New and Noteworthy Plants of Texas

Rhexia alifanus (Melastomataceae) and Rhynchospora inundatum (Cyperaceae), both previously reported in the state, are documented as part of the flora of the state. Ratibida pinnata (Asteraceae), Tradescantia fluminensis (Commelinaceae) and Saccharum ravennae (Poaceae) are reported as new to Texas. Phytologia 92(2): 249-255 (August 2, 2010).Waller Creek Working Grou

INVESTIGATION OF OCEAN ACOUSTICS USING AUTONOMOUS INSTRUMENTATION TO QUANTIFY THE WATER-SEDIMENT BOUNDARY PROPERTIES

Sound propagation in shallow water is characterized by interaction with the oceans surface, volume, and bottom. In many coastal margin regions, including the Eastern U.S. continental shelf and the coastal seas of China, the bottom is composed of a depositional sandy-silty top layer. Previous measurements of narrow and broadband sound transmission at frequencies from 100 Hz to 1 kHz in these regions are consistent with waveguide calculations based on depth and frequency dependent sound speed, attenuation and density profiles. Theoretical predictions for the frequency dependence of attenuation vary from quadratic for the porous media model of M.A. Biot to linear for various competing models. Results from experiments performed under known conditions with sandy bottoms, however, have agreed with attenuation proportional to f1.84, which is slightly less than the theoretical value of f2 [Zhou and Zhang, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 2494]. This dissertation presents a reexamination of the fundamental considerations in the Biot derivation and leads to a simplification of the theory that can be coupled with site-specific, depth dependent attenuation and sound speed profiles to explain the observed frequency dependence. Long-range sound transmission measurements in a known waveguide can be used to estimate the site-specific sediment attenuation properties, but the costs and time associated with such at-sea experiments using traditional measurement techniques can be prohibitive. Here a new measurement tool consisting of an autonomous underwater vehicle and a small, low noise, towed hydrophone array was developed and used to obtain accurate long-range sound transmission measurements efficiently and cost effectively. To demonstrate this capability and to determine the modal and intrinsic attenuation characteristics, experiments were conducted in a carefully surveyed area in Nantucket Sound. A best-fit comparison between measured results and calculated results, while varying attenuation parameters, revealed the estimated power law exponent to be 1.87 between 220.5 and 1228 Hz. These results demonstrate the utility of this new cost effective and accurate measurement system. The sound transmission results, when compared with calculations based on the modified Biot theory, are shown to explain the observed frequency dependence.National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship through the American Society for Engineering Education, the Office of Naval Research, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

A Statistical Comparison of First Time Praxis II Pass Rates between Homegrown 4 year Students and Transfer Students of a Medium Size Suburban University: A Six Year Study

In order to meet the federal mandate specified by the No Child Left Behind Act to demonstrate content competency for teaching certification, students must pass a written examination. Missouri and 37 other states chose the Praxis II to satisfy requirements. Presently, schools of education advertise the passing rate of the Praxis II as 100%, since students can take the Praxis II until they pass. This study examined only the first time Praxis II pass rates for undergraduate students in a medium sized university over a six year period. The quantitative, predictive non-experimental research study statistically analyzed first time Praxis II scores from blinded student records acquired from the Comprehensive Academic Management Systems (CAMS) to look specifically at Praxis II test data from 2005 until 2010. Students utilize various pathways as they persist toward college graduation. Some students remain in a four year institution and graduate with a bachelor’s degree through a traditional route. Other students transfer at least once, either from two year institutions or from other four year institutions. This study isolated the first time that undergraduate students took the Praxis II and compared the passing rates for two groups, homegrown, students whose transcripts showed that they had taken freshmen orientation, and transfer. No distinction was made between students who transferred from two year or four year institutions, although the researcher recommends this distinction for future studies. The study disaggregated first time test takers by the reported Praxis II test code. Random samples from elementary education certification, secondary core certification, K-12 certification, and early childhood certification were drawn for analysis. Only Physical Education and Elementary Education provided large enough groups to disaggregate data by both year and group. Z tests checked for a iii difference in means at the 95% confidence level. To check for year to year differences, a single factor ANOVA was applied. Chi Square tests for independence using proportions and means were calculated. No statistically significant difference between undergraduate homegrown students and transfer students, as measured by first time Praxis II passing rate, was found for any group except Physical Education

Off The Beaten Path - A Podcast Interview Series

For my Honors Senior Thesis, I created a short podcast series entitled Off The Beaten Path . My podcast delves into the lives of individuals who have who have been unafraid to grab life by the horns and choose a less traditional path in pursuit of bringing their passion or their own new creation to life. My interest in interviewing these types of individuals stems from my own life story, as well as my own desire to learn from the insights of people who have succeeded in these types of endeavors before me

Analysis of casino shelf shuffling machines

Many casinos routinely use mechanical card shuffling machines. We were asked to evaluate a new product, a shelf shuffler. This leads to new probability, new combinatorics and to some practical advice which was adopted by the manufacturer. The interplay between theory, computing, and real-world application is developed.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/12-AAP884 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Interacting with an information space using sound: Accuracy and patterns

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)Human auditory perception is suited to receiving and interpreting information from the environment but this knowledge has not been used extensively in designing computer-based information exploration tools. It is not known how accurate humans can be in navigating an auditory display. Furthermore, it is not known if listeners will conform to known pattern search techniques in a search task using sound alone. An auditory display was created using PD (Pure Data), a graphical programming language used primarily to manipulate digital sound. The visual interface for the auditory display was a blank window. The auditory interface was based on ground level ozone concentration data. When the cursor is moved around in this window, the sound generated changes based on the underlying data value at any given point. An experiment was conducted to determine how accurately subjects were able to locate the highest concentration level using the auditory display. The four attributes of sound tested were frequencysine waveform, frequency-sawtooth waveform, loudness and tempo. Results indicate that sonic display of data yields less resolution than visual. It is also shown that people will generally utilize recognizable search patterns when exploring the information space

Interaction in sonification research: A citation analysis of the 2004 ICAD proceedings

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)A citation analysis of ICAD 2004 proceedings was conducted to ascertain the leading (i.e., most cited) authors and information sources. The analysis found that S.A. Brewster is the most highly cited author and that previous ICAD proceedings were the most highly cited source. The observed citation behavior exhibited in ICAD 2004 compares nicely with the expected Lotkan and Zipfian distributions. Further citation analysis combining the previous ICAD conferences is necessary to get a fuller understanding of the ICAD corpus of literature. The issue of whether auditory display is emerging as its own discipline can be elucidated with a complete citation dataset. Continued efforts along these lines will contribute to our overall understanding of ICAD as a community of scholars and researcher

Spatial Scaling of Avian Population Dynamics: Population Abundance, Growth Rate, and Variability

Synchrony in population fluctuations has been identified as an important component of population dynamics. In a previous study, we determined that local‐scale (\u3c15‐km) spatial synchrony of bird populations in New England was correlated with synchronous fluctuations in lepidopteran larvae abundance and with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Here we address five questions that extend the scope of our earlier study using North American Breeding Bird Survey data. First, do bird populations in eastern North America exhibit spatial synchrony in abundances at scales beyond those we have documented previously? Second, does spatial synchrony depend on what population metric is analyzed (e.g., abundance, growth rate, or variability)? Third, is there geographic concordance in where species exhibit synchrony? Fourth, for those species that exhibit significant geographic concordance, are there landscape and habitat variables that contribute to the observed patterns? Fifth, is spatial synchrony affected by a species\u27 life history traits? Significant spatial synchrony was common and its magnitude was dependent on the population metric analyzed. Twenty‐four of 29 species examined exhibited significant synchrony in population abundance: mean local autocorrelation (ρ) = 0.15; mean spatial extent (mean distance where ρ = 0) = 420.7 km. Five of the 29 species exhibited significant synchrony in annual population growth rate (mean local autocorrelation = 0.06, mean distance = 457.8 km). Ten of the 29 species exhibited significant synchrony in population abundance variability (mean local autocorrelation = 0.49, mean distance = 413.8 km). Analyses of landscape structure indicated that habitat variables were infrequent contributors to spatial synchrony. Likewise, we detected no effects of life history traits on synchrony in population abundance or growth rate. However, short‐distance migrants exhibited more spatially extensive synchrony in population variability than either year‐round residents or long‐distance migrants. The dissimilarity of the spatial extent of synchrony across species suggests that most populations are not regulated at similar spatial scales. The spatial scale of the population synchrony patterns we describe is likely larger than the actual scale of population regulation, and in turn, the scale of population regulation is undoubtedly larger than the scale of individual ecological requirements

FOXA1 mutations in hormone-dependent cancers.

The forkhead protein, FOXA1, is a critical interacting partner of the nuclear hormone receptors, oestrogen receptor-α (ER) and androgen receptor (AR), which are major drivers of the two most common cancers, namely breast and prostate cancer. Over the past few years, progress has been made in our understanding of how FOXA1 influences nuclear receptor function, with both common and distinct roles in the regulation of ER or AR. Recently, another level of regulation has been described, with the discovery that FOXA1 is mutated in 1.8% of breast and 3-5% prostate cancers. In addition, a subset of both cancer types exhibit amplification of the genomic region encompassing the FOXA1 gene. Furthermore, there is evidence of somatic changes that influence the DNA sequence under FOXA1 binding regions, which may indirectly influence FOXA1-mediated regulation of ER and AR activity. These recent observations provide insight into the heterogeneity observed in ER and AR driven cancers

Inside a gay world: a heuristic self-search inquiry of one gay man’s experience of a ‘cultic’ gay male friendship group

This thesis is a Heuristic Self-Search Inquiry (HSSI) that explores the personal experience of one gay man’s participation in a gay male friendship group whose culturally constructed sense of being gay, characterised by specific places, customs and practices the researcher considers ‘cultic’. The study is undertaken through the researcher who found himself outside a closed group of emotionally intimate gay friends, which represented an entire world. Using the HSSI model created by Sela-Smith (2002), this profoundly personal qualitative study considers the researcher's internal experiencing as the primary source of knowledge. Material from online images, academic papers and personal writing of the inquirer’s lived experience of the research topic provided for periods of contemplative incubation and illumination, typical of HSSI. The output was the depiction of six emergent themes that highlight the qualities and nuances of the topic: pain, frustration, mistrust, joy, disgust and confusion. The other main findings are: this gay male friendship group developed characteristics of a symbolically enclosed cultic institution; that gay men are susceptible to forming cultic relationships; and a depth of distress experienced when intimate friendships between gay men fail. The findings finish by offering a creative synthesis, which captures the resultant integrated understanding of the experience in the form of a short story. Recommendations are made for counselling professionals to trouble their understanding of gay male friendship groups, and for public and third sector organisations working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) identifying peoples to begin discussing interpersonal issues inside LGBTQ populations