affect lakes and streams [p] 3
Completed PhD and MS Projects:
Growth Potential of Age-0 Pallid Sturgeon in the Missouri River: Insight From an Individual Based Model [p] 3
Evaluating Relationships Among Wetland Quality, Land Use, and Waterbirds in the Prairie Pothole Region [p] 4
Development and Application of a Larval Pallid Sturgeon Energetics Model [p] 5
An Assessment of Direct Mortality …

Out Of Reach: Protecting Parental Contributions To Higher Education From Clawback In Bankruptcy, Jenna C. Macdonald

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Parental contributions to higher education have become commonplace. However, courts are divided on how contributions by parents towards the college education of their children should be treated when those parents file for bankruptcy. Trustees are attempting to use the fraudulent transfer provisions of the Bankruptcy Code to 'clawback' payments made to colleges and universities by debtors for the education of their children. The author proposes amendments to the Code to protect payments to institutions of higher education by parent debtors on behalf of their children. With simple additions to § 544 and § 548, federal lawmakers can advance the public's …

Fitness Costs Associated With Cry1f Resistance In The European Corn Borer, J. L. Petzold-Maxwell, Blair D. Siegfried, R. L. Hellmich, C. A. Abel, B. S. Coates, Terrence A. Spencer, R. J. Horikoshi, Aaron J. Gassmann

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Crops producing insecticidal toxins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely planted to manage insect pests. Bt crops can provide an effective tool for pest management; however, the evolution of Bt resistance can diminish this benefit. The European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis H€ubner, is a significant pest of maize and is widely managed with Bt maize in the Midwest of the United States. When Bt crops are grown in conjunction with non-Bt refuges, fitness costs of Bt resistance can delay the evolution of resistance. Importantly, fitness costs often vary with ecological factors, including host-plant genotype and diapause. In …

Quantifying Ephemeral Gully Erosion With Photogrammetry Surveying, C. B. Weerasekara, A. Y. Shechukov

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Fire And Smoke Remote Sensing And Modeling Uncertainties: Case Studies In Northern Sub‐Saharan Africa, Charles Ichoku, Luke T. Ellison, Yun Yue, Jun Wang, Johannes W. Kaiser

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Significant uncertainties are incurred in deriving various quantities related to biomass burning from satellite measurements at different scales, and, in general, the coarser the resolution of observation the larger the uncertainty. WRF‐Chem model simulations of smoke over the northern sub‐Saharan African (NSSA) region for January–February 2010, using fire energetics and emissions research version 1.0 (FEERv1) aerosol emissions derived from MODIS measurements of fire radiative power (FRP) and aerosol optical depth (AOD), resulted in a severe model underestimation of AOD compared with satellite retrievals. Such uncertainties are attributable to three major factors: limitations in the spatial and temporal resolutions of the …

Dualism Between Optical And Difference Parametric Amplification, Wayne Cheng-Wei Huang, Herman Batelaan

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Faculty Publications

Breaking the symmetry in a coupled wave system can result in unusual amplification behavior. In the case of difference parametric amplification the resonant pump frequency is equal to the difference, instead of the sum, frequency of the normal modes. We show that sign reversal in the symmetry relation of parametric coupling give rise to difference parametric amplification as a dual of optical parametric amplification. For optical systems, our result can potentially be used for efficient XUV amplification.