Digital Commons Network^™

Image Classification Using Fuzzy Fca, Niruktha Roy Gotoor

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Formal concept analysis (FCA) is a mathematical theory based on lattice and order theory used for data analysis and knowledge representation. It has been used in various domains such as data mining, machine learning, semantic web, Sciences, for the purpose of data analysis and Ontology over the last few decades. Various extensions of FCA are being researched to expand it's scope over more departments. In this thesis,we review the theory of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) and its extension Fuzzy FCA. Many studies to use FCA in data mining and text learning have been pursued. We extend these studies to include …

Environmental Sustainability Assessment Of Small Nebraska Mechanical Water Resource Recovery Facilities: Impacts Of Construction And Operations, Sussan Moussavi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many small, rural communities struggle with aging or inadequate water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), and face challenges in constructing and operating such systems. Although existing literature has provided insight into the environmental sustainability of large systems including both the construction and operational phases, these studies have not examined small systems in adequate depth or breadth. The environmental impacts associated with construction may be notable for small WRRFs since the initial construction can be a larger share of the total life cycle environmental impact.

The goal of this work is to provide the environmental sustainability profiles of 12 mechanical WRRFs in …

Domain Adaptation In Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Landing Using Reinforcement Learning, Pedro Lucas Franca Albuquerque

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Landing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a moving platform is a challenging task that often requires exact models of the UAV dynamics, platform characteristics, and environmental conditions. In this thesis, we present and investigate three different machine learning approaches with varying levels of domain knowledge: dynamics randomization, universal policy with system identification, and reinforcement learning with no parameter variation. We first train the policies in simulation, then perform experiments both in simulation, making variations of the system dynamics with wind and friction coefficient, then perform experiments in a real robot system with wind variation. We initially expected that providing …

Group Brands As An Innovative Pedagogical Tool: Using Marketing Theory In Real-World Collaborative Teaching, Cheryl A. Tokke

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This teaching and learning pedagogy paper demonstrates how group brands were used as interdisciplinary teaching tools in marketing, business, research, and social science classes by applying theories of branding, collaborative learning, affinity, and social identity in experiential learning. There were two primary reasons why this project was done. First, implementing a pedagogical tool would bring students together in a collaborative team over the period of a semester gaining a critically important business tool; the requirement of working in teams and networked relationships. Second, by enriching the curriculum of business marketing and social science courses through incorporating a semester long term-based …

Ribbon Α-Conotoxin Ktm Exhibits Potent Inhibition Of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors, Leanna A. Marquart, Matthew W. Turner, Lisa R. Warner, Matthew D. King, James R. Groome, Owen M. Mcdougal

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

KTM is a 16 amino acid peptide with the sequence WCCSYPGCYWSSSKWC. Here, we present the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structure and bioactivity of this rationally designed α-conotoxin (α-CTx) that demonstrates potent inhibition of rat α3β2-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (rα3β2-nAChRs). Two bioassays were used to test the efficacy of KTM. First, a qualitative PC12 cell-based assay confirmed that KTM acts as a nAChR antagonist. Second, bioactivity evaluation by two-electrode voltage clamp electrophysiology was used to measure the inhibition of rα3β2-nAChRs by KTM (IC₅₀ = 0.19 ± 0.02 nM), and inhibition of the same nAChR isoform by α-CTx MII (IC₅₀ = …

Laboratory-Scale Petrophysical Evaluation Of Lithofacies Effect On Reservoir & Source Quality And Core-Calibrated Well Log Analysis In Pennsylvanian-Permian Wolfcamp-Spraberry Intervals, Midland Basin, Texas, Usa, Samuel John Becker

Earth & Environmental Sciences Theses - Archive

The “Wolfberry” play, which is made up of the Spraberry and Wolfcamp formations, is an important resource for the exploitation of hydrocarbons with a need for additional petrophysical understanding. Although the Wolfcamp is categorized as a shale, it is a complex and heterogeneous formation composed of multiple facies. The unique lithological composition of each facies controls formation properties, which further drive reservoir/source quality. With the integrated laboratory- and field-scale analyses, this study uses mostly laboratory petrophysical evaluation to gain insight on the relationship between facies and reservoir/source quality in the Lower Spraberry and Wolfcamp intervals throughout the Midland Basin. To …

Change In Relationship Satisfaction Among Veterans In Couple Therapy, Grace Boyers Mckee

Psychology Theses and Dissertations

Approximately two-thirds of Americans will live with a romantic partner at some point in their lives, and 75% of individuals marry by age 30. Unfortunately, relationship dissatisfaction is a common occurrence, with as many as one-third of couples reporting relationship distress. Although many forms of couple therapy are effective for improving relationship satisfaction and reduces the risk of divorce among distressed couples, no one form of couple therapy has clearly been established as superior. Moreover, relatively little is known about how and why couple therapy has its effects. Improved understanding of what change may occur, as well as common trajectories …

Pilosopiyang Pinoy: Uso Pa Ba? (The Relevance Of Filipino Philosophy In Social Renewal), Romualdo E. Abulad

Philosophy Department Faculty Publications

This paper evaluates the titular question and features a summative evaluation and critique of the works and contributions of Leonardo Mercado, Dionisio Miranda, Albert Alejo, Rolando Gripaldo (1947-2017), and Florentino Timbreza to the anthropological and cultural approaches that form a significant part of the discourses on Filipino philosophy. In this piece, Abulad maintains, as in his other writings, that any strict emphasis with regard to methodology restricts the true potential of Filipino philosophy. He buttresses this assertion by invoking postmodernism's 'incredulity towards metanarratives' We should be skeptical about the metanarrative of Filipino identity for it is precisely our rootlessness that …

Alternative Conceptions, Initial Knowledge, And Self-Efficacy Of The Novice And Expert Geologist Regarding Mineral Identification, Amanda Manzanares

Master's Theses

Research shows the novice geologist begins an introductory geology course with alternative conceptions about minerals and other geoscience concepts. Students use their prior understanding of these concepts as the basis for future learning. If students’ frameworks include alternative conceptions about foundational geoscience concepts, these could hinder their ability to learn more factual and complicated ideas and facts in the future. It takes time to change these alternative conceptions. For this reason, instructors need to understand their students’ prior understandings of geoscience concepts at the beginning of the courses to move students to a better understanding of the material. Moreover, the …

The Effects Of Dance On Gross Motor Skills And Strength In Students With Down Syndrome, Jennifer Canfield

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine if weekly participation in a ballet class improved upon the gross motor skills of students with Down Syndrome. This study is important because the student participants all showed growth in their gross motor abilities as well as overall strength and physical functioning. When students with special needs are regularly exposed to dance, certain physical skills that are normally more challenging for them, improve, including gross motor functioning, increased strength, better coordination, and an increased ability to balance. This research can be used to justify the expansion of inclusive and adaptive dance opportunities …

Sagebrush Seeds Of Success: A Genetic Analysis Of Bureau Of Land Management Seeds Of Success Seeds And Of Eriogonum Umbellatum, Emily Katherine Schumacher

Master's Theses

Due to the increasing frequency of anthropogenic disturbances, greater effort needs to be put into identifying appropriate seed material for large scale restoration projects. The Bureau of Land Management created the Seeds of Success (SOS) project to increase stocks of native seeds for restoration projects following worsening disturbances. However, there is little known about the genetic composition of these seeds, so it is unclear if these seed accessions will be able to establish healthy and persistent native plant communities. This thesis identified that in 20 accessions of SOS seeds, inbreeding was low to moderate in 17 accessions, allelic richness was …

Addressing Health Literacy Needs Of The Older Adult Focused On Improving Medication Adherence: An Online Education Program For Nurse Practitioners, Angela D. Pickerel

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

As healthcare providers, nurse practitioners are tasked with assuring patients have a clear understanding of their medical health, know how to navigate the healthcare system, and recognize the need to develop self-care skills. Several populations are known to be at risk for the effects of inadequate health literacy; however, the older adult population is at greater risk because of increased burdens related to negative effects of aging on cognitive skills and increased prevalence of chronic disease requiring complex medication regimens. Inadequate health literacy has been linked to increased risk of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, adverse drug reactions and interaction, and …

Play Now, Pay Later?: Youth And Adolescent Collision Sports, Vivian E. Hamilton

UC Law Journal

The routine and repeated head impacts experienced by athletes in a range of sports can inflict microscopic brain injuries that accumulate over time, even in the absence of concussion. Indeed, cumulative exposure to head impacts—not number of concussions—is the strongest predictor of sports-related degenerative brain disease in later life. The observable symptoms of disease appear years or decades after initial injury and resemble those of other mental-health conditions such as depression and dementia. The years-long interval between earlier, seemingly minor, head impacts and later brain disease has long obscured the connection between the two.

Risk of injury differs across demographics, …

Qualitative Assay To Detect Dopamine Release By Ligand Action On Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors, Leanna A. Marquart, Matthew W. Turner, Owen M. Mcdougal

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

A pheochromocytoma of the rat adrenal medulla derived (a.k.a. PC12) cell-based assay for dopamine measurement by luminescence detection was customized for the qualitative evaluation of agonists and antagonists of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). The assay mechanism begins with ligand binding to transmembrane nAChRs, altering ion flow into the cell and inducing dopamine release from the cell. Following release, dopamine is oxidized by monoamine oxidase generating hydrogen peroxide that catalyzes a chemiluminescence reaction involving luminol and horseradish peroxidase, thus producing a detectable response. Results are presented for the action of nAChR agonists (acetylcholine, nicotine, and cytisine), and antagonists (α-conotoxins (α-CTxs) MII, …

Natural Resource Condition Assessment, Homestead National Monument Of America, David S. Jones, Roy Cook, John Sovell, Christopher Herron, Jay Benner, Karin Decker, Andrew Beavers, Johannes Beebee, David Weinzimmer

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The National Park Service (NPS) Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) Program administered by the NPS Water Resources Division evaluates current conditions for important natural resources and resource indicators using primarily existing information and data. NRCAs also report on trends in resource condition when possible, identify critical data gaps, and characterize a general level of confidence for study findings. This NRCA complements historic resource assessments, is multi-disciplinary in scope, employs a hierarchical indicator framework, identifies and develops reference conditions/values for comparison against current conditions, and emphasizes spatial evaluation of conditions and GIS (map) products.

Congress established the Homestead National …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2019 Data Report, Molly B. Davis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2019 at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and the Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire). This was the ninth year of combined monitoring efforts.

In 2019, crew members from NGPN visited 6 long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots to collect data on the upland mixed-grass prairie plant communities at AGFO. This work is part of a long-term monitoring program established to better understand the condition of the vegetation community and how it changes over time. NGPN staff …

Hunters And Their Perceptions Of Public Access: A View From Afield, Joseph J. Fontaine, Alexis D. Fedele, Lyndsie S. Wszola, Lindsey N. Messinger, Christopher J. Chizinski, Jeffery J. Lusk, Karie L. Decker, J. Scott Taylor, Erica F. Stuber

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Declining hunter participation threatens cultural traditions and public support for conservation, warranting examination of the forces behind the downward trajectory. Access to lands for hunting, an often-cited reason for non participation, may play a critical role in the retention and recruitment of hunters. Meeting the access needs of a diverse hunting constituency requires understanding how hunters use and perceive access opportunities, particularly public-access sites. Given that perceptions of access are entirely place based and degrade with time, traditional postseason survey methods may fail to adequately quantify the value of public access to the hunting constituency. To overcome the potential limitations …

Evidence Of Limited Recruitment Of Pallid Sturgeon In The Lower Missouri River, Kirk D. Steffensen, Kimberly Chojnacki, Jeffrey A. Kalie, Meredith L. Bartron, Edward J. Heist, Kyle R. Winders, Nathan C. Loecker, Wyatt J. Doyle, Timothy L. Welker

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Pallid Sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus are endemic to the Missouri and Mississippi river basins and are rare throughout their range. The species was listed as federally endangered with little to no evidence of natural recruitment. Since population augmentation was initiated as a recovery objective in the early 1990s, thousands of hatchery-origin Pallid Sturgeon have been stocked in the lower Missouri River (Gavins Point Dam [river kilometer 1,305.1] to the confluence of the Mississippi River [river kilometer 0.0]). Efforts to discriminate natural reproduction and recruitment of wild-origin Pallid Sturgeon from hatchery-origin fish has been hampered by tag loss in hatchery-origin sturgeon, inconsistent …

Adolescent Future Orientation: Does Culture Matter?, Rachel Seginer

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Future orientation, or the image individuals have of the future, provides the grounds for setting goals and planning, and therefore is considered an important adolescent developmental task. This chapter introduces future orientation research by describing its evolvement from a thematic approach focusing on the content of future domains to a model consisting of three components, discusses its universal and cross-cultural meanings, and reports a replicated finding that across cultures, adolescents share a common core of future orientation domains consisting of education, career, and marriage and family. Based on findings on effects of the family setting on future orientation and an …

Paleoseismology Of The Central Garlock Fault In Searles Valley, California, Kyle Pena

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this study, a paleoseismic trench with limited age constraints that was previously excavated in 1990 across the central Garlock Fault near Christmas Canyon, in Searles Valley, California, was reopened to take advantage of new advances in luminescence dating techniques to investigate potential temporal variability in earthquake recurrence on the Garlock fault and to analyze previously unexposed older earthquake evidence. The trench exposed interbedded alluvial sand and pebble-gravels, with well-sorted, rounded, lacustrine sand from the most recent highstand of pluvial Lake Searles present at the base of the trench. Preliminary findings suggest at least 10 surface rupturing earthquake events occurred …

Finding And Analyzing De Novo Mutations In The Exomes Of Parent-Offspring Trios Of Spontaneous Chiari Malformation Type 1 Patients, Brian Leon Ricardo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Chiari Malformation Type 1 (CM1) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs when one of the cerebellar tonsils herniates past the foramen magnum causing headaches, motor or sensory deficits, sleep apnea, and difficulty swallowing. This disorder is estimated to affect 1% of the population but due to the need of neuroimaging for diagnosis and the presence of asymptomatic patients there is still uncertainty about the exact proportion of the population affected. CM1 often presents itself with other neurodevelopmental disorders such as syringomyelia, scoliosis, and known genetic syndromes such as Klippel-Feil and Marfan syndromes. Twin, family, and familial clustering studies have established …

Npd For Manufacturing: Implications For New Hires, Ivy Ojomo

Graduate Theses - Engineering Management

New engineers hired into New Product Development (NPD) roles are assigned projects, which align to their job functions after the completion of their onboarding. These projects provide a medium for the engineers to explore their career paths and growth while solving company problems. Inefficiencies in integrating new hires into their roles has led to disruptions and delays in project successful executions. With that in mind, the focus of this integrated project was to uncover ways to improve integration of new hires into NPD roles of a named manufacturing plant, Cummins Inc. Fuel Systems Plant (FSP).

Specifically, the study examined the …

Development, Evaluation, And Application Of Chromatographic Resolution Enhancement Strategies, Garrett Hellinghausen

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

With the emergence of advanced separation technologies, like high-efficiency stationary phases bonded with superficially porous particles, or sub-2 μm fully porous particles, faster and more effective methodologies are possible for liquid chromatographic analyses. Such advanced approaches can be easily applied to achiral separations but require more extensive optimization for chiral separations. Chiral molecules are subjected to extensive characterization of their enantiomeric pharmacological properties due to requirements of the Food and Drug Administration. Herein, fundamental chiral method development strategies are thoroughly discussed for hundreds of small molecules using conventional and newly synthesized chiral selectors bonded to high-efficiency supports. In these strategies …

Use Of Uav Imagery And Nutrient Analyses For Estimation Of The Spatial And Temporal Contributions Of Cattle Dung To Nutrient Cycling In Grazed Ecosystems, Amanda E. Shine

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nutrient inputs from cattle dung are crucial drivers of nutrient cycling processes in grazed ecosystems. These inputs are important both spatially and temporally and are affected by variables such as grazing strategy, water location, and the nutritional profile of forage being grazed. Past research has attempted to map dung deposition patterns in order to more accurately estimate nutrient input, but the large spatial extent of a typical pasture and the tedious nature of identifying and mapping individual dung pats has prohibited the development of a time- and cost-effective methodology. The first objective of this research was to develop and validate …

What Genetic Testing Teaches About Predictive Health Analytics Regulation, Sharona Hoffman

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Species-Specific Transcriptional Profiles Of The Gut And Gut Microbiome Of Ceratitis Quilicii And Ceratitis Rosa Sensu Stricto, Fathiya M. Khamis, Paul O. Mireji, Fidelis L.O. Ombura, Anna R. Malacrida, Erick O. Awuoche, Martin Rono, Samira A. Mohamed, Chrysantus M. Tanga, Sunday Ekesi

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The fruit fly species, Ceratitis rosa sensu stricto and Ceratitis quilicii, are sibling species restricted to the lowland and highland regions, respectively. Until recently, these sibling species were considered as allopatric populations of C. rosa with distinct bionomics. We used deep Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology on intact guts of individuals from the two sibling species to compare their transcriptional profiles and simultaneously understand gut microbiome and host molecular processes and identify distinguishing genetic differences between the two species. Since the genomes of both species had not been published previously, the transcriptomes were assembled de novo into transcripts. Microbe-specific transcript …

Computing Maximum And Minimum With Privacy Preservation And Flexible Access Control, Wenxiu Ding, Zheng Yan, Xinren Qian, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the fast development of Internet of Things, huge volume of data is being collected from various sensors and devices, aggregated at gateways, and processed in the cloud. Due to privacy concern, data are usually encrypted before being outsourced to the cloud. However, encryption seriously impedes both computation over the data and sharing of the computation results. Computing maximum and minimum among a data set are two of the most basic operations in machine learning and data mining algorithms. In this paper, we study how to compute maximum and minimum over encrypted data and control the access to the computation …

Improved Generalisation Bounds For Deep Learning Through L∞ Covering Numbers, Antoine Ledent, Yunwen Lei, Marius Kloft

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Using proof techniques involving L∞ covering numbers, we show generalisation error bounds for deep learning with two main improvements over the state of the art. First, our bounds have no explicit dependence on the number of classes except for logarithmic factors. This holds even when formulating the bounds in terms of the L 2 norm of the weight matrices, while previous bounds exhibit at least a square-root dependence on the number of classes in this case. Second, we adapt the Rademacher analysis of DNNs to incorporate weight sharing—a task of fundamental theoretical importance which was previously attempted only under very …

Simulation Model To Evaluate Effectiveness Of Queue Management Tool In Supermarket Retail Chain, Michelle L. F. Cheong, Yong Qing Chia

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As part of its continuous process to improve operational excellence and productivity, a retail company in South East Asia trialed the usage of a commercial market retail tool, known as Queue Buster, to improve queue management processes in its physical stores. We employed Queuing Theory to determine the effectiveness of implementing the Queue Buster. Specifically, we constructed a queuing simulation model based on input parameters derived from queuing data collected at a pilot store. Three main performance metrics - Wait Time, System Time and System Length were measured fortwo different queue systems, with and without the implementation of Queue Buster. …

Extracting Social Network From Literary Prose, Tarana Tasmin Bipasha

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops an approach to extract social networks from literary prose, namely, Jane Austen’s published novels from eighteenth- and nineteenth- century. Dialogue interaction plays a key role while we derive the networks, thus our technique relies upon our ability to determine when two characters are in conversation. Our process involves encoding plain literary text into the Text Encoding Initiative’s (TEI) XML format, character name identification, conversation and co-occurrence detection, and social network construction. Previous work in social network construction for literature have focused on drama, specifically manually TEI-encoded Shakespearean plays in which character interactions are much easier to track …