Digital Commons Network^™

The Sec's Climate Disclosure Rule: Critiquing The Critics, George S. Georgiev

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Climate change is an existential phenomenon, which entails a wide variety of physical risks as well as sizeable but underappreciated economic risks. In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to address some of the information gaps related to the effects of climate change on firms by proposing a rule that requires public companies to report detailed and standardized information about important climate-related matters for the benefit of investors and markets. Though the rule proposal was welcomed by many market participants, it was also met with a level of opposition that was unusual in both its intensity …

Latcrit At Twenty-Five And Beyond - Organized Academic Activism And The Long Haul: Designing "Hybridized" Advocacy Projects For An Age Of Global Disruption, Systemic Injustice, And Bottom-Up Progress, Francisco Valdes, Steven W. Bender, Jennifer J. Hill

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On the monumental occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of LatCrit (Latina and Latino Critical Legal Theory, Inc.) as a still thriving and persevering community of critical scholars and activists, this Article offers some reflections on where we have been, where we are now, and where we might go next together as academics and organizers of long-term collective action. Against the current disruptions of a global pandemic, aggravated by planetary climate collapse, disinformation campaigns, and the organized top-down sabotage of U.S. democracy itself, our community responses going forward must be both more democratic and decentralized than ever, as well as …

Racialized, Judaized, Feminized: Identity-Based Attacks On The Press, Lili Levi

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No abstract provided.

Understanding A Low Vitamin D State In The Context Of Covid-19, James Bernard Walsh, Daniel Mccartney, Eamon Laird, Kevin Mccarroll, Declan G. Byrne, Martin Healy, Paul O'Shea, Rose Anne Kenny, John L. Faul

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While a low vitamin D state has been associated with an increased risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2 in addition to an increased severity of COVID-19 disease, a causal role is not yet established. Here, we review the evidence relating to i) vitamin D and its role in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease ii) the vitamin D status in the Irish adult population iii) the use of supplemental vitamin D to treat a deficient status and iv) the application of the Bradford-Hill causation criteria. We conclude that reverse causality probably makes a minimal contribution to the presence of low vitamin D …

In Vivo Activity Of Metal Complexes Containing 1,10-Phenanthroline And 3,6,9-Trioxaundecanedioate Ligands Against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infection In Galleria Mellonella Larvae, Megan O'Shaughnessy, Magdalena Piatek, Pauraic Mccarron, Malachy Mccann, Michael Devereux, Kevin Kavanagh, Orla L. Howe

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Drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa is rapidly developing resulting in a serious global threat. Immunocompromised patients are specifically at risk, especially those with cystic fibrosis (CF). Novel metal complexes incorporating 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) ligands have previously demonstrated antibacterial and anti-biofilm effects against resistant P. aeruginosa from CF patients in vitro. Herein, we present the in vivo efficacy of {[Cu(3,6,9-tdda)(phen)₂]·₃H₂O·EtOH}_n (Cu-tdda-phen), {[Mn(3,6,9-tdda)(phen)₂]·₃H₂O·EtOH}_n (Mn-tdda-phen) and [Ag₂(3,6,9-tdda)(phen)₄]·EtOH (Ag-tdda-phen) (tddaH₂ = 3,6,9-trioxaundecanedioic acid). Individual treatments of these metal-tdda-phen complexes and in combination with the established antibiotic gentamicin were …

Bioactive Peptides From Algae: Traditional And Novel Generation Strategies, Structure-Function Relationships, And Bioinformatics As Predictive Tools For Bioactivity, Jack O'Connor, Marco Garcia-Vaquero, Steve Meaney, Brijesh Kumar Tiwari

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Over the last decade, algae have been explored as alternative and sustainable protein sources for a balanced diet and more recently, as a potential source of algal-derived bioactive peptides with potential health benefits. This review will focus on the emerging processes for the generation and isolation of bioactive peptides or cryptides from algae, including: (1) pre-treatments of algae for the extraction of protein by physical and biochemical methods; and (2) methods for the generation of bioactive including enzymatic hydrolysis and other emerging methods. To date, the main biological properties of the peptides identified from algae, including anti-hypertensive, antioxidant and antiproliferative/ …

Towards Exchanging Wearable-Pghd With Ehrs: Developing A Standardized Information Model For Wearable-Based Patient Generated Health Data, Abdullahi Abubakar Kawu, Dympna O'Sullivan, Lucy Hederman

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Wearables have become commonplace for tracking and making sense of patient lifestyle, wellbeing and health data. Most of this tracking is done by individuals outside of clinical settings, however some data from wearables may be useful in a clinical context. As such, wearables may be considered a prominent source of Patient Generated Health Data (PGHD). Studies have attempted to maximize the use of the data from wearables including integrating with Electronic Health Records (EHRs). However, usually a limited number of wearables are considered for integration and, in many cases, only one brand is investigated. In addition, we find limited studies …

Exclusion Cycles: Reinforcing Disparities In Medicine, Ana Bracic, Shawneequa L. Callier, Nicholson Price

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Minoritized populations face exclusion across contexts from politics to welfare to medicine. In medicine, exclusion manifests in substantial disparities in practice and in outcome. While these disparities arise from many sources, the interaction between institutions, dominant-group behaviors, and minoritized responses shape the overall pattern and are key to improving it. We apply the theory of exclusion cycles to medical practice, the collection of medical big data, and the development of artificial intelligence in medicine. These cycles are both self-reinforcing and other-reinforcing, leading to dismayingly persistent exclusion. The interactions between such cycles offer lessons and prescriptions for effective policy.

The Evolution Of The Internet And Social Media: A Literature Review, Charles Alves De Castro, Isobel O'Reilly Dr, Aiden Carthy

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This article reviews and analyses factors impacting the evolution of the internet, the web, and social media channels, charting historic trends and highlight recent technological developments. The review comprised a deep search using electronic journal databases. Articles were chosen according to specific criteria with a group of 34 papers and books selected for complete reading and deep analysis. The 34 elements were analysed and processed using NVIVO 12 Pro, enabling the creation of dimensions and categories, codes and nodes, identifying the most frequent words, cluster analysis of the terms, and creating a word cloud based on each word's frequency. The …

Evaluating Technology-Mediated Collaborative Workflows For Telehealth, Christopher Bondy Ph.D., Pengcheng Shi, Pamela Grover Md, Vicki Hanson, Linlin Chen, Rui Li

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Goals: This paper discusses the need for a predictable method to evaluate gains and gaps of collaborative technology-mediated workflows and introduces an evaluation framework to address this need. Methods: The Collaborative Space Analysis Framework (CS-AF), introduced in this research, is a cross-disciplinary evaluation method designed to evaluate technology-mediated collaborative workflows. The 5-step CS-AF approach includes: (1) current-state workflow definition, (2) current-state (baseline) workflow assessment, (3) technology-mediated workflow development and deployment, (4) technology-mediated workflow assessment, (5) analysis, and conclusions. For this research, a comprehensive, empirical study of hypertension exam workflow for telehealth was conducted using the CS-AF approach. Results: The CS-AF …

Transition Administration, Michael Herz, Katherine A. Shaw

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The period from November 3, 2020 to January 20, 2021, was unlike any presidential transition in our history. President Donald Trump refused to accept his ballot-box defeat, instead battling to overturn the election’s outcome. This dramatic public campaign was waged in state and federal courts, state legislatures, the offices of state and local election officials, the Department of Justice, and finally the halls of Congress, where on January 6, 2021, a mob incited by the President stormed the Capitol with the explicit goal of preventing the final counting of electoral votes for Joe Biden. These efforts had more mundane and …

A Framework Of Web-Based Dark Patterns That Can Be Detected Manually Or Automatically, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Andrea Curley, Dympna O'Sullivan, Damian Gordon, Brendan Tierney

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This research explores the design and development of a framework for the detection of Dark Patterns, which are a series of user interface tricks that manipulate users into actions that they do not intend to do, for example, share more data than they want to, or spend more money than they plan to. The interface does this using either deception or other psychological nudges. User Interface experts have categorized a number of these tricks that are commonly used and have called them Dark Patterns. They are typically varied in their form and what they do, and the goal of this …

On The Documentation Of Refactoring Types, Eman Abdullah Alomar, Jiaqian Liu, Kenneth Addo, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Christian D. Newman, Ali Ouni, Zhe Yu

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Commit messages are the atomic level of software documentation. They provide a natural language description of the code change and its purpose. Messages are critical for software maintenance and program comprehension. Unlike documenting feature updates and bug fixes, little is known about how developers document their refactoring activities. Specifically, developers can perform multiple refactoring operations, including moving methods, extracting classes, renaming attributes, for various reasons, such as improving software quality, managing technical debt, and removing defects. Yet, there is no systematic study that analyzes the extent to which the documentation of refactoring accurately describes the refactoring operations performed at the …

The Circle Of Life: The Mathematics Of Predator-Prey Dynamics, John Butler, Rebecca Brady

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Some animals hunt other animals to feed themselves; these animals are called predators. Animals who are hunted and eaten are known as prey. What do you think would happen if a predator were introduced to an ecosystem where the prey previously lived without fear of being hunted? Would the new predator eat all the prey animals until they go extinct? Actually, the relationship between predator and prey is far more interesting than this. In this article, we show what the predator-prey relationship looks like over time and explain how scientists can make predictions about future population levels, all using basic …

A Nanoscale Shape-Discovery Framework Supporting Systematic Investigations Of Shape-Dependent Biological Effects And Immunomodulation, Wei Zhang, Hender Lopez, Luca Boselli, Paolo Bigini, André Perez-Potti, Zengchun Xie, Valentina Castagnola, Qi Cai, Camila P. Silveira, Joao M. De Araujo, Laura Talamini, Nicolò Panini, Giuseppe Ristagno, Martina B. Violatto, Stéphanie Devineau, Marco P. Monopoli, Mario Salmona, Valeria A. Giannone, Sandra Lara, Kenneth A. Dawson, Yan Yan

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Since it is now possible to make, in a controlled fashion, an almost unlimited variety of nanostructure shapes, it is of increasing interest to understand the forms of biological control that nanoscale shape allows. However, a priori rational investigation of such a vast universe of shapes appears to present intractable fundamental and practical challenges. This has limited the useful systematic investigation of their biological interactions and the development of innovative nanoscale shape-dependent therapies. Here, we introduce a concept of biologically relevant inductive nanoscale shape discovery and evaluation that is ideally suited to, and will ultimately become, a vehicle for machine …

Explaining Deep Learning Models For Tabular Data Using Layer-Wise Relevance Propagation, Ihsan Ullah, Andre Rios, Vaibhov Gala, Susan Mckeever

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Trust and credibility in machine learning models are bolstered by the ability of a model to explain its decisions. While explainability of deep learning models is a well-known challenge, a further challenge is clarity of the explanation itself for relevant stakeholders of the model. Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP), an established explainability technique developed for deep models in computer vision, provides intuitive human-readable heat maps of input images. We present the novel application of LRP with tabular datasets containing mixed data (categorical and numerical) using a deep neural network (1D-CNN), for Credit Card Fraud detection and Telecom Customer Churn prediction use …

Ethics, Safety, And Autonomous Vehicles, William H. Widen, Philip Koopma, Benjamin Kuipers, Marilyn Wolf

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This roundtable explores the ethical and safety implications of the rapidly evolving technology of autonomous vehicles.

Newgrange Skyscape In Stellarium, Frank Prendergast

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Newgrange Skyscape in Stellarium is a new customised landscape planetarium model giving the user the unique ability to interrogate the dynamic sky above the Boyne Valley on any date of interest during the hours of daylight or darkness. Archaeological, astronomical and topographical points of interest are labelled in the model and visible even during the hours of darkness. These are summarily described in a short gazetteer appended at the end of the instruction document to encourage further exploration of the wonderful heritage found in the Boyne Valley and beyond.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=aGPsVGBXkY4

Watch on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/493351576

The Effect Of Green Biobased Binder On Structural, Mechanical, Liquid Absorption And Wetting Properties Of Coated Papers, Bilge N. Altay, Charles Klass, Ting Chen, Alexandar Fleck, Cem Aydemir, Arif Karademir, Paul D. Fleming

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Synthetic styrene-butadiene (SB) and styrene-acrylic (SA) latex binders used in paper coating formulations are common and based on unsustainable petroleum sources. Today's papermaking industry turns towards sustainable substitutes that do not compromise quality, and reduce carbon emission, toxic substance release and waste disposal concerns related to fossil fuel sources. In this study, colloidal starch-based latex nanoparticles that do not require cooking were used for pigment coating and coated on the paper surfaces. The effects of these new biobased binders on the structural and mechanical strength properties, liquid absorption, wetting and surface topography of the paper were investigated and compared with …

On Preserving The Behavior In Software Refactoring: A Systematic Mapping Study, Eman Abdullah Alomar, Mohamed Wiem Mkaouer, Christian D. Newman, Ali Ouni

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Context: Refactoring is the art of modifying the design of a system without altering its behavior. The idea is to reorganize variables, classes and methods to facilitate their future adaptations and comprehension. As the concept of behavior preservation is fundamental for refactoring, several studies, using formal verification, language transformation and dynamic analysis, have been proposed to monitor the execution of refactoring operations and their impact on the program semantics. However, there is no existing study that examines the available behavior preservation strategies for each refactoring operation.

Objective: This paper identifies behavior preservation approaches in the research literature. Method: We conduct, …

Notions Of Explainability And Evaluation Approaches For Explainable Artificial Intelligence, Giulia Vilone, Luca Longo

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Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) has experienced a significant growth over the last few years. This is due to the widespread application of machine learning, particularly deep learning, that has led to the development of highly accurate models that lack explainability and interpretability. A plethora of methods to tackle this problem have been proposed, developed and tested, coupled with several studies attempting to define the concept of explainability and its evaluation. This systematic review contributes to the body of knowledge by clustering all the scientific studies via a hierarchical system that classifies theories and notions related to the concept of explainability …

Regulating Mobility Limitations In The Franchise Relationship As Dependency In The Joint Employment Doctrine, Andrew Elmore

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Franchisors often impose exhaustive operational standards on franchisees, and enforce those standards by restricting the mobility of their franchisees and their franchisees' employees. But courts often ignore mobility limits when applying joint employer doctrine. This Article argues that courts and agencies should be more likely to find, and presume, that franchisors and their franchisees are joint employers under federal and state employment law based on proof that a franchisor restricts the mobility of franchisees or their employees. In so doing, this Article traces how the Chicago School's efficiency arguments in favor of relaxing antitrust law enforcement of vertical restraints developed …

Social Media Influencers (Smis) In Context: A Literature Review, Charles Alves De Castro, Isobel O'Reilly Dr, Aiden Carthy

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This review focused on three main areas, "Social Media Influencers (SMIs) in Context, The Impact of SMIs on Adolescents, and Consumer Behaviour in a Digital Era – Generation Z in Perspective". This article aims to further the overall understanding of SMIs and outlines the impact of SMIs on adolescents‘ lives. Thus, the main objective of this literature review is to raise awareness within the marketing field about the influence of social media influencers on adolescents and how brands promote their products and content through social media influencers. The review comprised a regular search using electronic journal databases and secondary data …

Profiling Food Festivals By Type, Name And Descriptive Content: A Population Level Study, Muhammet Kesgin, Rajendran S. Murthy, Rick Lagiewski

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Purpose: This research aims to classify and describe food festivals and examine the patterns in food festival naming and festival descriptions in online media. Design: This research represents the first population-level empirical examination of food festivals in the United States using a purpose-built dataset (N=2626). Methodology includes text mining to examine food festival communications. Findings: Food festival size varies across local and regional spheres within the country. Food festivals employ geographical (place-, destination-based) associations in their names. Food festivals’ descriptions and online communications showcase a welcoming environment predominantly emphasizing family-oriented and live entertainment experiences. Food festivals across the country show …

Realising Compact Growth In Dublin; Reviewing Measures Adopted By Local Authorities To Concentrate Development Along The Proposed Metrolink Luas Greenline Transport Corridor, Paul J. Lawlor Mr

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Since 1999, there have been a noticeable evolution in the Irish national and regional planning policy towards concentrating new development within the footprint of existing towns and cities. The approach of ‘realising compact growth’ has numerous benefits including reducing carbon emissions, making more effective and economic use of existing infrastructure, avoiding urban sprawl and helping to achieve more balanced regional development. To enable its achievement, the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSESs) have set ambitious targets for compact urban growth and they include measures that are designed to promote the development of vacant and …

Dark Side Of Black Friday: The Major Drawbacks With This Shopping Bonanza, Sarah Schiffling, Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos

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Black Friday is upon us again. It’s one of the biggest shopping events of the year, although there are mixed signals about how successful it is likely to be in 2021. One recent study found that only a third of consumers plan to take part. The financial strain of COVID-19 is still evident, and inflation running at its highest level in a decade.

All the same, consumer confidence has been rising. According to GlobalData, shoppers are set to spend nearly £9.2 billion in the four days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. This would still be a big increase …

A Novel Parabolic Model Of Instructional Efficiency Grounded On Ideal Mental Workload And Performance, Luca Longo, Murali Rajendran

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Instructional efficiency within education is a measurable concept and models have been proposed to assess it. The main assumption behind these models is that efficiency is the capacity to achieve established goals at the minimal expense of resources. This article challenges this assumption by contributing to the body of Knowledge with a novel model that is grounded on ideal mental workload and performance, namely the parabolic model of instructional efficiency. A comparative empirical investigation has been constructed to demonstrate the potential of this model for instructional design evaluation. Evidence demonstrated that this model achieved a good concurrent validity with the …

Provenance: An Intermediary-Free Solution For Digital Content Verification, Bilal Yousuf, M. Atif Qureshi, Brendan Spillane, Gary Munnelly, Oisin Carroll, Matthew Runswick, Kirsty Park, Eileen Culloty, Owen Conlan, Jane Suiter

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The threat posed by misinformation and disinformation is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. Provenance is designed to help combat this threat by warning users when the content they are looking at may be misinformation or disinformation. It is also designed to improve media literacy among its users and ultimately reduce susceptibility to the threat among vulnerable groups within society. The Provenance browser plugin checks the content that users see on the Internet and social media and provides warnings in their browser or social media feed. Unlike similar plugins, which require human experts to provide evaluations and …

Beyond The Public Square: Imagining Digital Democracy, Mary Anne Franks

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To create online spaces that do not merely replicate existing hierarchies and reinforce unequal distributions of social, economic, cultural, and political power, we must move beyond the simplistic clich6 of the unregulated public square and commit to the hard work of designing for democracy.

When we say 'public square,' ... we need to ask- who or what is this public? Who owns this space, what makes it public? . . . This is the essence of democracy: the ability to question power, and the power to do so. - Tom Wilkinson

Optimization Of Unit Operations For Microencapsulating Ferrous Fumarate During Scale-Up Of Double Fortification Of Salt With Iron And Iodine, Oluwasegun Modupe, Kiruba Krishnaswamy, Yao Olive Li, Levente L. Diosady

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Objectives: This study evaluates factors responsible for the floating of iron premix in double fortified salt (DFS), which initially affected the large-scale implementation of the salt fortification program in India, and provides solutions to the scale-up of the technology.

Materials and Methods: To mitigate this time-sensitive scale-up challenge. First, the iron premix samples were obtained from the industrial scale-up pilot studies in India, evaluated for the impact of the amount of coating material (5 per cent, 7.5 per cent, and 10 per cent (in weight)), type of formulation (soy stearin, SEPIFILM and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose), amount of titanium dioxide (25-35 per …