Digital Commons Network^™

Just A Minute, Isn’T That De Minimis: California Should Not Burden Or Require National Employers To Compensate Employees For De Minimis Off-The-Clock Work Activities, Alan Persaud

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Intelligent Entertainment: Shaping Policies On The Algorithmic Generation And Regulation Of Creative Works, Hannibal Travis

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cracking The Code: Computer Code As Pure Speech And Its First Amendment Implications On The 3d Printed Firearms Controversy, Brian E. Heckmann

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of The Specific Attenuation Method For Radar-Based Quantitative Precipitation Estimation: Improvements And Practical Challenges, Bong Chul Seo, Witold F. Krajewski, Alexander Ryzhkov

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study demonstrates an implementation of the prototype quantitative precipitation R estimation algorithm using specific attenuation A for S-band polarimetric radar. The performance of R(A) algorithm is assessed, compared to the conventional algorithm using radar reflectivity Z, at multiple temporal scales. Because the factor a, defined as the net ratio of A to specific differential phase, is a key parameter of the algorithm characterized by drop size distributions (e.g., differential reflectivity Zdr dependence on Z), the estimation equations of a and a proper number of Zdr–Z samples required for a reliable a estimation are examined. Based on the dynamic estimation …

The Perceived ‘Classroom Readiness’ And Support Of Western Australian Primary Graduate Teachers, Samantha Jade Edwards

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Graduate teachers are expected to be ‘classroom ready’ upon graduation, yet research suggests they are not. The difficulties faced by graduate teachers in their first years of teaching often result in low self-efficacy and attrition, which in turn can affect the achievement of their students.

Since its establishment in 2010, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) have implemented a competency framework for both teachers and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers, aimed at improving not only all teacher quality in Australia, but the quality of ITE, graduating teachers and the support structures provided to them. This research project …

A Study Into The Effects Of Spray And Jet Characteristics On Flash Evaporation System, Farshid Fathinia

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Low temperature flash evaporation desalination is a separation system that isolates liquids from other materials when seawater or any fluid undergoes evaporation. Extreme flash evaporation occurs when a low heated liquid is injected into the vacuum area, where the pressure is far below the saturated pressure of the liquid entering the area. This approach of flash evaporation is a key part of this type of system. It has a great potential to develop and improve the implementation of low thermal desalination plants but requires more specific study. Further analysis shows that previous investigations have not given a comprehensive insight into …

Wildfire Suppression – An International Analysis Of Operations, Strategy And Firefighter Safety, Greg Peter Penney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Wildfire suppression remains an inherently dangerous yet increasingly frequent task for fire services throughout Australia and the world. Each year firefighters from career and volunteer agencies respond to wildfires that impact the urban interface. When such an event occurs during a period of intense fire behaviour the conditions are often incompatible with life for persons either caught in the open or those seeking refuge in a vehicle. In order to improve firefighter safety and operational effectiveness at the rural urban interface (RUI) during landscape scale wildfires, this dissertation serves to examine critical components of wildfire response, most notably wildfire suppression …

Heritability Enrichment Of Immunoglobulin G N-Glycosylation Relevant Genes In Specific Tissues, Xingang Li

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 60 genetic loci associated with IgG N-glycosylation; however, the causal genes and their abundance in relevant tissues are uncertain. In this study, firstly, I leveraged data from GWAS summary statistics for 8,090 Europeans, and large-scale expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data from the genotype-tissue expression of 53 types of tissues (GTEx v7), to derive a linkage disequilibrium score for the specific expression of genes (LDSC-SEG) and conduct a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS). I identified 55 genes whose predicted levels of expression were significantly associated with IgG Nglycosylation in 14 tissues with regard to …

The Solo Piano Sonatas Of Cipriani Potter (1792-1871): An Analysis, Reappraisal, And Historical Performance, Jordan Proctor

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The solo piano sonatas (Op. 1, 3, and 4) of once eminent English pianist/composer Cipriani Potter (1792-1871) are a collection of works that have for the most part fallen into obscurity. Potter produced three such sonatas in his lifetime, each at approximately the same time during his educational trip to Vienna between 1817 and 1818. Potter was much celebrated in his own time as a virtuoso pianist, teacher, and eventual principal at the Royal Academy of Music, and as an editor of the works of Mozart and Beethoven amongst others. This study examines Potter’s sonatas in light of both modern …

Effectiveness Of A Structured, Framework-Based Approach To Implementation: The Researching Effective Approaches To Cleaning In Hospitals (Reach) Trial, Lisa Hall, Nicole M. White, Michelle Allen, Alison Farrington, Brett G. Mitchell, Katie Page, Kate Halton, Thomas V. Riley, Christian A. Gericke, Nicholas Graves, Anne Gardner

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

BACKGROUND: Implementing sustainable practice change in hospital cleaning has proven to be an ongoing challenge in reducing healthcare associated infections. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable framework-based approach to implement and quantitatively evaluate the implementation of evidence-based practice change in hospital cleaning. DESIGN/METHODS: The Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals (REACH) trial was a pragmatic, stepped-wedge randomised trial of an environmental cleaning bundle implemented in 11 Australian hospitals from 2016 to 2017. Using a structured multi-step approach, we adapted the integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework to support rigorous and …

Contribution Of Seagrass Blue Carbon Toward Carbon Neutral Policies In A Touristic And Environmentally-Friendly Island, Camila Bedulli, Paul S. Lavery, Matt Harvey, Carlos M. Duarte, Oscar Serrano

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Estimates of organic carbon (C_org) storage by seagrass meadows which consider inter-habitat variability are essential to understand their potential to sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂) and derive robust global and regional estimates of blue carbon storage. In this study, we provide baseline estimates of seagrass extent, and soil C_org stocks and accumulation rates from different seagrass habitats at Rottnest Island (in Amphibolis spp., Posidonia spp., Halophila ovalis, and mixed Posidonia/Amphibolis spp. meadows). The C_org stocks in 0.5 m thick seagrass soil deposits, derived from 24 cores, were 5.1 ± 0.7 kg C_org m^{–2 …}

Serum Hepcidin Levels In Cognitively Normal Older Adults With High Neocortical Amyloid-Beta Load, Pratishtha Chatterjee, Maryam Mohammadi, Kathryn Goozee, Tejal Shah, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Cintia B. Dias, Kaikai Shen, Prita R. Asih, Preeti Dave, Steve Pedrini, Nicholas J. Ashton, Abdul Hye, Kevin Taddei, David B. Lovejoy, Henrik Zetterberg, Kaj Blennow, Ralph Martins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background/Objective:

Hepcidin, an iron-regulating hormone, suppresses the release of iron by binding to the iron exporter protein, ferroportin, resulting in intracellular iron accumulation. Given that iron dyshomeostasis has been observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) together with elevated serum hepcidin levels, the current study examined whether elevated serum hepcidin levels are an early event in AD pathogenesis by measuring the hormone in cognitively normal older adults at risk of AD, based on high neocortical amyloid-β load (NAL).

Methods:

Serum hepcidin levels in cognitively normal participants (n = 100) aged between 65–90 years were measured using ELISA. To evaluate NAL, all …

Relationships Between Plasma Lipids Species, Gender, Risk Factors And Alzheimer’S Disease, Wei Ling Florence Lim, Kevin Huynh, Pratishtha Chatterjee, Ian Martins, Kaushala S. Jayawardana, Corey Giles, Natalie A. Mellett, Simon M. Laws, Ashley I. Bush, Christopher C. Rowe, Victor L. Villemagne, David Ames, Brian G. Drew, Colin L. Masters, Peter J. Meikle, Ralph Martins, Australian Imaging, Biomarker & Lifestyle Research Group

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background:

Lipid metabolism is altered in Alzheimer’s disease (AD); however, the relationship between AD risk factors (age, APOE ɛ4, and gender) and lipid metabolism is not well defined.

Objective:

We investigated whether altered lipid metabolism associated with increased age, gender, and APOE status may contribute to the development of AD by examining these risk factors in healthy controls and also clinically diagnosed AD individuals.

Methods:

We performed plasma lipidomic profiling (582 lipid species) of the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle flagship study of aging cohort (AIBL) using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Linear regression and interaction analysis were used to explore …

Let The Data Speak: Using Rigour To Extract Vitality From Qualitative Data, Alistair J. Campbell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Qualitative data can be gathered from an array of rich sources of research information. One of the popular ways to collect this data is by interviewing a range of experts on the topic, followed by transcription, resulting in a database of written documents, often supplemented by other documented data that informs the topic. Thematic or Content Analysis can then be used to explore the data and identify themes of meaning that enlighten the research topic, with the themes being gathered into nodes. The researcher now has an array of nodes, which needs to be organised into a coherent model, and …

Blood Sampling Through Peripheral Intravenous Cannulas: A Look At Current Practice In Australia, Hugh Davies, Linda L. Coventry, Alycia Jacob, Laurita Stoneman, Elisabeth Jacob

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Sampling blood from a peripheral intravenous cannula offers an alternative to venepuncture. This practice can reduce frequency of venepuncture and patient discomfort. Opponents argue the practice increases the chance of haemolysis, risk of infection and device failure. Aim: To describe the prevalence and practice of blood sampling from peripheral intravenous cannulas by Australian nurses. Methods: This study used a descriptive cross-sectional design and data were collected using an electronic survey. The survey examined Australian nurses’ practice of sampling blood from peripheral intravenous cannulas. Quantitative descriptive data was analysed and presented as frequencies, percentages, medians and ranges. Findings: A total …

Factors Influencing Carbon Stocks And Accumulation Rates In Eelgrass Meadows Across New England, Usa, A. B. Novak, M. C. Pelletier, P. Colarusso, J. Simpson, M. N. Gutierrez, A. Arias-Ortiz, M. Charpentier, Pere Masque, P. Vella

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Increasing the protection of coastal vegetated ecosystems has been suggested as one strategy to compensate for increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere as the capacity of these habitats to sequester and store carbon exceeds that of terrestrial habitats. Seagrasses are a group of foundation species that grow in shallow coastal and estuarine systems and have an exceptional ability to sequester and store large quantities of carbon in biomass and, particularly, in sediments. However, carbon stocks (Corg stocks) and carbon accumulation rates (Corg accumulation) in seagrass meadows are highly variable both spatially and temporally, making it difficult to extrapolate this …

Is Dietary Vitamin A Associated With Myopia From Adolescence To Young Adulthood?, Fletcher J. Ng, David A. Mackey, Therese A. O'Sullivan, Wendy H. Oddy, Seyhan Yazar

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: Potential links may exist between vitamin A intake and myopia via various pathways. In this study, we examined the association between dietary vitamin A intake during adolescence and myopia in early adulthood. Methods: We performed a prospective analysis utilizing data collected from participants of the Raine Study Gen2. Dietary vitamin A intake, determined via food frequency questionnaires completed at ages 14, 17, and 20 years, was compared with ophthalmic measurements collected at year 20. Low vitamin A levels were defined as <600 >µg/day. Regression models were used to adjust for ocular sun exposure level, educational level, and parental myopia as …

Does Fibre-Fix Provided To People With Irritable Bowel Syndrome Who Are Consuming A Low Fodmap Diet Improve Their Gut Health, Gut Microbiome, Sleep And Mental Health? A Double-Blinded, Randomised Controlled Trial, Ran Yan, Mandy Murphy, Angela Genoni, Evania Marlow, Ian Dunican, Johnny Lo, Lesley Andrew, Amanda Devine, Claus T. Christophersen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Introduction:

A diet low in fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP) is an effective way to reduce gut symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This diet reduces the intake of fermentable fibres, leading to changes of the gut microbiota and insufficient fermentation in the large bowel, resulting in reduced production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), such as butyrate, which has unfavourable implications for gut health, sleep and mental health. This study will examine the effect of Fibre-fix, a supplement containing a mix of dietary fibres, on the human gut microbiome composition, fermentative capacity, sleep, quality of life …

The Use Of Yank-Time Signal As An Alternative To Identify Kinematic Events And Define Phases In Human Countermovement Jumping, Sofyan Sahrom, Jodie C. Wilkie, Kazunori Nosaka, Anthony J. Blazevich

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Detailed examinations of both the movement and muscle activation patterns used by animals and humans to complete complex tasks are difficult to obtain in many environments. Therefore, the ability to infer movement and muscle activation patterns after capture of a single set of easily obtained data is highly sought after. One possible solution to this problem is to capture force-time data through the use of appropriate transducers, then interrogate the signal's derivative, the yank-time signal, which amplifies, and thus highlights, temporal force-time changes. Because the countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) is a complex movement that has been well studied in humans, …

Skin Temperatures Of Back Or Neck Are Better Than Abdomen For Indication Of Average Proximal Skin Temperature During Sleep Of School-Aged Children, Veronique Bach, Chris R. Abbiss, Jean-Pierre Libert, Susan M. Mccabe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: The tight association between sleep, body temperature regulation, and patterns of skin temperature change highlights the necessity for accurate and valid assessment of skin temperatures during sleep. With increased interest in this functional relationship in infants and children, it is important to identify where to best measure proximal skin temperature and whether it is possible to reduce the number of sites of measures, in order to limit the experimental effects in natural settings. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the most suitable single skin temperature sites for representation of average proximal skin temperature during sleep of …

Distance Oracles For Interval Graphs Via Breadth-First Rank/Select In Succinct Trees, Meng He, J. Ian Munro, Yakov Nekrich, Sebastian Wild, Kaiyu Wu

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

We present the first succinct distance oracles for (unweighted) interval graphs and related classes of graphs, using a novel succinct data structure for ordinal trees that supports the mapping between preorder (i.e., depth-first) ranks and level-order (breadth-first) ranks of nodes in constant time. Our distance oracles for interval graphs also support navigation queries – testing adjacency, computing node degrees, neighborhoods, and shortest paths – all in optimal time. Our technique also yields optimal distance oracles for proper interval graphs (unit-interval graphs) and circular-arc graphs. Our tree data structure supports all operations provided by different approaches in previous work, as well …

Knowledge Management In The Pharmaceutical Industry: Between Academic Research And Industry Regulations, Ahmed Ramy, Mohamed Af Ragab, Amr Arisha

Articles

The pharmaceutical sector is one of the pillars of the world’s economy. A significant proportion of its value lies in intellectual assets generated through continuous innovation and lengthy development cycles within a strictly regulated environment. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap between knowledge management (KM) as an expanding academic discipline in the pharmaceutical industry and at the same time a growing regulatory expectation. A systematic review of 137 refereed KM articles revealed six empirical research themes in the pharmaceutical industry. In a subsequent step, the discovered themes and subthemes were compared with the extant regulatory expectations …

Pre-Intermediate Accounting, Natasha Ware

Syllabus Repository

No abstract provided.

A Brief History Of Whiskey Adulteration And The Role Of Spectroscopy Combined With Chemometrics In The Detection Of Modern Whiskey Fraud, Mary Deasy, Aoife C. Power, Sinead Currivan, Sive Geoghegan, Daniel Cozzolino

Articles

Food fraud and adulteration is a major concern in terms of economic and public health. Multivariate methods combined with spectroscopic techniques have shown promise as novel an analytical strategy for addressing issues related to food fraud that cannot be solved by the analysis of one variable, particularly in complex matrices such distilled beverages. This review describes and discusses different aspects of whisky production, and recent developments of laboratory, in field and high throughput analysis. In particular, recent applications detailing the use of vibrational spectroscopy techniques combined with data analytical methods used to distinguish between brand and origin of whisky to …

A Catalogue Of Locus Algorithm Pointings For Optimal Differential Photometry For 23,779 Quasars, Oisın Creaner, Kevin Nolan, David Grennan, Niall Smith, Eugene Hickey

Articles

This paper presents a catalogue of optimised pointings for differential photometry of23,779 quasars extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Catalogue and ascore for each indicating the quality of the Field of View (FoV) associated with thatpointing. Observation of millimagnitude variability on a timescale of minutes typicallyrequires differential observations with reference to an ensemble of reference stars. Foroptimal performance, these reference stars should have similar colour and magnitudeto the target quasar. In addition, the greatest quantity and quality of suitable refer-ence stars may be found by using a telescope pointing which offsets the target objectfrom the centre of the …

The Performance Effect Of Scheduled Carbohydrate And Caffeine Intake During Simulated Team Sport Match-Play, John Keane, Aidan Shovlin, Simon Devenney, Shane Malone, Damien Young, Giuseppe Coratella, Kieran Collins, Marcus Shortall

Articles

The aim of the current investigation was to identify the effects of scheduled carbohydrate (CHO) and caffeine (CAF) supplementation on simulated team sport match-play performance. Ten male hurling players completed three hurling match-play simulation protocols (HSP) performed 7 days apart in a double-blind, randomized design. Supplementation included CHO, CHO + CAF, and placebo (PLA). In a randomized order, participants ingested either a 6% CHO solution, a PLA solution of similar taste, or a combined intake of 6% CHO solution + 200 mg CAF capsule. At specific time points (Pre-0 min; half time (HT)-30 min; full time (FT)-60 min), participants completed …

Comparing Tagging Suggestion Models On Discrete Corpora, Bojan Bozic, Andre Rios, Sarah Jane Delany

Articles

This paper aims to investigate the methods for the prediction of tags on a textual corpus that describes diverse data sets based on short messages; as an example, the authors demonstrate the usage of methods based on hotel staff inputs in a ticketing system as well as the publicly available StackOverflow corpus. The aim is to improve the tagging process and find the most suitable method for suggesting tags for a new text entry.

Analysis Of Automatic Annotations Of Real Video Surveillance Images, Diana Guevara Flores, Fernando Pérez Téllez, David Pinto Avendaño

Articles

The results of the analysis of the automatic annotations of real video surveillance sequences are presented. The annotations of the frames of surveillance sequences of the parking lot of a university campus are generated. The purpose of the analysis is to evaluate the quality of the descriptions and analyze the correspondence between the semantic content of the images and the corresponding annotation. To perform the tests, a fixed camera was placed in the campus parking lot and video sequences of about 20 minutes were obtained, later each frame was annotated individually and a text repository with all the annotations was …

Association Between Eccentric Knee Flexor Strength And Hamstring Injury Risk In 185 Elite Gaelic Football Players, Mark Roe, Eamonn Delahunt, Malachy Mchugh, Conor Gissane, Shane Malone, Kieran Collins, Catherine Blake

Articles

Hamstring strains are the most common time-loss injury in elite Gaelic football affecting over 20% of players per season. Thus, there is a need to identify factors contributing to the onset of hamstring injuries in order to inform injury risk management strategies. The current study investigated whether eccentric knee flexor strength and between-limb imbalances were associated with increased risk of sustaining a timeloss hamstring injury in elite Gaelic football players. A total of 185 elite male players (26.9 ± 2.7 years, 86.4 ± 6.2 kg, 183.4 ± 5.6) were prospectively followed for 12 weeks from the day of testing. Injury …

Biology I Lab, Melba D. Horton

Syllabus Repository

No abstract provided.