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Everyperson's Cookbook : Parties Great and Small
No full textCookbook produced by the Wichita Chapter of the National Organization for Women
Minutes of an Organizational Meeting, The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, Tuesday, March 12, 2024
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Evaluating the Impact of External Factors on the Stability of the Ethereum Network
No full textThis thesis investigates the resilience of the Ethereum peer-to-peer network against various external factors through empirical analysis. While previous researches have studied different aspects of the then proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain or the impactof external factors on other communication systems, the impact on the proof-of-stake (PoS) Ethereum blockchain remains unexplored. Our study examines three potential influence vectors: cyber threats, geomagnetic activity, and media coverage. Through a comprehensive analysis of head attestations from Ethereum nodes, complemented by honeypot data, geomagnetic measurements, and news sentiment analysis, we compare security patterns between Ethereum and non-Ethereum hosts. Our methodology employs Dynamic Time Warping and Granger Causality Test to detect correlations and anomalies. The results reveal that while Ethereum nodes face similar attack volumes as non-Ethereum hosts, they exhibit distinct patterns in targeted ports and CVEs exploitation attempts. There are also some differences between regions. Notably, our analysis found no significant correlation between the network performance and any of the examined external factors. While this suggests stability in the network’s operation during normal conditions, further research over longer periods and during major events would be needed to make broader conclusions about the network’s resilience. This research contributes to the understanding of PoS blockchain network resilience and is a starting point for further research into the particularities of the Ethereum network against adversaries
Utilizing Observations and Coral Reconstructions to Analyze the Variability of Sea Surface Temperatures in the Intra-Americas Sea
No full textThe Intra-Americas Sea (IAS) includes the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, regions relatively understudied in comparison to the larger Atlantic, considering their importance in moisture transport across the United States, Central and South America. The influence of the IAS on hydroclimate in these regions is substantial and has been connected to various processes including tropical storms, the springtime sea surface temperature anomaly dipole and the Atlantic warm pool. However, observational records are not long enough to fully understand variability in this region, particularly on decadal, multi-decadal, and longer timescales and can disagree on signals. A typical springtime dipole is noted by cooler sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and warmer in the Caribbean and has been linked to precipitation anomalies in the eastern US and much of the Amazon region. In boreal summer, the Atlantic warm pool is a phenomenon marked by anomalously warm sea surface temperatures, critical for hurricane development. This study uses observations, coral-based reconstructions, and climate model data from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century to examine the variability of the springtime dipole in the IAS and how it impacts the Atlantic warm pool. Coral data was retrieved from CoralHydro2k with the addition of new records near Tobago, Cuba, and Flower Garden Banks. Each record found enhanced warming in the Caribbean compared to the GOM. The reduction of the Loop Current inhibits warm Caribbean SSTs from warming the GOM, a potential cause of this trend difference between regions. Power spectra analysis found significant periods in each region within the periodicities for El Ni\~no Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation, in agreement with previous studies. During dipole years, in which the average was approximately 4 per decade, warmer sea surface temperature anomalies dominate the IAS in the following summer months through the end of the Atlantic hurricane season. Following a springtime dipole, the Atlantic warm pool increases in extent and intensity when compared to non-dipole years. Non-dipole years display the opposite pattern with cooler sea surface temperature anomalies dominating the IAS in the summer and hurricane season. Climate projections indicate an increase in intensity of weather events such as extreme precipitation, drought as well as enhanced Atlantic hurricane seasons, all of which are particularly impactful to coastal communities lacking adaptive and resilient infrastructure in the Intra-Americas Region. Through the use of observations, models and proxy data, a better understanding of the variability of sea surface temperatures in the IAS will help these regions prepare for a changing climate
THE ROLES OF AD POSITION, AD TYPE, VALUE CO-CREATION, AND THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF ENGAGEMENT & PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS ON PODCAST AD EFFECTIVENESS
No full textFollowing calls in the literature for more academic research on podcast advertising, the present research is among the first to examine the relationship of advertising form (host-read ad vs. conventional/non-host read ad) and serial ad placement (beginning/pre-roll vs. middle/midroll) on ad-related variables and behavioral intentions such as Purchase Intention, Attitude Toward the Ad, Attitude Toward the Brand, and Information Seeking Intention. The study also examines the potential moderating effects of Parasocial Relationships and Engagement, as well as the mediation of Persuasion Knowledge, within these relationships, and investigates precursors to Parasocial Relationship and Persuasion Knowledge perceptions. Experimental data finds support for main effects of mid-roll serial ad placement outperforming pre-roll position on Purchase Intention, Attitude Toward the Ad, and Information Seeking, and an interaction effect such that among those in the pre-roll condition, greater levels of Attitude Toward the Brand were indicated for those in the host-read condition vs. the conventional ad condition. Support was also found for Evaluative Persuasion Knowledge as a mediator between the serial ad placement condition as IV and Purchase Intention, Attitude Toward the Brand, Attitude Toward the Ad, and Info Seeking; Engagement’s moderation of the relationship between the IVs and PI, Abrand, InfoSeek, and EvalPK; and Parasocial Relationship’s moderation of the relationship between the IVs and InfoSeek as well as EvalPK. Further, Parasocial Interaction Behaviors were found to positively predict Parasocial Relationship perceptions, and Dispositional Persuasion Knowledge measures were found to positively predict situational persuasion knowledge. Additionally, we find that Value Co-Creation successfully predicts focal DVs to a greater extent than thepreviously examined moderator concepts, and show support for a serial mediation model beginning with Engagement then flowing through Parasocial Relationship perceptions on to Value Co-Creation, which then flow to the focal dependent variables. Zooming out, we thus also introduce a novel conceptual factor or phenomenon, Parasocial Engagement, derived from both the experimental data as a well as a conceptual reconciliation of the concepts of Consumer Engagement, motivation-based Engagement, and Parasocial Relationships, utilizing Service- Dominant Logic as a unifying conceptual framework and pointing to “the market” as the field in which social exchanges of many, and possibly all, types occur
Racial identification in colonial Latin America: social class in the visual form
Get PDFThis thesis will analyze the evolution of racial identity during the colonial period in Spanish Latin America and how Casta paintings in the seventeenth century led to the creation of a society based on social stratification originating from the mixing of races. The chapters of this thesis will track the evolution of how those of mixed racial heritage have been viewed in Latin American society. I also examine how the visual identification of "mixed race" has affected the social class or social status of people of mixed races during the Colonial period. This thesis will incorporate various literature regarding the origins of Casta paintings and their multifaceted meanings. This thesis will also examine the intersectionality of visual representation of race, gender, and religion. These visual forms of racial art set forth the foundation of a new social hierarchy based on the idea of Spanish purity of blood and the mixing of races. The aim of this thesis is to reveal how those of mixed races, especially in Latin American society, have faced oppressive social standing. I argue that many mixed-race individuals face a dual identity crisis in which they do not know which group or culture they are "supposed" to identify with or belong to. This marginalization has been inscribed and reinscribed through visual representations. Often those of mixed races are not allowed to fully participate in the advantages or disadvantages of at least one of their races. Historians and scholars have deemed this the crisis of "dual identity." With this thesis, I provide insight into the daily struggles of identifying as a mixed marginalized group in a society that emphasized racial difference and hierarchy. I also explore the intersections of this hierarchy with gender. Finally, this thesis explores the difficulties of attempting to identify as one race or another and the social struggles that emerge for people of mixed race
Early Modern Jesuit Science Education at the Collegio Romano: Orazio Grassi, Galileo and the Controversy over the Comets
No full textThis dissertation addresses the scientific practice and science education of the members of the Society of Jesus in the early modern period. Drawing on the career of the Jesuit mathematician and instructor at the Collegio romano, Orazio Grassi, this study examines not only the scientific content in his normative publications, but also includes the content related to his students in the classroom in the early seventeenth century. In doing so, this study provides a record of scientific education in mathematics at the Collegio romano during the early seventeenth century. Far from the popular narratives espoused by histories of science of the twentieth century, in which the Society of Jesus was depicted as dogmatically orthodox or cautious at best, examining the content of the classroom reveals a much more nuanced consideration in the fields of optics, astronomy, cosmology, time keeping, and arithmetic. The evidence from Grassi's lectures and publications in the early seventeenth century demonstrate the extend to which Jesuits were able to participate fully in the developments in the history of science during the early modern period. This dissertation demonstrates that the Society of Jesus was extensively involved in the minutia of early modern debates about the certainty of mathematics, the distribution and substance of the cosmos, the nature of comets and other celestial pheomena, debates about the nature of light and sight, and many more contemporaneous issues of interest to the scientific community. Through a comparative textual analysis of Grassi’s lecture notes as well as his normative publications, this dissertation argues that Jesuit science and science education was neither isolationist nor backward. Rather early modern Jesuit mathematicians such as Grassi were able to not only engage at the highest level of debate with luminaries such as Galileo Galilei, and were also responsible for building concensus around challenging issues and topics
MULTISCALE RESPONSES TO PERTURBATION IN THE CONTEXT OF A HIGHLY CONTAMINATED FIELD SITE
No full textMicrobes and microbial communities are ubiquitous in the environment and responsible for the cycling of carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorous, and more, while also being subject to variable conditions ranging from seasonal fluctuations to anthropogenic perturbations. As such, they have a huge capacity for change and adaptation in response to perturbation from the genome scale, in the form of mutation by natural selection, to the community scale, in the form of community compositional and functional alterations. In the subsurface of a field site in Oak Ridge, TN, USA, contaminated by uranium, nitrate, and other heavy metals, microbial communities are of unique interest due to said contamination and have been investigated continuously for over two decades. In this dissertation, I investigated the responses of microbial communities as well as individual populations of microbes to various types of perturbations likely to be encountered in the Oak Ridge subsurface. In chapter 1, I describe the consistent responses of microbial communities to two carbon source amendments across an eight-year time gap. I identified consistent stimulation of specific phylogenetic lineages following carbon amendment in both injections. This conserved response was apparent at coarse phylogeny, with homogeneous selection becoming more important in community assembly following the addition of carbon as a result. In chapter 2, I describe the response of the model sulfate reducer Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough to experimental evolution under acid stress for 1,000 generations, with 24 replicate populations of varying evolutionary history. I identified several trends in adaptation of these populations. All populations, regardless of evolutionary history, had shorter lag phases in acidic conditions after evolution. However, alterations to other growth characteristics such as carrying capacity or growth rates were history-dependent, with populations previously experimentally evolved already more adapted to acidic conditions and as such not adapting as much as populations with no previous history of experimental evolution. Moreover, we not only observed mutations in specific genes occurring in replicate populations, but those mutations were also influenced by previous evolutionary history. In chapter 3, I investigate the dynamics of small-cell-size lifestyles within the subsurface identified as a consequence of successive filtration of groundwater. I identified specific lineages preferentially found in the smaller or larger filters, reflecting a small-cell free living lifestyle or biofilm lifestyle, respectively. However, overall community composition was more reflective of the location sampled and therefore level of contamination rather than phylogeny. In chapter 4, I place these results in the context of the theories that drove some of these investigations but were problematic to empirically describe within the studies themselves. Ultimately, these results demonstrate the importance of evolutionary history at all scales. In the field, phylogeny was in important determinant of environmental preference and response to added EVO, while in the lab, histories of experimental evolution altered subsequent evolutionary change. These results add to the body of literature on historical contingency at numerous ecological scales
TOWARDS AI-ENABLED DIAGNOSTICS FROM NOISY AND INCOMPLETE DATA
Get PDFThe advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized diagnostic procedures, promising enhanced accuracy and efficiency across various domains. This dissertation leverages AI capabilities for diagnostic purposes, particularly focusing on the challenges posed by noisy and incomplete data, with a specific emphasis on image and audio data modalities.
The modern diagnostic landscape often encounters datasets fraught with noise and incompleteness, stemming from diverse sources such as sensor limitations, environmental factors, or inherent complexities in the data collection process. Addressing these challenges necessitates the development of robust AI methodologies capable of extracting meaningful insights despite the presence of imperfections.
This research endeavors to bridge this gap by proposing innovative AI techniques tailored to handle noisy and incomplete image and audio data. One of the major contributions of this dissertation is a hybrid deep learning-based framework (HYDRA) for root cause analysis of coverage anomalies in emerging cellular networks using minimization of drive tests (MDT) reports. A complete schematic, detailed design, and comparative analysis of HYDRA are given in chapter II of this dissertation. The main objective of this research was to devise novel algorithms that can effectively mitigate the adverse effects of noise and
incompleteness, thereby enhancing the reliability and accuracy of diagnostic outcomes.
Furthermore, this study adopts a multi-faceted approach, encompassing both theoretical advancements and practical implementations of a concept framework for proactive future pandemic prediction leveraging multi-modal biosensing data. This approach is presented in the dissertation as a framework called iPREDICT, which leverages the power of deep
learning architectures, a plethora of biomarkers acquired using free-life biosensors available in daily life usage smart devices like smartwatches and smartphones.
Moreover, the practical significance of this research extends beyond academic realms, with potential applications spanning diverse sectors such as healthcare diagnostics, emerging cellular networks, and biomedical signal processing. By empowering AI systems to navigate through the complexities of noisy and incomplete data, this dissertation endeavors to pave the way for more robust and dependable diagnostic tools, ultimately contributing to improved decision-making processes and enhanced societal well-being.
In summary, this dissertation represents a significant step towards realizing the full potential of AI-enabled diagnostics in real-world scenarios characterized by noisy and incomplete data. Through a synergy of cutting-edge AI methodologies and practical insights,
this research aspires to catalyze advancements that will shape the future of diagnostic
technologies across multiple domains