Digital Commons Network^™

Differential Fasting Plasma Glucose And Ketone Body Levels In Ghrko Versus 3xtg-Ad Mice: A Potential Contributor To Aging-Related Cognitive Status?, Chelsea M Griffith, Lauren N Macklin, Andrzej Bartke, Peter R Patrylo

Articles

Cognitive function declines with age and appears to correlate with decreased cerebral metabolic rate (CMR). Caloric restriction, an antiaging manipulation that extends life-span and can preserve cognitive function, is associated with decreased glucose uptake, decreased lactate levels, and increased ketone body (KB) levels in the brain. Since the majority of brain nutrients come from the periphery, this study examined whether the capacity to regulate peripheral glucose levels and KB production differs in animals with successful cognitive aging (growth hormone receptor knockouts, GHRKOs) versus unsuccessful cognitive aging (the 3xTg-AD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease). Animals were fasted for 5 hours with …

Three Experiments In Wood And Computational Design, Marcin Wójcik

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This article focuses on the relationships among material-oriented design, digital technologies, and environmentally responsible construction. It argues that computational design methods and digital manufacturing have the capacity to open new opportunities for design and can lead to more sustainable practices. Through an analysis of three experiments in design and construction, the research seeks solutions that use the inherent material properties and behavior of wood to replace toxic chemicals, metal connectors, and energy-intensive processes. Offering an alternative to design processes that begin with theory and representation, this paper proposes a different approach, beginning with experiments in materiality. This approach involves methods …

How Private Insurers Regulate Public Police, John Rappaport

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No abstract provided.

Using Cognitive Mapping Techniques To Measure Longitudinally The Brand Equity Of Irish Political Parties, Ewan Macdonald, Roger Sherlock, John Hogan Dr

Articles

This paper applies cognitive mapping techniques to understand how political brand equity is formed, differs, and changes, across the four largest Irish political parties, between 2013 and 2016. It assesses the fundamental aspects of branding and brand equity in the marketing and political marketing literatures and offers an insight into the Irish political environment. Primary data was generated through the participation of 232 citizens in the brand elicitation stages in 2013 and 2016 and a further 76 and 105 citizens respectively were involved in the construction of the cognitive maps of brand equity. In all, across both time points, 614 …

Poisson Windowing, David L. Farnsworth

Articles

The statistical quality-control technique of windowing takes advantage of the additive property of the Poisson probability distribution and the geometry of the data. There are abundant applications of windowing to observations that naturally occur in arrays or that are produced in them, such as computer chips, which are manufactured many at a time on wafers. Standard statistical procedures are used.

Beyond Zero-Sum Environmentalism, Jessica Owley, Shalanda Baker, Robin Kundis Craig, John Dernbach, Keith Hirokawa, Sarah Krakoff, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler,, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J. B. Ruhl, Jim Salzman, Inara Scott, David Takacs

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Environmental law and environmental protection are often portrayed as requiring trade offs: "jobs versus environment," "markets versus regulation," "enforcement versus incentives." In the summer of 2016, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative gathered to consider how environmentalism and environmental regulation can advance beyond this framing to include new constituents and offer new pathways to tackle the many significant challenges ahead. Months later, the initial activities of the Trump Administration highlighted the use of zero-sum rhetoric, with the appointment of government officials and the issuance of executive orders that indeed seem to view environmental issues as in a zero-sum relationship with …

Variational Approach Of Constructing Reduced Fluid-Structure Interaction Models In Bifurcated Networks, Alexander S. Liberson, Yashar Seyed Vahedein, David A. Borkholder

Articles

Reduced fluid-structure interaction models have received a considerable attention in recent years being the key component of hemodynamic modeling. A variety of models applying to specific physiological components such as arterial, venous and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulatory systems have been developed based on different approaches. The purpose of this paper is to apply the general approach based on Hamilton’s variational principle to create a model for a viscous Newtonian fluid - structure interaction (FSI) in a compliant bifurcated network. This approach provides the background for a correct formulation of reduced FSI models with an account for arbitrary nonlinear visco-elastic properties …

Motor Preparation Rather Than Decision-Making Differentiates Parkinson’S Disease Patients With And Without Freezing Of Gait, John Butler, Conor Fearon, Isabelle Killane, Saskia M. Waechter, Richard B. Reilly, Timothy Lynch

Articles

Objective: Freezing of gait (FOG) is a brief, episodic phenomenon affecting over half of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and leads to significant morbidity. The pathophysiology of FOG remains poorly understood but is associated with deficits in cognitive function and motor preparation.

Method: We studied 20 people with PD (10 with FOG, 10 without FOG) and performed a timed response target detection task while electroencephalographic data were acquired. We analysed the data to detect and examine cortical markers of cognitive decision making (P3b or centroparietal positivity, CPP) and motor readiness potential. We analysed current source density (CSD) to increase spatial …

Vibration Properties Of And Power Harvested By A System Of Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvesters That Have Electrical Dynamics, Christopher G. Cooley

Articles

This study investigates the vibration and dynamic response of a system of coupled electromagnetic vibration energy harvesting devices that each consist of a proof mass, elastic structure, electromagnetic generator, and energy harvesting circuit with inductance, resistance, and capacitance. The governing equations for the coupled electromechanical system are derived using Newtonian mechanics and Kirchhoff circuit laws for an arbitrary number of these subsystems. The equations are cast in matrix operator form to expose the device’s vibration properties. The device’s complex-valued eigenvalues and eigenvectors are related to physical characteristics of its vibration. Because the electrical circuit has dynamics, these devices have more …

Efficient Architecture Of Variable Size Hevc 2d-Dct For Fpga Platforms, Min Chen, Yuanzhi Zhang, Chao Lu

Articles

This study presents a design of two-dimensional (2D) discrete cosine transform (DCT) hardware architecture dedicated for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) in field programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms. The proposed methodology efficiently proceeds 2D-DCT computation to fit internal components and characteristics of FPGA resources. A four-stage circuit architecture is developed to implement the proposed methodology. This architecture supports variable size of DCT computation, including 4×4, 8×8, 16×16, and 32×32. The proposed architecture has been implemented in System Verilog and synthesized in various FPGA platforms. Compared with existing related works in literature, this proposed architecture demonstrates significant advantages in hardware cost …

Speaking Law: Towards A Nuanced Analysis Of 'Cases', Susanne Baer

Articles

“The headscarf case” is more than just a case. Talking law is often talking cases, but we need to understand law more specifically as a powerful practice of regulation. Law is also not only another discourse, or just text, or politics, with fundamental rights as “an issue,” or a promise, or just an idea. Instead, to protect fundamental rights, it is necessary to understand how in reacting to a conflict, we in fact speak rights today—Rechtsprechung—as a form of practice. The German Federal Constitutional Court’s decision in the conflict about female teachers wearing headscarves in German public schools may be …

Near Peers: Harnessing The Power Of The Populous To Enhance The Learning Environment, Barry Ryan

Articles

NearPod is a multiplatform e-learning tool that allows students to engage with each other and the lecturer in real time, independent of learning space size or type. This research investigated the impact of NearPod use in two different third level educational settings. The rationale was the practical implementation of key trends in higher education, and enhancing the student learning experience, through the integration of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and flipped classroom learning. One aim of this project was to identify if NearPod, could address these trends in a simple, cost effective way. Secondly, the research sought to investigate if …

The Conditional Poisson Process And The Erlang And Negative Binomial Distributions, Anurag Agarwal, Peter Bajorski, David L. Farnsworth, James E. Marengo, Wei Qian

Articles

It is a well known fact that for the hierarchical model of a Poisson random variable Y whose mean has an Erlang distribution, the unconditional distribution of Y is negative binomial. However, the proofs in the literature provide no intuitive understanding as to why this result should be true. It is the purpose of this manuscript to give a new proof of this result which provides such an understanding. The memoryless property of the exponential distribution allows one to conclude that the events in two independent Poisson processes may be regarded as Bernoulli trials, and this fact is used to …

Robot Perception Errors And Human Resolution Strategies In Situated Human-Robot Dialogue, Niels Schütte, Brian Mac Namee, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Errors in visual perception may cause problems in situated dialogues. We investigated this problem through an experiment in which human participants interacted through a natural language dialogue interface with a simulated robot.We introduced errors into the robot’s perception, and observed the resulting problems in the dialogues and their resolutions.We then introduced different methods for the user to request information about the robot’s understanding of the environment. We quantify the impact of perception errors on the dialogues, and investigate resolution attempts by users at a structural level and at the level of referring expressions.

Retention Systems For Extraoral Maxillofacial Prosthetic Implants: A Critical Review, M.V. Cobein, N.P. Coto, O. Crivello Junior, J.B.D. Lemos, L.M. Vieira, M.L. Pimentel, Hugh Byrne, R.B. Dias

Articles

We describe the techniques available for retention of implant-supported prostheses: bar-clips, O-rings, and magnets. We present reported preferences and, although this is limited by the heterogeneity of methods used and patients studied, we hope we have identified the best retention systems for maxillofacial prosthetic implants. If practitioners know the advantages and disadvantages of each system, they can choose the most natural and comfortable prosthesis. We searched the PubMed and Scopus databases, and restricted our search to papers published 2001–13. MeSH terms used were Maxillofacial prosthesis and Craniofacial prosthesis OR Craniofacial prostheses. We found a total of 2630 papers, and after …

An Application For Screening Gradual-Onset Age-Related Hearing Loss, Wayne M. Garrison, Joe Bochner

Articles

Objective. Less than 15% of adults in the USA over age 70 receive hearing screening; less than 20% of adults with hearing loss receive any form of treatment. Reasons vary, but affordability and accessibility are major barriers to intervention and treatment. This study provides data supporting a new adult hearing screening measure (NSRT®) that is self-administered, easy to use and focused on difficulties experienced in everyday speech communication. Methods. The NSRT® test materials are sentence-length utterances containing phonetic contrasts. The test requires respondents to determine whether sentences printed on a computer monitor are the same/different from sentences delivered as auditory …

A Comparison Of Stimulus Presentation Methods In Temporal Discrimination Testing, Eavan M. Mcgovern, John Butler, Ines Beiser, Laura Williams, Brendan Quinlivan, Shruti Narasiham, Rebecca Beck, Sean O'Riordan, Richard B. Reilly, Michael Hutchinson

Articles

The temporal discrimination threshold (TDT) is the shortest time interval at which an individual detects two stimuli to be asynchronous (normal  =  30-50 ms). It has been shown to be abnormal in patients with disorders affecting the basal ganglia including adult onset idiopathic focal dystonia (AOIFD). Up to 97% of patients have an abnormal TDT with age- and sex-related penetrance in unaffected relatives, demonstrating an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. These findings support the use of the TDT as a pre-clinical biomarker for AOIFD. The usual stimulus presentation method involves the presentation of progressively asynchronous stimuli; when three sequential stimuli are …

R-Hopfian And L-Co-Hopfian Abelian Groups, Brendan Goldsmith, Katao Gong

Articles

The notions of Hopfian and co-Hopfian groups are well known in both non-commutative and Abelian group theory. In this work we begin a systematic investigation of natural generalizations of these concepts and, in the case of Abelian p-groups, give a complete characterization of the generalizations in terms of the original concepts.

Hamiltonian Model For Coupled Surface And Internal Waves In The Presence Of Currents, Rossen Ivanov

Articles

We examine a two dimensional fluid system consisting of a lower medium bounded underneath by a flatbed and an upper medium with a free surface. The two media are separated by a free common interface. The gravity driven surface and internal water waves (at the common interface between the media) in the presence of a depth-dependent current are studied under certain physical assumptions. Both media are considered incompressible and with prescribed vorticities. Using the Hamiltonian approach the Hamiltonian of the system is constructed in terms of ’wave’ variables and the equations of motion are calculated. The resultant equations of motion …

Formative Assessment In Mathematics For Engineering Students, Eabhnat Ni Fhloinn, Michael Carr

Articles

this paper, we present a range of formative assessment types for engineering mathematics, including in-class exercises, homework, mock examination questions, table quizzes, presentations, critical analyses of statistical papers, peer-to-peer teaching, online assessments and electronic voting systems. We provide practical tips for the implementation of such assessments, with a particular focus on time or resource constraints and large class sizes, as well as effective methods of feedback. In addition, we consider the benefits of such formative assessments for students and staff.

Characteristics Of Different Systems For The Solar Drying Of Crops, Brian Norton

Articles

Solar dryers are used to enable the preservation of agricultural crops, food processing industries for

dehydration of fruits and vegetables, fish and meat drying, dairy industries for production of milk powder,

seasoning of wood and timber, textile industries for drying of textile materials. The fundamental concepts and

contexts of their use to dry crops is discussed in the chapter. It is shown that solar drying is the outcome of

complex interactions particular between the intensity and duration of solar energy, the prevailing ambient

relative humidity and temperature, the characteristics of the particular crop and its pre-preparation and the

design and …

A Packaged Whispering Gallery Mode Strain Sensor Based On A Polymer Wire Cylindrical Micro Resonator, Vishnu Kavungal, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Arun Mallik, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

We propose a whispering gallery mode (WGM) strain sensor formed by a polymer-wire cylindrical micro resonator for strain measurement applications. WGMs are generated by evanescently coupling light into the polymer-wire resonator from a silica fiber taper fabricated by the micro heater brushing technique. Accurate and repeatable measurements of a strains up to one free spectral range (FSR) shift of the WGMs (corresponding to 0.33 % of the polymer-wire elongation, 3250 μɛ) are demonstrated experimentally with the proposed sensor. Practical packaging method for the proposed strain sensor on a glass microscope slide has also been realized making the sensor portable and …

Validation Of A Membrane Touch Biosensor For The Qualitative Detection Of Igg Class Antibodies To Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2, Tony Loughman, Baljit Singh, Brian Seddon, Philip Noone, Padmanabhan Santhosh

Articles

A novel type of biosensor was assessed for application to the qualitative determination of circulating antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). The device utilises a high activity HSV-2 type specific gG2 antigen for antibody capture and commercially available ELISA reagents. The study compares the diagnostic performance of a prototype HSV-2 biochip to well-established in vitro tests routinely applied in clinical procedures. A panel of human serum samples (n = 60) previously characterised for HSV-2 serological status using the DiaSorin LIAISON® HSV-2 chemiluminescent immunoassay were assayed on the HSV-2 biochip and the Focus Diagnostics HerpeSelect® 2 ELISA IgG kit …

Study Of The Influence Of The Agarose Hydrogel Layer Thickness On Sensitivity Of The Coated Silica Microsphere, Arun Mallik, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

In this paper, we investigate both theoretically and experimentally the influence of the agarose hydrogel layer thickness on the sensitivity of a proposed relative humidity (RH) sensor based on a silica microsphere resonator coated with agarose hydrogel. The operating principle of the sensor relies on excitation of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in the coated silica microsphere using the evanescent field of a tapered fiber. A change in the ambient relative humidity is detected by measuring the wavelength shift of the WGMs in the transmission spectrum of the tapered fiber. Using perturbation theory, we analyze the influence of the agarose coating …

Model For Screened, Charge-Regulated Electrostatics Of An Eye Lens Protein: Bovine Gammab-Crystallin, Christopher W. Wahle, K. Michael Martini, Dawn M. Hollenbeck, Andreas Langner, David S. Ross, John F. Hamilton, George M. Thurston

Articles

We model screened, site-specific charge regulation of the eye lens protein bovine gammaB-crystallin (γB) and study the probability distributions of its proton occupancy patterns. Using a simplified dielectric model, we solve the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation to calculate a 54 × 54 work-of-charging matrix, each entry being the modeled voltage at a given titratable site, due to an elementary charge at another site. The matrix quantifies interactions within patches of sites, including γB charge pairs. We model intrinsic pK values that would occur hypothetically in the absence of other charges, with use of experimental data on the dependence of pK values …

Statistical-Thermodynamic Model For Light Scattering From Eye Lens Protein Mixtures, Michael M. Bell, David S. Ross, Maurino P. Bautista, Hossein Shahmohamad, Andreas Langner, John F. Hamilton, Carrie N. Lahnovych, George M. Thurston

Articles

We model light-scattering cross sections of concentrated aqueous mixtures of the bovine eye lens proteins γB- and α-crystallin by adapting a statistical-thermodynamic model of mixtures of spheres with short-range attractions. The model reproduces measured static light scattering cross sections, or Rayleigh ratios, of γB-α mixtures from dilute concentrations where light scattering intensity depends on molecular weights and virial coefficients, to realistically high concentration protein mixtures like those of the lens. The model relates γB-γB and γB-α attraction strengths and the γB-α size ratio to the free energy curvatures that …

Forfeitures And The Eighth Amendment: A Practical Approach To The Excessive Fines Clause As A Check On Government Seizures, David Pimentel

Articles

No abstract provided.

Searching For The Common Law: The Quantitative Approach Of The Restatement Of Consumer Contracts, Oren Bar-Gill, Omri Ben-Shahar, Florencia Marotta-Wurgler

Articles

In 2012, the American Law Institute asked us to serve as reporters for a new Restatement of Consumer Contracts. Recognizing that many innovations in American contract law in the past generation occurred in the area of consumer transactions, the project seemed timely and challenging. We discovered that many of these innovations are controversial and seemingly subject to conflicting approaches in the case law and heated debates among commentators. We also discovered that prior attempts to devise a unified set of rules have largely failed. We therefore decided to take a new approach to our search for, and restatement of, the …

Corporate Bankruptcy Panel—Chapter 11 Cramdown Interest Rates: Till, Momentive, And The Proper Valuation Method, Ralph Brubaker, Anthony Casey, Susan Freeman, Bruce A. Markell

Articles

No abstract provided.

Searching For The Common Law: The Quantitative Approach Of The Restatement Of Consumer Contracts, Oren Bar-Gill, Omri Ben-Shahar, Florencia Marotta-Wurgler

Articles

In 2012, the American Law Institute asked us to serve as reporters for a new Restatement of Consumer Contracts. Recognizing that many innovations in American contract law in the past generation occurred in the area of consumer transactions, the project seemed timely and challenging. We discovered that many of these innovations are controversial and seemingly subject to conflicting approaches in the case law and heated debates among commentators. We also discovered that prior attempts to devise a unified set of rules have largely failed. We therefore decided to take a new approach to our search for, and restatement of, the …