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The Theory of Cryptography in Bitcoin
Get PDFBitcoin is a well known virtual currency, or cryptocurrency. It was created by a group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Currently, many people are utilizing Bitcoin for personal gains and transactions. To keep transactions secure requires techniques from modern cryptography. In this paper, we explain certain aspects of the cryptography of Bitcoin. We are going to discuss two components of the cryptography of Bitcoin—hash functions and signatures. We will describe what the hash function and signature are, give some examples of hash functions, and discuss certain criteria that good hash functions should satisfy
Faithfulness
Get PDFMalori Laporte is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, currently participating in an internship with a campus ministry, Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. She has always considered herself as creative, and uses art as a stress reliever. Malori really enjoyed creating something so meaningful. She also has a passion for helping and encouraging people
from “Life”
Get PDFAna Balestrazzi is originally from Venezuela. She is a freshman at Louisiana Tech University studying political science. She takes pictures as a hobby, and was inspired by her father, a photographer. Her father graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a major in geography and minor in photography. Her pictures were inspired by beautiful things she found as she travelled
Eye See You
Get PDFMaddie Dearman is a senior at Louisiana Tech University, double majoring in graphic design and studio art. The culmination of her work centers around love, and is a platform she uses to proclaim the mystery of the kingdom of God. As a new follower of Jesus, her work also serves as a personal testimony and is an open invitation for others to join her along the journey to discover divine wisdom, great wonders, and unimaginable mysteries, and to love God by loving others. To see Maddie’s entire portfolio and/or to read her blog, visit maddiedearman.co
Lucid Dreaming
Get PDFStevie Iseral is a junior majoring in interdisciplinary studies, with concentrations in photography, sociology, and marketing. She became interested in photography her freshman year of high school and started her own photography business the summer after her junior year. Stevie loves photography because it allows her to showcase the beauty of life through her lens
the hunt
Get PDFSadie Seilhan is a freshman at Louisiana Tech University studying Spanish. She loves to write, and hopes to minor in English. She aspires to be a professional translator when she finishes school. Sadie loves language and art, nature and photography, and food and culture
The Cup of Coffee Next to Me Makes Me Feel Idle
Get PDFWenona Jonker is a student at Louisiana Tech University where she is studying English with a concentration in literature and a minor in plant science. She is not a poet nor does she have a particularly “green thumb,” but she loves both words and plants and would like to know them bette
A Normative Classification of Consumer Big Data
Get PDFThe big data phenomenon has transformed every area of life and business. Businesses today rely on the volume, velocity, and variety (3Vs) of data available today in product design, advertisement, sales, and post-sale follow up activities. Communication between the firm and the consumer is personalized using data collected on the consumer to match the consumer’s location, time, and needs. Some marketers argue that this has birth a new era of marketing; transformative marketing, in which the firm’s ability to deliver value and to acquire and maintain long-run competitive advantage determined by the firm’s data resources. In other words, data are the currency of the transformative marketing era. This sentiment is pervasive and has led to massive investments in data in recent years.
This dissertation puts forward a classification of consumer big data to aid the firm extract value out of big data despite the 3Vs. The classification also demonstrates how value in a transformative marketing era does not have to be created at the expense of the consumer, but with the consumer. Five conceptual dichotomies are put forward in essay two that are more comprehensive than any other classification of data available in the research.
Finally, the third essay investigates how the big data phenomenon affects consumer freedom and emotions. Most people agree that freedom is a fundamental human right, and that business practices should respect consumer freedom. However, research on consumer freedom is scant. Two experiments investigate how the characteristics of data collected on consumers affects consumer perception of decision freedom and satisfaction with value propositions. With the big data phenomenon has come a push toward algorithmic decision making. Consumer’s anxiety toward algorithmic decision making is investigated along with the satisfaction derived from decisions made by third parties that collect data on consumers
Development of a Microarray Biosensor for Real-Time and Continuous Measurement of Neurochemicals
Get PDFContinuous simultaneous measurement of glutamate (GLU), an excitatory neurochemical, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurochemical, constitutes one of the major challenges in neuroscientific research. Maintaining appropriate levels of GLU and GABA is important for normal brain functions. Abnormal levels of GLU and GABA are responsible for various brain dysfunctions, like epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. GLU and GABA being non-electroactive are challenging to detect in real-time. To date, GABA is detected mainly via microdialysis with a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system that employs electrochemical (EC) and spectroscopic methodologies. However, these systems are bulky and unsuitable for real-time continuous monitoring. As opposed to microdialysis, biosensors are easy to miniaturize and are highly suitable for in-vivo studies. Unfortunately, this method requires a rather cumbersome process that relies on externally applied pre-reactors and reagents. Here, we report the design and implementation of a GABA microarray probe that operates on a newly conceived principle. It consists of two microbiosensors, one for GLU and one for GABA detection, modified with glutamate oxidase and GABASE enzymes, respectively. The detection of GABA by this probe is based upon the in-situ generation of α-ketoglutarate from the GLU oxidation that takes place at both microbiosensor sites. By simultaneously measuring and subtracting the H2O2 oxidation currents of GLU microbiosensor from GABA microbiosensor, GABA and GLU can be detected continuously in real-time in vitro and ex vivo. This mechanism happens without the addition of any externally applied reagents. We optimized our novel approach in commercially available ceramic-based probes. The GABA probe was successfully tested in an adult rat brain slice preparation. However, those electrodes are geometrically limited (we cannot have a sentinel site at the same spatial level as GLU and GABA sites). Keeping theseissues in mind, we have developed a microwire array sensor that is not only capable of simultaneous measurement of GLU and GABA, but is also able to track signal resulting from interferents (e.g. Ascorbic Acid, AA). The unique geometry enables these microwire probes to measure GLU, GABA and interferents in the same spatial level. A Simple fabrication procedure and easy integration with the existing amperometric systems allow us to use them in cell culture, brain tissue, and in vivo recordings as an inexpensive alternative to our planar electrodes. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the probes in rat brain tissue. We were able to get. Additionally, we determined the excitation/inhibition (E/I) ratios for different stimulations which have clinical relevance. Our results about this E/I balance can help refine electrical stimulation parameter for different clinical purposes (e.g. deep brain stimulation). Finally, we successfully tested our probe in awake-free behaving rats. In summary, our results suggest that microwire probes have the potential to become a powerful tool for measuring GLU and GABA in various ex-vivo and in-vivo disease models, such as epilepsy
The Relationship Between Entrepreneurs\u27 Identities, Passion, and Intention to Depart Their Ventures
Get PDFA significant amount of Entrepreneurship literature has focused on both venture failure and the decision by entrepreneurs to leave or quit their businesses. A large portion of the literature has approached the topics of venture failure and the decision to leave or close companies from a financial perspective. While finances do play a vital role in entrepreneurs’ intentions to quit ventures, it is not the only variable impacting entrepreneurs’ decisions in regards to the continuation of their business ventures.
In this dissertation, antecedents of entrepreneurial identity centrality are investigated. Antecedents to the founder’s entrepreneurial identity centrality include entrepreneurial self-efficacy, lack of support, undesirable rewards, commitment level to the entrepreneurial identity, and meaning discrepancy. The relationship between entrepreneurial identity centrality and entrepreneurial passion is also explored. Further, this dissertation examines the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and the decision of entrepreneurs to depart their ventures.
The investigation of the relationships between various antecedents and how these antecedents impact entrepreneur identity centrality relies upon identity theory literature. The relationship between entrepreneurial identity centrality and entrepreneurial passion is examined using literature related to both identity theory and passion. Finally, the study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and departure intentions utilizing the literature related to identity theory and passion. This dissertation integrates concepts found in research related to identity theory, social-cognitive theory, and passion. The model was developed utilizing antecedents to identity centrality, passion, and intentions to depart ventures.
A number of research questions are explored in this study. First, how do the antecedents presented in this study impact venture founders’ identity prominence, or identity centrality? Second, how does identity centrality impact entrepreneurial passion? The third research question examined in this dissertation is as follows: does the loss of passion influence founders’ intentions to exit a new business venture? These questions are answered through both a literature review and the use of a questionnaire that was distributed to entrepreneurs. Hypotheses aimed at answering the various research questions explored in this dissertation are presented and tested using the data gathered from the questionnaire. The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of what leads entrepreneurs to abandon ventures.
Major findings of this dissertation include the fact that entrepreneurial identity centrality is positively related to entrepreneurial passion. In other words, as identity centrality, or prominence, increases, entrepreneurial passion should also increase. Further, entrepreneurial passion was found to have a significant, negative relationship with entrepreneurs’ intentions to quit a venture. So, the more passionate founders are about being entrepreneurs, the less likely they are to want to depart a venture. In addition to these two findings, a number of entrepreneurial identity centrality antecedents were examined. Realized intrinsic rewards, job involvement, and entrepreneurial identity meaning were all found to have significant positive relationships with entrepreneurial identity centrality. Realized extrinsic rewards were negatively related to entrepreneurial identity centrality; this relationship was significant. The results concerning both the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial identity centrality, and the relationship between perceived network support and entrepreneurial identity centrality were not significant.
This dissertation contributes both theoretically and empirically to the research and literature related to understanding entrepreneurs’ decisions to depart entrepreneurial business ventures. The research extends the literature related to identity theory and passion by investigating the roles that entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial passion play in peoples’ decisions to depart ventures. First, the study scrutinizes the role that a number of antecedents play in entrepreneurial identity prominence, expanding upon existing identity literature. Second, the relationship between entrepreneurial identity prominence and passion is examined. Finally, the relationship between passion and entrepreneurs’ intentions to quit their ventures is analyzed.
A theoretical relationship between passion loss and intentions to quit is developed in this dissertation. Arguments related to founder identity centrality, entrepreneurial passion, and entrepreneur’s intentions to quit their ventures are presented. In this study, it is argued that it is not solely financial struggles that lead to entrepreneurs quitting their ventures. Entrepreneurs’ identities and their passion for their business ventures also play vital roles