Digital Commons at Lewis University
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Sexual Orientation (Entry from The Sage Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy)
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.lewisu.edu/psychology_fac-books/1013/thumbnail.jp
The effects of document\u27s format, size, and storage media on memory forensics
No full textMain memory or RAM contains volatile but critical data about the system\u27s state and its recent activities. Often, RAM based artifacts are hard to be found elsewhere. Digital investigators can find in this volatile data an essential information about the recent usage of a system including the used documents. Nowadays, documents are often fetched from a variety of storage media, most of which are internet based. This can complicate the digital investigation process due to the remote nature of these storage media; most of these remote files cannot be traced on the local hard disk drive (HDD) of the captured machine. However, whenever the document\u27s contents are successfully recovered from RAM images, it can ensure the actual usage of the document. This paper studies the effects of various storage media (local and remote) on the amount of volatile artifacts of different types of documents. Experiments are designed to evaluate the effects of local hard drives, removable media, and a set of cloud based platforms such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive on the RAM based artifacts of a used document. Results show that the recovered contents are significantly affected by the used storage media. Moreover, the document\u27s type has an effect too. Frequently, a good ratio of the document\u27s contents are recovered from RAM even when the document is living on the cloud, the document is closed, and the connection is terminated
Transsexual Individuals (Entry from The Sage Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy)
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.lewisu.edu/psychology_fac-books/1011/thumbnail.jp
Financial Exclusion, Gender, and the Lure of Boko Haram (Chapter from Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Africa: Access and Future Measures)
Get PDFThere is a large disparity in financial inclusiveness for those people living in northern Nigeria in contrast to those living in southern Nigeria. According to a 2019 report by the Central Bank of Nigeria and Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), Nigeria has more people living in extreme poverty than any other country in the world. Access to education and lower levels of income all contribute to the lack of financial inclusion for both men and women in the North, but particularly for women. These gender barriers have acted as an enabler for the recruitment of women into the Boko Haram insurgency. Much of the academic and grey literature on Boko Haram’s gender politics tends to focus on the lived experiences of women before, during, and after their association with the group. In response, this chapter, by means of a qualitative exploratory analysis, attempts to illustrate how Boko Haram exploits the financial exclusion of women for its benefit. Attention is given not only to the socio-economic barriers associated with northern Nigeria but also to the limitations of the deradicalization and reintegration programmes designed to counter the insurgency. Findings suggest that ensuring effective financial inclusion of women is more likely to occur if Nigeria links Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 5 [Gender Equality] and 10 [Reduced Inequalities]) to its counterterrorism approach. To this end, recommendations are proposed, which include a series of action items for the Nigerian government and its partners. Central to this plan of action is a coordinated response which impedes Boko Haram from exploiting the ongoing financial exclusion of women in northern Nigeria.https://digitalcommons.lewisu.edu/jlpss_fac-books/1000/thumbnail.jp
AbstractTrace: The Use of Execution Traces to Cluster, Classify, Prioritize, and Optimize a Bloated Test Suite
Get PDFDue to the incremental and iterative nature of the software testing process, a test suite may become bloated with redundant, overlapping, and similar test cases. This paper aims to optimize a bloated test suite by employing an execution trace that encodes runtime events into a sequence of characters forming a string. A dataset of strings, each of which represents the code coverage and execution behavior of a test case, is analyzed to identify similarities between test cases. This facilitates the de-bloating process by providing a formal mechanism to identify, remove, and reduce extra test cases without compromising software quality. This form of analysis allows for the clustering and classification of test cases based on their code coverage and similarity score. This paper explores three levels of execution traces and evaluates different techniques to measure their similarities. Test cases with the same code coverage should generate the exact string representation of runtime events. Various string similarity metrics are assessed to find the similarity score, which is used to classify, detect, and rank test cases accordingly. Additionally, this paper demonstrates the validity of the approach with two case studies. The first shows how to classify the execution behavior of various test cases, which can provide insight into each test case’s internal behavior. The second shows how to identify similar test cases based on their code coverage
Trade Openness, Human Capital, and Economic Resilience in SAARC Countries: A Post-COVID-19 Analysis
Get PDFThe present study analyzes the interrelationship between trade openness, labor force participation, human capital, and economic growth in the SAARC countries, with particular attention to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on these linkages. In this paper, an attempt has been made to gauge both the short-run and long-run impacts that have resulted in the facilitation of economic growth through trade openness by increased market access, technology transfers, and competitive efficiency. However, the pandemic distorted trade flows and lost labor to more labor-intensive industries, generally hitting the low-income and marginal groups harder while underlining vulnerabilities in the trade-dependent economies. These disruptions thus underline the need for adaptive economic policies that balance trade openness with resilience and self-sufficiency in the SAARC nations. The study further identifies human capital as crucial, especially education and skill development, to maximize benefits from trade. The policy recommendations are promoting intraregional trade, investing in digital infrastructure, and promoting better skills in the workforce for sustainable growth. Therefore, this research concludes by calling for a twin-track approach combining trade liberalization with substantial investment in human capital to lead to economic resilience and inclusive development in the SAARC region. especially in the wake of global disruptions like the COVID-19 crisis
Targeting Persistence: Improving Success of STEM Students
Get PDFHalf of STEM majors leave their program without earning a degree. Many of those who leave do so within their first two years of study. A series of exploratory investigations of the mindset, identity, and sense of community of undergraduate students were completed. Differences in mindset were found between underclassmen and upperclassmen, where upperclassmen tended towards growth mindset traits and often described undergoing a shift from fixed to growth mindset during their undergraduate career. Participation in undergraduate research was found to be a driving factor of persistence with numerous benefits, most significantly STEM identity development and sense of community
Evaluation of cyclin D3 as a transcriptional regulator in a neutrophil differentiation model
No full textCyclin D3 is known to regulate cell cycle entry during the G1 to S transition by associating with its binding partners CDK4/6 upon mitogenic stimulation. Cyclin D3 has also been implicated as a transcriptional regulator, but the indirect mechanism employed is not known. The HL60 cell line was used as a model to investigate cyclin D3’s role in altered gene transcription as DMSO-driven differentiation into neutrophils is induced. We have validated this system by evaluating changes in gene expression indicative of progression to the terminal neutrophil state. Interestingly, ectopic expression of cyclin D3 in undifferentiated HL60 (uHL60) cells causes changes in gene expression to mirror that seen in differentiated (dHL60) cells without the need to treat with DMSO. We have also assessed a cohort of target genes hypothesized to be sensitive to cyclin D3-impacted gene transcription as cells transition from uHL60 to dHL60. For those genes that are differentially expressed between uHL60 and dHL60, many are also sensitive to ectopic expression of cyclin D3. Forced expression of cyclin D3 mutants in uHL60 cells suggests that a C-terminal domain within cyclin D3 is responsible for this observed regulation of gene expression, as three mutations (L215M, Q244R, P278R) abrogate the wild-type cyclin D3-induced differentiation gene signature. Ongoing studies aim to elucidate transcription factor binding partners that interact in complex with cyclin D3 to cause differential gene expression
Targeting Persistence: Student Profiles Reveal Strengths and Challenges in Chemistry and Biochemistry Undergraduate Student Development
No full textStudent mindset and identity play a role in STEM persistence. On average, half of STEM majors leave their program without earning a degree, many within the first two years of study. Qualitative analysis of surveys and self-reflection writings of under- and upperclassmen in the chemistry department at a midsized university in the midwestern U.S. revealed that upperclassmen had shifts toward growth mindsets, more developed STEM identities, embraced challenge, and recognizing value in learning from failure. Underclassmen tended toward fixed mindsets, had limited sense of STEM identity, held contradicting beliefs about challenge, and feared failure. This highlights existing strengths within the department, such as undergraduate research experiences, as well as targets for future interventions to improve these traits earlier in the students’ university careers with the hope of increasing persistence
A Study of Civil Liability Views of U.S. Midwestern Police
No full textIn the past several years, there has been a greater social call for police officers to be civilly and/or criminally liable for their actions. It is unclear if concern for liability exists today among police officers and if this concern influences how officers interaction with community members. The current study explored the civil and criminal liability views of police officers and if officers feel that this liability changed how they provide services. Data for this survey came from a recent survey of police officers in the U.S. Midwest. The results will be presented and discusse