Digital Commons Network^™

Designing Analog Learning Games: Genre Affordances, Limitations And Multi-Game Approaches, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

This chapter explores what the authors discovered about analog games and game design during the many iterative processes that have led to the Lost & Found series, and how they found certain constraints and affordances (that which an artifact assists, promotes or allows) provided by the boardgame genre. Some findings were counter-intuitive. What choices would allow for the modeling of complex systems, such as legal and economic systems? What choices would allow for gameplay within the time of a class-period? What mechanics could promote discussions of tradeoff decisions? If players are expending too much cognition on arithmetic strategizing, could that …

A Small But Mighty Docket: Select Criminal Law And Procedure Cases From The Supreme Court's 2019-20 Term, Eve Brensike Primus, Jeremy Shur

Articles

With its 2019-20 Term disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court released just 53 signed decisions, the fewest decisions in a Term since the Civil War. But the Court's lighter docket still featured important criminal law and procedure cases touching on what constitutes reasonable individualized suspicion, the necessity of jury unanimity, and the proper form of the insanity defense.

Treatment Longevity And Changes In Surface Fuel Loads After Pinyon–Juniper Mastication, Samuel S. Wozniak, Eva K. Strand, Timothy R. Johnson, April Hulet, Bruce A. Roundy, Kert Young

Articles

In the Intermountain West, land managers masticate pinyon pine (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) trees that have encroached sagebrush steppe communities to reduce canopy fuels, alter potential fire behavior, and promote growth of understory grasses, forbs, and shrubs. At three study sites in Utah, 45 sampling plots spanning a range of tree cover from 5% to 50% were masticated. We measured surface fuel load components three times over a 10‐yr period. We also measured tree cover, density, and height as indicators of treatment longevity. Changes in these variables were analyzed across the range of pre‐treatment tree cover …

Sex Modifies The Association Between The Clock Variant Rs1801260 And Bmi In School-Age Children, Ying Meng, Barbara Lohse, Leslie Cunningham-Sabo

Articles

Disruption of circadian rhythms and variations in the FTO gene may interfere with energy homeostasis and play a role in the development of obesity. The current study assessed the association of common polymorphisms in the CLOCK and FTO genes with standardized body mass index scores (BMI z-scores) and their potential modification of the impact of a culinary nutrition and physical activity intervention in school-age children. Anthropometric measurements were collected in 121 children at the baseline and one-year follow-up of a controlled trial of a school-based culinary nutrition and physical activity intervention. Genotypes of the CLOCK polymorphism (rs1801260) and the FTO …

Discerning A Dignitary Offense: The Concept Of Equal 'Public Rights' During Reconstruction, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

The mountain of modern interpretation to which the language of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution has been subjected tends to overshadow the multiple concepts of antidiscrimination that were actually circulating at the time of its drafting. Moreover, as authors on race and law have pointed out, Congress itself lacked any African American representatives during the 1866–68 moment of transitional justice. The subsequent development of a “state action doctrine” limiting the reach of federal civil rights enforcement, in turn, eclipsed important contemporary understandings of the harms that Reconstruction-era initiatives sought to combat. In contrast to the oblique language …

Along The Tevere: A Gastro-Historic Portrait Of The Region, Anke Klitzing

Articles

In June 2009, a group of masters students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy spent nine days visiting the lands of the Tevere river, travelling from its springs on Monte Fumaiolo in Emilia-Romagna to Rome by way of Umbria and the Lake Trasimeno. This article is a gastro-historic portrait of the lands of the Tevere, linking contemporary social, cultural and economic activities around food and tourism to the rich and long history of the region and highlighting persistent patterns, continuity and change.

Assessment Of Dehydration As A Commercial-Scale Food Waste Valorization Strategy, Jon T. Schroeder, Ava L. Labuzetta, Thomas A. Trabold

Articles

Using a commercially available dehydration unit, this study aimed to valorize various food waste streams from different sources in the Rochester, New York area. Dehydration of the food waste collected for the study helped reduce the weight of the feedstock by 70–90%, as the incoming waste streams were relatively wet. The output was materially characterized against end uses such as cattle feed, fish feed, and compost. The results demonstrated that, other than fertilizer, the remaining five end uses (compost, fish feed, cattle feed, pyrolysis, and pelletized fuel) were potentially compatible with varying waste feedstocks based on the parameters analyzed. Fish …

Living With Machines. Ethical Implications And Imaginative Agency As Local Tactics Of Dwelling And Resistance In Everyday Interactions With Artificial Intelligence, Ester Toribio-Roura

Articles

With the widespread of the Internet of things (IoT), algorithms are increasingly managing our everyday life. From navigating our way in cities to keeping track of our health, artificial intelligence has been beneficial to us in many ways. However, its algorithms can also be detrimental as a consequence of biased human programming. The result is that while technological progress delivers more and more human-like artificial intelligence, humans become dehumanised and therefore, disempowered in their everyday interactions with artificial intelligence.The solution(s) is not single-handed and calls for combined interventions at the macro and micro levels. Whilst reviewing recent top-down developments on …

Audio-Visual Caption Evaluation Metric For People Who Are Deaf And Hard Of Hearing, Akhter Al Amin

Articles

While the availability of captioned television programming has increased, the quality of this captioning is not always acceptable to Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) viewers, especially for live or unscripted content, broadcast from local television stations, especially in smaller markets. There is a need for formal metrics to evaluate captioning quality, to enable audits or quality assurance. Although some current caption metrics focus on comparing the textual accuracy (comparing the caption text and accurate transcription of what was spoken), there are other properties of captions that may affect quality or usability judgments. We propose to conduct experiments with DHH …

Enzymatic In-Situ Transesterification Of Neutral Lipids From Simulated Wastewater Cultured Chlorella Emersonii And Pseudokirchneriella Subcapitata To Sustainably Produce Fatty Acid Methyl Esters, Priyanka Priyanka, Gemma K. Kinsella, Gary Henehan, Barry J. Ryan

Articles

Alternative, more sustainable and environmentally positive, sources of energy are one of the current global challenges. One approach to achieving more sustainable sources of energy is to use waste from one system as a raw material for energy production, following the circular biosystem philosophy. This study successfully adopted this approach whereby microalgae strains Chlorella emersonii and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata were bioprospected and metabolically engineered in simulated wastewater supplemented with glucose to produce neutral lipids. Using a two-step cultivation approach neutral lipid content was enhanced in Chlorella emersonii and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata biomass. Via in-situ transesterification, these neutral lipids were subsequently bioconverted to …

Minds Without Spines: Evolutionarily Inclusive Animal Ethics., Irina Mikhalevich, Russell Powell

Articles

Invertebrate animals are frequently lumped into a single category and denied welfare protections despite their considerable cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary diversity. Some ethical and policy inroads have been made for cephalopod molluscs and crustaceans, but the vast majority of arthropods, including the insects, remain excluded from moral consideration. We argue that this exclusion is unwarranted given the existing evidence. Anachronistic readings of evolution, which view invertebrates as lower in the scala naturae, continue to influence public policy and common morality. The assumption that small brains are unlikely to support cognition or sentience likewise persists, despite growing evidence that arthropods have …

Iron-Focussed Nutritional Status Of Mothers With Children (6–59 Months) In Rural Northern Ghana, Brenda Ariba Zarhari Abu, Jacques Eugene Raubenheimer, Violet Louise Van Den Berg

Articles

Background: Anaemia, especially iron deficiency anemia, is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in African women and children. Aim: To assess the intake of nutrients related to iron and anaemia status among mothers in smallholder agrarian communities in Northern Ghana where anaemia is known to be endemic. Setting: Tolon Kumbumgu district and Tamale Metropolis in Ghana. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 161 mothers with children 6–59 months. Questionnaires on socio-demographics, household food security and production and food frequencies, and three 24-hour recalls were administered during structured interviews, and BMI was assessed. Dietary intakes were analysed with the …

Alzheimer's Disease: The Link Between Amyloid-Β And Neurovascular Dysfunction., Ernesto Solis, Kevin N Hascup, Erin R Hascup

Articles

While prevailing evidence supports that the amyloid cascade hypothesis is a key component of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, many recent studies indicate that the vascular system is also a major contributor to disease progression. Vascular dysfunction and reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) occur prior to the accumulation and aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau tangles. Although research has predominantly focused on the cellular processes involved with Aβ-mediated neurodegeneration, effects of Aβ on CBF and neurovascular coupling are becoming more evident. This review will describe AD vascular disturbances as they relate to Aβ, including chronic cerebral hypoperfusion, hypertension, altered …

Commensality And Connection: How Shared Food Experiences Connect Characters In Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials, The Book Of Dust And ‘Lyra’ Stories, Susan Anna Grace

Articles

Commensality is an inherently social activity that shapes society and enacts social dynamics. Consequently, these shared exchanges can reveal much about the society and the individuals who engage in the act. This thesis explores commensality in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, The Book of Dust Series and companion texts to the novels. The research investigates how commensal exchanges create and maintain connections between characters across the collection. In doing so, it considers how literary characters differ from real-life humans and how the existing body of knowledge on commensality can be applied to literary figures. A qualitative approach was …

Theory Of The Nudnik: The Future Of Consumer Activism And What We Can Do To Stop It, Yonathan A. Arbel, Roy Shapira

Articles

How do consumers hold sellers accountable and enforce market norms? This Article contributes to our understanding of consumer markets in three ways. First, the Article identifies the role of a small subset of consumers-the titular "nudniks"-as engines of market discipline. Nudniks are those who call to complain, speak with managers, post online reviews, and file lawsuits. Typified by an idiosyncratic utility function and certain unique personality traits, nudniks pursue action where most consumers remain passive. Although derided in courtrooms and the court of public opinion, we show that nudniks can solve consumer collective action problems, leading to broad market improvements. …

Optimisation Of Vitamin D Status For Enhanced Immuno-Protection Against Covid-19, Daniel Mccartney, Declan G. Byrne

Articles

Abstract

Background

Vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D<50nmol/l) is common in Ireland, particularly amongst older adults, hospital inpatients and nursing home residents. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risk of acute viral respiratory infection and community acquired pneumonia, with several molecular mechanisms proposed to explain this association. Vitamin D supplementation has also been shown to reduce the risk of respiratory infection.

Vitamin D and Covid-19

Correction of vitamin D deficiency is thought to suppress CD26, a putative adhesion molecule for Covid-19 host cell invasion. Vitamin D may also attenuate interferon gamma (IFNγ) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) inflammatory responses, both potent predictors of poorer outcome in critically-ill ventilated patients including those with Covid-19.

Vitamin D Requirements

Irish adults require 25-30μg/d of vitamin D3, an intake not achievable by diet alone, to reliably maintain serum 25(OH)D levels >50nmol/l. Supplementation with doses up to 100μg/d has been shown to be safe for adults, and many agencies and expert …

Methylxanthines Inhibit Primary Amine Oxidase And Monoamine Oxidase Activities Of Human Adipose Tissue, Wiem Haj Ahmed, CéCile Peiro, Jessica Fontaine, Barry J. Ryan, Gemma K. Kinsella, Jeff O’Sullivan, Jean-Louis Grolleau, Gary T.M. Henehan, Christian CarpéNé

Articles

Abstract: Background: Methylxanthines including caffeine and theobromine are widely consumed compounds and were recently shown to interact with bovine copper-containing amine oxidase. To the best of our knowledge, no direct demonstration of any interplay between these phytochemicals and human primary amine oxidase (PrAO) has been reported to date. We took advantage of the coexistence of PrAO and monoamine oxidase (MAO) activities in human subcutaneous adipose tissue (hScAT) to test the interaction between several methylxanthines and these enzymes, which are involved in many key pathophysiological processes. Methods: Benzylamine, methylamine, and tyramine were used as substrates for PrAO and MAO in homogenates …

3d Mammalian Cell Culture Models In Toxicology Testing, Janith Wanigasekara, Brijesh K. Tiwari, James Curtin

Articles

3D cell culture can be successfully used as an alternative to laboratory animals, and as a cost effective and time-saving tissue culture technique, which also reduces the trial period for drug testing.

Who’S Afraid Of Uber?, Jeremy Kidd

Articles

Ride-sharing has disrupted the transportation-for-hire industry, breaking down barriers to entry that have protected entrenched incumbents for decades. The disruption has led to calls for increased regulation, along with criticisms about the effect of innovation on consumer safety, market stability, rule of law, and other areas. That disruption, however, has also led to tremendous benefits to consumers as they are freed from a regulatory regime that limited their transportation choices and forced them to pay higher prices for lower quality service. The same type of disruptive innovation is upon us in almost every area of our economy. How we deal …

The Relationship Between Serum Zinc Levels And Myopia, Niamh Burke, John Butler, Daniel Ian Flitcroft, James Loughman

Articles

Clinical significance: Myopia is inherently associated with eye growth and thereby possibly amenable to nutritional influence. However, little attention has been given to possible die- tary influences. This study demonstrates that serum zinc does not play a role in myopia development. Background: Myopia is inherently associated with eye growth and thereby possibly amena- ble to nutritional influence. A number of Asian studies have reported lower levels of serum zinc in myopic children. This study was designed to assess the relationship between serum zinc and myopia in the Korean population – using a subsample of participants from nation- ally representative data.

Lifespan Of Long-Lived Growth Hormone Receptor Knockout Mice Was Not Normalized By Housing At 30°C Since Weaning, Yimin Fang, Samuel Mcfadden, Justin Darcy, Erin R. Hascup, Kevin Hascup, Andrzej Bartke

Articles

Growth hormone receptor knockout (GHRKO) mice are remarkably long-lived and have improved glucose homeostasis along with altered energy metabolism which manifests through decreased respiratory quotient (RQ) and increased oxygen consumption (VO₂ ). Short-term exposure of these animals to increased environmental temperature (eT) at 30°C can normalize their VO₂ and RQ. We hypothesized that increased heat loss in the diminutive GHRKO mice housed at 23°C and the consequent metabolic adjustments to meet the increased energy demand for thermogenesis may promote extension of longevity, and preventing these adjustments by chronic exposure to increased eT will reduce or eliminate their longevity …

Exploring Attitudes And Reactions To Unfamiliar Food Pairings: An Examination Of The Underlying Motivations And The Impact Of Culinary Education, Mark Traynor, Andrew Moreo, Lisa Cain, Roisin Burke, Catherine Barry-Ryan

Articles

A mixed-methodology study was conducted to better understand consumer attitudes and behaviors toward novel food pairings and the impact of culinary education. Focus groups were conducted to investigate the underlying motivational factors to the reactions and behaviors toward unfamiliar foods. The second phase of the study consisted of sensory evaluation by two separate cohorts, panelists with and without culinary education, of food products created through the novel pairings of foods. Panelists with culinary education expressed a greater overall liking for the animal-based pairing. Sensory-Affective and Ideational factors appeared to be underlying motivational factors of these hedonic reactions.

Femagogical Strategies In The Art School: Navigating The Institution, Barbara Knezevic, Amy Walsh

Articles

This writing aims to define and examine ‘femagogy’ and the transformative potential for an inclusive intersectional feminist teaching practice in Fine Art education in the context of the contemporary Irish art school. This writing will trace the influence of linguistic power structures and the influence of broader institutional patriarchy in an educational setting and outline the inspirations and genealogies of femagogy. This writing provides situated embodied examples of femagogy in practice. It proposes the femagogical model of teaching as one that situates itself outside prevailing patriarchal models and proposes strategies to reimagine knowledge production and navigate the prevailing structural patriarchy …

Finite Element Simulation Of Head Impacts In Mixed Martial Arts, Stephen Tiernan, Aidan Meagher, David O'Sullivan Dr, Eoin O'Kelly Dr

Articles

This study determined brain stress and strain in an unhelmeted sport and correlated this with concussive injuries. Thirteen MMA athletes were fitted with the MiG2.0 Stanford instrumented mouthguard. The mouthguard records linear acceleration and angular velocity in 6 degrees of freedom. Angular acceleration was calculated by differentiation. All events were video recorded, time stamped and reported impacts confirmed. 298 impacts above 10g were recorded during sparring sessions and 153 impacts in competitive events. The competitive events resulted in five concussions which were diagnosed by a medical doctor. The impact with the highest angular acceleration from each sparring session and competitive …

Concussion And The Severity Of Head Impacts In Mixed Martial Arts, Stephen Tiernan, Aidan Meagher, David O'Sullivan, Eoin O'Keefe, Eoin O'Kelly, Eugene Wallace, Colin Doherty, Mathew Campbell, Yuzhe Liu, August Domel

Articles

Background: Concern about the consequences of head impacts in US football motivated researchers to investigate and develop instrumentation to measure the severity of these impacts. However, the severity of head impacts in unhelmeted sports is largely unknown as miniaturised sensor technology has only recently made it possible to measure these impacts in vivo.

Aim: The objective of this study was to measure the linear and angular head accelerations in impacts in mixed martial arts (MMA), and correlate these with concussive injuries.

Methods: Thirteen MMA fighters were fitted with the Stanford instrumented mouthguard (MiG2.0). The mouthguard records linear acceleration and angular …

Irish Agricultural Land Sales And Rental Prices, Frank Harrington

Articles

There have been many commentaries on the Irish agricultural land market, but regrettably for those of us interested in it there have been limited reliable data to test our theories. Given the importance of agriculture to the Irish economy and society, it is surprising how little reliable primary data exists about the Irish agricultural land market. To help address this lack of data the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and Teagasc are publishing a 50-year dataset of agricultural land sales and rentals to complement the SCSI member survey data.

Finding Common Ground For Citizen Empowerment In The Smart City, John D. Kelleher, Aphra Kerr

Articles

Corporate smart city initiatives are just one example of the contemporary culture of surveillance. They rely on extensive information gathering systems and Big Data analysis to predict citizen behaviour and optimise city services. In this paper we argue that many smart city and social media technologies result in a paradox whereby digital inclusion for the purposes of service provision also results in marginalisation and disempowerment of citizens. Drawing upon insights garnered from a digital inclusion workshop conducted in the Galapagos islands, we propose that critically and creatively unpacking the computational techniques embedded in data services is needed as a first …

Festivals, Public Space And Cultural Inclusion : Public Policy Insights, Bernadette Quinn, Alba Colombo, Kristina Lindström, David Mcgillivray, Andrew Smith

Articles

This paper investigates if and how cities conceive of festivals staged in outdoor public space as a means of achieving cultural inclusion policy objectives. The inclusion of culture in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) creates an imperative for cities to scrutinize their approaches to making their cities inclusive. Festivals offer potential in this regard and this study examines the ways that Barcelona, Dublin, Glasgow, Gothenburg and London incorporate festivals into cultural inclusion policies. It relies on secondary research to critically analyse a range of current policy documents, informed by Ball’s ideas about policy contexts: (a) of influence, (b) of …

Cultural Linguistics And Treaty Language: A Modernized Approach To Interpreting Treaty Language To Capture The Tribe's Understanding, Barbara Cosens

Articles

Language is a reflection of a thought world. A worldview that has been shaped by place to describe one's identity in space and time does not equate to species relatedness as a default to know one another. In the legal system of the United States, there is acknowledgement of treaties in colonized lands that there are rights granted from the tribes and not to them, and those rights are land-based. Yet, the Indigenous voice is dead before arrival, before it enters the room of science, justice, academe, or otherwise. The exclusion of Indigenous peoples at the table of knowledge and …

Leading Through Collaboration: A Tribute To Distinguished Professor Barbara Cosens, Donald L. Burnett Jr.

Articles

No abstract provided.