Digital Commons Network^™

Isis Propaganda And United States Countermeasures, Daniel Lincoln Stevens

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this study is threefold: 1. Examine the use of propaganda by the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) and how its propaganda enables ISIS to achieve its objectives; 2. Examine the United States Government (USG) response; 3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the USG response and how it can be improved. The goal of ISIS is to overturn the Middle East, attack westerners in the region and in the West, and create one all-encompassing Islamic State. ISIS' innovative use of propaganda has been central to its success. ISIS uses propaganda more effectively than previous terrorist groups. …

Reversing The Tao: A Framework For Credible Space Deterrence, Christopher Michael Stone

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis was written to provide the reader with a firm understanding of the realities of the current DoD space deterrence concept, its shortcomings and the threat that these shortcomings pose to the United States and its Allies if a more realistic, credible space deterrence concept is not created and deployed. To highlight these shortcomings, a review of deterrence theory from classical to modern writers were explored to compare and contrast with the DoD's present concept to highlight its lack of deterrence theory. In addition, it was highlighted through an analysis of the Chinese view of deterrence in space, space …

The Effect Of A Social Skills Package On Initiations, Responses, And Turn-Taking In Young Children With Autism, Mary Elizabeth Ortman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The current study was completed in the Spring of 2015 in an elementary special education classroom. This single-subject ABAB withdrawal design utilized a social skills curriculum, self-monitoring, and video-modeling to increase the initiations, responses, turns-taken, and total duration involved in social play in two first grade males with autism. Limitations included time constraints and the setting of a busy classroom. During 15-minute data sessions, participant one's initiations increased from a mean frequency of 2 during A1 to 28 during B2, responses increased from a mean frequency of 3 to 26, turn-taking increased from a mean frequency of 10 to 29, …

Sex-Associated Mitochondrial Genes: Tools For Understanding Unionid Reproduction And Development, Amy Louise Maynard

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Gonochoristic species of the bivalve order Unionida possess two types of mitochondria. The female-inherited mitochondria (F-mt) is found in the somatic cells of both sexes, while male-inherited mitochondria (M-mt) is found in the male gonad. These mitochondria possess different open reading frames (M-ORF or F-ORF respectively). Previous studies suggested that two types of sperm might exist, each carrying one or the other mitochondrial haplotype, and it was hypothesized that the presence of either F-mt or M-mt in sperm may be involved in determination of offspring sex. I investigated this hypothesis in Bleedingtooth (Venustaconcha pleasii). Sperm samples were obtained from field-collected …

Systemic Insulin Sensitivity And Skeletal Muscle Akt Signaling In Rats Artificially Selected For Low And High Aerobic Capacity, Kyle Levi Fulghum

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The mechanism(s) linking physical inactivity, obesity, and type-II diabetes are unclear. I hypothesized low intrinsic aerobic capacity is associated with reduced systemic insulin sensitivity via skeletal muscle insulin signaling. After 34 generations of selective breeding, high aerobic capacity (HCR) rats exhibited an 8-fold increase in running distance vs low aerobic capacity (LCR) rats (n=14 per group). LCR rats had higher rates of weight gain vs HCR (p<0.05) though food consumption was constant (p=0.86) over a 12-week study. Rats were divided into 4 groups: 1) LCR-Sham Surgery, 2) LCR-Catheterization, 3) HCR-Sham Surgery or 4) HCR-Catheterization (n=7 per group). Euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamps on catheterized rats tested insulin sensitivity while sham LCR and HCR were used for basal tissue analysis. Plasma insulin levels did not differ during the clamps, but LCR required lower glucose infusion rates than HCR (p<0.05). Upon insulin stimulation, both absolute and normalized phospho-Akt(Ser473) of soleus muscle were significantly increased in HCR above basal group (p<0.05), but not in LCR. No difference was observed between insulin-stimulated phospho-Akt(Ser473) of HCR and LCR groups . These data support that LCR is linked to a reduction in insulin sensitivity in vivo without impairments of insulin-stimulated skeletal muscle phospho-Akt(Ser473) vs HCR rats.

Development Of A Set Of Force Response Equations To Represent The Musculature In Infants To Study Development Dysplasia Of The Hip, Brendan Jones

HIM 1990-2015

This paper describes how a force response equation was created to model muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the hip joint to improve a biomechanical model of an infant hip to study Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH). DDH is the most common abnormality in newborn infants and is defined as any amount of instability in the hip including complete dislocation. Researchers at our institution are attempting to increase the success rate of treatment methods by creating computer models of the biomechanics of infant hip instability and dislocation. The computer model used a scaled adult pelvis, femur, tibia, fibula and foot …

Design Of A Physical Windkessel Model For Use In Lvad In-Vitro Benchtop Modeling, Kyle W. Beggs

HIM 1990-2015

Despite improved life expectancy compared to medical management alone, Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) recipients show survival rates of 80% at 12 months and 70% at 24 months. A large portion of VAD-associated mortality results from increased risk of stroke with an event frequency reported between 14-47%. Recent concerns have been raised about unprecedented increases of thrombus formation in VAD recipients with subsequent reports pointing towards implantation techniques as a critical contributor to these events. Thus, the overall prognosis with mechanical support can improve by advancing the surgeon’s approach to VAD implantation. Previous studies using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) were aimed …

Effects Of Binary Solvent System On Morphology Of Particles, Patrick Besana

HIM 1990-2015

Recent advancements in cancer research has led to the synthesis of a new drug known as docetaxel. Meant to replace paclitaxel, its more natural counterpart whose ingredients are difficult to obtain, the drug is known to effectively treat a wide array of cancers, including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. The establishment of a synthetic alternative to paclitaxel has increased its bioavailability, thereby lowering the cost needed to utilize the drug. Still, the limiting factor in minimizing costs is the method in which the drug is processed. Current methods in drug processing have their limitations, which include the introduction …

Fabrication, Characterization, And Application Of Carbon Nanoparticles For The Detection Of Heavy Metal Ions In Aqueous Media, Aaron Michael Simpson

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This research set out to develop a method for producing Carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) from glycerol and use them to detect Cu2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ ions in aqueous solution. Three synthesis methods were developed using the following mixtures: (1) glycerol and silica, (2) glycerol, silica, and H3PO4, and (3) glycerol with H3PO4. The structure of the particles was characterized using a variety of spectroscopic techniques. Size distributions were obtained from scanning electron microscopy images. The particles were spherical with average diameters of 66, 58, and 89 nm respectively and believed to consist of a carbon core with carboxylic acid and alcohol …

Examining Inequities In Teacher Pension Benefits, James V. Shuls

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

From funding to teacher quality, inequities exist between school districts. This paper adds to the literature on inequities by examining the impact of pension plan formulas on pension benefits. Using data from the salary schedules of 464 Missouri school districts, this paper analyzes how various final average salary calculations would impact the benefits of teachers in different districts. All of the schools in this analysis belong to Missouri’s Public Employee Retirement System, which is a defined-benefit pension plan. A teacher’s benefit in this plan is based on her years of experience and her final average salary. The system uses a …

Nowhere To Run; Nowhere To Hide: The Reality Of Being A Law Library Director In Times Of Great Opportunity And Significant Challenges, Michelle Wu, Pauline Aranas, Steven M. Barkan, Barbara Bintliff, Darin K. Fox, Penny A. Hazelton, Joan S. Howland, Spencer L. Simons, Keith Ann Stiverson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is an edited version of remarks presented at "'Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide': The Reality of Being a Law Library Director in Times of Great Opportunity and Significant Challenges," January 5, 2015, at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.

Perceptions Of Agricultural Leadership Academic Programs At 1862 Land-Grant Universities, Jackson Cole Alexander

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to characterize perceptions of agricultural leadership programs in colleges of agriculture, food, life, human, or environmental sciences at 1862 land-grant institutions. Twenty-six academic programs were identified with a major, minor, graduate degree, specialization, concentration, or certificate in agricultural leadership. Programs were identified through analyzing the APLU and USDA NIFA websites, searching academic college websites, and contacting deans and departments heads. Objectives included identifying programs, describing the need for programs, describing evolution that has taken place within the discipline, describing faculty recommendations for future development and growth in the field, and examining why faculty believe programs are relevant. …

In Vivo Periodical Monitoring Of Immune Cell Infiltration In Response To Feathers And Intramuscular Injection Of Ionps Using The Pulp (Dermis) Of Growing Feathers As Test Site Tissue In Chickens, Olfat Taleb Alaamri

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The applications of nanoparticles are growing, but little is known about their interactions with the immune system as most studies did not use suitable in vivo test systems. The purpose of these studies was to investigate the utility of chicken growing feathers as an in vivo test site for iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) interactions with the immune system. The first objective of this study was to monitor leukocyte infiltration into the growing feather pulp upon the administration of IONP and IO-mIgG preparations. The second objective was to test the utility of IONPs as vaccine adjuvants by monitoring primary and memory …

Best Practices Guidance For Nanomaterial Risk Management In The Workplace, Claude Ostiguy, Maximilien Debia, Brigitte Roberge, André Dufresne

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Les nanotechnologies présentent aujourd’hui des enjeux majeurs en termes technologique, économique, éthique, social et environnemental, car elles offrent le potentiel d’améliorer de façon substantielle les propriétés de multiples produits dans tous les secteurs d’activité tant en matière de production de matériaux aux performances inédites que de diagnostic et de traitement médical. Les nanomatériaux favorisent ainsi l’émergence de nouveaux marchés, la création d’emplois, l’amélioration de la qualité de vie et peuvent contribuer à la protection de l’environnement. Du reste, l’impact se fait déjà sentir dans des secteurs aussi diversifiés que l’agroalimentaire, l’aérospatiale, la cosmétique, la construction et la santé. Au Québec, …

Probation Officer Roles: A Statutory Analysis, Ming-Li Hsieh, Moana Hafoka, Youngki Woo, Jacqueline Van Wormer, Mary K. Stohr

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

There are a limited number of studies that explore the legally prescribed roles of probation officers. To address this, the current study employed a statutory analysis to examine how probation officer roles have changed over the past 30 years, identifying which tasks and roles are statutorily mandated for probation officers. Findings indicate that there is an emergence of a "case manager" approach in the legally prescribed roles for probation officers in many states, even though law enforcement-oriented tasks are slightly more prescribed by law than rehabilitation-oriented tasks.

A Cooperative Coevolution Framework For Parallel Learning To Rank, Shuaiqiang Wang, Yun Wu, Byron J. Gao, Ke Wang, Hady W. Lauw, Jun Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose CCRank, the first parallel framework for learning to rank based on evolutionary algorithms (EA), aiming to significantly improve learning efficiency while maintaining accuracy. CCRank is based on cooperative coevolution (CC), a divide-and-conquer framework that has demonstrated high promise in function optimization for problems with large search space and complex structures. Moreover, CC naturally allows parallelization of sub-solutions to the decomposed sub-problems, which can substantially boost learning efficiency. With CCRank, we investigate parallel CC in the context of learning to rank. We implement CCRank with three EA-based learning to rank algorithms for demonstration. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets in …

Mopeye: Monitoring Per-App Network Performance With Zero Measurement Traffic, Daoyuan Wu, Weichao Li, Rocky K. C. Chang, Debin Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Mobile network performance measurement is important for understanding mobile user experience, problem diagnosis, and service comparison. A number of crowdsourcing measurement apps (e.g., MobiPerf and Netalyzr) have been embarked for the last few years. Unlike existing apps that use active measurement methods, we employ a novel passive-active approach to continuously monitor per-app network performance on unrooted smartphones without injecting additional network traffic. By leveraging the VpnService API on Android, MopEye, our measurement app, intercepts all network traffic and then relays them to their destinations using socket APIs. Therefore, not only MopEye can measure the round-trip time accurately, it can do …

The Emerging Need Of Suicide Risk Assessment In Medical And Nursing Education, Chia-Yi Wu, Ming-Been Lee, Shih-Cheng Liao, For-Way Lung

Journal of Medical Education

Purpose: Suicide prevention and gatekeeper trainings on risk assessment have been limited in medical education of both clinical and educational settings. Meanwhile, current practice guidelines of risk assessment are inconsistent and lacking of empirical evidence. More efforts should be made in conveying knowledge about suicide prevention via a standardized assessment tool. We aimed to review published risk assessment scales and provide initial psychometric information of a concise assessment tool that is suitable for multidisciplinary training in medical and nursing education. Method: We searched for studies related the two main keywords, suicide risk assessment and scale, in two research database PubMed …

Smu-X: An Innovative Approach To Preparing Students With Skills For The Future, Gary Pan, Gan Hup Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The SMU-X Initiative is a paradigm shit which focuses on learning as opposed to teaching as well as a mind-set shift to get the university to collaborate both internally and with our external stakeholders more. We strive to do this by introducing innovation curriculum based on an experiential approach that is interdisciplinary and hands-on. It gets the SMU community to collaborate and step out of their silos by encouraging group effort in solving complex issues.

Concert Recording 2015-12-01, Emily Tollett, Jessica Thompson, Andrew Frank, Heather Deal, Marissa Johnson, Sara Remoy, Andrew Stephens, Lia Uribe, Tomoko Kashiwagi, Helena Aung

Concert Recordings & Programs

[00:00]. Duets. #10 Andante ; #12 marcia funebre ; #7 Minuetto / Julius Weissenborn -- [05:10]. Sonata in E minor / Benedetto Marcello -- [10:16]. Concerto for bassoon in E minor / Antonio Vivaldi -- [17:56]. Solo de concert op. 35 / Gabriel Pierne -- [24:06]. Sonatensatz for bassoon and piano / Michael Glinka -- [34:57]. Andante e rondo ungarese op. 35 / Carl maria von Weber -- [45:57]. Adios nonino / Astor Piazzolla.

Supercnn: A Superpixelwise Convolutional Neural Network For Salient Object Detection, Shengfeng He, Rynson W.H. Lau, Wenxi Liu, Zhe Huang, Qingxiong Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Existing computational models for salient object detection primarily rely on hand-crafted features, which are only able to capture low-level contrast information. In this paper, we learn the hierarchical contrast features by formulating salient object detection as a binary labeling problem using deep learning techniques. A novel superpixelwise convolutional neural network approach, called SuperCNN, is proposed to learn the internal representations of saliency in an efficient manner. In contrast to the classical convolutional networks, SuperCNN has four main properties. First, the proposed method is able to learn the hierarchical contrast features, as it is fed by two meaningful superpixel sequences, which …

On Top-K Selection In Multi-Armed Bandits And Hidden Bipartite Graphs, Wei Cao, Jian Li, Yufei Tao, Zhize Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper discusses how to efficiently choose from $n$ unknown distributions the $k$ ones whose means are the greatest by a certain metric, up to a small relative error. We study the topic under two standard settings---multi-armed bandits and hidden bipartite graphs---which differ in the nature of the input distributions. In the former setting, each distribution can be sampled (in the i.i.d. manner) an arbitrary number of times, whereas in the latter, each distribution is defined on a population of a finite size $m$ (and hence, is fully revealed after m samples). For both settings, we prove lower bounds on …

Promoting Interprofessional Education (Ipe) With Pbl Through The Biennial Asia-Pacifi C Joint Conference On Pbl (Apjc-Pbl), F. I. Achike, M. C. Lee, H. W. Lin, F. C. Chou, H. C. Hsin, C. Y. Kwan

Journal of Medical Education

Interprofessional collaborative patient-centered care (IPCPC) is intuitively essential for optimal healthcare outcomes and thus the global push by various health professional bodies for the interprofessional education (IPE) necessary for IPCPC. The Asia-Pacifi c Joint Conference for PBL (APJC-PBL) therefore adopted a policy of promoting PBL in IPE in its biennial conference. We report on the success of that endeavor focusing on the inaugural (2010) IPE workshop which introduced IPE and the role of PBL in its delivery and triggering an emerging interest in succeeding conferences. The workshop small group activity (SGA) on developing PBL triggers for IPE is reported. Of …

Childbirth Experiences Among Southeast Asian Immigrant Wives In Taiwan: The Implication Of Cultural Competence To Medical Education, Chun-Yu Lin, Yen-Yuan Chen

Journal of Medical Education

Objectives: Southeast Asian immigrant wives face considerable challenges in their host countries. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the childbirth experiences and feelings of the Southeast Asian immigrant wives who were living in Taipei. Methods: Snowball sampling was employed in this study to recruit the Southeast Asian immigrant wives from several institutions which conducted literacy programs. An in-depth semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. Results: The majority of the research participants were living in three-generation or extended families. The immigrant wives' childbirth experiences included pressure not only from their Taiwanese family members, but also from …

A Problem-Based Learning Medical Humanities Course Facilitated By The Teaching Assistants Majored In The Humanities-A Preliminary Report, Fen-Yu Tseng, Jeng-Yi Shieh, Tze-Wah Kao, Yen-Yuan Chen, Yen-Hsuan Ni

Journal of Medical Education

Background: To improve medical humanities education, we developed a new course of ＂Medicine and Humanities＂ (MH) facilitated by attending physicians and teaching assistants (TAs) majored in the humanities in 2013. We further examined the outcome of the course which was conducted in 2014 spring. Materials and Methods: The second year medical students (n = 131) were divided into 16 small groups with attending physicians assigned as their tutors in problembased learning (PBL) MH course. Postgraduate students currently or previously enrolled in the master's or doctoral program in College of Liberal Arts were recruited as TAs. The HM course included 16 …

Effects Of An Educational Program On Nurses' Use Of Physical Restraints, Mei-Yu Lai, Hsiu-Ju Chang, Chia-Ching Lin, Yu-Ju Chen, Chiu-Yueh Hsiao, Hsiu-Ting Tsai

Journal of Medical Education

Purpose: Physical restraints are used to protect patients from danger. However, applying restraints often can induce complications. Possessing appropriate knowledge of physical restraints is extremely important. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of an educational program on nurses' use of physical restraints. Methods: An interventional study design was conducted. All nurses were asked to complete a series of questionnaires before and after attending an on-site educational program or watching an instructional DVD educational program. Results: Scores for knowledge of, attitudes toward, and behaviors associated with physical restraints signifi cantly increased from the pre-test to the post-test …

Happiness In Modern Society: Why Intelligence And Ethnic Composition Matter, Satoshi Kanazawa, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent developments in evolutionary psychology suggest that living among others of the same ethnicity might make individuals happier and further that such an effect of the ethnic composition on life satisfaction may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that White Americans had significantly greater life satisfaction than all other ethnic groups in the US and this was largely due to the fact that they were the majority ethnic group; minority Americans who lived in counties where they were the numerical majority had just as much life satisfaction as White Americans …

7 “Pc” Ways To Make People-Centric Policies, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

If asked to describe 2015 forSingapore, I would summarise it as“a people-centric year”.

A Delphi Method Analysis To Create An Emergency Medicine Educational Patient Satisfaction Survey., Kory S London, Bonita Singal, Jennifer Fowler, Rebecca Prepejchal, Stefanie Simmons, Douglas Finefrock

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Feedback on patient satisfaction (PS) as a means to monitor and improve performance in patient communication is lacking in residency training. A physician's promotion, compensation and job satisfaction may be impacted by his individual PS scores, once he is in practice. Many communication and satisfaction surveys exist but none focus on the emergency department setting for educational purposes. The goal of this project was to create an emergency medicine-based educational PS survey with strong evidence for content validity.

METHODS: We used the Delphi Method (DM) to obtain expert opinion via an iterative process of surveying. Questions were mined from …

Bep: Bit Error Pattern Measurement And Analysis In Ieee 802.11, Jiayue Li, Zimu Zhou, Chen Zhang, Liang Yin, Lionel M. Ni

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The IEEE 802.11 is a set of Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications which concern the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) service. However, most IEEE 802.11 WLAN services are easily affected by external elements, such as the homogeneous interference caused by the high-density deployment of IEEE 802.11 devices, the attenuation effect caused by complicated indoor obstacles, and the heterogeneous interference caused by other devices which operate out of unlicensed 2.4GHz ISM bands. In this paper, we first present a method to capture IEEE 802.11n Bit Error Patterns (BEP) under the network effect such as the homogeneous interference …