Digital Commons Network^™

Proposal Of A Selection Protocol For Replication Of Studies In Sports And Exercise Science, Jennifer Murphy, Christian Mesquida, Aaron R. Caldwell, Brian D. Earp, Joe P. Warne

Articles

To improve the rigor of science, experimental evidence for scientific claims ideally needs to be replicated repeatedly with comparable analyses and new data to increase the collective confidence in the veracity of those claims. Large replication projects in psychology and cancer biology have evaluated the replicability of their fields but no collaborative effort has been undertaken in sports and exercise science. We propose to undertake such an effort here. As this is the first large replication project in this field, there is no agreed-upon protocol for selecting studies to replicate. Criticism of previous selection protocols include claims they were non-randomised …

Editorial: Investigating The Effect Of The Physical Context On Customer Experience, Helen L. Bruce, Ewa Krolikowska, Tara Rooney

Articles

This editorial introduces a special issue of the Journal of Services Marketing, dedicated to articles discussing the effect of the physical context on customer experience. The editorial identifies diverse areas of extant knowledge which researchers might draw upon when investigating the effect of the physical context on customer experience. to inform future research agendas.

Explaining Deep Q-Learning Experience Replay With Shapley Additive Explanations, Robert S. Sullivan, Luca Longo

Articles

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has shown promise in optimizing complex control and decision-making processes but Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) lacks interpretability, limiting its adoption in regulated sectors like manufacturing, finance, and healthcare. Difficulties arise from DRL's opaque decision-making, hindering efficiency and resource use, this issue is amplified with every advancement. While many seek to move from Experience Replay to A3C, the latter demands more resources. Despite efforts to improve Experience Replay selection strategies, there is a tendency to keep the capacity high. We investigate training a Deep Convolutional Q-learning agent across 20 Atari games intentionally reducing Experience Replay capacity from (Formula …

Persuasive Communication Systems: A Machine Learning Approach To Predict The Effect Of Linguistic Styles And Persuasion Techniques, Annye Braca, Pierpaolo Dondio

Articles

Prediction is a critical task in targeted online advertising, where predictions better than random guessing can translate to real economic return. This study aims to use machine learning (ML) methods to identify individuals who respond well to certain linguistic styles/persuasion techniques based on Aristotle’s means of persuasion, rhetorical devices, cognitive theories and Cialdini’s principles, given their psychometric profile.

Detection Of Grape Clusters In Images Using Convolutional Neural Network, Mohammad Osama Shahzad, Anas Bin Aqeel, Waqar Shahid Qureshi

Articles

Convolutional Neural Networks and Deep Learning have revolutionized every field since their inception. Agriculture has also been reaping the fruits of developments in mentioned fields. Technology is being revolutionized to increase yield, save water wastage, take care of diseased weeds, and also increase the profit of farmers. Grapes are among the highest profit-yielding and important fruit related to the juice industry. Pakistan being an agricultural country, can widely benefit by cultivating and improving grapes per hectare yield. The biggest challenge in harvesting grapes to date is to detect their cluster successfully; many approaches tend to answer this problem by harvest …

Gated Deep Reinforcement Learning With Red Deer Optimization For Medical Image Classification, Narayanan Ganesh, Sambandan Jayalakshmi, Rama Chandran Narayanan, Miroslav Mahdal, Hossam Zawbaa, Ali Wagdy Mohamed

Articles

The brain is one of the most important and complex organs in the body, consisting of billions of individual cells. Uncontrolled growth and expansion of aberrant cell populations within or around the brain are the main causes of brain tumors. These cells have the potential to harm healthy cells and impair brain function [1]. Tumors can be detected using medical imaging techniques, which are considered the most popular and accurate way to classify different types of cancer, and this procedure is even more crucial as it is noninvasive [2]. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one such medical imaging technique that …

Schizo-Net: A Novel Schizophrenia Diagnosis Framework Using Late Fusion Multimodal Deep Learning On Electroencephalogram-Based Brain Connectivity Indices, Nitin Grover, Aviral Chharia, Rahul Upadhyay, Luca Longo

Articles

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a serious mental condition that causes hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking. Traditionally, SCZ diagnosis involves the subject’s interview by a skilled psychiatrist. The process needs time and is bound to human errors and bias. Recently, brain connectivity indices have been used in a few pattern recognition methods to discriminate neuro-psychiatric patients from healthy subjects. The study presents Schizo-Net , a novel, highly accurate, and reliable SCZ diagnosis model based on a late multimodal fusion of estimated brain connectivity indices from EEG activity. First, the raw EEG activity is pre-processed exhaustively to remove unwanted artifacts. Next, six brain …

A Multidimensionality Reduction Approach To Rainfall Prediction, Menatallah Abdel Azeem, Prasanjit Dey, Soumyabrata Dev

Articles

The rainfall has an impact on various fields and industries, including transportation, construction, tourism, health, and wildlife preservation. Accurate rainfall prediction is essential for mitigating the negative impact of rainfall on these sectors. However, previous studies on rainfall prediction have been mainly based on datasets from North America, Europe, Australia, and Central Asia, covering different periods. This study proposes using weather datasets covering the past 5 to 10 years to capture recent patterns in weather data. Additionally, the curse of dimensionality can impact model performance and lead to overfitting. Therefore, this study proposes utilizing dimensionality reduction techniques to ensure that …

Nesnet: A Deep Network For Estimating Near-Surface Pollutant Concentrations, Prasanjit Dey, Bibhash Pran Das, Yee Hui Lee, Soumyabrata Dev

Articles

Atmospheric pollution has become a serious threat in recent years. The advancements and expansion of industrial activity and civilization have been the major catalysts. With serious consequences like climate change and global warming, the onset of which is already being observed, keeping a check on atmospheric pollutant levels is now more important than ever. Trace gases play a major role in atmospheric chemistry. Many of these are also regarded as major atmospheric pollutants. The concentration of gases, such as (SO2), (O3), (NO2), etc., are indicators of air quality. Therefore, in this study, we primarily concern ourselves with concentrations of NO2, …

Supporting Clinical Decision Making In The Emergency Department For Paediatric Patients Using Machine Learning: A Scoping Review Protocol, Fiona Leonard, Dympna O. Sullivan, John Gilligan, Nicola O. Shea, Michael J. Barrett

Articles

Introduction Machine learning as a clinical decision support system tool has the potential to assist clinicians who must make complex and accurate medical decisions in fast paced environments such as the emergency department. This paper presents a protocol for a scoping review, with the objective of summarising the existing research on machine learning clinical decision support system tools in the emergency department, focusing on models that can be used for paediatric patients, where a knowledge gap exists. Materials and methods The methodology used will follow the scoping study framework of Arksey and O'Malley, along with other guidelines. Machine learning clinical …

Considerations For Scaling A Social Enterprise: Key Factors And Elements, Clodagh O'Reilly, Lucia Walsh, Ziene Mottiar

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Alternative Proteins For Vegan Diets: Sources, Physico-Chemical Properties, Nutritional Equivalency, And Consumer Acceptance, Rutwick Surya Ulhas, Rajeev Ravindran, Alok Malviya, Anushree Priyadarshini, Brijesh K. Tiwari, Gaurav Rajauria

Articles

Alternate proteins are gaining popularity as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to animal-based proteins. These proteins are often considered healthier and are suitable for people following a vegetarian or vegan diet. Alternative proteins can be recovered from natural sources like legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds, while single cell proteins (mycoproteins), and algal proteins are being developed using cutting-edge technology to grow fungus, yeast and algal cells in a controlled environment, creating a more sustainable source of protein. Although, the demand for alternative protein products is increasing, there still happens to be a large gap in use among the …

Religious Liberty For All? A Religious Right To Abortion, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

One of the most notable trends in recent Supreme Court jurisprudence is the expansion of religious liberty rights. The right to practice one's faith is a core feature of a democracy, but the Supreme Court has privileged that right over other equally critical ones, most notably the right to equal treatment. Thus, for example, the Court has held that for-profit companies have a religious right to exclude contraception from their health insurance plans and that nonprofit charities have a religious right to refuse to place foster children with same-sex couples. In these and similar cases, the religious beliefs aligned with …

Entrepreneurial Competencies In Action: Online Fundraising Initiatives By University Students, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy

Articles

It has been argued that entrepreneurship educators are inclined to let students learn in a safe controlled environment, with no pressure except to pass the module. Students working in groups of three were given 12 weeks (Target 1) to develop a fundraising initiative, work with various stakeholders, and execute their online fundraising initiative to meet a target goal of €2000 (Target 2) per group. Employing approaches such as Effectuation, Lean Start-Up and the Business Model Canvas, a self-directed learning approach ensured students were able to take ownership of their learning journey with the lecturer acting as coach or facilitator. The …

Developing Entrepreneurial Skillsets Amongst Rural Women In Uganda, Sylvia Gavigan, Thomas M. Cooney, Klavs Ciprikis

Articles

Purpose: Rural women in Africa have less entrepreneurship opportunities than men. This is mainly due to societal expectations of women, but it may also be caused by a lack of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills due to their work in agriculture-related activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of entrepreneurship training on entrepreneurial skillsets of rural women working in Uganda and how such training influences their entrepreneurial activity.

Design/methodology/approach: The primary data set for this study comes from surveys of rural women working in agriculture who participated in a specific entrepreneurship training programme in Uganda. A …

Evaluation Of Selenomethionine Entrapped In Nanoparticles For Oral Supplementation Using In Vitro, Ex Vivo And In Vivo Models, Shane Forde, Giuliana Vozza, David J. Brayden, Jesus Maria Frias, Sinead M. Ryan

Articles

Selenium methionine (Se Met) is an essential micronutrient required for normal body function and is associated with additional health benefits. However, oral administration of Se Met can be challenging due to its purported narrow therapeutic index, low oral bioavailability, and high susceptibility to oxidation. To address these issues, Se Met was entrapped in z e i n-coated nanoparticles made from chitosan using an ionic gelation formulation. The high stability of both the Se Met and s e l e n o methionine nanoparticles (Se Met-NPs) was established using cultured human intestinal and liver epithelial cells, rat liver homogenates, and rat …

Smoking Cessation Through Optimisation Of Clinical Care In Pregnancy: The Stop Randomised Controlled Trial, Brendan P. Mcdonnell, Patrick Dicker, Sheila Keogan, Luke Clancy, Carmen Regan

Articles

This is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of a dedicated smoking cessation clinic versus routine antenatal care as an intervention to reduce cigarette smoking behaviour. Smoking mothers randomised to the Smoking cessation Through Optimisation of clinical care in Pregnancy (STOP) clinic will have all antenatal care provided by a team comprising an obstetrician, a midwife, and a smoking cessation practitioner. This intervention includes ultrasound screening for fetal growth restriction. The control arm comprises two groups: one receiving standard care with ultrasound screening for fetal growth restriction, and one receiving standard care with ultrasound screening for growth restriction only if clinically …

The Role Of Smoking In Covid-19 Progression: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, Silvano Gallus, Marco Scala, Irene Possenti, Carlotta Micaela Jarach, Luke Clancy, Esteve Fernandez, Giuseppe Gorini, Giulia Carreras, Maria Chiara Malevolti, Alison Commar, Ranti Fayokun, Hebe N. Gouda, Vinayak M. Prasad, Alessandra Lugo

Articles

The association between current smoking and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) progression remains uncertain. We aim to provide up-to-date evidence of the role of cigarette smoking in COVID-19 hospitalisation, severity and mortality. On 23 February 2022 we conducted an umbrella review and a traditional systematic review via PubMed/Medline and Web of Science. We used random-effects meta-analyses to derive pooled odds ratios of COVID-19 outcomes for smokers in cohorts of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infected individuals or COVID-19 patients. We followed the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology reporting guidelines. PROSPERO: CRD42020207003. 320 publications were included. The pooled odds ratio …

Mapping And Mobilizing Legal Criticalities: Making The Move From Diaspora To Collective Or Legal Scholars Making A Difference As Culture Warriors, Francisco Valdes

Articles

No abstract provided.

Opening A Federal Reserve Account, Julie Andersen Hill

Articles

To open bank accounts, new customers provide personal information and make a deposit. Within a few minutes (or perhaps a few days), new customers get access to payment services. For many years, the process financial institutions used to open accounts at FederalReserve Banks was similar. Eligible banks filled out a one-page form and within a week received an account allowing them access to the FederalReserve's payment systems. Recently, however, Federal Reserve Banks have spent years considering account requests from novel banks.

This Article examines the Federal Reserve's process for evaluating requests for accounts. Using interviews, court documents, and other sources, …

Common Law Constitutionalism And The Protean First Amendment, Ronald Jr. Krotoszynski

Articles

No abstract provided.

Time To Heal: Trauma's Impact On Rape & Sexual Assault Statutes Of Limitations, Fredrick E. Vars, Jillian Miller Purdue

Articles

Short statutes of limitations for sex crimes ask the impossible of many vic- tims: report the crime before they have recovered from the trauma. Perpetra- tors go free as a direct result of the injury they caused. Nearly a third of victims of rape and sexual assaulthave PTSD during their lifetimes. PTSD is associated with three symptoms pertinent to reporting a crime: avoidance cop- ing (avoidingdistressing thoughts, feelings, or reminders of the attack), disso- ciative amnesia (forgetting important or all aspects of the attack), and depression. These symptoms all affect a victim's psychological ability to report a crime before a …

The Exoskeleton Of Environmental Law: Why The Breadth, Depth And Longevity Of Environmental Law Matters For Judicial Review, Sanne H. Knudsen

Articles

Environmental law is pragmatic, inevitable, and intentional. In the aggregate, the numerous federal environmental statutes are not simply a patchwork of ad hoc responses or momentary political breakthroughs to isolated public health problems and resource concerns. Together, they are a group of repeated, legislatively-backed commitments to embrace self-restraint for self-preservation.

Self-restraint and discipline are the essence of environmental law. Indeed, if one studies the patterns and repeated choices in environmental law 's many statutory texts, one can start to appreciate environmental law 's indispensable role in society: it serves as an enduring "exoskeleton," a sort of protective armor created over …

How Has Entrepreneurship Opportunity Formation Amongst Immigrants Been Influenced By The Covid-19 Pandemic?, Osa-Godwin Osaghae, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how entrepreneurship opportunity formation amongst immigrants has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, given that environmental changes and irregularity can contribute to entrepreneurship opportunity formation in the immigrant set-up.

Approaches To Sea Level Rise And International Law: A Comparative View Of Emerging Policy Responses By The African And The Americas Regions, Charles Chernor Jalloh

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No abstract provided.

Industry Update October 2022, Elaine Harris

Articles

Company news Bend Bioscience invests in expansion of drug-delivery capabilities Bend Bioscience (OR, USA) and NovaQuest Private Equity, have announced plans on 11 October 2022 to invest in a new facility in Bend, Oregon. The group will focus on developing new R&D partnerships, and early phase manufacturing and development activities based on proprietary particle engineering-based drug-delivery technologies. This new facility will consist of approximately 20,000 square feet of laboratory and processing areas and it is anticipated that manufacturing and analytical capabilities will operational by the end of Q2 2023. Announcing the investment decision, Dan Dobry, Bend Bioscience’s co-founder said “We …

Restoring Indian Reservation Status: An Empirical Analysis, Michael K. Velchik, Jeffery Zhang

Articles

In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court held that the eastern half of Oklahoma was Indian country. This bombshell decision was contrary to settled expectations and government practices spanning 111 years. It also was representative of an increasing trend of federal courts recognizing Indian sovereignty over large and economically significant areas of the country, even where Indians have not asserted these claims in many years and where Indians form a small minority of the inhabitants.

Although McGirt and similar cases fundamentally turn on questions of statutory and treaty interpretation, they are often couched in consequence-based arguments about the good …

Back To Basics: The Benefits Of Paradigmatic International Organizations, Kristina Daugirdas, Katerina Linos

Articles

In the early 2000s, small “coalitions of the willing,” flexible networks, and nimble private-public partnerships were promoted as alternatives to bureaucratic, consensus-seeking, and slow-moving international organizations. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established as an efficient alternative to the lumbering World Health Organization. The Basel Committee, the Financial Stability Forum, and the Financial Action Task Force were lauded as global market regulators. The Pompidou Group, the Dublin Group, and Interpol were touted as effective police networks in the battle against transnational crime.

We systematically reviewed the evolution of these celebrated networks in the ensuing decades by …

Unprecedented Precedent And Original Originalism: How The Supreme Court’S Decision In Dobbs Threatens Privacy And Free Speech Rights, Leonard Niehoff

Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has drawn considerable attention because of its reversal of Roe v. Wade and its rejection of a woman’s constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy. The Dobbs majority, and some of the concurring opinions, emphasized that the ruling was a narrow one. Nevertheless, there are reasons to think the influence of Dobbs may extend far beyond the specific constitutional issue the case addresses.

This article explains why Dobbs could have significant and unanticipated implications for the law of privacy and the law of free expression. I argue that two …

Responding To The New Major Questions Doctrine, Christopher J. Walker

Articles

The new major questions doctrine has been a focal point in administrative law scholarship and litigation over the past year. One overarching theme is that the doctrine is a deregulatory judicial power grab from both the executive and legislative branches. It limits the president’s ability to pursue a major policy agenda through regulation. And in the current era of political polarization, Congress is unlikely to have the capacity to pass legislation to provide the judicially required clear authorization for agencies to regulate major questions. Especially considering the various “vetogates” imposed by Senate and House rules, it is fair to conclude …