Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing The Accuracy Of The Mild Cognitive Impairment Diagnosis In Community-Based, Racially/Ethnically Diverse Older Adults, Katherine H. Chang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is thought to represent an intermediate stage of cognitive impairment that is often, but not always, a transitional phase between normal aging and dementia. Diagnostic criteria for “MCI” and international consensus criteria have been developed and refined over decades beginning in the 1990s, but the definition is still debated. Moreover, the operationalization and measurement of one of the criteria for MCI (i.e., subjective cognitive concerns, SCC), which is included in most classification approaches, is highly variable and there is great inconsistency across the literature. Some research efforts even support the removal of this criterion on the …

Good Deeds? A Critical Race Analysis Of The Nova Scotia Land Titles Clarification Act, Melisa Marsman

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Nova Scotia Land Titles Clarification Act (“LTCA”) is remedial legislation that was enacted in 1964 to resolve insecure land titles within designated communities, particularly African Nova Scotian communities. However, African Nova Scotians had been advocating for legal title to their land for over 100 years prior to the enactment of the LTCA, and those demands were largely ignored by the government. Furthermore, despite the 60-year existence of this remedial legislation, many African Nova Scotians still hold insecure title to their land. Through a critical race analysis, this article explores why the LTCA has failed to achieve its promise to …

Jurisdiction Devolution: An Interim Transitional Arrangement On The Road To Indigenous Self-Government, Nicole Spadotto

Dalhousie Law Journal

Indigenous self-government is a key component of reconciliation between Canada and Indigenous Nations. The negotiation of self-government agreements and exercise of self-government should occur on Indigenous Peoples’ own terms. Negotiations, however, can be lengthy. There are more immediate power-sharing alternatives. These include recognition legislation, where federal and provincial governments recognize Indigenous Peoples’ inherent right to self-government over certain affairs, thus creating space for Indigenous Nations to exercise their inherent self-government rights. They also include jurisdictional devolution, a fuller form of delegation, which might include law-making and enforcement powers. This latter option is “somewhat unpalatable” because the source of the governance …

Automated Concrete Bridge Deck Inspection Using Unmanned Aerial System (Uas)-Collected Data: A Machine Learning (Ml) Approach, Rojal Pokhrel, Reihaneh Samsami, Saida Elmi, Colin Brooks

Michigan Tech Publications

Bridges are crucial components of infrastructure networks that facilitate national connectivity and development. According to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the cost to repair U.S. bridges was recently estimated at approximately USD 164 billion. Traditionally, bridge inspections are performed manually, which poses several challenges in terms of safety, efficiency, and accessibility. To address these issues, this research study introduces a method using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) to help automate the inspection process. This methodology employs UASs to capture visual images of a concrete bridge deck, which are then analyzed using advanced machine learning techniques …

Sensitive Determination Of Hydrochlorothiazide Drug In The Various Samples Via Developed Method Of Cfia System, Wasan A. Hanooan, Bushra B. Qassim

Baghdad Science Journal

Hydrochlorothiazide drug determination in pharmaceutical and biological urine samples using a novel continuous flow-injection analysis technique that is rapid, simple, economical, and sensitive. The complex formed by the reaction of hydrochlorothiazide and O-phenylenediamine with potassium ferricyanide to produce an orange-colored product at 480 nm was the basis for the proposed method. Other chemical and physical parameters that affect the stability and development of the colored product used in this developed method includes sample volume, flow rate, reagent concentrations, and reaction coil. The proposed method’s linearity ranges from 5 to 150 μg.mL-1 and its correlation coefficients were 0.9988, and the recovery …

Synthesis, Characterization And Antimicrobial Activity Of New 4-Aminoantipyrine Derivatives Using Ultrasonic Mediation, Naween M. Youns

Baghdad Science Journal

A straightforward, one-pot, three-component reaction between substituted aromatic aldehydes, 2-naphthol and 4- aminoantipyrine have been used to synthesis a series of new 4-(((2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl) (phenyl) methylene) amino)-1,5-dimethyl-2-phenyl-1,2-dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one derivatives (A1- A5). This reaction was carried out with zirconyl chloride (ZrOCl2.8H2O) as an efficient catalyst under the condition of ultrasound irradiation. The fact that these derivatives have the potential to act as building blocks in the production of new compounds makes them very essential 4-(1-phenyl-1H-naphtho[1,2-e] [1,3] oxazin-2(3H)-yl)- 1,5-dimethyl-2-phenyl-1,2-dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one derivatives (A6, A7 and A8). Likewise, the MCRs that resulted in the formation of hetero cyclic compound (1,3-naphthoxazine) and included 4-aminoantipyrine, formaldehyde, and 2-naphthol in …

A New Strategy To Modify Hopfield By Using Xor Operation, Rusul Hussein Hasan

Baghdad Science Journal

The Hopfield network is one of the easiest types, and its architecture is such that each neuron in the network connects to the other, thus called a fully connected neural network. In addition, this type is considered auto-associative memory, because the network returns the pattern immediately upon recognition, this network has many limitations, including memory capacity, discrepancy, orthogonally between patterns, weight symmetry, and local minimum. This paper proposes a new strategy for designing Hopfield based on XOR operation; A new strategy is proposed to solve these limitations by suggesting a new algorithm in the Hopfield network design, this strategy will …

Creation Story Motifs As Expressions Of Identity And Resiliency In The Visual Culture Of Kahnawà:Ke, Jana Ondrechen Hallford

Theses

Kahnawa:ke is a First Nations reserve near Montreal in Quebec, Canada, with a rich history of creative expression. This is a Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) community, a part of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, a prominent First Peoples group of the Northeast Woodlands. Like many other Indigenous communities, Kahnawa:ke is in the process of revitalizing and renormalizing their culture after centuries of assimilation efforts and pressures to separate them from their traditions. Their creation story, known as the Sky Woman Epoch, is foundational to this culture. While there are a number of creation symbols, this study will focus on the Sky Dome, a …

Intermediary Decentralized Computing And Private Blockchain Mechanisms For Privacy Preservation In The Internet Of Medical Things, Rasha Halim Razzaq, Mishall Al-Zubaidie, Rajaa Ghali Atiyah

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

Protecting patient data in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is one of the major challenges facing healthcare organizations because of increasing threats to privacy and security. Although there are many existing protocols and solutions, such as Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) and El-Gamal cryptographies or centralized methods, that aim to protect data, they suffer from weaknesses such as slow performance or inability to handle large volumes of data. The issue of security in medical records has become an urgent need, and the use of centralized methods can expose them to single-point failure. In this paper, we present the efficient approach to securing …

Cybersecurity Defence Mechanism Against Ddos Attack With Explainability, Alaa Mohammed Mahmood, İsa Avcı

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

Application-layer attacks (Layer 7 attacks), a form of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) aimed at web servers, have become a significant concern in cybersecurity because of their ability to disrupt services by overwhelming server resources. This study focuses on addressing the challenges of detecting and mitigating the impact of such attacks, which are difficult to counter due to their sophisticated nature. The primary objective of this study is to develop an effective monitoring and defence model to detect, defend, and respond to these attacks efficiently. To achieve this, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) technology was used to understand the behaviour of the model …

From Monochrome To Color: Efficient Techniques For Realistic Video Colorization, Zahoor M. Aydam, Nidhal K. El Abbadi

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

Colorizing grayscale videos is a challenging task that involves adding colors to monochromatic videos to make them appear as natural and realistic as possible, despite the absence of information about the original color distribution. This task is crucial for applications such as restoring historical videos and creating media content requiring realistic and accurate colorization. However, existing methods often face issues such as poor temporal stability, color distortions, and the need for extensive post processing under certain conditions. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel approach comprising a pre-processing network and a source-reference network trained in an end-to-end manner. …

Data Management Report September 2024, Tennessee. Department Of Disability And Aging

Compliance & System Data/Reports

This monthly report provides data on various aspects of the department's activities and programs.

Exploring An Ai Chatbot To Close School Counselor Information Gaps: A Design Science Approach, Kalee Crandall

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Chatbots are an emerging technology that stimulate conversations with humans often using generative artificial intelligence (AI). This technology is becoming increasingly relevant, particularly in the field in school counseling. For school counselors facing growing demands, utilizing data to demonstrate the effectiveness of their services on student outcomes is crucial to secure recent position increases. Historically, school counselors have struggled with the expectation to use data and utilize available technology. AI chatbots have the potential to help school counselors, a traditionally non-technical audience, efficiently evaluate data, create goals, and explore potential interventions to accomplish those goals.

To support school counselors in …

The Blackgirl Project: Examining The Impact And Manifestation Of Colorism Among Black Adolescent Girls In The United States: A Critical Participatory Action Research Approach, Gina (Diagou) R. Sissoko

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Colorism is a skin tone stratification system that privileges lighter-skinned people over their darker-skinned counterparts. Although colorism remains surprisingly understudied, it has been linked to a variety of negative mental health and social outcomes. Colorism particularly impacts Black girls—particularly in adolescence. This dissertation utilized microaggressions theory and a critical participatory action research framework to describe (1) the manifestation of colorism in the lives of darker-skinned Black girls, (2) the impact of colorism on Black girls’ mental health, (3) the ways in which Black girls cope with and resist colorist experiences, and (4) create a taxonomy of colorist microaggressions. Ten Black …

Embodied Energy Injustice And The Political Ecology Of Solar Power, Dustin Mulvaney

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Solar energy is poised to become a major source of electricity around the world. As deployment rises to terawatts levels, these industries will drive demand for specific materials, natural resources, labor, and lands with solar energy resources reconfiguring socio-ecological relations. Global change from the development of solar power commodity chains includes increased demand for minerals and metals, new places for metallurgy and smelting, shifting workforce flows, occupational safety challenges from extractive industries to semiconductor manufacturing fabs. These new geographies of production could result in increased emissions and effluents from specialty chemical industries, conservation and agricultural land use change, and questions …

Does It Take A Village? The Impact Of Lgbtq+ Community And Geographic Location On Associations Among Parenting Stress, Parent Mental Health, And Child Adjustment, Kevin A. Mcaweeney, Rachel H. Farr

Psychology Faculty Publications

While LGBTQ+-parented families share many similarities with their cis-het parent counterparts, they still experience unique factors exclusive to them. One such factor is access to the LGBTQ+ community. Utilizing a diverse sample of LGBTQ+ parents with adolescents in the U.S., primarily living in Southern and Midwest states, we examined the potential moderating impact of a parent’s sense of LGBTQ+ community on the relationship between parenting stress, parent mental health, and child adjustment. Regression analyses demonstrated a series of positive associations between LGBTQ+ parent stress, parent mental health concerns, and child adjustment issues. However, sense of community failed to moderate these …

Imaging Photoinduced Dynamics In Gas-Phase Molecules Using Ultrafast Electron And X-Ray Diffraction, Sri Bhavya Muvva

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Investigating the ultrafast structural changes in photoexcited molecules provides essential information on their governing reaction mechanisms and product formation. Time-resolved electron and X-ray diffraction are crucial techniques for capturing the structural information of photoexcited molecules on femtosecond timescales. This thesis presents the investigations of photochemical reactions in gas-phase molecules using ultrafast electron and X-ray diffraction experiments.

Photoexcitation of conjugated diene molecules with ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses can lead to different reaction mechanisms, depending on their double bonds’ positions and molecular rigidity. Chapter 2 of this dissertation discusses the femtosecond time-resolved UV-induced excited-state structural dynamics of cis,cis-1,3-cyclooctadiene, an eight-membered cyclic conjugated …

Erratum: Author Correction: Self-Administered Mindfulness Interventions Reduce Stress In A Large, Randomized Controlled Multi-Site Study (Nature Human Behaviour (2024) 8 9 Doi: 10.1038/S41562-024-01907-7), Alessandro Sparacio, Hans Ijzerman, Ivan Ropovik, Filippo Giorgini, Christoph Spiessens, Bert N. Uchino, Joshua Landvatter, Tracey Tacana, Sandra J. Diller, Jaye L. Derrick, Joahana Segundo, Jace D. Pierce, Robert M. Ross, Zoë Francis, Amanda Laboucane, Christine Ma-Kellams, Maire B. Ford, Kathleen Schmidt, Celia C. Wong

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Tai Chi Practice Buffers Aging Effects In Functional Brain Connectivity, Jonathan Cerna, Prakhar Gupta, Maxine He, Liran Ziegelman, Yang Hu, Manuel E. Hernandez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Tai Chi (TC) practice has been shown to improve both cognitive and physical function in older adults. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the benefits of TC remain unclear. Our primary aims are to explore whether distinct age-related and TC-practice-related relationships can be identified with respect to either temporal or spatial (within/between-network connectivity) differences. This cross-sectional study examined recurrent neural network dynamics, employing an adaptive, data-driven thresholding approach to source-localized resting-state EEG data in order to identify meaningful connections across time-varying graphs, using both temporal and spatial features derived from a hidden Markov model (HMM). Mann–Whitney U tests assessed between-group differences …

Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index Predicts Postoperative Delirium In Elderly: A Meta-Analysis, Siye Xie, Qi Wu

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To review current evidence on using the geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) in predicting postoperative delirium (POD) in elderly patients. Methods: The literature search was performed in core databases to include all the cohort studies on the association between GNRI and risk of POD for further meta-analysis. Results: A total of 6 studies with 4242 patients underwent this meta-analysis, which showed that the risk of POD was higher in patients with moderate and high GNRI than the ones with low GNRI (odds ratio [OR]=2.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.58, 2.64], p <0.001), and moderate and high GNRI significantly increased the risk of POD in patients of 60 to 75 years or above [OR=1.98, 95%CI (1.49, 2.62), p <0.001; OR=2.79, 95%CI (1.38, 5.64), p =0.004, respectively]. Conclusion: Therefore, moderate and high GNRI increased the risk of POD in elderly patients.

Hachette V. Internet Archive: How And Why The Courts Broke Copyright, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The exclusive rights of copyright owners have always been overbroad which, if read literally, would make many common activities illegal (e.g., reading a book during library story hour, making a mixed tape, etc). What has prevented overreach is a social contract. The public at large has been tolerant of copyright’s broad grant of rights because of the understanding that the rights would be exercised only in very limited circumstances. The rights were not intended to empower copyright owners to undermine the overwhelming number of reasonable uses of copyrighted works that make society productive. For centuries, rightsholders and courts have generally …

Building Services Engineering September/October 2024

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color's Experiences Of Discrimination In Psychoanalytic Professional Organizations In The Usa: Results Of A Thematic Analysis Of Interview Data, Carter Carter, Rory Crath, Christine Tronnier, Harshita Bhargava, Alison Espinosa-Setchko, Julia Galeota, Q. Garcia-Geary, Tara Lasheen, Diana Sencherey, Rachel Steindler

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

This article reviews the results of a qualitative study of Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)'s experiences of discrimination in psychoanalytic professional organizations (PPOs) in the USA. The authors used thematic analysis to analyze the transcripts of semi-structured interviews with n = 10 self-identified BIPOC with prior experience in PPOs, including psychoanalytically-oriented graduate programs, psychoanalytic institutes and other training programs, and professional membership organizations across the United States. A key finding is that a significant majority of interviewees (n = 9) reported experiencing discrimination in these organizations, per their own definitions of the term “discrimination,” and described these experiences …

Study Of Life History Traits Of Culex Pipiens Linnaeus, 1758 (Diptera: Culicidae) In Laboratory In Erbil Province In Kurdistan Region-Iraq, Dlpak Birkhader Yaba, Shamall Abdulla Al-Muffti

Polytechnic Journal

This study aimed to study some biological aspects of different stages of Culex pipiens Linnaeus, 1758 in a laboratory that gathered randomly from four regions in Iraq's Kurdistan from Erbil. The results of the current study revealed that the eggs were laid in rafts, and the egg was elongated in shape, which was narrowed in one end. The mean number of laid eggs was 187.4 eggs; the mean hatching percentage was 83.07%, and the mean incubation period was 28.3 hours. The mean length of the first, second, third, and fourth larval instar was 2.21, 3.27,4.72, and 5.73 mm, respectively. The …

Consequences Of Local Conspecific Density Effects For Plant Diversity And Community Dynamics, Joseph A. Lamanna, Stefan A. Schnitzer

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Conspecific density dependence (CDD) in plant populations is widespread, most likely caused by local-scale biotic interactions, and has potentially important implications for biodiversity, community composition, and ecosystem processes. However, progress in this important area of ecology has been hindered by differing viewpoints on CDD across subfields in ecology, lack of synthesis across CDD-related frameworks, and misunderstandings about how empirical measurements of local CDD fit within the context of broader ecological theories on community assembly and diversity maintenance. Here, we propose a conceptual synthesis of local-scale CDD and its causes, including species-specific antagonistic and mutualistic interactions. First, we compare and clarify …

The Sacred Dimensions Of The Bri's Infrastructural Commons, Orlando Woods, David A. Palmer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Whilst the idea of infrastructure has animated scholarship for the past twenty years at least, there remains a need for more expansive understandings of what infrastructure is, and what it can be. The speed, scale and material disruptiveness with which many of the infrastructural megaprojects that constitute China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have been developed both underpin and validate this need. Whilst the effects of the BRI are both manifold and diffuse, all of them expose situations of infrastructural complexity. Rather than considering the BRI simply as the imposition of new material infrastructures on a landscape, we posit the …

Quantitative Assessment Of The Architect's Role Under Us Standard Construction Contracts: A Graph Theory Approach, Mariam Elazhary, Ahmed Shiha, Islam H. El-Adaway, Sammi Young

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Evaluating the Architect's Role in Construction Contracts is Vital for Improving the Contractual Relationship and Preventing Disputes. Standard Contracts Define the Architect as an Owner's Agent And/or a Contract Administrator. Studies Often Use Qualitative and Subjective Evaluations to Analyze the Architect's Role. However, there is a Lack of Quantitative Measures that Objectively Evaluate the Architect's Capacities in Construction Contracts. This Paper Fills This Knowledge Gap. This Study Proposes a Quantitative Graph Theory-Based Approach to Analyze the Architect's Roles under Three Standard Forms of Construction Contracts in the US: (1) Extracting and Classifying Party Interactions; (2) Modeling the Interactions using Network …

Forecasting Construction Material Prices Using Macroeconomic Indicators Of Trading Partners, Ahmed Shiha, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Supply chain instabilities and inflated material prices have had a disruptive impact on cost estimating of construction projects. While several research efforts used national macroeconomic indicators to forecast the prices of domestically produced construction materials, none of the existing studies investigated whether the lagged macroeconomic indicators of the main trading partners could enhance the predictability of the prices of cement, steel, and lumber in the US construction sector. This paper fills this knowledge gap. The authors adopted a multi-step methodology that included: (1) collecting data on the target variables and the candidate leading indicators; (2) identifying the structural breaks in …

Measures Of Justice: Researching And Evaluating Lay Legal Assistance Programs, Tanina Rostain, James Teufel

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In recent years a national movement to train lay advocates and advisors to assist people with their common justice problems has emerged in the United States. A host of new programs have launched that allow trained navigators and justice workers to provide legal assistance. These programs – developed in Alaska, Delaware, South Carolina, Arizona, and Utah, among other places – vary in their substantive focus, the skills they impart, and their approaches to reaching the people and communities they seek to help. The proliferation of lay legal assistance programs creates research imperatives and opportunities. These programs need to be assessed …

Felony Disenfranchisement And Voter Turnout: Randomized Trials In Iowa And Washington, Alexander Billy, J.J. Naddeo, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Prior to the 2022 midterm elections, we conducted large-scale randomized controlled trials in Iowa and Washington aimed at increasing voter turnout among newly enfranchised individuals with past felony convictions. Alongside national and grassroots partners, we designed and implemented experiments to ascertain the effectiveness of alternative outreach mechanisms, including targeted mailers and digital ads. We did not detect statistically significant or economically meaningful effects on voter registration or turnout; most observed effects were precise nulls. The absence of measured impact is likely attributed to low digital engagement with our online ads as well as extensive voter outreach already conducted by our …