Digital Commons Network^™

The Free Education Project: Higher Education Funding, E2 Implementation, And Crowdsourcing Crypto Development, Louis Carter, John R. Ziegler, Ovidui Purice, Edward Lehner Ph.D.

Publications and Research

This short paper, written in three different sections, explores how a cryptocurrency’s issuance and network effects could fund higher education. Synthesizing research from the Bronx Community College Cryptocurrency Research Lab, Bernard Lietaer’s notion of creating money for the needs of society, lessons learned by Galia Benartzi and the Hearts Project, and an exploration of how communities coalesce around open-source cryptocurrency projects, the authors provide an overview of the problem of funding higher education, the ways in which money that is needed could be created, and the key components to building a highly effective developer community. These three distinct yet vitally …

Teaching With Cutting-Edge Technology, Bill Dabney

University of Mississippi News

UM real estate students gain experience using Argus software

Ethical Consistency And Experience: An Attempt To Influence Researcher Attitudes Toward Questionable Research Practices Through Reading Prompts, Samuel V. Bruton, Mitch Brown, Donald F. Sacco

Faculty Publications

Over the past couple of decades, the apparent widespread occurrence of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) in scientific research has been widely discussed in the research ethics literature as a source of concern. Various ways of reducing their use have been proposed and implemented, ranging from improved training and incentives for adopting best practices to systematic reforms. This article reports on the results of two studies that investigated the efficacy of simple, psychological interventions aimed at changing researcher attitudes toward QRPs. While the interventions did not significantly modify researchers’ reactions to QRPs, they showed differential efficacy depending on scientists’ experience, suggesting …

Technology-Dependent Quantum Logic Synthesis And Compilation, Kaitlin Smith

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The models and rules of quantum computation and quantum information processing (QIP) differ greatly from those that govern classical computation, and these differences have caused the implementation of quantum processing devices with a variety of new technologies. Many platforms have been developed in parallel, but at the time of writing, one method of quantum computing has not shown to be superior to the rest. Because of the variation that exists between quantum platforms, even between those of the same technology, there must be a way to automatically synthesize technology-independent quantum designs into forms that are capable of physical realization on …

Polyarylenes: Synthesis And Characterization Towards Advanced Applications, Stephen Budy

Chemistry Theses and Dissertations

A series of semi-fluorinated and non-fluorinated Diels−Alder step-growth polyarylene polymers and co-polymers were synthesized via typical oil bath heating (days/weeks) and more rapid microwave-assisted polymerization (hours). The polymers were characterized by multi-nuclear (¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁹F) NMR and ATR−FTIR spectroscopy, thermal analysis (TGA, DSC, and DMA), GPC, XRD, water contact analysis (WCA), and refractive index (RI) measurements. The NMR spectra indicated a mixture of para and meta conformations through the polymer backbone increasing to more para with greater fluorine content. Thermal gravimetric analysis revealed the fluorine-containing polyarylenes possessed the highest char yields at almost 80% at …

An Analysis Of The Wickability And Profilometry Of Samples, Angelo Hawa, Patricia Weisensee

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

Many different factors influence a material's heat flux, or its ability to transfer heat throughout the sample. Throughout the semester, I investigated two of these most prominent factors: wickability and profilometry. Using various experimental techniques, I quantified values for these two properties and assigned them to each of multiple samples, which were being further investigated in a boiling project. Although more research is needed to be done to evaluate any claims, the initial projects I've done this semester have given me a platform to continue next semester with more efficiency and better experimental methods.

Model Selection And Experimental Design Of Biological Networks With Algebraic Geometry, Anyu Zhang

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Model selection based on experimental data is an essential challenge in biological data science. In decades, the volume of biological data from varied sources, including laboratory experiments, field observations, and patient health records has seen an unprecedented increase. Mainly when collecting data is expensive or time-consuming, as it is often in the case with clinical trials and biomolecular experiments, the problem of selecting information-rich data becomes crucial for creating relevant models.

Motivated by certain geometric relationships between data, we partitioned input data sets, especially data sets that correspond to a unique basis, into equivalence classes with the same basis to …

Smart Factories, Dumb Policy? Managing Cybersecurity And Data Privacy Risks In The Industrial Internet Of Things, Scott J. Shackelford

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Design And Biological Evaluation Of Colchicine-Cd44-Targeted Peptide Conjugate In An In Vitro Model Of Crystal Induced Inflammation, Khalid A. Zoghebi, Emira Bousoik, Keykavous Parang, Khaled A. Elsaid

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Gout is an inflammatory arthritis due to the joint deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals. Phagocytosis of MSU crystals by tissue macrophages results in the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Colchicine use in gout is limited by severe toxicity. CD44 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is highly expressed in tissue macrophages and may be involved in gout pathogenesis. The P6 peptide is a 20-amino acid residue peptide that binds to CD44. We hypothesized that the conjugation of colchicine to the P6 peptide would reduce its off-target cytotoxicity while preserving its anti-inflammatory effect. …

Why Does The Nhs Struggle To Adopt Ehealth Innovations? A Review Of Macro, Meso And Micro Factors, Sheena Asthana, Ray Jones, Rod Sheaff

Peninsula Medical School

Abstract Background Having a tax-funded and supposedly ‘National’ Health Service (NHS), one might assume that the UK is well-positioned to roll out eHealth innovations at scale. Yet, despite a strong policy push, the English NHS has been limited in the extent to which it has exploited the potential of eHealth. Main body This paper considers a range of macro, meso and micro factors influencing eHealth innovation in the English NHS. Conclusions While barriers to eHealth innovation exist at all scales, the fragmentation of the NHS is the most significant factor limiting adoption and diffusion. Rather than addressing problems of fragmentation, …

Peatland Catchments And Natural Flood Management. Review Commissioned By The Iucn Uk Peatland Programme’S Commission Of Inquiry On Peatlands., T Allot, T Auñón, J Dunn, C Evans, J Labadz, P Lunt, M Macdonald, T Nisbet, R Owen, M Pilkington, S Proctor, E Shuttleworth, J Walker

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Women’S Resilience In Preserving Family Life Following An Earthquake In North Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, Tuti Budirahayu, Anis Farida, Sughmita Maslacha Amala S.

Journal of International Women's Studies

The earthquake in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, in August 2018 not only damaged the environment and the area around the epicenter but also shook public order. The shaking of economic and social infrastructure is being paid for by unpreparedness in facing disasters, and this is compounded by the mental deterioration of the community due to the loss of family members. This study aims to describe women's abilities during the aftermath of the disaster, and their efforts to overcome economic and social problems within their families. We also observed women's collective efforts as a way to eliminate trauma (trauma healing). This …

Return-Oriented Programming Detection And Prevention Utilizing A Hardware And Software Adaptation, Alex Levin

Defensive Publications Series

This publication describes techniques aimed at detecting and preventing return-oriented programming (ROP) attacks. The techniques consist of a software adaptation which enables supplemental hardware, specifically a system on a chip (SoC), to chronologically log return (ret) addresses of pushed stack frames and compare those logged ret addresses to ret commands executed by a central processing unit (CPU) of a computing system. When the SoC determines that ret commands executed by the CPU have deviated from the logged ret addresses, then the SoC can take action to thwart a ROP attack.

Environmental Degradation And The Legal Imperatives Of Improvement: Forest Policy In Western Australia From European Settlement To 1918, Guy Charlton, Ricardo Napper

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Father Of Man: An Exploration Of The Afterlife In Cinema, Theodore Barrett Burgin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates five films about the afterlife from various cultural perspectives and seeks to glean cultural insights based on their methods of portrayal. The films include Heaven Can Wait as an example of corporate America, After Life as an example of Japanese domesticity, Orpheus as an example of post-war France, and A Ghost Story as an example of secular postmodernism. Additionally, I examine my own BYU senior capstone film, Father of Man, as an example of Latter-day Saint influence. Apart from the visual choices of these films, which reveal interesting insights as to their culture’s imaginings of an …

Habermas And The Question Of Bioethics, Hille Haker

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In The Future of Human Nature, Jürgen Habermas raises the question of whether the embryonic genetic diagnosis and genetic modification threatens the foundations of the species ethics that underlies current understandings of morality. While morality, in the normative sense, is based on moral interactions enabling communicative action, justification, and reciprocal respect, the reification involved in the new technologies may preclude individuals to uphold a sense of the undisposability (Unverfügbarkeit) of human life and the inviolability (Unantastbarkeit) of human beings that is necessary for their own identity as well as for reciprocal relations. Engaging with liberal …

Acl Unfair Contract Terms And Standard Construction Contracts, Chinelle Van Der Westhuizen, Phillip Evans

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Status And Future Strategies Of Chinese Botanical Gardens, Jiao Yang, Shao Yunyun, Liao Jingping, Huang Hongwen, Hu Huabin, Zhang Quanfa, Ren Hai, Chen Jin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Chinese botanical gardens have a history of more than 100 years, but large-scale construction began in the 1950s with the establishment of modern botanical gardens led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Currently there are 162 gardens in China, which have entered the stage of rapid construction and steady development. Chinese botanical gardens have made great contributions to native plant conservation, sustainable utilization, scientific research and environmental education in China, and have become the backbone and part of mainstream of international botanical garden community. To cope with negative effects of human disturbance on ecosystem, botanical gardens will play a more …

Current Situation And Future Of Biological Collections Of Chinese Academy Of Sciences, He Peng, Chen Jun, Qiao Gexia

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

With the increasing impact of global environmental change and human activities on biodiversity, human beings will face significant needs in the areas of biodiversity awareness, conservation and sustainable use, and national biosafety. The Biological Collections of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) include the Biological Collections/Museums belonging to 18 scientific research institutes of CAS. It is the main place for preservation, research, and scientific education of animal, plant, fungus, and fossil specimens in China. Among them, there are two institutes who are leading the National Animal Collection and the National Herbarium, respectively, which are listed into the National Science and …

Troubling The Water: Dismantling The Ideology Of Separate Spheres, Lisa Weddell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines nineteenth century U.S. women’s maritime writings to re-evaluate and more accurately represent the roles women played in society. I contend that the nineteenth century ship is a microcosm of the United States and women’s sea experiences and maritime writings reveal their lived experiences and the visible roles they played in their relationships and in public politics. Women’s maritime writings, I argue, challenge ideologies of “True Womanhood” that define women as submissive and passive. Instead, these texts demonstrate how women equally contributed to establishing national identity in the United States by defining appropriate gender performance for men and …

A Study Of Chloride Levels In Pine Creek, Allegheny County, Pa, Selina Prettner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pine Creek is a 22.8-mile long tributary to the Allegheny River draining over 67 square miles of northern Allegheny County, PA. The main stem runs along Route 8 and receives extensive runoff from road salt from deicing. A site near Etna, PA sampled biweekly in 2013 consistently showed elevated conductivity that correlated with increased chloride levels. Winter road deicing runoff produced acute chloride concentrations up to 678 mg/L. Chloride fluctuated in the summer and autumn months but did not exceed the USEPA Secondary Drinking Water Standard (250 mg/L) or the aquatic life criterion for chronic concentrations (230 mg/L). Sampling throughout …

Network Level Pavement Deterioration Prediction Modeling For The City Of Syracuse, Burak Gursoy

Theses - ALL

Pavement deterioration prediction models play an important role in pavement management systems and allow decision makers to plan maintenance and rehabilitation works in advance. There are several factors affecting the deterioration of pavement sections such as traffic loading, freeze and thaw, snow plowing, construction quality as well as pavement thickness and age. Developing pavement deterioration prediction models can provide decision makers with many benefits. First of all, pavements can be treated before they reach undesired levels of service and this would extend the lifetime. Secondly, required budget for expenses can be provisioned, which helps public authorities to generate more precise …

Characterization Of Phenolic Acids For Incorporation Into Shape Memory Polymer Foams, Jingyi Liu

Theses - ALL

Shape memory polymer (SMP) foams provide a promising new option for hemorrhage control on the battlefield; however, they lack a mechanism to control wound infections that can delay healing processes. Adding phenolic acids (PAs) into SMP foams provides a natural, non-drug option for incorporations of antioxidant and antimicrobial functionalities that may promote healing. However, PAs lack a systemic characterization of their structure/property relationships, and their chemical incorporation into SMP foams may alter their efficacy. In this work, a library of PAs was screened in terms of antioxidant and antimicrobial properties to provide a full understanding of how their structure affects …

Spectroscopic Analysis Of The Vanadium Oxide Catalyst During The Ketone Oxidation, Bowei Liu

Theses - ALL

Levulinic acid is a platform chemical that derived by environmental friend biomass. We have previously reported a reaction pathway to transform levulinic acid to maleic anhydride through methyl scission on supported vanadium oxide, which could achieve a 70% yield. The structure of vanadium oxide on the surface of supports can be informative for catalyst selection. We investigated the polymerization of vanadium oxide on support through diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy. Peak deconvolution of ligand to metal charge transfer region of the spectra provided knowledge of different coordinated structure. All of our catalysts have bulk V2O5 that exists on the surface of …

Precarity Beyond Food: How The Closure Of An Independent Grocery Store Shed Light On The Limitations Of Food Access Efforts In Syracuse, New York, Katherine Louisa Ravene Mott

Theses - ALL

On September 11, 2017, the owner of an independent grocery store in Syracuse, New York’s Near Westside neighborhood announced that the store would close within the month. The Near Westside is often characterized by its high levels of concentrated poverty for African American and Hispanic neighborhood residents. Nojaim Brothers Supermarket opened in 1919 and persisted for 97 years amidst an unfavorable political and economic landscape marked by the creation of both chain grocery stores and supermarkets as well as the effects of urban renewal and disinvestment. I argue that Nojaim’s endurance can be attributed to the embeddedness of the grocery …

Fighting Food Insecurity For Nyc Children And Youth: Urban Agriculture And Food Justice, Devin C. O'Mara

Student Theses 2015-Present

The positive benefits of urban agriculture go beyond just providing fresh and healthy food to metropolitan areas. As the practice of urban farming has become increasingly more popular over the last decade or so, it has proven to develop community relations and aide with metropolitan and global issues such as poverty. Children and teens especially benefit from urban agriculture, specifically those that comes from underprivileged homes that may not have the resources to obtain fresh food every day. A shocking number of kids can go hungry every day due to lack of available food. Many children that live in metropolitan …

Breaking Ground On New Agricultural Models: Industrial Agriculture And The Local Food Movement, Elizabeth Nealon

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper discusses and examines the longstanding issues surrounding industrial food production as it currently exists and the various ways that purpose-driven enterprises and environmentally-conscious consumers in the United States have been able to steer food production in a more sustainable direction. Over the course of the technological revolution, people living in metropolitan areas have become so distanced from farms and the processes of food production that many are ignorant of the realities of the food industry. Chapter 1 addresses these issues by presenting quantitative data that lays out a timeline of the evolution of the food and agriculture industry …

Reconstruction Of Propeller And Complex Ship Hull Surface Based On Reverse Engineering, Guan Guan, Wen-Wen Gu1

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

To quickly obtain the digital model of ship surface for detection and redesign, a reconstruction method for propeller and ship surface is proposed. Three-dimensional point cloud data of ship hull was obtained by laser scanning technology and the cloud data was preprocessed by iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm and chord deviation method. Then the surface was reconstructed with traditional surface modeling method and fast surface modeling method. By comparing the reconstructed surface with the initial point cloud data, the error of the reconstructed model was obtained. The result shows that the reconstructed surface gains good smoothness and small error. With …

Design And Development Of A Perfusion Bioreactor With Internal Volume Expansion And Cell Retention For Cell And Gene Therapy Manufacturing, Corinna Doris

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Economically producing patient-specific cell therapies at commercial levels remains a challenge as it requires manufacturing separate batches per patient where the production system must be scaled-out rather than scaled-up to supply more patient doses. The resulting high production cost and consequent price-point can limit patient access. Specifically, the current cell expansion processes are highly manual and laborious, with the number and complexity of operations and components increasing the opportunities for failure and contamination. This work therefore aims to design a mechanically simple bioreactor that is better suited for scale-out by consolidating the cell expansion process to fewer components, vessels, and …

Widening Of Reinforced Concrete Bridges – Extension Of Pier Cap Beams With Cfrp Composites, Cheng Tan

Dissertations - ALL

Increase in traffic load dictates widening highway bridges rather than construction of new bridges, as it offers an economical solution. Highway bridge widening is usually accomplished by the construction of additional new bridge piers, however, large amount of construction work and extensive use of heavy plant and machinery could result in very high cost. For limited widening of bridges, e.g. addition of one driving/emergency lane, extension of the pier cap beam offers an attractive solution. Due to additional load resulting from the widened bridge, strengthening of extended cap beams may be needed. In addition, depending on the strength of the …