Digital Commons Network^™

Does Channel Island Acmispon (Fabaceae) Form Cohesive Evolutionary Groups?, Mitchell E. Mcglaughlin, Lynn Riley, Kaius Helenurm, Lisa E. Wallace

Western North American Naturalist

The California Channel Islands are unique relative to other island chains due to their close proximity to the California mainland and the fact that individual islands, or groups of islands, vary in their distance to the mainland and other islands. This orientation raises questions about whether island taxa with widespread distributions form cohesive evolutionary units, or if they are actually composed of several distinct evolutionary entities, either derived from independent mainland-to-island colonization events or divergence due to prolonged allopatric isolation. The 4 northern islands are clustered in a line (6–8 km separation among islands), while the 4 southern islands are …

Magmatic Response To Subduction Initiation: Part 1. Fore-Arc Basalts Of The Izu-Bonin Arc From Iodp Expedition 352, John W. Shervais, Mark Reagan, Emily A. Haugen, Renat R. Almeev, Julian A. Pearce, Julie Prytulak, Jeffrey G. Ryan, Scott A. Whattam, Marguerite Godard, Timothy Chapman, Hongyan Li, Walter Kurz, Wendy R. Nelson, Daniel Heaton, Maria Kirchenbaur, Kenji Shimizu, Tetsuya Sakuyama, Yibing Li, Scott K. Vetter

Geosciences Faculty Publications

The Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) fore arc preserves igneous rock assemblages that formed during subduction initiation circa 52 Ma. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 352 cored four sites in the fore arc near the Ogasawara Plateau in order to document the magmatic response to subduction initiation and the physical, petrologic, and chemical stratigraphy of a nascent subduction zone. Two of these sites (U1440 and U1441) are underlain by fore-arc basalt (FAB). FABs have mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-like compositions, however, FAB are consistently lower in the high-field strength elements (TiO2, P2O5, Zr) and Ni compared to MORB, with Na2O at the low …

Equitable Pricing Of Episodes Of Care In A Cluster-Based Bundled Payment System, Bikram P. Singh

Theses

Most of the individuals in the United States are concerned about healthcare affordability and rising healthcare costs. The prevalent healthcare cost reimbursement system, Fee-For-Service (FFS) has been deemed as a key driver for increasing healthcare costs. Bundle payments (BP) has been suggested as an alternative to replace FFS and has shown to reduce the rising healthcare costs. Under BP, the expected set of services involved in treating a diagnosis, or episode of care, is reimbursed by a single payment. We propose a systemic pricing of multiple diagnosis under a Cluster-Based Bundle Payment system (CBBP), where for a given diagnosis, groups …

Exploring The Supply Side Of Food And Beverage Festivals In Saudi Arabia, Mossa Ahmed Haressy

Theses

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) announced its intention to begin implementing a tourist visa regime to streamline entry of tourists into the country and, therefore, attract more international visitors. Food and Beverage festivals (F&B) are targeted as a crucial part of the events sector in Saudi Arabia as they align well with agricultural traditions and Middle East culture to attract both domestic and foreign tourist. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics, management, and goals of F&B festivals in Saudi Arabia. F&B event organizers were utilized to collect data regarding seven established F&B festivals that …

Virtual Robot Climbing Using Reinforcement Learning, Ujjawal Garg

Master's Projects

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a field of Artificial Intelligence that has gained a lot of attention in recent years. In this project, RL research was used to design and train an agent to climb and navigate through an environment with slopes. We compared and evaluated the performance of two state-of-the-art reinforcement learning algorithms for locomotion related tasks, Deep Deterministic Policy Gradients (DDPG) and Trust Region Policy Optimisation (TRPO). We observed that, on an average, training with TRPO was three times faster than DDPG, and also much more stable for the locomotion control tasks that we experimented. We conducted experiments and …

Deep Visual Recommendation System, Raksha Sunil

Master's Projects

Recommendation system is a filtering system that predicts ratings or preferences that a user might have. Recommendation system is an evolved form of our trivial information retrieval systems. In this paper, we present a technique to solve new item cold start problem. New item cold start problem occurs when a new item is added to a shopping website like Amazon.com. There is no metadata for this item, no ratings and no reviews because it’s a new item in the system. Absence of data results in no recommendation or bad recommendations. Our approach to solve new item cold start problem requires …

Additive Manufacturing Of Ti6al4v Alloy: A Review, Shunyu Liu, Yung C. Shin

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, the recent progress on Ti6Al4V fabricated by three mostly developed additive manufacturing (AM) techniques-directed energy deposition (DED), selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beammelting (EBM)-is thoroughly investigated and compared. Fundamental knowledge is provided for the creation of links between processing parameters, resultant microstructures and associated mechanical properties. Room temperature tensile and fatigue properties are also reviewed and compared to traditionally manufactured Ti6Al4V parts. The presence of defects in as-builtAMTi6Al4V components and the influences of these defects on mechanical performances are also critically discussed.

Board Of Directors Meeting Minutes (December 18, 2018), Dmacc

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

This file contains the minutes from the Des Moines Area Community College Board meeting held on December 18, 2018.

2014 - Quarternary Geologic Map Of North-Central Salinas River Valley And Arroyo Seco

Miscellaneous Monterey and San Luis Obispo County Documents and Reports

The new mapping provides a detailed stratigraphic history of incision and deposition from the early Pleistocene to the present. Infiltration from the Salinas River and its tributaries is the source of irrigation water in this agricultural region. Irrigation water is pumped from the aquifers at depths of about 55 and 120 m. Area has become intruded by seawater, especially between cities of Castroville and Salinas.

1927- Digest Of Decisions Of The Department Of The Interior In Cases Relating To The Public Lands, Part 2, Volumes 1 To 50, Inclusive

US Government Legislation and Statutes

Compilation of the decisions of the Department of Interior and General Land Office concerning the administration of the United States public land laws.

From Sex Objects To Sisters-In-Arms: Reducing Military Sexual Assault Through Integrated Basic Training And Housing, Gabrielle Lucero

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Sterilization Of Inmates For Reduced Prison Sentences, Elise B. Adams

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

In May 2017, a Tennessee judge issued a standing order allowing inmates to receive thirty days’ jail credit in exchange for undergoing a voluntary sterilization procedure. Although the order was ultimately rescinded, this Article will address the constitutional and ethical concerns that a district court would have considered had the order not been rescinded. While inmates can always choose to waive their constitutional rights, the coercive nature of prisons—explained in the unconstitutional conditions doctrine—may compromise a prisoner’s ability to provide voluntary consent. The constitutionality of the order largely depends on the level of scrutiny a court applies. Regardless of the …

Using Federal Nondiscrimination Laws To Avoid Erisa: Securing Protection From Transgender Discrimination In Employee Health Benefit Plans, Bridget Schaaff

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

Recent attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the potential rollback of the interpretation of the protections the Act affords transgender people put transgender people at risk of being denied services and coverage for gender-affirming care. This Article provides advocates with alternative legal arguments to help employees bring claims when their employer provides a health benefit plan that discriminates on the basis of gender identity. These arguments can avoid the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s broad preemption scheme and lack of nondiscrimination provisions. This Article proposes that, based on a narrow exception to preemption regarding the Employee Retirement Income …

Journal Staff

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Problems Caused By The Students’ Use Of Cell Phones In University Libraries In Anambra State, Nigeria., Ndidi Grace Nwankwo Cln, Regina Eyiuche Obiadazie, Julius Okeke Ofordile Cln

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

ABSTRACT

This study sought information from respondents on the problems caused by the students use of cell phones in university libraries in Anambra State of Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design, that traced the history of cell phones in Nigeria. The population of 3000 registered student’s library users was studied. Sample size of 100 respondents was used. Accidental sampling technique was used to collect data. A self-constructed questionnaire, validated by two experts from the university library was used for data collection from the sampled students. The reliability of the instrument was tasted in Imo State University Library using …

Repeats Of Unusual Size In Plant Mitochondrial Genomes: Identification, Incidence And Evolution, Emily L. Wynn, Alan C. Christensen

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Plant mitochondrial genomes have excessive size relative to coding capacity, a low mutation rate in genes and a high rearrangement rate. They also have abundant non-tandem repeats often including pairs of large repeats which cause isomerization of the genome by recombination, and numerous repeats of up to several hundred base pairs that recombine only when the genome is stressed by DNA damaging agents or mutations in DNA repair pathway genes. Early work on mitochondrial genomes led to the suggestion that repeats in the size range from several hundred to a few thousand base pair are underrepresented. The repeats themselves are …

State V. Washington Appellant's Reply Brief Dckt. 45947

Not Reported

No abstract provided.

State V. Dilka Appellant's Reply Brief Dckt. 45971

Not Reported

No abstract provided.

State V. Ratliff Appellant's Brief Dckt. 45996

Not Reported

No abstract provided.

Assessing Ground Penetrating Radar’S Ability To Image Subsurface Characteristics Of Icy Debris Fans In Alaska And New Zealand, Robert W. Jacob, Jeffrey M. Trop, R. Craig Kochel

Faculty Journal Articles

Icy debris fans have recently been described as fan shaped depositional landforms associated with (or formed during) deglaciation, however, the subsurface characteristics remain essentially undocumented. We used ground penetrating radar (GPR) to non-invasively investigate the subsurface characteristics of icy debris fans (IDFs) at McCarthy Glacier, Alaska, USA and at La Perouse Glacier, South Island of New Zealand. IDFs are largely unexplored paraglacial landforms in deglaciating alpine regions at the mouths of bedrock catchments between valley glaciers and icecaps. IDFs receive deposits of mainly ice and minor lithic material through different mass-flow processes, chiefly ice avalanche and to a lesser extent …

Multimodal Nondestructive Dry Cask Basket Structure And Spent Fuel Evaluation, J. Gladden, James Tulenko, Lingyu Yu, Haori Yang

Faculty and Student Publications (Open Access)

No abstract provided.

A Multicultural Approach To Digital Information Literacy Skills Evaluation In An Israeli College, Efrat Pieterse, Riki Greenberg, Zahava Santo

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy is an essential proficiency for success in academic studies, yet many first-year students find it hard to use information sources efficiently and to develop academic information literacy. This study reports findings from first-year students' self-estimation of their information skills according to two information literacy models (Shapiro & Hughes, 1996; Ng, 2012) and presents interesting insights on the differences between the multicultural and multilingual student groups in the study’s population. The researchers found that Hebrew-native speaking students preferred digital sources while Hebrew as second language (Arabic-speaking) students preferred printed sources, and both groups ranked their technological and information literacy …

Carbon-13 Kinetic Isotope Effects Of Catalytic Co2 Reduction By Polypyridyl Transition Metal Complexes, Taylor William Schneider

Doctoral Dissertations

Herein, we have used carbon-13 kinetic isotope effects (¹³C KIEs) to probe the catalytic CO₂ reduction mechanisms of two different polypyridyl transition metal complexes, Re(bpy)(CO)₃Cl (1), which will convert CO₂ to CO, and [Ru(tpy)(bpy)Cl]PF₆ (2) (bpy = 2,2’‑bipyridine; tpy = 2,2’:6’,2”-terpyridine), which will convert CO₂ to a mixture of CO and formic acid. We used several sets of reaction conditions to drive CO₂ reduction. These included sodium mercury (Na(Hg)) amalgam as a sacrificial reducing agent, photocatalytic conditions in which triethanolamine (TEOA) was a sacrificial electron donor, and …

The Effect Of Mandating Algebra For All Students In Grade 8 Versus Grade 9 In A Small Suburban K-12 School District In New Jersey, Peter Crawley

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The traditional sequencing of the ninth- to twelfth-grade math curriculum in the United States has students taking Algebra 1 in the ninth grade, Geometry in the tenth grade, Algebra 2 in the eleventh grade and an optional advanced math course (e.g. pre-calculus, statistics) in the twelfth grade. In this traditional setup, talented math students are given the opportunity to take Algebra 1 in the eighth grade, which allows them to take two or more years of advanced math before graduating from high school. In an effort to create more equitable access to advanced math courses, many districts are considering or …

The Evolution Of Diet Breadth In Melissodes Bees (Apidae: Eucerini), Karen W. Wright

Biology ETDs

The relationship between phytophagous insects and their host plants has interested scientists since Darwinian times. Using modern phylogenetic inference, we are able to investigate these patterns using, not only the phylogenies of the insects, but the evolutionary relationships among the plants they feed on as well. The relationships between bees and the plants they pollinate were traditionally seen as mutualistic and were treated separately from the research investigating the antagonistic relationships between phytophagous insects and their host plants. However, recent phylogenetic studies have made great progress including bee-host relationships in with the larger body of work on phytophagous insects.

The …

Isu Civic Chorale: Annual Christmas Concert, December 18, 2018, Illinois State University School Of Music

School of Music Programs

Governor Fifer Room
McLean County Museum of History
December 18, 2018
Tuesday
7:00 p.m.

Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Tnf-Α Experience Early Onset Spontaneous Intervertebral Disc Herniation In The Absence Of Overt Degeneration., Deborah J. Gorth, Irving M. Shapiro, Makarand V. Risbud

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Papers

There is a well-established link between cytokine expression and the progression of intervertebral disc degeneration. Among these cytokines, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) are the most commonly studied. To investigate whether systemic hTNF-α overexpression affects intervertebral disc health, we studied the spine phenotype of Tg197 mice, a widely used hTNF-α transgenic line. These mice were studied at 12-16 weeks of age using comprehensive histochemical and immunohistological analysis of the spinal motion segment. Micro-CT analysis was performed to quantify vertebral trabecular bone architecture. The Tg197 mice evidenced spontaneous annular tears and herniation with increased vascularity in subchondral bone and …

Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of Precipitation And Effective Rainfall Using Gauge Observations, Satellite, And Gridded Climate Data For Agricultural Water Management In The Upper Colorado River Basin, Mahyar Aboutalebi, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, L. Niel Allen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate spatial and temporal precipitation estimates are important for hydrological studies of irrigation depletion, net irrigation requirement, natural recharge, and hydrological water balances in defined areas. This analysis supports the verification of water savings (reduced depletion)from deficit irrigation of pastures in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The study area has diverse topography with scattered fields and few precipitation gauges that are not representative of the basin.Gridded precipitation products from TRMM-3B42, PRISM, Daymet, and gauge observations were evaluated on two case studies located in Colorado and Wyoming during the 2014–2016 irrigation seasons. First, the resolution at the farm level is discussed. …

From The Streets To The Chamber: Social Movements And The Mining Ban In El Salvador, Rose J. Spalding

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Faculty and Staff Works

Following an extended anti-mining campaign, El Salvador became the first country to adopt a legal ban on all forms of metallic mining. This article uses process tracing to map direct, indirect and mediated linkages between the anti-mining mobilization and the formal adoption of a mining prohibition by the national legislature in 2017. It draws on 78 interviews with campaign activists, legislators, government officials, business leaders and legal teams, and combines this information with legislative documents and reports, public opinion data, legal documents from an investment dispute filed against the Salvadoran government, and blogs and website of the Mesa Nacional Frente …

Predator Cues Increase Silkmoth Mortality, Alex K. Baranowski, Evan L. Preisser

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

While prey responses to predators reduce the threat of consumption, the physiological costs of these responses can be considerable. This is especially true for organisms that lack effective anti-predator defenses and must rely on camouflage or mimicry for protection. The luna moth, Actias luna, is a large saturniid native to Eastern North America that is preyed on and parasitized by a wide variety of predators and parasitoids. We report the results of two separate experiments assessing the responses of Actias larvae to predatory wasps (Vespula maculifrons) that were rendered non-lethal but remained able to move freely, as …