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The Impact of APIs on Startup Growth and IPO Success
Get PDFThis research examines the impact of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on startup success, focusing on acquisition outcomes, IPO performance, and value creation versus capture. Grounded in digital platform theory, we explore how APIs help startups integrate into ecosystems, increasing scalability, visibility, and access to resources. Using Crunchbase data and visual analysis in RStudio, we compare API-enabled startups with others across performance metrics. Our findings show that startups with APIs raise more capital at IPO and employ more full-time staff, signaling greater investor confidence and organizational scale. Industry-level analysis reveals that API benefits vary by sector, with stronger correlations in Financial and Communication Services. Overall, APIs serve not just technical purposes but also strategic roles, enhancing startups’ positioning and value capture within digital ecosystems
Reinforcement Learning, Modeling Markets, and Professional Basketball Free Agency
No full textThis dissertation presents a reinforcement learning-based approach to modeling and optimizing decision-making in professional basketball free agency and related economic environments. A Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework is introduced to capture the strategic interactions of NBA teams bidding for free agents under budgetary and roster constraints. To address computational scalability challenges, a reinforcement learning (RL) environment is developed, leveraging Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) to approximate optimal policies for team decision-making.
Empirical results demonstrate that the RL agent successfully learns strategic bidding behavior that aligns with dynamic programming benchmarks in simplified settings while scaling effectively to larger, intractable environments. The study further extends reinforcement learning applications to a job scheduling problem, where an agent must allocate resources to maximize returns under uncertainty, and to a capacity-constrained Cournot market, where firms strategically invest to maximize long-term profitability.
Findings indicate that reinforcement learning serves as a powerful tool for approximating optimal strategies in complex, non-tractable markets. This work contributes to the growing intersection of computational economics, market design, and artificial intelligence by showcasing the effectiveness of reinforcement learning in decision-support systems for economic and strategic environments
Misplaced Fear? Assessing the Impact of Demographics and Media Consumption on American’s Fear of Violent Crime
Get PDFIn a nation with ideals grounded in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, having a large portion of the population disproportionately living in fear would challenge such ideologies. I will be examining how race, gender, and media consumption are critical factors that play into an individual\u27s level of fear regarding violent crimes. Relying on The Chapman Survey of American Fears, a comprehensive data source that surveys and catalogs the fears of American adults, I analyzed how these varying factors interact with one another. Through careful analysis, I found that despite women\u27s, particularly women of color, elevated fear of violent crime, they are statistically less likely to experience violent crime than their male counterparts. Logically, this leads to the question of why women fear violent crime on such a high level. Although the research has proposed many possible explanations, like the increase of crime media in the past few decades or evolutionary and cultural norms, these elements are insufficient. While they are all valid contributors to the fear of violent crime, the major contributor is that women fear violent crime so severely because they fear sexual assault disproportionately more than men. Knowing that women\u27s fear of violent crime is tied inextricably to fear of sexual assault helps to explain the elevated fear of violent crimes that is not adequately explained by past studies. Cataloging and understanding this data is the first step in bridging this racial and gender divide and eventually finding a way to reduce such fears significantly
Social Media News Consumption & Alternative Für Deutschland Support Among Voters in Germany
No full textThis study investigates the relationship between social media news consumption and support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party among male voters in Germany. Utilizing logistic regression analysis, the research explores how exposure to news content on social media platforms influences political attitudes and voting behavior. Drawing on survey data from German male voters, the study examines the extent to which social media news consumption correlates with AfD support. Preliminary findings suggest a significant positive association between frequent social media news consumption and increased likelihood of supporting AfD, particularly among male and less educated voters. These results highlight the role of digital media in shaping political preferences and underscore the need for further investigation into the mechanisms driving far-right support in contemporary Germany
Global Violence Will Rise Without Investment in Peace
No full textWhat are the consequences of turning away from diplomacy and humanitarian assistance and toward coercion? Global wars are on the rise for the first time in decades. Congress must continue investing in long-term strategies to prevent violence, resolve ongoing conflicts, and build peace
From Pagan Chieftains to Christian Kings: Shaping Medieval Nordic Political Culture
Get PDFThis research investigates how the Christianization of Scandinavia between the 800s and 1100s transformed Nordic political culture, particularly in relation to governance, kingship, and Scandinavia\u27s integration into European Christendom. The adoption of Christianity contributed to the centralization of power, replacing the previous decentralized chieftain-based system with hereditary monarchies legitimized through Christian ideology. Additionally, the establishment of church institutions played a critical role in administrative development, reinforcing royal authority and expanding government structures. Methodologically, this study analyzes historical texts such as Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson, which offers a narrative perspective on Christianization. Archaeological evidence, including church remains, runestones, and burial sites further illustrate the material and symbolic transformations that accompanied religious change. By synthesizing these textual and material sources, this research builds on the scholarship of Anders Winroth and Nora Berend, whose work emphasize the intersection of ideology and political evolution in medieval Scandinavia. The findings suggest that Christianization was not merely a religious transition but a catalyst for significant political change. Kings leveraged Christianity to consolidate power, weaken rival chieftains, and establish structured administrations modeled after European counterparts. The church provided a literate clerical class that aided in governance, while religious reforms integrated Scandinavia into the broader European political and cultural sphere. Ultimately, this study highlights the influence of religion on state formation, demonstrating how Christianization reshaped Nordic political identity and laid the foundation for the medieval Scandinavian kingdoms
Development and Feasibility of an Immersive Feedback Protocol to Reduce Knee Moments and Pain with Potential Application to People with Knee Osteoarthritis
Get PDFBackground: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of disability in the US, affecting 1 in 5 people. Of that, 45% will experience OA in at least one knee. To alleviate pain and prevent knee OA disease progression, walking modification techniques have been proposed. While studies and meta-analyses exist suggesting reductions knee moments due to these modifications (Bechard 2012, Bowd 2019, Fregly 2012), little conclusive evidence exists quantifying their effectiveness. Objective: This research aims to assess the feasibility of an immersive bio-feedback system that provides real-time information about how to effectivedly perform walking modifications that reduce knee moments and pain. Methods: We reviewed the literature to identify how many publications exist supporting each walking modification, and the five most prominent were selected. The Gait Real-Time Analysis Interactive Lab (GRAIL) system at the Chapman University Rinker Campus was utilized; the GRAIL is instrumented with a dual-belt treadmill, 10 motion capture cameras and D-Flow software, providing custom, gamified visual feedback based on real-time data. We created custom MATLAB code to assess reduction of knee moments during each modification. We tested one healthy adult (F57) to assess the feasibility of our feedback system. Results: From the literature review, we identified the following modifications and their ideal ranges: toe-in, toe-out, (both 10-15º) wider steps, (8-12 cm) ipsilateral trunk lean, (10-15º) and medial knee thrust. (4-8º) The D-Flow software calculated the relevant angles for each modification and in real-time, we projected them on an immersive screen as a bar graph. Using the walking modifications, the participant overall reduced knee moments between 0% and 25%. Conclusion: We confirmed that walking modifications can reduce knee joint moments, and that a real-time biofeedback system that instructs participants on the modifications is feasible. Further testing will be done to quantify the effectiveness of walking modifications for knee OA patients
Real-world Implementation of a Noninvasive, AI-augmented, Anemia-screening Smartphone App and Personalization for Hemoglobin Level Self-monitoring
Get PDFAnemia, characterized by low blood hemoglobin (Hgb) levels, afflicts \u3e2 billion individuals worldwide. Here, we report real-world data generated by a smartphone app that noninvasively screens for anemia using only “fingernail selfies.” App data for anemia screening were obtained from \u3e1.4 million uses across the United States enabling geographic mapping of Hgb levels. Of those, 9,061 users also self-reported complete blood count Hgb levels for comparison, resulting in accuracy and performance that match gold standard laboratory testing and a sensitivity and specificity of 89% and 93%, respectively, when using an anemia cutoff of 12.5 g/dL. Geotagged data enabled construction of an “anemia map” of the United States, which demonstrated that Hgb levels correlate with socioeconomic status, and that the app is more likely to be used in counties with higher median income counties, more Black residents, and more primary care physicians. In addition, “personalization” of the app’s AI-augmented algorithm empowers self-monitoring of Hgb levels for those already diagnosed with anemia, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. After personalization, the app’s mean absolute error improved from 1.36 to 0.74 g/dL (P = 3.13E-11) and from 0.69 to 0.57 g/dL (P = 0.006) for CKD patients and real-world users with known anemia, respectively. Given its scalability, noninvasiveness, and geotagging capabilities, this app has the potential to enhance public health initiatives by screening an entire population for anemia coupled with geographic mapping. Moreover, personalization of the app enables individuals to serially monitor their Hgb levels instantaneously and remotely
Iconicity as an Organizing Principle of the Lexicon
Get PDFThe view that words are arbitrary is a foundational assumption about language, used to set human languages apart from nonhuman communication. We present here a study of the alignment between the semantic and phonological structure (systematicity) of American Sign Language (ASL), and for comparison, two spoken languages—English and Spanish. Across all three languages, words that are semantically related are more likely to be phonologically related, highlighting systematic alignment between word form and word meaning. Critically, there is a significant effect of iconicity (a perceived physical resemblance between word form and word meaning) on this alignment: words are most likely to be phonologically related when they are semantically related and iconic. This phenomenon is particularly widespread in ASL: half of the signs in the ASL lexicon are iconically related to other signs, i.e., there is a nonarbitrary relationship between form and meaning that is shared across signs. Taken together, the results reveal that iconicity can act as a driving force behind the alignment between the semantic and phonological structure of spoken and signed languages, but languages may differ in the extent that iconicity structures the lexicon. Theories of language must account for iconicity as a possible organizing principle of the lexicon