The problem of luck and free will : how counterfactuals can help.

For free will theorists, the problem of luck has been a constant source of consternation. Peter van Inwagen presents a version immune to even agent-causal conceptions of free will. However, van Inwagen’s version of the problem can be avoided if there are true propositions taking the form of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. There are good reasons to think that there are, and no comparably good reasons to think that there are not. This defense is also resistant to common attacks based on foreknowledge and the grounding of the truth of these counterfactuals

Joining and aggregating datasets using CouchDB

Data mining typically requires implementing operations that involve cross-cutting entity boundaries and are awkward to implement in document-oriented databases. CouchDB, for example, models entities as documents, with highly isolated entity boundaries, and on which joins cannot be directly performed. This project shows how join and aggregation can be achieved across entity boundaries in such systems, as encountered for example in the pre-processing and exploration stages of educational data mining. A software stack is presented as a means by which this can be achieved; first, datasets are processed via ETL operations, then MapReduce is used to create indices of ordered and aggregated data. Finally, a Couchdb list function is used to iterate through these indices and perform joins, and to compute aggregated values on joined datasets such as variance and correlations. In terms of the case study, it is shown that the proposed approach to implementing cross-document joins and aggregation is effective and scalable. In addition, it was discovered that for the 2014 - 2016 UCT cohorts, NBT scores correlate better with final grades for the CSC1015F course than do Grade 12 results for English, Science and Mathematics

Senior Recital: Robert Herrington, jazz guitar

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Herrington studies jazz guitar with Trey Wright.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2215/thumbnail.jp

Polyrotaxane Variants and Their Effects on the Cholesterol Efflux in Patients Suffering from Niemann Pick type C

Niemann Pick type C disease (NPC) is a rare lysosomal storage disorder characterized by a progressive accumulation of cholesterol in the late endosomal/lysosomes compartment leading to cellular dysfunction and organ failure. Symptoms include ataxia, dysarthria, cognitive dysfunction, and seizures. Although average life expectancy is below 20, there are no FDA approved treatment available making it a serious unmet medical need. Clinical trials with 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) has shown promise in cholesterol normalization within NPC cells. However, HP-beta-CD treatment has been shown to cause ototoxicity in NPC patients at high dosages. Supramolecular complexes known as polyrotaxanes have been synthesized in hopes of decreasing the amount of free HP-beta-CD in the body that will lead to hearing loss. The solubility of rotaxanes threaded with only HP-beta-CD in aqueous systems is low, but has seen an increase with the addition of sulfobutyl-beta-cyclodextrin (SBE-beta-CD). In this study, polyrotaxanes with varying amounts of HP-beta-CD and SBE-beta-CD were synthesized and used to treat NPC1 fibroblasts. Filipin staining and fluorescent imaging were performed on these fibroblasts to assess the levels of cholesterol after treatment thus finding the optimum ratio of HP-beta-CD to SBE-beta-CD

Junior Recital: Josh Hayward, saxophone

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Hayward studies saxophone with Sam Skelton.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2155/thumbnail.jp