Marketing an Established Institutional Repository: Marquette Libraries\u27 Research Stewardship Survey [poster presentation]

This poster illustrates the planning of a strategic marketing campaign for Marquette University\u27s institutional repository, E-Publications@Marquette. The IR was established in 2008 for the deposit of theses and dissertations and has expanded to include faculty publications and research. Despite active participation by some faculty, universal participation remains an elusive goal. The Coordinators of Digital Programs and Marketing and Outreach collaborated to better promote the services and capabilities of the IR. This process involved the identification of faculty participation and needs as well as an assessment of the IR’s capabilities in addressing those needs. Faculty participation was identified through the faculty permissions database, providing an accurate number of faculty contributors. A needs assessment survey was sent to Marquette University faculty, identifying areas of potential growth. Consideration was given to the IR’s ability to meet the identified needs. Equipment, staffing, software, and other resources were evaluated. Based upon the assessment survey and the IR’s available resources, planning for a promotional plan and the evaluation of its effectiveness can then occur

Analysis of Three-Dimensional Protein Images

A fundamental goal of research in molecular biology is to understand protein structure. Protein crystallography is currently the most successful method for determining the three-dimensional (3D) conformation of a protein, yet it remains labor intensive and relies on an expert's ability to derive and evaluate a protein scene model. In this paper, the problem of protein structure determination is formulated as an exercise in scene analysis. A computational methodology is presented in which a 3D image of a protein is segmented into a graph of critical points. Bayesian and certainty factor approaches are described and used to analyze critical point graphs and identify meaningful substructures, such as alpha-helices and beta-sheets. Results of applying the methodologies to protein images at low and medium resolution are reported. The research is related to approaches to representation, segmentation and classification in vision, as well as to top-down approaches to protein structure prediction.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file

Theory of mind, empathy and emotion perception in cortical and subcortical neurodegenerative diseases

Although the impact of neurodegenerative diseases on everyday interactions is well known in the literature, their impact on social cognitive processes remains unclear. The concept of social cognition refers to a set of skills, all of which are essential for living in a community. It involves social knowledge, perception and processing of social cues, and representation of mental states. This report is a review of recent findings on the impact of cortical and subcortical neurodegenerative diseases on three social cognitive processes, namely, the theory of mind, empathy and processing emotions. The focus here is on a conceptual approach to each of these skills and their cerebral underpinnings

Social cognition in normal and pathological aging

The concept of social cognition refers to a set of skills and to emotional and social experiences regulating relationships between individuals. This concept is appropriate in order to help us to explain individual human behaviours and behaviours in groups. Social cognition involves social knowledge, perception and processing of social cues, and the representation of mental states. The concept of social cognition thus refers to a multitude of skills. This paper stops on several of them, namely theory of mind, empathy, moral reasoning, emotional processing and emotional regulation. We propose a conceptual approach to each of these skills also stopping on their cerebral underpinnings. We also make an inventory of knowledge about the effects of age and neurodegenerative diseases on social cognition

03/25/1948 Letter from the Exchange Club of Lewiston

Letter from Paul J. Fortier, President, and Romeo Poirier, Board of Control, of the Exchange Club of Lewiston to Louis-Philippe Gagné.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fac-lpg-letters-1948-01-06/1022/thumbnail.jp

Continuity of Government: Presidential Succession

Questions about the continuity of our key institu­tions have arisen at pivotal moments through­out our nation's history. Watershed events such as the Cold War, the death of President Franklin D. Roos­evelt, and the assassination of President John F. Ken­nedy brought continuity-of-government issues into sharp public relief. Ultimately, these events led to sig­nificant reforms, including the 25th Amendment and a new Presidential Succession Act.A decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, the 9/11 attacks forced continuity issues back into the public consciousness. One result was the creation of the first Continuity of Government Commission, the predecessor to the current commission. More than two decades after 9/11, we still have to ask ourselves, Do we have the legal and constitutional framework in place to ensure that our key institutions of govern­ment could recover from a catastrophic event?America has in place legal and constitutional pro­visions that address presidential succession. These provisions serve us well in the straightforward case of a president's death while in office. However, the cur­rent system does not adequately address less straight­forward scenarios, such as a mass attack on multiple people in the line of succession, the simultaneous incapacity of the president and vice president, and unique succession issues that could arise between Election Day and Inauguration Day.In this report, the Continuity of Government Com­mission recommends several changes to the Presiden­tial Succession Act that address these vulnerabilities. These recommendations would not require constitu­tional amendments; they are achievable through sim­ple legislative changes

Measurement of excited-state transitions in cold calcium atoms by direct femtosecond frequency-comb spectroscopy

We apply direct frequency-comb spectroscopy, in combination with precision cw spectroscopy, to measure the ${\rm 4s4p} ^3P_1 \to {\rm 4s5s} ^3S_1$ transition frequency in cold calcium atoms. A 657 nm ultrastable cw laser was used to excite atoms on the narrow ($\gamma \sim 400$ Hz) ${\rm 4s^2} ^1S_0 \to {\rm 4s4p} ^3P_1$ clock transition, and the direct output of the frequency comb was used to excite those atoms from the ${\rm 4s4p} ^3P_1$ state to the ${\rm 4s5s} ^3S_1$ state. The resonance of this second stage was detected by observing a decrease in population of the ground state as a result of atoms being optically pumped to the metastable ${\rm 4s4p} ^3P_{0,2}$ states. The ${\rm 4s4p} ^3P_1 \to {\rm 4s5s} ^3S_1$ transition frequency is measured to be $\nu = 489 544 285 713(56)$ kHz; which is an improvement by almost four orders of magnitude over the previously measured value. In addition, we demonstrate spectroscopy on magnetically trapped atoms in the ${\rm 4s4p} ^3P_2$ state.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure

The Absentee Ballot and the Secret Ballot: Challenges for Election Reform

Reforms in the recently enacted federal election reform legislation primarily address improving voting at a polling place, but there is a growing share of the electorate who vote away from the polling place through increased use of absentee ballots and vote-by-mail systems. Voters who vote away from the polling place do not have the same protections as those at the polling place. In particular, these voters do not have a secret ballot, as any ballot cast without a drawn curtain behind oneself is potentially subject to coercion, vote buying and fraud. This Article looks at the tension between the Australian Ballot and absentee voting. Both the Australian Ballot and the Absentee Ballot were electoral reforms of previous generations. The Australian Ballot was instituted by almost all of the states in the 1880s and 90s to combat abuses at the ballot box such as vote buying and coercion by party machines. There were two major periods of absentee ballot reform. In both periods of absentee ballot reform, there was recognition of the dangers of casting a ballot away from a home polling place. Since these early periods of adoption of absentee voting laws, there has been a significant rise in voting away from the polling place. In addition, many of the safeguards implemented by early legislation have been repealed. There are a number of advocates for easier absentee balloting, vote by mail, or even voting over the Internet. Although they emphasize the convenience of such measures, these advocates do not seem to appreciate the privacy concerns that the originators of the absentee ballot did. 7b the extent that election reform legislation is to be successful in improving the electoral system, it must take note of the trend toward voting away from the polling place and consider the importance of the secret ballot as well as convenience

The Continuity of Congress

The Continuity of Government Commission was originally formed after 9/11 to address how our key institutions can reconstitute themselves after a catastrophic attack. A new version of the commission, including previous members and new ones, who have experience in all three branches of government, met in 2021 and 2022 to consider continuity-of-government issues in light of the recent pandemic and other developments. In this report, the commission issues its recommendations on the continuity of Congress.The core continuity problem for Congress is that if many members of the House of Representatives were killed in an attack or other catastrophe, the House would likely have no quorum and be unable to meet for months after the event. Unlike the Senate, the House can fill its vacancies only by special election, and those elections are likely to take months to conduct.The key recommendation is for a constitutional amendment to allow for temporary replacements to be appointed to fill the seats of deceased members until special elections are held to elect a permanent replacement. With immediate successors to fill the seats of deceased members of Congress, a Congress with nearly full representation could be reconstituted within days to work with the president to face the challenges of the present emergency.The commission makes several other recommendations that deal with other continuity-of-Congress issues:Creating a limited provision for allowing remote proceedings when members of Congress cannot meet in person in Washington,Allowing temporary replacement members to fill in for incapacitated members in the extreme case when deceased and incapacitated members number more than a majority of the House or Senate, andAdopting procedures to ensure that a new Congress could commence, perhaps even remotely, if a catastrophic emergency prevented the regular opening of a new Congress