University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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Bedtime Story
No full textCobra_McVey__Athens__GA__Bedtime_Story_February_23__2014_at_0119AMThese images were created as part of the Hughes Remix project, a collaborative endeavor developed by UMBC's Albin O. Kuhn Library Special Collections and the Department of Visual Art to foster creative engagement with archival holdings in conjunction with the 2014 Society for Photographic Education annual conference. UMBC's Special Collections offered a selection of images from the Hughes Company Glass Negatives (http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/hughes) collection for SPE members and conference attendees to remix, reinvent, reinterpret, and reimagine the images in this collection of Baltimore street scenes, promotional and advertising photographs, businesses, churches, schools, monuments, factories, machinery, and portraits. Images that were created were displayed during the conference as well as on a Tumblr site and are now archived in the Special Collections. Full details of the project can be found at: http://hughes-remix.tumblr.com/overview.The original Hughes Company Glass Negatives collection can be found at: http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/hughe
No More Clowning Around
No full textColleen_Higgins__Adrian__Michigan__No_More_Clowning_Around_February_21__2014_at_0844AMThese images were created as part of the Hughes Remix project, a collaborative endeavor developed by UMBC's Albin O. Kuhn Library Special Collections and the Department of Visual Art to foster creative engagement with archival holdings in conjunction with the 2014 Society for Photographic Education annual conference. UMBC's Special Collections offered a selection of images from the Hughes Company Glass Negatives (http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/hughes) collection for SPE members and conference attendees to remix, reinvent, reinterpret, and reimagine the images in this collection of Baltimore street scenes, promotional and advertising photographs, businesses, churches, schools, monuments, factories, machinery, and portraits. Images that were created were displayed during the conference as well as on a Tumblr site and are now archived in the Special Collections. Full details of the project can be found at: http://hughes-remix.tumblr.com/overview.The original Hughes Company Glass Negatives collection can be found at: http://contentdm.ad.umbc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/hughe
Algorithm Design and Analysis for Finding Endmembers in Hyperspectral Imagery
No full textThis dissertation investigates two issues of finding endmembers which have been overlooked in the past. One is to design an effective algorithm for finding endmembers. Another is to determine how many endmembers present in the data to be processed. In particular, two major contributions are made in this dissertation. One is to show that two well-known Endmember Finding Algorithms (EFAs), orthogonal projection OP-based Vertex Component Analysis (VCA) and simplex volume-based Simplex Grwoing Algorithm (SGA) are shown to be identical to Automatic Target Generation Process (ATGP) provided that the first initial endmember for SGA and the initial endmember in finding each new endmember by VCA are specified by ATGP. A second contribution is to use real target signal sources directly found from the data to determine the number of signal sources, referred to as referred to as Endmember-Specified Virtual Dimensionality (ES-VD) via a Neyman Pearson detector or maximum likelihood detector. When a real target signal source fails the test, this signal source will be considered as an endmembers. As a result, the number of test failures determined the value of ES-VD
On Detection of Radio Frequency Interference in Spaceborne Microwave Radiometers using Negentropy Approximations and Complex Signal Kurtosis
No full textMicrowave radiometers are passive, sensitive radio receivers used as spacecraft instruments for Earth remote sensing. Microwave radiometers work by measuring average power of naturally occurring thermal emission from Earth. Radiometer data are used by researchers to monitor Earth's hydrosphere and a number of important geophysical processes critical to our understanding of and survival on the planet. Besides measuring natural thermal noise, radiometers also measure inadvertent signal emissions from human-made sources, such as surveillance radar, communications systems, reflected signals from broadcast satellites, and signals from a wide array of wireless technologies. Signals of this nature are called radio-frequency interference (RFI) and corrupt radiometric measurements, leading to erroneous geophysical retrievals. RFI threatens the utility of radiometer data as a result of this corruption. This research investigates two new approaches for detecting RFI. The first approach investigates the suitability of several different negentropy approximations as test-statistics for detecting RFI in the radiometric signal. The second approach combines polarimetric and baseband quadrature signals into a complex signal model and employs a complex signal kurtosis test-statistic to improve RFI detection relative, to the current state of the art that uses only real-valued signal kurtosis. It is shown that various negentropy approximations do not outperform detection performance of the real-valued kurtosis, but does provide insight as to why kurtosis works well. It is also shown that RFI detection in the complex domain using the complex signal kurtosis offers improved detection performance and less data rate, leading to new digital signal processing systems for future spaceborne microwave radiometers
THE RELATION BETWEEN PERCEIVED STRESS AND ANXIETY IN PREDICTING RELAPSE VULNERABILITY IN A DRUG ABUSING SAMPLE.
No full textDespite significant advances in the understanding substance use disorders, they remain hard disorders to treat. Research suggests that individuals who struggle with abstinence or endorse more temptation to use are more vulnerable to relapse. The present study evaluated whether perceived stress and anxiety predict indicators of relapse vulnerability, temptations to use and reported struggle to maintain abstinence in a drug abusing sample. To address these aims, this project utilized data from the STOP Project, a multisite study which evaluated how baseline measures of motivation predicted treatment outcomes in a sample of treatment seeking drug abusing individuals. A significant positive linear relation between anxiety and the struggle to maintain abstinence was identified. Additionally, a significant linear relation between perceived stress and temptation to use was found. These findings have important implications on the role of negative affect in the relapse process and tailoring relapse prevention strategies to specific relapse vulnerability indicators
The Implementation of Maryland's Bridge Plan for Academic Validation Policy in Anne Arundel County Public Schools
No full textMaintaining the integrity and value of a high school diploma has been a fundamental reason for the establishment of state graduation requirements. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 heightened the need for standards-based accountability programs within states. Once annual measurable objectives have been set by the state, it is the responsibility of individual schools and districts to make sure students meet these standards. To ensure uniformity in student assessment, most states design and require standardized tests as the indicator of adequate student progress. A problem accompanying this high-stakes testing approach is the large number of students that are unable to pass the assessments. In response to this reality, some school districts and states have designed alternative pathways to graduation. In Maryland, one of these pathways is called the Bridge Plan for Academic Validation - a performance-based assessment for students to demonstrate their knowledge in English 10, Algebra 1 and Biology. The implementation of this program varies across school districts and even schools within the same district. Through interviews with 4 school district leaders, this study examined the origin and the implementation of the Bridge program in Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS). A survey instrument administered to 334 teachers at 11 comprehensive high schools in the AACPS system measured perceptions about the impact of the Bridge program on both their teaching practices and student attitudes. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 36 school-based personnel to confirm and explore survey results in greater depth. Using a theoretical framework of public policy implementation, this study describes both the agreement and disagreement among the perceptions of district leaders and school-based employees. Major themes arising from this analysis include the appropriateness of Bridge as an alternative to the HSA, the support provided to schools for the implementation of Bridge, and the variability of implementation in schools across the district. The findings of this study should inform policymakers of the practical impacts of implementing the Bridge Program for Academic Validation. It is important to examine both the intended and unintended consequences of this policy as future alternatives to standardized testing are considered in Maryland
A Mixed Methods Investigation of ESOL Teacher Advocacy: It's Not Going in and Just Teaching English
No full textIt is widely acknowledged that English language learners (ELLs) are a population in need of advocacy in K-12 public schools in the United States. The main professional standards for initial teacher certification call for English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers to be advocates for ELLs. This mixed methods study investigates ESOL teachers' cognitions (beliefs, thoughts, attitudes; Borg, 2006) about advocacy and their actions as advocates. A survey of 511 ESOL teachers in five diverse school districts in one Mid-Atlantic state, and interviews with 15 of those teachers, confirm that ESOL teachers recognize the need for advocacy and have positive cognitions about advocacy. The ESOL teachers believe it is their professional responsibility to advocate, defined by those interviewed as monitoring for obstacles to ELLs' success, speaking up to raise awareness or inform others about ELLs and ESOL, providing resources or services, affirming ELLs' linguistic and cultural diversity, and empowering ELLs to self-advocate. This research found that most ESOL teachers engage in instructional advocacy, while fewer engage in political advocacy. Variables predictive of greater advocacy actions include belief in professional advocacy responsibility, knowledge of the standards, years of ESOL teaching experience, a supportive school context for advocacy, and self-efficacy in advocating. This study also points to the importance of the teacher education program in continuing to develop awareness of the need to speak up for ELLs and in preparing ESOL teachers with the skills needed for advocacy work. This dissertation proposes a framework for advocacy that identifies the intended recipients of ESOL teacher advocacy to be ELLs, ELL families, and ESOL teachers themselves, and highlights ESOL teachers' potential co-advocates to be ELLs, ELL families, general education teachers, school administrators, and community leaders. Finally, this study clarifies three overarching goals of advocacy: improving ELLs' educational outcomes, enhancing their life chances beyond the school, and challenging societal injustices that continue to make advocacy necessary. Future research could investigate how ESOL teachers who engage in instructional advocacy may also become involved in political advocacy for ELLs, and could probe the distinction between advocacy and activism for ESOL teachers and within the TESOL field
Understanding Adolescent Mothers' Parenting: An Examination of Cognitive Readiness, Attributions, and Parenting Behaviors
No full textThe overall goals of the present study were to examine whether differences in adolescent mothers' cognitions (readiness and attributions) affected their parenting behaviors, and whether such differences could be explained by the context of a given situation. Both self-report and observational data were utilized to address the goals across two parts. The sample for Part One was comprised of 142 primiparous, African American mothers between 14 and 22 years of age with children between 2-25 months. Results revealed that specific cognitive readiness variables were stronger predictors of perceived parenting behaviors than the combined effect of cognitive readiness, comprised of parenting knowledge, parenting attitudes, and maternal age. Direct and indirect effects of internal and external attributions for failures in the relation between cognitive readiness variables and perceived parenting behaviors were also observed. These findings illustrate specificity in the processes through which adolescent mothers' cognitions affect their perceptions of their parenting behaviors. Forty-nine of the mothers from Part One participated in the observational component with their toddlers and comprised the sample for Part Two. The cluster analysis statistical method revealed four parenting cognition profiles: (1) Unprepared, Younger, Low Attribution Mothers, (2) Unprepared, Older, Low Attribution Mothers, (3) Prepared, Older, High Attribution Mothers, and (4) Unprepared, Younger, High Attribution Mothers. Results highlight the importance of acknowledging heterogeneity among adolescent mothers that has been overlooked in past research. Although there were no differences in patterns of observed parenting behaviors among clusters or by observational context, these nonsignificant findings may have been a result of low power. Findings from the present study can provide important information to guide the development of interventions that focus on enhancing parents' cognitive readiness and promoting adaptive parenting attributions, which in turn, could lead to more optimal parenting behaviors
Topheavy and special Bishop-Phelps cones, Lyapunov rank, and related topics
No full textMotivated by optimization considerations, this dissertation investigates cones of the form C = cl(cone({1} x S)), where S is a non-empty arbitrary subset of R^{n-1}, as well as the corresponding completely positive cone K_C generated by C. First, we investigate the interrelations between S and C. Specifically, we show that many of the properties of the cone C are inherited from the underlying set S. With this realization, we determine which traits of S result in desirable properties for the cone C, such as pointedness, connected interior, etc. Further restricting our attention, we consider a special type of the cone C that reduces to the form {(t,x): t >= ||x|| }, where ||*|| is a norm on R^{n-1}. We show that cones of this type, which are called topheavy cones or special Bishop-Phelps (BP) cones, are always irreducible when n is greater than or equal to three. Defining the Lyapunov rank of a proper cone as the dimension of the Lie algebra of the automorphism group of the cone, in this dissertation, we show that the Lyapunov rank of any special Bishop-Phelps polyhedral cone in R^n, when n is greater than or equal to three, is one. We build on an earlier known result for the l_{1,+}^n cone (which is a special Bishop-Phelps cone with 1-norm) and show that any l_{p,+}^n cone, where p is between one and infinity but not equal to two, has Lyapunov rank one. In the last part of the dissertation, we study automorphisms of special Bishop-Phelps cones. In particular, we give a complete description of the automorphism group of the l_{1,+}^n cone as well as properties for the automorphisms of l_{p,+}^n cone. We also introduce the concept of conjugate pair preserving automorphisms on special Bishop-Phelps cones
Cyberbullying Behavior: Characteristics, Development, and Prevention
No full textAs the computer-mediated communication technologies constantly evolve, they create new opportunities for people to communicate with one another. Due to some inherent characteristics of these technologies such as anonymity and persistence, the emerging communication platforms have become a hotbed for cyberbullying - a type of cyber threat. Previous studies have shown that there is greater incidence of cyberbullying, and the negative impact such as social anxiety and a tendency for low self-esteem may even be carried over into adulthood. This research proposes a behavioral development model of cyber-bullying based on psychology theories. The model consists of seven main stages: blameless exposure, trying out, addiction, escalation, desensitization, and exhibition. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to test the proposed model. Survey questionnaire and interviews were selected as the main data collection methods. The results of regression analysis provide empirical support for the proposed model