25 research outputs found
Football play type prediction and tendency analysis
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (page 33).In any competition, it is an advantage to know the actions of the opponent in advance. Knowing the move of the opponent allows for optimization of strategy in response to their move. Likewise, in football, defenses must react to the actions of the offense. Being able to predict what the offense is going to do before the play represents a tremendous advantage to the defense. This project applies machine learning algorithms to situational NFL data in order to more accurately predict play type as opposed to the widely used and overly general method of general statistics. Additionally, this project creates a way to discern tendencies in specific situations to help coaches create game plans and make in game decisions.by Karson L. Ota.M. Eng
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American smuggling as white collar crime /
No full text"When Edwin Sutherland introduced the concept of white-collar crime, he referred to the respectable businessmen of his day who had, in the course of their occupations, violated the law whenever it was advantageous to do so. Yet since the founding of the American Republic, numerous otherwise respectable individuals had been involved in white-collar criminality. Using organized smuggling as an exemplar, this narrative history of American smuggling establishes that white-collar crime has always been an integral part of American history when conditions were favorable to violating the law. This dark side of the American Dream originally exposed itself in colonial times with elite merchants of communities such as Boston trafficking contraband into the colonies. It again came to the forefront during the Embargo of 1809 and continued through the War of 1812, the Civil War, nineteenth century filibustering, the Mexican Revolution and Prohibition. The author also shows that the years of illegal opium trade with China by American merchants served as precursor to the later smuggling of opium into the United States. The author confirms that each period of smuggling was a link in the continuing chain of white-collar crime in the 150 years prior to Sutherland's assertion of corporate criminality"-
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American smuggling as white collar crime /
No full text"When Edwin Sutherland introduced the concept of white-collar crime, he referred to the respectable businessmen of his day who had, in the course of their occupations, violated the law whenever it was advantageous to do so. Yet since the founding of the American Republic, numerous otherwise respectable individuals had been involved in white-collar criminality. Using organized smuggling as an exemplar, this narrative history of American smuggling establishes that white-collar crime has always been an integral part of American history when conditions were favorable to violating the law. This dark side of the American Dream originally exposed itself in colonial times with elite merchants of communities such as Boston trafficking contraband into the colonies. It again came to the forefront during the Embargo of 1809 and continued through the War of 1812, the Civil War, nineteenth century filibustering, the Mexican Revolution and Prohibition. The author also shows that the years of illegal opium trade with China by American merchants served as precursor to the later smuggling of opium into the United States. The author confirms that each period of smuggling was a link in the continuing chain of white-collar crime in the 150 years prior to Sutherland's assertion of corporate criminality"-
Epistemic responsibility in cases of sexual violation accusations
No full textThis thesis examines what hearers owe to speakers who testify concerning sexual violations, specifically in the case when there is conflicting testimony from the accuser and the accused. In these particular cases, I argue that hearers have both a moral and epistemic duty, which ought to govern their doxastic process. Namely, a duty to track the truth and avoid forming false beliefs about sexual violation accusations (to the best of their ability).
I will also show that hearers typically rely on imperfect, affective heuristics to form a judgement about which speaker to believe. In doing so, the chances of forming a false belief increases, which in turn, will wrong and harm the truth-telling speaker. I argue that when a hearer switches from heuristic processes to deeper cognitive processes, they enhance their ability to correct for any confirmation biases. Overall, I will endorse a normative, non-reductionist, evidential account for how hearers ought to form or modify their belief in these cases.Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2026. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link to the left
Crustal Accretion of Thick, Mafic Crust in Iceland: Implications for Volcanic Rifted Margins
No full textRifting near hotspots results in mantle melting to create thick, mafic igneous crust at Volcanic Rifted Margins (VRMs). This mafic crust is transitional between rifted continental crust with mafic intrusions landward and oceanic crust into which it grades seaward. Seismic velocities, crustal drilling, and exhumed margins show that the upper crust in these areas is composed of basaltic lava erupted in subaerial to submarine conditions intruded by downward increasing proportions of dikes and sparse gabbroic intrusions. The lower crust of these regions is not exposed but is inferred from seismic velocities (Vp>6.5 km/sec) and petrological constraints to be gabbroic to ultramafic in composition. Limited access to crustal sections generated along VRMs have raised questions regarding the composition and structure of this transitional crust and how it evolves during the early stages of rifting and subsequent seafloor spreading. Active processes in Iceland provide a glimpse of subaerial spreading with the creation of a thick (40-25 km) mafic igneous crust that may be analogous to the transitional crust of VRMs. Segmented rift zones that propagate away from the Iceland hotspot, migrating transform fault zones, and rift-parallel strike-slip faults create a complex plate boundary zone in the upper, brittle crust. These structures may be decoupled from underlying lower crustal gabbroic rocks that are capable of along-axis flow that smooths-out crustal thickness variations. Similar processes may be characteristic of the early history of VRMs and volcanic hotspot ridges related to rifting and seafloor spreading proximal to hotspots.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
Detachment shear zone of the Atlantis Massif core complex, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 30°N
No full textAuthor Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 7 (2006): Q06016, doi:10.1029/2005GC001109.Near-bottom investigations of the cross section of the Atlantis Massif exposed in a major tectonic escarpment provide an unprecedented view of the internal structure of the footwall domain of this oceanic core complex. Integrated direct observations, sampling, photogeology, and imaging define a mylonitic, low-angle detachment shear zone (DSZ) along the crest of the massif. The shear zone may project beneath the nearby, corrugated upper surface of the massif. The DSZ and related structures are inferred to be responsible for the unroofing of upper mantle peridotites and lower crustal gabbroic rocks by extreme, localized tectonic extension during seafloor spreading over the past 2 m.y. The DSZ is characterized by strongly foliated to mylonitic serpentinites and talc-amphibole schists. It is about 100 m thick and can be traced continuously for at least 3 km in the tectonic transport direction. The DSZ foliation arches over the top of the massif in a convex-upward trajectory mimicking the morphology of the top of the massif. Kinematic indicators show consistent top-to-east (toward the MAR axis) tectonic transport directions. Foliated DSZ rocks grade structurally downward into more massive basement rocks that lack a pervasive outcrop-scale foliation. The DSZ and underlying basement rocks are cut by discrete, anastomosing, normal-slip, shear zones. Widely spaced, steeply dipping, normal faults cut all the older structures and localize serpentinization-driven hydrothermal outflow at the Lost City Hydrothermal Field. A thin (few meters) sequence of sedimentary breccias grading upward into pelagic limestones directly overlies the DSZ and may record a history of progressive rotation of the shear zone from a moderately dipping attitude into its present, gently dipping orientation during lateral spreading and uplift.This work was supported by NSF grants OCE-9712430 and 0136816 to Karson and Kelley and Swiss SNF grant 2100-068055 to Früh-Green
Glacial stream ecosystems and epilithic algal communities under a warming climate
No full textClimate change is accelerating the global loss of glaciers with potentially striking consequences for downstream ecosystems. However, there exists limited evidence of the ecological impacts of glacier loss in meltwater streams, particularly in those outside of North America and Europe. We provide a review of the abiotic conditions in glacial streams that are potential factors of their ecosystem function and biodiversity with an emphasis on their key primary producers, namely rock-attached algae or “epilithon.” Here, shrinking glaciers discharge over time less turbid melt waters, resulting in slower moving and more transparent stream conditions that are also warmer and more chemically dilute. We hypothesize that these environmental changes will stimulate epilithic algal growth while also shifting its community structure towards larger and less nutritious taxa. Although such an increase in algal growth may benefit the productive harvestable fish capacity of certain mountain streams, a potential negative trade-off involves the proliferation of nuisance algae (e.g., Didymosphenia geminata), which thrives under clear, nutrient-poor mountain conditions. We advocate the use of long-term ecological monitoring programs and experiments coordinated across global mountain ranges to better predict and understand the ecological consequences of loss of glaciers on mountain stream ecosystems.The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the pdf file of the accepted manuscript may differ slightly from what is displayed on the item page. The information in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript reflects the original submission by the author
Hallucination and naive realism
No full textA perennial challenge for naive realism is the argument from hallucination which relies on some version of the claim that veridical perception and hallucination share some deep similarity. Naive realists account for the character of veridical experience in terms of certain special relations to parts of the external world. But some hallucinations seem to share the same character despite those relations being absent. In recent literature, Michael Martin has sharpened this worry about hallucination by presenting the so-called ‘screening off problem’. The idea is that the causal factors that explain the character of experience in the case of hallucination are also present in the case of veridical perception, and that such factors should be adequate to explaining the character of experience in both cases (since things look the same to a subject as between a case of veridical perception and its hallucinatory counterpart). Since, according to the argument, such factors do not involve the naive realist’s special relations to the external world, such relations are explanatorily screened off.
In this dissertation, I carefully examine the range of naive realist theories on the market and attempt to extract some core theses and thereby unify presentations that differ in terminology. As important ground clearing, I articulate along the way the various relevant kinds of perceptual experience and the crucial ideology of phenomenal character. Next, I examine what is often regarded as the most powerful case for naive realism, namely its intuitive appeal and argue that the supposed intuitive advantages of naive realism over its main competitor, intentionalism, are overstated.
In evaluating the screening off problem, I argue, its standard presentation is quite problematic. I go on to present a new variant of the screening off problem, one based on narrowness rather than causation, that is crisper and more challenging than the original version. I present a menu of escape routes for the naive realist. The good news for the naive realist is that there are quite a few possible escape routes. The bad news is that they are all unappetizing.
Finally, I turn to William Fish’s naive realism, which constitutes the most prominent recent defense of that approach. Two novel arguments are presented against Fish’s account of hallucination. One of those arguments, which receives extended attention, turns on the HP principle: that hallucinability entails possibility. First, I show that Fish’s view is committed to the HP principle. Next, I work through several different potential counterexamples and use them as case studies to test the HP principle. I ultimately argue against the HP principle and thereby demonstrate the failure of Fish’s positive account of hallucination. I also argue that Fish imposes indefensible connections between the character of experience and rational agents.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference
PREreview of "Deep indel mutagenesis reveals the impact of amino acid insertions and deletions on protein stability and function"
No full text<p><strong>This Zenodo record is a permanently preserved version of a PREreview. You can view the complete PREreview at <a href="https://prereview.org/reviews/11131001">https://prereview.org/reviews/11131001</a>.</strong></p>
<p><b>Summary:</b></p><p>Deep mutational scanning has revealed the impact of individual point mutants on protein function and improved computational predictors of mutational effects. However, many mutations observed in evolution and disease are the result of insertions or deletions (indels) and the impact of these mutations are poorly predicted computationally relative to missense mutations. While a few other papers have profiled InDels in a systematic way, the major contributions of this paper are: 1) profiling indels across many different proteins (9), 2) profiling InDels for both stability and function, 3) introducing the concept of high throughput profiling of DelSub mutations (Mutations that remove an aa and substitute an aa in a single event)</p><p>The authors make a library of substitutions, insertions and deletions of 9 protein domains. They carry out deep sequencing coupled to fragment complementation assay (aPCA) that is well correlated with expression/stability. They then go deep on two peptide binding domains, comparing functional mutational scans as well. This provides a rich set of data to compare to computational predictions, where notable limitations in current prediction methods are identified. The major limitation of the paper is in the presentation - there is a lot of data and the figures are quite complex - but the text is brief and difficult to follow in parts. An expanded text and breaking up the figures into more figures would likely improve the ability to extract insights from these impressive datasets. Additionally further discussion of the results within the context of past literature would be helpful in guiding interpretation of the study.</p><p><b>Major points:</b></p><p>- The authors included 9 domains that span classical motifs to include in their indel scan. From our reading, it is unclear what rationale the authors used to include these domains. What makes these a diverse set of domains (a/b content? size? eukaryotic/prokaryotic origin? other topological features? etc)? This will help the reader understand how to generalise the results.</p><p>- In section "Evaluating indel variant effect prediction", authors can comment on why PROVEAN is better suited to predict insertions and deletions relative to substitutions. In contrast, why CADD predicts substitutions better than PROVEAN? What design choices can distinguish PROVEAN from CADD? Is there a way a model could be trained that could perform well on both?</p><p>- In the section "Structural determinants of indel tolerance," the authors mention multiple features that seem potentially important for the effects of insertions and deletions. Currently specific patterns are discussed for the substitutions but the main draw of this manuscript it contains indel mutagenesis across many proteins and the discussion in this section regarding indels are vague beyond that indels are more tolerated at the N and C termini, that the secondary structure is important, and where the indel is seems to have an impact. Currently in our reading these are vague descriptions and perhaps it would be possible to describe general trends? What specific lengths are tolerated vs not? Which secondary structural elements are more sensitive? It would be helpful to clarify these trends with existing literature. For example, previous work in a potassium channel kir2.1 (Macdonald, CM, Genome Biology 2023) found that deletions were more disruptive than insertions in beta sheets especially. Is that also seen?</p><p>- The authors train a model as described in the 'Accurate indel variant effect prediction' section to predict the effects of indels within all the proteins that are contained within the screen and another manuscript Tsuboyama et al. However, there are other previous indel scans that have been done including one within a viral AAV capsid protein (<https: <a href="http://www.science.org">www.science.org</a>="" doi="" 10.1126="" science.aaw2900="">), a potassium channel kir2.1 (<https: <a href="http://disq.us/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgenomebiology.biomedcentral.com%3A943BjpX5R7uiOt0x_Pi3EL9GfPQ&cuid=2634513">genomebiology.biomedcentral...</a>="" articles="" 10.1186="" s13059-023-02880-6#citeas="">), and an amyloid protein that involved the senior author (<https: <a href="http://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov</a>="" 36400770=""/>). It may be useful to test performance of the model on these datasets that were not generated within the same study and discuss where the model performs well vs those that do not perform as well.</p><p>- The authors find that insertions can generate gain-of-function molecular phenotypes at higher rates relative to deletions and substitutions. Overall, the manuscript presents the results of deep indel mutagenesis on several protein domains, but lacks thorough discussion of the results. A discussion addressing the possibility of non-native ligand binding following indel mutations would provide an evolutionary perspective that contextualises this research.</p><p>- The authors mention that some gain-of-function mutations occur due to short insertion mutations. While some domain insertions have been shown to have stabilising effects (<https: <a href="http://doi.org">doi.org</a>="" 10.1371="" journal.pcbi.1006008="">, <https: <a href="http://doi.org">doi.org</a>="" 10.1038="" s41467-018-08171-0="">, <https: <a href="http://www.nature.com">www.nature.com</a>="" articles="" s41467-021-27342-0="">), the findings presented here are novel for being short insertions but prior work on domains and deletions of varying type being beneficial would be useful. Emphasising this in the "Insertions generate gain-of-function molecular phenotypes" section and considering how the insertions in the PSD95-PDZ3 domain might increase stability would enhance the understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving these gain-of-function phenotypes. - Related to gain-of-function: The last sentence of the discussion section references the potential usefulness of indel mutagenesis for protein engineering. As the paper notes, the results here will impact the protein engineering field significantly, so further discussion here will help extend the reach of this paper. Discussing what protein engineering strategies would be enhanced (e.g. directed evolution) would help the reader in evaluating the impact of the data presented. There are a few related papers in the literature (e.g.[ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pna...](https://doi.org/10.1073/pna...">https://doi.org/10.1073/pna...](https://doi.org/10.1073/pna...</a> that could support this.</p><p><b>Minor points:</b></p><p>- Several of the figures are very information-dense. This manuscript would benefit from breaking up these figures and reorganizing them to make them easier to understand. It may be helpful also to focus the figures on the main points the authors would like to make within the manuscript as currently the sheer amount of data and analyses makes it difficult to follow the narrative. Additionally, figures could benefit from having secondary structure representations above or below heatmaps to aid in interpretation.</p><p>- Figure 1 contains A-C labeled sections but contains 9 comprehensive experiments with 6 subpanels each. It is very difficult to evaluate the data when it is so densely represented. aligning an "unfolded" secondary structure below the heatmap for all domains might be clearer than colouring by secondary structure. We find secondary structure coloring to obscure the patterns. - Figure 2 would benefit from significant reorganization perhaps around SH3 and PDZ domains specifically. The spacing within this figure makes it difficult to follow the immense amount of comparisons contained here. Perhaps it would be worth separating this figure up or moving some of the comparisons to the supplement. As in Figure 1 secondary structure above or below the heatmaps would be helpful.</p><p>- In figure 5E data is shown for GRB2-SH3 in which some mutants show high binding and low abundance. Additionally these mutants are most prevalent in the core and surface. What could be an explanation for such a phenotype for core mutants, since they are bound to have the most destabilizing effect. For the surface mutants, are those residues close to the binding site? Additionally the distributions of these two plots look fundamentally different (with a much higher correlation between binding and abundance for PDZ and a distinct change in the pattern of binding residues being gain or loss of function across the two domains). What does that say about the baseline stability of GRB2 vs PSD95? Or is this more representative of some methodological aspect of the dynamic range and sensitivity within respective assays when run on these specific proteins?</p><p>- In the heatmap figures the coloring is confusing. Currently they are colored from red to white to blue - in the corresponding color bars next to the heatmaps white is not centered at 0. Presumably 0 is wildtype fitness and blue and red are greater and less than wildtype fitness, respectively. This should be explicitly stated within all figure legends. White should correspond to 0 otherwise it makes it difficult to determine the effect of a mutation.</p><p>- Figure 3E contains violin plots however a boxplot is missing from these that indicates the median, interquartile range, and whiskers to represent non-outlier distributions. This would be useful in comparing across these variant types</p><p>- In 'Materials and Methods' section, we were confused by the filtering steps taken in the 'sequence data processing' section. It would be helpful to include the minimum read cut-off.</p><p>- Figure 4b should be explained more completely in the figure legend. It is very difficult to make out what the difference in colour for each panel means.</p><p>- In the last paragraph of the introduction, it would provide additional support and context if you referenced other work with similar findings. These papers (<https: <a href="http://doi.org">doi.org</a>="" 10.1186="" s13059-023-02880-6="">, <https: <a href="http://doi.org">doi.org</a>="" 10.1101="" 2023.06.06.543963="">) would support the statement, "In general, indels are better tolerated in protein termini than in secondary elements."</p><p>Reviewed by Priyanka Bajaj, Karson Chrispens, James Fraser, Willow Coyote-Maestas (UCSF)</p>
<h2>Competing interests</h2>
<p>The authors declare that they have no competing interests.</p>
Quadriceps strength and power recovery following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with quadriceps tendon bone autograft: A 6- and 12 month analysis
No full textPeople's Choice award winner in the oral presentations at the 21st Annual Symposium on Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects (GRASP) held at the Rhatigan Student Center, Wichita State University, April 11, 2025.Research completed in the Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Professions.INTRODUCTION: Surgical reconstruction using a quadriceps tendon bone (QTB) autograft is a common approach using the patient's own quadriceps tendon to restore knee stability after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. Understanding the timeline for quadriceps recovery of strength and power is critical. Isokinetic dynamometry measures muscle strength and power at a constant speed. Peak torque, the maximum rotational muscular force, is historically used as indicator of strength. Less is known about quadriceps muscular power. Limited data exist regarding quadriceps power recovery following QTB ACL reconstruction (ACLR).
PURPOSE: To examine differences and correlations in quadriceps strength and power measures after ACLR with QTB autograft at 6- and 12 months post-surgery.
METHODS: Data were collected from an ongoing prospective cohort study. Isokinetic quadriceps strength and power were measured at 6- and 12 months postoperatively. Repeated measures analysis examined differences between post-operative timepoints and limbs. Correlation analyses examined relationships between strength and power measures.
RESULTS: Strength and power were higher in the uninvolved leg at both time points. The non-operative leg showed significant improvements in peak torque at 60° and 180° per second, and power at 0.18 seconds. The operative leg improved in all measurements of strength and power. Only one moderate negative correlation between peak torque at 30° and power of involved leg was statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: Although strength and power improved from 6- to 12 months post-ACLR with QTB, deficits in the operative leg persisted. Strength and power did not correlate well in this sample Quadriceps power may require more investigation.Graduate School, Academic Affairs, University Librarie
