19468 research outputs found
Sort by
A Comparison of Neo-Hobbesian Social Contract Theory and Anthropological Accounts of Socio-Political Complexity
No full textSocial contract theory continues to be a leading theoretical framework in political philosophy. It argues that an individual's moral and political obligations are generated by, and dependent upon, an agreement or contract between that individual and the other individuals within their society. Notable scholars who have championed this theory include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Rawls, and Gauthier. This thesis focuses on reviewing the descriptive aspects of Hobbes’ social contract theory, by revising an already revised account provided by Gregory Kavka. Once this revision is complete, it will be argued that the descriptive aspects of Hobbes’ account of social contract are in line with, and thus bolstered by, the anthropological evidence of today. The views of three anthropology scholars will be discussed at length: Ara Norenzayan, Joseph Henrich, and Peter Turchin. With this new perspective, this thesis will compare and contrast Hobbes’ account with that of Locke, critiquing the latter for not being compatible with the anthropological accounts. Finally, this thesis will consider further research questions that this account may generate.PhilosophyBachelors of Arts (BA
Engaging Latinx Students
No full textAlthough the Latino ethnic group is the largest minority and the fastest growing subgroup in the United States, they are one of the most underserved groups in public schools. This is due to many systemic issues; however, this paper focuses on student engagement. Increasing student engagement decreases student dropout rates. If we can foster high levels of engagement with Latinx students in K-12, they are more likely to graduate high school possibly with aspirations to further their education. This conceptual paper aims to answer the following questions: What factors inhibit and/or contribute to Latinx students' engagement? How do we engage Latinx students in K-12 to encourage them to further their education? Several factors negatively impact Latinx students’ engagement in K-12 schools including cultural disconnection, issues with the curriculum, and inequitable practices. Nevertheless, many Latinx students become successful learners. There are many strategies teachers can leverage to support students’ success through increased engagement, educators can build relationships, offer a relevant curriculum, and employ equitable practices. Considering the factors that hinder and contribute to Latinx students’ engagement in K-12, and drawing from several motivation and engagement theories I advance a conceptual model that promotes Latinx students’ engagement and possibly lifelong learning aspirations
Dataset: Conservation Targeting: Potential Tidal Wetlands 2030 to 2100 with Land Use/Landcover
No full textThe habitat most likely to be negatively impacted by climate change in coastal Virginia over the next several decades is tidal marsh. Tidal marsh extent is dictated by the location of the intertidal area, which is rapidly changing as a result of climate change and tidal marshes must also rapidly adapt in order to persist on the landscape. Of the two primary mechanisms for tidal wetland adaptation: accretion and migration, migration is most likely for most marshes in Virginia. Migration occurs as the upland edge of the marsh moves further inland in response to rising sea level. As formerly upland areas become regularly inundated by spring tides, these areas convert to high marsh due to increasing salt content and saturation. This data depicts the land use/ land cover classification areas that will occur within the potential areal footprint of tidal wetlands (TW) for each decade from 2030 to 2100 and included 2020 as reference.Virginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Machine Learning And Wearable Computing For The Detection And Treatment Of Neurological Diseases
No full textUbiquitous sensing has been increasingly explored as a viable to means collect patient health data to improve how doctors can diagnose neurological diseases. Additionally, machine learning has been slowly adopted by healthcare researchers to automatically detect and treat neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). In this dissertation, I investigate how wearable computing and machine learning can be used to automatically detect and treat freezing of gait (FoG) symptoms of PD in both real-time and offline settings. First, we designed a FoG detection and treatment system, FoG-Finder, which combines ubiquitous sensing, mobile computing, and machine learning to detect and treat FoG in real-time. We generated time and frequency domain features from sensor data, and used a multi-input convolutional neural network (CNN) model on a smartphone for real-time FoG detection. To evaluate FoG-Finder, we collected data from 11 PD patients consisting of 716 FoG events. FoG-Finder beat the previous state-of-the-art, obtaining a 13.4% higher F1-score and 10.7% higher overall accuracy compared with other validated real-time FoG detection and treatment systems in a leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) setting. FoG-Finder also obtained an average treatment latency of 427ms and 615ms for subject-dependent and LOSO settings, respectively. Second, we improved real-time FoG detection by identifying that turns are the most common aspect of non-FoG gait falsely identified as FoG by FoG detection systems. To address this revelation, we designed the Gait-Guard wearable FoG detection and treatment system. The system uses hand-crafted features derived from domain knowledge from PD clinicians and uses a light-weight multivariate time-series transformer model capable of real-time inference on mobile hardware. We evaluated Gait-Guard on a dataset consisting of 26 PD patients and a total of 1591 FoG events. Gait-Guard obtained a FoG event accuracy of 96.7% with a reduction in the false positive treatment rate of 112% compared to prior real-time FoG detection works including FoG-Finder. Gait-Guard also achieved an average FoG detection latency of just 378.5ms in a LOSO setting. Third, we created an automatic clinical FoG labeling system capable of accurately segmenting FoG and non-FoG time sequences. Our system utilizes real-time FoG detection models, a gait cycle metric estimation CNN, and clinical domain knowledge to estimate start and stop times for FoG. We evaluated our clinical FoG labeling system against our Gait-Guard PD dataset in a LOSO setting, and achieved a precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy of 91.0%, 93.1%, 91.0%, and 91.6%, respectively. We achieved a start MAE of 0.75s and duration MAE of 1.18s. These results indicated that our system is potentially suitable for long-term FoG symptom monitoring in the real-world.Computer ScienceDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Against a Ternary Analysis of Syllable Strength: Positional Variation in the Vowel Inventory of English
No full textAll of the vowels in Standard American English (SAE) are distinguishable from each other in stressed syllables, and it is generally accepted that none of them are contrastive in unstressed syllables. However, unstressed word-final syllables (or ultimas) without a coda consonant are able to host more vowel contrasts than unstressed syllables, evidenced by the minimal pair [ˈwɪndi] ‘windy’ and [ˈwɪndo͡ʊ] ‘window,’ but not as many contrasts as stressed syllables. Therefore, the standard analysis of syllable strength in SAE is a ternary one, where stressed syllables are Strong, unstressed non-final syllables are Weak, and unstressed open ultimas are Intermediate. This work posits a binary analysis of syllable strength instead, arguing that word-final syllables can host as many vowels as stressed syllables can. The Intermediate strength level of the stressless open ultima is abandoned here; “Strong” syllables are tonics and ultimas, and “Weak” syllables are any other. The absence of lax vowels in word final position is motivated from a distributional and historical account, and tested experimentally. The reanalysis of vowel contrast hosting is consistent with several accepted facts about the phonology of English. The main contribution of this work is to unify these facts for a better explanation of the absence of lax vowels in word-final position.LinguisticsBachelors of Arts (BA
Beyond the Exit: MoMA Design Store & the Extended Museum Experience
No full textAmerican art museum attendance soared following World War II as museums became popular education and entertainment destinations for the growing middle class. Shaped by the influence of 1980s Reaganomics and the effects of neoliberal funding policies, museum shops developed from small information desk ventures into a vital source of public relevance and financial sustainability. When given creative liberty and economic attention, the now standardized amenity presented the opportunity to sell institutional ethos. In light of neoliberal capitalism’s tendency to construe value primarily in economic terms, shops reveal how the art museum strategically assigns new meaning to its collection, mission, and cultural function. My thesis examines the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Design Store, which opened in 1989, as a unique case study of commercial innovation centered around the valuation of art history. This study critically analyzes four distinct elements of MoMA’s retail endeavor: period context, branding, spatial organization, and product offerings in relation to the museum's curatorial strategy of collecting and exhibiting “good design,” as well as emerging concerns of authenticity and sustainability in art. The Design Store’s mission promises an extended museum experience beyond the exit. The store’s evolution demonstrates art museums’ potential to meet shifting public demands for enjoyable experiences that are educational, ethical, and revenue-generating.Art and Art HistoryBachelors of Arts (BA
Examining the Relationships Between School Counselor Mindfulness, Occupational Self-Efficacy, and Burnout
No full textSchool counselors often experience burnout in their multifaceted roles. Extant literature has identified the relationship between school counselors’ self-efficacy and burnout, but there is a paucity of literature regarding the relevance of mindfulness to school counselors’ occupational self-efficacy and burnout. Through multiple regression, we examined the relationships between mindfulness, occupational self-efficacy, and burnout with a sample of 102 practicing school counselors in the United States. Our findings indicated that higher levels of mindfulness and occupational self-efficacy statistically significantly predicted lower levels of school counselors’ burnout. We provide implications for practicing school counselors, counselor education and supervision, and future research
Emerging from critique towards liberation: A Framework in leadership education
Get PDFWhat does liberation look like in leadership learning and education? This article offers examples for (re)imagining leadership education in program design, coordination, and assessment by centering the leadership for liberation framework and other liberatory approaches. The authors offer examples of how these frameworks serve as an entry point for college student liberatory leadership learning.Educatio
The People's House?: Countermajoritarianism in the House of Representatives
No full textThis is the first study of countermajoritarianism in the House of Representatives. Although the House is considered a majoritarian institution, intrastate malapportionment remained rampant prior to the 1964 Wesberry decision; the three-fifths clause drove systematic antebellum differences in the number of free people in northern and southern House districts; and widespread voter discrimination in the South led to systematically different levels of turnout. Combined, these factors potentialized roll calls in which the chamber’s majority did not actually represent more free individuals, voters, or electoral supporters than the minority. Using three separate measures, I characterize such outcomes as countermajoritarian. I find that before Wesberry, the principle of district population equality went mostly unenforced. Countermajoritarian outcomes were common in the antebellum era, and the turnout and support measures peaked in the twentieth century and fell after the Voting Rights Act. I also examine the prevalence of such outcomes across time, legislative issues, motion types, and motion significance. I also include a case study on the countermajoritarian legislative history of slavery in the antebellum era, demonstrating the importance of the three-fifths clause on the protection of the institution. I conclude with some thoughts about the contemporary House as a contingent, path-dependent institution. Importantly, this study qualifies modern scholarship on the House: despite valid concerns about gerrymandering, the urban-rural divide, interstate malapportionment, and apportionment equations, the contemporary House is a dramatically more majoritarian institution than at any other point in its history.GovernmentBachelors of Arts (BA
Frequency Domain Measures of Heart Rate Variability At Sea Level Predict Oxygen Desaturation During Normobaric Hypoxia
No full textPrevious studies demonstrate that individuals with greater resting hypoxemia at moderate to high altitudes are at greater risk for developing acute mountain sickness (AMS). PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if short-term (5 min) measures of heart rate variability (HRV) could predict oxygen saturation during acute exposure to normobaric hypoxia equivalent to an altitude of 4572 meters. METHODS: 59 young (20.67±0.99 years), healthy subjects (31 female, 28 male) participated in the study. HRV was measured using the FirstBeat BodyGuard 3 and analyzed using the Kubios software 5 min prior to acute hypoxia exposure. Subjects rested in a reclined position for 10 min, breathing room air (~sea level), then normobaric, hypoxic air equivalent to 4572 m (11.8% oxygen) for 10 min, followed by a return to room air for an additional 10 min. Heart rate, HRV, minute ventilation (VE), and percent oxygen saturation (SpO2%) were measured continuously. RESULTS: Significant (pKinesiology & Health SciencesBachelors of Science (BS