Institutionalization, Technology, and Power: The Ideological Context of Style Organizations

Organizations have the power to establish the norms of discourse within various fields through organizational style guides. These style guides determine the conventions of discourse that professionals use every day. In this thesis, I explore and articulate the ideological context of some style guides in prominent professions. The institutionalization of discourse is seen through the history of style manuals and is particularly noted within the discourse of contemporary organizations that create style guides. Through an application of the theories of Foucault and Habermas, I discuss how these organizations institutionalize discourse and perpetuate a system of purposive-rational action. In this thesis, I offer an ideological critique of contemporary organizations that publish style guides and perhaps a potential methodology for future investigation

Philosophy Motivates Undergraduates in Mathematics

A talk on how elective seminars on the philosophy of mathematics can inspire undergraduate students to pursue and persist in mathematics

An Investigation of Methods For Analyzing Networks Containing One Nonlinear Element

The inclusion of a single nonlinear element in a general N-loop network greatly complicates the resulting equations and prohibits a straightforward solution. The object of this investigation is to provide a method for solving such networks. In particular, a reduction of the network coefficient matrix will be considered in order to obtain one nonlinear equation and (N-1) linear equations. It will be shown that the form of the nonlinear equations is always the same, and a procedure for approximating the solution of equations of this type will be given

Developments for the Treatment of Invasive Infections Due to Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

Acinetobacter baumannii is a significant pathogen in healthcare settings (specifically prominent in healthcare- and ventilator-associated pneumonia) due primarily to its virulence and resistance to a wide variety of antimicrobial drug classes, including carbapenems (CRAB). Existing therapies (notably polymyxins, minocycline, tigecycline, amikacin, and sulbactam) often result in suboptimal tissue concentrations, high rates of toxicity, and increasing rates of resistance. Although utilizing combinations of antibiotics (specifically those containing colistin) have been employed, results have been mixed, and control trials are lacking. Eravacycline is a novel tetracycline with an improved pharmacokinetic profile and more potent activity against A. baumannii relative to tigecycline. Cefiderocol has a unique mechanism of action that has performed well in vitro against multidrug-resistant (MDR) and CRAB isolates. Limited clinical data exists with each of these agents. Other novel antimicrobials are still in early phase clinical trials (ETX2514/sulbactam, TP-271, TP-6076, VNRX-5133/cefepime, cefepime/zidebactam, AIC-499, GSK3342830, and SPR741) while further research is underway for non-antibiotic approaches, specifically monoclonal antibodies and bacteriophage therapies

The Effect of Pigmentation on Latex and Non-Latex Orthodontic Elastics

Background: Intraoral Elastics have been widely used in Orthodontics for well over 100 years. Changes in material composition, manufacturing and addition of color to elastics has shown to effect force levels over time. Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of pigmentation on force levels and their degradation over time in both Latex and Non-Latex orthodontic intraoral elastics. Materials & Methods: Groups consisted of elastics in Latex from American Orthodontics in both natural and four different colors, American Orthodontics Non-Latex in natural, Ormco Latex in both natural and four different colors, Auradonics Latex in both natural and 4 different colors, and Auradonics Non-Latex in both natural and four different colors (25 groups total, 10 elastic samples in each group). Data collection was performed over 24-hours, at five-minute time intervals. Samples were stretched to a starting distance of 19.10mm (manufacturer recommended) and cycled with an additional 25mm at each 1-minute time interval to simulate function. A custom-built testing apparatus was utilized to simulate the intra-oral environment, and force data was collected. Latex elastics containing green pigment degraded faster and delivered lower force values, in all manufacturers, at most time points. By 12-hours, the Non-Latex elastics showed significantly lower force levels than Latex elastics. At 24-hours several of the Non-Latex elastics had failed. Conclusions: Pigmentation and Material Composition had a significant effect on force levels and their degradation over time, with green pigment and Non-Latex elastics showing lower forcer values and greater force decay rates over time

Concretions found in Tertiary Sands Along Ecleto Creek in Southern Texas

Cemented nodules, or concretions are fairly common in the geologic record. Nonetheless they are important proxies for the understanding of processes occurring in Earth’s critical zone. Histories can be complex because of overprinting by multiple diagenetic processes. Previously un-described decimeter scale spheroidal – ellipsoidal concretions have been found in Tertiary aged strata (Reklaw Formation) within Ecleto Creek, in Wilson County south of Seguin, Texas. These concretions eroded out of the cut bank side of the creek after heavy rains and high water flow. Thin section petrography, cathodoluminescence, and electron microscopy are used to describe the fabric, lithology as well as the nature of the cement. The concretions are banded with four apparent zones, of variable petrography, and are hollow; there is no evidence of a nucleus other than some very loose fine-grained, sub rounded, frosted quartz. The interior void of the concretions vary in size from one to the next ranging from 5-15 cm. The outer most part has smaller nodules of hematite on the surface of the concretion itself. The next layer consists of mostly angular to sub-angular quartz grains, with trace amounts of other minerals such as glauconite and fluorite; it is also rich in a black non-crystalline material, resembling spherules, which is yet to be confirmed. The third layer is extremely thin and has darker brown bean shaped grains, which may be hematite; as well as sub-rounded quartz grains. The fourth layer contains angular quartz grains more of the black non-crystalline material and yellowish limonitic cement. These concretions are unusual in the sense that they have no obvious nucleus and are hollow. They have petrographically distinct layers. Nodules such as these have application to the understanding of sedimentary diagenesis on Mars, which has an iron-rich waters and documented spherules.Dr. Fawn Las

Isopropyl alcohol to counteract effects of freezing on extended-storage alginates

Title from PDF of title page, viewed July 8, 2011Thesis advisor: Mary P. WalkerVitaIncludes bibliographical references (p. 36-39)Thesis (M.S.)--School of Dentistry. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2011The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of freezing and isopropyl alcohol (IA) on two extended-storage alginates. Impressions were made of a custom stainless steel model of known dimensions and stored for 96 hours at room and freezing temperatures with or without IA and then poured with Type IV gypsum. Impression and cast clinical acceptability were evaluated based on 4 criteria: tray and impression separation, impression cracking, cast surface alterations, and residual alginate on casts. Percent differences in arch length and width between casts and the stainless steel model were also calculated. For both alginates, frozen impressions stored with or without IA and the resultant casts were all clinically unacceptable. There was high variability in cast dimensions with impressions exposed to freezing temperatures with or without IA. The evidence suggests that including IA during impression storage did not counteract the effects of freezing. This abstract of 146 words is approved as to form and content.Introduction -- Materials and methods -- Results -- Discussion - Conclusion

A Robot Advisor to Improve Computerized Game Play

This paper explores using a trained machine learning agent as a robot advisor for StarCraft II. A targeted visual representation of the robot advisor decision vector advised players of superior decisions in real-time. The robot advisor provided players with the best decisions given the game state and time remaining. Study subjects had to generalize a game strategy from the robot advisor recommendations to a later game round. We sought to determine whether different advice representations (1) improved performance when an advisor is available, (2) improved subsequent performance when an advisor was not available (i.e., did carry over learning occur?), and (3) whether subjects reported that the robot advice was a positive learning experience. The research design involved a pre-test condition (play without an advisor to gauge initial performance), a test condition (subjects were randomized to receive no robot advice, single-recommendation robot advice, or multiplerecommendation robot advice), and a post-test condition (play without an advisor to gauge performance gains). Some high-performing subjects had a ceiling effect and did not improve over the three experiment rounds. After excluding subjects with a ceiling effect, subjects assigned to the singlerecommendation robot advisor showed more learning across the rounds than the subjects in the control group (no robot advisor) or those assigned to the multiple-recommendation robot advisor. In the randomized test round, the single-recommendation robot advisor group outperformed no advisor group or the multiple-recommendation robot advisor group. Our project offers a research framework for evaluating the potential of robot advisors in other training scenarios