Digital Commons Network^™

Phase-Only Digital Encryption, Jonathan Blackledge, Western Govere, Dumisani Sibanda

Articles

Abstract—We study then-dimensional deconvolution prob-lem associated with an impulse response function and an(additive) noise function that are both characterised by thesame phase-only stochastic spectrum. In this case, it is shownthat the deconvolution problem becomes well-posed and has ageneral solution that is both exact and unique, subject to are-normalisation condition relating to the scale of the solution.While the phase-only spectral model considered is of limitedvalue in general (in particular, problems arising in the fieldsof digital signal processing and communications engineering,specifically with regard to the retrieval of information fromnoise), its application to digital cryptography has potential.One of the reasons for this (as …

Examining The Limits Of Predictability Of Human Mobility, Vaibhav Klukarni, Abhijit Mahalunkar, Benoit Garbinato, John D. Kelleher

Articles

We challenge the upper bound of human-mobility predictability that is widely used to corroborate the accuracy of mobility prediction models. We observe that extensions of recurrent-neural network architectures achieve significantly higher prediction accuracy, surpassing this upper bound. Given this discrepancy, the central objective of our work is to show that the methodology behind the estimation of the predictability upper bound is erroneous and identify the reasons behind this discrepancy. In order to explain this anomaly, we shed light on several underlying assumptions that have contributed to this bias. In particular, we highlight the consequences of the assumed Markovian nature of …

Barriers To The Advancement Of Women Of Color Faculty In Stem: The Need For Promoting Equity Using An Intersectional Framework, Maya Corneille, Anna Lee, Sherrice Allen, Jessica Cannady, Alexia Guess

Articles

Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to highlight critical issues facing women of color (WOC) faculty and to synthesize the research literature in order to offer recommendations for action to address inequities using an intersectionality framework.

Design/methodology/approach–The authors conducted a qualitative meta-analysis. Relevant articles were obtained through a search of the EBSCO and Google Scholar databases entering in combinations of specific keywords. In order to be included in this review, the manuscripts had to be published between the years 2001 and 2017; in a peer-reviewed journal; and available through the university library system.

Findings–The majority of manuscripts …

Manned Aircraft Versus Small Unmanned Aerial System—Forestry Remote Sensing Comparison Utilizing Lidar And Structure-From-Motion For Forest Carbon Modeling And Disturbance Detection, Michael P. Mcclelland Ii, Jan Van Aardt, Darin Hale

Articles

Sustainable forest management relies on the acquisition of timely (change detection) and accurate structural information of forest landscapes. Light detection and ranging (lidar) remote sensing platforms enable rapid, three-dimensional (3-D), structural data collection with a high spatial resolution. This study explores a functional carbon model applied to a dense, closed deciduous forest. Data are collected by manned airborne systems and unmanned aerial system, producing both lidar and structure-from-motion (SfM) 3-D mapping. A hybrid approach combining cost-effective SfM-generated data with lidar-derived digital elevation models also is explored, since the SfM fails to produce adequate terrain returns. Carbon modeling results are comparable …

An Investigation Of The Detection Capability Of Pulsed Wave Duplex Doppler Of Low Grade Stenosis Using Ultrasound Contrast Agent Microbubbles – An In-Vitro Study, Jacinta Browne, Deirdre King, Andrew J. Fagan, Deepa Chari, Carmel Moran

Articles

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate whether clinically used ultrasonic contrast agents improved the accuracy of spectral Doppler ultrasound in the detection of low grade (< 50%) renal artery stenosis. Low grade stenoses in the renal artery are notoriously difficult to reliably detect using Doppler ultrasound due to difficulties such as overlying fat and bowel gas.

Methods: A range of anatomically-realistic renal artery phantoms with varying low degrees of stenosis (0, 30 and 50%) were constructed and peak velocity data was measured from within the pre-stenotic and mid-stenotic regions in each phantom, for both unenhanced and contrast-enhanced spectral Doppler data acquisitions. The effect of a 20mm overlying fat layer on the ultrasound beam distortion and phase aberration, and hence on the measured peak velocity data, was also …

Monitoring Meaningful Activities Using Small Low-Cost Devices In A Smart Home, Jordan Tewell, Dympna O'Sullivan, Neil Maiden, James Lockerbie, Simone Stumpf

Articles

A challenge associated with an ageing population is increased demand on health and social care, creating a greater need to enable persons to live independently in their own homes. Ambient assistant living technology aims to address this by monitoring occupants’ ‘activities of daily living’ using smart home sensors to alert caregivers to abnormalities in routine tasks and deteriorations in a person’s ability to care for themselves. However, there has been less focus on using sensing technology to monitor a broader scope of so-called ‘meaningful activities’, which promote a person’s emotional, creative, intellectual, and spiritual needs. In this paper, we describe …

An Examination Of Students' Perceptions Of The Kekulé Resonance Representation Using A Perceptual Learning Theory Lens, Thomas Kim, Leslie Kate Wright, Kathryn Miller

Articles

Students in chemistry often demonstrate difficulty with the principle of resonance. Despite many attempts to mitigate this difficulty, there have been few attempts to examine the root cause of these issues. In this study, students were assessed for their perception of Kekulé structures based on perceptual learning theory, which is grounded in cognitive mechanisms of visual perception. The data from this assessment shows that students are perceiving inappropriate clues from this representation, which infers that the image itself might be an impediment to learning about resonance. Employment of a metarepresentational competence approach was used to address these misperceptions.

Temperature-Compensated Magnetic Field Sensing With A Dual-Ring Structure Consisting Of Microfiber Coupler-Sagnac Loop And Fiber Bragg Grating - Assisted Resonant Cavity, Fangfang Wei, Dejun Liu, Arun Kumar Mallik, Gerald Farrell, Qiang Wu, Gang-Ding Peng, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

A novel temperature-compensated magnetic field sensor based on a ring erbium-doped fiber laser combined with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and a Sagnac loop containing a microfiber coupler (MFC) and magnetic fluid is proposed and investigated. Thanks to the dual-ring structure of the MFC-Sagnac loop and the FBG-assisted resonant cavity, the output of the structure has two distinct laser peaks. In addition to the magnetic field sensing capability, the proposed structure can simultaneously provide temperature information. The maximum experimentally demonstrated sensitivity to a magnetic field determined from the spectral shift of one laser peak is 102 pm/mT in the magnetic …

Racial Equity In Algorithmic Criminal Justice, Aziz Huq

Articles

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Energy Governance In South Tyrol (Italy): A Probabilistic Bipartite Network Model, Jessica Belest, Laura Secco, Elena Pisani, Alberto Caimo

Articles

At the national scale, almost all of the European countries have already achieved energy transition targets, while at the regional and local scales, there is still some potential to further push sustainable energy transitions. Regions and localities have the support of political, social, and economic actors who make decisions for meeting existing social, environmental and economic needs recognising local specificities.

These actors compose the sustainable energy governance that is fundamental to effectively plan and manage energy resources. In collaborative relationships, these actors share, save, and protect several kinds of resources, thereby making energy transitions deeper and more effective.

This research …

Automatic Acquisition Of Annotated Training Corpora For Test-Code Generation, Magdalena Kacmajor, John D. Kelleher

Articles

Open software repositories make large amounts of source code publicly available. Potentially, this source code could be used as training data to develop new, machine learning-based programming tools. For many applications, however, raw code scraped from online repositories does not constitute an adequate training dataset. Building on the recent and rapid improvements in machine translation (MT), one possibly very interesting application is code generation from natural language descriptions. One of the bottlenecks in developing these MT-inspired systems is the acquisition of parallel text-code corpora required for training code-generative models. This paper addresses the problem of automatically synthetizing parallel text-code corpora …

Using Cognitive Mapping To Longitudinally Examine Political Brand Associations, Ewan Macdonald, Roger Sherlock, John Hogan

Articles

This paper uses cognitive mapping techniques to understand how brand associations, an important aspect of political brand equity are formed, differ, and change, from the perspective of citizens, across the four largest Irish political parties between 2013 and 2016. The paper focuses in particular upon the strength, favourability and uniqueness of these brand associations. The results constitute a first attempt to longitudinally explore changing political brand associations through cognitive mapping techniques, using data generated with the participation of hundreds of citizens. Our findings suggest that this approach can contribute to our understanding of how and why political brand associations change …

Use Of Novel Anthropomorphic Breast Ultrasound Phantoms For Radiology Resident Education, Jacinta Browne, Chris Gu, Robert Fazzio, Andrew J. Fagan, Donald Tradup, Nicholas Hangiandreou

Articles

Purpose: This study evaluated the training and assessment role of anthropomorphic breast ultrasound phantoms which simulated both the morphological and sonographic characteristics of breast tissue, including lesions, in a group of radiology residents at a large academic medical center. Methods: This was a prospective study involving 9 residents across all years (2^nd–4^th year) of a radiology residency program. Baseline assessments of all residents ability to detect and characterize lesions in P-I were carried out, followed by a two-hour teaching session on the same phantom. All residents underwent a post-training, final assessment on P-II to evaluate changes in …

A Deep Recurrent Q Network Towards Self-Adapting Distributed Microservices Architecture (In Press), Basel Magableh

Articles

One desired aspect of microservices architecture is the ability to self-adapt its own architecture and behaviour in response to changes in the operational environment. To achieve the desired high levels of self-adaptability, this research implements the distributed microservices architectures model, as informed by the MAPE-K model. The proposed architecture employs a multi adaptation agents supported by a centralised controller, that can observe the environment and execute a suitable adaptation action. The adaptation planning is managed by a deep recurrent Q-network (DRQN). It is argued that such integration between DRQN and MDP agents in a MAPE-K model offers distributed microservice architecture …

Deep Q Learning For Self Adaptive Distributed Microservices Architecture (In Press), Basel Magableh

Articles

One desired aspect of a self-adapting microservices architecture is the ability to continuously monitor the operational environment, detect and observe anomalous behavior, and provide a reasonable policy for self-scaling, self-healing, and self-tuning the computational resources in order to dynamically respond to a sudden change in its operational environment. The behaviour of a microservices architecture is continuously changing overtime, which makes it a challenging task to use a statistical model to identify both the normal and abnormal behaviour of the services running. The performance of the microservices cluster could fluctuate around the demand to accommodate scalability, orchestration and load balancing demands. …

Systems In Play: Simon Nicholson's Design 12 Course, University Of California, Berkeley, 1966, Tim Stott

Articles

In 1966, British artist, designer and educator Simon Nicholson (1934–1990) offered a lower division course, Design 12, at the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley. Controversially, Nicholson promoted play as the principal method of design and invited children to assess students’ projects on the Berkeley campus and in local schools, parks, playgrounds and hospitals. This article presents Design 12 as an important example of environmental design pedagogy in the USA, which uniquely attempted to synthesize British post-war constructivism with ‘design science’ and adventure play. The result was a course that placed play at the centre of design pedagogy, where it …

Algebraic Entropies, Hopficity And Co-Hopficity Of Direct Sums Of Abelian Groups, Brendan Goldsmith, Katao Kong

Articles

Necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure that the direct sum of two Abelian groups with zero entropy is again of zero entropy are still unknown; interestingly the same problem is also unresolved for direct sums of Hopfian and co-Hopfian groups. We obtain sufficient conditions in some situations by placing restrictions on the homomorphisms between the groups. There are clear similarities between the various cases but there is not a simple duality involved.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Mbti): Should Musicians Care About It?, Arun Rao

Articles

No abstract provided.

In-Fiber Temperature Sensor Based On Green Up-Conversion Luminescence In An Er3+-Yb3+ Co-Doped Tellurite Glass Microsphere, Meng Zhang, Angzhen Li, Jibo Yu, Xiaosong Lu, Shunbin Wang, Elfed Lewis, Gerald Farrell, Libo Yuan, Pengfei Wang

Articles

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, in-fiber temperature sensor based on green up-conversion (UC) luminescence in an Er3+-Yb3+" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 12.88px; line-height: normal; word-spacing: normal; overflow-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; position: relative;">Er3+-Yb3+Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped tellurite glass microsphere is described. The tellurite glass microsphere is located firmly inside a suspended tri-core hollow-fiber (STCHF) structure. The pump light launched via a single-mode fiber (SMF) is passed through a section of multimode fiber, which is fusion spliced between the SMF …

On The Time Evolution Of Resonant Triads In Rotational Capillary-Gravity Water Waves, Rossen Ivanov, Calin Martin

Articles

We investigate an effect of the resonant interaction in the case of one-directional propagation of capillary-gravity surface waves arising as the free surface of a rotational water flow. Specifically, we assume constant vorticity in the body of the fluid which physically corresponds to an underlying current with a linear horizontal velocity profile. We consider the interaction of three distinct modes, and we obtain the dynamic equations for a resonant triad. Setting the constant vorticity equal to zero, we recover the well known integrable three-wave system.

Anti-Hypochlorite And Catalytic Activity Of Commercially Available Moringa Oleifera Diet Supplement, Karolina Starzak, Bernadette Creaven, Arkadiusz Matwijczuk, Alicja Matwijczuk, Dariusz Karcz

Articles

Aiming at the assessment of the pro-health, and especially anti-hypochlorite properties of Moringa oleifera species a representative, commercially available Moringaoleifera dietary supplement was used as a substrate for the preparation of aqueous Moringa extract. The anti-hypochlorite activity of the extract was assessed using the hypochlorite-specific coumarin-based fluorescence turn-off sensor, namely 7-diethylamino-coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (7-DCCA). This compound was synthesized via the Knoevenagel condensation of 4-diethylamino-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde with Meldrum’sacidandtheMoringaextractwasemployedasamediumandcatalyst. Moreover,thetotal phenoliccontent(TPC)aswellasthereactiveoxygenspecies(ROS)–scavengingabilityoftheaqueous Moringa extract were determined. The results obtained demonstrated the applicability of Moringa extract as an anti-hypochlorite agent. Additionally, the satisfactory yield of the 7-DCCA obtained suggests the usefulness of the extract as a …

The Role Of Role-Play In Student Awareness Of The Social Dimension Of The Engineering Profession, Diana Adela Martin, Eddie Conlon, Brian Bowe

Articles

The article aims to expand upon traditional case based instruction through role-play and to explore the effectiveness of the approach in raising students’ awareness of the social dimension of the engineering profession. For this purpose, we added a contextual description to the case study Cutting Roadside Trees driven by a macroethical outlook. Our contribution draws on an exercise based on the contextualised case study in which 80 students at Technological University Dublin participated. The results gathered show that role-playing contributed to complex student responses to the scenario and an awareness of the social factors that are part of engineering practice …

Urban Aerobiological Risk Mapping Of Ornamental Trees Using A New Index Based On Lidar And Kriging: A Case Study Of Plane Trees, Raúl Pecero-Casimiro, Santiago Fernández-Rodríguez, Rafael Tormo-Molina, Alejandro Monroy-Colín, Inmaculada Silva-Palacios, Juan Pedro Cortés-Pérez, Ángela Gonzalo-Garijo, J. M. Maya-Manzano

Articles

Ornamental trees bring benefits for human health, including reducing urban pollution. However, some species, such as plane trees (Platanus sp.), produce allergenic pollen. Consequently, urban maps are a valuable tool for allergic patients and allergists, but they often fail to include variables that contribute to the “building downwash effect”, such as the width and shape of streets and the height of buildings. Other factors that directly influence pollen dispersion (slopes and other geographical features) also have not traditionally been discussed. The LiDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging) technique enables one to consider these variables with high accuracy. This work proposes …

Biosensor For The Oxidative Stress Biomarker Glutathione Based On Sam Of Cobalt Phthalocyanine On A Thioctic Acid Modified Gold Electrode, Mohammed Nooredeen Abbas, Ayman Ali Saeed, Mounir Ben Ali, Abdelhamid Errachid, Nadia Zine, Abdullatif Baraket, Baljit Singh

Articles

Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of cobalt teraaminophthalocyanine (CoTAPc) was developed on thioctic acid (TA) dithiol modified gold electrode and electrochemically evaluated as a glutathione (GSH) selective biosensor. The CoTAPc-TA-Au modified electrode was developed by the covalent immobilization of the CoTAPc as the electrochemical mediator onto previously prepared gold electrode modified with TA (TA-Au) via amid bond formation with the carboxylic group of TA, producing well-organized SAM of the mediator. For comparison, another electrode modified with 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as a monothiol linker instead of TA was similarly prepared. The electrode surface modification was characterized using SEM, AFM, CV, and EIS. The …

Law School In A Different Voice: Legal Education As A Work Of Mercy, Pamela A. Wilkins

Articles

What might it mean for a law school to share this Mercy charism? More broadly, what would it mean for a law school to share the spiritual DNA of a female order, seeing the world from historically female perspectives and motivated by historically female concerns? More broadly still, in this #metoo era, in which women make up the majority of American law students, should it simply be business as usual at religiously affiliated law schools, or should we seize the opportunity to consider seriously, and in the light of faith, women’s perspectives on legal education, law, and justice?

This article …

Development Of Poly-Vinyl Alcohol Stabilized Silver Nanofluids For Solar Thermal Applications, James Walshe, George Amarandei, Hind Ahmed, Sarah Mccormack, John Doran

Articles

Nanofluids offer the potential to address the low thermal conductivities found in conventional heat transfer fluids, through their unique electrical, optical and thermal properties, but their implementation remains restricted due to absorption and stability limitations. Here, we characterize and exploit the distinctive plasmonic properties exhibited by polyvinyl-alcohol stabilized silver nanostructures by tuning their absorption and thermal properties through controlling the nanoparticle size, morphology and particle-size distribution configuration at the synthesis stage. The photo-thermal efficiency of different water-based silver nanofluids under a standard AM1.5G weighted solar spectrum were explored, the influence of each of these components on the resulting fluids performance …

Inversion Aversion, Lee Anne Fennell, Richard H. Mcadams

Articles

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Bundling, Jennifer Nou, Jed Stiglitz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Justifying Delay: Why Agencies Delay Compliance Dates And How They Do It, Nicholas Bednar

Articles

Every administration since President Reagan has used compliance delays to postpone the implementation of midnight rules promulgated by the outgoing administration. Recent cases involving the Trump Administration’s delay of Obama Administration rules have reinvigorated courts’ interests in whether such delays require notice and an opportunity for comment under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Some scholars have written about why incoming administrations use compliance delays to prevent implementation of the previous administration’s “midnight rules.” These delays are often cast as a precursor to repeal, engendering fears that the now-postponed final rule will be reversed. Yet a more overarching discussion of compliance …

Ultrabroadband Mid-Infrared Emission From Cr 2+ -Doped Infrared Transparent Chalcogenide Glass Ceramics Embedded With Thermally Grown Zns Nanorods, Xiaosong Lu, Zhiqiang Lai, Runan Zhang, Haitao Guo, Jing Ren, Lukas Strizik, Tomas Wagner, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, an ultrabroadband mid-infrared (MIR) emission in the range of 1800–2800 nm at room temperature from a Cr2+-doped chalcogenide glass ceramic embedded with pure hexagonal (wurtzite) β-ZnS nanorods and study the emission-dependent properties on the doping concentration of Cr2+. A new family of chalcogenide glasses based on (100 − x) Ge1.5As2S6.5 – x ZnSe (in mol.%) was prepared by melt-quenching method. The Cr2+: β-ZnS nanorods of ˜150 nm in diameter and ˜1 μm in length were grown in the Cr2+-doped glass after thermal annealing. The compositional variations of glass structures and optical …