Gov Docs are Special Too! Primary Source Instruction using Government Information Collections

Introduction - 3 Presenters Case Studies and Lesson Plans Discussion Questions Selecting Sources Addressing Challenges Outcomes Recommended Resources Questions/Discussio

The cosmological impact of intrinsic alignment model choice for cosmic shear

We consider the effect of galaxy intrinsic alignments (IAs) on dark energy constraints from weak gravitational lensing. We summarize the latest version of the linear alignment model of IAs, following a brief note of Hirata & Seljakand further interpretation by Laszlo et al. We show the cosmological bias on the dark energy equation of state parameters w0 and wa$ that would occur if IAs were ignored. We find that w0 and wa are both catastrophically biased, by an absolute value of just greater than unity under the Fisher matrix approximation. This contrasts with a bias several times larger for the earlier IA implementation. Therefore, there is no doubt that IAs must be taken into account for future stage III experiments and beyond. We use a flexible grid of IA and galaxy bias parameters as used in previous work and investigate what would happen if the Universe is described by used the latest IA model, but we assumed the earlier version. We find that despite the large difference between the two IA models, the grid flexibility is sufficient to remove cosmological bias and recover the correct dark energy equation of state. In an appendix, we compare observed shear power spectra to those from a popular previous implementation and explain the difference

Art of decapitation: Medici power, prestige, and propaganda

The martyrdom of the patron saint of Florence, Saint John the Baptist, ensured that a rhetoric of decapitation existed within the city prior even to the establishment of an oligarchic republic in 1382 and the subsequent rise of the Medici family. As the city was drawn into war in the early 1400s, the rhetoric of decapitation expanded beyond a religious sense and came to incorporate imagery of David as the Giant-Slayer within a civic understanding. The Medici family, the preeminent power of Florentine politics and Italian Renaissance art patronage, sought through artistic commissions to appropriate the rhetoric of decapitation that existed in Florence to portray themselves as symbols of Florentine liberty and to justify their power. As the rhetoric associated with decapitation imagery within Florence shifted, the Medici began to use capital punishment to further assert their power. Due to the integration of the Medici within Florence and with the rhetoric of decapitation, they were able to control the public reception of capital punishment and therefore continue the justification of their rule as Florence shifted away from a republic and to a principality.Lew Wentz FoundationHistor

Uncivilized language and aesthetic exclusion : language, power and film production in Pakistan

This study investigates language ideologies and aesthetics in Pakistan through an ethnographic study of the Punjabi film industry, known popularly as “Lollywood.” Punjabi is the mother tongue of about 45 percent of the Pakistani population and the most widely-spoken language in the most politically and economically powerful province, yet it has long been relegated to a subordinate position by hegemonic political and cultural apparati, which give preference to Urdu and English. Punjabi films, like the language, are heavily denigrated by the cultural elites (particularly the English-speaking upper class) as crude and vulgar. While most studies on film and language are textual in nature, this research hopes to join a burgeoning body of ethnographic work on cinema in finding new approaches to understanding film production, film culture, and the relationship of cinema to language politics. This dissertation asks how an ethnographic study of film—and specifically cinematic production—might contribute to a broader understanding of both cultural and linguistic practices. Specifically, I seek to explore the connections that emerge from and inhere in the relationships between the Punjabi language and the aesthetics, representations, solidarities, and social commentaries found in Punjabi popular cinema. Moreover, I argue that an examination of the particular kind of language used in film, the register I call Filmi Punjabi, is key to understanding how these issues are connected. Finally, I seek to explore what happens to a community of analog filmmakers in a rapidly digitizing world; how do they navigate the concurrent technological and aesthetic shifts that often seem to threaten not just their economic opportunities but also their filmmaking praxis and community networks? This project takes the cinema industry as a lens through which to investigate the relationships between issues such as class, ethnicity, and gender, aesthetic and moral hegemonies, and linguistic and cultural practices in contemporary Pakistani Punjab.Anthropolog

Sit Back, Relax, And Tell Me All Your Secrets

The goal of this research is to describe an active learning opportunity that was conducted as a community service offering through our Center for Cybersecurity Education and Applied Research (CCEAR). As a secondary goal, the participants sought to gain real world experience by applying techniques and concepts studied in security classes. A local insurance company tasked the CCEAR with assembling a team of students to conduct penetration testing (including social engineering exploits) against company personnel. The endeavor allowed the insurance company to obtain information that would assess the effectiveness of employee training with regard to preventing the divulgence of sensitive information. The team of students assembled organized, planned and executed all penetration testing. This academic opportunity allowed the students to build experience transacting the social engineering while laying the groundwork for future projects that will allow additional students to build and expand the process outlined in this study

The effects of failed state status on terrorist targeting: A Lebanese case study

Understanding the targeting decisions of terrorist organizations is a key concept that has been largely overlooked in counter-terrorism research. The success of terrorist organizations in Lebanon motivates the current study to assess how their operational decisions changed as Lebanon transitioned from civil war to state instability. Guided by rational choice theory, I explore the idea that terrorist organizations target entities that are most threatening to their chances of survival using data from the Global Terrorism Database. Specifically, the study uses multinomial logistic regression models to understand terrorist targeting choices in Lebanon from 1975 to 2018. While Lebanon is only a case study, I anticipate that the conclusions drawn here can help us understand similar dynamics in other parts of the world. The primary analysis finds a lack of support in predicted patterns of terrorist targeting. This study also includes a supplemental analysis providing directions for future research

Art of decapitation: Medici power, prestige, and propaganda

The martyrdom of the patron saint of Florence, Saint John the Baptist, ensured that a rhetoric of decapitation existed within the city prior even to the establishment of an oligarchic republic in 1382 and the subsequent rise of the Medici family. As the city was drawn into war in the early 1400s, the rhetoric of decapitation expanded beyond a religious sense and came to incorporate imagery of David as the Giant-Slayer within a civic understanding. The Medici family, the preeminent power of Florentine politics and Italian Renaissance art patronage, sought through artistic commissions to appropriate the rhetoric of decapitation that existed in Florence to portray themselves as symbols of Florentine liberty and to justify their power. As the rhetoric associated with decapitation imagery within Florence shifted, the Medici began to use capital punishment to further assert their power. Due to the integration of the Medici within Florence and with the rhetoric of decapitation, they were able to control the public reception of capital punishment and therefore continue the justification of their rule as Florence shifted away from a republic and to a principality