Examining juvenile crime and recidivism

High juvenile recidivism rates are a dilemma that is plaguing the juvenile justice system and the treatment facilities that operate within. There is little understanding of the causal relationship between recidivism rates, treatment types, and the demographics of the residents at the various treatment facilities. The purpose of this research is to identify the common flaws existing in current treatment practices and to utilize social labeling theory as a means of gaining a better understanding of this issue

Design Refinement by Iterative Virtual Experimentation (D.R.I.V.E.): A Methodology to Solving Engineering Design Problems

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Science & Technology Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Science by Charles M. “Matt” Watson on April 25, 201

The influence of olfactory and tactile stimuli on the feeding behavior of Melibe leonina (Gould, 1852) (Opisthobranchia: Dendronotacea)

The nudibranch Melibe leonine feeds using the rhythmic movements of its large oral hood to capture small crustaceans that are present in the water column. The frequency of these feeding movements, or hood closures, is proportional to the concentration of available prey. The purpose of this study was to determine what qualities of prey cause the rate of these feeding movements to change. Animals were observed during exposure to the following treatments: (1) filtered seawater; (2) Artemia-conditioned seawater (smell); (3) small particles in seawater; (4) particles soaked in Artemia-conditioned seawater; (5) frozen Artemia and; (6) live Artemia. Both conditioned water and particles caused appetitive behavior (orientation of the oral hood) and a significant increase in the frequency of hood closures. This incrase in rate had a rapid onset and was maintained throughout the duration of the 20-min test period. The major difference between the effects of the two stimuli was that smell alone led to incomplete feeding cycles while particle treatments yielded normal feeding behavior. When applied together these stimuli produced a larger response than either one did alone. However, no combination of stimuli was as effective as live prey. We conclude that both tactile and chemical cues are sufficient to elicit an increase in the feeding movements of Melibe leonine, but some additional stimulus provided by live prey, such as vibrations, may play an important role as well. The information provided by these stimuli helps initiate appetitive and early aspects of the consummartory phases of feeding, and also influences full expression of the rhythmic feeding motor program

A Smart Wizard System Suitable for Use With Internet Mobile Devices to Adjust Personal Information Privacy Settings

The privacy of personal information is an important issue affecting the confidence of internet users. The widespread adoption of online social networks and access to these platforms using mobile devices has encouraged developers to make the systems and interfaces acceptable to users who seek privacy. The aim of this study is to test a wizard that allows users to control the sharing of personal information with others. We also assess the concerns of users in terms of such sharing such as whether to hide personal data in current online social network accounts. Survey results showed the wizard worked very well and that females concealed more personal information than did males. In addition, most users who were concerned about misuse of personal information hid those items. The results can be used to upgrade current privacy systems or to design new systems that work on mobile internet devices. The system can also be used to save time when setting personal privacy settings and makes users more aware of items that will be shared with others.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Anomalous CO2 Ice Toward HOPS-68: A Tracer of Protostellar Feedback

We report the detection of a unique CO2 ice band toward the deeply embedded, low-mass protostar HOPS-68. Our spectrum, obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, reveals a 15.2 micron CO2 ice bending mode profile that cannot modeled with the same ice structure typically found toward other protostars. We develop a modified CO2 ice profile decomposition, including the addition of new high-quality laboratory spectra of pure, crystalline CO2 ice. Using this model, we find that 87-92% of the CO2 is sequestered as spherical, CO2-rich mantles, while typical interstellar ices show evidence of irregularly-shaped, hydrogen-rich mantles. We propose that (1) the nearly complete absence of unprocessed ices along the line-of-sight is due to the flattened envelope structure of HOPS-68, which lacks cold absorbing material in its outer envelope, and possesses an extreme concentration of material within its inner (10 AU) envelope region and (2) an energetic event led to the evaporation of inner envelope ices, followed by cooling and re-condensation, explaining the sequestration of spherical, CO2 ice mantles in a hydrogen-poor mixture. The mechanism responsible for the sublimation could be either a transient accretion event or shocks in the interaction region between the protostellar outflow and envelope. The proposed scenario is consistent with the rarity of the observed CO2 ice profile, the formation of nearly pure CO2 ice, and the production of spherical ice mantles. HOPS-68 may therefore provide a unique window into the protostellar feedback process, as outflows and heating shape the physical and chemical structure of protostellar envelopes and molecular clouds.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, 2013 February 15: 14 pages, 9 figures, 3 table

Driven particle in a random landscape: disorder correlator, avalanche distribution and extreme value statistics of records

We review how the renormalized force correlator Delta(u), the function computed in the functional RG field theory, can be measured directly in numerics and experiments on the dynamics of elastic manifolds in presence of pinning disorder. We show how this function can be computed analytically for a particle dragged through a 1-dimensional random-force landscape. The limit of small velocity allows to access the critical behavior at the depinning transition. For uncorrelated forces one finds three universality classes, corresponding to the three extreme value statistics, Gumbel, Weibull, and Frechet. For each class we obtain analytically the universal function Delta(u), the corrections to the critical force, and the joint probability distribution of avalanche sizes s and waiting times w. We find P(s)=P(w) for all three cases. All results are checked numerically. For a Brownian force landscape, known as the ABBM model, avalanche distributions and Delta(u) can be computed for any velocity. For 2-dimensional disorder, we perform large-scale numerical simulations to calculate the renormalized force correlator tensor Delta_{ij}(u), and to extract the anisotropic scaling exponents zeta_x > zeta_y. We also show how the Middleton theorem is violated. Our results are relevant for the record statistics of random sequences with linear trends, as encountered e.g. in some models of global warming. We give the joint distribution of the time s between two successive records and their difference in value w.Comment: 41 pages, 35 figure

Applied Plasma Research

Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-37979X)U. S. Army - Research Office - Durham (Contract DAHC04-72-C-0044

SeaTrack: Ground station orbit prediction and planning software for sea-viewing satellites

An orbit prediction software package (Sea Track) was designed to assist High Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT) stations in the acquisition of direct broadcast data from sea-viewing spacecraft. Such spacecraft will be common in the near future, with the launch of the Sea viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) in 1994, along with the continued Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) series on NOAA platforms. The Brouwer-Lyddane model was chosen for orbit prediction because it meets the needs of HRPT tracking accuracies, provided orbital elements can be obtained frequently (up to within 1 week). Sea Track requires elements from the U.S. Space Command (NORAD Two-Line Elements) for the satellite's initial position. Updated Two-Line Elements are routinely available from many electronic sources (some are listed in the Appendix). Sea Track is a menu-driven program that allows users to alter input and output formats. The propagation period is entered by a start date and end date with times in either Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or local time. Antenna pointing information is provided in tabular form and includes azimuth/elevation pointing angles, sub-satellite longitude/latitude, acquisition of signal (AOS), loss of signal (LOS), pass orbit number, and other pertinent pointing information. One version of Sea Track (non-graphical) allows operation under DOS (for IBM-compatible personal computers) and UNIX (for Sun and Silicon Graphics workstations). A second, graphical, version displays orbit tracks, and azimuth-elevation for IBM-compatible PC's, but requires a VGA card and Microsoft FORTRAN