Multipurpose portable system for environmental, industrial, and medical applications

This dissertation is about the research carried on developing an MPS (Multipurpose Portable System) which consists of an instrument and many accessories. The instrument is portable, hand-held, and rechargeable battery operated, and it measures temperature, absorbance, and concentration of samples by using optical principles. The system also performs auxiliary functions like incubation and mixing. This system can be used in environmental, industrial, and medical applications. ^ Research emphasis is on system modularity, easy configuration, accuracy of measurements, power management schemes, reliability, low cost, computer interface, and networking. The instrument can send the data to a computer for data analysis and presentation, or to a printer. ^ This dissertation includes the presentation of a full working system. This involved integration of hardware and firmware for the micro-controller in assembly language, software in C and other application modules. ^ The instrument contains the Optics, Transimpedance Amplifiers, Voltage-to-Frequency Converters, LCD display, Lamp Driver, Battery Charger, Battery Manager, Timer, Interface Port, and Micro-controller. ^ The accessories are a Printer, Data Acquisition Adapter (to transfer the measurements to a computer via the Printer Port and expand the Analog/Digital conversion capability), Car Plug Adapter, and AC Transformer. This system has been fully evaluated for fault tolerance and the schemes will also be presented. ^

Patterns of Soil Bacteria and Canopy Community Structure Related to Tropical Peatland Development

Natural environmental gradients provide important information about the ecological constraints on plant and microbial community structure. In a tropical peatland of Panama, we investigated community structure (forest canopy and soil bacteria) and microbial community function (soil enzyme activities and respiration) along an ecosystem development gradient that coincided with a natural P gradient. Highly structured plant and bacterial communities that correlated with gradients in phosphorus status and soil organic matter content characterized the peatland. A secondary gradient in soil porewater NH4 described significant variance in soil microbial respiration and β-1-4-glucosidase activity. Covariation of canopy and soil bacteria taxa contributed to a better understanding of ecological classifications for biotic communities with applicability for tropical peatland ecosystems of Central America. Moreover, plants and soils, linked primarily through increasing P deficiency, influenced strong patterning of plant and bacterial community structure related to the development of this tropical peatland ecosystem.

Noise in gallium nitride-based quantum well structures used for nanometer devices in the frequency range 1 Hz--3 Mhz and temperature range 77K--324K

Electronic noise has been investigated in AlxGa1−x N/GaN Modulation-Doped Field Effect Transistors (MODFETs) of submicron dimensions, grown for us by MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) techniques at Virginia Commonwealth University by Dr. H. Morkoç and coworkers. Some 20 devices were grown on a GaN substrate, four of which have leads bonded to source (S), drain (D), and gate (G) pads, respectively. Conduction takes place in the quasi-2D layer of the junction (xy plane) which is perpendicular to the quantum well (z-direction) of average triangular width ∼3 nm. A non-doped intrinsic buffer layer of ∼5 nm separates the Si-doped donors in the AlxGa1−xN layer from the 2D-transistor plane, which affords a very high electron mobility, thus enabling high-speed devices. Since all contacts (S, D, and G) must reach through the AlxGa1−xN layer to connect internally to the 2D plane, parallel conduction through this layer is a feature of all modulation-doped devices. While the shunting effect may account for no more than a few percent of the current IDS, it is responsible for most excess noise, over and above thermal noise of the device. ^ The excess noise has been analyzed as a sum of Lorentzian spectra and 1/f noise. The Lorentzian noise has been ascribed to trapping of the carriers in the AlxGa1−xN layer. A detailed, multitrapping generation-recombination noise theory is presented, which shows that an exponential relationship exists for the time constants obtained from the spectral components as a function of 1/kT. The trap depths have been obtained from Arrhenius plots of log (τT2) vs. 1000/T. Comparison with previous noise results for GaAs devices shows that: (a) many more trapping levels are present in these nitride-based devices; (b) the traps are deeper (farther below the conduction band) than for GaAs. Furthermore, the magnitude of the noise is strongly dependent on the level of depletion of the AlxGa1−xN donor layer, which can be altered by a negative or positive gate bias VGS. ^ Altogether, these frontier nitride-based devices are promising for bluish light optoelectronic devices and lasers; however, the noise, though well understood, indicates that the purity of the constituent layers should be greatly improved for future technological applications. ^

Community college faculty commitment to Florida performance -based funding indicators for academic programs

In 1996, the State of Florida implemented a performance-based funding program for the Associate in Arts degree offered by community colleges. Additional funds are allocated for distribution among public community colleges based on performance indicators. The indicators are comprised of 10 performance goals that refer to productivity indexed by overall degree completions as well as subgroups: special disadvantaged populations, transfers, job placements, and education acceleration. ^ This study examined the level of self-reported commitment of community college faculty to the 10 Florida performance-based funding indicators for academic programs. Also examined were the relationships between commitment and (a) self-efficacy in contributing to the achievement of the indicators and (b) personal financial reward expectation for contributing to the achievement of the indicators. The relationships between commitment and (a) gender, (b) academic rank, and (c) types of courses taught were analyzed based on secondary analyses. ^ The participants were 303 full-time faculty members of Miami-Dade Community College who taught courses taken by students pursuing the Associate in Arts degree. A questionnaire was developed to measure commitment, self-efficacy, and expectation of financial reward for each of the 10 indicators. ^ The mean composite commitment score for faculty members who responded to the survey was 4.07 in a scale of 1 to 5. Greater commitment was reported for indicators closely related to the traditional mission of community colleges (i.e., facilitating progress of special groups in earning the AA degree in preparation for transferring to a four-year university). Lower commitment was reported for indicators oriented to State priorities such as education acceleration mechanisms and job placements. Commitment was correlated with three variables: self-efficacy, expectation of financial reward, and types of courses taught. However, commitment was not related to gender and academic rank. Although a cause-effect relationship cannot be inferred from this study, the findings depict a positive relationship between faculty commitment to performance-based funding indicators and faculty self-efficacy to contribute to the achievement of the indicators. ^

Implicit eyewitness memory

After a crime has occurred, one of the most pressing objectives for investigators is to identify and interview any eyewitness that can provide information about the crime. Depending on his or her training, the investigative interviewer will use (to varying degrees) mostly yes/no questions, some cued and multiple-choice questions, with few open-ended questions. When the witness cannot generate any more details about the crime, one assumes the eyewitness' memory for the critical event has been exhausted. However, given what we know about memory, is this a safe assumption? In line with the extant literature on human cognition, if one assumes (a) an eyewitness has more available memories of the crime than he or she has accessible and (b) only explicit probes have been used to elicit information, then one can argue this eyewitness may still be able to provide additional information via implicit memory tests. In accordance with these notions, the present study had two goals: demonstrate that (1) eyewitnesses can reveal memory implicitly for a detail-rich event and (2) particularly for brief crimes, eyewitnesses can reveal memory for event details implicitly that were inaccessible when probed for explicitly. Undergraduates (N = 227) participated in a psychological experiment in exchange for research credit. Participants were presented with one of three stimulus videos (brief crime vs. long crime vs. irrelevant video). Then, participants either completed a series of implicit memory tasks or worked on a puzzle for 5 minutes. Lastly, participants were interviewed explicitly about the previous video via free recall and recognition tasks. Findings indicated that participants who viewed the brief crime provided significantly more crime-related details implicitly than those who viewed the long crime. The data also showed participants who viewed the long crime provided marginally more accurate details during free recall than participants who viewed the brief crime. Furthermore, participants who completed the implicit memory tasks provided significantly less accurate information during the explicit interview than participants who were not given implicit memory tasks. This study was the first to investigate implicit memory for eyewitnesses of a crime. To determine its applied value, additional empirical work is required.

The relationship between socioeconomic status, course delivery method, and student success at a state college: A single institution analysis

In an effort to improve instruction and better accommodate the needs of students, community colleges are offering courses delivered in a variety of delivery formats that require students to have some level of technology fluency to be successful in the course. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between student socioeconomic status (SES), course delivery method, and course type on enrollment, final course grades, course completion status, and course passing status at a state college. ^ A dataset for 20,456 students of low and not low SES enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) course types delivered using traditional, online, blended, and web enhanced course delivery formats at Miami Dade College, a large open access 4-year state college located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, was analyzed. A factorial ANOVA using course type, course delivery method, and student SES found no significant differences in final course grades when used to determine if course delivery methods were equally effective for students of low and not low SES taking STEM course types. Additionally, three chi-square goodness-of-fit tests were used to investigate for differences in enrollment, course completion and course passing status by SES, course type, and course delivery method. The findings of the chi-square tests indicated that: (a) there were significant differences in enrollment by SES and course delivery methods for the Engineering/Technology, Math, and overall course types but not for the Natural Science course type and (b) there were no significant differences in course completion status and course passing status by SES and course types overall and SES and course delivery methods overall. However, there were statistically significant but weak relationships between course passing status, SES and the math course type as well as between course passing status, SES, and online and traditional course delivery methods. ^ The mixed findings in the study indicate that strides have been made in closing the theoretical gap in education and technology skills that may exist for students of different SES levels. MDC's course delivery and student support models may assist other institutions address student success in courses that necessitate students having some level of technology fluency. ^

Low frequency of cigarette smoking and the risk of head and neck cancer in the INHANCE consortium pooled analysis

Funding • The pooled data coordination team (PBoffetta, MH, YCAL) were supported by National Cancer Institute grant R03CA113157 and by National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grant R03DE016611 • The Milan study (CLV) was supported by the Italian Association for Research on Cancer (Grant no. 10068). • The Aviano study (LDM) was supported by a grant from the Italian Association for Research on Cancer (AIRC), Italian League Against Cancer and Italian Ministry of Research • The Italy Multicenter study (DS) was supported by the Italian Association for Research on Cancer (AIRC), Italian League Against Cancer and Italian Ministry of Research. • The Study from Switzerland (FL) was supported by the Swiss League against Cancer and the Swiss Research against Cancer/Oncosuisse [KFS-700, OCS-1633]. • The central Europe study (PBoffetta, PBrenan, EF, JL, DM, PR, OS, NS-D) was supported by the World Cancer Research Fund and the European Commission INCOCOPERNICUS Program [Contract No. IC15- CT98-0332] • The New York multicentre study (JM) was supported by a grant from National Institute of Health [P01CA068384 K07CA104231]. • The study from the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center from Seattle (CC, SMS) was supported by a National Institute of Health grant [R01CA048996, R01DE012609]. • The Iowa study (ES) was supported by National Instituteof Health [NIDCR R01DE011979, NIDCR R01DE013110, FIRCA TW001500] and Veterans Affairs Merit Review Funds. • The North Carolina studies (AFO) were supported by National Institute of Health [R01CA061188], and in part by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [P30ES010126]. • The Tampa study (PLazarus, JM) was supported by National Institute of Health grants [P01CA068384, K07CA104231, R01DE013158] • The Los Angeles study (Z-F Z, HM) was supported by grants from National Institute of Health [P50CA090388, R01DA011386, R03CA077954, T32CA009142, U01CA096134, R21ES011667] and the Alper Research Program for Environmental Genomics of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. • The Houston study (EMS, GL) was supported by a grant from National Institute of Health [R01ES011740, R01CA100264]. • The Puerto Rico study (RBH, MPP) was supported by a grant from National Institutes of Health (NCI) US and NIDCR intramural programs. • The Latin America study (PBoffetta, PBrenan, MV, LF, MPC, AM, AWD, SK, VW-F) was supported by Fondo para la Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (FONCYT) Argentina, IMIM (Barcelona), Fundaco de Amparo a‘ Pesquisa no Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) [No 01/01768-2], and European Commission [IC18-CT97-0222] • The IARC multicentre study (SF, RH, XC) was supported by Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) of the Spanish Government [FIS 97/ 0024, FIS 97/0662, BAE 01/5013], International Union Against Cancer (UICC), and Yamagiwa-Yoshida Memorial International Cancer Study Grant. • The Boston study (KKelsey, MMcC) was supported by a grant from National Institute of Health [R01CA078609, R01CA100679]. • The Rome study (SB, GC) was supported by AIRC (Italian Agency for Research on Cancer). • The US multicentre study (BW) was supported by The Intramural Program of the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, United States. • The Sao Paolo study (V W-F) was supported by Fundacao de Ampara a Pesquisa no Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP No 10/51168-0) • The MSKCC study (SS, G-P Y) was supported by a grant from National Institute of Health [R01CA051845]. • The Seattle-Leo stud (FV) was supported by a grant from National Institute of Health [R01CA030022] • The western Europe Study (PBoffetta, IH, WA, PLagiou, DS, LS, FM, CH, KKjaerheim, DC, TMc, PT, AA, AZ) was supported by European Community (5th Frame work Programme) grant no QLK1-CT-2001- 00182. • The Germany Heidelberg study (HR) was supported by the grant No. 01GB9702/3 from the German Ministry of Education and Research.

A simple and rapid approach to post-earthquake assessment of bridge condition and damage

Peer reviewed

Artificial neural networks approach to predict principal ground motion parameters for quick post-earthquake damage assessment of bridges

Peer reviewed

A framework for rapid post-earthquake assessment of bridges and restoration of transportation network functionality using structural health monitoring

Peer reviewed

Estudio de las prácticas corporales con sentido estético. La danza contemporánea en la ciudad de Neuquén

La siguiente presentación forma parte del curso de Doctorado en Educación iniciado hace dos años en la Universidad Nacional del Comahue, en el marco de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. El título del proyecto de tesis presentado fue Estudio de las prácticas corporales con sentido estético, localizadas en instituciones y lugares de las ciudades de Neuquén. Los modos de la producción cultural y sus estrategias de transmisión y comunicación. El propósito general que se plantea esta investigación es el de: "Describir y analizar aquellas prácticas corporales de contenido artístico y recreativo, realizadas en instituciones y lugares, que presenten configuraciones alternativas en sus modos de agrupamiento y sus modelos de enseñanza y aprendizaje". (Schnaidler, 2013:3) El objeto de estudio de esta investigación es el estudio de las "formaciones" dedicadas a la práctica de actividades corporales con sentido artístico en la ciudad de Neuquén. El término formaciones se incorpora a partir de Raymon Williams quien sostiene: "En muchos trabajos de sociología de la cultura nos encontramos que tenemos que tratar no sólo con Instituciones generales y sus relaciones características, sino también con formas de organización y auto organización que parecen mucho más cercanas a la producción cultural." "En las formaciones culturales los artistas se unen para la prosecución común de un objetivo específicamente artístico. Tales formaciones, bajo los nombres de "movimiento", "escuela", "círculo" ("asociaciones") son tan importantes en la historia de la cultura y especialmente en la historia cultural moderna que representan un problema especial, difícil y sin embargo inevitable del análisis social. (Williams, 2000:52, 58) La ciudad de Neuquén ofrece un terreno especial para indagar estas agrupaciones, la dinámica adquirida en este último tiempo, su crecimiento y desarrollo económico, la cantidad de nuevos residentes y la compleja relación que se establece con el flujo ciudadano diario produce modificaciones que se hacen visibles en el ámbito de la producción cultural. Este estudio en particular, se centra en las actividades artísticas que involucran al cuerpo: teatro, teatro danza, danza contemporánea, malabarismo, murgas, etc. Se busca investigar los modos en que se presentan los grupos que realizan estas actividades, como los participantes se unen y cooperan entre sí, como establecen diversas relaciones con los espacios institucionales reconocidos

Justicia y Género en Latinoamérica : Una segunda aproximación

Fil: Soza Rossi, Paula V.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Cuerpos y estética : de deportistas y milicianos. Los movimientos juveniles judíos de resistencia en la década del 30 en la República Argentina

Dentro de la experiencia de investigación que a partir del año 2013 me toca dirigir, se encuentra una línea particular, relacionada con la estética y los cuerpos, que sugiere la indagación de agrupamientos particulares, relacionados con las prácticas corporales con sentido estético y artístico. En ese sentido, para nuestro equipo, se torna de interés reconocer, entre otros asuntos, como a partir de determinadas construcciones de la sensibilidad corporal, algunos grupos adquieren identidades propias, originales, muchas veces para la generación de nuevas tendencias culturales y otras en respuesta a contextos que desafiaron su integridad y núcleo más profundo. Esta presentación se propone indagar algunos de esos contextos, en este caso, la construcción de una cultura corporal propia de los jóvenes judíos en la década del 30 en nuestro país. La Segunda guerra Mundial y la vida de los Jóvenes Judíos Europeos en ese período, tuvo una fuerte relación con las actividades: Deportivas, militantes, de la Resistencia política y muchas veces, de militancia en la Resistencia armada. La década del 30 fue la antesala de esa construcción, como si forjar templanza en la competencia deportiva fuera el preludio de lo que la historia adivinaba para la década siguiente. ¿Cómo se estructuraron sus estéticas corporales, sus inclinaciones de moda e indumentaria, y relaciones sociales? ¿Cómo ?saltan? de las canchas deportivas Macabeas o de la Juventud Socialista, a la decisión de involucrar sus cuerpos en la defensa de identidades, culturas, Historias? Estos interrogantes, buscan respuestas en algunos principios de la cultura Judía europea y su culto a la vida. Asimismo, en continuidad con un artículo y ponencia anteriormente presentado en este congreso, se inicia una tarea de comparación con la imagen corporal y marcial del soldado alemán, típica y coincidente con muchos modos del ser corporal en la formación militar europea y la de algunos grupos juveniles de la época, en particular, la de jóvenes júdios y deportistas en la República Argentina

Estudio de las prácticas corporales con sentido estético. La danza contemporánea en la ciudad de Neuquén

La siguiente presentación forma parte del curso de Doctorado en Educación iniciado hace dos años en la Universidad Nacional del Comahue, en el marco de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. El título del proyecto de tesis presentado fue Estudio de las prácticas corporales con sentido estético, localizadas en instituciones y lugares de las ciudades de Neuquén. Los modos de la producción cultural y sus estrategias de transmisión y comunicación. El propósito general que se plantea esta investigación es el de: "Describir y analizar aquellas prácticas corporales de contenido artístico y recreativo, realizadas en instituciones y lugares, que presenten configuraciones alternativas en sus modos de agrupamiento y sus modelos de enseñanza y aprendizaje". (Schnaidler, 2013:3) El objeto de estudio de esta investigación es el estudio de las "formaciones" dedicadas a la práctica de actividades corporales con sentido artístico en la ciudad de Neuquén. El término formaciones se incorpora a partir de Raymon Williams quien sostiene: "En muchos trabajos de sociología de la cultura nos encontramos que tenemos que tratar no sólo con Instituciones generales y sus relaciones características, sino también con formas de organización y auto organización que parecen mucho más cercanas a la producción cultural." "En las formaciones culturales los artistas se unen para la prosecución común de un objetivo específicamente artístico. Tales formaciones, bajo los nombres de "movimiento", "escuela", "círculo" ("asociaciones") son tan importantes en la historia de la cultura y especialmente en la historia cultural moderna que representan un problema especial, difícil y sin embargo inevitable del análisis social. (Williams, 2000:52, 58) La ciudad de Neuquén ofrece un terreno especial para indagar estas agrupaciones, la dinámica adquirida en este último tiempo, su crecimiento y desarrollo económico, la cantidad de nuevos residentes y la compleja relación que se establece con el flujo ciudadano diario produce modificaciones que se hacen visibles en el ámbito de la producción cultural. Este estudio en particular, se centra en las actividades artísticas que involucran al cuerpo: teatro, teatro danza, danza contemporánea, malabarismo, murgas, etc. Se busca investigar los modos en que se presentan los grupos que realizan estas actividades, como los participantes se unen y cooperan entre sí, como establecen diversas relaciones con los espacios institucionales reconocidos

Justicia y Género en Latinoamérica : Una segunda aproximación

Fil: Soza Rossi, Paula V.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.