February 2014: CCTVs in Chicago – Where are they?

PODs, or Police Observation Devices, are a specific type of closed-circuit television cameras capable of capturing images and tracking individuals that are primarily monitored by the Chicago Police Department. Using a 1,216 point dataset provided by Professor Rijav Shah, University of Illinois-Chicago, DePaul undergraduate Aaron Moore selected PODs based on the zoning type in which the cameras were located. For his Senior Capstone in GEO300: Geographical Inquiry, Aaron created a density layer was then created based on the number of PODs within each zone type. Select structures within these “hot spots” were identified with the use of Google Earth that lie in proximity of the select intersection mentioned In the image captions. The map on the left depicts the total density of PODs throughout Chicago, with the highest concentration occurring Downtown and clusters found to the west and south. The map on the right shows PODs that lie within residential zones were the most widely dispersed of all zone types, with “hot spots” occurring to the west and at the Cabrini row houses on the city’s Near North Side.https://via.library.depaul.edu/mom/1009/thumbnail.jp

February 2014: CCTVs in Chicago – Where are they?

PODs, or Police Observation Devices, are a specific type of closed-circuit television cameras capable of capturing images and tracking individuals that are primarily monitored by the Chicago Police Department. Using a 1,216 point dataset provided by Professor Rijav Shah, University of Illinois-Chicago, DePaul undergraduate Aaron Moore selected PODs based on the zoning type in which the cameras were located. For his Senior Capstone in GEO300: Geographical Inquiry, Aaron created a density layer was then created based on the number of PODs within each zone type. Select structures within these “hot spots” were identified with the use of Google Earth that lie in proximity of the select intersection mentioned In the image captions. The map on the left depicts the total density of PODs throughout Chicago, with the highest concentration occurring Downtown and clusters found to the west and south. The map on the right shows PODs that lie within residential zones were the most widely dispersed of all zone types, with “hot spots” occurring to the west and at the Cabrini row houses on the city’s Near North Side.https://via.library.depaul.edu/mom/1008/thumbnail.jp

Structural Inference of Hierarchies in Networks

One property of networks that has received comparatively little attention is hierarchy, i.e., the property of having vertices that cluster together in groups, which then join to form groups of groups, and so forth, up through all levels of organization in the network. Here, we give a precise definition of hierarchical structure, give a generic model for generating arbitrary hierarchical structure in a random graph, and describe a statistically principled way to learn the set of hierarchical features that most plausibly explain a particular real-world network. By applying this approach to two example networks, we demonstrate its advantages for the interpretation of network data, the annotation of graphs with edge, vertex and community properties, and the generation of generic null models for further hypothesis testing.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Milton aspiring : belief, influence, and Shakespeare

Abstract: Over the last several hundred years, literary criticism has paid generous attention to the works of John Milton and his greatest and, in space and time, closest predecessor, William Shakespeare. However as Alwin Thaler observed almost a century ago, “strangely enough . . . it has neglected the relationships between them.” Exploring the literary, ideological, and political reasons for that neglect, this dissertation searches out the ways that Shakespeare influenced Milton and, more specifically, how that influence contributed to the young Milton’s self-fashioning of the poetic identity he desired for himself: to be the vates poet of the English people. The influence of Shakespeare on the young Milton exemplifies a certain version of imitation that G.W. Pigman III has termed “dissimulative,” expanding on common notions of influence, particularly when authors with seemingly disparate approaches to their art still draw from one another in a way that is intentionally difficult to detect, however powerful. Each of the four chapters offers a reading of one of Milton’s early poems alongside one or more germane works by Shakespeare never before been read in the context of Milton’s early poetic development. Chapter 1 explores the two authors’ competing metaphysical notions of time by reading Milton’s mid-winter birth poem, On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, hereafter referred to as the Nativity Ode, alongside Shakespeare’s play set around the “Festival of the Epiphany,” Twelfth Night: Or, What You Will. Chapter 2 explores the two authors’ competing notions of language, how it works and what it should do, by reading Milton’s A Masque to be Presented at Ludlow Castle, hereafter referred to as Comus, alongside Love’s Labour’s Lost and Measure for Measure. Chapter 3 explores the young Milton’s notions of poetic fame, the proper social role of the poet, and opposing approaches to employing poetry as a means to immortality by reading Lycidas alongside a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The final chapter states a never-before suggested claim about Milton’s early verses “On Shakespeare,” namely that the young poet’s work contains layers of irony: while praising and imitating, Milton is also obliquely criticizing his latest and greatest predecessor.Englis

Radiative Transfer in the Martian Environment: In-Situ Results from the MSL Curiosity Rover and Laboratory Experimentation on Martian Regolith and Crystalline Rock Analogs

Global circulation models predicted a suppressed planetary boundary layer within Gale Crater prior to the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory. Images from Mars allow the amount of suspended dust near the crater floor to be estimated numerically. The atmosphere within the crater is shown to be relatively dust free compared to the amount of dust inferred in the atmospheric column, suggesting little mixing between the upper and lower layers. The dust within the crater appears to be well mixed horizontally, implying that dust events (such as dust devils or lateral dust transport) in the northern plains of Gale Crater are rare, even during the most convective time of day. This supports the notion of a suppressed planetary boundary layer within Gale Crater. Radiative transfer modeling of the martian atmosphere benefits from this quantification of low-lying dust. This dissertation aims to expand our knowledge of the radiation environment of Mars into its surface and subsurface. The scattering of radiation through analog martian materials is an area with little research. A mini-goniometer is built to collect transmission spectra as a function of scattering angle for martian analog regoliths and crystalline rock samples. Materials show strong forward or isotropic scattering profiles through the samples. The transmission through the materials is assessed at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. Kieserite and the majority of the rock samples exhibit an isotropic scattering profile and attenuate ultraviolet radiation significantly. Ultraviolet shielding materials are potential ecological niches for biosignatures, and this dissertation aims to guide the search for these environments on present day Mars. Studies into the habitability of martian surface analogs typically assess the amount of radiation transmitting perpendicular into a surface. This does not fully characterize the multiple surface scattering that exists within these materials. The depths at which radioresistant microorganisms can exist on present day Mars are estimated by modeling the isotropic transmission scattering profiles for kieserite and crystalline rocks under martian insolation. A depth between 2 and 10 mm into the martian subsurface is enough to attenuate ultraviolet radiation to levels suitable to terrestrial radioresistant microorganisms