Digital Commons Network^™

Coding For Decentralized Systems And Forensic 3d Fingerprinting, Canran Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents novel coding techniques that optimize communication costs and address security challenges in decentralized systems and 3D printing technologies. The first part focuses on encoding data in distributed systems in a decentralized manner, i.e., without a central processor which orchestrates the operation. In such systems, processors require coded data generated from inputs provided by source processors. An example is a distributed storage system with geographically dispersed nodes storing a large database collected by specific source processors. To reduce communication costs, we propose a universal solution applicable to any linear code, with optimizations for systematic Reed-Solomon and Lagrange codes, …

Creating Web Accessibility Standards For Thesis And Dissertation Submission At Mississippi State University, Teri M. Robinson, Lara Threet

The Journal of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Office of Thesis and Dissertation Format Review at Mississippi State University established accessibility standards for thesis and dissertation submission during the spring 2020 semester. This article will look at the rationale for the included requirements and the implementations made by the office’s faculty and staff.

Ethical Aspects Of Utilising Artificial Intelligence In Clinical Settings, Jeffrey Byrnes, Michael Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In response to recent proposals to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to automate ethics consultations in healthcare, we raise two main problems for the prospect of having healthcare professionals rely on AI-driven programs to provide ethical guidance in clinical matters. The first cause for concern is that, because these programs would effectively function like black boxes, this approach seems to preclude the kind of transparency that would allow clinical staff to explain and justify treatment decisions to patients, fellow caregivers, and those tasked with providing oversight. The other main problem is that the kind of authority that would need to be …

"Fashion Forward": Fashioning Sociocultural Narratives Through Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Fashion Editorials, Nemuel N. Oliveros

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This qualitative study applies Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to decode sociocultural issues embedded in fashion editorials, addressing research questions about the sociocultural themes conveyed in the photos, the role of visual semiotics in the construction and presentation of each theme, and the sociocultural connotations contained therein. By employing thematic analysis and the modified version of Machin's Visual Semiotic Analysis framework tailored to the research context, the study systematically analyzes pose, gaze, social distance, objects, and settings in eight carefully selected fashion editorials, revealing nuanced sociocultural narratives. Under violence and exploitation, it reveals domestic violence and the commodification of women. …

Introduction: Failed Futures? (Post)-Colonial Planning And Future-Making In Tanzania, Ulrike Lindner

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Future-making and planning as social practices are strongly related to the
surrounding society’s political structures and power relations. In this
special issue of ZAMANI, we conceptualize future-making as physical
changes and social practices that shape future conditions by making future
an issue in the present. We analyse how different approaches to the future,
and also surprises and unintended side-effects, have informed the politics
and practices of planning in Tanzania and its various regions.1 When we ask:
“Failed Futures?” we address future in the plural, a term that has diffused
into historical scholarship rather recently and originates from
futurology/future studies, known …

‘Sold Down The River’: Histories Of Production, Trade, And Transport Along The Waterways Of The Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, Jonathan M. Jackson

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article considers the centrality of waterways in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania to the region’s histories of development from above, particularly in terms of infrastructure, crop production, trade, and transport. Early colonial investigations hoped Kilombero’s riverine system might prove a navigable link from the coast to the Southern Highlands. The British colonial era instead focused more on utilising riverine networks for internal goods transport. Throughout these colonial visions – simultaneously ambitious and naïve – the prevalent dug- out canoe was considered unsafe, inefficient, and replaceable by modernised methods. But the canoe – a symbol of indigenous knowledge and practice …

Imagining Hydropower: Transnational Narratives And Realities Of The Stiegler’S Gorge Project In Tanzania, 1960s–1980s, Emma Athanasio Minja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Hydropower development in the Global South has attracted several donor programmes for decades. How have such interventions shaped energy imaginations in Tanzania? Adopting a historical perspective and drawing on transnationalism and travelling frameworks, this article examines hydropower aid interventions and the dynamic shifts of specific actors and discourses in bilateral relations. The primary focus is on Norway, a leading actor in planning the Stiegler’s Gorge hydropower project in Tanzania’s Rufiji Basin in the 1970s to mid-1980s. It seeks to understand how, despite substantial aid support, the project failed to kick off in the face of the country’s post-independence drive for …

Nurturing Traditional Midwifery And Medicine: The Entangled Path Of Health Integration In Post-Independence Kilombero, Tanzania, Veronica Kimani

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This paper focuses on the Tanzanian government’s ambitious endeavour to enhance health, particularly midwifery services following independence. The initial strategy by the government involved promoting Western medicine by establishing healthcare facilities and training medical personnel. However, the strain of a burgeoning population and limited resources soon became evident, prompting the government to recognise the need for the incorporation of traditional medicine, previously overlooked. This integration posed its own set of obstacles, as the focus on herbal remedies overshadowed crucial aspects of conventional midwifery, such as rituals. While research has shown the resolve of the government towards medical integration between different …

Health Infrastructure Planning In Tanzania, 1961–1980s: The Problems Of Future-Making, Frank Edward, Ulrike Lindner

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Between 1961 and 1978, Tanzania invested significantly in the health service provision – from training requisite manpower, provision of health education to building the necessary infrastructure in order to improve health conditions of the population. As existing research indicates, the investment paid off considerably in qualitative terms, for instance, with a gradual increase in life expectancy and a decline in infant mortality. This paper examines the vision of the state of health in Tanzania by using the prism of infrastructure. Its focus is on direct and indirect physical infrastructures, particularly medical buildings and facilities. Through the analysis of archival and …

Transparency And Authority Concerns With Using Ai To Make Ethical Recommendations In Clinical Settings, Jeffrey Byrnes, Michael Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In response to recent proposals to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to automate ethics consultations in healthcare, we raise two main problems for the prospect of having healthcare professionals rely on AI-driven programs to provide ethical guidance in clinical matters. The first cause for concern is that, because these programs would effectively function like black boxes, this approach seems to preclude the kind of transparency that would allow clinical staff to explain and justify treatment decisions to patients, fellow caregivers, and those tasked with providing oversight. The other main problem is that the kind of authority that would need to be …

‘Prevention Is Better Than Cure’: Smallpox Vaccination In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1961–1980, Musa Sadock

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the smallpox vaccination programme in postcolonial Tanzania from the 1960s to the early 1980s as part of the postcolonial future making in preventive medicine. The article departs from extant scholarship on smallpox vaccination in postcolonial Tanzania, which depicts the intervention as a success, while relegating to the background challenges associated with the intervention. The article argues that the smallpox vaccination programme registered challenges and successes that offer lessons for combating of future epidemics. The achievements of the programme were due to the adoption of specific public health policies, namely mass vaccination and public health education as well …

Some People Need Killing: Power Of Metaphors In Shaping And Challenging Political And Educational Realities, Rebecca Cyrene J. Lorenzana

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This study examines the significant role of metaphors in shaping and challenging political and educational discourse, focusing on the narratives from Patricia Evangelista's Some People Need Killing. Through Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), the research dissects how metaphors of war and criminality, dehumanization, salvation, and resistance function within the context of Rodrigo Duterte's War on Drugs in the Philippines. The study reveals that metaphors are not merely rhetorical devices but powerful tools that construct and perpetuate hegemonic structures, legitimizing state-sanctioned violence and dehumanizing individuals involved in drug-related activities. Conversely, metaphors of salvation and resistance offer alternative narratives that challenge these …

Is Chatgpt-Produced Text Authentic? A Contrastive Analysis Of Cohesive Markers In Human And Ai-Generated Text, Joseph Christopher Dt Briana

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly prominent in education and writing classrooms, this study compares AI-generated text from ChatGPT with human-generated text to evaluate the authenticity of AI-produced content in using cohesive markers such as linking adverbials (LAs). A corpus of online opinion columns from both sources was compiled to examine the use of LAs as cohesive markers. The analysis reveals variability in LA use in semantic and syntactic categories. Additionally, there are instances of LA overuse among human writers. Evidence suggests that AI prefers syntactically complex LA forms over those used by human writers. The findings provide developers with …

Appraisal Resources In Cyberspace Discourse On Capital Punishment And Corruption, Adetutu Aragbuwa

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Discourses on the public agitation to codify capital punishment for corrupt Nigerian officials are growing in cyberspace thus opening up the subject for scholarly investigation. This study, therefore, examines cyber citizens’ use of language in constructing their attitudes to the agitation, with a view to analysing dominant ideologies embedded in the discourses. Data for the study, downloaded from Nairaland forum, comprise six hundred comments from ten threads on the anti-corruption clamour. The data is subjected to qualitative analysis hinged on the appraisal theory. The study’s findings reveal upscaled lexicalised judgements of negative normality, tenacity, propriety and veracity towards not just …

Preliminaries

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Abstract not applicable.

“Struggling For Years”: An International Survey On Autistic Experiences Of Menopause, Christine A. Jenkins, Rachel L. Moseley, Margaret Janse Van Rensburg, Julie M. Gamble-Turner, Miranda J. Brady

Faculty and Staff Publications

Emerging research suggests that menopause can be a difficult transition for some Autistic people. This international co-produced survey explored factors that might make menopause harder for Autistic people, such as lack of menopause and autism awareness; moreover, we aimed to explore what support Autistic people needed and what could help them cope and even flourish during this time. We employed a mixed-methods approach to analyze quantitative and qualitative responses from 508 Autistic participants. Both the quantitative and qualitative data supported relationships between lack of menopause and autism awareness and overall difficulties during menopause. Autistic participants wanted more appropriate and Autistic-specific …

Enterprise Content Management In Cultural Heritage Institutions: A Study Of Sharjah Landscape, United Arab Emirates, Ahmed Adel Zidan, Mohamed Boufarss

All Works

This study examines the landscape of digital content management within heritage institutions in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It aims to evaluate the state, characteristics, and roles of these processes in preserving and promoting cultural heritage in the digital sphere. Utilizing a descriptive analytical approach, the research employs a checklist as the primary data collection instrument to investigate existing policies, plans, systems, and projects. Findings highlight the absence of formalized content management strategies in most institutions, which rely on unwritten, tacit policies. This lack of structured frameworks adversely impacts communication, operational performance, service delivery, and the long-term sustainability of their work. …

Flamingo Search Algorithm For Aircraft Landing Scheduling, Zied O. Ahmed, Noor T. Mahmood, Sura Mazin Ali

Baghdad Science Journal

Aircraft landing scheduling (ALS) is the process of organizing the arrival and departure of aircraft at an airport. This process is managed by air traffic controllers who use various tools and techniques to ensure that aircraft land and take off safely and efficiently. The goal of aircraft landing scheduling is to minimize delays and maximize the number of aircraft that can be accommodated at the airport. This is done by carefully coordinating the arrival and departure times of aircraft and the number of aircraft that can be safely accommodated. Flamingo Search is an optimization algorithm stimulated by the flamingos’ behavior. …

Adaptive Lossy Color Image Compression System Based On Hybrid Algorithm, Husam Khalid Khammas, Ayça Kurnaz Türkben

Baghdad Science Journal

As the digital age progresses, multimedia technologies have become commonplace, with users expecting high-quality audio, video, and image content across various platforms and devices. As a result, the quantity of data produced by these multimedia programs has grown substantially. Also, the explosive growth in the use of multimedia has led to a rise in the quantity of images that are used and created, which creates challenges, in relation to the requirement for increased storage capacity and enhanced data transport speed. To address these challenges, image compression has emerged as a critical solution by decreasing the volume of the image without …

Improving The Preparedness And Confidence Of Healthcare Providers In The Detection And Management Of Preeclampsia And Acute Stroke In Perinatal Patients: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Beth Karasin

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Pregnancy-related stroke (PRS) is a cerebrovascular injury that occurs during and up to six weeks after pregnancy. This includes hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes, however, regardless of the type, strokes in this special population are on the rise and preeclampsia is a major contributing factor. It is paramount for healthcare providers to not only understand the physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy, but also remain aware of the risk factors, symptoms, and currently accepted management of perinatal preeclampsia and strokes. Aware of the missed opportunities at a single center institution this quality initiative aimed to equip healthcare providers with education in …

New Subclasses Of Bi-Univalent Functions Associated With Exponential Functions And Fibonacci Numbers, Majd Ayash, Hassan Baddour, Mohammad Ali, Abbas Kareem Wanas

Baghdad Science Journal

Lewin discussed the class of bi-univalent functions and obtained the bound for the second coefficient, Sakar and Wanas defined two new subclasses of bi-univalent functions and obtained upper bounds for the elementary coefficients |a2| and |a3| for functions in these subclasses, Dziok et al. introduced the class �������� of �� -convex shell-like functions, and they indicated a useful connection between the function ��̃(��) and Fibonacci numbers. Recently, many bi-univalent function classes, based on well-known operators like Sãlãgean operator, Tremblay operator, Komatu integral operator, Convolution operator, Al-Oboudi Differential operator and other, have been defined. The aims of this paper is to …

An Ensemble Model For Predicting Cardiovascular Disease Utilizing Nature Inspired Optimization, Annwesha Banerjee Majumder, Somsubhra Gupta, Sourav Majumder, Dharmpal Singh

Baghdad Science Journal

This paper represents an efficient model for heart disease prediction model utilizing an ensemble mechanism optimized through BAT algorithm. Worldwide mortality rates are widely acknowledged to be significantly influenced by the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, particularly in economically disadvantaged regions. The need to mitigate the potentially severe repercussions associated with this particular health concern highlights the requirement for accurate and timely outcome prediction. Proposed methodology incorporates Mutual Information for feature selection, Inter Quartile Range for outlier removal. The StandardScaler method is used to achieve feature-wise standardisation in order to mitigate any bias resulting from varying scale disparities. Gradient boosting is …

Solving Edges Deletion Problem Of Complete Graphs, Anwar N. Jasim, Alaa A. Najim

Baghdad Science Journal

As the network size increases, there is an increased probability that some components will fail. It is therefore necessary for the network to be able to maintain the interconnection even in the presence of faulty components. The likelihood of a failure in the connections between stations is higher than that of a failure in the stations themselves because of the nature of many networks. Numerous graph-theoretic methods can be used to examine the reliability and efficacy of a network, and the network's dependability is determined by its connectivity. For a parallel and distributed system, the maximum connection time between any …

Optimizing Encrypted Search In The Cloud Using Autoencoder-Based Query Approximation, Mahmoud Mohamed, Khaled Alosman

Baghdad Science Journal

Searching over encrypted data is critical for secure cloud services. However, encryption reduces search efficiency due to inability to directly compute on ciphertexts. This leads to an inherent tradeoff between privacy and usability that has motivated extensive research on enabling effective encrypted search. Recent work has explored using machine learning models like autoencoders to optimize similarity search under encryption. Autoencoders compress data into low-dimensional vectors capturing semantic information. Documents and queries can be encoded for efficient similarity computation without decryption. However, existing analysis remains limited in scope and scale. The research address these gaps through large-scale experiments and novel optimizations. …

Self-Sacrifice And Civilization: American Everyday Heroism And The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission In The Progressive Era, Simon Wendt

Heroism Science

This article examines the multi-layered meanings of civilian heroism around 1900. It argues that the Progressive Era was an important transition period in the history of heroism in the United States, during which definitions of what was regarded as heroic multiplied and no longer revolved solely around military valor or political leadership. Especially everyday heroes received unprecedented media attention. They were seen by many as evidence of the continuing progress of American civilization, which appeared to allow for a peaceful coexistence of individual self-interest and social consciousness. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, established in 1904, contributed much to such interpretations …

Commencement [Program], December 21, 2024, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Commencement Programs

The program of the commencement ceremonies, including a list of institutional leadership, a list of the departments by college, awards given at the ceremonies, and a list of undergraduate and graduate degree candidates. This commencement program is not an official graduate list.

Contents:

Board of Regents --- 2
Institutional Leadership --- 2
Ceremony Symbols & Traditions --- 3
Academic Honorary Organizations --- 4
University Ambassador Organizations --- 5
University Honors Program --- 6
Graduation with Honors --- 6
Legacy Graduates --- 6
Military Science --- 7
Merchant Scholarship --- 7
Outstanding Student Leader --- 7
Commencement Student Speakers --- 7 …

Regulation And Function Of Mec-2 Alternative Splicing In Single Cells, Canyon Calovich-Benne

Biological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

One mechanism for generating diversity at the single cell level is selective expression of a unique set of transcription factors (TFs) and RNA binding proteins (RBPs). These regulatory factors contribute to functions of cells by controlling cell fate, turning genes on and off, and processing of transcripts either co- or post-transcriptionally. Many genes, especially neuronal genes, have multiple different splicing events, promoters, and/or polyadenylation sites. Post-transcriptional coordination is in the infancy of being studied and the functional consequences of this coupling at the single cell level has yet to be explored. Here we show, mec-2 coordination of alternative transcription start …

Childhood Maltreatment And The Conserved Transcriptional Response To Adversity (Ctra): The Protective Roles Of Social Support From Romantic Partners, Family, And Friends In Adulthood, Sumaiyah U. Syed

Psychology Theses and Dissertations

Childhood maltreatment is associated with an increased risk of chronic disease and mortality in adulthood, with chronic inflammation emerging as a key pathway. However, findings in the literature are mixed: while some studies associate childhood maltreatment with heightened inflammation, others report no such link. Given the prevalence of childhood maltreatment, identifying protective factors in adulthood is crucial. Social support during childhood has been shown to buffer the effects of early life stress on immune function, yet the role of social support from various sources in adulthood remains unclear. The current study examined the association between childhood maltreatment and the expression …

Exploration Of The Environmental Contexts And The Social And Emotional Health And Wellness Of Individuals With Intellectual Developmental Disorders, Melanie Perez, Pamela A. Kasyan-Howe, Sabina Khan

Fall 2024 OTD Capstone Symposium

This research-based capstone project is intended to convey background evidence about the problem of adults with intellectual developmental disorders (IDD) experiencing decreased social participation, physical activity, stress, and environmental factors.

Jóvenes Y Memoria: Conflict And Vitality In Education For Human Rights, Bryan Harriss Jones

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

In 2002, the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria (the Provincial Commission for Memory - CPM) of Argentina’s province of Buenos Aires (PBA) established Jóvenes y Memoria: Recordamos para el Futuro (Youth and Memory: We Remember for the Future – JyM), an elective program for secondary school students. JyM empowers students to create and communicate narratives about the history and current state of human rights based on investigations using primary sources. The goals of CPM include fostering historical memory and preventing the return of authoritarianism. JyM furthers these goals by building exemplary memory to inspire positive change in the present and …