Social Network Intelligence Analysis to Combat Street Gang Violence

In this paper we introduce the Organization, Relationship, and Contact Analyzer (ORCA) that is designed to aide intelligence analysis for law enforcement operations against violent street gangs. ORCA is designed to address several police analytical needs concerning street gangs using new techniques in social network analysis. Specifically, it can determine "degree of membership" for individuals who do not admit to membership in a street gang, quickly identify sets of influential individuals (under the tipping model), and identify criminal ecosystems by decomposing gangs into sub-groups. We describe this software and the design decisions considered in building an intelligence analysis tool created specifically for countering violent street gangs as well as provide results based on conducting analysis on real-world police data provided by a major American metropolitan police department who is partnering with us and currently deploying this system for real-world use

Physicians, Patients, and Poets

I examined the works of William Carlos Williams, Peter Pereira, Rafael Campo, Tory Dent, Lucia Perillo, and John Rybicki to gain a better understanding of the field of medicine. I selected these authors based upon their varied experiences with illness, disease, and loss. Their prose and poetry illuminate the nature of medicine and provide insight into human nature as well. The thesis has been edited for the SMBHC Thesis Repository to protect the copyright interests of some authors and publishers. The table of contents has been edited to reflect the changes

Senior Recital: CJ Markow, horn

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Music Education. Mr. Markow studies horn with Prof. Richard Williams.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2352/thumbnail.jp

The use of the Analytic Network Process in the assessment of the functioning of migration areas on the example of the Eastern Carpathians

The article presents the results of the research on the migration processes on the peripheral areas of the Eastern Carpathians. The significance of managing migration areas was presented and the need for an in-depth analysis of the consequences of the migration processes in the context of the activities of the public administration was indicated. Thanks to the application of the multi-criteria method of the Analytic Network Process, it was possible to indicate the principal consequences of the migration in three main areas: economic, agricultural-environmental and social. There was also an indication of a possible implementation of the research results in managing local government units in the Eastern Carpathians thanks to the application of the four main models - benefits, costs, opportunities and threats, so as to define the importance of the weight assigned to particular factors (sub-criteria) in the overall perspective of the migration phenomeno

Ribosomal intergenic spacer (IGS) length variation across the Drosophilinae (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

BACKGROUND: The intergenic spacer of the ribosomal genes in eukaryotes (IGS) contains duplications of the core transcription promoter. The number of these duplicated promoters, as measured by the IGS length, appears to be correlated with growth rate and development time in several distantly related taxa. In the present study, we examined IGS length variation across a number of species of Drosophila to determine the amount of variation in this trait across different evolutionary time scales. Furthermore, we compared the usefulness of two methods commonly used to determine IGS length: Southern Blot Hybridization (SB) and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). RESULTS: Our results show broad variation in IGS length across the genus Drosophila, but closely related species had similar IGS lengths. Our results also suggest that PCR tends to underestimate the true IGS size when the size is greater than 5 kb, and that this degree of underestimation is greater as the IGS size increases. CONCLUSION: Broad variation in IGS length occurs across large evolutionary divergences in the subfamily Drosophilinae. Although average IGS length has been shown to evolve rapidly under artificial selection, closely related taxa generally have similar average IGS lengths. Our comparison of methods suggests that without previous knowledge of the DNA sequence of the IGS and flanking regions, both methods be used to accurately measure IGS length

Overview and Uncertainty Analysis for an Irrigation Flow Measurement Facility

Accurate flow measurement is critical for modern water resource management. At the irrigation district level, instantaneous flow rates must be well-measured at key bifurcation points to reliably meet downstream demand in open channel systems while also minimizing diversions. Furthermore, good flow measurement at each delivery point is a pre-requisite for successful volumetric water billing. Accuracy and repeatability are important characteristics of good flow measurement. Maximizing these traits requires periodic calibration to a common standard. This paper presents an overview of calibration efforts and the engineering background behind an active flow measurement facility at the Irrigation Training and Research Center at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). The facility is fitted with two major flow measurement devices, a gravimetric weighing tank and a volumetric tank. Although both are used for comparison, verification, and calibration of closed pipe and open channel flow measurement devices, this report will focus on an uncertainty analysis for the gravimetric weighing tank

Modernizing Aging Pipe Infrastructure in Irrigation Districts

Many irrigation and water districts in California convey water through aging concrete pipelines. In addition to huge problems with leaks and failures, districts also struggle to provide turnout deliveries with more flexible schedules. This paper discusses the problems that are encountered, and various approaches that have been or can be used. The specific pipeline designs that are discussed in this paper are generally gravity flow, flowing downhill from a canal. Most of these pipelines were originally installed under the assumptions that farmers would need high flows at low pressures for surface irrigation

Conditioning of Velocity Profiles in Pipelines

This paper reports on the testing of a relatively simple flow conditioner for pipelines. This research found that a pipeline velocity flow conditioner that is constructed with an internal cone, having an inside diameter of 80 percent of the pipeline ID, provided the best results. It provided good velocity conditioning at a distance of two diameters downstream of an obstruction. The minor loss is equal to the velocity head of the flow in the original pipeline diameter