Digital Commons Network^™

Bayesian Augmentation Of Object Detection Algorithms To Enhance Object Classification Stability, Taylor D. Markham

Theses and Dissertations

Neural networks, despite their prowess in computer vision, often exhibit "flickering". Flickering occurs when networks fail to maintain consistent object representation across frames, leading to inaccurate and inconsistent output. This problem is particularly critical in mission-surety applications where reliable object recognition is crucial. This research presents a novel approach that combines existing object detection and tracking algorithms like YOLO and SORT with a Bayesian backend model. This Bayesian backend incorporates probabilistic reasoning to analyze the network's confidence in its predictions and infer the most likely object identity across multiple frames, effectively reducing flickering and enhancing robustness.

Comparative Health Disparities: International Perspective, Oluwadamilola Omojola, Betty Onyebu, Rosalynn A. Vega

Anthropology Faculty Publications

After completing this brick, you will be able to:

• Explain health disparity, inequity, and inequality1
• Compare inequity and inequality in low and middle-socioeconomic countries to high-socioeconomic countries.2
• Describe factors that contribute to health disparity3
• Understand the comparative approaches used in understanding health disparities4
• Understand limitations in addressing health disparities

The Wall Between Latinas And Latinos? Gender And Immigration Enforcement Attitudes Among U.S. Latina/O Voters, Álvaro José Corral

Political Science Faculty Publications

Donald Trump’s surprising level of support among U.S. Latina/o voters in 2016 and his improved performance in the 2020 election posed a puzzle for Latina/o politics scholars given his stridently anti-immigrant agenda. Although scholars have acknowledged the political gender gap between Latinas and Latino men, few studies have outlined the theoretical basis or explored the empirical existence of gender differences in Latina/o immigration enforcement attitudes. Building on the Latina politics literature documenting Latinas’ greater engagement in solidarity work with immigrants and their greater desire for cultural transmission and the maintenance of pan-ethnic identity, I test two hypotheses. The first (the …

Squamous Odontogenic Tumor: A Case Report, Sara Endo Dds, Timothy Chang Dds, Daria Vasilyeva Dds, Scott M. Peters Dds

The New York State Dental Journal

Squamous odontogenic tumors (SOT) are slow-growing, benign, rare intraosseous neoplasms. SOT are typically found in the premolar-canine region of the maxilla and the molar region of the mandible. These lesions have no gender predilection and show peak occurrence in the third decade of life.

Transiam: Aggregating Multi-Modal Visual Features With Locality For Medical Image Segmentation, Xuejian Li, Shiqiang Ma, Junhai Xu, Jijun Tang, Shengfeng He, Fei Guo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Automatic segmentation of medical images plays an important role in the diagnosis of diseases. On single-modal data, convolutional neural networks have demonstrated satisfactory performance. However, multi-modal data encompasses a greater amount of information rather than single-modal data. Multi-modal data can be effectively used to improve the segmentation accuracy of regions of interest by analyzing both spatial and temporal information. In this study, we propose a dual-path segmentation model for multi-modal medical images, named TranSiam. Taking into account that there is a significant diversity between the different modalities, TranSiam employs two parallel CNNs to extract the features which are specific to …

Psychotropic Medicines’ Prevalence, Patterns And Effects On Cognitive And Physical Function In Older Adults With Intellectual Disability In Ireland: Longitudinal Cohort Study, 2009–2020, M Odalović, A Gorman, A Paul, P Mccallion, Et Al

Peninsula Medical School

Background The frequent prescribing of psychotropics and high prevalence of polypharmacy among older adults with intellectual disabilities require close monitoring. Aims To describe change in prevalence, predictors and health outcomes of psychotropic use during the four waves (2009/2010, 2013/2014, 2016/2017, 2019/2020) of the Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (IDS-TILDA). Method Eligible participants were adults (≥40 years) with intellectual disabilities who participated in all four waves of IDS-TILDA and who reported medication use for the entire period. Differences between groups were tested using Cochran's Q test for binary variables and the McNemar–Bowker test for variables with …

The Art Of Medicine: “Meeting Patients Where They’Re At”, Elyse Stevens

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Religious Stewardship And Pro-Environmental Action: The Mediating Roles Of Environmental Guilt And Anger, Shu Tian Ng, Kimin Eom

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Past research has found that stewardship belief can motivate pro-environmentalism among religious individuals. The present study investigates the emotional pathways linking religious stewardship belief and pro-environmental policy support. In an online experiment conducted with Christians in the United States (N = 604), we experimentally primed stewardship belief (N = 195) using a video that highlighted the human responsibility to care for God’s creations. We also included a control condition (N = 206) and a religion condition (N = 203), which presented a more generic religious message. As demonstrated in a mediation model, the stewardship manipulation (vs. …

Negative Work-To-Family Spillover Stress And Heightened Cardiovascular Risk Biomarkers In Midlife And Older Adults, Andree Hartanto, K.T.A.Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Meilan Hu, Shu Fen Diong, Verity Y. Q. Lua

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the health implications of negative work-to-family spillover on cardiovascular risk biomarkers. Methods: In a large-scale cross-sectional dataset of working or self-employed midlife and older adults in the United States (N = 1179), we examined five biomarkers linked to cardiovascular risk, including high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein. Negative work-to-family spillover, measured using a four-item self-reported questionnaire, was included into our model to study its association with these cardiovascular risk biomarkers. Results: Our findings indicate a significant association between negative work-to-family spillover and cardiovascular risk biomarkers – higher …

Gsword: Gpu-Accelerated Sampling For Subgraph Counting, Chang Ye, Yuchen Li, Shixuan Sun, Wentian Guo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Subgraph counting is a fundamental component for many downstream applications such as graph representation learning and query optimization. Since obtaining the exact count is often intractable, there have been a plethora of approximation methods on graph sampling techniques. Nonetheless, the state-of-the-art sampling methods still require massive samples to produce accurate approximations on large data graphs. We propose gSWORD, a GPU framework that leverages the massive parallelism of GPUs to accelerate iterative sampling algorithms for subgraph counting. Despite the embarrassingly parallel nature of the samples, there are unique challenges in accelerating subgraph counting due to its irregular computation logic. To address …

March 2024 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Introducing Pour Points: Characteristics And Hydrological Significance Of A Rainfall-Concentrating Mechanism In A Water-Limited Woodland Ecosystem, Ashvath S. Kunadi, Tim Lardner, Richard P. Silberstein, Matthias Leopold, Nik Callow, Erik Veneklaas, Aryan Puri, Eleanor Sydney, Sally E. Thompson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The interception of rainfall by plant canopies alters the depth and spatial distribution of water arriving at the soil surface, and thus the location, volume, and depth of infiltration. Mechanisms like stemflow are known to concentrate rainfall and route it deep into the soil, yet other mechanisms of flow concentration are poorly understood. This study characterizes pour points, formed by the detachment of water flowing under a branch, using a combination of field observations in Western Australian banksia woodlands and rainfall simulation experiments on Banksia menziesii branches. We aim to establish the hydrological significance of pour points in a water-limited …

Voice Synthesis Improvement By Machine Learning Of Natural Prosody, Joseph Kane, Michael N. Johnstone, Patryk Szewczyk

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Since the advent of modern computing, researchers have striven to make the human–computer interface (HCI) as seamless as possible. Progress has been made on various fronts, e.g., the desktop metaphor (interface design) and natural language processing (input). One area receiving attention recently is voice activation and its corollary, computer-generated speech. Despite decades of research and development, most computer-generated voices remain easily identifiable as non-human. Prosody in speech has two primary components—intonation and rhythm—both often lacking in computer-generated voices. This research aims to enhance computer-generated text-to-speech algorithms by incorporating melodic and prosodic elements of human speech. This study explores a novel …

The Causality Between Human Immunoglobulin G (Igg) N-Glycosylation And Aging: A Mendelian Randomization Study, Wenxin Sun, Xuening Jian, Jie Zhang, Xiaoni Meng, Haotian Wang, Deqiang Zheng, Lijuan Wu, Youxin Wang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycosylation is considered a potential biomarker for aging and various pathological conditions. However, whether these changes in IgG N-glycosylation are a consequence or a contributor to the aging process remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the causality between IgG N-glycosylation and aging using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Methods: We utilized genetic variants associated with IgG N-glycosylation traits, the frailty index (FI), and leukocyte telomere length (LTL) from a previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) on individuals of European ancestry. Two-sample and multivariable MR analyses were conducted, employing the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. Sensitivity analyses were performed …

Ellagic Acid Inhibits Α-Synuclein Propagation And Alleviates The Neurotoxicity By Enhancing Autophagic Flux In Animal Model Of Parkinson’S Disease, Nada Akram Abdellatif

Theses

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurological disorder pathologically characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons in the Substantia Nigra pars compacta (SNc) as well as the formation of Lewy bodies composed mainly of α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates. It has been documented that abnormal aggregation of α-syn is one of the major causes of developing PD. Ellagic Acid (EA) is a widely known dietary supplement found in pomegranates as well as a plethora of berries and nuts. EA has been shown to prevent α-syn aggregates’ toxicity in cellular model of PD. In the current study we aim to evaluate whether …

Too Stubborn To Care For: The Impacts Of Discrimination On Patient Noncompliance, Alice Abrokwa

Vanderbilt Law Review

The role of implicit racial biases in police interactions with people of color has garnered increased public attention and scholarly examination over time, but implicit racial bias in the healthcare context can be as deadly, particularly when it intersects with ableism and sexism. Researchers have found that medical providers are more likely to consider Black patients “noncompliant,” meaning the patient has not adhered to recommended treatment, even without evidence Black patients are less compliant than other patients. Being labeled noncompliant can have grave health consequences; providers are less likely to treat pain aggressively when they consider a patient noncompliant and, …

Endosteal Stem Cells At The Bone-Blood Interface: A Double-Edged Sword For Rapid Bone Formation: Bone Marrow Endosteal Stem Cells Provide A Robust Source Of Bone-Making Osteoblasts Both In Normal And Abnormal Bone Formation, Yuki Matsushita, Jialin Liu, Angel Ka Yan Chu, Wanida Ono, Joshua D Welch, Noriaki Ono

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Endosteal stem cells are a subclass of bone marrow skeletal stem cell populations that are particularly important for rapid bone formation occurring in growth and regeneration. These stem cells are strategically located near the bone surface in a specialized microenvironment of the endosteal niche. These stem cells are abundant in young stages but eventually depleted and replaced by other stem cell types residing in a non-endosteal perisinusoidal niche. Single-cell molecular profiling and in vivo cell lineage analyses play key roles in discovering endosteal stem cells. Importantly, endosteal stem cells can transform into bone tumor-making cells when deleterious mutations occur in …

Good Grief: Emotional Symbolism In Kate Dicamillo's The Tiger Rising, Sadie Barham

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the symbol of the tiger in Kate DiCamillo’s children’s book The Tiger Rising. It deals primarily with each character’s response to the tiger and what this shows about his or her way of dealing with grief. Rob and Sistine, two children exhibiting signs of childhood depression, respond to their pain (and, consequently, to the tiger) in opposite ways: Rob internalizes his grief and anger, keeping it repressed, while Sistine covers for her grief with anger, lashing out at the people around her. When Rob finds a tiger caged in the woods, he responds with fear, leaving …

Long Story Short, Hannah M. Varghese

Graphic Communication

Long Story Short and is a vintage up-cycling art brand. Our mission is to breathe new life into vintage pieces, crafting them into modern wearable art. As the name suggests, each creation tells a story while being revitalized for today’s fashion forward community.

Fast fashion and trend cycling has been a growing problem in today’s society. Things are going ‘in’ and ‘out’ quicker than they ever have. Trend cycling usually operates on a 20-year timeline. But, today’s sped up cycle encourages people to constantly over-consume in chase of the next cool thing. It’s unsustainable and an impossible chase. With a …

We S.O.A.R: Student Original Arts Repertory, University Of Dayton

Dance and Theater Programs

We SOAR was a collaboration between students from a variety of majors and programs and members of our own Dayton community. Each piece reflected the diverse perspectives and passions of our student artists, each contributing to a collective narrative that champions positive change and social impact.

First Egg Dates Of Tree Swallows (Tachycineta Bicolor) Nesting In Boxes In West Michigan Advanced With Increasing Spring Temperatures Between 1993 And 2018, Michael P. Lombardo, Nathaniel Wagner, Jared M. Laughlin, Sango Otieno, Levi Rosendall, Clara Voetberg, Alejandro Hoban

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Many bird species have advanced their first egg dates in response to recent milder winters and increases in spring temperatures. Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) begin egg laying earlier in warmer springs at most, but not all, study sites. We examined whether Tree Swallows that nested in boxes in west Michigan responded to an increase in spring temperatures from 1993 to 2018 by advancing their first egg dates. May, but not April, mean daily temperatures got significantly warmer from 1993 to 2018. We found that the first egg dates, but not mean first egg dates, of both second year …

A Framework For Dynamic Combat Support Exercises, Sean R. Mccarty

Theses and Dissertations

Future armed conflict will be characterized by the unknown as adversaries innovate and evolve—surprise is inevitable. Current exercises provide inadequate opportunities for combat support forces to develop improvisational skills. This research proposes an extensible framework for human-in-the-loop control of exercises using a graph network for modeling combined with topological analysis and the resource-constrained project scheduling problem. This framework is assessed using the United States Air Force Silver Flag exercise as a case study with promising results.

Radiological Decontamination Methodologies On Litter-Bound Patients In Arctic Environments, And The Associated Airborne Risks Posed To First Responders, Juan S. Alb

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine if air-based decontamination (decon) methods would be effective at both treating patients exposed to dry, radiological contamination as well as reducing its re-aerosolization during the disrobing process, such that these methods could be applied on litter-bound patients in extreme cold environments. A litter-bound, full-size mannequin dressed in a set of standard military issue extreme cold weather jacket and pants coated in 27 g (1 Tbs) of Copper Oxide (density 6.315 g/cm³ ) was given one of three treatments for dry aerosol decon. The three cleaning treatments included high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) vacuum, a …

Regulation Of Normal And Aberrant Heterochromatic Gene Silencing In Yeast, Anabelle Acosta

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Metabolomic Association And Risk Prediction With Heart Failure In Older Adults, Guning Liu, Ngoc Quynh H Nguyen, Kari E Wong, Sunil K Agarwal, Eric Boerwinkle, Patricia P Chang, Brian L Claggett, Laura R Loehr, Jianzhong Ma, Kunihiro Matsushita, Carlos J Rodriguez, Joseph S Rossi, Stuart D Russell, R Brandon Stacey, Amil M Shah, Bing Yu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Older adults have markedly increased risks of heart failure (HF), specifically HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Identifying novel biomarkers can help in understanding HF pathogenesis and improve at-risk population identification. This study aimed to identify metabolites associated with incident HF, HFpEF, and HF with reduced ejection fraction and examine risk prediction in older adults.

Methods: Untargeted metabolomic profiling was performed in Black and White adults from the ARIC study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) visit 5 (n=3719; mean age, 75 years). We applied Cox regressions to identify metabolites associated with incident HF and its subtypes. The metabolite risk score …

Practical Considerations For Navigating Withdrawal From The Federal Select Agent Program, Scott J Patlovich, Kristin G King, Robert J Emery, Zackary B Becker, Rebecca B Kairis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Clear guidance is provided by the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) to assist registered entities in nearly all facets of compliance with the Federal select agent regulations (7 CFR Part 331; 9 CFR Part 121; 42 CFR Part 73). If a registered entity chooses to discontinue its registration, detailed instructions for registration withdrawal are deeply embedded within a document entitled "eFSAP Form 1 Amendment Instructions," which is found on the FSAP website within the electronic Federal Select Agent Program (eFSAP) Resource Center.

METHODS: Using the information found within the eFSAP Form 1 Amendment Instructions, as well as extensive written …

Plasma Protein Signatures Of Adult Asthma, Gordon J Smilnak, Yura Lee, Abhijnan Chattopadhyay, Annah B Wyss, Julie D White, Sinjini Sikdar, Jianping Jin, Andrew J Grant, Alison A Motsinger-Reif, Jian-Liang Li, Mikyeong Lee, Bing Yu, Stephanie J London

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Adult asthma is complex and incompletely understood. Plasma proteomics is an evolving technique that can both generate biomarkers and provide insights into disease mechanisms. We aimed to identify plasma proteomic signatures of adult asthma.

Methods: Protein abundance in plasma was measured in individuals from the Agricultural Lung Health Study (ALHS) (761 asthma, 1095 non-case) and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (470 asthma, 10,669 non-case) using the SOMAScan 5K array. Associations with asthma were estimated using covariate adjusted logistic regression and meta-analyzed using inverse-variance weighting. Additionally, in ALHS, we examined phenotypes based on both asthma and seroatopy (asthma with …

Supply Is Not Limulus: Research Review Of Horseshoe Crab Conservation In The Face Of Intense Pharmaceutical Demand, Zoya Galeev

University Honors Theses

Horseshoe crabs are being used by the pharmaceutical industry to conduct endotoxin tests using LAL derived from the organism’s blood to ensure safe medical practice. Their annual collection and bleeding, while not always leading to mortality, affects horseshoe crab behavior and health. This research seeks to understand how the American horseshoe crab, L. polyphemus, is being used by pharmaceutical agencies and the implications that their harvesting has on the industry and the conservation of the species. Studies were collected from the past decade across two databases, Web of Science (WOS) and PubMed, to assess present conservation techniques to reduce …

Self-Efficacy To Refuse Sex Mediates The Relationship Between Dating Violence Victimization And Sexual Risk Behavior, Briana Edison, Shristi Bhochhibhoya, Elizabeth R Baumler, Christine M Markham, Melissa F Peskin, Ross Shegog, Susan T Emery, Robert C Addy, Jeff R Temple, Dennis E Reidy

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: While cross-sectional studies have shown that teen dating violence (TDV) victimization is linked to sexual risk behavior (SRB), the pathway between these variables is not well-understood. To address this knowledge gap, we explore the mediating role of self-efficacy to refuse sex in the longitudinal relationship between physical TDV victimization and subsequent SRB among adolescents.

Methods: Self-report data from three prior longitudinal studies were harmonized to create a single aggregated sample of primarily racial and ethnic minority adolescents (N = 4,620; 51.4% Hispanic, 38.5% Black, and 58% female) from 44 schools in the southwest U.S. Participants' physical TDV victimization at …

Lifetime Traumatic Brain Injury And Risk Of Post-Concussive Symptoms In The Millennium Cohort Study, Kalyn C Jannace, Lisa Pompeii, David Gimeno Ruiz De Porras, William Brett Perkison, Jose-Miguel Yamal, Daniel W Trone, Rudolph P Rull

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is prevalent among active duty military service members, with studies reporting up to 23% experiencing at least one TBI, with 10-60% of service members reporting at least one subsequent repeat TBI. A TBI has been associated with an increased risk of cumulative effects and long-term neurobehavioral symptoms, impacting operational readiness in the short-term and overall health in the long term. The association between multiple TBI and post-concussive symptoms (PCS), however, defined as symptoms that follow a concussion or TBI, in the military has not been adequately examined. Previous studies in military populations are limited by methodological …