Deena Weinstein, Rock’n America: A Social and Cultural History

While there are quite a few excellent histories of rock‘n’roll (Palmer 1998), and even of American rock music (Altschuler 2004), Deena Weinstein essays to capture the specifically American story in Rock’n America: A Social and Cultural History. While most of the information Weinstein provides will probably be common knowledge for most readers over the age of about 40 or anybody with more than a passing interest in the history of rock and roll, her run through the important aesthetic, social, ..

A model for the wind direction signature in the stokes smissin sector from the ocean surfaces at microwave frequencies

This paper presents a model of the Stokes emission vector from the ocean surface. The ocean surface is described as an ensemble of facets with Cox and Munk's (1954) Gram-Charlier slope distribution. The study discusses the impact of different up-wind and cross-wind rms slopes, skewness, peakedness, foam cover models and atmospheric effects on the azimuthal variation of the Stokes vector, as well as the limitations of the model. Simulation results compare favorably, both in mean value and azimuthal dependence, with SSM/I data at 53/spl deg/ incidence angle and with JPL's WINDRAD measurements at incidence angles from 30/spl deg/ to 65/spl deg/, and at wind speeds from 2.5 to 11 m/s.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Criminal Offending and Mental Disorders: Long-term bidirectional and intergenerational effects between mental health problems and offending behaviour

Objective. The relationship between crime and mental disorders has long been a topic of debate. While in public perception these two phenomena are often seen as inextricably linked, research has painted a more complex picture, with only little consensus about the precise nature of the association. The aim of this thesis is to further unravel the interrelations between offending and mental disorders and to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of their association over the life-course. Methods. First, a broader view is adopted as a strategy to assess the current understanding of the relationship. Then, a more specific stance is taken within the theoretical framework of developmental and life-course criminology in order (1) to link research into offending pathways with the study of longitudinal effects and intergenerational transmission of mental health problems and (2) to investigate the link between family socio-psychological factors, violence, and personality disorders over the life-course by using different quantitative methods and drawing on data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Results. Having drawn attention to the importance of studying different offending pathways in the development of mental health problems, the considerable heterogeneity of mental disorder symptoms, and the role of early-life family context, findings demonstrate (1) that those with more severe offending pathways have an overall greater vulnerability to developing internalising problems in middle adulthood, (2) that certain personality disorder symptoms, specifically cluster A and cluster B disorders, are associated with lifetime violent behaviour, and (3) that early life paternal offending is associated with adult children’s internalising and externalising problems. Conclusions. It is suggested that early-life interventions targeting families as part of their work can play an important role in preventing the development of both later-life internalising and externalising problems. Further, results highlight the importance of recognising the heterogeneity of people with internalising and externalising problems in order to offer responses that are effectively tailored to an individual’s needs. Finally, the thesis supports further efforts to improve mental health awareness and knowledge to reduce stigma

Locked Up then Locked Out: Reentry Programming and Women’s Post-Carceral Success

Women represent one of the fastest growing populations in the American criminal justice system today, with rates of female incarceration increasing 700% from 1980 to 2014. In a criminal justice system built by and for men, however, women’s narratives often go unheard and their needs unmet, especially in the tenuous period post-incarceration. This paper focuses on women’s experiences of reentry, the period in which women are transitioning back to their communities after incarceration. Specifically, this paper will assess whether current reentry programming is equipped to adequately attend to and advocate for women’s post-carceral needs. I situate women’s needs upon reentry in a larger contextual frame that addresses both their pathways to criminality, as well as their experiences during incarceration, in order to address the complex nature of women’s involvement with the criminal justice system and its impact on the feasibility of their post-carceral success. Following this discussion, I present three analytical case studies of current programs to paint a more qualitative picture of reentry programming for women in the U.S., and I conclude with a brief discussion of the future of reentry programming

Preprint: Using RF-DNA Fingerprints To Classify OFDM Transmitters Under Rayleigh Fading Conditions

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of Internet connected devices capable of interacting with the physical world and computer systems. It is estimated that the IoT will consist of approximately fifty billion devices by the year 2020. In addition to the sheer numbers, the need for IoT security is exacerbated by the fact that many of the edge devices employ weak to no encryption of the communication link. It has been estimated that almost 70% of IoT devices use no form of encryption. Previous research has suggested the use of Specific Emitter Identification (SEI), a physical layer technique, as a means of augmenting bit-level security mechanism such as encryption. The work presented here integrates a Nelder-Mead based approach for estimating the Rayleigh fading channel coefficients prior to the SEI approach known as RF-DNA fingerprinting. The performance of this estimator is assessed for degrading signal-to-noise ratio and compared with least square and minimum mean squared error channel estimators. Additionally, this work presents classification results using RF-DNA fingerprints that were extracted from received signals that have undergone Rayleigh fading channel correction using Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) equalization. This work also performs radio discrimination using RF-DNA fingerprints generated from the normalized magnitude-squared and phase response of Gabor coefficients as well as two classifiers. Discrimination of four 802.11a Wi-Fi radios achieves an average percent correct classification of 90% or better for signal-to-noise ratios of 18 and 21 dB or greater using a Rayleigh fading channel comprised of two and five paths, respectively.Comment: 13 pages, 14 total figures/images, Currently under review by the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Securit

Risk-Based Bridge Inspection Practices

Improving bridge safety, reliability, and the allocation of bridge inspection resources are the goals of the proposed risk based bridge inspection practices. Currently, most bridges in the United States are inspected at a fixed calendar interval of 24 months, without regard to the condition of the bridge. Newer bridges with little or no damage are inspected with the same frequency as older, more deteriorated bridges thus creating inefficiency in the allocation of inspection resources. Because of limited resources, it is not possible to spend the necessary time examining bridges that are in poor condition and require extra attention since equal effort is also spent on bridges in good condition. In addition, no quantitative evidence exists to suggest that the 24 month inspection interval is the appropriate interval to achieve the desired level of safety. The proposed methodology incorporates reliability theory and expert elicitation from the Indiana Department of Transportation\u27s Risk Assessment Panel, developed during this research, to rationally determine bridge inspection needs. Assessments are made based on the likelihood and consequence of failure for specific bridge components. The likelihood of failure is determined through attributes based on design, loading, and condition characteristics while the consequence of failure is based on expected structural capacity, public safety, and serviceability. By combining the expressions of likelihood and consequence for each component, an optimum inspection interval for the entire bridge can be determined through the use of risk matrices. The methodology was evaluated through case studies involving Indiana bridges. Over 30 years of historical inspection reports were utilized in the back casting process to evaluate deterioration levels and assess the adequacy of the risk criteria. Results of the case studies conducted during the research indicated that the risk analysis procedures provided suitable inspection intervals ranging from 24 to 72 months for Indiana bridges

Mark Twain in Japan: The Cultural Reception of an American Icon

American Literature in an Eastern Culture Japanese Interpretation and Absorption of Mark Twain Tsuyoshi Ishihara\u27s study of the Japanese reception of Mark Twain may not be of much interest to those with a narrow focus on the American Civil War. On the other hand, it is of immense...

Function Space Tensor Decomposition and its Application in Sports Analytics

Recent advancements in sports information and technology systems have ushered in a new age of applications of both supervised and unsupervised analytical techniques in the sports domain. These automated systems capture large volumes of data points about competitors during live competition. As a result, multi-relational analyses are gaining popularity in the field of Sports Analytics. We review two case studies of dimensionality reduction with Principal Component Analysis and latent factor analysis with Non-Negative Matrix Factorization applied in sports. Also, we provide a review of a framework for extending these techniques for higher order data structures. The primary scope of this thesis is to further extend the concept of tensor decomposition through the use of function spaces. In doing so, we address the limitations of PCA to vector and matrix representations and the CP-Decomposition to tensor representations. Lastly, we provide an application in the context of professional stock car racing