The Doubting Chain

This is a collection of poetry

Frances Anne Wister (1874-1956)

One of the first leadership positions that Frances Anne held was as vice president of the Women’s Civic Club of Philadelphia (c. 1907). She served as vice president for the rest of her life, except for a period of seven years (1922-29), when she served as its president. It was her sister, Mary Channing Wister, who founded the Women’s Civic Club, but when she died, Frances Anne continued it and kept it running. The Civic Club was responsible for bringing about electric street lighting to the city of Philadelphia.https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/people_places/1013/thumbnail.jp

A simple and efficient face detection algorithm for video database applications

The objective of this work is to provide a simple and yet efficient tool to detect human faces in video sequences. This information can be very useful for many applications such as video indexing and video browsing. In particular the paper focuses on the significant improvements made to our face detection algorithm presented by Albiol, Bouman and Delp (see IEEE Int. Conference on Image Processing, Kobe, Japan, 1999). Specifically, a novel approach to retrieve skin-like homogeneous regions is presented, which is later used to retrieve face images. Good results have been obtained for a large variety of video sequences.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Safe-T expanding services and improving patient outcomes

"Sexual assault is a serious public health issue affecting men, women and children statewide. In 2021 there were 3,262 reports of sexual assault in Missouri (Missouri State Highway Patrol, 2023). 12% of reported sexual assaults in Missouri occurred in rural areas and 88% occurred in metropolitan areas. Lifetime cost of rape per victim is a staggering $122,461 (Peterson, et al., 2017)." --Why safe-T.University of Missouri. MU Health Care

Developing an algal biofilm filtration system for the remediation of nutrient pollution in freshwater ponds

Anthropogenic nutrient pollution is one of the most serious threats facing aquatic systems in modern times. Pollution with compounds containing nitrogen and phosphorous encourages rapid development of autotrophic biomass, or blooms, that severely degrade the quality of an aquatic system both as a habitat for organisms and as a water resource for human use. In freshwater ponds, the widespread need for treatment of nutrient pollution and resulting blooms has resulted in the growth of a large industry dedicated to pond management and maintenance. These companies utilize a variety of chemical and non-chemical treatments to prevent the growth of blooms or limit their impact on humans and organisms that use the ponds. This study performed research and development on a new technology that utilizes bioremediation as a means of treating nutrient pollution and autotrophic blooms in freshwater ponds. The agent of bioremediation chosen for use was Chlorella sp. grown as a biofilm in a prototype pond water filtration system. Field trials lasting one year were performed on six freshwater ponds located throughout Central and Western New York to determine if the prototype was capable of reducing the percentage of each pond’s surface that was covered by bloom biomass. The results of the field trials suggest that Chlorella sp. biofilm filtration treatment is a commercially viable option for the treatment of Lemnoideae organisms such as Lemna sp. and Wolffia sp. The concentration of dissolved nitrate, phosphate, and ammonia in each pond was also monitored at three sites; statistically significant changes in the concentration of the target nutrients was observed at two sites via multiple linear regression utilizing percent surface cover as a response. The results of this analysis may allow Chlorella sp. biofilms to be utilized commercially as a bioremediation treatment for nutrient pollution in freshwater ponds

The Bride, Millennial Identity, and Instagram: A Case Study of Hillsong Australia’s Instagram Account

Identity has become an incessant focus for millennials. They ascribe ever-growing significance to identity anchored in an accepting community that elevates their perception. Subsequently, identity is increasingly significant for brand and consumer relationships. Successful brands understand this and incorporate a pervasive sense of their unique identity into their brand, visually and otherwise. This case study of Hillsong Church hopes to help churches understand the importance of visuals in communicating identity. Hillsong Australia’s Instagram is examined using the Saussure model of visual semiotic theory to understand how they present their church identity in relation to millennial identity. The two most dominant visual themes on their account are promotion and entertainment (respectively). Lesser themes are as follows; the Houston family, congregants, text-based visuals, holidays, landscapes, and a small “miscellaneous” category. Using these results, this thesis analyzes Christian scripture to better understand theological ramifications of social media practice. Working off this foundation, this thesis offers practical advice for local churches seeking to improve social media engagement and more accurately reflect their congregation