Finding Place: Chaos, Control, & I

This thesis and accompanying exhibition seeks to investigate through visualization the role of individual units within a system through personal association with those individual units. The art forms in the exhibition are artifacts of the pseudo-scientific process that I have developed. Through scientific research and interpretations of personal experiences, the process seeks to explore system construction, functionality and degree of success regarding each. The role of the individual unit within systems and the manner in which it exercises a potent influence is elucidated. As a consequence, the exhibition provides self-reflective information and an environment for viewers to consider the effects that they have on systems

Manifestations of a Reluctance to Recognize Punitive Damages in Products Liability

Asbestos is one of many products which have a once-latent danger now facing consumers. Our judicial system uses many means to confront these dangers, including imposing punitive damages on manufacturers. At what point does a manufacturer\u27s business decisions affect society such that punitive damages become necessary? This issue is increasingly important in our highly industrialized and technological society. Angotti v. Celotex Corp. mandates an in-depth examination of this issue: first, how are jurisdictions other than Missouri approaching this problem; second, what considerations affect how punitive damages are used in a products liability setting; third, does Missouri\u27s approach further these considerations; and finally, what will post- Celotex courts in Missouri require to support punitive damages? This Note addresses all of these questions

Development and application of variable rate irrigation techniques on non-uniform soils using center-pivot irrigation systems

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on June 7, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Allen ThompsonIncludes bibliographical references.M.S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011."December 2011"Variable rate irrigation was studied for the production of corn and rice on a nonuniform soil texture using a three tower, conventional, center-pivot irrigation system on the East Marsh Pivot (Marsh Pivot) at the University of Missouri Delta Research Center in Portageville, MO. The soil of the Marsh Pivot is of the Hayti-Portageville-Cooter association. Veris Technologies' Soil Electrical Conductivity (EC) System was used in 2002 to determine the sand content within the soil. The mean sand was calculated from the deep reading of the system because the EC from the deep reading had the better correlation with the calibration soil samples from the Marsh Pivot. Six irrigation treatments were used for corn irrigation in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, 15 mm was used to produce the maximum yield for corn, but in 2010 46 mm was used to produce the maximum yield for corn on the non-uniform soils. However, for both years 8 mm produced yields equal to or greater than all other irrigation treatments at the 95% confidence interval. Seven repetitions of six irrigation treatments were studied on the east half of the Marsh Pivot in 2010. The center-pivot irrigation system produced average yields greater than conventional flood irrigation (8970 kg-ha-1 vs 7040 kg-ha-1, Vories et al., 2002) while using less applied water for an application depth of at least 11 mm, (790 mm vs 1200-1600 mm)., Jehangir et al., 2004)

Effect of localized national news on audience value perception

The widespread usage of the internet and online media has changed the relationship between reader and online news publication. Previous studies have found that the greater public is unwilling to pay for online media, especially online news. This study explored how content angle, localized national news or standard national news, impacted audience perceptions of value, willingness to pay for online news, and likelihood to subscribe. A digital questionnaire was administered to 50 participants who were exposed to localized and standard versions of news stories and asked to make personal evaluations of the content and fictional news outlets. The results of this study showed that content angle, localized national versus standard national, has a significant effect on perceived value of news content, but no impact on the perceived value of news outlet. Beyond analyzing content angle' effect on value perceptions, this study measured how content angle and commitment to local community affected willingness to pay and likelihood to subscribe. However, the effect of content angle on willingness to pay and likelihood to subscribe was not statistically significant. Further, the interaction between content angle and individual commitment to local community was also not statistically significant.by Emily Christine RackersIncludes bibliographical reference

Hierarchical Learning in Euclidean Neural Networks

Equivariant machine learning methods have shown wide success at 3D learning applications in recent years. These models explicitly build in the reflection, translation and rotation symmetries of Euclidean space and have facilitated large advances in accuracy and data efficiency for a range of applications in the physical sciences. An outstanding question for equivariant models is why they achieve such larger-than-expected advances in these applications. To probe this question, we examine the role of higher order (non-scalar) features in Euclidean Neural Networks (\texttt{e3nn}). We focus on the previously studied application of \texttt{e3nn} to the problem of electron density prediction, which allows for a variety of non-scalar outputs, and examine whether the nature of the output (scalar $l=0$, vector $l=1$, or higher order $l>1$) is relevant to the effectiveness of non-scalar hidden features in the network. Further, we examine the behavior of non-scalar features throughout training, finding a natural hierarchy of features by $l$, reminiscent of a multipole expansion. We aim for our work to ultimately inform design principles and choices of domain applications for {\tt e3nn} networks.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Descriptive Analysis of Patients Admitted to a Specialized Perinatal Psychiatry Inpatient Unit to Inform Practice Surrounding Transitions of Care

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMAD) are a serious public health problem that negatively impact a woman’s health and her ability to care for her infant. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Neurosciences Hospital operates a specialized perinatal psychiatric inpatient unit (UNCH-CH PPIU). To inform practices surrounding care transitions on the unit, this paper explores length of stay (LOS) as a potential indicator for who may need more support during transitions by evaluating the relationship between inpatient population characteristics and length of LOS. Consistent with previous research, long LOS was associated with increased age and diagnoses including Schizophrenic Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, and Substance Use Related Disorders; however, inconsistent with previous research, LOS was not associated with measures of social support and resources.Master of Public Healt

Median Statistics Estimate of the Distance to M87

de Grijs and Bono compiled 211 independent measurements of the distance to galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster from 15 different tracers and reported the arithmetic mean of a subset of this compilation as the best estimate of the distance. We compute three different central estimates -- the arithmetic mean, weighted mean, and the median -- and corresponding statistical uncertainty for the full data set as well as two sub-compilations. We find that for all three central estimates the error distributions show that the data sets are significantly non-Gaussian. As a result, we conclude that that the median is the most reliable of the three central estimates, as median statistics does not assume Gaussianity. We use median statistics to determine the systematic error on the distance by analyzing the scatter in the 15 tracer subgroup distances. From the 211 distance measurements, we recommend a summary M87 distance modulus of $31.08^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$ (statistical) ${}^{+0.04}_{-0.06}$ (systematic) mag, or combining the two errors in quadrature $31.08^{+0.06}_{-0.08}$ mag, rounded to $16.4^{+0.5}_{-0.6}$ Mpc, all at $68.27\%$ significance.Comment: 7 Pages, 2 Table

Configuration of actors and roles in establishing ICT

Establishing technologies has brought mixed socio-economic impacts across nations and regions. Researchers have studied the relationships between the establishment technologies and its impacts through identifying innovative processes, major actors, and available resources. However, the challenge to this literature is how less resourced countries have achieved greater prosperity than better resourced countries by establishing Information and Communication Technology (ICT). To understand and analyze this phenomenon, we propose a typology of the configuration of roles and actors in establishing ICT based on an innovation framework. The proposed typology can be used not only to explain different socio-economic impacts among countries or regions, but also to suggest a constructive way in establishing ICT through reconfiguring involved actors in the key roles

The Influence of Race and Gender on the Choice of a Mental Health Provider

Although the current mental health treatment model provides little opportunity for consumers of services to exert control of their mental health experiences (specifically when choosing a provider), the ability to select a service provider may aid in the formation of the therapeutic alliance. The abundance of research regarding the topic of racial and gender matching of clinicians and clients has focused on treatment outcomes and client retention, and less on client preference and how it relates to likelihood that they will seek out services. Previous studies have used face-valid surveys asking whether clients would prefer a clinician who is a member of their racial or gender in-group – a method that is susceptible to social desirability bias. The current study proposed new method of assessing service provider preference that is less susceptible to social desirability bias: by providing participants with a hypothetical scenario asking if they will seek services from a given service provider in a confidential online survey setting. The results indicated that there was not a significant difference in the likelihood of an individual to seek services when they were presented with a race and gender match