Visualization for Verification Driven Learning in Database Studies

This thesis aims at developing a data visualization tool to enhance database learning based on the Verification Driven Learning (VDL) model. The goal of the VDL model is to present abstract concepts in the contexts of real-world systems to students in the early stages of computer science program. In this project, a personnel/training management system has been turned into a learning platform by adding a number of features for visualization and quizzing. We have implemented various tactics to visualize the data manipulation and data retrieval operations in database, as well as the message contents in data messaging channels. The results of our development have been utilized in eight learning cases illustrating the applications of our visualization tool. Each of these learning cases were made by systematically implanting bugs in a functioning component; the students are assigned to identify the bugs and at the same time to learn the structure of the software system activ

Visualization for Verification Driven Learning in Database Studies

This thesis aims at developing a data visualization tool to enhance database learning based on the Verification Driven Learning (VDL) model. The goal of the VDL model is to present abstract concepts in the contexts of real-world systems to students in the early stages of computer science program. In this project, a personnel/training management system has been turned into a learning platform by adding a number of features for visualization and quizzing. We have implemented various tactics to visualize the data manipulation and data retrieval operations in database, as well as the message contents in data messaging channels. The results of our development have been utilized in eight learning cases illustrating the applications of our visualization tool. Each of these learning cases were made by systematically implanting bugs in a functioning component; the students are assigned to identify the bugs and at the same time to learn the structure of the software system activ

Novel Strategies In The Prevention And Treatment Of Childhood Obesity: The Importance Of Lifestyle Counseling And Psychological Resiliency

Efforts to prevent and treat childhood obesity have had only modest results. Novel strategies are needed. The aims and hypotheses of this thesis are to: 1) Document the self-reported receipt of lifestyle counseling from physicians and other health care providers by BMI status. We hypothesize that despite recommendations for universal lifestyle counseling, few children will be counseled by their health care providers, though children who are obese will report receiving the most counseling. 2) Test the hypothesis that psychological resiliency (i.e., shift and persist ) protects low socioeconomic status children from obesity. Physical assessments and health surveys were collected from two school-based samples of children (N = 959 and N = 1,523). Multivariate logistic regression and multivariate linear regression were used to address aims one and two respectively. For lifestyle counseling, nearly one-quarter of healthy weight children received no counseling. Overweight children received counseling at rates similar to their healthy weight peers, while obese children were more likely to be counseled. As expected, among children low in resiliency, lower socioeconomic status was associated with significantly higher BMI z-scores (p \u3c .05). However, among children high in resiliency, there was no association of socioeconomic status with BMI z-score (p = .16), suggesting that resiliency may be protective. Future research should to explore how best to leverage interventions we already know to be effective in fighting childhood obesity, such as lifestyle counseling, and also investigate novel means of approaching childhood obesity, including promoting psychological resiliency

Coastal zone management : strategies for improving U.S. coastal zone management

The purpose of my thesis was to make policy recommendations and create an inter-jurisdictional strategy for improving U.S. coastal zone management. The primary methodology through which I gathered information was a coastal community survey. In the survey, questions were asked pertaining to the following: 1) the current state of the local coastal environment-what are the chief problems, and have they been addressed, 2) what policies at the local, state, and federal levels have been successful/least successful in the respective communities-which policies do you recommend, 3) how strict/flexible are the state and federal governments in allowing communities to develop their own policies, and 4) speculation as to the importance and future of environmental planning and preservation in the respective communities-do you think this is important to the welfare of your community, and how do you view the future of your coast. To conduct this survey, I sought coastal communities that met certain criteria. Over 40 communities were randomly chosen, however, if they did not meet the criteria, they were eliminated altogether. I sent a total of 39 surveys, mostly through e-mail, but only received 29 back. I eliminated 3, leaving 26 with which to work. I decided that 20 communities would be included in my thesis altogether, and I wrote brief summaries for each of these communities (see Appendix B). Results from my surveys indicated that beachfront erosion and pollution were by far the greatest problems for the 20 coastal communities studied. Regulations and policies in the forms of programs, projects, and plans were the most utilized coastal management practices. Many communities were given flexibility by the state and federal governments to adopt their own coastal policies. All subjects felt that environmental planning and preservation was very important and optimism for the future of environmental planning was high. Recommendations for better coastal zone management included: 1) actions to acquire and protect open spaces and wildlife habitat on public lands, 2) strict permitting and enforcing measures before development occurs, 3) establishment of carrying capacity, and 4) formation of a local coastal commission. An inter-jurisdictional strategy for improving U.S. coastal zone management, I recommend, is the formation and development of a National Ocean Management Agency (NOMA)

Clinical implications of novel polymer and lipid based drug delivery systems

The use of lipids in drug delivery is not a new trend, some of the lipid dosage forms have been in use for a long time such as suppositories, creams, and emulsions. However, there has been much advancement in the designs of lipid carriers over the past decade. In the same way from the past two decades, new approaches in biodegradable and bio-reducible polymers have paved a way for many recent drug delivery systems. Applications of these novel drug delivery formulations have been promising clinically. However, each system has its pros and cons in various factors depending upon their use and intended route of administration. This review focuses on upbringing the challenges in the use of novel lipid and polymer drug delivery systems in clinical settings and few insights on how to overcome them

Perceptions of Disability, Identity, Agency, Goal Attainment, and Young Adult Disability Programs

Youth with disability are oppressed and marginalized by a dominant cultural narrative called ableism (Adams, Reiss, and Serlin, 2015; Campbell, 2015 as cited in Adams et al., 2015). Challenging ableism is a matter of social justice. Without serious attitudinal shifts and the removal of systemic barriers, our youth with disabilities will continue to experience negative outcomes and underdeveloped agency. This study was conducted to provide a more detailed look into how adults with disabilities, who participated in disability advocacy programs as youth, perceive their past involvement with such programs in relation to defining their disability, identity, and capacity for agency. In addition, the study sought to assess the relevance of disability-positive environments based on participants’ perceptions. The study’s primary research question was: How and to what extent do youth with disabilities perceive disability advocacy programs in Pittsburgh as disability-positive environments? The supplemental research question was: How do young professionals with disabilities perceive and describe living with a disability, developing an identity, and maturing as an agent in the context of past participation in a disability advocacy program? Ten participants were included in the study. Participants were young professionals with disabilities recruited through the researcher’s advocacy network. This study collected qualitative data through semi-structured, in-person interviews. Data were organized and analyzed using Template Analysis; contextualized through the parameters of social cognitive theory, the youth-adult partnership model, and principles of disability-positive environments. The following major themes emerged from the interview data: (1) their seminal experiences with disability as children and as young adults; (2) how they cultivated, defined, and internalized their disability-identity; and (3) how their sense of purpose and achievements provided context for future plans. The concept of disability-positivity, social cognitive theory, and the history of youth-adult partnerships were used as frames to organize the findings into a model called, the Path of Advancement for Development of Positive Disability-Identities model. This model captures the four stages the interviewees experienced during their transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The stages cover avoidance of disability, self-defining epiphanic experiences, established individualized goals and roles, and the accumulation of these experiences, perceptions, accomplishments, and action plans are represented by stage four, the actualization of positive disability-identities. This study found that the development of agency was not situated in any particular advocacy program. Rather, the interviewees’ perceptions of agency and their experiences as individuals with disabilities living in an ableist society were woven into an organized narrative that shaped an understanding of disability, identity, and forged a driving sense of purpose that translated into achieving meaningful goals. The dissertation ends with my agenda as an educational leader: to create a cross-disability advocacy collective that will empower, partner, and amplify strong, new disability narratives with the objective of replacing ableism with agency

The Domestic Clutter Practices of Artists

This study describes a series of interviews with artists regarding their organizational strategies for household clutter. The interviews were conducted to deepen an understanding of clutter’s role within domestic taxonomies, situating clutter not as a failure of homemaking but as a residual category integral to an individual’s sense of home.Five artists were interviewed about a self-selected area of clutter within their homes. Each participant practiced within a unique medium; participants included a zinemaker, fiction author, DJ, sculptor, and a musician. All five participants discussed clutter as sites of active labor and categorical negotiation, places where multiple aspects of their identities comingled to form ecologies unique to their senses of self.Master of Science in Library Scienc

Plan B

The main objective of this project is to build an android application which can help people plan an event or hangout based on all the available time slots of each and every one participating in the event and come up with an optimized time slot. In this way the communication between each and every one participating will be easier and saves a lot of time and cuts down unnecessary discussion. Based on the user’s likings the application can come up with suggestions in future, such as movie recommendation, a new restaurant opened

Rate of change of angular momentum and balance maintenance of biped robots

Abstract — In order to engage in useful activities upright legged creatures must be able to maintain balance. Despite recent advances, the understanding, prediction and control of biped balance in realistic dynamical situations remain an unsolved problem and the subject of much research in robotics and biomechanics. Here we study the fundamental mechanics of rotational sta-bility of multi-body systems with the goal to identify a general stability criterion. Our research focuses on ḢG, the rate of change of centroidal angular momentum of a robot, as the physical quantity containing its stability information. We propose three control strategies using ḢG that can be used for stability recapture of biped robots. For free walk on horizontal ground, a derived criterion refers to a point on the foot/ground surface of a robot where the total ground reaction force would have to act such that ḢG = 0. This new criterion generalizes earlier concepts such as GCoM, CoP, ZMP, and FRI point, and extends their applicability. I

A retrospective study on pemetrexed induced nephrotoxicity in non-small cell lung carcinoma patients

Background: Pemetrexed (PEM) is a new-generation multitargeted antifolate agent that has been shown to have broad-spectrum efficacy in a variety of human cancers, including NSCLC and mesothelioma. Dose-limiting hematologic toxicities are among the most serious side effects. PEM nephrotoxicity is well-known, but its occurrence is thought to be rare. Aim was to determine nephrotoxicity induced due to pemetrexed in non-small cell lung cancer patients.Methods: In patients with the NSCLC, we record a retrospective review on PEM- induced renal toxicity. A total of 327 NSCLC patients were treated in our hospital between 2012 and 2019. Of these, 134 patients were diagnosed with 2 or more chemotherapy cycles. 60 of these patients have been diagnosed with combination of antineoplastic drugs based on pemetrexed and platinum. Others were removed from the study and were also required to be tested for other potential causes of renal injury.Results: Suitable statistical tools were used and data was analysed which showed that repeated chemo cycles of pemetrexed leads to the reversible acute kidney injury. With the results from our study we can understand the severity of nephrotoxicity induced with pemetrexed in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Most of the patients were in the first and second stages of nephrotoxicity and most of them were male. Majority of the patients were also above 40 years of age and also endured more than 4 chemo cycles.Conclusions: It shows that PEM allows longer survival, but acute or chronic kidney failure is the price for this achievement. In conclusion, renal toxicity should be controlled routinely in patients treated with pemetrexed. Before each cycle of pemetrexed, creatinine clearance should be measured. Patients need to be well hydrated during treatment. The patient should also be tested for concomitant medications, and any nephrotoxic symptoms should be reviewed and those drugs removed