Sonnet 29

Sonnet 29 is an a capella choral piece written for the Gettysburg College Choir in the Spring of 2012. Dr. Robert Natter, director of the College choir, asked me if I would like to write a piece with text of Shakespeare, as he was planning to program a concert that consisted entirely of Shakespearean text. I chose this particular sonnet because it has a great metaphor of transformation which lends itself well to being set to music. In the first half of the piece, the speaker is in utter despair, and I bring this out with clustered harmonies, quiet dynamics, and a somber atmosphere. Then, about halfway through the piece, the speaker has a change of heart after thinking of someone that he loves. His utter despair turns to utter joy, which is reflected by a change in texture, harmonic language, and volume. Upon first read of the text, one might assume that the speaker is an entirely different person than he was at the onset of the poem in that his despair has completely vanished. With the ending of my piece, I question if human emotion really works that way. To underscore this dichotomy, I combine the close harmonies of the first half of the piece with the new harmonic language of the second half to create an ending that is not entirely resolved

The Ghost in the Machine: A Defense of the Possibility of Artificial Intelligence

The Chinese Room argument shows that the Turing test functions only by syntax, thereby revealing that the notion of meaning is not properly accounted for by the test. Thus, Searle is convincing in his refutation of the Turing test for strong artificial intelligence. Yet, while the mind is not like a program running on certain hardware, the brain is. But thinking, Searle’s real interest, is not simply running the appropriate program! Therefore, rather than providing a solution to the Mind-Body problem, Searle’s conclusion about AI begs the question about what causes semantics. Searle’s logic goes awry somewhere, and, for this author, Searle errs when he claims that syntax is insufficient for semantics. Since Searle seems committed to the idea that “brains cause minds,” couldn’t a sufficiently sophisticated artificial brain (such as an advanced digital computer) cause an artificial mind? Doesn’t Searle, himself, admit as much

The Epidemiology Of Taekwondo Injuries In Youth And Adult Competitors

Objective: To study the nature and incidence rate of injuries affecting young and adult taekwondo competitors during training and competition and to examine the relationship between injury rates and specific injury risk factors. Background: Taekwondo is becoming an increasingly popular sport among youth and adult populations. With this increase in popularity, the epidemiology of injury in taekwondo is becoming an increasingly important area of investigation. There has been little research investigating the incidence and distribution of injuries affecting taekwondo athletes, and the research that does exist lacks consistency in research methods. Analytical studies are limited to those which have examined risk factors. The results of these studies are mixed with little consistency in findings across studies. Method: This study followed both a retrospective and prospective cohort design. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained from the University of North Dakota (UND). Taekwondo participants at a local taekwondo academy were invited to participate in this study. Baseline data were collected through a demographic and previous injury history form. Injury surveillance on participants was administered throughout the spring taekwondo season from March 5th, 2013 until May 24th, 2013. Participants were queried on all injuries that they sustained during this period of time. All injuries that were reported to the principal investigator were documented. An injury was defined as any injury to a body part (as a result of taekwondo) that interferes with training or competition and is recorded on the first day of onset and every day thereafter until it does not interfere with training or competition. Additionally, exposure to all training and competition was recorded by the researcher in terms of hours and athletic-exposures (AEs). Once the season was over, study data were entered into a computer system and descriptive analyses were run to determine the incidence and distribution of injury. Due to multiple injuries in some participants, Poisson regression models were fitted using generalized estimating equations to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) and to test risk factors. Unadjusted rates were estimated from Poisson regression with each of the following risk factors: age, sex, height, weight, years of experience, rank (high vs. low), previous injury history, specific injury history, and having an unrelated injury during the season. For adjusted rate ratios a multiple-Poisson regression was used with the following risk factors: sex, weight, previous injury history, and having an unrelated injury during the season. Results: Nine of the 22 participants [14 male (5 youth), 8 female (2 youth)] sustained a total of 16 injuries during the study period. One AE was equal to one hour of exposure. The overall injury rate was 34.86 injuries per 1,000 AEs and 1,000 hours. The overall injury rate for adult males was 68.49 injuries per 1,000 AEs and 1,000 hours, and for adult females was 35.50 injuries per 1,000 AEs and 1,000 hours. There were no youth injuries sustained during this study period. The majority of injuries sustained by males involved the hand/fingers (40%). The majority of injuries sustained by females involved the shoulder (33.33%). The most common injury type in males was laceration and contusion (30%), followed by dislocation (20%). The most common injury type in females was joint dysfunction in the shoulder (33.33%). All injuries were sudden onset in nature, and 81.25% of the injuries were a new injury. The most common injury situations were blocking a kick (33.33%) and board/brick breaking (33.33%), followed by drills and self-defense holds (16.67%). The most common mechanism of injury was receiving a blow (33.33%) and impact with a surface (33.33%), followed by self-defense holds (16.67%). All injuries were minor in severity. In the unadjusted Poisson regression analysis of injuries per 1,000 AEs, the following risk factors resulted in a significant effect: age, height, weight, previous injury history, specific injury history, and having an unrelated injury during the season. However, in the multiple Poisson regression, only weight and having an unrelated injury remained significant. Conclusion: Injury rates reported in this study are generally higher than those reported in previous research. There were no youth injured in this study. Injury rates are reported in athletic-exposures and exposure hours in order to make this study comparable to previous research. Multivariate analyses indicated that weight and having an unrelated injury during the season may be risk factors for injury in taekwondo. Further research needs to be done on possible risk factors (e.g. height, weight, experience) and preventive measures to further reduce the likelihood for injury during training and competition in taekwondo. Further research should include larger sample sizes, more child subjects, and longer periods of injury surveillance

Hydroamidation of Vinyl Ethers by Acid-Catalyzed Multicomponent Isocyanide Addition

Hydroamidation of carbon–carbon double bonds is an attractive strategy for installing nitrogen functionality into molecular scaffolds and, with it, increasing molecular complexity. To date, metal-based approaches have dominated this area of chemical synthesis despite the drawbacks of air and moisture sensitivity, limited functional group tolerance, toxicity, and/or high cost often associated with using metals. Herein is enclosed an operationally simple, metal-free, one-pot, regioselective, multicomponent synthetic procedure for the hydroamidation of carbon–carbon double bonds. This method features mild reaction conditions and utilizes isocyanides and vinyl ethers for the rapid and modular synthesis of α-oxygenated amide scaffolds. Additional effort was put towards synthesizing reactive natural products as substrates to the developed methodology, and drafting a probable catalytic cycle for the main and side reactions present within this multicomponent procedure

NIHILIST PERDURANTISM: A NEW ONTOLOGY OF MATERIAL OBJECTS

Ordinary material objects, such as guitars and houses, do not seem to pose any serious philosophical problems. However, the nature of the material objects and their part-whole relation raises serious questions about fundamental ontologies. Furthermore, part-whole relations are not necessarily spatial; they can be temporal as well. My dissertation investigates the problems posed by ordinary material objects, and the different ontological views that attempt to provide answers to these problems. I then present a new and radical view, which I call Nihilist Perdurantism (NP). NP claims that objects have temporal parts, but not spatial parts. I arrive at this view by first exploring and arguing against different views on composition, with a focus on arguments against common sense ontologies of ordinary objects. I then discuss the nature of mereological simples and argue against several views that claim that qualitatively heterogeneous simples are possible (Markosian and McDaniel). Next, I present my arguments against perdurantist, endurantist, and presentist view of persistence. I especially focus on endurantism, and use the aforementioned argument against the possibility of qualitatively heterogeneous simples to construct a similar argument against endurantism. Finally, I argue in favor of my view, NP. This view combines a mereological nihilist view (defended at various times by Unger, Van Inwagen, Merricks, and Sider) about spatial parts with a perdurantist view (defended at various times by Lewis, Hawley, Heller, and Sider) of temporal parts. Therefore, according to NP, there are no guitars, trees, or houses. The only objects that exist are NP objects; these are line-shaped objects that extend through spacetime. With respect to the three spatial dimensions, these objects have no parts. However, with respect to the temporal dimension, NP objects do have parts in the form of points and line segments. My work shows that NP has better solutions to many of the puzzles and problems posed by material objects, such as the puzzle of change, over the three standard views. Hinchliff argues that change is puzzling because in order for there to be real change, then the following four intuitions must be true: (1) The candle persists through the change. It existed when it was straight, and it exists now when it is bent…(2) Shapes are properties not relations. They are one-placed, not many-placed…(3) The candle itself has the shapes. Not just a part but the candle itself was straight, and not just a part but the candle itself is bent…(4) The shapes are incompatible. If the shapes were compatible, there need not have been a change. The puzzle of change is the mutual inconsistency of these four intuitions. I argue that perdurantists must deny intuition (3), endurantists must deny intuition (2), and presentists must deny intuition (1). I then argue that only NP can accommodate all four intuitions about both macroscopic and microscopic change while resolving the inconsistency of the four intuitions. My dissertation presents a new view that provides a fresh perspective on the debate about the nature of material objects. My development of NP touches on a number of other philosophical problems. In Chapter One, I discuss the role of intuitions in metaphysics, and argue that many supposedly “common sense” intuitions are already philosophical positions. In Chapter 2, I argue against Korman’s and Markosian’s common sense ontologies of ordinary objects. In Chapter 3, I argue that the endurantist view of persistence is inconsistent and should be rejected. In addition to making the case for NP and its solution to the puzzle of change in Chapter 4, I also argue that NP can solve the problem of motion in a homogenous substance. Finally, in Chapter Five, I argue against the possibility of both gunky and junky material objects

MAXIMIZING BENEFITS AND MINIMIZING IMPACTS: DUAL-EARNER COUPLES’ DIVISION OF HOUSEHOLD LABOR

Several socio-structural theoretical approaches attempt to explain the gendered division of household labor, but the dyadic process of dividing labor has gone largely unexplored. Therefore, a grounded theory approach was taken with 20 dual-earner married couples to uncover the process of dividing household labor between spouses. The theory that emerged indicated that couples seek to maximize benefits in their distribution of labor, and do so by dividing tasks according to personal preferences and proficiencies. When a household task goes unclaimed by both spouses’ preferences and proficiencies, containment and outsourcing are the strategies employed to minimize the impact of the unclaimed task. The emergent theory can be used by researchers to illuminate the dyadic process of division of household labor in ways that other theories are not able. The theory can also be used by educators to prepare premarital couples for future division of household labor practices as well as by therapists who can identify problematic patterns within clients’ division of household labor process

Evolution of mating system and inbreeding depression in the Mimulus moschatus (Scrophulariaceae) alliance

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2002The transition from cross- to self-fertilization is considered a major pattern in the evolution of angiosperms. Yet, evolutionists continue to struggle to explain the evolutionary processes involved in maintaining both self- and cross-fertilization, which often occur within the same species. The diversity of mating systems suggests that selective pressures are also diverse, sometimes promoting selfing and other times promoting outcrossing. Inbreeding depression is commonly invoked as the primary selective force balancing the advantages of selfing or promoting outcrossing. The interaction between levels of inbreeding depression and mating system evolution has been fertile ground for both theoretical and empirical studies; however, a long-term patterns and processes remain ambiguous. I examined the relationship of inbreeding depression and outbreeding depression to mating system in a group of closely related Mimulus taxa, specifically incorporating information on their evolutionary relationships. I posed the following questions: Do selfing populations have low inbreeding depression and outcrossing populations have high outbreeding depression? Is selfing an evolutionary 'dead-end'? Are morphological traits correlated with molecular estimates of mating system? How evolutionary labile is mating system and inbreeding depression? Is inbreeding depression negatively correlated with outbreeding depression? Results from this study largely supported theoretical expectations. Inbreeding depression was lowest in the most selfing species and highest in the most outcrossing species. Outbreeding depression was not observed. Many populations actually experienced positive fitness consequences of between-population crosses. The question of selfing species being evolutionary dead-ends remained equivocal. Flower morphology was strongly related to molecular estimates of mating system as expected. Contrary to expectations, inbreeding depression appears to evolve much more quickly than does mating system. I conclude that in the Mimulus moschatus alliance, inbreeding depression is not as strong a selective force as often implied in the evolution of mating system. Although generally low, inbreeding depression can be high in some populations of rare taxa. Outbreeding depression was minimal. Last, inbreeding depression was positively correlated with outbreeding depression, suggesting that mediating the negative effects of inbreeding depression cannot occur by the introduction of foreign genes for many populations

The Impact of Program Changes on Enrollment, Access, and Utilization in the Oregon Health Plan Standard Population

In February 2003, in an effort to expand Medicaid coverage within tight fiscal constraints, the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) underwent a significant redesign of benefits, cost-sharing and premium structure. The OHP2 redesign resulted in two tiers of coverage, OHP Plus and OHP Standard, and a premium subsidy program. The OHP Plus benefit package and cost sharing structure is similar to the original OHP and serves the federally-mandated Medicaid populations: children and pregnant women, low-income elderly and individuals meeting the SSI definition of disability. OHP Standard, designed for Oregon’s expansion population,1 includes a reduced benefit package, expanded co-pays and increased premiums. Premium rules were also tightened for the OHP Standard group: individuals are now disqualified from benefits for non-payment of premiums and locked-out from OHP for six months following a disqualification. In addition, monthly premiums are no longer waived for certain groups.(e.g., homeless, zero income). In order to assess the impact of recent program changes, a mail-return survey was conducted between November 2003 and February 2004 with a random sample of OHP beneficiaries who were enrolled as of February 2003, immediately before the program changes were implemented. The survey assessed issues related to enrollment, health care access, health care use, and financial and health status and covered a six-month period following the OHP changes. A total of 2,783 individuals completed surveys, 1,405 individuals in OHP Plus and 1,378 in OHP Standard. This report presents descriptive survey results for the 1,378 OHP Standard enrollees and addresses the impact of recent program changes on 3 key outcomes: enrollment, health care access, and utilization

Online HEPA Filter Replacement

High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance (HEPA) filters serve an important role in safety of nuclear facilities and can be an important tool in safeguards verification of nuclear activities. This paper describes a new design for HEPA filter housing in nuclear facilities to reduce replacement time, improve safety, reduce worker dosage, and facilitate safeguards procedures post replacement. This design must meet the criteria of staying online during filter exchanges, assisting with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sampling practices, meeting the nuclear air and gas code specifications and relevant subsections, and adhering to the principles of ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable), for maintaining low radiation levels to maximize worker safety. Our new design focuses on improved safety while achieving an online filter exchange. Not only will an online filter exchange reduce facility downtime and save facilities money, it has the potential to offer increased worker safety, and provide easy filter access for IAEA officials who wish to conduct sampling and inspection for safeguards. It would effectively eliminate the need for a facility to shut down for filters to be replaced. In our research, we did not find any current designs on the market that can perform an online HEPA filter exchange. We also conducted research on sealing techniques to support the online system design. We have established a project relationship with Radiation Protection Systems (RPS), Inc.: a contracting company based out of Groton, Connecticut, USA which specializes in mobile HEPA filter and carbon pre-filter housings for nuclear applications. The technical information exchange and partnership with RPS may result in an actual product that could be installed in future nuclear power plants if the design can be proven to work in concept and function. It may also be possible to retrofit existing HEPA installations in some cases. The design includes a double door bag-in, bag-out design and operational procedure to maintain worker safety and allow for zero escape of radioactive volatiles or particulates into the air external to the facility enclosure. A combination of neoprene gasket, silicone gel, and brush sealing techniques are employed in the new design with continuity of airflow during the switch in mind. This innovative design improves safety as well as operational efficiency. The design team is cognizant of safeguards considerations and aimed the design towards facilitating access. In particular, in our new design access to HEPA filter for sampling is much easier which can potentially improve the frequency and quality of sampling during IAEA inspections. Likewise, the lower level of effort (therefore cost) in switching filters will encourage changing filters more frequently. This will lower the risk of filter failures caused by clogged or possibly faulty filters. In fact, the IAEA reported that âAIJInvestigators from other national laboratories have suggested that aging effects could have contributed to over 80 percent of these failures. âAI The prototype design features a HEPA filter train (2 HEPA filters connected by a gel-seal interface) that slide seamlessly through the housing on rollers while the nuclear facility is online, the first (old) filter being dislodged into a sealed bagging unit, and the second (new) filter being clamped into place using a cam shaft clamping mechanism. There are two areas of design innovation here that are particularly exciting. The gel-seal interface that connects the filters will provide an air tight gap between two filters while they are exchanged. The clamping system features a brush seal interface on top and bottom, to maintain airflow and mobility of the filter while facilitating a switch. Because extended radiation exposure may alter the properties of sealants and gaskets we are investigating the use of seals that can be replaced during these quick filter changes. The design prototype is a full-scale model, capable of housing a 12x24x12 inch HEPA filter. Currently, we have completed the design of the new housing unit, created a proof of concept build, as well as conducted the preliminary engineering analysis, cost analysis, and material selection of the final prototype. Manufacturing of the final housing is proceeding and upon completion will be validated with a set of rigorous testing procedures concerning sealing and safety of the system. These tests are standard industry practices and RPS will assist in performing the tests. Namely, ASME test FC-I- 3272, a test in which aerosol particles of 20 m, which are the most penetrating particle sizes (MPPS), are sent through the housing unit and penetration is monitored during an online switch. Further testing will include colored smoke being pumped through the unit to test sealing capabilities and to identify possible particulate buildup. Provided the tests show that the design is successful in maintaining air flow and safety during the filter exchange, methods of improvement for ease of use and the automation of the exchange process, improvements to continuity of knowledge, and radiation monitoring techniques will be investigated for a comprehensive final product design