Moving Stronger: Needs of the Criminal Justice Reform Movement

Moving Stronger: Needs of the Criminal Justice Reform Movement presents the struggles, victories, strengths and challenges of grassroots groups organizing for criminal justice reform across the country. Drawn from a national survey and in-depth interviews with members and clients of these groups, the report offers the insights and analyses of long-time organizers and emerging leaders, in their own words.The project aimed to assess the state of grassroots organizing around a broad spectrum of criminal justice reform issues, with the goal of bringing critical information to funders and grassroots groups about the diverse needs, organizing approaches and campaigns of groups around the country. The report will be distributed and used among grassroots groups to support networking, information and resource sharing, collaborative work and coalition building

Bayesian inference in high-dimensional linear models using an empirical correlation-adaptive prior

In the context of a high-dimensional linear regression model, we propose the use of an empirical correlation-adaptive prior that makes use of information in the observed predictor variable matrix to adaptively address high collinearity, determining if parameters associated with correlated predictors should be shrunk together or kept apart. Under suitable conditions, we prove that this empirical Bayes posterior concentrates around the true sparse parameter at the optimal rate asymptotically. A simplified version of a shotgun stochastic search algorithm is employed to implement the variable selection procedure, and we show, via simulation experiments across different settings and a real-data application, the favorable performance of the proposed method compared to existing methods.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Plantar Fasciitis: Biomechanics, Atrophy and Muscle Energetics

Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effects of chronic plantar fasciitis on intrinsic foot structures with respect to biomechanics, muscle atrophy and muscle energetics. This was accomplished in three parts. Methods: In Part I, a three-dimensional motion capture system with a synchronized force platform quantified multi-segment foot model kinematics and ground reaction forces associated with walking. Healthy individuals were compared to individuals with chronic plantar fasciitis feet. Typical kinematic variables, measures of coupling, phase and variability were examined in rearfoot, forefoot and hallux segments. In Part II, foot and leg magnetic resonance images were taken in subjects with unilateral plantar fasciitis so that within each subject, the healthy limb could be compared to the plantar fasciitis limb. Cross sectional areas (CSA) of the plantar intrinsic foot muscles (PIFM) and tibialis posterior muscle were computed from user-digitized images. In Part III, the metabolic demands of the PIFM were evaluated using phosphorous magnetic resonance spectroscopy at rest and after barefoot walking. Muscle pH and the ratio of inorganic phosphate to phosphocreatine (Pi/PCr) were compared in healthy and plantar fasciitis feet. Results: In comparison to healthy feet, plantar fasciitis feet exhibited significantly (p \u3c 0.05): 1) greater rearfoot motion, 2) greater sagittal plane forefoot motion, 3) fewer rearfoot-forefoot frontal anti-phase movements, 4) reduced rearfoot-forefoot transverse coordinative variability, 5) greater first metatarsophalangeal (FMPJ) joint dorsiflexion, 6) greater FMPJ-medial longitudinal arch (MLA) coupling variability, and 7) decreased vertical ground reaction forces at propulsion. Also, plantar fasciitis feet had 5.2% smaller PIFM CSA at the forefoot compared to contralateral healthy feet. No CSA differences were seen in the rearfoot PIFM or at the tibialis posterior muscle. The PIFM of healthy and PF feet were not significantly different in resting intracellular levels of pH or Pi/PCr, and there were no significant differences in the increase of Pi/PCr from rest to postwalking. Conclusions: In Part I, it was concluded that plantar fasciitis feet exhibit kinematics which are consistent with theoretical causation of the plantar fasciitis injury, that is, the plantar fasciitis foot exhibits excessive motion. Fewer number of anti-phase movements exhibited by plantar fasciitis feet may be an indication of pathology. The ground reaction force results suggested a compensatory pain response. In Part II, it was concluded that atrophy of the forefoot PIFM may destabilize the medial longitudinal arch and prolong the healing process. Lastly in Part III, it was concluded that resting energetics were consistent with muscle free of systemic disease or neuromuscular pathology. The presence of plantar fasciitis did not elicit systematic asymmetries in the metabolic response in comparison to healthy feet. Clinical Relevance: These kinematic results provided some evidence to support the clinical assertion that excessive motion is related to plantar fasciitis. These results also support treatment modalities which clinicians currently use to reduce rearfoot eversion, flattening of the medial longitudinal arch and dorsiflexion of the FMPJ (e.g. foot orthoses, insoles, taping, rocker soles). When treating plantar fasciitis patients, clinicians should assess for PIFM and tibialis posterior muscle atrophy and prescribe targeted exercises when appropriate

Experimental Verification of Bulk Metallic Glass Prediction from Machine Learning

From the Washington University Office of Undergraduate Research Digest (WUURD), Vol. 12, 05-01-2017. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Lindsey Paunovich, Editor; Helen Human, Programs Manager and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences Mentor: Ken Kelto

Experimental Verification of Metallic Glass Prediction from Liquid Data

From the Washington University Office of Undergraduate Research Digest (WUURD), Vol. 13, 05-01-2018. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Lindsey Paunovich, Editor; Helen Human, Programs Manager and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences Mentor(s): Ken Kelto

Grit Mobile: Data Collection App for the Grit Research Project

This project consists of one part of a larger University research project aimed at determining if active learning builds the character trait of grit in students while they learn in the domain of mechanical engineering. The research project has three goals: the development of a mobile app to measure the quantity and quality of active learning, a model of student success using the quantity and quality of active learning, and a characterization of the relationship between active learning and grit growth. This senior project focuses on the mobile app as part of the larger research project. The mobile app will provide users with the means to submit research data via their mobile phones. The mobile app, named \Grit Mobile , is developed for the Android platform. The mobile app is written in Java, using the Android SDKs. Additionally, the Parse platform is used for backend data collection and user management

DEVELOPING AND BUILDING A LEAN BASED RFID ELECTRONIC KANBAN PROTOTYPE

The kanban system is a popular Toyota lean manufacturing tool used to help facilitate material movement between workstations and suppliers. Since the 1950’s, the original kanban system has undergone many different variations due to the advancement of technology and unique company implementation. This report focuses on the development and building of a new variation of the kanban system using lean principles while integrating radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with a fully electronic based kanban card system. This new type of kanban system will be called the RFID E-Kanban in this report. Since the lean philosophy is to reduce non-value added waste to a process, the new prototype kanban system meets four design objectives that are consistent with the principles of lean and the original purpose of the kanban system. The RFID E-Kanban prototype must support the process of continuous improvement The RFID E-Kanban prototype must reduce overall non-value added waste to the material flow process The RFID E-Kanban prototype must be intuitive and simple to use for the operator The RFID E-Kanban prototype control must be decentralized In an applied case study, a RFID E-Kanban prototype was built for a Department of Defense facility involving the movement of chemicals between two locations