cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-437731
title: GIS-based quantitative integration of global climate model simulations and geodatabases of gullies on Mars

description: Global climate models (GCMs) allow planetary scientists to test physical explanations for the formation and modification of climate‐related features on planetary bodies. This method of analysis depends upon two data sources: the GCM itself and a catalog of features under investigation. Integrating these two inputs provides a novel approach for testing climate‐related hypotheses for the formation of geological features of interest. An integration pipeline has been developed and a proof‐of‐concept application is tested on martian gullies, small erosional channels that may provide evidence for the recent flow of liquid water on the surface of Mars. ❧ The end‐to‐end GCM/data integration approach includes three primary components: (1) generation of a geodatabase with coded domains of all imaged gullies in the southern hemisphere of Mars from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Context Camera (CTX) images, (2) incorporation into a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework of three GCM simulations that quantitatively predict surface conditions over one martian year under three different starting scenarios thought to have occurred in Mars’ recent geologic history, and (3) the integration of the geodatabase and GCM simulations to create dynamic visualizations of surface conditions over time and quantitative extraction of temperature/pressure values at gully sites to test whether or not liquid water could exist at these locations. ❧ The newly developed approach in this study demonstrates that the formation of gullies by liquid water is unlikely under present atmospheric conditions at most locations, but is predicted to have been achievable under more favorable orbital scenarios thought to have occurred in the recent geologic history of Mars. If these associations are valid, this increases the potential of primitive biology having existed in the recent history of Mars. More broadly, this technique represents a potentially valuable tool within a GIS framework for increasing confidence in data/model comparisons at global, hemispheric and regional scales.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-176815
title: Page 33
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177097
title: Page 102
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-193423
title: Electroremediation of offshore muds contaminated with heavy metals

description: The electroremediation process requires much needed research work to be optimized for up-scaling and improving economic efficiency. This is particularly true when applying the technology to highly heterogeneous and complex mineralogy materials such as offshore sediments and muds. Laboratory batch tests were performed on field retrieved specimens of contaminated offshore muds near Abu Dhabi Ports of United Arab Emirates. The influence of various process parameters that determine the optimum operating conditions and sustainable enhancement of electrokinetic remediation was investigated. Excellent results of decontamination of seven heavy metals were achieved. ❧ The removal of heavy metals by management of the in-situ chlorine gas (Cl₂) production was also investigated. The tests showed a high removal efficiency of heavy metals at the cathode end of cores after 24 hours of EK application in the presence of chlorine gas. In the initial tests, high electrokinetic flow potential was achieved; however, high levels of chlorine gas were produced in high-salinity environments. This was improved by controlling and maintaining a certain fraction of the chlorine gas (Cl₂) in place. ❧ The pH was controlled by the identified optimum fraction of chlorine gas maintained in-situ and transported from the anode to cathode. The transports of seven heavy metals were evaluated in this study. The chlorine gas can have two impacts on the transport of metals in the system. One is to oxidize the metal ions to a higher oxidation state and the second is to form chloride complexes, which will have higher mobility in the system. Determination of oxidation state and the subsequent metal chloride complex are left for future research. ❧ Electrokinetics is also proposed to improve acidizing operations, i.e., increase the penetration distance. Aqueous solutions of hydrochloric acid (usually 15%) are pumped into the carbonate formations to enlarge the pores and pre-existing fractures. However, the penetration distance of acid is very short. By applying D.C. current, one can drive the acid for long distances into the formation being acidized. According to Professor Chilingar, this is a unique discovery which will lead to doubling the oil reserves in carbonate reservoirs (60 % of World oil reserves reside in carbonates).
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-203572
title: Comparing perceptions between dual language teachers and traditional public school teachers

description: As the number of English language learners in our nation’s classrooms has increased, the interest regarding how to effectively support their needs both academically and socially has been ignited. Dual language schools and programs have increased in recent years as a way to support their needs. Researchers in the field of language acquisition have proposed various strategies teachers in both dual language school and traditional public schools can use to most effectively help English language learners. One such researcher is Jim Cummins (2000), who founded transformative pedagogy. The research question used to guide this study compared the perceptions of teachers in a dual language school and a traditional public school in utilizing key aspects of transformative pedagogy such as (1) identity affirmation and (2) the promotion of higher order thinking skills. ❧ Through a combination of teacher interviews, teacher observations, and test data analyses, the findings of this study offer insight into the strategies traditional public school teachers and dual language teachers are currently integrating in classrooms both in practice and perception. Collectively, the dual language teachers perceived themselves as using key aspects of transformative pedagogy to a larger degree than the traditional public school teachers.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-170650
title: Page 140
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177099
title: Page 104
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160534
title: Page 16
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-195901
title: Coherently interacting dynamics in the neuromuscular system

description: This thesis settles the open question of whether or not neuromuscular dynamics is mixing by showing evidence of both scenarios and demonstrates remarkable coherence properties between the dynamics in the neck and sacrum in healthy subjects and the absence of this feature in quadriplegic subjects. These results are shown from the analysis of data collected during an electrophysiological phenomenon running up and down the spine, elicited by light pressure contact at very precise points and thereafter taking the external appearance of an undulatory motion of the spine. This wave, called the spinal wave, results in a traveling and ﬁnally a standing wave pattern in the spine. ❧ This research uses ergodic theory methods to analyze surface Electromyographic (sEMG) data during the spinal wave. The major tool used in this study is a construction known as special Euclidean (SE) extension. In this approach, the neuromuscular system is treated an abstract dynamical system and the sEMG sensors as observables. Properties of the system are analyzed from this observed data using special Euclidean extension of order 2. ❧ These results, obtained using SE(2) analysis, are consistent with previous statistical studies of the spinal wave phenomenon. Finally, the thesis proposes some plausible models that might result in the spinal wave phenomenon.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1407096
title: Plos One Submission Dataset

description: This data set corresponds with the article titled, "Controversy Matters: Impacts of Topic and Solution Controversy on the Perceived Credibility of a Scientist who Advocates."
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-176794
title: Page 12
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177119
title: Page 124
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141456
title: Page 189
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160602
title: Page 84
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-203349
title: A study of the perceived value placed on the national accreditation of teacher and educator training programs in American colleges

description: Literature reveals that accreditation in the United States (U.S.) is a vital component of accountability to the higher education community.  However, there is limited research on accreditation, specifically on the national accreditation of teacher and educator training programs.  Therefore, this study is warranted in examining the perceived value placed upon the national accreditation process in U.S colleges. This quantitative study examined all six regional accreditation agencies and surveyed respective faculty and administrative staff perceptions’ on the value of the accreditation process.  Faculty and administrative staff from 4-year nationally accredited and non-accredited public and private colleges were surveyed to determine the perceived value of the national accreditation of teacher and educator training programs in relation to status and prestige, benefits and costs, and the outcomes of teacher and educator training programs. Furthermore, status and prestige were measured by The U.S. World News Best Colleges Rankings, as it serves as a common tool for parents and students. Lastly, the outcomes of teacher educator training programs were measured by graduation rates and financial aid. ❧ Results for nationally accredited colleges indicated no significant difference between public and private colleges in relation to status and prestige, benefits and costs, and the outcomes of teacher and educator training programs. However, findings for nationally non-accredited colleges revealed a significant difference in that public colleges provided more financial aid and graduated more students than private colleges. Certain survey responses additionally reflected findings from the literature that acknowledged the value of the accreditation process. Furthermore, the study’s results indicated that accreditation was more costly than beneficial for nationally accredited public and private colleges.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-208270
title: Utilized strategies by urban superintendents to raise student achievement

description: The purpose of this study was to identify the utilized strategies and practices that urban superintendents use to raise student achievement.  This study examined the strategies, practices, and leadership skills that are applied by urban superintendents.  Three research questions were used in this mixed-methods study.  A survey instrument was used that included both Likert-style statements and open-ended questions.  Three superintendents were interviewed for 30-45 minutes based on the research questions.  It presents findings regarding the superintendents’ responses to the applied strategies and practices implemented by the superintendents to ensure that student achievement is improving.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-204573
title: Life and work in the Ryan District, Death Valley, California, 1914-1930: a historic context for a borax mining community

description: The Ryan district is an early 20th century cultural landscape associated with a historic borax mining operation just outside the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park, California. Its heart, the town of Ryan, was built by the Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) in support of its extraction work at six nearby mines; other industrial support systems included the Death Valley Railroad (DVRR) and the Baby Gauge Railroad. Ryan housed PCB workers from 1914 to 1928, at which point the operation was abandoned in favor of richer deposits elsewhere. The town experienced a brief second life as a hotel and recreation destination as the economy of the Death Valley region shifted from mining to tourism. Since its final closure, Ryan and much of the surrounding land has been maintained on private property by a mining company. Today, Ryan and its extant buildings are part of a larger cultural landscape that includes abandoned mines and their associated work camps, railroad lines, railroad construction camps, and abundant archaeological deposits. ❧ Like many other industrial mining operations of the western United States, Ryan was established and controlled by a corporate entity, was focused on mineral extraction, was situated in an isolated location, and was fairly short-lived. What makes the Ryan district unusual is its association with the borax industry rather than precious metal mining, its location in one of the world’s most forbidding environments, and its second life as a tourist destination. What makes it extraordinary is its state of preservation, both architectural and archaeological. ❧ This thesis presents a historic context for the Ryan district, under the theme Life and Work in the Ryan District, Death Valley, California, 1914-1930. It explores the larger history of borax mining in the western United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, situating Ryan within the broad patterns of development that characterized the industry. Four subthemes are discussed as avenues for interpreting Ryan’s physical environment. They address the district’s industrial development patterns; the physical development of the town; its corporate and vernacular architecture; and its social history. Appropriate property types are proposed under each subtheme to facilitate future evaluation of the district’s cultural resources for historical significance.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141463
title: Page 196
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141468
title: Page 201
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160606
title: Page 88
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-196283
title: The impact of Algebra for all

description: California has struggled with the gap in achievement between the socio-economically disadvantaged (SED) and non-SED subgroups.  In 2005, the California School Board implemented a policy titled Algebra for All.  Algebra for All is the policy on which hopes are pinned to improve mathematics education and student achievement in California.  The intent of the policy was to close the gap within the two subgroups in two areas.  The first area was the access to higher level mathematics courses, beginning with Algebra I; the second area was increased student achievement in Algebra I. ❧ In this study the effects of the Algebra for All policy on SED student opportunity to learn and Algebra I achievement in comparison to a non-SED subgroup in the largest 22 unified school districts in California were investigated.  STAR results from 2005 and 2010 in both subgroups were compared.  The results of this study support the following four conclusions: ❧ 1. The effect of the 2005 Algebra for All mandate on both district participation rates and the opportunity gap was minimal. ❧ 2. Statewide, the trend was towards increased Algebra I success rates in both the SED and the NSED subgroups, thus, there was little change in the success gap. ❧ 3. Statewide, median SED participation in Algebra I or Geometry was .69 and a gap between the SED and non-SED subgroups of 5% or more remained in 13 districts.  From this information, it can be inferred that Algebra for All did not have its intended effect on participation rates and the opportunity gap. ❧ 4. Six districts had SED success rates that exceeded 59%.  Thirteen districts had NSED success rates that exceeded 59%.  While the success rates were higher than those that are generally reported, it is important to remember that success was defined in this study as “Basic or Above” rather than “Proficient and Above.”  Even with this more lenient definition of success, in 10 of 22 districts the success rates fell below 50%.  Nonetheless, because the success rates for the SED and NSED subgroups were highly correlated within districts, the median gap was only 6%.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-206499
title: Components of noise in signal detection tasks

description: Over the last century, researchers have contributed greatly to our knowledge of normative decision-making for a broad array of conditions and contexts. However,significant progress in our understanding of empirical decision outcomes has come less easily and still proves quite problematic in many respects. Among other sub-optimal behavior, human observers often exhibit response variability across identical trials, even when stimuli, task instructions, payoff structure, and other task relevant factors remain constant. Decision theories accounting for this response variability often invoke the assumption of internal noise; that is, random fluctuations perturbing information processing underlying human decision making. While these theories typically ascribe all internal noise to processes of representation, a great body of research suggests that some internal noise may be owing to decision processes as well. In the current dissertation, we construct a new framework capable of distinguishing measurements of noise owing to decision processes and those owing to encoding (representation) processes. The framework is comprised of two major components. The first component relies on a decision model utilizing multiple noisy, overlapping criteria boundaries at the decision stage and a decision protocol specifying rules for trial by trial response contingencies. The second component makes use of this model within the context of a multi-pass signal detection type task with external noise. ❧ We show both the applicability as well as the feasibility of this methodology with a simulation study within the Signal Detection Theory framework. More specifically, we demonstrate parameter recovery for a broad range of assumptions regarding the underlying representations at the decision stage. We then utilize this methodology in a simple visual contrast detection confidence rating task. These empirical  results accord well with a number of previous studies suggesting the existence of non trivial decision noise in addition to representational noise. Finally, we consider how to resolve additional factors contributing to response variability in light of this novel methodology such as sequential dependencies.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160527
title: Page 9
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-200222
title: Geospatial query processing in surface and hybrid spaces

description: The growing popularity of online Earth visualization tools and geo-realistic games and the availability of high resolution terrain data have motivated a new class of queries: spatial queries over the land surface, which extends the traditional spatial queries to a constrained third dimension. The fundamental technical challenge that prevents the realization of these applications is in fact in the area of data management. In particular, real-world large geospatial datasets residing on disk drives need to be queried and accessed as if they are synthetically rendered data in memory. Unfortunately, the majority of current disk-based data structures are designed to expedite the rendering of this geo-realistic data (e.g., Google Earth) rather than its querying and access. In this thesis, I mainly discuss a series of efficient index structures on a subset of this data set. These data structures are critical to expedite several important classes of spatial queries in the geospatial databases: the snapshot and continuous k Nearest Neighbor (kNN) queries on terrain surface, and the scalable browsing of the shortest surface paths (i.e., the path query). In addition, for the first time, the spatial queries have been extended to the more realistic hybrid environment, which overlays the real world road networks on top of the terrain models. Since finding the shortest hybrid path is new and more challenging, disk efficient data structures and algorithms have been proposed to minimize the I/O cost as well as to be seamlessly integrated to our surface index framework. In this thesis, all the discussed methods have been experimentally verified against large scale real world and synthetic datasets.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141457
title: Page 190
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141484
title: Page 217
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141467
title: Page 200
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-293959
title: Success factors and patterns in government-supported research and development

description: 2004 This qualitative, descriptive, and hypothesis-generating dissertation analyzes 30 award-winning technical innovations for factors related to government-supported research and development (R&D) success. Each innovation won the prestigious R&D 100 Award and represents the creative work of scientists, engineers, technicians, and managers in government-supported R&D. ❧ Since the 1960s, empirical studies have linked specific economic, physical, psychological, social, and technical factors with success in R&D. However, many of these studies have been criticized for their lack of depth or breadth. Most surveyed only industrial R&D, examined a small number of factors, were conducted through written questionnaires, or did not otherwise account for the overall R&D context. Project management literature suggests that R&D success-factor correlations are also case, technology, and sector dependent. Therefore, it is unclear what factors are associated with success in government-supported R&D ❧ For this study, on-site interviews were conducted at 11 government R&D facilities with the persons responsible for each award-winning innovation. The interviews confirmed management-related details: budgets, sponsors, partners, contracts, personnel, collaboration, and support. Open-ended questions elicited information not previously captured. Initial analyses identified 17 government-specific R&D success factors. Subsequently, the 30 innovations and their corresponding responses were divided into eight R&D Types, based on the Balachandra-Friar Contextual Framework. Each R&D Type embodies a unique combination of three variables: innovation (incremental or radical), technology (low or high), and market (existing or new). ❧ When compared within and between R&D Types, the responses formed distinct success-factor patterns. For example, three of the 17 government-specific R&D success factors, Expertise, Tenacity, and Partners, are important in all eight R&D Types, but each is the top factor in only one R&D Type. Five of the other 17 factors, Funding, Great Idea, Practicality, Facilities, and Nurturing, each dominate one of the remaining R&D Types. These and other patterns may be useful in predicting success for government-supported R&D or indicating strategies whose incorporation in future projects will increase the likelihood of success. Implications for science and technology policymakers, R&D sponsors, and technical managers are introduced, as well as hypotheses, and suggestions for future research.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141477
title: Page 210
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141481
title: Page 214