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Modelling Random Antibody Adsorption And Immunoassay Activity, Dana Mackey, Eilis Kelly, Robert Nooney

Articles

One of the primary considerations in immunoassay design is optimizing the concentration of capture antibody in order to achieve maximal antigen binding and, subsequently, improved sensitivity and limit of detection. Many immunoassay technologies involve immobilization of the antibody to solid surfaces. Antibodies are large molecules in which the position and accessibility of the antigen-binding site depend on their orientation and packing density. In this paper we propose a simple mathematical model, based on the theory known as random sequential adsorption (RSA), in order to calculate how the concentration of correctly oriented antibodies (active site exposed for subsequent reactions) evolves during …

Vol. 8 No. 1, Fall 2016; The Fatal Fiala Flaw: Hey! Why Not Just Make Arbitration Agreements Mandatory?, Adam N. Lichtenauer

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

This Article discusses the ability of healthcare agents to bind their principals with arbitration agreements when admitting their principals to nursing homes. A recent Illinois appellate court decision had the unfortunate effect of allowing nursing homes to expand the authority of healthcare agents to encompass arbitration agreements by simply making such agreements a requirement for admission. Although this ruling has the potential to further disadvantage people who are already unable to care for themselves, this Article will discuss approaches that can be used to correct the misstep.

Reclaming Compassion: How Compassion Moved From Virtue To Benefit, And How To Move It Back, Jon Talbert

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation examines the growing movement of compassion that has developed and emerged in the 21st century and its impact on the current landscape of society. Section 1 takes a closer look at how compassion moved from a virtue to a benefit, and the expectation of reward that subtly crept into the developmental psyche of the culture. Section 2 traces that benefit-mentality into the seven domains of culture, including: Business, Faith, Government, Social Sector, Education, Arts & Entertainment, and the Media. Section 3 introduces a new line of thinking that reestablishes compassion to its purest form by identifying the makeup …

Design And Implementation Of A Fixture For Robotic Welding, Isaac Nathaniel Williams

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Cal Poly IME department recently purchased a robotic welder. The faculty would like to see this robot incorporated into the welding class. The robot was capable of moving, but was not able to perform a weld prior to this project. This problem is addressed by creating a demonstration part for the welding class. The objectives that need to be complete for this to be possible is designing a part, designing a fixture, analyzing the cost of robotic welding, and implement welding the part in the class. The part is designed with specific requirements in mind. The fixture is designed …

Assembly Line Kitting: Foam Mold Material Substitute, Samer Samy Saleh

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Kitting is considered an incredibly innovative and effective solution intended to aid operators within a mixed model assembly line. However, it is a non-value added procedure and one that customers may not be willing to pay for. With this project, the goal is to examine opportunities to employ lean principles and provide a solution that further eliminates non-value added procedures, while also producing the potential for a flexible, mixed model assembly line.

To achieve the aforementioned purpose, the production of foam molds, located within industrial totes and sent to the assembly line, was found to be a major waste within …

Multitaxon Distribution Models Reveal Severe Alteration In The Regional Biodiversity Of Freshwater Invertebrates, Charles P. Hawkins, Lester L. Yuan

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Knowledge of current and historical conditions is needed to guide conservation and restoration policies, but such information is lacking for most taxa. This problem is especially severe for small, inconspicuous taxa, such as the thousands of invertebrate species that inhabit stream and other freshwater ecosystems. We describe a novel application of River Invertebrate Prediction and Classification System (RIVPACS)-type multitaxon distribution models that, when applied to the biological survey data routinely collected in support of water-quality monitoring programs, can quantify the regional biodiversity status of hundreds of taxa. We used models developed for 2 stream data sets (North Carolina and the …

How To Make Machine Learning Robust Against Adversarial Inputs, Gerardo Muela, Christian Servin, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It has been recently shown that it is possible to "cheat" many machine learning algorithms -- i.e., to perform minor modifications of the inputs that would lead to a wrong classification. This feature can be used by adversaries to avoid spam detection, to create a wrong identification allowing access to classified information, etc. In this paper, we propose a solution to this problem: namely, instead of applying the original machine learning algorithm to the original inputs, we should first perform a random modification of these inputs. Since machine learning algorithms perform well on random data, such a random modification ensures …

Ex Nihilo: An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Musical Creation, David Orvek

Capstone Research Projects

As of late there has been much interest in the creative process of musical composition. Most studies to date have taken the form of quantitative and/or psychological analyses performed upon composers by researchers who are not themselves composers. In contrast, this project takes a more philosophical and historical approach in that it takes time to reflect upon the context and manner in which music has been composed throughout history. Additionally, this study offers a more personal perspective as it draws information from the author’s own compositional process–as recorded in a composition journal–as well as the thoughts and reflections of composers …

Tsunami Hazard Assessment: Best Modeling Practices And State-Of-The-Art Technology, Patrick Lynett, Yong Wei, Diego Arcas

State & Federal Reports and Publications

NUREG/CR-7223

Tsunami Hazard Assessment: Best Modeling Practices And State-Of-The-Art Technology, Patrick Lynett, Yong Wei, Diego Arcas

State & Federal Reports and Publications

NUREG/CR-7223

The Temple Character Of Early Christianity, Matthew Higdon

Graduate Theses

I will argue that early Christianity more or less comprehensively envisioned itself, across varying traditions, to be a human-temple community, or a series of such communities; and that this word picture, this symbol, to a certain extent ordered their social life and aspirations. I propose three interlocking aspects to this priestly sociology. First, there is the element of unity. From the beginning, the temple model promoted unity, and it became particularly important later among very disparate groups of people within the church Second, the cultic motif generated a fresh kind of priestly ethics appropriate to the self-understanding of the movement. …

Observational Confirmation Of A Link Between Common Envelope Binary Interaction And Planetary Nebula Shaping, Todd Hillwig, David Jones, Orsola De Marco, Howard E. Bond, Steve Margheim, David Frew

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

A current issue in the study of planetary nebulae with close binary central stars (CSs) is the extent to which the binaries affect the shaping of the nebulae. Recent studies have begun to show a high coincidence rate between nebulae with large-scale axial or point symmetries and close binary stars. In addition, combined binary-star and spatiokinematic modeling of the nebulae have demonstrated that all of the systems studied to date appear to have their central binary axis aligned with the primary axis of the nebula. Here we add two more systems to the list, the CSs and nebulae of NGC …

Book Review - Promoting Law Student And Lawyer Well-Being In Australia And Beyond, Magdalene D'Sliva

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Diverse Peer Interactions On Body Image Satisfaction And Cosmetic Surgery Acceptance Among College Students, Shamekia Labrittney Woods

Dissertations

Whereas body image satisfaction and cosmetic surgery acceptance has been widely studied over the last 30 years, these topics as they pertain to college students have not been examined extensively—most notably, the implications that diverse peer interactions have on students’ body image satisfaction and their acceptance of cosmetic surgery as a means of improving body image. Diverse peer interactions refer to interactions among peers of different racial and/or cultural backgrounds. For many college students, college provides the first opportunity whereby students may interact and engage to a great extent with students from racial and cultural backgrounds different from their own. …

Examining The Combined Effects Of Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature, And Body Size On The Physiological Responses Of A Model Macrobenthic Polychaete Species, Capitella Teleta, Kelsey Burns Gillam

Dissertations

While the scientific community is in consensus that coastal systems are threatened by climate change, few climate change studies test the effects of more than one variable directly related to climate change. The dissolved oxygen (DO) levels of the ocean are currently subject to both global warming and eutrophication; 94% of all hypoxia zones are expected to experience >2°C increase by 2035. This dissertation aims to examine how a model organism responds to simultaneous thermal and DO stress involving four levels of DO (100%, 70%, 50%, and 20%) saturation and three temperatures (15°C, 20°C, and 25°C).

The polychaete, Capitella teleta …

I Am Here For A Reason. I Need To Focus. I Need To Learn So I Can Reach My Goal: Self-Advocacy And Motivation As Contributors To The Experiences Of College Students With Physical Disabilities, Latrecha Kasha Scott

Dissertations

Although researchers have studied “the role of self-determination in facilitating transition planning and services, very little is known about the impact of those supports and services from the students’ perspective once they are in postsecondary settings” (Getzel & Thoma, 2008). In addition, literature was limited regarding the impact of self-determination from the student perspective after enrollment into higher education (Denhart, 2008; Fuller, Bradley & Healey, 2004; Getzel & Thoma, 2008). Using a qualitative design, this study explores the contributions of self-advocacy and motivation to the experiences of higher education students with physical disabilities. The purpose of this study was to …

Students' Explanations In Complex Learning Of Disciplinary Programming, Camilo Vieira

Open Access Dissertations

Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) has been denominated as the third pillar of science and as a set of important skills to solve the problems of a global society. Along with the theoretical and the experimental approaches, computation offers a third alternative to solve complex problems that require processing large amounts of data, or representing complex phenomena that are not easy to experiment with. Despite the relevance of CSE, current professionals and scientists are not well prepared to take advantage of this set of tools and methods. Computation is usually taught in an isolated way from engineering disciplines, and therefore, …

Montgomery County - Place Names, Robert M. Rennick

Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection

Place names of Montgomery County, Kentucky.

Madison County - Place Names, Robert M. Rennick

Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection

Place names of Madison County, Kentucky.

Planning A Library Leadership Retreat On The Cheap: Case Study And Analysis, Stewart Brower

Administrative Issues Journal

Staying ahead of the pitch: an old baseball metaphor that means to anticipate where the ball is going to go so that the batter can score a hit. But to anticipate changes in a field as robust and challenging as information sciences, reflection and contemplation are often key to good planning. With simple day-to-day management of libraries already being a full-time task, true leadership and planning often comes with a real, physical break from the workplace and daily routines. With this in mind, the leadership retreat should be employed by librarians to give themselves the luxury of deep reflection, camaraderie, …

Police Attitudes And Professionalism, Joseph Loftus, Keith Price

Administrative Issues Journal

This quantitative study utilized Richard H. Hall's attitudinal attributes of a professional using a Likert scale. The survey was administered to officers in two similar mid-sized police departments. The first agency had 650 officers, while the second had 350 officers. Agency One requires all applicants to possess a bachelor's degree, while Agency Two does not have this requirement. It was hypothesized that the officers with a bachelor's degree would possess an enhanced attitudinal level of professionalism over those without. It was also hypothesized that officers belonging to an agency that requires a bachelor's degree will have an enhanced attitudinal level …

A Modification Of Backpropagation Enables Neural Networks To Learn Preferences, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

To help a person make proper decisions, we must first understand the person's preferences. A natural way to determine these preferences is to learn them from the person's choices. In principle, we can use the traditional machine learning techniques: we start with all the pairs (x,y) of options for which we know the person's choices, and we train, e.g., the neural network to recognize these choices. However, this process does not take into account that a rational person's choices are consistent: e.g., if a person prefers a to b and b to c, this person should also prefer a and …

Why Product "And"-Operation Is Often Efficient: One More Argument, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It is an empirical fact that the algebraic product is one the most efficient "and"-operations in fuzzy logic. In this paper, we provide one of the possible explanations of this empirical phenomenon.

Time Domain Analysis Of Terahertz Photoconductive Antennas Using High- Frequency Structure Simulator (Hfss), David Carballo

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, an in-depth guide and description on how to model and perform frequency and mainly time domain analysis of a THz photoconductive antenna using HFSS will be presented. The main purpose of this thesis is to master and document the procedures for transient domain analysis in HFSS to fill the lack of documentation about this topic. Moreover, another goal is to compare the results from HFSS with the ones from another program, COMSOL (conducted by a PhD student), in order to validate the correctness of the procedure.

From this thesis, it can be concluded that in order to …

Northwest Houston Academic Center Newsletter- December 2016, Elizabeth Jean Brumfield

Newsletter Collections

No abstract provided.

School Crisis Plans: Are You Prepared?, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The majority of states have statutes requiring school districts to develop school safety plans focused on preventing and responding to crisis situations. Plans may include protocols for disseminating school safety plans to appropriate personnel; mandatory fire, tornado, or active drills; and community involvement.

Although the degree of comprehensiveness of those plans depends on state legislation, all should include the basic elements offered here, focused on creating secure school environments.

Essays On The Medicare Enrollment And Medicare Costs Of Older Americans, Yuanyuan Deng

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation consists of two chapters. The 1999 to 2010 data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey are used in this dissertation. The first chapter empirically analyze the role of labor supply and Medicare secondary payer on Medicare costs, taking into account the recent evolution of labor supply and the implementation of the 1983 Social Security reform. The labor force participation rate of Americans 65 years and older has sharply increased since the mid-1990s. These increases have been accompanied by an increasing number of Older Americans covered by current employer-provided health insurance plans. For those covered workers, Medicare becomes secondary …

Log-Linear Model Based Tree And Latent Variable Model For Count Data, Yuan Zhao

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Events that occur randomly over time or space result in count data. Poisson models are widely used for analyses. However, simple log-linear forms are often insufficient for complex relationship between variables. Thus we study tree-structured log-linear models and latent variables models for count data. First, we consider extending Poisson regression for independent observations. Decision trees exhibit the advantage of interpretation. Constant fits are too simple to interpret within strata nonetheless. We hence propose to embed log-linear models to decision trees, and use negative binomial distribution for overdispersion. Second, we consider latent variable models for point process observation in neuroscience. Neurons …

Classification Of Fetal Heart Rate Signals By Deep Learning, Xuan Chen

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In the course of delivery, a fetus may suffer from oxygen deficiency due to the intensive pressure changes. Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) system has been widely used in obstetrics, to provide continuous information to clinicians for making decisions and in preparing for delivery. There has been many efforts to build automated systems to analyze fetal heart rates (FHRs) and offer clinical supports. In this thesis, our goal is to introduce the most recent and popular machine learning method, deep learning, for FHR classification. We first introduce the preliminaries of FHR classification methods and the database used in our experiments. Then, …

Sequential Monte Carlo Methods For Inference And Prediction Of Latent Time-Series, Inigo Urteaga

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In the era of information-sensing mobile devices, the Internet-of-Things and Big Data, research on advanced methods for extracting information from data has become extremely critical. One important task in this area of work is the analysis of time-varying phenomena, observed sequentially in time. This endeavor is relevant in many applications, where the goal is to infer the dynamics of events of interest described by the data, as soon as new data-samples are acquired. This dissertation is on novel methods for sequential inference and prediction of latent time-series. We assume that a sequence of observations is a function of a hidden …