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The Nciter Newsletter August 2024, National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, And Education Center

Newsletters

NCITE (National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education) is the Department of Homeland Security's center of excellence for terrorism prevention and counterterrorism research. They are a federally funded academic consortium based in Omaha, Nebraska. Their newsletters covers the current news, activities, and updates of the center and the latest in counterterrorism research. NCITEr newsletter covers specifically center updates.

Antimicrobial And Chemical Characterization Of Cold Atmospheric-Pressure Plasmas, Dalton Albert Miller

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Microbial contamination of food processing facilities is a major cause of human disease and economic loss. There are approximately 48,000,000 cases of foodborne illness in the United States annually, leading to 128,000 hospitalizations and 1,300 deaths. The total economic damages are estimated at $36 billion each year, including productive hours, medical expenses, and the disposal of contaminated foodstuffs. Current methods to reduce contamination on food processing surfaces utilize steam or concentrated chemicals (hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite, strong acids, strong bases) that are hazardous to workers and required large volumes of water to remove prior to resuming contact with food. Ongoing outbreaks …

Redefining Missing In The Third Space Of Sovereignty: Collaborative Governance On Idaho's Missing And Murdered Indigenous Persons Policy, Melanie Fillmore

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This three-article dissertation addresses how Indigenous and non-Indigenous state and non-state policy actors collaborating on Idaho missing and murdered Indigenous persons (MMIP) policy shift the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance (IFCG) policy context to the ‘third space of sovereignty’ (Bruyneel, 2007). In a space of competing narratives of authority across time, and space, paper one addresses how Indigenous and non-Indigenous policy actors are shaped by the “drivers” of collaboration. The second paper addresses three key configurations of collaborative governance regimes. The third paper reassesses the scope of Idaho MMIP through a comparison of MMIP cases in 2021 and 2023 as …

Technology Acceptance Of Virtual Reality For Aircraft Maintenance Training, Lusine Carlsson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A study was conducted to investigate Virtual Reality (VR) technology acceptance for aircraft maintenance training by student mechanics. The study employed a survey methodology using the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the theoretical framework. Participants were student mechanics from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved aircraft maintenance schools within the United States. The study attempted to address how the variables of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) influence the students' behavioral intention (BI) to use VR technology for aircraft maintenance training, and how external variables of self-efficacy (SE), perceived enjoyment (PE), perceived health risk (PHR), performance expectancy …

Policing, Power, And Protests: Landscapes Of Surveillance In Private And Public Spaces In Lower Manhattan, Kelly Britt

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Student Handbook 2024-2025, Saint Mary's College Of California

Student Handbook

No abstract provided.

The Guardian The Month Of August 2024, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of August 2024. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Essays On Education And Family Economics, Yue Hu

All Dissertations

The dissertation consists of three essays: the first two discuss the effect of American high school vocational education on individuals' labor market and educational outcomes, and the third essay explores the effect of unilateral divorce laws on women's labor force participation rates. In the first chapter, treating vocational class choice as a continuous variable, I used family-fixed effects to investigate the average effect of American high school vocational classes on students' labor market and educational outcomes. The findings indicate that high school vocational classes significantly decrease the likelihood of attending a four-year college but do not significantly affect other educational …

Breaking Barriers: Factors Contributing To Successful Employment Outcomes For Black Males With Mental Health Diagnosis And Undergoing Vocational Rehabilitation, John C. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Black males with mental health diagnoses face substantial barriers to gaining and maintaining employment. Tailored employment support services may help increase employment access, yet utilization remains low among this demographic area. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to explore the employment challenges for Black males with mental health diagnoses in the US. This quantitative study will utilize a data mining approach drawing from an ex post facto national rehabilitation services dataset. Archival data will be extracted from the Rehabilitation Service Administration 911 (RSA-911) database. Descriptive statistics will first profile the extracted sample of vocational rehabilitation clients on demographic variables. …

Economic Development In Legacy Cities: Current And Emerging Challenges And Opportunities, Neil Reid, Sujata Shetty, Jane Adade

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As manufacturing employment has declined in the traditional manufacturing regions over the past decades, many communities have experienced population loss and overall economic decline. Local economic development professionals have had to grapple with long-term structural changes in the economy as well as short-term jolts. To gain insights into the changing landscape of economic development, we interviewed economic development practitioners in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The interviews focused on their perception of current and emerging challenges and opportunities with respect to economic development in their respective communities. Having identified the major challenges and opportunities, we asked them to articulate the …

Evaluation Of Manual Thermal Brake Screening Systems, Jeeyen Koo, David Leddy, Jennifer Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In 2021, manual thermal brake screening systems were installed at Lyon EB and Rowan County weigh stations. Two additional units were installed at Laurel SB and Scott County weigh stations the following year. Although this system is called a thermal brake screening system, its thermal camera images are used to find both brake and tire-related violations. At the time of this project, Lyon (EB), Rowan, and Scott County inspection locations also had tire pressure detection systems in addition to manual thermal brake screening systems. Both systems can be used to identify tire-related violations, but inspectors prefer to use the tire …

Corporate Crisis Management: A Contemporary Best Practices Template, Vivek Narayan

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to re-envision the crisis management framework used by organizations in their day-to-day activities. In the modern world, with exponential technological advancements, the social media age, and the 24/7 news cycle, crises have worsened in severity. Despite this, most literature on the subject is more than a decade old.

Incorporating past literature, this thesis demonstrates that society is in an “era of crises,” then defines and discusses the types and origins of these crises. It compares the topics of issues and crisis management before commentating on corporate and academic literature and ultimately previous 3-stage models for crisis management. …

University Of Central Florida Undergraduate Catalog, 2024 - 2025, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

The Development And Analysis Of Practical Decision Support Tool Implementations: Case Studies From Small Business To Large Government Enterprise, Alexis Andaverde

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates the critical role of decision support tools (DSTs) in both small business and large government operations, enhancing decision-making, operational efficiency, and economic benefits. By implementing Excel-based systems for small businesses and discrete event modelling for large enterprises, this research highlights the importance of adaptable and scalable solutions across various sectors. According to the U.S. Small Business Association, small businesses with 500 or fewer employees make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses. However, 65% of new businesses fail within the first ten years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This case study focuses on the used vehicle …

Unraveling Collective Anomalies In Data-Driven Systems: Manifestation, Detection, And Enhancement Implications, Mohammad Bakhsh

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents an in-depth investigation into collective anomalies—complex patterns of data that deviate from the norm when considered as a group, rather than individually. It encompasses three pivotal studies that explore the intricacies of identifying and analyzing these anomalies within online customer reviews and urban traffic patterns. The research initially focuses on the subtle shifts in consumer feedback patterns, highlighting the challenges of detecting early signs of collective anomalies. It then advances to the analysis of urban traffic, emphasizing the detection of anomalous trajectory patterns and their implications for urban planning. The final study introduces a spatio-temporal framework to …

The Reallocation Effects Of Domestic Outsourcing, Mayara Felix, Michael B. Wong

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper estimates the wage, employment, and reallocation effects of non-core activity outsourcing using Brazil’s unexpected 1993 court-ordered outsourcing legalization. We leverage North-South variation in pre-legalization court permissiveness and compare security guards to less affected occupations. We find that older incumbent security guards were adversely impacted through occupational layoffs, loss of firm-level wage premia, and exit from the occupation. At the same time, increased numbers of younger workers entered the formal sector and became employed at contract firms. On net, legalization increased guard employment by 5%, led by a 50% increase in employment for guards aged 18-24, and had no …

Challenges The Sporting Industry Faced During Covid-19 On Fan Attendance: The National Football League, Tinika Hughes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

When COVID-19 struck, the world was in disarray for any sporting event. The Culminating Experience Project investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the National Football League (NFL). The research questions were: Q1: How were the NFL stadium attendances impacted before the COVID-19 closures (2016 – 2019)? Q2: How were the NFL stadium attendances impacted due to closures during the COVID-19 stadium closures (2019 – 2021)? Q3: How were the NFL stadiums impacted post-COVID-19 (2021 – 2023)? The data collected covers all 32 NFL teams from 2019 to 2023, including attendance rates on and off the field influencing factors.

The findings …

Health Professional Regulation And Provision Of Quality Health Services; Cross Sectional Analysis Of Private Health Care Providers In Wajir County, Kenya, Ali Ahmed Mohamed Qadar, Wanja Mwaura-Tenambergen, Eunice Muthoni, Luke Wahome Kinyua

Population Health, East Africa

Background: Health professional regulatory bodies oversee and enforce standards in healthcare to safeguard patient safety and prevent harm. However, international consistency in these regulations remains limited. The Kenya health sector relies on various bodies to enforce standards among professionals and institutions, albeit constrained by financial and human resources that hinder effective oversight. This study aimed to assess how regulatory practicessuch as licensing, training oversight, inspection of practice, and quality assurance mechanisms- affect the quality of healthcare provided by private providers.

Methods: The study targeted 108 healthcare providers from 36 private health facilities, primarily nurses and clinical officers. A sample of …

Vaccines At The Intersection Of Religion And Politics, Charles Downey

Master's Theses

Vaccine hesitancy – a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability – is a rising threat to global health and has increased in recent years in higher income countries. This is a complex phenomenon with the potential to undo decades of progress toward eradicating communicable diseases. The recent COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new wave of vaccine hesitancy, with evangelical Christians as leading actors in the movement away from vaccines in the United States. The present study investigated factors related to vaccine hesitancy and sources of health-related information among members of evangelical Christian churches in and around Hattiesburg, …

Development Of A Flow Cytometry Method For The Identification And Enumeration Of Enterococcus Faecalis, Riza Magbitang

Master's Theses

A multi-color flow cytometry method coupled with fluorescent staining was developed to detect and quantify E. faecalis concentrations in coastal waters as an alternative to the traditional membrane filtration method. The developed method was used to characterize E. faecalis during batch growth and yielded consistent results across the various physiological states of the cells. Additionally, the application of propidium iodide (i.e., a viability stain), afforded the method the ability to differentiate between cells with intact and compromised cell membranes, which raises the potential of quantifying cells that are in viable-but-non-culturable (VBNC) state. Initial field test using natural seawater samples spiked …

Utilizing New Temporal Complex Neutrosophic Aczel-Alsina Aggregation Operators For Multi-Criteria Decision Making: An Application To Tourist Destination Selection, Le Mai Trang, Nguyen Tho Thong, Nguyen Thi Lan Nhi

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

The Temporal Complex Neutrosophic Set (TCNS) is a powerful extension of the Neutrosophic theory, and TCNS has added advantage to represents uncertain, indeterminate, inconsistent and time related factors. In the literature TCNS has been used for multi-criteria decision-making problems, especially in the time-aware systems. In order to tackle effectively decision-making problems in the TCNS environment effectively, it is crucial to make suite aggregation operators that enable decision makers to process preferences in a nuanced manner. In this paper, we introduce novel TCNS aggregation operators based on Aczel and Alsina t-norm and t-conorm using Aczel-Alsina operations, and we propose a multi-criteria …

Path-Choice-Constrained Bus Bridging Design Under Urban Rail Transit Disruptions, Yiyang Zhu, Jian Gang Jin, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although urban rail transit systems play a crucial role in urban mobility, they frequently suffer from unexpected disruptions due to power loss, severe weather, equipment failure, and other factors that cause significant disruptions in passenger travel and, in turn, socioeconomic losses. To alleviate the inconvenience of affected passengers, bus bridging services are often provided when rail service has been suspended. Prior research has yielded various methodologies for effective bus bridging services; however, they are mainly based on the strong assumption that passengers must follow predetermined bus bridging routes. Less attention is paid to passengers’ path choice behaviors, which could affect …

Saudi Acceptance Of Digital Communication And Satisfaction With Mobile Government Services (M-Government), Samah Alotaibi

Theses and Dissertations

Governments throughout the world are using developments in mobile technology to enhance electronic governance (e-government) by digitally providing government information and services. This is often known as mobile government (M-government), which caters to the needs of individuals, corporations, and governmental institutions. The main objective of this dissertation is to examine the integration of mobile government services into the government's digital communication revolution. It specifically aims to investigate the level of satisfaction and acceptance among Saudi citizens regarding the mobile applications developed by the government. The dissertation delves into their perspectives and assessments of the digital communication channels offered by the …

American Rescue Plan Act (Arpa) Local Government Investments In Nevada, Sean Curry, Madison Dwyer, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines data from the Brooking Institution’s Local Government ARPA Investment Tracker, an online database that tracks the spending of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund dollars at the local government level. This fact sheet examines ARPA spending data from six Nevadan cities and counties: Washoe, NV; City of North Las Vegas, NV; City of Las Vegas, NV; City of Reno NV; City of Henderson, NV; and Clark County, NV.

An Emergency Response System To Assist The Movement Of Vehicles During Emergency Operations In Urban Transportation Networks, Jamal Nahofti Kohneh

All Dissertations

Emergency responders need to arrive at the emergency scene as soon as possible, but operating vehicles under emergency conditions can pose a risk to both the responders and other road users, potentially resulting in crashes or delays in emergency operations. In this research, an emergency response system is proposed to assist emergency and non-emergency response vehicles (ERVs and non-ERVs) during emergency operations in a connected vehicle environment. This system collects the information from connected ERVs and non-ERVs, utilizes this information as inputs in the proposed models, and sends instruction messages back to vehicles. The proposed models provide the fastest ERV …

Is There A Relationship Between Media Sources And Public’S Perception On Police?, Rio Mancilla

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The focus of this research was to understand what type of influence media sources have on the public’s perception of police. To conduct this quantitative research, a survey was distributed to approximately 200 participants who were 21 years of age or older, U.S. citizens, and watched the news regularly or had some interaction with law enforcement. The survey distributed on Survey Monkey included questions pertaining to media consumption and perception of police. The theoretical foundations applied within this research were Gerbner’s cultivation theory, social cognitive theory of mass communication, social procedural justice theory, and social exchange theory. Results reflected that …

Real-Time Gun Detection In Video Streams Using Yolo V8, Harish Kumar Reddy Kunchala

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this research, we advance the domain of public safety by developing a machine learning model that utilizes the YOLO v8 architecture for real-time detection of firearms in video streams. A diverse and extensive dataset, capturing a range of firearms in varying lighting and backgrounds, was meticulously assembled and preprocessed to enhance the model's adaptability to real-world scenarios. Leveraging the YOLO v8 framework, known for its real-time object detection accuracy, the model was fine-tuned to accurately identify firearms across different shapes and orientations.

The training phase capitalized on GPU computing and transfer learning to expedite the learning process while preserving …

Crime Data Prediction Based On Geographical Location Using Machine Learning, Sai Bharath Yarlagadda

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project employs machine learning methods like K Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and Decision Tree algorithms to monitor crime data based on location and pinpoint areas with risks. The project implements and tunes the four models to improve the precision of predicting crime levels. These models collaborate to offer a trustworthy evaluation of crime patterns. K Nearest Neighbors (KNN) categorizes locations by examining the proximity of data points considering coordinates and other factors to identify trends linked to increased crime data. Logistic Regression gauges the likelihood of crime incidents by studying the connection, between factors (like location …

The Impact Of District Policy On The Efficacious Implementation Of Texas House Bill 5, Marlene Studivant- Moore

All Dissertations

Preparing students to contribute to society is essential for every high school in the nation. Texas House Bill 5 (House Bill 5, 2013) sought to create a framework for achieving college and career readiness for Texas public schools. Counselors were the frontline mentors who had essential roles in implementing House Bill 5. However, the performance of graduation and curricular changes mandated by House Bill 5 increased the responsibilities of counselors and challenged how the policy implementation affected students' college and career readiness. Numerous challenges and issues emerged within the school districts executing House Bill 5.

The success of House Bill …

News Media Coverage And Framing Of Human Trafficking In The United States, Chloe Junkerman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines what makes mainstream news media representations of human trafficking cases newsworthy, and how news media choose to frame sensationalized human trafficking stories. While there have been several notable studies examining news media framing of human trafficking as a social issue more generally, prior research has yet to empirically investigate how the news media cover specific human trafficking cases, thus overlooking what types of attributes make cases newsworthy. This is an important gap in research as the types of cases that get covered, or ignored, by news media, and how stories frame various aspects of these crimes, informs …