ScholarWorks

Entretien avec Fabienne Kanor

Jason Herbeck — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:19:27 PDT

D’origine martiniquaise, Fabienne Kanor est devenue romancière etréalisatrice après une première carrière dans le journalisme. Dans cet entretien, elle parle surtout de son deuxième roman, Humus(2007), qui raconte à voix multiples les récits de quatorze femmes qui se trouvent à bord d’un bateau négrier à destination des Antilles et décident de se jeter à l’eau. Kanor se penche surl’histoire de la traite négrière et surl’acte d’écriture, ainsi que sur sa propre identité en tant qu’écrivain de la “diaspora”, ayant grandi en Métropole dans une famille d’origine antillaise.

Immigrant Brides in Taiwan: New Land, New Hope?

YuWen Chen — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:18:42 PDT

In the last two decades, transnational marriages have been growing in Taiwan, Republic of China (R.O.C). Increasing numbers of Taiwanese men have married bride immigrants from Southeast Asian countries (Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia) and Mainland China. These women usually are from low socio-economic class and have little formal education. (Chen, Katsurada & Wu, 1998; Tsai, 2006; Tsai & Hsiao 2006) Their offspring are the so-called “New Taiwanese Children”(NTC). The academic performance of New Taiwanese Children has become a contested issue in Taiwanese society, because these children are viewed by some as not being able to contribute to society. The goal of this study is to explore the bride immigrants’ roles in Taiwan as mothers in the community. This study is a qualitative study that uses ethnographic tools. The data was collected through informal and semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. This study hopes to inform others in the field of international migration and share how bride mothers have learned to navigate their new adapted culture, the Taiwanese culture.

Reconfigurable Threshold Logic Gates using Memristive Devices

Adrian Rothenbuhler et al. — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:54:18 PDT

We present our design exploration of reconfigurable Threshold Logic Gates (TLG) implemented using silver–chalcogenide memristive devices combined with CMOS circuits. Results from simulations and physical circuits are shown. A variety of linearly separable logic functions including AND, OR, NAND, NOR have been realized in discrete hardware using a single-layer TLG. The functionality can be changed between these operations by reprogramming the resistance of the memristive devices.

Using iPads in the Reading Room

Jim Duran et al. — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:14:32 PDT

In 2010, Boise State University began integrating mobile technology into teaching and learning environments on campus. Albertsons Library Special Collections and Archives (ALSCA) at the university soon followed; as an experiment in November 2012, we gave patrons access to four iPads in our reading room. We asked researchers to use them and share their experiences. Although the iPads were available for only six weeks, we quickly realized the benefits of making iPads a permanent addition to our reading room.

Inculcate Tehran: Opening a Dialogue of Civilizations in the Shadow of God and the Alborz

Michael Zirinsky — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:31:54 PDT

This essay discusses the establishment of Alborz College by American Presbyterian missionaries. Alborz's early years, before its 1940 nationalization by Iran, were shaped by the vision of its first president, Samuel Jordan, a liberal, athletic, pragmatic Christian reformer who led by example, a practitioner of what we now call “social work” and an encourager of female empowerment. Alborz and the Presbyterian mission which gave it birth grew in the context of American social history, including the religious awakening of the early nineteenth century, American doctrines of freedom and universal education, as well as the contradictory impulses of ethnocentricity and ecumenicism. The essay is based on private and governmental archival sources and the experience of the author as a high school student in Tehran.

This history needs to be told.

—Yahya Armajani

All writing is autobiographical.

—Donald Murray

This essay discusses the origins of Alborz College as an effort by private Americans to share with Iran the blessings of their own culture. This they did for decades, cooperating with the Tehran government, without involving Washington. Remarkably, Alborz survived Reza Shah's assault on foreign schools during the 1930s, and it flourished after nationalization as a premier Iranian institution preparing secondary students for modern university studies. It continues as such today.

Measuring News Media Literacy: How Knowledge and Motivations Combine to Create News-Literate Teens

Stephanie Craft et al. — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:52:40 PDT

Developing ways to improve young people’s news media literacy has been the focus of much recent attention among scholars, educators, and news professionals. Common definitions and approaches, however, have been scarce, making it difficult to compare and analyze curriculum effectiveness and research results. This project sought to create a measure of news media literacy that can be used to further our understanding of what constitutes news media literacy and to help validate and improve education and training.

An Exploratory System for Collaborative Decision-Making in Community Planning

Aaron Dale Wells — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:57:51 PDT

Community planning problems differ from those of science, technology, and mathematics as they are not solvable with logical-empiricism. Their solutions are influenced by technology, politics, style, economics, as well as the personalities and experience of those individuals collaborating on the solution. Obtaining cooperation of the stakeholders to implement community planning solutions can be cumbersome or simply cause failure in the implementation of plans. Yet, if the stakeholders had a real handle on the cost and benefits the literature suggests that cooperation can evolve.

In this project, we explore building a reliable cost and benefit model for a set of input parameters that may allow a collaborative solution to emerge more easily. Furthermore we hypothesize that in the decision process there is a tipping point between costs related to a decision and its benefits.

In order to test the hypotheses, we have designed and tested a software framework with focus groups that included locally elected officials, economic development specialist, planners, and citizens. The software framework allowed the stakeholders to explore an interactive cost-benefit model, and researchers to collect those interactions and visualize them in real-time. The software framework developed for the study, its set up, and findings based on a focus group study are discussed.

The software framework developed for this study and the included analysis tool provided were shown to be effective in identifying the \tipping-point" moments in the group dynamics.

Lean Processes without Compromising Controls

Robyn L. Raschke et al. — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:46:26 PDT

In today’s economic environment, governments feel the pressure to operate more efficiently, and many are therefore considering the gradual and continuous process improvement that Lean provides. Lean begins by examining a process from beginning to end, without departmental barriers; identifying the parts of the process that are inefficient; making a case for Lean improvements; and improving the process by reducing activities and waste that don’t add value to the consumer of the process.

Explaining the Hydroclimatic Variability and Change in the Salmon River Basin

Venkataramana Sridhar et al. — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:10:42 PDT

Climate change in the Pacific Northwest and in particular, the Salmon River Basin (SRB), is expected to bring about 3–5 °C rise in temperatures and an 8 % increase in precipitation. In order to assess the impacts due to these changes at the basin scale, this study employed an improved version of Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model, which includes a parallel version of VIC combined with a comprehensive parameter estimation technique, Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) to estimate the streamflow and other water balance components. Our calibration (1955–1975) and validation (1976–1999) of the model at the outlet of the basin, White Bird, resulted in an r² value of 0.94 which was considered satisfactory. Subsequent center of timing analysis showed that a gradual advancement of snowmelt induced-peak flow advancing by about 10 days in the future. Historically, the flows have shown a general decline in the basin, and in the future while the magnitudes might not be greatly affected, decreasing runoff of about 3 % over the next 90 years could be expected and timing of peak flow would shift by approximately 10 days. Also, a significant reduction of snow water equivalent up to 25 %, increased evapotranspiration up to 14 %, and decreased soil moisture storages of about 2 % is predicted by the model. A steady decline in SWE/P from the majority of climate model projections for the basin was also evident. Thus, the earlier snowmelt, decreasing soil moisture and increased evapotranspiration collectively implied the potential to trigger drought in the basin and could affect the quality of aquatic habitats and their spawning and a detailed investigation on these impacts is warranted.

Use of Integrated Technology in Team Sports: A Review of Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions for Athletes

Carla Dellaserra — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:44:18 PDT

Integrated technology (IT), which includes accelerometers, global positioning systems (GPS), and heart rate monitors, has been used frequently in public health. More recently, IT data have been used in sports settings to assess training and performance demands. However, the impact of IT in sport settings has yet to be evaluated, particularly in field-based team sports. This study provides an overview of IT’s emerging impact in sports settings through a systematic review. Twenty electronic databases (e.g. Medline, SPORTdiscus, ScienceDirect), print publications (e.g. Signal Processing Magazine, Catapult Innovations news releases), and internet resources were searched using different combinations of keywords accelerometers, HR monitors, GPS, sport training, and field-based sports for relevant articles published from 1990 to present. A total of 114 publications were identified, and 39 that examined a field-based team sport using a form of IT were analyzed. Articles chosen for analysis examined a field-based team sport using a form of IT. The uses of IT can be divided into four categories: (a) quantifying movement patterns (n=22), (b) assessing differences between demands of training and competition (n=12), (c) measuring physiological and metabolic responses (n=16) and (d) determining a valid definition for velocity and a sprint effort (n=8). The majority of studies used elite adult male athlete participants, and analyzed the sports of Australian Rules football, field hockey, cricket, and soccer, with sample sizes between 5-20 participants. IT’s limitations in a sport setting include scalability issues, cost, and the inability to receive signals within indoor environments. IT can contribute to significant improvements in the preparation, training, and recovery aspects of field-based team sports. Future research should focus on utilizing IT with female athlete populations and developing resources to use IT indoors to further enhance individual and team performances.

Phytochemistry Predicts Habitat Selection by an Avian Herbivore at Multiple Spatial Scales

Graham G. Frye et al. — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:49:49 PDT

Animal habitat selection is a process that functions at multiple, hierarchically structured spatial scales. Thus multi-scale analyses should be the basis for inferences about factors driving the habitat selection process. Vertebrate herbivores forage selectively on the basis of phytochemistry, but few studies have investigated the influence of selective foraging (i.e., fine-scale habitat selection) on habitat selection at larger scales. We tested the hypothesis that phytochemistry is integral to the habitat selection process for vertebrate herbivores. We predicted that habitats selected at three spatial scales would be characterized by higher nutrient concentrations and lower concentrations of plant secondary metabolites (PSMs) than unused habitats. We used the Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), an avian herbivore with a seasonally specialized diet of sagebrush, to test our hypothesis. Sage-Grouse selected a habitat type (black sagebrush, Artemisia nova) with lower PSM concentrations than the alternative (Wyoming big sagebrush, A. tridentata wyomingensis). Within black sagebrush habitat, Sage-Grouse selected patches and individual plants within those patches that were higher in nutrient concentrations and lower in PSM concentrations than those not used. Our results provide the first evidence for multi-scale habitat selection by an avian herbivore on the basis of phytochemistry, and they suggest that phytochemistry may be a fundamental driver of habitat selection for vertebrate herbivores.

A Pharm-Ecological Perspective of Terrestrial and Aquatic Plant-Herbivore Interactions

Jennifer Sorensen Forbey et al. — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:28:47 PDT

We describe some recent themes in the nutritional and chemical ecology of herbivores and the importance of a broad pharmacological view of plant nutrients and chemical defenses that we integrate as “Pharm-ecology”. The central role that dose, concentration, and response to plant components (nutrients and secondary metabolites) play in herbivore foraging behavior argues for broader application of approaches derived from pharmacology to both terrestrial and aquatic plant-herbivore systems. We describe how concepts of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are used to better understand the foraging phenotype of herbivores relative to nutrient and secondary metabolites in food. Implementing these concepts into the field remains a challenge, but new modeling approaches that emphasize tradeoffs and the properties of individual animals show promise. Throughout, we highlight similarities and differences between the historic and future applications of pharm-ecological concepts in understanding the ecology and evolution of terrestrial and aquatic interactions between herbivores and plants. We offer several pharm-ecology related questions and hypotheses that could strengthen our understanding of the nutritional and chemical factors that modulate foraging behavior of herbivores across terrestrial and aquatic systems.

DNA-Based Excitonic AND Logic Gate

Brittany L. Cannon — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:49:22 PDT

Scaffolded DNA Origami1 has been utilized as a ‘nanobreadboard,’ and decorated with nanoparticles (e.g. organic dyes, inorganic quantum dots and metallic nanoparticles) to engineer near-field optoelectronic devices. Successfully fabricated DNA origami-based excitonic devices include waveguides2-5, switches6, and logic gates7-9.

Recently, an alternative approach to scaffolded DNA origami, termed ‘molecular canvases’, has been introduced that uses short single-stranded DNA motifs (~16-42 bps) to fabricate two- and three-dimensional nanostructures10-12. DNA motifs can be viewed as ‘molecular pixels/voxels’ and constituently selected to reconfigure the shape and size of the canvas. Similar to DNA origami, molecular canvas self-assembly is a one-step process that offers programmability afforded by DNA, however, without the aid of a long single-stranded scaffold. Molecular canvas structures can be utilized as nanobreadboards with programmable sub-diffraction resolution positioning of nanoparticles. Augmenting certain single-stranded DNA motifs with strand extensions, called ‘sticky-ends’ (~20-25 bps), enables nanoparticle attachment to occur via strand hybridization13 and allows dynamic device operations to be performed. Though the molecular canvas offers reconfigurability and modularity, it has yet to be utilized as a nanobreadboard for device applications.

Constructing single-module devices utilizing molecular canvases is the first step towards developing self-ordering modular devices. In Figure 1(a), we present a 16 nm X 28 nm two-dimensional molecular canvas composed of 28 short DNA strands used as a nanobreadboard for the attachment of fluorescent dyes (FAM, TAMRA, and Cy5)11. Figure 1(b,c) demonstrates programmable reconfigurability of the structure shape and size as provided by the molecular canvas. AND logic operations and excitonic waveguides (e.g. photonic wires) are demonstrated through proximate positioning of four dyes onto nanobreadboards. The input and output dyes (named F and C, respectively) are attached directly onto nanobreadboards. Two intermediary dyes (T1 and T2) are attached to independent strands such that logic operations can be performed via strand hybridization. Attachment of all four dyes yields an energy waveguide resulting in photonic emission that is easily detected. As depicted in the truth table in Fig. 1(d), a ‘1’ truth value corresponds only to the attachment of both T1 and T2 in which the ON-OFF threshold is surpassed. Spectral data, such as that shown in Fig. 1(e), is obtained by exciting the input dye (F) with 450 nm wavelength photons and monitoring fluorescent emission over a range of wavelengths. Excitonic energy transfer from F to T1 & T2 and from T1 & T2 to C corresponds to spectral peaks at 579 nm and 661 nm, respectively. Logic operations are expressed by exciting F with 450 nm wavelength photons and examining fluorescent emission wavelengths from C at only 668 nm. Figure 1(f, g) demonstrates the attachment of T1 and T2 independently to define an ON-OFF threshold. Hence, we have validated the use of a molecular canvas as a nanobreadboard and demonstrated a near-field AND logic device that can be extended to fabricate near-field logic devices of greater complexity via a modular approach.

Acknowledgment

This project was supported in part by: (1) NSF Grant No. CCF 0855212, (2) NSF IDR No. 1014922, (3) NIH Grant No. P20 RR016454, (4) NIH Grant No. K25GM093233, (5) W.M. Keck Foundation Award, (6) DARPA Contract No. N66001-01-C-80345, and (6) Micron MSE PhD Fellowship. We also thank the students and staff within the Nanoscale Materials & Device Research Group (nano.boisestate.edu).

References

[1] Rothemund, P. W. K., Nature 2006, 440, 297-302. [2] Vyawahare, S.; et al. Nano Letters 2004, 4, 1035-1039. [3] Hannestad, J. K.; et al. Small 2011, 7, 3178-3185. [4] Dutta, P. K.; et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011, 133, 11985-11993. [5] Stein, I. H.; et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011, 133, 4193-4195. [6] Graugnard, E.; et al. Nano Letters 2012, 12, 2117-2122. [7] Okamoto, A.; et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2004, 126, 9458-9463. [8] Douglas, S. M.; et al. Science 2012, 335, 831-834. [9] Zhang, X. C.; et al. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience 2012, 9, 1680-1685. [10] Lin, C. X.; et al. ChemPhysChem 2006, 7, 1641-1647. [11] Wei, B.; et al. Nature 2012, 485, 623. [12] Ke, Y. G.; et al. Science 2012, 338, 1177-1183. [13] Zhang, D. Y.; et al. Nature Chemistry 2011, 3, 103-13.

Melville in Tahiti: A GIS Approach

Jessica Ewing — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:43:22 PDT

This presentation will focus on Melville's period in and around Tahiti in 1842, a part of the biographical record vexed by conflicting scholarly accounts of Melville's whereabouts and actions, and by inconsistencies—as well as outright falsehoods—among surviving documents and the author's own account of his experiences in his second book Omoo. Digitally expanding on methods of traditional scholarship, I will present the evidence in visual, electronic form by using ArcGIS software to map Melville’s movements, supplying relevant data and documentation and mapping alternate interpretations of the author's travels. The layered digital maps will locate the author at specific dates and locations and will pinpoint the gaps and contradictions in our current knowledge. Along with presenting complex evidence in a vivid and user-friendly format, my talk will consider conflicting accounts of Melville’s imprisonment in a Tahitian calaboose with fellow sailors who had refused duty aboard the whaleship Lucy Ann. According to Edward Lucett's account of his own imprisonment there in Rovings in the Pacific, Melville was the chief assailant in an assault he suffered at the hands of the incarcerated "mutineers." Major scholars since Jay Leyda have rejected Lucett's claim by arguing that Melville had escaped Tahiti by the time of Lucett's imprisonment, with Hershel Parker asserting that Melville's name and identity were "appropriated" by a remaining prisoner who perpetrated the abuse. Recently, however, Robert Suggs has sought to credit Lucett's accusation while attributing the deed to violent tendencies in Melville's character. While scholarship is divided regarding the veracity of Lucett’s claim and the known whereabouts of Melville on November 18, 1842, my paper will provide the fullest examination of surviving documents since Harrison Hayford conducted his research for the Hendricks House edition of Omoo (1969). I will compare Melville’s and Lucett’s accounts of the calaboose, will investigate current scholarly claims, and will focus on the existing evidence to determine what we can reliably conclude regarding Melville’s involvement in the incident.

Development of a Scale for Fantasy State in Digital Games

Beomkyu Choi et al. — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:57:25 PDT

Digital games appear to motivate players intrinsically. Of various game features, fantasy in particularly plays a crucial role in enhancing motivation and is a key factor in immersion in gameplay. As with its inherent value, fantasy also plays a vital role in distinguishing digital games itself from other media. Despite its significance, fantasy has received little attention, and this concept is still ambiguous to define with any certainty. This study thus aims to create a framework to explore a dimension of fantasy and to develop a scale to measure a state of fantasy in digital games. As a result, four factors were extracted, which were ‘identification’, ‘imagination’, ‘analogy’, and ‘satisfaction’, to account for fantasy state in digital gameplay. Based on these factors, a fantasy scale in digital games (FSDGs) included 16 items was developed.

On the K-Mer Frequency Spectra of Organism Genome and Proteome Sequences with a Preliminary Machine Learning Assessment of Prime Predictability

Nathan O. Schmidt — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:03:00 PDT

A regular expression and region-specific filtering system for biological records at the National Center for Biotechnology database is integrated into an object oriented sequence counting application, and a statistical software suite is designed and deployed to interpret the resulting k-mer frequencies|with a priority focus on nullomers. The proteome k-mer frequency spectra of ten model organisms and the genome k-mer frequency spectra of two bacteria and virus strains for the coding and non-coding regions are comparatively scrutinized. We observe that the naturally-evolved (NCBI/organism) and the artificially-biased (randomly-generated) sequences exhibit a clear deviation from the artificially-unbiased (randomly-generated) histogram distributions. Furthermore, a preliminary assessment of prime predictability is conducted on chronologically ordered NCBI genome snapshots over an 18-month period using an artificial neural network; three distinct supervised machine learning algorithms are used to train and test the system on customized NCBI data sets to forecast future prime states|revealing that, to a modest degree, it is feasible to make such predictions.

Borel's Conjecture in Topological Groups

Fred Galvin et al. — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:30:03 PDT

We introduce a natural generalization of Borel's Conjecture. For each infinite cardinal number κ, let BCκ denote this generalization. Then BCℵ₀ is equivalent to the classical Borel conjecture. Assuming the classical Borel conjecture, ¬BCℵ₁ is equivalent to the existence of a Kurepa tree of height ℵ₁. Using the connection of BCκ with a generalization of Kurepa's Hypothesis, we obtain the following consistency results:

1. If it is consistent that there is a 1-inaccessible cardinal then it is consistent that BCℵ₁.

2. If it is consistent that BCℵ₁, then it is consistent that there is an inaccessible cardinal.

3. If it is consistent that there is a 1-inaccessible cardinal with ω inaccessible cardinals above it, then ¬BCℵ_ω+(∀n<ω)BCℵ_n is consistent.

4. If it is consistent that there is a 2-huge cardinal, then it is consistent that BCℵ_ω.

5. If it is consistent that there is a 3-huge cardinal, then it is consistent thatBCκ for a proper class of cardinals κ of countable cofinality.

Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging using Gas-coupled Laser Acoustic Detection

Jami Johnson — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:20:00 PDT

Several detection methods have been explored for photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging of biological tissues. Piezoelectric transducers are commonly used, which require contact with the sample to be imaged and have limiting bandwidth characteristics. Interferometry detection exhibits improved bandwidth characteristics and resolution, yet generally require complicated optics and the incorporation of a contacting reflective medium. In this paper, we report the use of a noncontact photoacoustic imaging system that does not require the use of a reflective layer. A simple, robust technique known as gas-coupled laser acoustic detection is used, which has previously been applied to evaluation of composite materials. This technique has the potential to reduce the complexity and cost of photoacoustic imaging devices, and allow for use in a broader range of medical applications.