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2019

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Drivers Of International Variation In Prevalence Of Disabling Low Back Pain: Findings From The Cultural And Psychosocial Influences On Disability Study, David Coggon, Georgia Ntani, Keith T. Palmer, Vanda E. Felli, Florencia Harari, Leonardo A. Quintana, Sarah A. Felknor, Marianela Rojas, Anna Cattrell, Muhammad Masood Kadir Jan 2019

Drivers Of International Variation In Prevalence Of Disabling Low Back Pain: Findings From The Cultural And Psychosocial Influences On Disability Study, David Coggon, Georgia Ntani, Keith T. Palmer, Vanda E. Felli, Florencia Harari, Leonardo A. Quintana, Sarah A. Felknor, Marianela Rojas, Anna Cattrell, Muhammad Masood Kadir

Community Health Sciences

Background: Wide international variation in the prevalence of disabling low back pain (LBP) among working populations is not explained by known risk factors. It would be useful to know whether the drivers of this variation are specific to the spine or factors that predispose to musculoskeletal pain more generally.
Methods: Baseline information about musculoskeletal pain and risk factors was elicited from 11 710 participants aged 20-59 years, who were sampled from 45 occupational groups in 18 countries. Wider propensity to pain was characterized by the number of anatomical sites outside the low back that had been painful in …

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Foreign Affairs, Kevin G. Brolley Jan 2019

Foreign Affairs, Kevin G. Brolley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

“Foreign Affairs” is a collection of travel related essays that have been crafted through reflection from my long experience traveling the world. Together, they are an attempt to describe what was in my mind as I was living through these times and events. They are entirely nonfiction.

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Examining The Relationships Between Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status And Drinking Water Quality: Identifying Inequities In Palm Beach County, Florida, Meagan L. Weisner Jan 2019

Examining The Relationships Between Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status And Drinking Water Quality: Identifying Inequities In Palm Beach County, Florida, Meagan L. Weisner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Water treatment facilities across the United States are known for providing high-quality drinking water to their residents. However, differences in treatment methods, aging infrastructure, and outdated household plumbing may affect the quality of drinking water by the time it reaches the consumer’s tap. Palm Beach County, Florida, is an area with large socioeconomic contrasts where some families live in dilapidated structures and others reside in luxurious, gated communities. This research highlights the variation of household water quality by determining metal concentrations in tap water samples in communities of different socioeconomic status. In addition, interviews were conducted with personnel from five …

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Exploring The Social Process Of Caregiving In Fathers: A Grounded Theory Study, Ashley Rivera Jan 2019

Exploring The Social Process Of Caregiving In Fathers: A Grounded Theory Study, Ashley Rivera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The global agenda for gender equality recognizes unpaid domestic caregiving in the home as the largest barrier to gender equality. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to explore the social process of caregiving in fathers and identify the patterns that influence caregiving in fathers. Recruited from multiple community settings, thirty-five fathers participated in intensive interviews with the investigator. Guided by the Swanson’s (2013) Theory of Caring and using iterative categorization during data analysis, this study proposed the action-based Caregiving in Fathers Theory. The three main themes of the theory are Reinventing the Kitchen Table, Creating a Home …

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Flexible Attentional Prioritization Of Working Memory Object Representations, Paige Pytel Jan 2019

Flexible Attentional Prioritization Of Working Memory Object Representations, Paige Pytel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Working memory (WM) is an important cognitive function that, among other duties, allows temporary storage of visual representations of objects observed in the sensorium. The visual aspect of this core cognitive function enables our perception of the identity of objects and where those objects are located in space at any particular time to help direct attention. In a typical working memory task, a cue is presented beforehand to guide attention to which objects in an array to encode. The performance of our WM abilities can be improved on memory tasks by a retrospective cue resented after the encoding process of …

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Face/Core Disbonding Fracture Of Honeycomb Core Sandwich Panels, Mohammad Tauhiduzzaman Jan 2019

Face/Core Disbonding Fracture Of Honeycomb Core Sandwich Panels, Mohammad Tauhiduzzaman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to develop analysis and test procedures for the characterization of disbonding crack growth in a honeycomb (HC) core sandwich structure. Face sheet-to-core disbonding are of particular interest to aircraft certification authorities due to several in-service occurrences. Experimental investigation was initially focused on the mode I dominated Single Cantilever Beam (SCB) test method. Various data reduction methodologies were employed to determine the fracture toughness. The MBT method produced the most consistent and conservative results. Finite element analysis (FEA) a double periodic array of hexagonal cells was conducted to determine the effective …

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Finding A Room Of One’S Own: Veronica Franco And Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz, Tollis Marianna De Jan 2019

Finding A Room Of One’S Own: Veronica Franco And Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz, Tollis Marianna De

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

During the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, both in the Old and the New World, the patriarchal social structure had created a set of fixed gender rules based on gender roles to control female sexuality, female voices, and their social freedom because it was considered a threat to male superiority. The Venetian Veronica Franco and the Mexican Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz are two extraordinary women from different places and a hundred years apart who, with their elaborated writing and body-related techniques, escape the gender patriarchal constrains and give voice to their new authorial persona in a female liminal …

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Free Swimming Soft Robotic Jellyfish With Adaptive Depth Control, Daniel Luvisi Jan 2019

Free Swimming Soft Robotic Jellyfish With Adaptive Depth Control, Daniel Luvisi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This thesis is encompasses the design, construction, control and testing of an improvement upon the novel soft robotic Jennifish platform. The advancement of this platform includes the addition of light and depth sensors as well increasing the separation of tentacle groups from two to three sets. The final vehicle model consists nine PneuNetstyle actuators divided into three groups of three, molded around a machined Delrin pressure vessel. With a 12V submersible impellor pump connected to each actuator grouping, propulsion is created by the filling and emptying of these tentacles with surrounding ambient water. The Jellyfish2.0 is capable of omnidirectional lateral …

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Habitat Use By Bottlenose Dolphins In The Indian River Lagoon, Rachael M. Greller Jan 2019

Habitat Use By Bottlenose Dolphins In The Indian River Lagoon, Rachael M. Greller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The objective of this research was to examine bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) habitat use in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) based on monthly relocation of photo-identified individuals, prey availability and environmental factors from 2003-2015. We focused on the variation of spatial and temporal abiotic and biotic factors and their influence on bottlenose dolphin habitat use patterns. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) conducted monthly photo-identification surveys along the length of the IRL and GPS locations of photographed dolphins were collected at the time of surveying. Stratified random samples of prey and environmental variables were collected monthly by the Florida Fish and …

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Functional Stress Resistance: The Role Of Protein Kinase G In Modulating Neuronal Excitability In Caenorhabditis Elegans And Drosophila Melanogaster, Stephanie Suzanne Kelly Jan 2019

Functional Stress Resistance: The Role Of Protein Kinase G In Modulating Neuronal Excitability In Caenorhabditis Elegans And Drosophila Melanogaster, Stephanie Suzanne Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Diseases such as epilepsy, pain, and neurodegenerative disorders are associated with changes in neuronal dysfunction due to an imbalance of excitation and inhibition. This work details a novel electroconvulsive seizure assay for C. elegans using the well characterized cholinergic and GABAergic excitation and inhibition of the body wall muscles and the resulting locomotion patterns to better understand neuronal excitability. The time to recover normal locomotion from an electroconvulsive seizure could be modulated by increasing and decreasing inhibition. GABAergic deficits and a chemical proconvulsant resulted in an increased recovery time while anti-epileptic drugs decreased seizure duration. Successful modulation of excitation and …

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Gamification: A Monitoring System For Dialysis Patients, Srivarsha Marella Jan 2019

Gamification: A Monitoring System For Dialysis Patients, Srivarsha Marella

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Dialysis patients are operated to have AV Fistula which is a joint junction of an artery and vein in the arm, operated to increase the blood flow through the dialyzer machine. AV- fistula is a type of vascular access which is a path into the body to connect/disconnect devices, but in this case, it is mainly Dialyzer. To reduce the failure rate during maturation period of AV Fistula, doctors recommend squeezing ball exercise as a necessary precaution for AV Fistula failure. Doing Squeezable interaction for about 3-4 times a day is recommended based on patient’s health condition. Hence, the proposed …

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Gorgeous Gold Peacocks: Exploring Masculinity In Professional Wrestling, Scott Philip Karasick Jan 2019

Gorgeous Gold Peacocks: Exploring Masculinity In Professional Wrestling, Scott Philip Karasick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This thesis is a historical comprehensive case study on masculinity that explores stereotypes of masculinity in professional wrestling. Working from theories about gender roles, hegemonic masculinity, misogyny (with its disdain for femininity) and heteronormativity, this study utilizes a content analysis of American professional wrestling to look at the gendered basis of how and why wrestling characters are created and how they are successful. Professional wrestlers historically have created characters based in American popular cultures and specifically American gender ideologies of masculinity that are based in hetero-patriarchal cultural ideals. By looking through the history of masculinity and gender stereotypes in professional …

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Hurricane Irma Impact And Post-Storm Beach Morphology Evolution In Boca Raton, Fl, Richard M Iii Hart Jan 2019

Hurricane Irma Impact And Post-Storm Beach Morphology Evolution In Boca Raton, Fl, Richard M Iii Hart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Beach morphology changes naturally with seasonal and event-driven variability in the wave climate, as well as due to anthropogenic activities such as erosion mitigation efforts. In 2017, category four Hurricane Irma caused beach erosion and dune overwash in Boca Raton, FL. Immediate post-storm perigean spring tides coupled with typical winter high-wind conditions imposed a regime of spatially and temporally extended meteorologic and morphologic variability. This study evaluates the morphologic evolution and post-storm recovery in the first year following Hurricane Irma. Time-series topographic surveys and surface sediment samples were collected. Patterns of accretion and erosion were evaluated with regionally measured water …

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Government As A Stigma Moderator: The Case Of Palm Beach County’S Addiction Recovery Industry, David Moura Jan 2019

Government As A Stigma Moderator: The Case Of Palm Beach County’S Addiction Recovery Industry, David Moura

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This dissertation investigates how government affects stigmatization processes. This line of inquiry is important for two reasons. First, existing models of stigmatization leave government out of stigma processes, or only mention government as a sanctioning body that comes in after stigma processes are complete. Organizational theory research therefore underplays the extent to which government action can influence its citizens. Second, stigma research in public administration and government research is limited to examining how government can assist stigmatized groups, and not on how government affects stigma processes. This inadvertently gives the impression that government is not part of stigma processes. While …

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Hippocampal Neurogenesis In The Sert Ala56 Mouse Model To Autism, Mase Julieta Maria Di Jan 2019

Hippocampal Neurogenesis In The Sert Ala56 Mouse Model To Autism, Mase Julieta Maria Di

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not all known, but it is suspected that the serotonin transporter (SERT) plays an important role for some subjects with ASD. Mutations in the SLC6A4 gene, that encodes SERT, including the Ala56 mutation (Gly56Ala), have been found in some autism patients. This mutation makes the transporter more active and reduces the probability of serotonergic neurotransmission in the brain, which is linked to behavioral changes that are associated with core domain deficits of ASD 1. Depression also has been linked to decreases in the availability of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) in the central nervous …

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High Spatial Resolution Measurements Using Hydrogeophysical Methods Reveal The Presence Of Hotspots Forbbiogenic Gas Accumulation And Release In The Florida Everglades, Troy Bole Jan 2019

High Spatial Resolution Measurements Using Hydrogeophysical Methods Reveal The Presence Of Hotspots Forbbiogenic Gas Accumulation And Release In The Florida Everglades, Troy Bole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

It is well known that biogenic gas emissions (mainly methane and carbon dioxide) vary both spatially and temporally in peatlands. While most studies have focused on northern systems, several recent studies in tropical and subtropical peatlands (like the Everglades) have revealed the presence of areas of increased gas accumulation and emissions, or hotspots, that may be related to physical and/or biogeochemical changes within the peat's matrix. However, these studies are often limited in terms of sampling volume and resolution or are based in laboratory studies that may not be totally representative of field conditions. In this study we investigate the …

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Hydrodynamic Performance Of An Unmanned Catamaran Vehicle In Head Seas, Bijoy Prasad Jan 2019

Hydrodynamic Performance Of An Unmanned Catamaran Vehicle In Head Seas, Bijoy Prasad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This study analyzes the hydrodynamic performance of an advanced catamaran vehicle using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental testing data in support of system identification and development of a physics-based control system for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) operations in coastal waters. A series of steps based on increasing complexity are considered sequentially in this study. First the steady flow past the static vehicle, then the vehicle with a fixed orientation advancing in calm water, and finally the vehicle moving with two degrees of freedom (DOF) in calm water as well as head seas. The main objective of the study …

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Impact Of The Fire Ant Pesticide Hydramethylnon (Amdro®) On Loggerhead Sea Turtle Reproductive Success And Hatchling Quality, Heather Smith Jan 2019

Impact Of The Fire Ant Pesticide Hydramethylnon (Amdro®) On Loggerhead Sea Turtle Reproductive Success And Hatchling Quality, Heather Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Invasive fire ants are aggressive predators of ground nesting birds and reptiles and are spreading rapidly throughout tropical and temperate climates. Fire ants have been known to prey on a variety of reptile species, including threatened loggerhead sea turtles. The granular fire ant bait AMDRO® is being used on sea turtle nesting beaches to protect nests and hatchlings from these predators, however no studies have been conducted to thoroughly assess its effect on any reptile species. In this field study, I examined the impact of AMDRO® on hatching and emergence success, body condition, and orientation behavior in loggerhead sea turtles …

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I Am More Than What I Appear: The Lived Experience Of African American Female Journalists, Jacinda C. Jones Jan 2019

I Am More Than What I Appear: The Lived Experience Of African American Female Journalists, Jacinda C. Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This study investigates the phenomenon of intersectionality between race and gender on the lived experiences of African American female broadcast journalists in the state of Florida. Seven in-depth interviews were conducted and compared to determine reoccurring themes taking place throughout each participant’s experience in broadcast journalism as a result of their race and gender. Race, appearance, racial mentoring, and professional advancement were the common themes that emerged in each interview. Although there is a significant amount of research on African American women in the workplace, there is a greater need to focus on the field of broadcast journalism and the …

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In Better Worlds Than These: Memory And Diegesis In Fantasy Literature, Daniel Creed Jan 2019

In Better Worlds Than These: Memory And Diegesis In Fantasy Literature, Daniel Creed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This study addresses the state of scholarship regarding fantasy literature and questions the position of scholars who have dismissed it as panegyric. This study notes that no accepted definition of fantasy exists, sets forth its own, and questions the value of fantasy literature. Moving from definition, this study notes that fantasy literature limits artistic freedom by supplementing the reality principle of minimal distance in mimetic fiction with penemaximal distance. Penemaximal distance affords fantasy a great remove from the actual world but adds the generic megatext as a frame of reference that defines reality. This allows fantasy literature to create semantic …

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Increasing The Accuracy Of Binary Neutron Starsimulations With An Improved Vacuum Treatment, Poudel Amit Jan 2019

Increasing The Accuracy Of Binary Neutron Starsimulations With An Improved Vacuum Treatment, Poudel Amit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The main purpose of this dissertation is to study the inspiral and merger of binary neutron stars. The inspiral, in such a system, is caused by the loss of energy and angular momentum that is carried away by the emitted gravitational waves. Newly-formed neutron stars, after supernova explosions, are very hot. They cool down during the hundreds of millions of years, which is needed to bring the two stars in a neutron star binary close enough together to start investigating them with numerical relativity simulations. Thus, they can be considered as fluids at zero temperature to very high accuracy, when …

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Landfill Leachate Treatment By Advanced Electrochemical Oxidation Process Coupled With Pretreatments, Md Fahim Salek Jan 2019

Landfill Leachate Treatment By Advanced Electrochemical Oxidation Process Coupled With Pretreatments, Md Fahim Salek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Advanced electrochemical oxidation processes have emerged as a promising method for the destruction of persistent organic material in variable waste streams. Although the process has been successfully employed for wastewater treatment applications, high energy requirements, and the risk of formation of undesirable by-products may limit its application in the field of leachate treatment. This study focuses on the investigation of the feasibility of removing organics and ammonia by electrochemical oxidation coupled with ozone, Fenton or lime. Landfill leachate was treated by two different bench scale electrochemical oxidation reactors coupled with ozone oxidation, Fenton coagulation or lime precipitation. The electrochemical oxidation …

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Investigating Healthy Organizations: Development And Testing Of A Public Organization Wellness Quotient (Wq), Wilson C. Mclean Jan 2019

Investigating Healthy Organizations: Development And Testing Of A Public Organization Wellness Quotient (Wq), Wilson C. Mclean

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This dissertation investigates and further develops organization health theory in the context of public organizations. This is an important line of inquiry for two reasons. First, the healthy organizations literature and healthy organization theory is inchoate and lacks overall coherence (Dejoy et al., 2010), especially in public organization theory and research. As such many organization theorists have called for expansive solutions and insist this requires consideration of the collective and systemic interactive levels of analysis (Salanova et al., 2012; Schein, 2006). Second, we notice organizations now devoting considerable resources to nurturing individual and organizational health and wellness (Dale & Burrell, …

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Investigating The Temporal Dynamics Of Advanced Information Processing During Interocular Suppression Using Electroencephalography And Pattern Classification, Dustin Cox Jan 2019

Investigating The Temporal Dynamics Of Advanced Information Processing During Interocular Suppression Using Electroencephalography And Pattern Classification, Dustin Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

A thorough delineation of the extent of processing possible without visual awareness is necessary to elucidate the neural mechanisms of visual awareness. Despite extensive research, it is presently unclear whether invisible stimuli can undergo advanced processing. To introduce existing work on this topic, previous behavioral efforts to investigate the extent of processing possible without visual awareness and the psychophysical methods used to render stimuli invisible, such as visual masking and interocular suppression-based techniques, are discussed. Physiological evidence that provide support for and against the possibility that advanced information processing can occur without visual awareness are addressed. The basics of multivariate …

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Lawn Management From The Mesoscale: How Communities Shape Residential Lawn Care In Baltimore City, Hallee Meltzer Jan 2019

Lawn Management From The Mesoscale: How Communities Shape Residential Lawn Care In Baltimore City, Hallee Meltzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Traditional lawn care for suburban American households merits examination from both ecological and social perspectives. Such practices have potentially detrimental consequences on human and natural systems that will continue to grow with urbanization. Consequently, further characterization of the complex, multiscale processes in which lawn management decisions are rooted could enhance methods for encouraging the adoption of alternatives to industrialized lawn care. This study conceptualizes mesoscale, or neighborhood-level, influences on watering, fertilizing, and mowing practices in Baltimore city, through a modified grounded theory analysis of key informant interviews in Mount Washington, Westfield, and Park Circle. This study finds that mesoscale processes …

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Interfacing And Control Of Artificial Hands, Joseph Ingicco Jan 2019

Interfacing And Control Of Artificial Hands, Joseph Ingicco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This thesis discusses three projects that revolve around the central concept of the control of artificial hands. The first part of the thesis discusses the design of a museum exhibit for the South Florida Science Center that allows the public to control an i-limb Revolution prosthetic hand using electromyograph (EMG) sensors. A custom armature was designed to house the EMG sensors that are used to control the prosthesis. The top arm of the armature utilized a double rocker design for a greater range of motion which allows the display to accommodate arm sizes ranging from small children to large adults. …

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Into Memory: A Novel, Madison Garber Jan 2019

Into Memory: A Novel, Madison Garber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

In Into Memory, memory is no longer something which resides in the past. Instead, it is a substance which can be extracted and consumed like a hallucinogenic drug, immersing consumers in a vivid and immediate past whose physical effects linger long after the images of that memory disappear. For Paul Mendez, these memories offer an escape from a present defined by grief, while former professional football prospect Calvin Long seeks to reconnect with a past too long stained by regret. For law school student Kara Douglas, selling erotic memories is simply a business transaction—that is until she considers removing the …

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Investigating Machine Learning Algorithms With Imbalanced Big Data, Tawfiq Hasanin Jan 2019

Investigating Machine Learning Algorithms With Imbalanced Big Data, Tawfiq Hasanin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Recent technological developments have engendered an expeditious production of big data and also enabled machine learning algorithms to produce high-performance models from such data. Nonetheless, class imbalance (in binary classifications) between the majority and minority classes in big data can skew the predictive performance of the classification algorithms toward the majority (negative) class whereas the minority (positive) class usually holds greater value for the decision makers. Such bias may lead to adverse consequences, some of them even life-threatening, when the existence of false negatives is generally costlier than false positives. The size of the minority class can vary from fair …

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Jugular Region: The Triangle Of Verisimilitude, Bénédicte Laflamme Jan 2019

Jugular Region: The Triangle Of Verisimilitude, Bénédicte Laflamme

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

With the short film, Jugular Region, I intended to cross over to the narrative world of filmmaking by developing an idea in sync with experimental filmmaking, special effect makeup and the body-horror genre. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to expose how, by using an original body-horror genre screenplay as a platform to gather imagery, I was able to fully develop the verisimilitude of the film through SFX makeup and a surrealist editing style. This paper is also dedicated to the step-by-step thought process and my artistic practice that led to the creation of this unique filmic universe.

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Intrasexual Selection And The Elaboration Of A Mating Signal In The Bachman’S Sparrow (Peucea Aestivalis), Paula Ziadi Jan 2019

Intrasexual Selection And The Elaboration Of A Mating Signal In The Bachman’S Sparrow (Peucea Aestivalis), Paula Ziadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Vocal communication is central to the coordination of social behavior in many vertebrate species, and it has been particularly well studied in songbirds, which use their songs in different contexts to convey information about the singer or its environment (Catchpole and Slater 2008; Alger et al. 2016). While it is widely accepted that the songs of oscine passerine birds (the songbirds) have two main social functions: intrasexual competition, and courtship (Catchpole and Slater 2008), the evolution of large and complex song repertoires remains an evolutionary puzzle (Byers and Kroodsma 2009). The question is: why do some songbird species produce an …

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