The 50 most-cited articles in Journal of Bioresource Management, 2018

Cars are an ever changing and integral part of modern society. Two of the biggest changes in vehicles today are their heavy integration with wireless communication and the push toward battery powered Electric Vehicles (EV). EV and EV charging stations have become a part of the Internet of Things (IoT). While this connectedness increases the convenience and functionality of the vehicles and charging stations, it also opens them up to a wide range of cyber threats. This thesis examines the potential threats against the EV charging ecosystem through a historical analysis of past cyberattacks and identified vulnerabilities. As EV charging stations directly interface with the U.S. power grid, an attack initiated on EV and charging stations is capable of jeopardize the supply-demand balance of the power grid. If a large enough population is vulnerable to attack, then through a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) structured attack, the supply-demand balance can be exploited to cause widespread blackouts and grid instability. Using the historical analysis of cyberthreats, this thesis uses…

Semantic web technologies are a major driver for semantic interoperability in IoT-generated data by using shared vocabularies in an ontology-driven approach. While there is a growing interest in standardization of ontologies for IoT, there is still a lack of common agreement for a specific IoT ontology. Numerous concepts and relations have been designed within existing ontologies to handle different features of IoT data. However, there are many redundant and overlapping concepts designed within existing standardizations and groups. We found that new ontologies constantly redesign the same concepts in IoT. Therefore, it is a challenge to reuse and unify these different IoT ontologies with redundant concepts. In this paper we investigate what are the most used terms within IoT ontologies? We identify the fourteen most popular ontologies within generic IoT and WoT domain. Analysis of popular concepts among these ontologies allows to automatically rank the knowledge. This work will enable guiding ontology engineers to re-use and unify existing ontologies, a required step to achieve…

Careless responding (CR), also called insufficient effort responding (IER), occurs when survey participants respond to items without regard to item content. The presence of careless responding threatens the validity of inferences made from self-report data (Huang et al., 2012; Huang et al., 2015). This study examines the effects of two proposed causes of careless responding (Mead & Craig, 2012): questionnaire length and participant disinterest. Specifically, I hypothesized that (a) questionnaire length is positively related to careless responding, (b) participant interest is negatively related to careless responding, and (c) questionnaire length has a weaker relationship with careless responding among participants who are interested in the questionnaire content than among participants who are uninterested in the questionnaire content. Analyses using a sample of 316 undergraduate students, who were randomly assigned to either a long survey or short survey condition, provided partial support for the three hypotheses tested. I found significant mean differences (d = 0.29 to 0.42) in…

A new essay collection assesses today's political climate and the mysteries of faith, from the influence of intellectual minds on society's political consciousness to the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life.

When given the chance to choose between two tasks, one willmore likely choose the easier, less demanding task. Thiseffect has been shown in various domains and referred to asthe law of minimum effort or demand avoidance. Themeasure of demand avoidance that is currently used is theproportion of low-demand choices. We show that the currentmeasure is not appropriate for accurately assessing individualdifferences in demand avoidance, because the process ofdemand selection is contingent upon the process of demanddetection. Subsequently, we suggest a new measure ofdemand avoidance that combines demand detection anddemand selection. We show that the new measure of demandavoidance correlates in the expected direction (i.e.,negatively) with established measures of willingness andability to carry out cognitively demanding tasks. We proposea novel, performance-based measure of cognitive effortavoidance that can be used to enhance the validity of researchin cognition, perception, and neurosciences.

A collection of essays celebrating the cultural heritage of history and home argues that arrogance must be abandoned in favor of respect and care for oneself, one's neighbors, and the land.

The herpetofauna was surveyed from January to December 2018 along the elevation gradient 1367 m to 2617 m, asl in Tolipir National Park.The whole area was sampled by taking 52 quadrates.Three amphibian species were recorded using the visual encounter method in an area of 52 km 2 .This study provides baseline data for spatial distribution of amphibians in Tolipir National Park and provides previously unavailable baseline information for use in the development of a preliminary conservation schedule.

The present study was designed to find species composition and diversity of insects existing at different trophic level of food chain in coniferous forest of Rawalakot valley.The study was conducted from November, 2016 to September, 2017.The researcher recorded 53 species of insects belonging to 42 families.The herbivorous insect species feed on 134 plant spp. of the study area.The greater population density of herbivores indicates that plants are under more threat to insect pests.The present study provides base line information about the insect community of forest and need further screening of insect pest species to control pest out break for conservation of coniferous forests of Rawalakot.

A total of 1,018 institutions representing 378,865 full-time faculty members participated in the AAUP's 2017-18 Faculty Compensation Survey. The average salary for full professors this year was $104,820. Associate professors had an average salary of &81,274, and assistant professors had an average salary of $70,791. The average salary for lecturers was $56,712, and the average salary for instructors was $59, 400.

Published ontologies frequently fall short of their promises to enable knowledge sharing and reuse. This may be due to too strong or too weak ontological commitments; one way to prevent this is to en- gineer the ontology to be modular, thus allowing users to more easily adapt ontologies to their own individual use-cases. In order to enable this engineering paradigm, there is a distinct need for developing more supporting tools and infrastructure. This increased support can be im- mediately impactful in a number of ways: Guides engineers through best practices and promote ontology design pattern discovery, sharing, and reuse. To meet these needs, this PhD project explores the development of a comprehensive modular ontology IDE and tool suite.

Domain knowledge plays a significant role in powering a number of intelligent applications such as entity recommendation, question answering, data analytics, and knowledge discovery. Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and Semantic Web communities have contributed to the representation and creation of this domain knowledge in a machine-readable form. This has resulted in a large collection of structured datasets on the Web which is commonly referred to as the Web of data. The Web of data continues to grow rapidly since its inception, which poses a number of challenges in developing intelligent applications that can benefit from its use. Majority of these applications are focused on a particular domain. Hence they can benefit from a relevant portion of the Web of Data. For example, a movie recommendation application predominantly requires knowledge of the movie domain and a biomedical knowledge discovery application predominantly requires relevant knowledge on the genes, proteins, chemicals, disorders and their interactions. Using the entire Web of data is both unnecessary and…

Learning progressions (LPs) are the hypothetical pathways that students may take as they learn about core ideas in a domain. LPs take a developmental approach to learning and assume that there are constraints that drive the learning paths. The question then is: how strong are the constraints of the learning process? We report on a comparison of two distinct instructional interventions informed by the same genetics progression that were implemented with introductory biology students (10th and 11th grades). The interventions targeted the ideas in the LP but differ in the: (1) sequencing of instruction, (2) focus phenomena, and (3) activities. To determine the learning paths for each instructional intervention we used causal model search and path analyses to explore relationships within and between these ideas. Our findings may indicate that the two instructional contexts result in maps that have both differences and similarities providing further evidence about the strengths of conjectures in LPs.

Energy efficient, wide-bandwidth, and well-regulated dc-dc power converters are in great demand in today's emerging technologies in areas such as medical, communication, aerospace, and automotive industries. In addition to design and selection of the converter components, a robust closed-loop modeling is very essential for reliable power-electronic systems. Two closed-loop control techniques for power converters exist: voltage-mode control and current-mode control. The principles of voltage-mode control have been explored in great depths by researchers over the last two decades. However, the dynamic modeling of current-mode controlled dc-dc power converters has many uncharted areas that needs careful attention. Two main methods exist under the category of current-mode control: peak current-mode control and average current-mode control. Both of these control strategies are very attractive in applications that require fast control speeds, improved voltage regulation, and improved power supply noise rejection ratio. In recent technological advancements, where high noise immunity and…

There is an economic need to extend the useful life of jet engine rotors. Retirement-for-Cause (RFC) is a lifing method that allows for the continued operation of components passed traditional life limits. Under RFC, an extension of damage tolerance, components are deemed safe for a further service interval using non-destructive inspections (NDI) for crack like defe cts. As components are kept in-service beyond their designed service life it is essential that the probability of failure (POF), or risk, of continued service is known. Under current FAA rotor design certification practices the component POF is analyzed using a probabilistic framework focused on only the life limiting crack location. This method generates conservative approximations of the operational risk, also known as a relative risk. The proposed method for a feature-based discretization allows for a transition from the relative risk towards an absolute risk. The general guidelines, for the discretization, have been established through performance of probabilistic assessments of a representative turbine disk. The…

Most of the research related to food-borne human pathogens is conducted on the transmission of pathogens from foods of animal origin.However, recent studies showed that fruits and vegetables are the sources of many disease outbreaks.This study was carried out to assess the current knowledge and future developments for the microbial safety of fresh fruits and vegetables.Eight different fruits and vegetables, i.e., grapes (Vitis vinifera), banana (Musa acuminate), orange (Citrus sinensis), apple (Malus domestica Borkh), carrott (Daucus carota), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), green chili (Capsicum annuum) and onion (Allium fistulosum) were collected from two localities to determine the frequency of microorganisms using standard plate count method.The effect of varying concentration of acetic acid on the microbial load of vegetables was evaluated at different time intervals.E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., Salmonella, Shigella, Klebsiella spp., Enterobacter spp.and Bacillus spp.were identified in this study.Highest (23.3%) frequency of occurrence was observed in case of E. coli, followed by…

According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people suffer from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) worldwide. PHQ-9 is used to screen and diagnose MDD clinically and identify its severity. With the unprecedented growth and enthusiastic acceptance of social media such as Twitter, a large number of people have come to share their feelings and emotions on it openly. Each tweet can indicate a user's opinion, thought or feeling. A tweet can also indicate multiple symptoms related to PHQ-9. Identifying PHQ-9 symptoms indicated by a tweet can provide crucial information about a user regarding his/her depression diagnosis. The current state-of-the-art approach using supervised machine learning to classify a tweet regarding PHQ-9 symptoms relies on explicit reference to a particular PHQ-9 symptom, i.e., it considers an exact string matching-based feature representation. This approach of explicit referencing falls short on classifying tweets having an implicit symptom indicator in several possible PHQ-9 symptoms. This thesis proposes a semantically enhanced approach that…

Modulation of macrophage polarization is required for effective tissue repair and regenerative therapies. Conversion of macrophages from inflammatory M1 to fibrotic M2 phenotype could help in diseases such as chronic wound which are stuck in inflammatory state. During the inflammatory phase, macrophages are of the inflammatory phenotype (M1) and distribute pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-a and IL1[beta] which are microbicidal and recruit/activate cells. In normal wound healing macrophages then switch to a fibrotic phenotype (M2) promoting wound closure by angiogenesis, and matrix deposition. Chronic wounds are a major biological and financial burden to both patients and the health care system, costing over $25 billion to Medicare annually. Natural wound healing proceeds through several largely overlapping phases that involve an inflammatory response and associated cellular migration, proliferation, matrix deposition, and tissue remodeling. The initial stages of the inflammatory response are dominated by neutrophils followed soon after by macrophages, which become prominent…

Due to current market forces, leading-edge semiconductor fabrication plants have moved outside of the US. While this is not a problem at first glance, when it comes to security-sensitive applications, over-production, device cloning, or design alteration becomes a possibility. Since these vulnerabilities exist during the fabrication phase, a Reverse Engineering (RE) step must be introduced to help ensure secure device operation. This thesis proposes several unique methods and a collection of tools to ensure trust assurance in integrated circuit design by detecting fabrication flaws and possible hardware Trojans using several image processing techniques; fused into a singular view of the design. This suite of tools, the Automated Iterative Reverse Engineer (AIRE), addresses these security concerns. AIRE is comprised of an Image Stitcher, Stitch Assembler, Design Parser, Image Matcher, and IC Image Fusion Viewer. These tools work in concert to assist the design validation test engineers in assessing and analyzing the structure and performance of the IC. The first tool, the Image…

High-lift low-pressure turbine blades produce significant losses at the junction with the endwall. The losses are caused by several complex three-dimensional vortical flow structures, which interact with the blade suction surface boundary layer. This study investigates the unsteady characteristics of these endwall flow structures on a highly loaded research profile and the adjacent endwall using surface-mounted hot-film sensors. Experiments were conducted in a low-speed linear cascade wind tunnel. The front-loaded blade profile was subjected to three different inlet conditions, consisting of two turbulence levels, and three incoming boundary layer thicknesses. Multiple surface-mounted hot-film sensors were installed throughout the passage. This thesis progressed in three stages of research. The first verified that the hot-film sensors could be used to detect flow structures in the cascade. The second used the results from installed hot-films to examine the unsteady characteristics of vortices formed near the leading edge and the propagation of the passage vortex across the passage…

Constitutive Modeling of Creep in Leaded and Lead-Free Solder Alloys Using Constant Strain-Rate Tensile Testing.Environmental and safety concerns have necessitated a phase-out of lead-based alloys, which are often used in electronics solder applications.In order to properly assess suitable replacement materials, it is necessary to understand the deformation mechanisms relevant to the application.In the case of electronics solder, creep is an important mechanism that must be considered in the design of reliable devices and systems.In this study, Power-Law and Garofalo constitutive creep models were derived for two medium temperature solder alloys.The first alloy is known by the commercial name Indalloy 236 and is a quaternary alloy of lead, antimony, tin, and silver.The lead-free alternative is a binary alloy of tin and antimony known by the trade name Indalloy 264.Constant strain rate tests were conducted at temperatures from -20 to 175 Celsius using constant strain rate tensile testing in the range of e-5 s-1 to e-1 s-1.Creep constants were defined for use in materials selection…

One of the challenges of our society is the existence of chronic-related conditions and diseases among the elderly and people at risk. Apart from the welfare of people, a significant impact of this phenomenon is the accumulation of high financial costs for both individuals and health care systems. In order to address this issue and to reduce its effects, many efforts have been made towards preventing, identifying in early stages and, generally, managing chronic-related medical conditions and diseases. As a result, there has been a keen research and market interest in health monitoring devices during the past few decades. Nevertheless, despite the progress in the field of health monitoring, these devices are still unable to measure certain symptoms with sensors. A feasible solution to the aforementioned problem comes from the area of human-machine interaction. However, although human-machine interaction devices have advanced recently, they are still far from replacing the human from the interaction loop. Their major drawback is that they cannot reliably and efficiently respond to…

Background: Triclosan is an antibacterial agent that is added to personal care products to prevent bacterial growth. The FDA banned the use of triclosan in soap in 2016 due to safety concerns. Triclosan is considered an endocrine disruptor and had reported effects on the body, including changes in thyroid function. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between urinary triclosan and serum thyroxine in U.S adults. Methods: Data from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were analyzed (N =1,476). Linear regression analyses were performed to assess the relationship between log transformed triclosan and BMI, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, gender, annual household income, and smoking status. Results: Median urinary triclosan level was 5.9 ng/ml and the average serum thyroxine level was 8.10 ng/dl. After adjusting for covariates, triclosan exposure did not have a significant association with serum thyroxine (B= -0.005, 95% CI= -0.047, 0.037, p = .820). The results were similar when stratified by gender. Across gender,…

The purpose of this research was to describe self-reported physical health status, behaviors, and wellbeing interests of teachers and other staff within a Head Start agency. Information on overall health, behaviors, demographics, and interests in wellbeing programs was collected through a 58-item questionnaire (N = 312). A majority of participants were white (66.8%), female (93.7%), and half were teachers (49.4%). Bivariate analyses and an ordinal logistic regression were performed to test the association of physical health with independent variables, health behaviors, and demographics. Associations with “very good/excellent” physical health displayed by the regression model include mental health, chronic conditions, vegetable consumption, being physically active for 30 minutes per day, and the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. The odds of reporting “very good/excellent” physical health was 2.61 times higher for respondents with no chronic diseases vs. those with two or more. Those with “poor/fair” mental health had 91% lower odds of “very good/excellent” physical health…

An ideal work environment supports a culture of high performance, low mental workload, and quick turnarounds. The impact of noise on three types of tasks in a lab work environment were examined while attempting to identify correlations between a subject's personality and their tolerance to noise. Neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extroversion correlated significantly with subjective (NASA-TLX) and physiological mental workload measures (heart rate variability and eye-tracking). The results show that task type impacts the performance, task duration, and mental workload. Although the physiological workload measures showed significant impact, the parameters standard deviation of R-R intervals and LF/HF ratio agreed with the NASA-TLX scores while the parameters RMSSD value and standardized mean of R-R intervals disagreed. Noise level nearly showed statistical significance with task duration and LF/HF ratio; however, more research is necessary to completely rule out the influence of noise level on the human participants.

Due to inherent limitations posed by existence of zeros of a transfer function in the righthalfof the complex plane, known as non-minimum phase zeros, the issue of dealing withsuch zeros is extremely important in control of linear systems. Considerable literatureexists in control theory to try and minimize or eliminate the effect of non-minimum phasezeros. These include pole-zero cancellation, feedforward compensation, among others.These methods are only limited only to stable systems (systems with poles in the left halfof the complex plane); and will fail for systems that are unstable as well as non-minimumphase.This research focuses in designing feedforward compensators for unstable as well asnon-minimum phase. The key contribution is to decompose the transfer function of aSingle-Input Single-Output system into two sub-systems: a stable but non-minimum phasesubsystems and an unstable but minimum-phase subsystem. Then using root-locus techniques,the non-minimum phase zeros can be shifted to the left half plane, rendering thesystem minimum phase. Control techniques such as adaptive…

Chaotic Based Self-Synchronization for RF Steganography Radar/Communication Waveform.In this project, we continue previous CSR project entitled RF Steganography based Joint Radar/Communication Waveform Design to develop a bio-inspired secure low probability detection (LPD) radio frequency (RF) waveform that can serve multiple purposes simultaneously.Previously, we have developed an RF steganography based RF waveform to conceal a secure digital communication within a linear frequency modulated (LFM) chirp radar signal.By exploiting novel reduced phase shift keying modulation and variable symbol duration, the new waveform is resistant to time domain analysis, frequency domain analysis and cyclostationary analysis.However, to demodulate the hidden communication message, the intended receiver has to know the entire sequence of variable symbol duration, or the entire sequence of pseudo-random phases.We are developing a chaotic based self-synchronization scheme to solve this problem and provide enhanced security.Specifically, a chaotic sequence generator is employed to generate an…

In a retail setting, the design and layout of racks can have an effect on what products shoppers will see, and ultimately purchase on their trip. Recent research has focused on developing analytical and computational models to estimate visibility measures of new and up-and-coming layout designs. These models suggest that varying both the orientation and/or curvature of racks can potentially increase how much shelf-area a shopper can be exposed to from the main aisle. However, because of the human element involved in the shopping experience, it is vital to validate these models in a realistic setting. In lieu of a real store, we propose to validate our models using a 3D Virtual Environment (VE). The VE consists of 27 monitors that creates an immersive environment to simulate the dynamics of a shopper walking pasta rack layout. The participants are asked to locate targets placed strategically on the racks, based on the predictions from our analytical models of whether or not each target would be exposed to the shopper. We share this unique way of validating analytical models and share…

Bears belong to the family Ursidae, under the order Carnivora with eight extant species (Grzimek, 2003).Roberts (1997) cite the presence of Himalayan brown bear, Himalayan black bear and Balochistan black bear in Pakistan.Dhirkot National Park (2008), Banjosa Nature Reserve (2009), Tolipir National Park (2008), Pir Chanasi National Park (2010) and Pir Lasura National Park (2009) were surveyed.A broad-spectrum investigation was conducted where the number of bears observed directly; pictures from surveillance cameras (Arc View GIS 3.3, 1992-2002) and at the same time indirect indicators such as bear scats, walking trails, paw prints and fur samples were noted for presence of bears.Only two types of bears, the Asiatic black bear and brown bear were reported from the study area.the Asiatic black bear was observed in four of the five study areas (Banjosa Nature Reserve, Dhirkot National Park, Tolipir National Park and Pir Chanasi National Park).Pir Chanasi had the highest numbers of bears observed while only four bears were reported from Dhirkot National Park.From the whole study site,…

Correspondence colorings of graphs were introduced in 2018 by Dvořák and Postle as a generalization of list colorings of graphs which generalizes ordinary graph coloring. Kim and Ozeki observed that correspondence colorings generalize various notions of signed-graph colorings which again generalizes ordinary graph colorings. In this note we state how correspondence colorings generalize Zaslavsky's notion of gain-graph colorings and then formulate a new coloring theory of permutation-gain graphs that sits between gain-graph coloring and correspondence colorings. Like Zaslavsky's gain-graph coloring, our new notion of coloring permutation-gain graphs has well defined chromatic polynomials and lifts to colorings of the regular covering graph of a permutation-gain graph.

Beyond the Mountains explores the ways in which Appalachia often served as a laboratory for the exploration and practice of American conceptions of nature. The region operated alternately as frontier, wilderness, rural hinterland, region of subsistence agriculture, bastion of yeoman farmers, and place to experiment with modernization. In these various takes on the southern mountains, scattered across time and space, both mountain residents and outsiders consistently believed that the region’s environment made Appalachia distinctive, for better or worse. With chapters dedicated to microhistories focused on particular commodities, Drew A. Swanson builds upon recent Appalachian studies scholarship, emphasizing the diversity of a region so long considered a homogenous backwater. While Appalachia has a recognizable and real coherence rooted in folkways, agriculture, and politics (among other things), it is also a region of varied environments, people, and histories. These discrete stories are, however, linked through the power of conceptualizing nature and work together to reveal the…

Feedback-Informed Treatment (FIT) is an evidence-based method for appraising and improving the effectiveness of mental health service delivery. It is a client-driven, outcome-based approach designed to produce better client commitment and to enhance treatment outcomes. This study examined the role of client perception of treatment outcome and therapeutic alliance on client retention in treatment. Data from 11 participating agencies, 2,297 clients, and 55 counselors were collected and analyzed. Results demonstrated that a client’s satisfaction with treatment outcome was significantly associated with engagement in treatment, as measured by the number of treatment sessions that the client completed. However, the client’s perceived alliance with the counselor was not associated with engagement in treatment. The agencies that contributed data to this study only collected FIT data without using the data in counselor supervision. Future research should examine the use of FIT data to improve clinical skills and client outcomes.

Murids to have more than 1300 species globally, forming the largest mammal group.Murids are found nearly everywhere in the world, though many subfamilies have narrower ranges.Murids are not found in Antarctica and many oceanic islands.Five National Parks from Northern areas of Pakistan were physically surveyed.The parks were studied at different times.Dhirkot National Park (DNP) in February 2008, Banjosa National Park (BJNP) from May to June 2009, Pir Lasura National Park (PLNP) from June to July 2009 and Pir Chanasi National Park (PCNP) from April to May 2010.A total of 6 species belonging to the Muridae family were found cumulatively in the study areas.

The family Canidae consists of coyotes, dogs, foxes, jackals, and wolves.The IUCN red list reports 38 species under this family.This study was conducted in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan.Conserved areas of Tolipir National Park, Banjosa Game Reserve, Pir Chanasi National Park, Pir Lasura National Park and Dhirkot Nature Reserve were studied from 2008 to 2010.Vulpes vulpes griffithi (Kashmir or hill fox) is a flexible hunter.It mainly feeds on hares, rodents, reptiles and occasionally small birds.In absence of vertebrate prey, they may subsist on insects and fruit.Canis aureus (Golden Jackal) is a very adaptable animal which readily enters mountainous areas, forest plantations and riverine thickets.Only two species (Vulpes vulpes griffithi and Canis aureus) belonging to the family Canidae were found in the study area.The local sightings of C. aureus were 35% in BGR, 45% in DNR, 28% in PCNP and 40% in PLNP.Local sightings of V. vulpes species were 18% in BGR and 16% in PCNP.It was not observed in Tolipir National Park, Pir Lasura National Park and Dhirkot Nature Reserve.

Introduction: Substance misuse is a significant problem nationally, where Ohio ranks within the top five states contributing to this burden. Montgomery County experiences the most deaths in the state. While illicit fentanyl and analogs are increasingly responsible for overdose-related deaths, prescription misuse is a significant risk factor for progression to illicit substance use. Methods: Survey data from a pilot medication safety campaign utilizing medication disposal pouches were evaluated by descriptive analysis and qualitative analysis. Survey findings were compared to data of all unintentional overdose-related deaths in Montgomery County from January to October, 2017. Secondary analysis of death data was performed to highlight trends in substance use in Montgomery County. Results: 156 surveys were received. Most respondents regard the medication disposal pouches positively and found them easy to use (60.8% and 98.5%). Those who provided comment indicated that at-home methods of disposal were preferred to community-based methods (66.7%). The largest clustering of medication…

There have been relatively few studies that have empirically explored the relationship between self-compassion and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI).Previous studies have found that engagement in self-injurious behaviors is closely related to being self-critical (Glassman, Weierich, Hooley, Deliberto, & Nock, 2007;Hooley, Ho, Slater, & Lockshin, 2010).Therefore, it has been suggested that higher levels of self-compassion may be associated with less engagement in NSSI.The current study explored the relationship between self-reported self-compassion and past self-reported occurrences of NSSI.This study used Neff's (2003a) 12 item Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF) to measure one's level of self-compassion and a Client Information/Demographics Questionnaire (SDS-CCMH) to determine past occurrences of NSSI.It was hypothesized that there would be significant mean differences in self-reported self-compassion scores in individuals who have self-reported occurrences of self-injury than those with no selfreported occurrences.Participants were divided into two groups: those who reported…

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are persistent synthetic compounds that have been environmental contaminants since the 1950s. Exposure in the general population can be through food and water ingestion, use of non-stick cookware, and dust from stain-resistant carpet. Studies have suggested PFASs act as endocrine disrupters and to affect liver and immune function, as well as cause increases in serum lipid levels. Objective: To explore the association between six common detectable PFASs and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in United States (U.S.) adults. Methods: Data from 739 participants aged 20 years and older from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were analyzed. Descriptive analysis was performed on the dataset. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to determine independent association between the serum PFASs and MetS controlling for confounders including age, ethnicity, income, smoking status, and gender. Results: In the descriptive analysis, the overall prevalence of MetS in the sample population…

Learning music instrument is a challenging task for a beginner without constant guidance from an instructor. The primary objective of this thesis research is to design and develop an iOS mobile / iPad learning app that helps users to learn and practice intonation for a suite of wind instruments by themselves with comfort and ease through app-provided tuning and charting guidance and app-assisted self-assessment. Particularly, our successfully-implemented app provides the following features to enhance the user's learning experience: 1 ) Provides learners easy-to-access information for the fingering and tuning techniques of wind instruments by converting Dr. Shelley Jagow's book - "Tuning for Wind Instruments: A Roadmap to Successful Intonation" to an iOS app. 2 ) Provides instant feedback on learner’s technique and performance by assessing the intonation of individual note being played, while the fingering and tuning chart is presented simultaneously for the early practices. 3 ) provides instant feedback on learner’s technique and performance by identifying the sequence of notes…

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world (Bajaj & Banerjee, 2016). Their programs air in 20 languages in over 180 countries, and in the United States approximately 11 million people watch their programs each week (“FAQ,” n.d.). These programs include six hours of televised weekly events and 16 annual pay-per-view events (“WWE Reports,” 2017). In the first quarter of 2017 the company grossed $188.4 million (“WWE Reports,” 2017). They have close ties with the current presidential administration, as Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon was the CEO of the company from 1980 to 2009 (Reuters, 2009) and President Trump has made several appearances on WWE programming in the past (“Donald Trump,” n.d.). As of 2013, 81% of WWE’s audience had an annual household income of less than $50,000 (Miller & Washington, 2014). It can therefore be argued that WWE has a large cultural influence, especially for poor and working-class people. Its consistent popularity with this demographic suggests the working class supports the company because…

A Stochastic Petri Net Reverse Engineering Methodology for Deep Understanding of Technical Documents.Systems Reverse Engineering has gained great attention over time and is associated with numerous different research areas.The importance of this research derives from several technological necessities.Security analysis and learning purposes are two of them and can greatly benefit from reverse engineering.More specifically, reverse engineering of technical documents for deeper automatic understanding is a research area where reverse engineering can contribute a lot.In this PhD dissertation we develop a novel reverse engineering methodology for deep understanding of architectural description of digital hardware systems that appear in technical documents.Initially, we offer a survey on reverse engineering of electronic or digital systems.We also provide a classification of the research methods within this field, and a maturity metric is presented to highlight weaknesses and strengths of existing methodologies and systems that are currently available.A technical document (TD) is…

Electromagnetic Properties of Fractal Antennas

In this essay, Lauren shows how a breakdown in the belief in the Christian God in NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel We Need New Names leads to the protagonist’s renewal of faith in herself. As the world around her implodes and modern-day Zimbabwe collapses under the political regime of Robert Mugabe (who is never named in the novel but whose baleful influence is nevertheless assumed), “Bulawayo juxtaposes human endurance and the absence of a helpful god to achieve commentary on Darling’s fortitude and resilience.” The essay presents several original insights and offers a sensitive and highly nuanced picture of the divided colonial legacy of Christianity in Zimbabwe.

Across the United States, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 34, and younger people are more prone to mental health problems, suicidal thoughts, and behaviors. For instance, 80% of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder have suicide-related behaviors, and between 4-9% of them commit suicide. Moreover, the social stigma associated with mental health issues and suicide deter patients from sharing their experiences directly with others. In such a situation, social media that provides a free and open forum for voluntary expression can provide insights into suicide ideation and self-destructive behavior.\nReddit is a widely used and highly relevant social-media platform where users subscribe to specific subreddits and share their experiences. The users on the respective subreddits often make use of metaphoric suicidal language with related intentions, while interacting with other like-minded users sharing similar experiences. The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) has been employed by clinicians to measure the level of suicidal…

Professional counselors who provide expert opinions in divorce/child custody cases are expected to have unique professional competencies and often experience high levels of ethical complaints that have the potential to affect job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine if professional competency and a history of ethical complaints has an impact on job satisfaction for mental health professionals. Licensed professional counselors and psychologists (n=343) were surveyed using the Professional Competence Standards Instrument (PCSI). Results demonstrated a positive relationship between competence and job satisfaction and four predictors of job satisfaction were identified: bias awareness, ability, experience, and licensure. Recommendations for future research include expanding this research to diverse forensic professionals, expert testimony cases, and evidence-based strategies for improving job satisfaction. These findings may assist counselor educators with improving job satisfaction of future practitioners through better preparation.

Pictographs, commonly referred to as `emoji’, have become a popular way to enhance electronic communications. They are an important component of the language used in social media. With their introduction in the late 1990’s, emoji have been widely used to enhance the sentiment, emotion, and sarcasm expressed in social media messages. They are equally popular across many social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In 2015, Instagram reported that nearly half of the photo comments posted on Instagram contain emoji, and in the same year, Twitter reported that the `face with tears of joy’ emoji has been tweeted 6.6 billion times. As of 2017, Facebook and Facebook Messenger processed over 60 million and 6 billion messages with emoji per day, respectively. Emogi, an Internet marketing firm, reports that over 92% of all online users have used emoji at least once. Creators of the SwiftKey Keyboard for mobile devices report that they process 6 billion messages per day that contain emoji. Moreover, business organizations have adopted and now accept the use of emoji in…

Novel Auto-Calibrating Neural Motor Decoder for Robust Prosthetic Control.The overarching goal of this project is to develop novel neural motor decoders for prosthetic control.EMG decoders measure the activity from an intact but non-target muscle.Neural motor decoders transform the signal measured from the severed motor axons of the target muscle.A multi-scale, highly-realistic computer model of a spinal motor pool was developed (Allen & Elbasiouny, 2018) to serve as a computational platform for decoder development and testing.A firing rate-based algorithm was developed to transform the aggregate discharge of the motor pool into a command signal to control the simulated prosthetic MuJoCo hand.This algorithm was informed by cellular neurophysiology knowledge of how motor neurons are activated by synaptic inputs to generate action potentials.Our results show that this neural motor decoder is fast (i.e., decoding time < 10 ms), reliable (i.e., accurate decoding of inputs varying in waveform, magnitude, and speed), and robust (i.e., accurate decoding of varying activation schemes) in…

Demands for electric vehicles and flexible electronics have escalated research in developing high-performance lithium batteries based on solid-state chemistry. The present work is to develop highly-conductive and flexible solid electrolyte for such applications. Lithium aluminum titanate phosphate (LATP or Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3), both in ceramic pellets and free-standing composite membranes, have been fabricated. The crystal structure, surface morphology, and ionic conductivity are systematically studied. LATP pellets are prepared using solid state reaction approach. The results indicate that calcine temperature has significant impacts on the phase impurity and sintering temperature and duration have more impacts on the grain size and porosity of LATP pellets. At the optimal conditions, the highest bulk conductivity of LATP electrolyte reaches 1.5*10-3 S/cm at room temperature with an activation energy of 0.206 eV. The as-prepared LATP has high conductivities comparable with liquid electrolytes, which is feasible for applications to all-solid-state lithium batteries. Ceramic…

Discovery of small molecules blocking oncogenic K-Ras activity.Ras proteins were the first human oncogenes discovered.Although Ras has been found to be the most frequently mutated oncogene, there are currently no anti-Ras-specific drugs available in the clinic.Ras is responsible for initiating cellular pathways that include proliferation, survival, and apoptosis.There are three ubiquitously expressed Ras isoforms in mammalian cells: H-, N-, and K-Ras.Interaction with the plasma membrane is required for Ras biological activity.When Ras interaction with the plasma membrane is blocked, Ras activity is inhibited.Two compounds (from Dr. Ketcha, WSU Chemistry Department) were tested and shown to dissociate K-Ras, but not H-Ras from the plasma membrane.The molecular mechanism was found to be through phosphorylation of K-Ras Ser181.Furthermore, these compounds block signal output of K-Ras, but not H-Ras, and inhibit the growth of K-Ras-driven non-small cell lung cancer cells.Further characterization of these compounds could lead to the development of anti-K-Ras drugs.ivTABLE OF CONTENTS…

Water bugs fall under the order Hemiptera, suborder Heteroptera, which is further divided into two types, i.e., semi-aquatic (Gerromorpha) and true water bugs (Nepomorpha).They play a vital role as biological control agents and also a source of food for fishes, birds and other aquatic organisms.The present work was carried out to ascertain aquatic Hemiptera in different lentic and lotic water bodies of various sizes in Gujranwala district, Pakistan.A total of 10 species belonging to five families were identified.Species include Nepa ruber Linnaeus, Laccotrephes elongatus Montandon, Ranatra filiformis Fabricius (Nepidae), Corixa substriata Uhler, Micronecta proba Distant, Micronecta thyesta Distant (Corixidae), Lethocerus indicus Lepeletier, Diplonychus rusticus Fabricius (Belostomatidae), Ambrysus sp.(Naucoridae) and Anisops sardea Herrich-Schaffer (Notonectidae).A key at genera and species level was developed to help the future researchers.

The concept of karma (which means that the actions in this birth and previous births will determine the current fate) is exercised as a tool with some explanatory power to help promote understanding about a range of social problems in the South Asian culture. Through an exploration of indepth telephonic interviews conducted with a convenience sample of 20 South Asian women (originally from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan) in the United States, this chapter discusses these South Asian women’s experiences of domestic violence and helpseeking practices, in the context of the concept of karma as a unit of analysis. This study found that due to belief in karma (fate/destiny), South Asian women tend to endure violence for longer periods of their lives and therefore are reluctant to seek help. Additionally, the chapter highlights the meanings, events, processes and structures in the lives of South Asian women respondents living in the United States. Within the framework of discussion on karma and domestic violence (DV), the chapter emphasizes the need to offer…

News articles from The Guardian for the week of December 31, 2018. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.