Digital Commons Network^™

Three Emerging Innovative Technologies Required For Cyber Operations To Execute Commander’S Intent At Machine Speed, Andrew Stewart

Military Cyber Affairs

Decision advantage for the DoD and Combined Cyber Operations results from the secure, seamless, and rapid maneuver of data and information. In the DoD’s 2018 Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the DoD recognized that it must, “put in place key building blocks and platforms to scale and democratize access to AI. This includes creating a common foundation of shared data, reusable tools, frameworks and standards, and cloud and edge services.”[1] More than ever, integrated, adaptive cyber operations provide the means of maneuver for data to enable DoD’s decision advantage-based goals. To support this vision, the integrated implementation three innovative cyber technologies …

The Weekly Challenger, December 24, 2020, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The December 24, 2020, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Gender, Age, And Survival Of Italian Jews In The Holocaust, Susan Welch

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Political scientists have examined the role of gender in genocide but have largely ignored the Holocaust in these analyses. Yet, the Holocaust is the largest genocide in human history and there is much we do not know about how gender affected individual experiences. Nor do we have a very precise understanding of the impact of age in survival, beyond the common wisdom that old and young people usually did not survive. Here we examine in more detail the impact of gender and age and their intersection among the nearly 7,000 Italian Jews deported to the east, mostly to Poland and …

Democratization As A Protective Layering For Crimes Against Humanity: The Case Of Myanmar, Anna B. Plunkett

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Myanmar has a history of state sanctioned violence against its own people. However, as the regime transition occurs the methods of conducting such violence have also changed. This has not led to an end to violence but an alteration in the methods used by the state. What can be identified is the use of democratic regime transition to legitimise the state’s actions whilst delegitimising the plight of communities that have historically resisted the state. By engaging in the minimal standards of democratic practice whilst developing relations with the international community on the basis of trade, Myanmar has been able to …

Failure To Protect?: Applying The Drri-2 Scales To Rwanda And Srebrenica, Elizabeth Mason

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article critically reanalyses the action, or lack of action, taken by UN peacekeepers in Rwanda and Srebrenica in the 1990's. The lack of action of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda and Bosnia has long been criticised as a conscious decision made by peacekeepers to not act in defence of those being targeted but instead to act as bystanders of genocide when they had the ability to prevent acts of genocide taking place. This article re-examines the actions of the UN command under Romeo Dallaire in Rwanda and Thom Karremans in Srebrenica, Bosnia in terms of the stress-related factors which influenced …

A Queer(Er) Genocide Studies, Lily Nellans

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper examines how queerness interacts with and is implicated in traditional genocides, i.e. those directed at racial, religious, national, and ethnic groups - the groups defined as protected classes in the Genocide Convention. It poses the following question: How can scholars of Genocide Studies learn from the queer theory-Genocide Studies nexus? To answer, this paper demonstrate how three distinct queer theory concepts can be woven with Genocide Studies to reveal novel insights into some of the field’s preeminent questions. Specifically, it draws on queer intellectual curiosity, heteronormativity, and reproductive futurism. Connecting queer theory with Genocide Studies yields empirical, analytical, …

Cambodian Family Albums: Tian's "L'Année Du Lièvre", Angelica P. So

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article explores how Franco-Cambodian cartoonist Tian’s graphic novel, L’année du lièvre [Year of the Rabbit], represents second-generation postmemory in the form of, what I call, a “Cambodian family album,” or a personal-collective archive. The album serves to convey to subsequent generations: 1) the history of the Cambodian genocide, 2) the collective memories of pre-1975 Cambodia preceding the Khmer Rouge takeover of Phnom Penh, and 3) the Cambodian humanitarian crisis and exodus of the 1970s-1990s. The conceptualization of the family album is derived from the literal translation, from Khmer into English, of the term “photo album” – “book designated for …

Influence Of Some Climatic Elements On Radon Concentration In Saeva Dupka Cave, Bulgaria, Peter Nojarov, Petar Stefanov, Karel Turek

International Journal of Speleology

This study reveals the influence of some climatic elements on radon concentration in Saeva Dupka Cave, Bulgaria. The research is based mainly on statistical methods. Radon concentration in the cave is determined by two main mechanisms. The first one is through penetration of radon from soil and rocks around the cave (present all year round, but has leading role during the warm half of the year). The second one is through thermodynamic exchange of air between inside of the cave and outside atmosphere (cold half of the year). Climatic factors that affect radon concentration in the cave are temperatures (air, …

Enhancement Of Photocatalytic Effect With Surface Roughness In Photocatalytic Reactors, Dharendra Yogi Goswami, Elias K. Stefanakos, Yangyang Zhang

USF Patents

Photocatalysis is a promising technique for remediation of indoor air pollution. The present invention focuses on the enhancement of the effectiveness of the photocatalytic process by the introduction of artificial roughness on the interior reactor surface. Artificial roughness elements on the catalytic surface enhance the turbulence intensity close to the catalytic surface. The enhanced turbulence intensity translates to an increase in the mass transfer of airborne contaminants to the catalyst surface, improving the efficiency of photocatalysis.

Metabolic Therapy For Wound Healing, Dominic Paul D'Agostino, Shannon Kesl

USF Patents

Ketone supplementation, such as through use of precursors of beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetoacetate (AcAc), increased blood levels of ketone bodies, increases blood flow and wound closure in ischemic young and aged fisher rats significantly earlier compared to standard diet in aged rats. In vitro experiments with ketone bodies demonstrate decreased mitochondrial and cytosolic ROS in young and aged primary human dermal fibroblasts (PHDF). Ketone bodies increased migration in young and aged PHDFs.

Possible Transmission Flow Of Sars-Cov-2 Based On Ace2 Features, Sk Sarif Hassan, Shinjini Ghosh, Diksha Attrish, Pabitra Pal Choudhury, Alaa A A Aljabali, Bruce D Uhal, Kenneth Lundstrom, Nima Rezaei, Vladimir N Uversky, Murat Seyran, Damiano Pizzol, Parise Adadi, Antonio Soares, Tarek Mohamed Abd El-Aziz, Ramesh Kandimalla, Murtaza M Tambuwala, Gajendra Kumar Azad, Samendra P Sherchan, Wagner Baetas-Da-Cruz, Kazuo Takayama, Ángel Serrano-Aroca, Gaurav Chauhan, Giorgio Palu, Adam M Brufsky

All publications

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the cellular receptor for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that is engendering the severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 binds to the three sub-domains viz. amino acids (aa) 22-42, aa 79-84, and aa 330-393 of ACE2 on human cells to initiate entry. It was reported earlier that the receptor utilization capacity of ACE2 proteins from different species, such as cats, chimpanzees, dogs, and cattle, are different. A comprehensive analysis of ACE2 receptors of nineteen species was carried out in this study, and the …

Better News About Math: A Research Agenda, Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein, John Voiklis, Laura Santhanam, Nsikan Akpan, Shivani Ishwar, Bennett Attaway, Patti Parson, John Fraser

Numeracy

Numeracy is not a luxury: numbers constantly factor into our daily lives. Yet adults in the United States have lower numeracy than adults in most other developed nations. While formal statistical training is effective, few adults receive it – and schools are a major contributor to the inequity we see among U.S. adults. That leaves news well-poised as a source of informal learning, given that news is a domain where adults regularly encounter quantitative content. Our transdisciplinary team of journalists and social scientists propose a research agenda for thinking about math and the news. We engage here in a dialogue …

The Weekly Challenger, December 10, 2020, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The December 10, 2020, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

A Case Study: School Professionals’ Perspectives On Students Exiting Middle School Entering An Achievement High School, Joy Davis Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Each year approximately 1.3 million students dropout of high school and an estimated 40% of minority students do not graduate on time (Roybal, Thornton, & Usinger, 2014). In high school, 22% of students repeat 9th-grade classes because students fail to make a smooth transition. This gives the 9th-grade the highest enrollment rate and the highest dropout rate (McCallumore & Sparapani, 2010). In an effort to increase high school graduation rates, the Peabody County Public School District created Achievement schools, an initiative to recruit highly effective administrators, teachers and staff members to support students with the highest academic and nonacademic needs. …

Cutr Connections [December 2020], Cutr

CUTR Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Disproportionate Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Racial And Ethnic Minorities, Brad Boserup, Mark Mckenney, Adel Elkbuli

All publications

Background: Health disparities are prevalent in many areas of medicine. We aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on racial/ethnic groups in the United States (US) and to assess the effects of social distancing, social vulnerability metrics, and medical disparities.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing data from the COVID-19 Tracking Project and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Demographic data were obtained from the US Census Bureau, social vulnerability data were obtained from the CDC, social distancing data were obtained from Unacast, and medical disparities data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. …

Pressured By Students, Medical Schools Grapple With Climate Change, Michele Cohen Marill

All publications

In Miami, Florida, aspiring clinicians apply lessons learned while reaching out to the region’s most vulnerable communities.

System And Method For Bio-Inspired Filter Banks For A Brain-Computer Interface, Ali Fatih Demir, Ismail Uysal, Huseyin Arslan

USF Patents

A system and method of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) frequency detection using bio-inspired filter banks (BIFB) includes, acquiring electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from a subject in response to a repetitive visual stimulus, estimating the power spectral density (PSD) of the channel of the EEG signals including at least one SSVEP response, extracting one or more SSVEP response features from the estimated PSD of the channel using a bio-inspired filter bank (BIFB) and classifying the extracted SSVEP response features to determine if the detected SSVEP response frequency from the EEG signals acquired from the subject substantially matches the repetition frequency of …

Orthotic Grippers, Catherine Marie Blasse, Daniel Stewart Miller, Amber Lynn Gatto

USF Patents

In one embodiment, an orthotic gripper includes a flex sensor configured to detect flexion and extension of a wrist of a user of the gripper, and a gripping mechanism comprising a thumb link configured to attach to a thumb of the user and a finger link pivotally connected to the thumb link and configured to attach to one or more fingers of the user, the gripping mechanism being configured to move the finger link toward the thumb link when the flex sensor detects flexion of the wrist and to move the finger link away from the thumb link when the …

Accountability Policies & Educator Wellbeing, Joseph Latimer, Nathaniel Von Der Embse, William Black

Policy Brief

Since the publication of A Nation At Risk in 1983, educators have lived with an increasingly comprehensive set of test-based accountability policies. Framing global competitiveness in student academic success as an increasingly important component of a broader economic and national security agenda , both federal and state departments of educationmoved to establish an ‘accountability era’ by mandating test-based educational accountability legislation including No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Race to the Top (RTTT), Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), as well as various state-level policy initiatives that evolved from including various district, school, and student accountability measures, and more recently; teacher …

Stress, Wellbeing, And Support For Students & School Staff, Alexis Sanchez, Nathaniel Von Der Embse

Policy Brief

Stress is a naturally occurring physical and psychological response from the accumulation of short- or long-term demands placed on individuals. Physically, the body will react to stress-induced hormones by increasing heart rate, respiration, and muscle tension. Psychologically, stress will prompt the body to respond with heightened alertness and attention to what caused the stress. Stress that is appropriately managed through effective coping mechanisms contributes to well-being, but prolonged stress can lead to chronic conditions: high blood pressure, compromised immune systems, and brain changes (e.g., anxiety, depression, and addiction). In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, there has been a disruption …

Supporting The Social-Emotional Wellbeing Of Students During A Time Of Stress, Sarahy Durango, Nathaniel Von Der Embse

Policy Brief

There is a strong connection between students’ social- emotional health and academic success. Students with strong social-emotional skills have been shown to possess increased capacity to learn, improved life outcomes, and decreased risk for mental health problems. Currently, almost 25% of children are estimated to experience a mental or behavioral health problem in a given year. If left untreated, these issues are often exacerbated and can increase in severity, leading to worsened outcomes for children. Schools are increasingly becoming the central location for children to access mental health services due to barriers that interfere with families receiving support from community-based …

Point Blue Conservation Science, Mark Dettling, Diana Humple

North American Bird Bander

No abstract provided.

Addressing Health Disparities In The Rural United States: Advocacy As Caregiving Among Community Health Workers And Promotores De Salud, Ryan I Logan, Heide Castañeda

All publications

Rural populations in the United States are faced with a variety of health disparities that complicate access to care. Community health workers (CHWs) and their Spanish-speaking counterparts, promotores de salud, are well-equipped to address rural health access issues, provide education, and ultimately assuage these disparities. In this article, we compare community health workers in the states of Indiana and Texas, based on the results of two separate research studies, in order to (1) investigate the unique role of CHWs in rural communities and (2) understand how their advocacy efforts represent a central form of caregiving. Drawing on ethnographic, qualitative data—including …

Comparison Of Pre-Intervention Idi Results From Stem And Non-Stem Undergraduate Students, Anne M. Lucietto, Liza Russell

Journal of Global Education and Research

The emphasis on intercultural competence is more prevalent in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors as the world shifts towards a more globalized economy. When entering higher education, students have differing levels of cultural interaction due to varying peer interaction, family experiences, international travel, and social media experiences. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) has been used to develop an understanding of how students view others and the level of skills they have to interact and adapt to other cultures. Using published data focused on pre-intervention assessment, researchers compared it to data obtained from STEM students preparing for an international …

Global Citizenship Education Starts With Teacher Training And Professional Development, Evan Saperstein

Journal of Global Education and Research

In recent years, the idea of global citizenship has grown in scholarly circles and developed into a nascent discipline known as global citizenship education. As a general matter, global citizenship education strives to deepen cross-cultural understanding through the study of current transnational issues. This qualitative, interpretivist case study examined the roles and responsibilities of global studies teachers at an urban New Jersey public high school. The study included interviews with an administrator, two global studies teachers, and six students enrolled in the second sequence of a two-year course in the global studies curriculum; as well as observations and analysis of …

Humboldt Bay Bird Observatory, Amaya Bechler, Jayde Blair, Kimberly Hollinger

North American Bird Bander

No abstract provided.

Rocky Point Bird Observatory, Jannaca Chick, Ann Nightingale

North American Bird Bander

No abstract provided.

Designing Next-Generation Transportation Systems With Emerging Vehicle Technologies, Zhiwei Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in computing and artificial intelligence have enabled the development of various emerging vehicle technologies, e.g., autonomous vehicles (AV) and modular autonomous vehicles (MAV). These technologies bring new scientific and engineering problems challenging transportation researchers and practitioners. This dissertation aims to develop a suite of scalable computational and analytical tools for designing and analyzing next-generation transportation systems with the MAV technologies. Also, we intend to empirically study the system impacts in terms of the quality of service, energy implications, and inequality impacts.

For MAV system design, we develop a methodological framework centering at theoretical properties of the optimal system …

Biosynthetic Gene Clusters, Microbiomes, And Secondary Metabolites In Cold Water Marine Organisms, Nicole Elizabeth Avalon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microorganisms and invertebrate animals from cold water marine environments, such as in Antarctica and in Ireland’s deep sea, are a rich source of secondary metabolites. In this dissertation, research was centered around secondary metabolism and natural product biosynthesis. The projects include the delineation of biosynthetic gene clusters hypothesized to be responsible for the biosynthesis of the palmerolides, stratification of the microbiome of the Antarctic ascidian Synoicum adareanum, genomic and peptidomic analysis of a host-associated Antarctic Pseudovibrio sp., and isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites from the Irish deep-sea coral Drifa sp.

Palmerolide A, the principle secondary metabolite associated with S. …