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2011

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Clinical Interpretation Of Novel Copy Number Variations, Clifton Carey Jan 2011

Clinical Interpretation Of Novel Copy Number Variations, Clifton Carey

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Copy Number Variations: CNVs) are a significant source of human genetic diversity and are believed to be responsible for a wide variety of phenotypic variation. Recent advances in microarray-based genomic hybridization techniques have facilitated CNV analysis as a viable diagnostic technique in the clinic, and several public databases of well-characterized CNVs are being compiled, but a standard for interpreting uncharacterized CNVs has yet to emerge. This thesis examines the clinical interpretation of uncharacterized CNVs as a multiple instance binary classification problem. We analyze the current state of clinical techniques, then present and test several novel statistical approaches to the problem.

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Examining The Effectiveness Of Multiple Imputation: A Case Study On Hiv Risk Behaviors In Women Receiving Treatment For Substance Use Disorders, Raphiel Murden Jan 2011

Examining The Effectiveness Of Multiple Imputation: A Case Study On Hiv Risk Behaviors In Women Receiving Treatment For Substance Use Disorders, Raphiel Murden

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Women in the United States are becoming infected with HIV more quickly now than ever before; many of whom are at higher risk because of their substance use habits or that of their partners.: CDC, 2010) This study analyzes cross sectional data regarding the risk behaviors and addiction severity of a sample of women receiving treatment for substance use disorders: SUDs). The data was gathered between 2006 and 2010 at a women's substance use treatment center in St. Louis, Missouri: MO), the name of which cannot be disclosed. We develop a scale, the HIV Risk Scale: HRS), to quantify a …

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Decoding Brain Activation From Ipsilateral Cortex Using Ecog Signals In Humans, Yuzong Liu Jan 2011

Decoding Brain Activation From Ipsilateral Cortex Using Ecog Signals In Humans, Yuzong Liu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Today, learning from the brain is the most challenging issue in many areas. Neural scientists, computer scientists, and engineers are collaborating in this broad research area. With better techniques, we can extract the brain signals by either non-invasive approach such as EEG: electroencephalography), fMRI, or invasive method such as ECoG: electrocorticography), FP: field potential) and signals from single unit. The challenge is, given the brain signals, how can we possibly decipher them? Brain Computer Interfaces, or BCIs, aim at utilizing the brain signals to control prothetic arms or operate devices. Previously almost all the research on BCIs focuses on decoding …

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How Can Robots Adapt To A Social Human World? A Study Into The Role Gestures Can Play In Human-Robot Relations, Bradley Matherne Jan 2011

How Can Robots Adapt To A Social Human World? A Study Into The Role Gestures Can Play In Human-Robot Relations, Bradley Matherne

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

There is no doubt that robots are now starting to increasingly be integrated into mainstream society, and as they do the amount of contact and the number of interactions they have with humans will increase at a similar rate. These interactions open a new set of issues for robot designers and programmers. What is the best way for robots to interact with humans? This study tested the importance of gestures in creating effective human-robot interactions. Conducted using the PR2, this study explored the role of gestures in two basic kinds of communications: the robot communicating a need: low power) to …

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Numerical Modeling And Optimization Of Power Generation From Shrouded Wind Turbines, Tudor Foote Jan 2011

Numerical Modeling And Optimization Of Power Generation From Shrouded Wind Turbines, Tudor Foote

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In recent years, it has been theoretically suggested by some researchers that the power coefficient of a wind turbine can be increased beyond the Betz limit for a bare turbine by enclosing the turbine with a duct. In this thesis, this potential for increases in power generation by adding a shroud around a turbine is investigated using numerical flow modeling. Two configurations for ducted turbines are considered for numerical simulations and optimization. The first configuration considers shrouds for standard horizontal axis wind turbines. Several turbine diameters, wind speeds, and shroud sizes are considered. The results show that shrouding can almost …

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Examining The Relationship Between Fact Learning And Higher Order Learning Via Retrieval Practice, Pooja Agarwal Jan 2011

Examining The Relationship Between Fact Learning And Higher Order Learning Via Retrieval Practice, Pooja Agarwal

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The development of higher order skills is a desired outcome of education. Some believe that higher order learning can be improved directly, whereas others argue that higher order learning can be improved via the enhancement of factual or conceptual knowledge. The relationship between fact and higher order learning is often speculated, but empirically unknown. This project examines whether retrieval practice via quizzing, a strategy typically used to enhance fact learning, can be used as a strategy to improve higher order skills in both laboratory and applied settings. In the current study, higher order skills were considered to comprise the understand, …

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Quantitative Perfusion-Sensitive Mri Phantoms, Jeff Anderson Jan 2011

Quantitative Perfusion-Sensitive Mri Phantoms, Jeff Anderson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Perfusion-sensitive MR methods are increasingly utilized in preclinical and clinical MR research studies with the promise of providing quantitative estimates of parameters that describe in vivo microvasculature. One of these techniques, dynamic contrast enhanced: DCE) MRI, has found particularly common use in oncology for the detection, staging, and monitoring of highly vascularized tumors. DCE-MRI has been qualitatively validated by various studies that show a high correlation between modeled parameters from DCE and histologically measured microvascular density: MVD). However, in the absence of a matching "gold-standard" technique, DCE-MRI has not yet been quantitatively validated: i.e., the accuracy of the estimated parameters …

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Multi-Dimensional Medial Geometry: Formulation, Computation, And Applications, Lu Liu Jan 2011

Multi-Dimensional Medial Geometry: Formulation, Computation, And Applications, Lu Liu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Medial axis is a classical shape descriptor. It is a piece of geometry that lies in the middle of the original shape. Compared to the original shape representation, the medial axis is always one dimension lower and it carries many intrinsic shape properties explicitly. Therefore, it is widely used in a large amount of applications in various fields. However, medial axis is unstable to the boundary noise, often referred to as its instability. A small amount of change on the object boundary can cause a dramatic change in the medial axis. To tackle this problem, a significance measure is often …

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New Paradigm Of Defibrillation: Towards Painless Therapy, Wenwen Li Jan 2011

New Paradigm Of Defibrillation: Towards Painless Therapy, Wenwen Li

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Sudden cardiac death: SCD) causes approximately 300,000 - 400,000 deaths a year in the United States. It usually starts as ventricular tachycardia: VT) and then degenerates into ventricular fibrillation: VF). Implantable cardioverter defibrillator: ICD) therapy is the only reliable treatment of VT/VF and has been shown to effectively reduce mortality by many clinical trials. However, high-voltage ICD shocks could result in myocardial dysfunction and damage. The majority of patients receiving ICD therapy have a history of coronary disease; their hearts develop myocardium infarction, which could provide a substrate for reentrant tachy-arrhythmias. Other than lethal ventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation: AF) became …

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Family Policy, Family Resources, And Children's Educational Achievement: A Comparative Study Of 18 Rich Countries, Yung Soo Lee Jan 2011

Family Policy, Family Resources, And Children's Educational Achievement: A Comparative Study Of 18 Rich Countries, Yung Soo Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Educational achievement among children is one of the most important concerns for most contemporary societies. While numerous studies have explored factors associated with children's educational achievement, little research fully incorporated multi-level, multi-faceted contexts of child education. More specifically, less attention has been paid to the role of macro-level, policy contexts and their interactions with various aspects of family-level resources. To help fill the gap in the literature, this study investigates: 1) the role of various aspects of family-level resources, that is family financial, human, and social capital, in children's educational achievement,: 2) mediating pathways among those family-level resources, and: 3) …

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Dipole Moment Effects In Photodetachment From Cluster Anions, Foster Mbaiwa Jan 2011

Dipole Moment Effects In Photodetachment From Cluster Anions, Foster Mbaiwa

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In this dissertation results from experimental studies on the effect of the dipole moment on photodetachment from solvated iodide anion are presented. The major advantage of using solvated atomic iodide anions: I−·(Y)n: Y = solvent molecule, n=1 to 3)) to study this effect is that in the ground state, the excess electron is mainly localized on the iodine atom for which photodetachment behavior is well understood. The effect of the electric dipole moment of the resultant neutral cluster on the outgoing electron is studied by comparing the photoelectron angular distributions: PADs) for I−·(Y)n and I− photodetachment. The …

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Non-Steady-State Catalyst Characterization With Thin-Zone Tap Experiments, Evgeniy Redekop Jan 2011

Non-Steady-State Catalyst Characterization With Thin-Zone Tap Experiments, Evgeniy Redekop

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Rational catalyst design must be advanced beyond its state-of-the-art given the significant economic and environmental relevance of catalytic technologies. To address this challenge, precise kinetic characterization of industrial catalysts is required for elucidating complex reaction mechanisms, establishing structure-activity relationships, and building scientifically-sound microkinetic models of catalytic processes. In this thesis, a novel framework for non-steady-state high-throughput kinetic characterization of complex catalytic reactions is theoretically developed, experimentally validated, and applied to a catalytic reaction of considerable interest. This novel framework of catalyst characterization is based on Temporal Analysis of Products: TAP) experiments. These pulse-response experiments employ Knudsen diffusion as a reliable …

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Computable Performance Analysis Of Recovering Signals With Low-Dimensional Structures, Gongguo Tang Jan 2011

Computable Performance Analysis Of Recovering Signals With Low-Dimensional Structures, Gongguo Tang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The last decade witnessed the burgeoning development in the reconstruction of signals by exploiting their low-dimensional structures, particularly, the sparsity, the block-sparsity, the low-rankness, and the low-dimensional manifold structures of general nonlinear data sets. The reconstruction performance of these signals relies heavily on the structure of the sensing matrix/operator. In many applications, there is a flexibility to select the optimal sensing matrix among a class of them. A prerequisite for optimal sensing matrix design is the computability of the performance for different recovery algorithms. I present a computational framework for analyzing the recovery performance of signals with low-dimensional structures. I …

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Improving The Dispersive Optical Model Toward A Dispersive Self-Energy Method, Seth Waldecker Jan 2011

Improving The Dispersive Optical Model Toward A Dispersive Self-Energy Method, Seth Waldecker

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The connection between the dispersive optical potential and the irreducible nucleon self-energy from Green's function theory is improved, providing a tighter link between nuclear reactions and nuclear structure. In particular, since the self-energy is inherently nonlocal, an explicitly nonlocal term is incorporated in the real part of the dispersive optical potential, which has been assumed to be local in previous parametrizations. The explicit treatment of nonlocality allows for a proper solution of the Dyson equation, and the resulting propagator can then be used to calculate experimental observables associated with ground state properties, such as the charge density, particle number, and …

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The Effect Of Sensory Experience And Movement Observation On Motor Adaptation To Novel Force Perturbations, Paul Wanda Jan 2011

The Effect Of Sensory Experience And Movement Observation On Motor Adaptation To Novel Force Perturbations, Paul Wanda

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

On a daily basis, humans capably and effortlessly interact with their surrounding environment through the performance of accurate movements. Movements are often perturbed through the physical influence of the surrounding environment, interaction with objects, or injury, yet adaptation is both rapid and flexible. When adapting, humans are informed by their direct trial-and-error movement experience, incrementally updating predictive control on the next movement; how the brain processes sensed errors into adaptation is not fully known. We may also learn to move through the observation of the movements of others, as visually observed movement information may be transformed into motor memories that …

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Pelvic Shape, Hip Abductor Mechanics And Locomotor Energetics In Extinct Hominins And Modern Humans, Anna Warrener Jan 2011

Pelvic Shape, Hip Abductor Mechanics And Locomotor Energetics In Extinct Hominins And Modern Humans, Anna Warrener

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Habitual bipedal locomotion in hominins required major alterations in pelvic shape, particularly the recruiting of the minor gluteal muscles to act as abductors, stabilizing the pelvis during walking and running. However, significant disagreement has emerged regarding the effect of variation in pelvic breadth, in both extinct hominins and in modern humans, on hip abductor mechanics and locomotor energetics. The purpose of this dissertation was to test whether skeletal measures of pelvic width are correlated with relevant mechanical dimensions during locomotion, and how hip abductor mechanics may influence locomotor cost. Twenty-seven individuals participated in biomechanics testing, including kinematics, force plate and …

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Single-Molecule Imaging Studies Of Protein Dynamics, Shannon Kian Zareh Jan 2011

Single-Molecule Imaging Studies Of Protein Dynamics, Shannon Kian Zareh

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Single-molecule fluorescence imaging is a powerful method for studying biological events. The work of this thesis primarily focuses on single molecule studies of the dynamics of Green Fluorescent Protein: GFP) and other fluorescent-labeled proteins by utilizing Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence: TIRF) microscopy and imaging. The single molecule experiments of this thesis covered three broad topics. First, the adsorption mechanisms of proteins onto hydrophobic and hydrophilic fused silica surfaces were imaged and reversible and irreversible adsorption mechanisms were observed. The second topic covered a new technique for measuring the diffusion coefficient of Brownian diffusing proteins, in particular GFP, in solution via …

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The Brains Of Babies: A Surface Based Approach To Study Cortical Development In Term And Preterm Human Infants, Jason Hill Jan 2011

The Brains Of Babies: A Surface Based Approach To Study Cortical Development In Term And Preterm Human Infants, Jason Hill

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Half a million infants are born before term gestation each year in the United States. Although advances in newborn medicine have increased survival rates of very preterm infants to almost 90%, surviving preterm infants are at increased risk for developing lasting neurologic impairments. In order to develop a plausible neuroprotective strategy it is imperative that we improve our understanding of normal cortical development and develop tools to evaluate injury. Using a surface based approach we have characterized normal cortical development in healthy term infants and analyzed abnormalities associated with preterm birth. Accurate cortical surface reconstructions for each hemisphere of 12 …

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Asset Effects For Children With Disabilities: Analysis Of Educational And Health Outcomes, Jin Huang Jan 2011

Asset Effects For Children With Disabilities: Analysis Of Educational And Health Outcomes, Jin Huang

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In the last two decades, asset-based social policies, which encourage families, especially low-income families, to accumulate assets by providing appropriate institutional settings, have received increasing attention from policymakers and researchers. Various programs and strategies have been outlined to improve saving and asset ownership opportunities in disadvantaged populations. Although there are multiple proposals of asset-based programs for children with disabilities, few of them have been implemented. To better inform asset-based policy practices for children with disabilities, this study examines asset effects for this population using the secondary survey data. Asset effects refer to the hypothesized positive influences of household assets on …

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Structural And Thermophysical Property Studies Of Metallic Liquids And Glasses Using The Beamline Electrostatic Levitation Technique, Nicholas Mauro Jan 2011

Structural And Thermophysical Property Studies Of Metallic Liquids And Glasses Using The Beamline Electrostatic Levitation Technique, Nicholas Mauro

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

An accurate description of atomic structures is at the heart of an improved understanding of the properties of condensed solids. By correlating structural information from high energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction with thermophysical properties important insights have been gained into the role of local structural evolution in undercooling and glass formation. Here, the results of a number of investigations into the structures and properties of some amorphous phases will be presented and analyzed. Phase separation in Al88Y7Fe5 is identified prior to devitrification and is proposed as an explanation for extremely high observed nucleation rates. The development and construction of the Beamline …

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Contagion Of A Crisis, Corporate Governance, And Credit Rating, Dong Chuhl Oh Jan 2011

Contagion Of A Crisis, Corporate Governance, And Credit Rating, Dong Chuhl Oh

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

My dissertation aims at understanding three critical issues confronting the financial world: contagion of a crisis, corporate governance, and credit rating. It contains four chapters. Through examining the contagion of a crisis, Chapter 1 presents a model in which the contagion of a liquidity crisis between two non-financial institutions occurs due to the learning within a common creditor pool. After creditors observe what occurs in a firm's rollover game, they conjecture each other's "type," or the attitude toward the risk of a firm's investment project. Creditors' inference of others' types then affects their own decisions with regard to the next …

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Nmr Study Of Borohydrides For Hydrogen Storage Applications, David Shane Jan 2011

Nmr Study Of Borohydrides For Hydrogen Storage Applications, David Shane

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

There is great interest today in developing a hydrogen economy, and hydrogen powered vehicles to replace vehicles powered by fossil fuels. This presents many challenges for researchers, and one of the biggest is developing materials that could be used to store the hydrogen on-vehicle. We used nuclear magnetic resonance to study the atomic motions in many hydrogen storage materials, including sodium magnesium hydride, lithium borohydride, and magnesium borohydride. We also examined the effects of nanoscaffold incorporation on the latter two materials.

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Predictive Alternatives In Bayesian Model Selection, Andrew Womack Jan 2011

Predictive Alternatives In Bayesian Model Selection, Andrew Womack

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Model comparison and hypothesis testing is an integral part of all data analyses. In this thesis, I present two new families of information criteria that can be used to perform model comparison. In Chapter 1, I review the necessary background to motivate the thesis. Of particular interest is the role of priors for estimation and model comparison as well as the role that information theory can play in the latter. As we will see, many existing forms of model comparison can be viewed in an information theoretic manner, which motivates defining new families of criteria. In Chapter 2, I present …

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Column: Putting The Science In Digital Forensics, Fred Cohen Jan 2011

Column: Putting The Science In Digital Forensics, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In a recent study, digital forensics was found to lack a consensus around even the most basis notions and terminology of the field. To quote: “These two preliminary studies individually suggest that (1) scientific consensus in the area of digital forensic evidence examination is lacking in the broad sense, but that different groups within that overall community may have limited consensus around areas in which they have special expertise, and (2) that the current peerreviewed publication process is not acting to bring about the sorts of elements typically found in the advancement of a science toward such a consensus. ... …

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Extraction Of Electronic Evidence From Voip: Forensic Analysis Of A Virtual Hard Disk Vs Ram, David Irwin, Jill Slay, Arek Dadej, Malcolm Shore Jan 2011

Extraction Of Electronic Evidence From Voip: Forensic Analysis Of A Virtual Hard Disk Vs Ram, David Irwin, Jill Slay, Arek Dadej, Malcolm Shore

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The popularity of Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) is increasing as the cost savings and ease of use is realised by a wide range of home and corporate users. However, the technology is also attractive to criminals. This is because VoIP is a global telephony service, in which it is difficult to verify the user’s identification. The security of placing such calls may also be appealing to criminals, as many implementations use strong encryption to secure both the voice payload as well as to control messages making monitoring such VoIP calls difficult since conventional methods such as wire-tapping is …

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A Case Study In Forensic Analysis Of Control, Fred Cohen Jan 2011

A Case Study In Forensic Analysis Of Control, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper describes a case study in which a method for forensic analysis of control was applied to resolve probative technical issues in a legal action. It describes one instance in which the analysis was successfully applied without challenge, addresses the details of most of the different facets of the analysis method, and demonstrates how such analysis provides a systematic approach to using technical methods to address legal issues as a case study.

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Judges’ Awareness, Understanding, And Application Of Digital Evidence, Gary C. Kessler Jan 2011

Judges’ Awareness, Understanding, And Application Of Digital Evidence, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As digital evidence grows in both volume and importance in criminal and civil courts, judges need to fairly and justly evaluate the merits of the offered evidence. To do so, judges need a general understanding of the underlying technologies and applications from which digital evidence is derived. Due to the relative newness of the computer forensics field, there have been few studies on the use of digital forensic evidence and none about judges’ relationship with digital evidence. This paper describes a recent study, using grounded theory methods, into judges’ awareness, knowledge, and perceptions of digital evidence. This study is the …

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Book Review: Ios Forensic Analysis: For Iphone, Ipad And Ipod Touch, Christopher Schulte Jan 2011

Book Review: Ios Forensic Analysis: For Iphone, Ipad And Ipod Touch, Christopher Schulte

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

As Digital Forensics practitioners, we know that our discipline is constantly evolving. Keeping abreast means we need to continually refine and broaden our knowledge pools through experience, education, research, peer exchange, and more. Mobile device forensics can be especially dynamic and challenging. With multiple standards in place at the hardware, operating system, and user interface levels, it can be daunting to preserve, analyze, search and report on these tiny yet ubiquitous hand-held computers. Apple Computer’s line of mobile products (iOS devices - iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) is no exception to this rule.

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Technology Corner: Internet Packet Sniffers, Nick V. Flor, Kenneth Guillory Jan 2011

Technology Corner: Internet Packet Sniffers, Nick V. Flor, Kenneth Guillory

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The best way to understand an internet packet sniffer, hereafter “packet sniffer”, is by analogy with a wiretap. A wiretap is a piece of hardware that allows a person to eavesdrop on phone conversations over a telephone network. Similarly, a packet sniffer is a piece of software that allows a person to eavesdrop on computer communications over the internet. A packet sniffer can be used as a diagnostic tool by network administrators or as a spying tool by hackers who can use it to steal passwords and other private information from computer users. Whether you are a network administrator or …

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Table Of Contents Jan 2011

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

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