To Archive or Not to Archive: The Resistant Potential of Digital Poetry

This essay addresses the much discussed problem of archiving digital poetry. Digital media are labile, and several writers of digital poetry are incorporating the media’s ephemerality into their poetics. Rather than rehash arguments that have been taking place within the field of digital media and digital poetics for years, I turn to the field of contemporary art curation and preservation, a field in which curators and archivists are struggling with the very immediate concerns, ethical and otherwise, related to archiving works that are made from ephemeral media. One particular digital poem that has recently broken, has recently become unreadable, is Talan Memmott’s Lexia to Perplexia. Memmott composed the poem in 2000, and he incorporated the poem’s inevitable obsolescence into the text of the poem itself. He has since refused to “fix” or “update” the poem, because he contends that that would make it something other than what it was intended to be. Rather, he is choosing to let the poem die because that is what the poem is supposed to do. This essay concludes with a discussion of the political implications of acknowledging the ephemerality of digital media, the resistant potential of the poem when its ephemerality is embraced, and some ways in which archivists can preserve the memory of the poem without necessarily preserving the poem itself

Substitute Site Measures in a Varying Parameter Model with Application to Recreational Fishing

This paper employs a varying parameter travel cost model to determine the economic valuation of fishing trips and catch for a sample of Long Island anglers. Substitution measures in the model are characterized in terms of the number and the quality of proximate alternative sites. This treatment of substitution as a site rather than an individual characteristic helps to define a site's uniqueness and in addition provides a feasible means of capturing substitution effects when measures of substitution at an individual level are not available. Per trip consumer surplus and changes in consumer surplus due to catch changes are computed and distinguished by controls for the availability and quality of substitute sites. Consumer surplus and the valuation of changes in catch are found to be substantially lower when controlling for substitution effects which is in agreement with most previous studiesSite Substitution, Varying Parameter, Travel Cost Model, Recreational Fishery Valuation, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Forage Options for Tanzania Southern Highlands: Preliminary Assessment

In adequate quality and quantity, forages curtail animal production in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, the potential of livestock agriculture to contribute to household nutrition and incomes is usually compromised, against an increasing consumption of animal source foods. The growing consumption deserve forage interventions that can address the feeding gap, and contribute to improved livestock production, and subsequently livestock keepers’ prosperity. Using “Targeting Tools”, a web GIS system, we mapped the suitability of a wide array of grass and forage legumes for southern highlands. Using the maps, we selected context-specific varieties and procured available seeds/planting materials for pilot trials. Following farmers’ participatory approach, we established forage trials in three districts namely, Mufindi, Njombe and Rugwe of southern Tanzania highlands comprising of fourteen forage treatments. The test forages included; two Cenchrus purpureus (Syn. Pennisetum purpureum) cultivars, two Urochloa (Syn. Brachiaria) hybrids and Chloris gayana. Where applicable, we intercropped the grasses with three forage legumes- Lablab purpureus, Stylosanthes guianensis, and Desmodium intortum, while Tripsacum andersonii (Syn. Tripsacum laxum), a grass, was planted as a local check. We observed clear differences amongst the three districts and treatments. Dry matter accumulation (t ha−1) in the districts, and across the various forage treatments was in the order Rugwe>Mufindi>Njombe, even when accumulation kg DM day−1 was considered, in the early harvests. Most DM accumulation was by Napier grass intercropped with Lablab purpureus that was closely comparable to Chloris gayana-Desmodium intercrop. Further observations across more cuttings, farmer’ preference rankings and quality analysis are under way to inform reliable conclusions. The results would be applicable elsewhere with similar agricultural context and ecologies

Use of Co-Immunoprecipitations and 2D Gel Electrophoresis to Identify Protein-Protein Interactions of Maturase K

Maturase K (MatK) is the only group II intron encoded protein in the chloroplast of land plants. Maturases are prokaryotic enzymes that catalyze formation of the lariat structure needed for intron removal from precursor RNAs. The chloroplast maturase MatK, is a descendant of prokaryotic maturases, however, unlike its prokaryotic relatives, MatK is thought to catalyze excision of, not only its own intron, but also the introns of other group II introns in the plastome. Similar to the multiprotein and snRNA spliceosomal complex of the nucleus, it is postulated that MatK is not working alone to excise these introns but most likely requires additional protein factors to facilitate intron excision. In order to identify proteins that interact with MatK and understand more about splicing in the chloroplast, several laboratory methods were employed. Chloroplasts were extracted from the model organism O. sativa japonica and used in a co-Immunoprecipitation with anti-MatK antibody to obtain MatK and the proteins that bind to it. 2D gel electrophoresis was used to separate the proteins obtained, along with subsequent protein identification using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

What determines vote share in city council elections?: the incumbent advantage and economic voting

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 5, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Peverill SquireIncludes bibliographical references.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2013.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Political science."May 2013"While the literature about local elections has been increasing in recent years, it still is wanting for more research on what variables influence the election of local legislators. Though some have begun examining the relationship between electoral success and incumbency, it requires more study as the cities studied so far are not a representative sample. Moreover, several have studied the impact of national economic conditions on vote choice, but we lack the knowledge of how short-term fluctuations in local economic conditions might mediate the vote share of city council incumbents. These topics are the main focus of this paper as I seek to answer the following questions: Does incumbent status give a city council candidate a boost in vote share? Does this boost lessen when the incumbent's term is associated with economic floundering? Is the incumbent rewarded with higher vote share when the city experiences economic growth, or do voters use the current economic conditions to inform their vote? Using a dataset of eight large cities, I find that city council incumbents enjoy a significant electoral advantage. However, my findings for economic voting are mixed. They suggest that, though voters do not look to changing conditions to inform their, they may use current economic conditions when evaluating incumbents

On the fundamental absorption of excitonic and non-excitonic semiconductors: an optoelectronic and thermal approach

In thepresent work, we study the optical properties of semiconductors near the fundamental absorption taking into account disorder induced tail states. In particular, we pay special attention to GAAs and lead halide perovskites. We address existing models for the description of the absorption spectra, and extend them in the band fluctuations framework. We start with traditional semiconductors where we have developed our models inspired in Jellison-Modine procedure (Tauc-Lorentz model).These models are tested on direct,indirect and amorphous band gap materials such as the ones of the group III −V family. Later, we continue the discussion with the inclusion of the Sommerfeld enhancement factor for understanding the nature of excitonic semiconductors. Here, the Elliott model is modified through the band fluctuations procedure in order to obtain an analytic expression for the imaginary part of the electrical permittivity. This new model accurately describes the band gap and binding energy of systems like GaAs,MAPbBr3, MAPbI3 and MAPbI3−xClx. Furthermore,the impact of the sample temperature on optical parameters such as the band gap can provide information regarding the thermal expansion and th eelectron-phon on interaction in the solid. In particular,if the material exhibits a high electron-phon on coupling,like in the cases of the polar semiconductors, the model describing the exciton can no longer rely on the Hydrogen-like picture, but instead it must be computed with a theory considering exciton-polarons. In the latter case, the exciton is dressed by a cloudofphonons that lower its binding energy. Remarkably, our model for excitonic materials correctly predicts the exciton-polaron binding energies of lead halide perovskites andt heir carrier’s effective massees. Lastly, we emphasize the powerful relation between the optical properties and the thermal properties. Notably, we found a good agreement among our predicted expressions,using the Debye’s model, with other specific heat experimental results

Transitioning from Onsite to Online Psychotherapy Visits during the COVID-19 Crisis

Background: On March 19, 2020, the governor of the State of California, Gavin Newsom, issued executive stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (State of California, 2020). In a private psychiatric practice in southern California treating patients with anxiety and depression, psychotherapy treatment was abruptly affected by that order. The purpose of this project was to transition from onsite to online psychotherapy visits to ensure the continuity of care and facilitate patients’ progress in dealing with mental illnesses during the COVID-19 crisis. Aims: The proposed solution to the problem of decreased access to care during the pandemic was to continue psychotherapy in patients with anxiety or depression via telepsychiatry, thus contributing to reduced symptomatology. Methods: Eight patients participated in the project. Outcome data were collected to assess symptoms changes and overall quality of life in patients who received psychotherapy treatment for anxiety and/or depression via telepsychiatry. The results across patients were assessed after the sixth and twelfth telepsychotherapy sessions. Results: Mean patient health questionnaire scores (PHQ-9) decreased 58.5% at midterm and 75.5% at final tests and mean general anxiety disorder questionnaire (GAD-7) scores decreased 61.3% at midterm and 85.7% at final tests. Mean health related quality of life questionnaire (HRQoL-14) scores for unhealthy days decreased 79.7% at final tests. Conclusions: This project calls for the need for a practice change by promoting telepsychiatry treatment as the gold standard of care for patients with mental illnesses during epidemics and other traumatic events restricting access to care

Análisis, diseño e implementación de un editor de texto para un lenguaje de dominio específico (DSL), para la determinación de problemas de optimización lineal

Este proyecto expone la construcción de un módulo, que hace parte de un macro proyecto que consiste en la implementación de un entorno de desarrollo integrado (EDI) de un lenguaje de dominio específico (DSL) para la determinación de problemas de optimización lineal, el cual forma parte de un doctorado. El modulo correspondiente a este trabajo es la construcción de un editor de texto plano para dicho lenguaje

Multiple-Implementation Testing of Supervised Learning Software

Machine learning (ML) software, used to implement an ML algorithm, is widely used in many application domains such as financial, business, and engineering domains. Faults in ML software can cause substantial losses in these application domains. Thus, it is very critical to conduct effective testing of ML software to detect and eliminate its faults. However, testing ML software is difficult, especially on producing test oracles used for checking behavior correctness (such as using expected properties or expected test outputs). To tackle the test-oracle issue, in this paper, we present a novel black-box approach of multiple-implementation testing for supervised learning software. The insight underlying our approach is that there can be multiple implementations (independently written) for a supervised learning algorithm, and majority of them may produce the expected output for a test input (even if none of these implementations are fault-free). In particular, our approach derives a pseudo-oracle for a test input by running the test input on n implementations of the supervised learning algorithm, and then using the common test output produced by a majority (determined by a percentage threshold) of these n implementations. Our approach includes techniques to address challenges in multiple-implementation testing (or generally testing) of supervised learning software: definition of a test case in testing supervised learning software, along with resolution of inconsistent algorithm configurations across implementations. The evaluations on our approach show that our multiple-implementation testing is effective in detecting real faults in real-world ML software (even popularly used ones), including 5 faults from 10 NaiveBayes implementations and 4 faults from 20 k-nearest neighbor implementations.Ope