The Thesis: texts and machines

This opening chapter focuses on how research knowledge is represented in the dissertation as a textual format. It sets the dissertation in two contexts. Borg discusses its historical formation within the technologies of the pen and the typewriter; Boyd Davis analyses the changes produced by digital technologies, offering counter-arguments to the claim that the predominantly textual thesis is a poor representation of research knowledge. He advances evidence-based arguments, using a synthesis of recent technological developments, for the additional functionality that text has acquired as a result of being digital and being connected via international networks, contrasting this with the relatively poor forms of access available even now using pictures, moving images and other non-textual forms. The chapter argues that the dissertation is inherently contingent, changing and changeable. While supervisors may expect their students to produce a dissertation that resembles the one they wrote themselves, changes both in the available technologies and in the kinds of knowledge the dissertation is expected to represent are having a significant effect on its form as well as its content. Boyd Davis is co-editor of the book in which this chapter is published, which has its origins in an ESRC-funded seminar series, ‘New Forms of Doctorate’ (2008–10), that he co-devised and co-chaired. The work grew out Boyd Davis’s questioning of methods and formats for research knowledge in his introduction to, and editing of, a special issue of Digital Creativity, entitled Creative Evaluation, in 2009. This followed a peer-reviewed symposium on evaluative techniques within creative work supported by the Design Research Society and British Computer Society, which he devised and chaired. Related work on forms of knowledge in interactive media appears in an article with Faiola and Edwards of Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis, for New Media and Society (2010)

Characterizing the Internal Porous Structure of Equine Proximal Sesamoid Bones Subjected to Race Training Using Fast Fourier Transforms

The equine racing industry is one of the main proponents in Kentucky’s economic infrastructure. In this industry there has come a need to investigate the nature of the proximal sesamoid bone (PSB). Breakdowns involving the PSBs are the leading cause in racehorse deaths in the industry, with still little known about what causes this bone to fracture. This study seeks to shed insight by investigating the internal structure of the PSB. Using microCT scanning, the internal porous structure was captured. From there, noticeable differences in the pores were noticed and quantified using fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis. The dominant peak frequencies in each FFT spectrum hold information about the pore size and pore repeating pattern for each of selected window for the FFT analysis. The dominant peak distribution shape was characterized by a confidence ellipse for each FFT spectrum. The size of the ellipse in the frequency domain holds information that can be converted to the spatial domain to characterize the size and spacing of the porous network within the PSB. The findings of this study show interesting implications for the idea that the PSB is regionally changing the internal nature of the bone which lead to changes in structural integrity. It was observed that there were regional differences in the fracture types that could correspond with their specific fracture. A linear mixed model statistical analysis was used on the data, and it was shown that some biological factors are only shown to be significant in certain areas and not in others, while some factors are also only shown to affect the angle of the bone and not the size of the bone. Looking at the specific differences and biological factor effects, we can pinpoint which regions are experiencing changing due to the specific factors

THE UNITED STATES AND THE CONGO, 1960-1965: CONTAINMENT, MINERALS AND STRATEGIC LOCATION

The Congo Crisis of the early 1960s served as a satellite conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Scholars have argued about U.S. motivations and interests involved in the Congo Crisis. The major division between scholars is between those who contend the United States acted for national security reasons and those scholars who argue the United States desired to establish a neocolonial regime to protect economic interests pertaining to vast Congolese mineral wealth. The argument of this thesis is that the United States policy in the Congo between 1960 and 1965 focused on installing a friendly regime in the Congo in order to protect its national security interests. This argument lends to the introduction of a new term to classify U.S. actions: pseudocolonialism. The previous term, neocolonialism, denotes a negative connotation based on economic greed and does not satisfactorily explain the motivations of the United States. By examining the value to the United States of Congolese uranium and cobalt as well as Congolese geographic location, the singular explanation of economic greed is weakened

Results of A Local Combination Therapy Antibiogram For \u3cem\u3ePseudomonas Aeruginosa\u3c/em\u3e Isolates: Is Double Worth The Trouble?

Purpose: To determine the frequency at which fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides demonstrate in vitro activity against non-urinary, non-skin/skin structure Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates exhibiting decreased susceptibilities to one or more β-lactam agents. Methods: β-lactam-non-susceptible P. aeruginosa isolates recovered from blood, bone, lower respiratory tract, pleural fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, or peritoneal fluid cultures between October 2010 and October 2014 were reviewed from four community hospitals within a single health-system. Only the first isolate per patient was included for analysis. The likelihood that each isolate was susceptible to a non-β-lactam antimicrobial was then determined and summarized within a combination antibiogram. Results: In total, 179 P. aeruginosa isolates with decreased susceptibilities to one or more β-lactam agents were assessed. Because no appreciable differences in antimicrobial susceptibility profile were observed between hospitals, the isolates were evaluated in aggregate. Susceptibility rates for β-lactam monotherapy ranged from 34% to 75%. Aminoglycosides possessed increased antibacterial activity compared to fluoroquinolones. Tobramycin was the non-β-lactam most likely to expand antimicrobial coverage against β-lactam-non-susceptible P. aeruginosa with activity against 64%, 66%, and 65% of cefepime-, piperacillin-tazobactam-, and meropenem-non-susceptible isolates, respectively (p \u3c 0.001 for all). Conclusions: The results of this study support the use of aminoglycosides over fluoroquinolones for achieving optimal, empiric antimicrobial combination therapy for P. aeruginosa when dual antimicrobial therapy is clinically necessary. Future efforts aimed at optimizing combination therapy for P. aeruginosa should focus on systemic interventions that limit the selection of fluoroquinolones in combination with β-lactams to expand coverage based on local susceptibility rates