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2015

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From Homo Stupidus To Homo Sapiens: Changing And Reaffirming The Paradigm Of Human Uniqueness Through Neandertal Descriptions, Megan Lynn Even Jan 2015

From Homo Stupidus To Homo Sapiens: Changing And Reaffirming The Paradigm Of Human Uniqueness Through Neandertal Descriptions, Megan Lynn Even

English

Neandertal interpretation is changing the paradigm of human uniqueness, but exactly how needs to be examined. This paper provides a qualitative analysis of how Neandertal descriptions embed long-held cultural attitudes and how those cultural attitudes are being challenged and, in some ways, reaffirmed through rhetoric. A rhetorical analysis was performed on the second and third editions of a widely used physical anthropology textbook, Clark Spencer Larsen’s Our Origins. Both editions rhetorically favor a view of Neandertals as more similar to than different from us, a view which appears at odds with the disciplinary preference. Larsen appeals to the disciplinary preference …

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Societies Of Control In Young Adult Literature: The Panoptic World Of Veronica Roth’S Trilogy Divergent, Nesreen Abdallah Eldoliefy Jan 2015

Societies Of Control In Young Adult Literature: The Panoptic World Of Veronica Roth’S Trilogy Divergent, Nesreen Abdallah Eldoliefy

English

The didactic impact of Young Adult Literature is a haunting question in the field. Therefore, this paper anchors its analysis of Veronica Roth’s Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant on Foucault’s concept of panopticism to demonstrate the containing nature of the trilogy. The trilogy engages with identity and potential questions that concern young readers. Seemingly, it proposes radical solutions, while in reality it retains layers of surveillance and control that obliterate any attempts for change. Reading the trilogy from Foucauldian lens demonstrates how no one can escape from the prison-with-prison world it offers. The paper illustrates how the trilogy foregrounds the destructive …

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Literalized Metaphors In China Mieville’S Bas-Lag Novels, Kai Jerome Thorstad Jan 2015

Literalized Metaphors In China Mieville’S Bas-Lag Novels, Kai Jerome Thorstad

English

In this paper, I will be discussing hybridity, Othering, and agency in China Miéville’s fantasy novels set in the world of Bas-Lag. I will be expanding upon Joan Gordon’s concept of “literalized metaphors” which suggests that fantasy fiction is able to comment on metaphorical concepts by literalizing those concepts into physical representations. Miéville’s novels offer commentary on the nature of the postcolonial concept of hybridity through the physical realities of the nonhuman xenians and the criminal Remade. I argue that, through these literalized metaphors, the Bas-Lag novels suggest that hybridity leads to Othering, but it also leads to greater agency …

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Corvids And Canines In George R. R. Martin’S A Song Of Ice And Fire, Ann Marie Stewart Jan 2015

Corvids And Canines In George R. R. Martin’S A Song Of Ice And Fire, Ann Marie Stewart

English

The series, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin has become increasingly popular among readers even during a time when fantasy novels have decreased in popularity. This rise in readership and viewership (with the television series Game of Thrones), has effectively started several discussions about the methods and choices of the author in regards to the plot, symbols, and characters. This paper will look at two characters within the novels, namely the corvids and the canines Martin uses as catalysts for furthering the plot and understanding the main characters. This paper examines the historical use of …

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Email Classification Using A Self-Learning Technique Based On User Preferences, Swapna Gautam Phadke Jan 2015

Email Classification Using A Self-Learning Technique Based On User Preferences, Swapna Gautam Phadke

Computer Science

In the current information overloaded atmosphere with an explosive growth of textual data, one can find it a challenging task to keep all the ducks in a row. This has resulted in an emergence of many Text Classification algorithms. Text classification is a process of categorizing data in pre-defined categories based on Topics or Genre. It is used - to classify named entities, Twitter and newspaper feeds, medical repository and Email. In this digital era of communication, Electronic mail is an important, and a popular means of communication. An Email inbox is often rife with different messages ranging from High …

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Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm: Variants And Comparisons, Sowjanya Mattaparthi Jan 2015

Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm: Variants And Comparisons, Sowjanya Mattaparthi

Computer Science

Since the introduction of Particle Swarm optimization by Dr. Eberhart and Dr. Kennedy, there have been many variations of the algorithm proposed by many researchers and various applications presented using the algorithm. In this paper, we applied variants of Particle swarm optimization on various benchmark functions in multiple dimensions, using the computational procedure to find the optimal solutions for those functions. We ran the variants of the algorithm 51 times on each of the 17-benchmark functions and computed the average, variance and standard deviation for 10, 30, and 50 dimensions. Using the results, we found the suitable variants of the …

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Harnessing User Generated Multimedia Content In The Creation Of Collaborative Classification Structures And Retrieval Learning Games, Otto Jerome Borchert Jan 2015

Harnessing User Generated Multimedia Content In The Creation Of Collaborative Classification Structures And Retrieval Learning Games, Otto Jerome Borchert

Computer Science

This paper describes a software tool to assist groups of people in the classification and identification of real world objects called the Classification, Identification, and Retrieval-based Collaborative Learning Environment (CIRCLE). A thorough literature review identified current pedagogical theories that were synthesized into a series of five tasks: gathering, elaboration, classification, identification, and reinforcement through game play. This approach is detailed as part of an included peer reviewed paper. Motivation is increased through the use of formative and summative gamification; getting points completing important portions of the tasks and playing retrieval learning based games, respectively, which is also included as a …

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Immune Network Optimization Of Composite Saas For Cloud Computing, Kevin Kaatz Bauer Jan 2015

Immune Network Optimization Of Composite Saas For Cloud Computing, Kevin Kaatz Bauer

Computer Science

Serving the needs efficiently for a wide gamut of cloud users is a challenge. One way to address this challenge is to decompose SaaS (Software as a Service) into application components and then consider them as loosely coupled processes that achieve higher functionality. Optimization occurs in efficiently pairing virtual machines to application components in order to lower operating costs for cloud service providers and to lower subscription costs for customers. This thesis explores utilizing an immune network algorithm that mimics antibody activation and antigen and antibody suppression for resource optimization. Experiments are conducted with a series of SaaS configurations, application …

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Implementation And Evaluation Of Cma-Es Algorithm, Srikanth Reddy Gagganapalli Jan 2015

Implementation And Evaluation Of Cma-Es Algorithm, Srikanth Reddy Gagganapalli

Computer Science

Over recent years, Evolutionary Algorithms have emerged as a practical approach to solve hard optimization problems in the fields of Science and Technology. The inherent advantage of EA over other types of numerical optimization methods lies in the fact that they require very little or no prior knowledge regarding differentiability or continuity of the objective function. The inspiration to learn evolutionary processes and emulate them on computer comes from varied directions, the most pertinent of which is the field of optimization. In most applications of EAs, computational complexity is a prohibiting factor. This computational complexity is due to number of …

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Multi-Variate Attribute Selection For Agricultural Data, Xing John Xu Jan 2015

Multi-Variate Attribute Selection For Agricultural Data, Xing John Xu

Computer Science

Farmers always have been concerned about the quantity of crops (yield) as well as the quality of crops (sugar content of the sugar beets). The quality and quantity of crops are affected by various attributes, some are natural elements (rain, sunshine etc) and some are not (the amount of fertilizer, seed type etc). Some techniques have been developed to discover attributes that are important to different crops’ yield. But within those selected attributes, how can we tell one attribute is more important than the other? The proposed algorithm is aimed to utilize the advantages of multiple response attributes to select …

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Fuzzy Reasoning Based Evolutionary Algorithms Applied To Data Mining, Min Chen Jan 2015

Fuzzy Reasoning Based Evolutionary Algorithms Applied To Data Mining, Min Chen

Computer Science

Data mining and information retrieval are two difficult tasks for various reasons. First, as the volume of data increases tremendously, most of the data are complex, large, imprecise, uncertain or incomplete. Furthermore, information retrieval may be imprecise or subjective. Therefore, comprehensible and understandable results are required by the users during the process of data mining or knowledge discovery. Fuzzy logic has become an active research area because its capability of handling perceptual uncertainties, such as ambiguity or vagueness, and its excellent ability on describing nonlinear system. The study of this dissertation is focused on two main paradigms. The first paradigm …

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Mining Significant Patterns By Integrating Biological Interaction Networks With Gene Profiles, Rami Mohammed Alroobi Jan 2015

Mining Significant Patterns By Integrating Biological Interaction Networks With Gene Profiles, Rami Mohammed Alroobi

Computer Science

Nowadays, large amounts of high-throughput data are available. Automatic with classical cell biology techniques which are employed in the analysis of cell functions, interactions, and how pathogens can exploit them in disease, are becoming available because of the huge advancements in both Genomics and Proteomics technologies. Analyzing and studying these vast amounts of data will enable researchers to uncover, clarify, and explain some aspects of gene products behavior and characteristics under a very diverse set of conditions. The biological data belong to different types. The integration of several types of data can help reduce the effect of problems each data …

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Complex Experimental Federalism, Doni Gewirtzman Jan 2015

Complex Experimental Federalism, Doni Gewirtzman

Articles & Chapters

Federalism has long been celebrated as a structure for policy experimentation. Yet judges, scholars, and politicians have often treated experimentation as an automatic consequence of decentralization and policy devolution, instead of examining the down and dirty mechanics that drive systems to explore new solutions and generate a steady stream of useful policy innovations.

This Article addresses this gap in the literature by using complexity theory to better understand how experimental federalism works. It argues that federalism’s ability to produce meaningful policy experiments is heavily dependent on two dynamics — heterogeneity and interdependence — that are prominent in the research on …

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Service Learning And Ethnocultural Empathy: Developing Cultural Empathy Through Experience, Amanda Jean Pieters Jan 2015

Service Learning And Ethnocultural Empathy: Developing Cultural Empathy Through Experience, Amanda Jean Pieters

Education

The purpose of the study was to explore the impact of experiential learning (through service learning) and ethnocultural empathy in undergraduate students. In other words, how does serving in the community impact how empathetic a person is toward others who are ethnically different than themselves? The researcher developed a 45 question electronic self-report survey utilizing The Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE; Wang et al., 2003) to assess mean empathy scores of participants. Research questions addressed: 1) Empathy scores of students who volunteered 10 or more hours, 2) Empathy scores of students who volunteered and served adult populations, 3) Empathy scores …

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Non-Transferrin-Bound Iron Is Associated With Biomarkers Of Oxidative Stress, Inflammation And Endothelial Dysfunction In Type 2 Diabetes, Husam Aljwaid, Desley L. White, Keith J. Collard, A. John Moody, Jonathan H. Pinkney Jan 2015

Non-Transferrin-Bound Iron Is Associated With Biomarkers Of Oxidative Stress, Inflammation And Endothelial Dysfunction In Type 2 Diabetes, Husam Aljwaid, Desley L. White, Keith J. Collard, A. John Moody, Jonathan H. Pinkney

School of Health Professions

No abstract provided.

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Refractory Depression: Mechanisms And Evaluation Of Radically Open Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (Ro-Dbt) [Reframed]: Protocol For Randomised Trial, T. R. Lynch, B. Whalley, R. J. Hempel, S. Byford, P Clarke, S Clarke, D. Kingdon, H. O'Mahen, I. T. Russell, J. Shearer, M. Stanton, M. Swales, A. Watkins, B. Remington Jan 2015

Refractory Depression: Mechanisms And Evaluation Of Radically Open Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (Ro-Dbt) [Reframed]: Protocol For Randomised Trial, T. R. Lynch, B. Whalley, R. J. Hempel, S. Byford, P Clarke, S Clarke, D. Kingdon, H. O'Mahen, I. T. Russell, J. Shearer, M. Stanton, M. Swales, A. Watkins, B. Remington

School of Psychology

IntroductionOnly 30–40% of depressed patients treated with medication achieve full remission. Studies that change medication or augment it by psychotherapy achieve only limited benefits, in part because current treatments are not designed for chronic and complex patients. Previous trials have excluded high-risk patients and those with comorbid personality disorder. Radically Open Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (RO-DBT) is a novel, transdiagnostic treatment for disorders of emotional over-control. The REFRAMED trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of RO-DBT for patients with treatment-resistant depression.Methods and analysisREFRAMED is a multicentre randomised controlled trial, comparing 7 months of individual and group RO-DBT treatment with …

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Call Me Alix, Not Elix: Vowels Are More Important Than Consonants In Own-Name Recognition At 5 Months., Camillia Bouchon, Caroline Floccia, Thibaut Fux, Martine Adda-Decker, Thierry Nazzi Jan 2015

Call Me Alix, Not Elix: Vowels Are More Important Than Consonants In Own-Name Recognition At 5 Months., Camillia Bouchon, Caroline Floccia, Thibaut Fux, Martine Adda-Decker, Thierry Nazzi

School of Psychology

Consonants and vowels differ acoustically and articulatorily, but also functionally: Consonants are more relevant for lexical processing, and vowels for prosodic/syntactic processing. These functional biases could be powerful bootstrapping mechanisms for learning language, but their developmental origin remains unclear. The relative importance of consonants and vowels at the onset of lexical acquisition was assessed in French-learning 5-month-olds by testing sensitivity to minimal phonetic changes in their own name. Infants' reactions to mispronunciations revealed sensitivity to vowel but not consonant changes. Vowels were also more salient (on duration and intensity) but less distinct (on spectrally based measures) than consonants. Lastly, vowel …

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Treatment Of Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: What Works, What Does Not, And What Is Needed., Anthony Feinstein, Jenny Freeman, Albert C. Lo Jan 2015

Treatment Of Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: What Works, What Does Not, And What Is Needed., Anthony Feinstein, Jenny Freeman, Albert C. Lo

School of Health Professions

Disease-modifying drugs have mostly failed as treatments for progressive multiple sclerosis. Management of the disease therefore solely aims to minimise symptoms and, if possible, improve function. The degree to which this approach is based on empirical data derived from studies of progressive disease or whether treatment decisions are based on what is known about relapsing-remitting disease remains unclear. Symptoms rated as important by patients with multiple sclerosis include balance and mobility impairments, weakness, reduced cardiovascular fitness, ataxia, fatigue, bladder dysfunction, spasticity, pain, cognitive deficits, depression, and pseudobulbar affect; a comprehensive literature search shows a notable paucity of studies devoted solely …

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Two Spatiotemporally Distinct Value Systems Shape Reward-Based Learning In The Human Brain, Elsa Fouragnan, Chris Retzler, Karen Mullinger, Marios G. Philiastides Jan 2015

Two Spatiotemporally Distinct Value Systems Shape Reward-Based Learning In The Human Brain, Elsa Fouragnan, Chris Retzler, Karen Mullinger, Marios G. Philiastides

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

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Neural Dynamics Of Social Tie Formation In Economic Decision-Making, Nadège Bault, Benjamin Pelloux, Johannes J. Fahrenfort, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Winden F Van Jan 2015

Neural Dynamics Of Social Tie Formation In Economic Decision-Making, Nadège Bault, Benjamin Pelloux, Johannes J. Fahrenfort, K. Richard Ridderinkhof, Winden F Van

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

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De Novo Identification Of Differentially Methylated Regions In The Human Genome, Timothy J. Peters, Michael J. Buckley, Aaron L. Statham, Ruth Pidsley, Katherine Samaras, Reginald V. Lord, Susan J. Clark, Peter L. Molloy Jan 2015

De Novo Identification Of Differentially Methylated Regions In The Human Genome, Timothy J. Peters, Michael J. Buckley, Aaron L. Statham, Ruth Pidsley, Katherine Samaras, Reginald V. Lord, Susan J. Clark, Peter L. Molloy

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: The identification and characterisation of differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between phenotypes in the human genome is of prime interest in epigenetics. We present a novel method, DMRcate, that fits replicated methylation measurements from the Illumina HM450K BeadChip (or 450K array) spatially across the genome using a Gaussian kernel. DMRcate identifies and ranks the most differentially methylated regions across the genome based on tunable kernel smoothing of the differential methylation (DM) signal. The method is agnostic to both genomic annotation and local change in the direction of the DM signal, removes the bias incurred from irregularly spaced methylation sites, and …

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Top 10 Research Questions To Promote Physical Activity Research In People With Binge Eating Disorder, Davy Vancampfort, Simon Rosenbaum, Michel Probst, Joanne Connaughton, Christy Du Plessis, Taisei Yamamoto, Jolien Diedens, Brendon Stubbs Jan 2015

Top 10 Research Questions To Promote Physical Activity Research In People With Binge Eating Disorder, Davy Vancampfort, Simon Rosenbaum, Michel Probst, Joanne Connaughton, Christy Du Plessis, Taisei Yamamoto, Jolien Diedens, Brendon Stubbs

Physiotherapy Papers and Journal Articles

Despite emerging evidence illustrating the benefits of physical activity for people with binge eating disorder, engaging this population in physical activity is challenging. The International Organization of Physical Therapists in Mental Health (IOPTMH) set out to summarize, appraise and strengthen the direction of physical activity endeavors. This process led to the identification of 10 important research questions which are discussed. Addressing these 10 research questions is critical for developing evidence-based approaches for promoting and sustaining an active lifestyle in people with binge eating disorder.

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