A Preliminary Investigation of Fecal Contamination in the Silver Creek Watershed

This preliminary research strives to determine if a non-point source of contamination is contaminating a stream in Berea, Kentucky. The cattle feedlot is discharging runoff into the Silver Creek Watershed. I analyzed samples from Bogie Creek, John Ballard stream, and Silver Creek in order to determine the amount of phosphorus, nitrates, ammonia, and E. coli colony forming units present at each sample site. Precipitation and its effect on the samples was also considered. Bogie Creek and the other sample sites all exceeded EPA’s recreational Maximum Contaminant Levels in Phosphorus, Total Nitrogen, and E. coli colonies. Nitrate, ammonia, and precipitation were all significantly associated with logCFUs with an R squared value of 95.47%. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was also performed in order to determine the presence of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE). According to PCR, universal bacteria was present but not VRE. PCR was not conducted on bovine specific mitochondrial DNA or enterococci. The research stresses the need for a more in depth study of the Silver Creek watershed and concrete remediation measures be taken

Views of student engagement among students and faculty in online courses

As part of an effort to learn more about the technologies currently available to students, three executives in the online division of a private, not-for-profit four-year university requested a survey of students and faculty to learn more about the technologies to which they currently have access. Additionally, each of three executives wanted to better understand student and faculty views of student engagement in the division\u27s online courses. To that end, research-based questions about student engagement levels were added to a survey about access to technology. This mixed-method non-experimental study collected data from students and faculty about which definition of student engagement taken from the literature they primarily relate to, as well as their views of current levels of student engagement in online courses offered by the university. Interestingly, student and faculty responses regarding the definition of student engagement to which they related, whether they felt the only courses are engaging based on that definition and the course activities they found most engaging were nearly identical. Given that the responses between the subject groups were so similar, survey bias may be a valid consideration. Recommendations include editing of survey questions, surveying faculty and students in individual courses and more research on the role gender differences may play in student engagement in online learning environments

Part of the story: 10 years of the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF)

[From the text] Neither union nor NGO, Sanef is a forum. It brings together editors, senior journalists and journalism educators across the divides of race, institution and media platform to participate in the new South African democracy. Over 10 years, its members have worked to deepen media freedom and overcome old injustices still present within the industry. The organisation has led debate and projects about the quality of Journalism and journalism training

The effectiveness of specialized legal counsel and case management services for indigent offenders with mental illness

Background: In recent years, jurisdictions have recognized the strain placed on limited existing resources by criminal offenders with mental illness who frequently cycle through local jail facilities. In response, many locales have developed and implemented specialized programs to more effectively and efficiently manage these offenders, particularly the process of assigning defense attorneys to these often indigent defendants. Methods: The current study examined the impact of an Indigent Defense Counsel (IDC) program designed to provide specially trained defense attorneys, and enhanced case management services to 257 indigent jail inmates with a qualifying, major mental health diagnosis (e.g., major depression). These offenders were compared to 117 similar offenders who did not receive these services, on both their length of stay in the jail, and their likelihood of recidivism after release to the community. Results: Survival analyses revealed that program participants spent about 17 fewer days in jail; however, recidivism rates between groups, measured as return to the same county jail or as statewide re-arrest, did not differ. Conclusions: These results suggest that defendants with mental illness can potentially be managed effectively in the community, with little added risk to public safety and at potential savings in jail bed days/costs. Implications for the processing of indigent criminal defendants with mental illness are presented

Understanding the Roots of Radicalisation on Twitter

In an increasingly digital world, identifying signs of online extremism sits at the top of the priority list for counter-extremist agencies. Researchers and governments are investing in the creation of advanced information technologies to identify and counter extremism through intelligent large-scale analysis of online data. However, to the best of our knowledge, these technologies are neither based on, nor do they take advantage of, the existing theories and studies of radicalisation. In this paper we propose a computational approach for detecting and predicting the radicalisation influence a user is exposed to, grounded on the notion of ’roots of radicalisation’ from social science models. This approach has been applied to analyse and compare the radicalisation level of 112 pro-ISIS vs.112 “general" Twitter users. Our results show the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms in detecting and predicting radicalisation influence, obtaining up to 0.9 F-1 measure for detection and between 0.7 and 0.8 precision for prediction. While this is an initial attempt towards the effective combination of social and computational perspectives, more work is needed to bridge these disciplines, and to build on their strengths to target the problem of online radicalisation

Bioarchaeology of Adaptation to Climate Change in Ancient Northwest China

The 4000 BP climate event was a time of dramatic change, including a cooling and drying climate and the emergence of pastoral practices and a distinct cultural identity across northern Eurasia. However, the link between the climatic changes and the cultural changes has not yet been thoroughly explored. This dissertation therefore assesses human biological measures such as frailty, physiological stress, and nutritional status to ask whether late Holocene climate change precipitated a crisis and collapse of subsistence practices, as has been claimed. The dissertation employs the theoretical framework of the “adaptive cycle,” an understanding of complex systems that incorporates both change and continuity. The dissertation asks whether the Bronze Age transition, in which humans adapted to the arid climate of the second and first millennia BCE, constituted a “collapse” or “transformational adaptation,” in which the human-environment system changed categorically; or an “incremental adaptation,” in which defining system elements persisted with only peripheral changes. Skeletal samples from six populations (spanning 2600-221 BCE) were examined for bioarchaeological markers of oral health, nonspecific infectious lesions, trauma, stature, and fertility. There was broad continuity and some improvement in population health measures in the Bronze Age study populations, with a decline in health in the Iron Age groups. Bronze Age subsistence systems therefore seem to have been resilient enough to adapt to the new climate, while the sociopolitical conditions of the Iron Age led to poorer health outcomes. The Bronze Age transition has often been described in terms of “collapse,” and by critically engaging with this narrative, the current project demonstrates that the transition in fact entailed an incremental adaptation, rather than a collapse. These findings also point to how sociocultural factors can serve as a buffer against environmental stressors in some groups, while themselves serving as stressors in others.Doctor of Philosoph

Shape-based Feature Engineering for Solar Flare Prediction

Solar flares are caused by magnetic eruptions in active regions (ARs) on the surface of the sun. These events can have significant impacts on human activity, many of which can be mitigated with enough advance warning from good forecasts. To date, machine learning-based flare-prediction methods have employed physics-based attributes of the AR images as features; more recently, there has been some work that uses features deduced automatically by deep learning methods (such as convolutional neural networks). We describe a suite of novel shape-based features extracted from magnetogram images of the Sun using the tools of computational topology and computational geometry. We evaluate these features in the context of a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network and compare their performance against the traditional physics-based attributes. We show that these abstract shape-based features outperform the features chosen by the human experts, and that a combination of the two feature sets improves the forecasting capability even further.Comment: To be published in Proceedings for Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference 202

An Epidemiological Transition in the Chinese Northern Zone

Bioarchaeological research has greatly contributed to an understanding of the health consequences of the transition to agriculture in prehistory. This paper proposes that a similarly dramatic transition in health accompanied the transition to pastoralism during the Bronze Age in the Chinese Northern Zone. Bioarchaeological data, in combination with other types of data, can be used to test the hypothesis that the advent of pastoralism and agropastoralism in the Northern Zone was accompanied by a reduction in infectious diseases and dietary deficiencies, and an improvement in population health. This work can build on previous work in the region by moving beyond the consideration of human behavior change in its sociopolitical context, to consider it in its ecological context. It will consider humans as one element in complex, multi-scalar systems, and will examine the health consequences for humans when the cultural-natural systems of which they are a part undergo reorganization and transformation.Master of Art

Local constructions of gender-based violence amongst IDPs in northern Uganda: analysis of archival data collected using a gender- and age-segmented participatory ranking methodology

Background Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant problem in conflict-affected settings. Understanding local constructions of such violence is crucial to developing preventive and responsive interventions to address this issue. Methods This study reports on a secondary analysis of archived data collected as part of formative qualitative work – using a group participatory ranking methodology (PRM) – informing research on the prevalence of GBV amongst IDPs in northern Uganda in 2006. Sixty-four PRM group discussions were held with women, with men, with girls (aged 14 to 18 years), and with boys (aged 14 to 18 years) selected on a randomized basis across four internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Lira District. Discussions elicited problems facing women in the camps, and – through structured participatory methods - consensus ranking of their importance and narrative accounts explaining these judgments. Results Amongst forms of GBV faced by women, rape was ranked as the greatest concern amongst participants (with a mean problem rank of 3.4), followed by marital rape (mean problem rank of 4.5) and intimate partner violence (mean problem rank of 4.9). Girls ranked all forms of GBV as higher priority concerns than other participants. Discussions indicated that these forms of GBV were generally considered normalized within the camp. Gender roles and power, economic deprivation, and physical and social characteristics of the camp setting emerged as key explanatory factors in accounts of GBV prevalence, although these played out in different ways with respect to differing forms of violence. Conclusions All groups acknowledged GBV to represent a significant threat - among other major concerns such as transportation, water, shelter, food and security – for women residing in the camps. Given evidence of the significantly higher risk in the camp of intimate partner violence and marital rape, the relative prominence of the issue of rape in all rankings suggests normalization of violence within the home. Programs targeting reduction in GBV need to address community-identified root causes such as economic deprivation and social norms related to gender roles. More generally, PRM appears to offer an efficient means of identifying local constructions of prevailing challenges in a manner that can inform programming