Digital Commons Network^™

Relationships Between Social Network Characteristics, Alcohol Use, And Alcohol-Related Consequences In A Large Network Of First-Year College Students: How Do Peer Drinking Norms Fit In?, Graham T. Diguiseppi, Matthew K. Meisel, Sara G. Balestrieri, Miles Q. Ott, Melissa A. Clark, Nancy P. Barnett

Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications

A burgeoning area of research is using social network analysis to investigate college students' substance use behaviors. However, little research has incorporated students' perceived peer drinking norms into these analyses. The present study investigated the association between social network characteristics, alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences among first-year college students (N 1,342; 81% of the first-year class) at one university. The moderating role of descriptive norms was also examined. Network characteristics and descriptive norms were derived from participants' nominations of up to 10 other students who were important to them; individual network characteristics included popularity (indegree), network expansiveness (outdegree), relationship reciprocity, …

Gains, Losses, And Judges: Framing And The Judiciary, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Andrew J. Wistrich

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Losses hurt more than foregone gains-an asymmetry that psychologists call "loss aversion." Losses cause more regret than foregone gains, and people struggle harder to avoid losses than to obtain equivalent gains. Loss aversion produces a variety of anomalous behaviors: people's preferences depend upon the initial reference point (reference-dependent choice); people are overly focused on maintaining the status quo (status quo bias); people attach more value to goods they own than to identical goods that they do not (endowment effect); and people take excessive risks to avoid sure losses (risk seeking in the face of losses). These phenomena are so pervasive …

Innate Immunity, The Hepatic Extracellular Matrix, And Liver Injury: Mathematical Modeling Of Metastatic Potential And Tumor Development In Alcoholic Liver Disease., Shanice V. Hudson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goals of the current work are to fill key gaps in the current understanding of alcohol consumption and the risk of metastasis to the liver. Considering the evidence this research group has compiled confirming that the hepatic matrisome responds dynamically to injury, an altered extracellular matrix (ECM) profile appears to be a key feature of pre-fibrotic inflammatory injury in the liver. This group has demonstrated that the hepatic ECM responds dynamically to alcohol exposure, in particular, sensitizing the liver to LPS-induced inflammatory damage. Although the study of alcohol in its role as a contributing factor to oncogenesis and …

Framing Climate Change As National Security: A Survey-Experiment On Climate Change Perceptions., Adam Lyons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The issues surrounding climate change continue to have polarizing effects on many Americans. In this thesis I offer a potential bridge to this divide with a comprehensive study on how issue frames can impact how individuals shape their opinions on environmental issues. Focusing on a national security frame, I ask the central research “Will the public perceive issues of climate change differently when they are framed as threats to national security?” For this thesis I design an original experimental survey to measure the impact security framing has on participants’ perception of both climate change and environmental policy options. The survey …

Exploring The Knowledge Of Algebra For Teaching., Jonathan David Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past few decades, researchers in mathematics education have been exploring the concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)—or knowledge related to teaching content—and applying it to various areas of mathematics, such as algebra. Research related to teacher knowledge of algebra is critical because researchers (e.g., Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005) have found correlations between some types of teacher knowledge and student achievement in mathematics; students from around the world are outperforming U.S. students on international assessments of mathematics, including algebra (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2014, 2016); and algebra plays an integral role in the K-12 mathematics curriculum …

Present But Not Accounted For: A Phenomenological Study Of Gifted African American Males., Ronda Elizabeth George

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of gifted African American males in grades 6-8. Specifically, the study examined how gifted African American males perceived and understood their participation in a gifted program and how their sense of self-efficacy shaped their disposition and approach toward academic persistence. Much of the literature published on the social, emotional, and academic success of gifted African American males has focused on college-aged students, therefore the current study is crucial in contributing to the body of knowledge on African American males, in particular, those identified as gifted during early adolescence …

Entrepreneurial Universities In Asean Nations: Insights From Policy Perspective

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

The World Parliament Of Religions, The Swami, And The Evangelist: Contextualizing Late 19th-Century American Responses To Hinduism, Anne Richards

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article explores how Hinduism and other religions and philosophies outside the Christian traditions were received by Americans influenced by secularism, science, globalization, and expanding U.S. imperialism in the late 19th century. The article also explores the role of two missionaries, John Henry Barrows and Swami Vivekananda, arguably the most influential participants in the World Parliament of Religions of 1893.

Get Karma, good—well rubbed into you—absorb it, wallow in it, and then you will batter down all the obstacles of life.
—New York Times book review, 1896

Japanese-English Translation: "Absolute-Contradictory Self-Identity"--Nishida Kitarō, Translated By Christopher Southward, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty and Student Scholarship

Complete draft translation of Nishida Kitarō’s “Absolute-contradictory Self-identity” (First published in Thought, No. 202, March, 1939, Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, Japan) [「絶対矛盾的自己同一」、千九百三十九年三月初発、『思想』、岩波書店、東京]. Introduction, conceptual apparatus/glossary, substantive line edits, corrections, revisions, and notes underway. Please contact translator before citing. All rights reserved, Christopher Southward (2018). Source, Aozora Bunko (a digital archive of Japanese-language works in the public domain): Current text: https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000182/files/1755_53374.html; General: https://www.aozora.gr.jp/

Risk-Based Performance Metrics For Critical Infrastructure Protection? A Framework For Research And Analysis, Eric F. Taquechel, Marina Saitgalina

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Measuring things that do not occur, such as “deterred” or “prevented” terrorist attacks, can be difficult. Efforts to establish meaningful risk-based performance metrics and performance evaluation frameworks based on such metrics, for government agencies with counterterrorism missions, are arguably in a nascent state. However, by studying program theory, logic models, and performance evaluation theory, as well as studying how risk, deterrence, and resilience concepts may be leveraged to support antiterrorism efforts, one may propose a framework for a logic model or other performance evaluation approach. Such a framework may integrate these concepts to help proxy performance measurement for agencies with …

Generation Of 360 Degree Point Cloud For Characterization Of Morphological And Chemical Properties Of Maize And Sorghum, Suresh Thapa

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recently, imaged-based high-throughput phenotyping methods have gained popularity in plant phenotyping. Imaging projects the 3D space into a 2D grid causing the loss of depth information and thus causes the retrieval of plant morphological traits challenging. In this study, LiDAR was used along with a turntable to generate a 360-degree point cloud of single plants. A LABVIEW program was developed to control and synchronize both the devices. A data processing pipeline was built to recover the digital surface models of the plants. The system was tested with maize and sorghum plants to derive the morphological properties including leaf area, leaf …

Spatial And Temporal Structure Of A Canid Community In Nebraska, Lucia Corral Hurtado

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding patterns of space-use by individuals, their distribution, and how they coexist with ecologically similar species is crucial to address various issues in ecology, evolution, conservation biology, and wildlife management. However, the study of such patterns challenging because the relationship among species and their environment is shaped by multiple ecological processes, many of which are acting at different scales, often in a hierarchical manner. In the Canidae family, for instance, where interference competition appears critical, larger species such as coyotes (Canis latrans), can often affect smaller species, such as red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and swift fox …

Relationships Among Biodiversity Dimensions Of Birds In Nebraska, Nadejda Mirochnitchenko

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is a multi-dimensional concept that can be decomposed to measure information about taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional variation within communities. Although the dimensions of biodiversity are interrelated, the assumption that measuring one dimension of diversity can inform about patterns in another dimension does not necessarily follow from theory or empirical study. The relationships among biodiversity dimensions is not well understood, nor how differences among dimensions could influence conservation decision making. Using the avian community as a study system, we explored the relationships of breadth metrics from the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional dimensions among each other and across …

Landscape Structure And Dynamics Of Recreational Fisheries, Christine N. Ruskamp

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Angler populations and the waterbodies they use are patchily distributed, creating putatively complex user-resource dynamics on the landscape. Spatially and temporally dynamic relationships between anglers and waterbodies can be difficult to track, understand, and manage. We often focus our efforts on the angler (directly or indirectly) with far less attention devoted to understanding the spatial structure and dynamics of fisheries on the landscape. Waterbodies serve as dynamic attractors on the landscape, shaping landscape patterns in angler participation. We surmise that by understanding the spatial structure and dynamics of recreational fisheries we can gain tremendous insight to cross-scale patterns that shape …

Managing For Vegetation Heterogeneity On Rangelands: An Exploration Of Rancher Attitudes, Stephanie Marie Kennedy

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Grasslands provide food, fiber, and numerous ecosystem services to human populations as well as habitat for wildlife. They are also some of the most endangered ecosystems in the world because of their productive soils and open topography. This problem is exacerbated by the accelerating conversion of grassland to cropland and encroaching trees and shrubs. The quality of remaining grasslands will be of increasing importance because of the biodiversity and vital ecosystem services they provide. Heterogeneity is a term specific to rangeland science that is illustrative of grassland health. Grassland species require very specific and differing habitats and without the variation …

The Biological Significance And Utility Of Feeding By Dermestes Maculatus, Braymond Adams

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With their efficient feeding habits and tolerance to very low moisture and humidity, beetles in the Family Dermestidae are especially adapted to variable environments and habitats. Dermestid cultures have been in use since 1922 in cleaning tissue and flesh from bones, and proven benefit in multiple fields, including zoology, ornithology, and forensics. Dermestid feeding behaviors when coupled with known life stage and insect succession information aids in providing significant entomological evidence. However, the feeding activities of insects, like those of vertebrate scavengers and predators, change remains and may leave artifacts that can be sometimes be difficult to assign to a …

Role Of Misclassification Estimates In Estimating Disease Prevalence And A Non-Linear Approach To Study Synchrony Using Heart Rate Variability In Chickens, Dola Pathak

Department of Statistics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Infectious disease assays can be imperfect. When estimating disease prevalence, these imperfections are accounted for by incorporating assay sensitivity and specificity into point and variance estimates. Unfortunately, these accuracy measures are often treated as fixed constants, rather than acknowledging that they are estimates from an assay validation process. The purpose of this study is to show the detrimental effect of not taking into account this sampling variability when samples are obtained through group testing (aka, pooled testing). We show that confidence interval coverage can dramatically decline as the sample size increases for the main sample of interest. As a remedy …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Catalytic Activity Of Copper Palladium Oxide Solid Solutions., Gregory L. Christensen

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cu_xPd_1-xO forms a homogeneous solid solution over the wide range of 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.725 in which compositional variation can be correlated with structural and chemical environmental changes. After a small lag at low Cu²⁺ concentrations, where the lattice cell parameters are pinned to that of the pure PdO structure, Cu_xPd_1-xO lattice parameters follow Vegard’s law in which the cell volume decreases linearly with x, indicating a homogenous solution in which Cu²⁺ randomly replaces the larger Pd²⁺ cation. The crystal structure also undergoes an increase in the c/a …

Financial Integration In The West African Monetary Zone: Towards A Single Insurance Market, Emmanuel Ating Onwioduokit

Bullion

integration of financial markets is a process of unifying markets and enabling convergence of risk-adjusted returns on the assets of comparable maturity across the markets. The insurance markets of the WAMZ countries are relatively not efficient. Although, there are several small insurance companies competing for premiums, only one company within the entire WAMZ region has a gross premium base more than $100 million. The paper recommends that the insurance sector integration 'quick wins should focus on: taking action to make the brown card scheme a more resounding success; increasing the minimum capital requirement of insurance companies in some of the …

Strain Path Sensitive Polycrystal Plasticity Constitutive Models Within Finite Elements For Metal Forming Simulations, Milovan Zecevic

Doctoral Dissertations

An optimal sheet metal forming process shapes a metal part to the accurate geometry, while avoiding instabilities causing localization of deformation and fracture. Understanding the underlying mechanisms responsible for deformation localization and deviation of final part geometry from the desired geometry facilitates the search for the optimal sheet metal forming process. Accurate modeling of forming processes allows prediction of the formed part shape and can provide insight into the material behavior by interpretation of experimental measurements and prediction of variables not accessible to experimental characterization. In this work, a micromechanical material model is coupled with finite elements to create a …

A Combined Model Of Statistical Downscaling And Latent Process Multivariable Spatial Modeling Of Precipitation Extremes, Meng Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

Future projections of extreme precipitation can help engineers and scientists with infrastructure design projects and risk assessment studies. Extreme events are usually represented as return levels which are equivalent to upper percentiles of an extreme value distribution, such as the Generalized Pareto distribution, which is used for exceedances above a certain threshold.

My dissertation focus is on uncertainty quantification related to estimation of future return levels for precipitation at the local (weather station) to regional level. Variance reduction is achieved through spatial modeling and optimally combining suites of climate model outputs. The main contribution is a unified statistical model that …

Pedogenic Carbonates And Radiocarbon Isotopes Of Organic Carbon At Depth In The Russian Chernozem, Elena A. Mikhailova, Ray B. Bryant, John M. Galbraith, Yang Wang, Christopher J. Post, Olga S. Khokhlova, Mark A. Schlautman, Michael P. Cope, Zhixiong Shen

Marine Science

Conversion of native grasslands to agricultural sites has resulted in remarkable changes in soil carbon at depth, but its impact on soil diagnostic horizons is unknown. This study was conducted to radiocarbon date the soil organic carbon (SOC) and quantify pedogenic carbonates in the Russian Chernozem at depth at three sites: a native grassland field (not cultivated for at least 300 years), an adjacent 50-year continuous fallow field in the V.V. Alekhin Central-Chernozem Biosphere State Reserve in the Kursk region of Russia (UNESCO—MAB Biosphere Reserve), and a cropland in the Experimental Station of the Kursk Institute of Agronomy and Soil …

Finite Element Discretizations For Linear Elasticity, Emma Cinatl

All Theses

The elasticity equations describe how an elastic material moves under a force. An elastic material is one that returns to its original shape after the force is lifted. Modeling elasticity is useful in manufacturing applications such as suspension cables and nail bending, and biological applications such as weight on bones and tendons [1]. In this thesis we study the modeling of nearly incompressible linearly elastic materials. A nearly incompressible material is one that does not change much under pressure. Linearly elastic materials exhibit small deformations under a force. Standard finite element methods do not work well on nearly incompressible materials …

The Response Of Ionosphere And Thermosphere To The High Latitude Energy Deposition, Yang Lu

Physics Dissertations - Archive

The ionosphere and thermosphere are the important regions in the Earth upper atmosphere. They represent the ionized and neutral particles, respectively. The main external energy sources in those regions are solar radiation and geomagnetic energy due to the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction. The neutral particles are ionized by solar radiation on the dayside. Meanwhile, the energy deposition from the magnetosphere is also critical at high latitudes. The energy source at high latitudes depends on whether the local magnetic field line is closed or not. In the polar cap region where it is connected to open magnetic field line, the main energy …

Censored Count Data Analysis – Statistical Techniques And Applications, Xiao Yu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Count data are commonly used to report frequency statistics of diverse health outcomes. However, some data are marked intentionally to avoid leaking information that could be used to identify individuals when population sizes are small. The situation hinders the further use from those data in public health research. Thus, an accurate and efficient method for dealing with censored count data is needed.

We developed Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation algorithm to censored Poisson regression model to deal with censored count data and improve the computational efficiency. In addition, we applied three methods to deal with censored count data: 1) multiple imputation …

Sequential Monitoring Of Adaptive Randomized Clinical Trials With Sample Size Re-Estimation, Jun Yu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Clinical trials are complicated and involve human beings. Therefore, lots of ethical and efficient objectives are expected to be achieved. These objectives include maximizing the power of detecting the treatment effects, assigning more patients to the better treatments, saving the cost and time, and controlling the type I error rate. A variety of adaptive designs have been proposed to achieve different aims, among which sequential monitoring and sample size re-estimation are very popular in real clinical trials. In addition, adaptive randomization designs sequentially update the allocation probability aiming to target different allocation proportions and achieve different aims. Hu and Rosenberger …

A Secondary Data Analysis For The Refinement Of Empirical Modelling For The Estimation Of Environmental Health & Safety Program Resourcing For Colleges And Universities, Seth Michael Parker

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The use of potentially hazardous physical, chemical, biological, and radiological agents is inherent to the teaching, research, and services missions of any university. To manage the risks associated with these agents, it is common for universities to host environmental health & safety (EH&S) programs to protect the safety of the institution’s students, faculty, staff, and visitors. However, since EH&S programs in universities are primarily focused on prevention, it is difficult to estimate the appropriate “industry average” in terms of budget and staffing resources a particular university needs for such programs. Historically, the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA) …

2018 Winter Graduate & Undergraduate Commencement, Lindenwood University

Commencement Programs

Lindenwood University Commencement program.

Full Issue, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

About The Mcnair Scholars Program, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.