Digital Commons Network^™

Smarter Neat Nets, Ryan Swords Dehaven

Master's Theses

This paper discusses a modification to improve usability and functionality of a ge- netic neural net algorithm called NEAT (NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topolo- gies). The modification aims to accomplish its goal by automatically changing parameters used by the algorithm with little input from a user. The advan- tage of the modification is to reduce the guesswork needed to setup a successful experiment with NEAT that produces a usable Artificial Intelligence (AI). The modified algorithm is tested against the unmodified NEAT with several different setups and the results are discussed. The algorithm shows strengths in some areas but can increase the …

Fetal Programming And Later Obesity In A Predominantly Latino Wic Population, Eric George Walsh

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background: In utero stressors may work to program the metabolism of the developing fetus in such a way that predisposes him/her to obesity later on. Studies have shown that breastfeeding is protective against childhood obesity and suggest that after six months the weight gain in breastfed babies slows opposed to formula fed babies who continue with rapid weight gain. This slowing of weight gain has been shown to be protective against adiposity and later life weight gain.

Purpose: This study looks to further explore these findings in a low income Latino population adding mother’s feelings about the pregnancy and the …

Prácticas De Manejo Para Residuos De Animales En La Zona: Percepciones, Retos Y Soluciones [Powerpoint], August 2013, Jordan Atnip, Jillian Flavin, Joseph Friedman, Elana Curry, Radhe Patel, Thomas Decker

Monteverde Institute: Culture, Community, and Health

Using methodologies from medical anthropology and environmental engineering animal waste treatment practices in Monteverde were investigated to assess current practices, future intentions, and how perceptions of farm impacts are changing in the region, and identify potential practices and technologies that could facilitate changes.

Anticipating, Preventing, And Surviving Secondary Boycotts, Judith Schrempf-Stirling, Douglas A. Bosse, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

Even the best stakeholder-managed firms can suffer when they become the targets of a secondary boycott, as recent headlines attest. A secondary boycott is a group’s refusal to engage a target firm with which the group has no direct dispute in an attempt to sway public opinion, draw attention to an issue, or influence the actions of a disputant. This article provides a new perspective and tools for both scholars and managers concerned with this phenomenon. Building on a stakeholder theory foundation, we examine possible actions managers can take to avoid being surprised by a secondary boycott, propose conditions that …

Natural Variation And The Capacity To Adapt To Ocean Acidification In The Keystone Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus Purpuratus, Morgan W. Kelly, Jacqueline L. Padilla-Gamiño, Gretchen E. Hofmann

Faculty Publications

A rapidly growing body of literature documents the potential negative effects of CO2-driven ocean acidification (OA) on marine organisms. However, nearly all this work has focused on the effects of future conditions on modern populations, neglecting the role of adaptation. Rapid evolution can alter demographic responses to environmental change, ultimately affecting the likelihood of population persistence, but the capacity for adaptation will differ among populations and species. Here, we measure the capacity of the ecologically important purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus to adapt to OA, using a breeding experiment to estimate additive genetic variance for larval size (an important component …

The Image Cannot Speak For Itself: Film, Summary Judgment, And Visual Literacy, Naomi Mezey

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Animal Abusers Beware: Registry Laws In The Works To Curb Your Abuse, Danielle K. Campbell

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Best Things In Life Are Not Free: Why Immunity Under Section 230 Of The Communications Decency Act Should Be Earned And Not Freely Given, Patricia Spiccia

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Occlusion-Aware Multi-View Reconstruction Of Articulated Objects For Manipulation, Xiaoxia Huang

All Dissertations

The goal of this research is to develop algorithms using multiple views to automatically recover complete 3D models of articulated objects in unstructured environments and thereby enable a robotic system to facilitate further manipulation of those objects. First, an algorithm called Procrustes-Lo-RANSAC (PLR) is presented. Structure-from-motion techniques are used to capture 3D point cloud models of an articulated object in two different configurations. Procrustes analysis, combined with a locally optimized RANSAC sampling strategy, facilitates a straightforward geometric approach to recovering the joint axes, as well as classifying them automatically as either revolute or prismatic. The algorithm does not require prior …

The Effects Of Political Culture Of Fear On Student Perceptions Of Leadership In Student-Faculty Relationships, Amin Mohamed

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a political culture of fear and power distance on student perceptions regarding the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) relationship with faculty, and their perceptions of nature of leadership in Libyan business schools. 650 Faculty members and students from business school in seven Libyan Universities were invited to participate in this study. The final number of participants that were accepted was 314. A survey was used to measure the relationship between faculty members and students, leadership style, culture of fear, and power distance. Different kinds of analysis were used to answer …

Implantable Biosensors For Physiologic Status Monitoring During Hemorrhage, Christian Kotanen

All Dissertations

Trauma diagnostics and management are major aims of research for implantable amperometric enzyme biosensor technology. Biosensors are capable of monitoring metabolic variables in a minimally invasive manner and have great potential to augment current wireless vital sign monitoring technologies in order to make a more robust physiologic status monitoring platform. The dual responsive Electrochemical Cell-on-a-Chip Microdisc Electrode Array (ECC MDEA 5037) is a recently developed electrochemical transducer for use in a wireless, implantable biosensor system for the continuous measurement of interstitial glucose and lactate. Hyperglycemia arising from insulin resistance and hyperlactatemia arising from anaerobic metabolism both occur following trauma and …

Studies On The Cnidocyst Of The Atlantic Sea Nettle, Chrysaora Quinquecirrha, Ivonne Lozano

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Jellyfish envenomations have increased drastically in recent years and have been known to cause a wide variety of reactions to the victim. These reactions can be as mild as minor skin irritation to the extreme of death. Many research groups have studied the wide variety of toxins contained within these organisms trying to understand the underlying mechanism that causes these dramatic changes noted to both the physiology and viability of cells. With no clear method for cnidocyst (nematocyst) extraction or lysis, these toxins cannot be recovered entirely, which would hinder research on potential mechanisms of action of the proteins found …

Identification Of Actin Cytoskeletal Protein Interactions With The Fission Yeast Scaffold, Mid1, Marian Testori

Masters Theses

Cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell division. Cell division in eukaryotic cells occurs by the formation of a contractile ring, predominantly composed of filamentous actin (F-actin). During mitosis, actin filaments polymerize to form rings at the medial plane of the cell that constrict causing the cell membrane to pinch and divide. Proteins that regulate this process are essential because dysregulation can lead to uninhibited cell growth and division. In fission yeast, the protein Mid1 functions as a scaffold to recruit regulatory proteins required for actin filament formation and simultaneously anchors the contractile ring at the cell division site. The …

Demographic Changes In Developed And Developing Countries, Sarah Sax

All Theses

I will be observing demographic changes across both developed and developing countries and noting whether or not some developing countries follow the same trends as developed countries. This information can provide insight as to why some countries are so poor and help determine where to focus their attention in order to improve their standards of living. I will be performing a regional and country-specific analysis in order to determine which trends each developing country follows in accordance with the developed countries. I will suggest some policy solutions, which impoverished countries can use in order to improve their circumstances.

Burning On The Shore Of An Unknowable Void: Nature As Mystical Reality In The Fiction Of Cormac Mccarthy, Skyler Latshaw

Masters Theses

Language, spirituality, and the natural world are all prominent themes in the novels of Cormac McCarthy. This thesis examines the relationship between the three themes, arguing that McCarthy empowers the natural world with a spiritual significance that may be experienced by humanity, but not completely understood or expressed. Man, being what Kenneth Burke describes as the “symbol-using” animal, cannot express reality through language without distorting it. Language also leads to the commodification of the natural world by allowing man to reevaluate the reality around him based on factors of his own devising. Many of McCarthy’s protagonists struggle against the rapid …

The Stress Revolution: An Examination Of Acculturative Stress And An Emerging Modern Human Stress Response, Jeffrey Nicklas

Social Sciences

In a world that is so fast pace and always changing, the human biological systems have need to adapt just as swiftly. WIth the dependence on culture that humans all share has led to the building of societies with complex rules, ideals, and accepted roles and ways of life. In these complex societies, great cities and governments have arisen but so too have unnoticed changes to human biology. One of these changes is with environmental stressors and the effects it has on the nervous system. The human body, in these modern times, still responds to perceived stressors with the release …

Posterior Hox Gene Reduction In An Arthropod: Ultrabithorax And Abdominal-B Are Expressed In A Single Segment In The Mite Archegozetes Longisetosus., Austen A Barnett, Richard H. Thomas

Publications

BACKGROUND: Hox genes encode transcription factors that have an ancestral role in all bilaterian animals in specifying regions along the antero-posterior axis. In arthropods (insects, crustaceans, myriapods and chelicerates), Hox genes function to specify segmental identity, and changes in Hox gene expression domains in different segments have been causal to the evolution of novel arthropod morphologies. Despite this, the roles of Hox genes in arthropods that have secondarily lost or reduced their segmental composition have been relatively unexplored. Recent data suggest that acariform mites have a reduced segmental component of their posterior body tagma, the opisthosoma, in that only two …

Sbe Notícias, Ano 8, No. 270, August 1, 2013, Natália Martins, Delci K. Ishida

SBE Notícias

53º SBE de Portas Abertas: Bulha D'Água; O site da SEE está de cara nova; Segunda circular do curso de espeleoresgate; Cavernas de Laranjeiras são tema do Fórum Estadual de Turismo de Sergipe; Cavernas de Brasil Novo são atrações turísticas pouco conhecidas; Arqueólogos da UNISUL descobrem vestígios de 2000 anos; GUPE publica artigo sobre Caverna Olhos D'Água; Antigas Cavernas chinesas terão monitoramento microclimático; Cuevatur 2014: primeira circular - Gruta do Salitre reabre à visitação pública; Município de Campinas em 360º; Cavernas modernas poderiam ser cenário para Hollywood; G.E.V. lança publicação sobre Bioespeleologia; Concurso fotográfico sobre fauna e flora cavernícola; Foto …

Adaptation And The Physiology Of Ocean Acidification, Morgan W. Kelly, Gretchen E. Hofmann

Faculty Publications

Ocean acidification, caused by the uptake of atmospheric CO2, is a threat to marine biodiversity, potentially rivalling the threat imposed by rising temperatures in some marine ecosystems. Although a growing body of literature documents negative effects of acidification on marine organisms, the majority of this work has focused on the effects of future conditions on modern populations, ignoring the potential effects of adaptation and physiological acclimatization. We review current literature on the potential for adaptation to elevated pCO2 in marine organisms. Although this body of work is currently quite small, we argue that data on the physiological effects of acidification, …

Population Dynamics Of Three Aphid Species (Hemiptera: Aphididae) On Four Ipomoea Spp. Infected Or Noninfected With Sweetpotato Potyviruses, E. N. Wosula, J. A. Davis, C. A. Clark

Faculty Publications

Three aphid species, Aphis gossypii Glover and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (efficient sweetpotato potyvirus vectors) and Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) (an inefficient vector), are commonly found in sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.), in Louisiana. Field-grown sweet potatoes are naturally infected with several potyviruses: Sweet potato feathery mottle virus, Sweet potato virus G, and Sweet potato virus 2. Thus, these aphids commonly encounter virus-infected hosts. What is not known is how each of these aphids responds to sweet potato, either infected or virus-free. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine if these aphid species can colonize mixed virus-infected sweet potato 'Beau-regard', …

Host-Microbe Interactions In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Rui Zhang, Aixin Hou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reproductive Isolation And Cryptic Introgression In A Sky Island Enclave Of Appalachian Birds, Gene D. Sattler, Michael J. Braun

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reproductive isolation is central to the speciation process, and cases where the strength of reproductive isolation varies geographically can inform our understanding of speciation mechanisms. Although generally treated as separate species, Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina chickadees (P. carolinensis) hybridize and undergo genetic introgression in many areas where they come into contact across the eastern United States and in the northern Appalachian Mountains. The Great Smoky Mountains harbor the last large breeding population of atricapillus in the southern Appalachians, isolated from the species’ main range by nearly 200 km. This population is believed to be reproductively isolated from local …

Adventism Gave Me Wings, Jason Lemon

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Improved Deinkability Of Lep (Liquid Electrophotography) Digital Prints, Zheng Wei

Masters Theses

Digital printing plays a very important role in the life of modern society. With the development of digital printing technologies, and the increasing market share of digital printing, the amount of digital prints in waste paper is rapidly increasing. Under “green” manufacturing and environmental sustainability, deinking of digital print inks is an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Indigo is a typical series of HP (Hewlett-Packard) digital presses that use a liquid ink named ElectroInk (Liquid Electrophotography or LEP). The particle size of HP ElectroInk is very small, 1-2 microns, which is smaller than dry toners. But, during flotation, …

Characterization Of The 2012 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H7n3 Virus Isolated From Poultry In An Outbreak In Mexico: Pathobiology And Vaccine Protection, Darrell R. Kapczynski, Mary Pantin-Jackwood, Sofia G. Guzman, Yadira Ricardez, Erica Spackman, Kateri Bertran, David L. Suarez, David E. Swayne

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

In June of 2012, an H7N3 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus was identified as the cause of a severe disease outbreak in commercial laying chicken farms in Mexico. The purpose of this study was to characterize the Mexican 2012 H7N3 HPAI virus (A/chicken/Jalisco/CPA1/2012) and determine the protection against the virus conferred by different H7 inactivated vaccines in chickens. Both adult and young chickens intranasally inoculated with the virus became infected and died at between 2 and 4 days postinoculation (p.i.). High virus titers and viral replication in many tissues were demonstrated at 2 days p.i. in infected birds. The …

Differential Dna Methylation In Umbilical Cord Blood Of Infants Exposed To Low Levels Of Arsenic In Utero, Devin C. Koestler, Michele Avissar-Whiting, E. Andres Houseman, Margaret R. Karagas, Carmen J. Marsit

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: There is increasing epidemiologic evidence that arsenic exposure in utero, even at low levels found throughout much of the world, is associated with adverse reproductive outcomes and may contribute to long-term health effects. Animal models, in vitro studies, and human cancer data suggest that arsenic may induce epigenetic alterations, specifically by altering patterns of DNA methylation.

Objectives: In this study we aimed to identify differences in DNA methylation in cord blood samples of infants with in utero, low-level arsenic exposure.

Methods: DNA methylation of cord-blood derived DNA from 134 infants involved in a prospective birth cohort in …

The Effect Of Temperature On The Reproductive Success Of Male Waterbugs (Belostoma Flumineum), Michael Philip Dmytriw

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Sexual selection theory predicts that the sex that shows a greater parental investment in the offspring should be limiting to the reproductive success of the opposite sex. Males of the giant waterbug Belostoma flumineum exhibit greater parental investment than females by providing all of the parental care for the eggs, which are firmly attached to their dorsal surface. While male backspace availability can be limiting to female reproductive success, it has previously been found to be more limiting during the spring than during the fall, due to newly emerged males being able to breed more quickly than newly emerged females. …

Les Voix De La Souffrance Dans L'Innommable Et Oh Les Beaux Jours De Samuel Beckett : Une ÉTude Psychanalytique, Isabella Jeanne Dougan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The literary works of Samuel Beckett have always had great interest for critics, researchers and biographers. Considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, Beckett is much discussed, but some — philosophers such as Jean- Paul Sartre, for instance — have praised him for his treatment of the absurd, while others have done so for his introduction of new novelistic and dramatic forms as well as for the beauty of his language. Many critics have called him the writer of despair and his plays were among the earliest contributions to the “Theatre of the Absurd." Recognizing the …

Solubilization Of Sirolimus In Aqueous Solution Through Complexation With Metal Ions, Ralph A. Falen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Sirolimus is one of the most successful immunosuppressant drugs available but it has an extremely low solubility in water that dramatically limits its oral bioavailability to approximately 20%. This study is aimed to increase solubility of Sirolimus in aqueousolutions through complexation with a metal ion. Using computer modeling and UV absorbance spectroscopy, it was demonstrated that 1) Sirolimus interacts with AJ³⁺,Cu²⁺, Fe³⁺ , Mn²⁺, Zn²⁺ ; 2) this interaction decreases UV light absorbance of Sirolimus measured at ^=280 nm; 3) a previously reported value of solubility of Sirolimus in water is underestimated; …

Redefinitions Of Selfhood: Stan Brakhage, Bob Dylan, And Allen Ginsberg As Thoreauvian Counterculturists, James Anthony Galione

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

My master’s thesis lies in examining the appropriation of Henry David Thoreau’s techniques of authorship within the American 1960’s counterculture. My investigation focuses on how Stan Brakhage, Bob Dylan, and Allen Ginsberg engage in Thoreauvian forms of selfhood, self-government, citizenship, and ecological awareness within the context of the 1960’s counterculture. These three artists take on issues of 20th century materialism, nationalism, sexuality, and racial equality, within their respective medium of expression, as participants in what I will define as “Thoreauvian tradition”. Elements of this “Thoreauvian tradition” include subjective vision, ontological identity, undermining myth, and evolving the medium. These are the …