A statistic that summarizes an entire data set without losing any information about the family of distributions or the model is often called a sufficient statistic. Generally, one would like to use the statistic that contains the most information about the parameter space. Sometimes there are several sufficient statistics. At other times the only sufficient statistic is the entire data set. A large data set can be difficult to work with. In this case, can one use a statistic that, though not sufficient, does summarize the data set somewhat? How much information would be lost? How can one compare two statistics that aren't sufficient in terms of the amount of information each provides? A new method for comparing experiments and measuring information is introduced. No assumptions are made and no conditions are required in order for this new method to measure the amount of information contained in almost any statistic. Several properties of this new method are discussed and a new characterization of sufficiency based on this new method is presented. The new method is used to evaluate the expected efficiency of a statistic in discriminating between any two values of the parameter as compared to a sufficient statistic. This new method can be self-calibrated to give this expected efficiency a meaningful scale. It is shown that this new method has some advantages over existing methods of measuring information. This new method is applied to Casino Blackjack. Several card-counting statistics are compared by the amount of information each provides in discriminating between different deck compositions as compared to a sufficient statistic. This new method provides new insight about information in card-counting statistics by putting this information on a meaningful scale. / Ph. D.

This project is the result of a summer long internship I worked on with Dr. Beverly Smith in the ETSU Department of Physics and Astronomy. It was completed with the support of a grant from the NASA Tennessee Space Grant Consortium. Quenching galaxies are galaxies that are rapidly evolving from strongly star forming systems to galaxies with mostly old stars and low star formation rates. When identifying quenching galaxies, there are several methods in common use. Furthermore, there are several ways astronomers estimate the Star Formation Rate (SFR), in Solar Masses per year, and Stellar Mass (M*), in Solar Masses, of galaxies. For a large sample of galaxies, we used 6 derivations of M* and 4 for SFR, plotting them against each other for comparison. We also calculated and compared the specific SFR (sSFR), equal to SFR/M*, and compared the different methods of defining quenched galaxies. Finally, we divided up these plots by classification, Red Sequence/Green Valley/Blue Cloud, and different values of log (SFR) *

Conflict experiences of long-distance dating relationships versus geographically close dating relationships Abigail Hammonds, Department of Communication and Performance, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tn. Interpersonal relationships inherently involve conflict. Previous research has examined conflict in romantic relationships, but few studies have compared the experiences of long-distance partners and geographically close partners. This study was designed to examine whether individuals in long-distance dating relationships and geographically close dating relationships would differ in their use of conflict strategies and experiences of conflict intensity. Participants were recruited from Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.com. Participants completed a survey including the 39-item Romantic Partner Conflict Scale designed to measure six subscales of conflict management strategies; as well as a new 7-item measure of conflict intensity that was developed for this study. The items were derived from previous research and the measure was tested for reliability. This study found that individuals in long-distance dating relationships and individuals in geographically close dating relationships have extremely similar experiences of conflict and conflict management styles. These results indicate that conflict management styles alter more based on the individual members in the relationship and are unlikely to be changed due to the nature of the relationship. Feature research should be completed to explore determinants of conflict style.

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The purpose of this study was to compare the Alabama Praxis II test score outcomes between students who received degrees online versus traditional students at an Alabama regional institution of higher learning. A random sample consisted of 50 online graduate students and 50 on campus graduate students. The following 2 graduate master’s degree programs were selected for this study: the Master’s of Education (M.Ed.) degree in School Counseling and the Master’s of Science in Continuing Education (M.S.C.E.) degree in Guidance Counseling. A summarization of the research questions for this study include the following: Is there a significant difference between online and traditional graduate students based on the Alabama Praxis II test scores; is there a significant difference between online and traditional graduate students based on gender, ethnicity, and age; and is there a meaningful relationship among age, GRE (Graduate Record Exam) score, and the Alabama Praxis II test score between online and traditional graduate students at a small four-year regional university in Alabama? The t-test performed on question one revealed a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups, and the online students earned higher scores than the campus students on the Praxis II test. The t-test was also used to answer part of question 2. When comparing African-American campus students to Caucasian campus students, the t-test revealed a statistically significant difference with Caucasians scoring higher between the two groups. An ANOVA was also used for question two to determine if there was a statistically significant difference of Praxis II test scores between campus age groups and online age groups. There were no significant differences in Praxis II test scores when students were grouped by age. One possible explanation for this finding is because the study only consisted of graduate students. In conclusion, this researcher found evidence that online students scored higher on the Alabama Praxis II examination than traditional, on-campus students. This research was limited to a small university in west Alabama, and the researcher recommends that further research be conducted to include other institutions with a larger sample and greater distribution of demographic variables.

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<p> A bench scale continuous settling unit was constructed and its operation compared to results of batch settling tests. The particulate solids used were polystyrene spheres with a mean diameter of 285 microns. The concentration profile within the slurry in both the batch and the continuous studies was observed using a light extinction technique.</p> <p> The results show that for the material used in this study, the solids flux limitation of the continuous settler could not be exceeded: the limiting condition in the operation was always the clarification capacity or upward velocity. The batch flux plot shows that this will be the case for any material which exhibits a flux plot that is essentially a single concave curve downwards.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

<p> Traffic operations can be described by the relationship that occurs between flow and occupancy. This paper investigates the flow-occupancy relationship of an Ontario system and a Minnesota system to see if the same general relationship occurs in different locations. It is hoped that this investigation will help to further the work being done at McMaster in developing a new incident detection algorithm.</p> <p> In comparing the two data sets, simple analytical procedures were employed to compare the full data set, the uncongested regime, and the calculated fitted lines for the uncongested data. Visual comparison was the basis for much of the analysis.</p> <p> When the comparisons were conducted the relationships were indeed very similar, signifying that the flow-occupancy relationship is the same for different locations.</p> / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

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The primary focus of this study was to compare the efficiency of six filter samplers in the collection of inhalable soluble platinum (Pt) salts at a South African base metal refinery. Inhalation remains the major route of occupational exposure to platinum groups metals (PGMs). South Africa would benefit from the study since it’s amongst the major countries where PGMs are produced and hence, monitoring of worker exposure with the most efficient sampler is of utmost importance. The IOM is currently being used in routine exposure monitoring although no studies have been carried out to compare its performance to that of the other samplers under the actual base metal refinery conditions. Method: The button, closed face cassette (CFC), Gesamtsstaubprobenhome (GSP), (Institute of Medicine) IOM, PAS-6 and seven hole (SH-sampler) samplers were randomly allocated to six different positions in presumably high exposure areas. The samplers were moved around in the subsequent sampling days and the process repeated 3 times. The average dust mass and Pt concentrations were used as a basis of sampler performance and comparisons from which sampler hierarchies were determined. Results: The average relative humidity ranged between 37% and 43% and the average dry bulb temperature of 22.4°C was measured. Comparison of the dust mass concentrations revealed no statistically significant differences amongst the six filter samplers tested. The SH-sampler and CFC however collected the highest and lowest dust mass and Pt concentrations respectively. Discussion: The SH-sampler was found to be a sampler with more reliability than the the IOM for the collection of dust mass and soluble Pt. The IOM collected 98% of the SH-sampler dust mass and Pt concentrations. This was in spite of the larger variations indicated by the highest relative standard deviations and confidence intervals shown by the IOM than the other samplers. The GSP sampler, however, showed better precision than all the other samplers in the collection of platinum. The seven 4 mm orifices of the SH-sampler sampler allow for uniform distribution of sampled particles onto the filter supporting its better precision than the IOM which has only one 4 mm opening. The worst performing sampler was the CFC sampler since it collected the lowest dust mass and Pt concentrations. The CFC and the PAS samplers have downward facing inlets that are affected by gravity especially in lower wind speeds which, therefore, influences their efficiency. The GSP sampler concentrations placed it as 4th and 3rd best in Pt and dust mass hierarchies respectively even though it showed better precision than SHS in the sampling of Pt. The button sampler did not perform as well as would have been expected considering that its many evenly spaced orifices and the stainless steel are meant to reduce sample losses. Conclusion: The sampler hierarchy according to dust mass concentrations was in the following order: SH-sampler, IOM, PAS, GSP, button and CFC. The hierarchy obtained from Pt concentrations gave the order as SH-sampler, IOM, GSP, button, PAS and CFC. Similar studies have to be undertaken in primary and secondary platinum workplaces to validate the study results. Such studies should compare better performing samplers (SHS, IOM, Button and GSP) as well as incorporate particle size determination and distribution in those areas. / MSc (Occupational Hygiene), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014