The major challenges facing resource constraint wireless devices are error resilience, security and speed. Three joint schemes are presented in this research which could be broadly divided into error correction based and cipher based. The error correction based ciphers take advantage of the properties of LDPC codes and Nordstrom Robinson code. A cipher-based cryptosystem is also presented in this research. The complexity of this scheme is reduced compared to conventional schemes. The securities of the ciphers are analyzed against known-plaintext and chosen-plaintext attacks and are found to be secure. Randomization test was also conducted on these schemes and the results are presented. For the proof of concept, the schemes were implemented in software and hardware and these shows a reduction in hardware usage compared to conventional schemes. As a result, joint schemes for error correction and security provide security to the physical layer of wireless communication systems, a layer in the protocol stack where currently little or no security is implemented. In this physical layer security approach, the properties of powerful error correcting codes are exploited to deliver reliability to the intended parties, high security against eavesdroppers and efficiency in communication system. The notion of a highly secure and reliable …

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the learning styles of supplemental instruction leaders at a large, public university during the fall 2010 semester and determine whether or not their personal learning styles influenced the way they designed and developed out-of-class study sessions. The total population of supplemental instruction leaders was 37, of which 24 were eligible to participate in the study. Of the 24 eligible supplemental instruction leaders, 20 completed the entire study. Participants in the study included nine male and 11 female supplemental instruction leaders with a median age of 22.25 years-old. Seventeen participants indicated their classification as senior, two as junior, and one as sophomore. Of the participants, 16 indicated white as a race or ethnicity, one indicated Asian, two indicated African American, and one indicated both American Indian/Alaska Native and white. Supplemental instruction leader learning style was assessed using the Kolb Learning Style Inventory. Leaders were then interviewed, and their study sessions were analyzed. Through triangulation of data from learning style, interviews and actual study session documents, four major themes emerged. The four themes were: 1) incorporation of personal experience into study session design, 2) the sense of impact on student learning, 3) a …

Measurements of intraoral pressure (IOP) and sound pressure level (SPL) were taken of four oboists as they performed two sets of musical exercises: (1) crescendo-decrescendo from pp to ff and back to pp on the pitches D4, G4, C5 and A5, and (2) straight and vibrato performances of the same four pitches at mf. Video images of the vocal tract were also made using flexible fiberoptic nasoendoscopy (FFN). IOP and SPL data were captured in real time by the WinDaq®/Lite software package, with the dB meter located 8-9 inches in directly front of the oboe bell. The study yielded minimum and maximum values from 21.04 to 57.81 mm Hg and from 65.53 to 100.89 dB across all pitches examined. Discussion is included for the following topics: (1) the oboe’s sound envelope, or functional range of IOP and SPL values at different pitch levels, including the nonlinearity in the relationship between IOP and SPL on the oboe, (2) the static activation and kinetic maintenance thresholds for reed vibration, (3) the effect of vibrato on IOP/SPL, (4) the utilization of the vocal tract during execution of dynamic changes and vibrato, and (5) the impact of player experience on control of physical variables.

The primary focus of this dissertation was to explore students' perceptions of adopting Web 2.0 applications at the School of Basic Education (SBE) in Kuwait. Although Web 2.0 applications are becoming more popular among the digital generation, there is still no evidence of students' perceptions of adopting the innovation of Web 2.0 technologies in Kuwait. The problem this study addresses is that the current status of Web 2.0 technologies usage by academic students has remained educationally unknown in Kuwait. Therefore, there was a need to investigate the extent to which academic students in SBE are aware of and their usage of Web 2.0 technologies, as well as the factors and obstacles that affect using these technologies. Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory (DoI) is employed in this study to specify the factors that influence student perceptions of adopting Web 2.0 applications as learning tools. Data used in this dissertation was gathered via a survey instrument from 350 students at the SBE and was statistically analyzed to find out the answers of the research questions. This study identified the low rate of Web 2.0 awareness and adoption by the students. Descriptive statistical analysis, such as mean scores and standard deviation, were used …

In this project I investigate the factors shaping compliance with international human rights agreements and I provide a definition of compliance, which goes beyond “ratification.” I argue that compliance is a multistage process, built upon three different steps: ratification/accession, implementation, and what I call “compliant behavior.” As an alternative to the dominant structural and normative explanation of compliance, I suggest that the factors affecting compliance are not only endogenous to state characteristics, such as the democratic/non-democratic nature of governments, but also exogenous, such as the perceived level of threat to national security. I offer a twofold theory that looks at leaders’ behavior under conditions of stability and instability and I suggest that under certain circumstances that threaten and pressure government leaders, state compliance with international human rights law becomes more costly. I suggest that regardless of regime type, threats shape leaders’ behavior toward international law; states are faced with the choice to abide by international obligations, protecting specific human rights, and the choice to protect their national interests. I argue that when the costs associated with compliance increase, because leaders face threats to their power and government stability, threats become the predictor of non-compliant behavior regardless of the democratic or …

Several studies have observed that stocks tend to drop by an amount that is less than the dividend on the ex-dividend day, the so-called ex-dividend day anomaly. However, there still remains a lack of consensus for a single explanation of this anomaly. Different from other studies, this dissertation attempts to answer the primary research question: How can investors make trading profits from the ex-dividend day anomaly and how much can they earn? With this goal, I examine the economic motivations of equity investors through four main hypotheses identified in the anomaly’s literature: the tax differential hypothesis, the short-term trading hypothesis, the tick size hypothesis, and the leverage hypothesis. While the U.S. ex-dividend anomaly is well studied, I examine a long data window (1975 to 2010) of Thailand data. The unique structure of the Thai stock market allows me to assess all four main hypotheses proposed in the literature simultaneously. Although I extract the sample data from two data sources, I demonstrate that the combined data are consistently sampled. I further construct three trading strategies: “daily return,” “lag one daily return,” and “weekly return” to alleviate the potential effect of irregular data observation. I find that the ex-dividend day anomaly exists …

In the Information Age, a proliferation of unstructured text electronic documents exists. Processing these documents by humans is a daunting task as humans have limited cognitive abilities for processing large volumes of documents that can often be extremely lengthy. To address this problem, text data computer algorithms are being developed. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) are two text data computer algorithms that have received much attention individually in the text data literature for topic extraction studies but not for document classification nor for comparison studies. Since classification is considered an important human function and has been studied in the areas of cognitive science and information science, in this dissertation a research study was performed to compare LDA, LSA and humans as document classifiers. The research questions posed in this study are: R1: How accurate is LDA and LSA in classifying documents in a corpus of textual data over a known set of topics? R2: How accurate are humans in performing the same classification task? R3: How does LDA classification performance compare to LSA classification performance? To address these questions, a classification study involving human subjects was designed where humans were asked to generate and classify documents …

Access to healthcare is needed and wanted by people of all ages and especially by those of the older population. The number of people in the 65 years of age and older population is rapidly growing with their needs expected to have a significant impact on the existing healthcare system and healthcare providers. The impact will be critical given the severe shortage of healthcare providers, especially of nurses and the rate of services being more often provided in non-hospital settings. The objectives of the study were to discover the plans of graduating nursing students as they choose their first place of employment, if they have future plans to pursue a nursing advance practice degree, and if they are very happy with their decision to become a nurse. Data for the study were obtained from a questionnaire presented to senior graduating nursing students. The findings were: (a) Most students prefer a hospital setting. (b) Younger students are three times as likely to seek out the hospital, and 1/3 of the students seek out the hospital setting because they were encouraged to become a nurse. (c) About 70% of the students want to work with their friends while 1/3 will seek the …

The literature identifies multiple factors pertinent to learner characteristics and learning experiences that may promote doctoral education outcomes, and yet little quantitative research has examined relationships between those factors deemed important in the effectiveness of doctoral education. This study sought to examine predictive relationships among doctoral students’ learner characteristics, their involvement in mentorship and intellectual community, and doctoral education outcomes. Using Astin’s theory of involvement and the literature on signature pedagogies in doctoral education as conceptual guides, a survey instrument was constructed for the purpose of measuring variables identified as relevant to the effective formation of scholars. Central to the conceptualization of this study was academic involvement as represented by mentorship and intellectual community. The instrument was validated in a two-stage pilot testing process and administered to doctoral candidates at three public Texas higher education institutions. Of the 217 participants, the majority were female, White (Non-Hispanic), US citizens, and were pursuing education doctorates. Data were analyzed using multivariate statistical analyses. Reliability and validity estimates indicated psychometric integrity of the 20 observed variables measured to represent the constructs of mentorship and intellectual community. Results indicated that doctoral students’ learner characteristics were not notably predictive of doctoral students’ degree of involvement in …

This study assessed students’ satisfaction with Ramkhamhaeng University regional library services (RURLs) and the perceived quality of information retrieved from other information sources. In particular, this study investigated factors relating to regional students’ selection of information sources to meet their information needs. The researcher applied the principle of least effort and Simon’s satisficing theory for this study. The former principle governs and predicts the selection of these students’ perceived source accessibility, whereas the latter theory explains the selection and use of the information retrieved without considering whether the information is optimal. This study employed a web-based survey to collect data from 188 respondents. The researcher found that convenience and ease of use were the top two variables relating to respondent’s selection of information sources and use. The Internet had the highest mean for convenience. Results of testing a multiple linear regression model of all four RURCs showed that these four independent variables (convenience, ease of use, availability, and familiarity) were able to explain 69% of the total variance in the frequency of use of information sources. Convenience and ease of use were able to increase respondents’ perceived source accessibility and explain the variance of the frequency of use of sources …

Although studies have addressed high school English language arts (ELA) instruction, little is known about the decision-making process of ELA teachers. How do teachers decide between the resources and instructional strategies at their disposal? This study focused on two monolingual teachers who were in different schools and grades. They were teaching mainstream students or English Language Learners. Both employed an approach to writing instruction that emphasized cultural mediation. Two questions guided this study: How does the enactment of culturally mediated writing instruction (CMWI) in a mainstream classroom compare to the enactment in an ESL classroom? What is the nature of teacher decision-making in these high school classrooms during English language arts instruction? Data were collected and analyzed using qualitative methodologies. The findings suggest that one teacher, who was familiar with CMWI’s principles and practices and saw students as partners, focused her decisions on engagement and participation. The other teacher deliberately embedded CMWI as an instructional stance. Her decisions focused on empathy, caring and meaningful connections. These teachers enacted CMWI in different ways to meet their students’ needs. They embraced the students’ cultural resources, used and built on their linguistic knowledge, expanded thinking strategies to make difficult information comprehensible, provided authentic …

This study focuses on how perceived security environment affect U.S. unilateral, military intervention in civil conflicts, using the concept of Bayesian learning to illustrate how threat perceptions are formed, how they change, and how they affect the U.S. decision to intervene militarily in civil conflicts. I assess the validity of two primary hypotheses: (1) the U.S. is more likely to intervene in civil conflicts with connections to a threatening actor or ideology; and (2) the U.S. is more likely to intervene in civil conflicts for humanitarian motives in a less threatening security context. To test these hypotheses, I compare U.S. military intervention in three temporal contexts reflecting more threatening security contexts (Cold War and post-9/11) and less threatening security contexts (1992-2001). Results of logit regression analysis reveal that a conflict’s connection to a threatening actor or ideology is the most statistically and substantively significant determinant of U.S. military intervention in civil conflicts, both in more and less threatening security contexts. They also indicate that humanitarian motives are not a statistically significant determinant of U.S. military intervention in civil conflicts, even in a more benign security environment. These findings imply that U.S. unilateral military intervention is reserved for more direct national …

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine school psychologists' use of evidence- based practices (EBP), in general, and more specifically in the area of social skills training (SST) for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Study participants, consisting of 498 school psychologists from across the nation, participated in an online survey that gathered information about their training, attitudes, and practices. The frequency with which specific EBP practices for social skills training for students with ASD was examined, as was prediction of use of these practices. Multiple-regression analyses revealed multiple independent variables that were predictors for overall use of EBP. Results indicated that over half of the participants provide SST for students with ASD. Although the majority of participants indicated that their graduate program included at least one course with information about ASD and EBP practices, in general, nearly half indicated that their coursework did not include any courses that directly addressed social skills training for students with ASD. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine the extent to which the data fit the factor model. Participants' perception of the importance placed on EBP by their school district, scores on the openness subscale of the Evidence Based Practices …

A disintegration of measure is a common tool used in ergodic theory, probability, and descriptive set theory. The primary interest in this paper is in disintegrating σ-finite measures on standard Borel spaces into families of σ-finite measures. In 1984, Dorothy Maharam asked whether every such disintegration is uniformly σ-finite meaning that there exists a countable collection of Borel sets which simultaneously witnesses that every measure in the disintegration is σ-finite. Assuming Gödel’s axiom of constructability I provide answer Maharam's question by constructing a specific disintegration which is not uniformly σ-finite.

The purpose of this study was to examine the career development of African-American male athletes and non-athletes. The study utilizes Gottfredson’s circumscription and compromise model of career development as a framework for understanding the way individuals go about selecting different career paths based on various contextual variables and career development processes. A sample of 71 African-American male college students completed self-report questionnaires measuring different aspects of their background make-up, relevant career development processes, and career development outcome variables. Results of the study suggest that non-athlete students have a more developmentally appropriate approach to careers. Results also suggest that perceived career barriers and career locus of control mediate the relationship between athletic status and maturity surrounding careers. Career development is a complicated process and further study on this population is very important, especially when considering athletes. Implications for the findings are discussed as are suggestions for directions of new research concerning African-American career development.

What influence Alevi-Sunni intermarriage has on spouses’ individual religious affiliation after marriage was the initial research question addressed in this study. No official or unofficial data exist regarding the Alevi-Sunni intermarriage in Turkey. This study responded to the need to describe extant relationships by using a qualitative approach to gather detailed information from a sample of married couples in Corum city, Turkey. A case study method was applied to a sample of ten couples. Couples were selected using snowball and purposive sampling techniques. A team of researchers conducted forty face-to-face interviews. Each of the ten husbands and ten wives in Alevi-Sunni intermarriages were interviewed twice using semi-structured questionnaires. Additional demographic and observational data were gathered. Spouses in the Alevi-Sunni intermarriages sampled did not change their religious affiliation after marriage. The spouses reported few if any problems in their marital relationships and in child rearing. However, spouses did report many problems with parental families, in-laws, and other relatives. The disapproval and punishments from extended family members are related to the social stigma attached to Alevi-Sunni intermarriages. However, intermarriage, modernization including secularism and pluralism are challenging this stigma. Because of this transition further interdisciplinary studies on Alevi-Sunni intermarriage that explore different dimensions …

The relationship between life stress and working memory capacity (WMC) has been documented in college students and older adults. It has been proposed that intrusive thoughts about life stress are the mechanism responsible for the impairments seen in WMC. To examine the mechanism responsible for these impairments the current study attempted to induce intrusive thoughts about personal events. The current study allowed for a test of predictions made by two theories of mind wandering regarding the impact of these intrusive thoughts on WMC task performance. One hundred fifty undergraduates were assigned to a control group, positive event group, or negative event group. Participants in the positive and negative event groups completed a short emotional disclosure about an imagined future positive or negative event, respectively, to induce positive or negative intrusive thoughts. WMC measures were completed prior to and following the emotional writing. Results indicated a significant relationship between WMC and mind wandering, however the writing manipulation did not result in any consistent changes in intrusive thoughts or WMC. The results suggest a causal relationship between WMC and mind wandering. The emotional valence of the intrusive thought altered the impact on WMC. No relationship was seen between the measures of stress …

Let μ be a Radon probability measure on M, the d-dimensional Real Euclidean space (where d is a positive integer), and f a measurable function. Let P be the space of sequences whose coordinates are elements in M. Then, for any point x in M, define a function ƒn on M and P that looks at the first n terms of an element of P and evaluates f at the first of those n terms that minimizes the distance to x in M. The measures for which such sequences converge in measure to f for almost every sequence are called Mycielski-regular. We show that the self-similar measure generated by a finite family of contracting similitudes and which up to a constant is the Hausdorff measure in its dimension on an invariant set C is Mycielski-regular.

This study, conducted at an urban public school, explored the engagements of five, fourth grade, African American students who struggled with reading in school as they participated in critical literacy practices and social action projects with the assumption that critical analysis of written texts and concrete social actions were necessary for student empowerment. Using Discourse Analysis within a microethnographic framework, participants’ responses were analyzed. Early in the study, participants were hesitant to join in critical conversations about race. Over time, as participants deepened their critical literacy engagements, they divulged lived racism both in their private and public worlds. Specifically, the participants described the tensions and transgressions they experienced as minorities from civil rights curriculum, teachers and other students. The findings revealed instead of text based analyses, critical literacy practices transformed into the participants’ critical analysis of racism they experienced in their various worlds (home, school, and the larger, outside world) through language (not text). Similarly, the pre-conceived idea of social action projects changed from the creation of concrete products or actions into discussions in which mainstream discourse was interrupted. Tacit and overt understandings about race, identity and power suggested that the participants assumed multiple and contradictory identities (such as “victim …

The primary focus of this study is to investigate the effects of social control mechanisms on public order crimes in Turkey. Supporting efforts of parochial control is a rising trend in crime control activities. Statements regarding the relationship between social disorganization variables, parochial control variables, and spatial distribution of crime have long been studied by researchers. Using the same assumptions in this study, I test their applicability to public order crimes in Turkey. The poverty and residential mobility variables had significant positive effect on public order crimes holding other structural and parochial variables constant. The number of public order crimes seems to be higher in provinces where there are more disrupted families. The number of public order crimes seems to be lower in provinces where there are more religious institutions. Overall, the results reveal that social structural variables and parochial control factors affect the institutional bases of provinces and partly affect the occurrence of public order crimes. Based on the study findings, several policy implications and recommendations for future research are suggested.

Francis Poulenc’s three-act opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1953-1956) depicts the struggles of the novice nun Blanche de la Force during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. The use of Latin liturgical music at critical points in the opera conveys the ritualistic nature of Catholic worship. The spiritual message of mystical substitution, along with the closely related notion of vicarious suffering, imbue the opera with a spirituality that offers a sharp contrast to earlier operatic settings of Catholic texts, particularly during the age of grand opera. Marian devotion also plays an important role in the opera. The final tableau of the opera stages the execution of Blanche and her sisters, complete with the sound of a guillotine, with the nuns singing the Salve Regina as they proceed to the scaffold. The multivalence of the final tableau highlights the importance of voice and its absence. While the nuns, onstage spectators, and the guillotine are audibly present in the scene, the priest participates solely through gesture. The surfacing of the Lacanian Real in the silent moment of traumatic shock that follows the guillotine’s first fall allows for intertextual references to the opera in Poulenc’s Sonate pour Flûte et Piano (1957) to …

To assess sustainability of privately owned rangeland, a questionnaire was used to gathered data from ranches in Cooke, Montague, Clay, Wise, Parker, and Jack counties in North Central Texas. Information evaluated included: management philosophy, economics, grazing practices, environmental condition, quality of life, and demographics. Sustainability indices were created based on economic and land health indicator variables meeting a minimum Cronbach‘s alpha coefficient (α = 0.7). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to create models explaining variance in respondents’ indices scores. Five predictors explained 36% of the variance in rangeland economic sustainability index when respondents: 1) recognized management inaction has opportunity costs affecting economic viability; 2) considered forbs a valuable source of forage for wildlife or livestock; 3) believed governmental assistance with brush control was beneficial; 4) were not absentee landowners and did not live in an urban area in Texas, and; 5) valued profit, productivity, tax issues, family issues, neighbor issues or weather issues above that of land health. Additionally, a model identified 5 predictors which explained 30% of the variance for respondents with index scores aligning with greater land health sustainability. Predictors indicated: 1) fencing cost was not an obstacle for increasing livestock distribution; 2) land rest was a component …

Nanoporous low-k dielectrics are used for integrated circuit interconnects to reduce the propagation delays, and cross talk noise between metal wires as an alternative material for SiO2. These materials, typically organosilicate glass (OSG) films, are exposed to oxygen plasmas during photoresist stripping and related processes which substantially damage the film by abstracting carbon, incorporating O and OH, eventually leading to significantly increased k values. Systematic studies have been performed to understand the oxygen plasma-induced damage mechanisms on different low-k OSG films of various porosity and pore interconnectedness. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy are used to understand the damage kinetics of O radicals, ultraviolet photons and charged species, and possible ways to control the carbon loss from the film. FTIR results demonstrate that O radical present in the plasma is primarily responsible for carbon abstraction and this is governed by diffusion mechanism involving interconnected film nanopores. The loss of carbon from the film can be controlled by closing the pore interconnections, He plasma pretreatment is an effective way to control the damage at longer exposure by closing the connections between the pores.

The purpose of this study was to determine the current status of secondary teachers' implementation of the sheltered instruction operational protocol (SIOP) model and its effect on Hispanic English language learners' (ELL) English language proficiency and academic achievement. In addition, this study sought to determine whether teachers perceive the SIOP model as an effective tool for instruction of high school ELL students to increase English language content and English language proficiency. This study employed qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Data were collected from four sources: Hispanic ELLs' English language proficiency scores, students' English Language Arts scores, an oral interview with participating teachers and teacher observations. Each teacher was observed at four points during the school year with the SIOP instrument. Quantitative data on student achievement were collected employing a pre-experimental, one-group pretest-post-test design. Qualitative data were collected using a time-series design. Findings revealed that on the two student assessment measures there were increases in English proficiency and English language arts achievement among the Hispanic ELLs. On the assessment of English language proficiency, the students of the teacher with the highest level of SIOP implementation made the highest gains; the students of the teacher with the second highest SIOP implementation level made …