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Application for Prediction of Heart Failure; the Next Step in Machine Learning for Healthcare
No full textHeart failure (HF) is a serious medical condition affecting approximately 6.7 million U.S. adults and is expected to impact 8.5 million Americans by 2030 [1]. Heart failure is a complicated clinical ailment and characterizes the final course of numerous heart diseases [2]. This paper introduces a machine-learning-based application that utilizes Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), and XGBoost models, implemented through the Python Flask framework, to predict HF risk using clinical data. The results indicate high model performance, with precision and recall metrics underscoring the application’s reliability in identifying at-risk patients. By providing real-time, accessible insights, this tool aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy and support early intervention, withparticular value for underserved populations. The study also discusses limitations related to data access, privacy concerns, and model generalizability, recommending future research to address these challenges for broader clinical adoption
Can Machine Learning Prevent Human Trafficking? Using Data and Technology to Tailor Policies and Programs Toward Vulnerable Populations in Your Community
No full textThis presentation will investigate how to use data and technology to prevent human trafficking in communities, before it starts. It will explore the opportunity to utilize a novel machine learning approach to identify local risk factors to guide collaborative, data-oriented prevention programs. Surprising findings from a case study will be shared that challenge existing assumptions on the key drivers of human trafficking
What’s in a Name? Policing, Juliet.
No full text“Child welfare” and “child protection” are misnomers. These terms do not accurately depict the investigatory nature of the system purported to help families, or at the very least, save endangered children. Contrary to public opinion, the “child welfare system” comprises of state actors who police parents and children. It is the naming of this system that convinces the public that these agencies are excised from the category of law enforcement, persuading many that the agencies engage in social work and not police work. Calling the system what it really is—family policing—is a step toward achieving justice for families adversely impacted by the system
Emerging Through the Noise: Communication Modes, Leadership, and Cultural Hierarchies in Agile Game Development
No full textThis pilot study explores how communication modes, cultural hierarchies (power distance), and emergent leadership influence team performance within small Agile game development teams in a hybrid work environment post-COVID-19. Using surveys across six development milestones among 12 student teams at SMU Guildhall, significant findings revealed that teams utilizing fewer communication modes performed better, and low power distance was associated with increased emergent leadership. Cultural diversity demonstrated a significant, yet directionally inconclusive, association with leadership emergence. These findings underscore practical implications for optimizing communication practices and leadership development in Agile game development settings
Using Object Density to Modulate Tension Responses
No full textThis thesis investigates the connection between object density and player tension in video games. Expanding on Canny Yuan’s work, “Using Spatial Composition to Influence Player Tension”, the researcher introduced a quantitative approach to measuring room density and posits that increased navigable space can lower player tension. To test this hypothesis, the researcher developed a custom single-player level, “Veylmoor”, in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The level is composed of rooms with systematically varied spatial layouts and navigable areas, allowing for controlled analysis of spatial density. The researcher quantified room density using four methodologies implemented through custom C# scripts. The researcher also assessed player tension through heart rate data and a post-playtest survey, enabling a comprehensive evaluation of the proposed methodologies
Comparing Gains and Losses: Examining the Effects of Incentives on Working Memory Capacity and Motivational Processes in Older Adults
No full textWorking memory is critical for the storage and maintenance of information but is susceptible to age-related changes. Prior studies have shown that incentives can be used to successfully modulate cognition in older age. However, research has largely focused on the use of reward incentives. Less is understood about the motivational processes of avoiding losses and whether this can also improve working memory capacity. Given that an aversion to losses may become more salient with age, it is important to determine whether these motivational shifts are reflected in how older adults attend to and store information. The current study compared how gains and loss avoidance may differentially motivate older adults’ working memory performance. The data were collected from an online sample of 72 older adults who completed a series of questionnaires, and a motivated single-item change detection task aimed to measure visual spatial working memory capacity. All participants completed two conditions, one in which they were motivated to earn rewards based on their performance, and in the other, they were motivated to avoid losses. Results showed that working memory capacity did not differ based on gain compared to loss avoidance incentives. A main effect of set size indicated significantly higher accuracy between set sizes 2 and 3, but not compared to 4 or 5. Furthermore, individuals v in the loss avoidance condition reported higher levels of inattention and demotivation compared to the gain condition. Findings demonstrate a replication of average working spatial memory capacity (between 2 – 3 items) in an older adult sample and suggest the use of incentives, regardless of type, can have potential benefits in modulating working memory
Investigating Women\u27s Provisioning Efforts in the Ethnoarchaeological Record of Central African Forest Foragers
No full textPrior studies on contemporary hunter-gatherer diets relied on observational techniques, which alone cannot capture the entirety of what people eat. Furthermore, existing scholarship in this realm often focuses on men as providers while overlooking women’s efforts. This is despite indications that women substantially contribute as well as long-standing debates about the role of gendered segregation of labor and how women’s and men’s family provisioning goals may differ. Thus, questions remain about what people eat as well as who is providing the food consumed. This dissertation reports the results of an ethnoarchaeological project that investigated the impact of hunter-gatherer women’s provisioning efforts and the diets of women, men, and children to provide much-needed insight about what people actually consume with an approach that centered women and used an independent measure of diet.
This study was conducted among the Central African Bofi and Aka. Among these populations a hunting and gathering lifestyle remains important, with women and men often cooperating and engaging in gender-specific food procurement labor tasks daily. Data were collected over multiple field visits spanning the wet and dry season to address several key questions: Do members of the group eat more meat (acquired mostly by men) or foraged food items (acquired mostly by women)? Who is provisioning the children? What do the diets of nuclear families suggest about women’s versus men’s foraging goals? This dissertation used a multi-method approach to assess various predictions and expectations about the role of women’s provisioning efforts on the diets of the group at the population, extended family, and nuclear family level using a conceptual framework derived from Human Behavioral Ecology with the underlying foundation that women’s foraging goals align with family provisioning.
By integrating ethnographically derived data with biomolecular analyses of hair to examine independent measures of diet (i.e., stable isotope analysis) and stress (i.e., cortisol analysis), this work provides greater insight into what people were actually eating, and thus potentially who provided the food consumed. The results of this study led to several conclusions about the Bofi and Aka forager’s diets: 1) women provided most of the food consumed by women and children resulting in a similar diet, while men likely provided most of their own food and consumed a more distinct diet higher in protein, 2) seasonality played a large role in the composition of the diet, women’s and men’s contributions, and possibly the provisioning of children, and 3) a gendered difference in diet exists among both adults and children. Ultimately, this work suggests that women’s provisioning efforts have an impact on the group’s diets at various levels, with strong support for a claim that women’s foraging goals align more so than men’s with family provisioning
Improving Compliance with International Humanitarian Law in an Era of Maneuver War and Mission Command
No full textThis Article proposes a new paradigm in international humanitarian law (IHL) to help junior military leaders make ethical combat decisions that are both legally and tactically sound. Driven by the realities of modern maneuver warfare and inspired by the spirit of mission command—a concept that emphasizes quick, decentralized decisions—we propose a new philosophical framework for ethical decision making in ground combat. Specifically, we argue that the traditional balance between the IHL principles of military necessity and humanity is better suited to the detached targeting processes associated with indirect fires and air power than to the split-second decisions required in direct ground combat. By replacing the amorphous principle of humanity with an expanded version of Additional Protocol I’s constant care principle, junior combat leaders can be equipped with a more wieldable IHL framework that will enable them to accomplish their missions and consistently mitigate civilian risk even in the chaos of combat.
At the tactical level of war, this proposal will significantly reduce the unnecessary suffering and destruction too often associated with modern ground combat, especially in extremely kinetic environments like Ukraine. At the strategic level, it will also enhance perceived legitimacy and foster greater respect for the law of war. This Article surveys modern conflict environments, discusses mission command philosophy, and then ties both to the need for a new IHL paradigm if we are to expect soldiers to both win wars and reduce unnecessary death and destruction while doing so. Ultimately, this Article explains why—for legal, tactical, and ethical reasons—IHL education for junior military leaders should be reoriented around a renewed understanding of military necessity and constant care
Risk-Based Perspectives and Methodologies for Managing Disproportionate Demand and Supply
No full textIn this dissertation, we focus on risks directly related to retailers facing disproportionate demand and supply due to demand uncertainty under social initiatives. In terms of risk-based methodologies, our interest is in stochastic approaches subject to complete or incomplete information which includes conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) and robust optimization, respectively. Through both avenues, we look to examine new problems of practical relevance in the retail industry.
One immediate consequence of disproportionate demand and supply is a stockout. Despite a large body of literature on the foundational newsvendor (NV) framework (which is also essential for the purposes of this dissertation), no previous work examines the impact of risk-based decision-making under alternative stockout policies (SOPs). Hence, to set the stage for a comprehensive investigation of risk-based perspectives and methodologies, we first revisit the traditional NV setting and explicitly incorporate contrasting approaches for handling excess demand. In doing so, we consider both risk-neutral (expected profit maximization) and risk-averse (CVaR minimization) preferences of the retailer and aim to produce a complete comparative analysis characterizing the optimal SOP.
Next, we extend the problem setting of interest to consider a popular representation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The specific initiative of interest is called buy-one-give-one (BOGO), under which the impact of disproportional demand and supply must be managed with care for corporate credibility. As BOGO resembles the social initiative of focus throughout this dissertation, we formulate several problems through the lens of the retailer, all of which are new to the literature. We implement demand uncertainty in the context of retailers offering BOGO initiatives while subject to alternative assumptions regarding knowledge of the demand distribution. We extend the risk-based scheme by employing the CVaR criterion while also emphasizing the complete information assumption tied to such modeling approaches. This recognition leads to our final portion of work involving incomplete information and demand uncertainty. The ensuing work involves distributionally robust optimization (DRO) and enables us to study various structural properties of the corresponding optimal policy and offer multiple operational insights on how BOGO initiatives can affect firms’ sourcing policies.
We expand on the vast collection of optimization literature that incorporates risk-neutrality and/or risk-aversion within the traditional NV setting. We also make a general distinction between the NV settings which do and do not allow recourse production. In turn, this distinction aligns precisely with two common practices for handling stockout scenarios. We develop methodology to compute the optimal order quantities and discover the optimal SOP for both risk-neutral (RN) and risk-averse (RA) attitudes and counterpart modeling approaches. Additionally, we highlight the prevalence of CSR as well as the growing list of firms offering BOGO initiatives. Although a number of firms employ BOGO initiatives, we identify a significant gap in the inventory management literature and become the first to explicitly address related problems from a risk-averse or distribution-free standpoint. Our contributions are of practical value as SOPs are applicable to any retail setting, risk attitudes are more aligned to risk-averse preferences, and limited demand information is typically more realistic than complete demand distribution knowledge. Overall, a compelling case is made in terms of the convenience, realizable social benefit, and expected profit performance of the optimal inventory policies delineated throughout this work
Molecular Dynamics Study Of Phase Change And Interfacial Behavior In Nanoconfined Argon
No full textAs electronic devices continue to reduce in size, effective thermal management becomes increasingly critical. Thin-film evaporation offers a promising solution due to its high heat flux capacity and passive nature. However, the applicability of continuum theory to thin-film evaporation becomes uncertain at the nanoscale. This work presents a two-phase Molecular Dynamics(MD) study of liquid argon confined within two parallel platinum walls, focusing on both equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase change behavior under nanoscale confinement.
In the first phase, Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (EMD) simulations investigate the influence of channel height (4, 8, and 16 nm) and wall-fluid interaction strength on bulk and interfacial properties. Smaller channels exhibit pronounced liquid layering and stress oscillations, with negative liquid pressures observed under strong wall attraction. Surface tension is evaluated via both atomic-scale mechanical stress and the continuum-based Young–Laplace relation. Surface tension found using mechanical stress shows convergence to bulk value with increase in channel height, while surface tension computed from the Young-Laplace equation fluctuates according to the wetting conditions.
In the second phase, Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD) simulations are conducted in an 8 nm channel to model steady-state evaporation and condensation under three different sets of applied wall temperature (hot walls: 130–150 K, cold walls: 90–70 K), which induces thermal gradient inside the channel. The evaporating interface is divided into three regions: adsorbed layer, thin film, and meniscus. The thin film region dominates the overall mass flow rate, whereas the meniscus shows localized condensation and even severe flow reversal. Notably, the adsorbed layer, which is traditionally considered non-evaporating, contributes approximately 20% of total mass flux, emphasizing its role in nanoscale evaporation.
Surface tension increases with greater temperature gradient inside the channel, resulting in larger pressure drops but a reduction in mass flow rate, revealing an inverse relationship unique to superheated meniscus. On the condensing front, the temperature jumps and Knudsen layers with thicknesses up to five times the mean free path are demonstrated. These non-equilibrium phenomena further emphasize the limitations of classical models. The findings in this study provide new insight into the coupling of confinement, interface curvature, and thermodynamic conditions, informing future nanoscale phase change and heat transport modeling