Using the concept of liminal spaces, this paper discusses findings from a study exploring the exp... more Using the concept of liminal spaces, this paper discusses findings from a study exploring the experiences of fifteen adults as they negotiate their identity as online learners during the first module on a part-time undergraduate degree programme. Online programmes enable adult learners with diverse backgrounds and responsibilities to choose when and how they study and therefore make decisions of how their aspirations are best met. The convenience and flexibility of these hybrid spaces enables them to take control of their learning. However, such benefits are reliant upon negotiating new ideas, technologies, constructs of learning and emergent identities which may sit at the counterpoint of existing roles, responsibilities and experiences. For some, this period of transition can consequently be characterised by disorientation and liminality. The findings presented here provide new insights into the experiences of adults who choose to study online, highlighting the extent of the entan...
Background: Extensive of atrial fibrosis has been demonstrated to significantly predict success o... more Background: Extensive of atrial fibrosis has been demonstrated to significantly predict success of catheter ablation. However, impact of extensive fibrosis on other aspects of patient care and long-term prognosis is unknown. Methods: We conducted a historical cohort study to assess the hypothesis that increased degree of atrial fibrosis is independently associated with major adverse cardiac events (MACE). We reviewed 853 patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and quantified fibrosis. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association of percent fibrosis on experiencing a MACE. Linear splines were utilized to allow the functional form of the exposure to vary at high (>15%) and low (<15%) fibrosis scores. The outcome of interest was a composite of MACE: myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic stroke (IS), or venous thromboembolism (VTE). Results: The mean age of the cohort was 66.2±12.4 with 66% male and 79% white. During a median follow-up of 2.9 years...
Genetic algorithms mimic the process of natural selection in order to solve optimization problems... more Genetic algorithms mimic the process of natural selection in order to solve optimization problems with minimal assumptions and perform well when the objective function has local optima on the search space. These algorithms treat potential solutions to the optimization problem as chromosomes, consisting of genes which undergo biologically-inspired operators to identify a better solution. Hyperparameters or control parameters determine the way these operators are implemented. We created a genetic algorithm in order to fit a DeGroot opinion diffusion model using limited data, making use of selection, blending, crossover, mutation, and survival operators. We adapted the algorithm from a genetic algorithm for design of mixture experiments, but the new algorithm required substantial changes due to model assumptions and the large parameter space relative to the design space. In addition to introducing new hyperparameters, these changes mean the hyperparameter values suggested for the origi...
The DeGroot model for opinion diffusion over social networks dates back to the 1970s and models t... more The DeGroot model for opinion diffusion over social networks dates back to the 1970s and models the mechanism by which information or disinformation spreads through a network, changing the opinions of the agents. Extensive research exists about the behavior of the DeGroot model and its variations over theoretical social networks; however, research on how to estimate parameters of this model using data collected from an observed network diffusion process is much more limited. Existing algorithms require large data sets that are often infeasible to obtain in public health or social science applications. In order to expand the use of opinion diffusion models to these and other applications, we developed a novel genetic algorithm capable of recovering the parameters of a DeGroot opinion diffusion process using small data sets, including those with missing data and more model parameters than observed time steps. We demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm on simulated data and data from...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Leveraging social influence is an increasingly common strategy to change population behavior or a... more Leveraging social influence is an increasingly common strategy to change population behavior or acceptance of public health policies and interventions; however, assessing the effectiveness of these social network interventions and projecting their performance at scale requires modeling of the opinion diffusion process. We previously developed a genetic algorithm to fit the DeGroot opinion diffusion model in settings with small social networks and limited follow-up of opinion change. Here, we present an assessment of the algorithm performance under the less-than-ideal conditions likely to arise in practical applications. We perform a simulation study to assess the performance of the algorithm in the presence of ordinal (rather than continuous) opinion measurements, network sampling, and model misspecification. We found that the method handles alternate models well, performance depends on the precision of the ordinal scale, and sampling the full network is not necessary to use this me...
Synergistic interactions between imatinib mesylate and the novel phosphoinositide-dependent kinas... more Synergistic interactions between imatinib mesylate and the novel phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 inhibitor OSU-03012 in overcoming imatinib mesylate resistance
Inspiration – the ability to stimulate creative thinking – has many sources. One of these is the ... more Inspiration – the ability to stimulate creative thinking – has many sources. One of these is the stimulus inherent in materials. It is one that, since the beginning of time, has driven humans to take materials and make something out of them, using their creativity to choose function and form in ways that best exploit their attributes. This chapter draws together the ideas developed in the book, with emphasis both on the technical and on the sensual aspects of material usage.
This dissertation uses a mixed methods design to explore the process of EFL students’ writing and... more This dissertation uses a mixed methods design to explore the process of EFL students’ writing and peer review, setting up a paradigm of peer compared to self review, with teacher support. The findings that surfaced were identified in themes, with the most overarching theme being that the value of peer review came not from the actual feedback that the peers gave each other, but rather from the collaborative process of peer review. Students who were actively engaged in peer review often did not take the exact advice given, but the process of exchanging feedback followed by face-to-face discussion prompted them to think of new ideas of their own that they incorporated into their revisions. The following findings are related to this major one. (1) Both the writing proficiency of the student writers and the understanding they have of the feedback given have a symbiotic relationship and greatly affect how they apply feedback. In this study, students at higher writing proficiencies tended ...
Background Late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging is an effective tool for assess... more Background Late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging is an effective tool for assessment of atrial fibrosis. The degree of left atrial fibrosis is a good predictor of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) ablation success at 1 year, but the association between left atrial fibrosis and long‐term ablation success has not been studied. Methods and Results Late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance images of sufficient quality to quantify atrial fibrosis were obtained before the first AF ablation in 308 consecutive patients. Left atrial fibrosis was classified in 4 Utah stages (I, 0–10%; II , 10–20%; III , 20–30%; and IV , >30%). Patients were followed up for up to 5 years until the time of first arrhythmia recurrence or second ablation. A total of 308 patients were included; the mean age was 64.5±12.1 years, and 63.4% were men. During follow‐up, 157 patients experienced an arrhythmia recurrence and 106 patients underwent a repeated ablation. A graded effect was observed in whi...
Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open, 2018
Intravenous therapy is a common practice among many specialties. Intravenous therapy extravasatio... more Intravenous therapy is a common practice among many specialties. Intravenous therapy extravasation is a potential complication to such therapy. Hospitals without a dedicated wound care team trained in these interventions will often default to plastic surgical consultation, making an understanding of available interventions essential to the initial evaluation and management of these injuries. The goal of this article was to provide plastic surgeons and health care providers with a general overview of the acute management of intravenous infiltration and extravasation injuries. Though the decision for surgical versus nonsurgical management is often a clear one for plastic surgeons, local interventions, and therapies are often indicated and under-utilized in the immediate postinfiltration period. Thorough knowledge of these interventions should be a basic requirement in the armamentarium of plastic surgery consultants.
common malignancy caused by alkylating agents in treated cancer patients (for review see Shulman,... more common malignancy caused by alkylating agents in treated cancer patients (for review see Shulman, 1993). Secondary W.David Henner 2 leukemias have also been reported for patients treated with
This article offers a rereading of Pudd'nhead Wilson's enslaved character Roxy. It analyz... more This article offers a rereading of Pudd'nhead Wilson's enslaved character Roxy. It analyzes Twain's language of textual creation, revision, and violence in Those Extraordinary Twins, and describes how it pertains to Roxy's storyline. These physical descriptions connect directly to Roxy's violent circumstances and continuous efforts to enact change—or “revision”—in her life. Pudd'nhead Wilson, in turn, refers to the language of textual creation to illustrate the deeply embedded narratives of enslavement against which Roxy struggles. This article also contends that Roxy's fingerprint is an important text that embodies the haunting presence of slavery, in both her life and in the antebellum South as a whole. Finally, it discusses how this critical reading of Twain's language of textual and physical violence can also be applied to Jim's enforced acts of “inscription” in the concluding chapters of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Using the concept of liminal spaces, this paper discusses findings from a study exploring the exp... more Using the concept of liminal spaces, this paper discusses findings from a study exploring the experiences of fifteen adults as they negotiate their identity as online learners during the first module on a part-time undergraduate degree programme. Online programmes enable adult learners with diverse backgrounds and responsibilities to choose when and how they study and therefore make decisions of how their aspirations are best met. The convenience and flexibility of these hybrid spaces enables them to take control of their learning. However, such benefits are reliant upon negotiating new ideas, technologies, constructs of learning and emergent identities which may sit at the counterpoint of existing roles, responsibilities and experiences. For some, this period of transition can consequently be characterised by disorientation and liminality. The findings presented here provide new insights into the experiences of adults who choose to study online, highlighting the extent of the entan...
Background: Extensive of atrial fibrosis has been demonstrated to significantly predict success o... more Background: Extensive of atrial fibrosis has been demonstrated to significantly predict success of catheter ablation. However, impact of extensive fibrosis on other aspects of patient care and long-term prognosis is unknown. Methods: We conducted a historical cohort study to assess the hypothesis that increased degree of atrial fibrosis is independently associated with major adverse cardiac events (MACE). We reviewed 853 patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and quantified fibrosis. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association of percent fibrosis on experiencing a MACE. Linear splines were utilized to allow the functional form of the exposure to vary at high (>15%) and low (<15%) fibrosis scores. The outcome of interest was a composite of MACE: myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic stroke (IS), or venous thromboembolism (VTE). Results: The mean age of the cohort was 66.2±12.4 with 66% male and 79% white. During a median follow-up of 2.9 years...
Genetic algorithms mimic the process of natural selection in order to solve optimization problems... more Genetic algorithms mimic the process of natural selection in order to solve optimization problems with minimal assumptions and perform well when the objective function has local optima on the search space. These algorithms treat potential solutions to the optimization problem as chromosomes, consisting of genes which undergo biologically-inspired operators to identify a better solution. Hyperparameters or control parameters determine the way these operators are implemented. We created a genetic algorithm in order to fit a DeGroot opinion diffusion model using limited data, making use of selection, blending, crossover, mutation, and survival operators. We adapted the algorithm from a genetic algorithm for design of mixture experiments, but the new algorithm required substantial changes due to model assumptions and the large parameter space relative to the design space. In addition to introducing new hyperparameters, these changes mean the hyperparameter values suggested for the origi...
The DeGroot model for opinion diffusion over social networks dates back to the 1970s and models t... more The DeGroot model for opinion diffusion over social networks dates back to the 1970s and models the mechanism by which information or disinformation spreads through a network, changing the opinions of the agents. Extensive research exists about the behavior of the DeGroot model and its variations over theoretical social networks; however, research on how to estimate parameters of this model using data collected from an observed network diffusion process is much more limited. Existing algorithms require large data sets that are often infeasible to obtain in public health or social science applications. In order to expand the use of opinion diffusion models to these and other applications, we developed a novel genetic algorithm capable of recovering the parameters of a DeGroot opinion diffusion process using small data sets, including those with missing data and more model parameters than observed time steps. We demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm on simulated data and data from...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021
Leveraging social influence is an increasingly common strategy to change population behavior or a... more Leveraging social influence is an increasingly common strategy to change population behavior or acceptance of public health policies and interventions; however, assessing the effectiveness of these social network interventions and projecting their performance at scale requires modeling of the opinion diffusion process. We previously developed a genetic algorithm to fit the DeGroot opinion diffusion model in settings with small social networks and limited follow-up of opinion change. Here, we present an assessment of the algorithm performance under the less-than-ideal conditions likely to arise in practical applications. We perform a simulation study to assess the performance of the algorithm in the presence of ordinal (rather than continuous) opinion measurements, network sampling, and model misspecification. We found that the method handles alternate models well, performance depends on the precision of the ordinal scale, and sampling the full network is not necessary to use this me...
Synergistic interactions between imatinib mesylate and the novel phosphoinositide-dependent kinas... more Synergistic interactions between imatinib mesylate and the novel phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 inhibitor OSU-03012 in overcoming imatinib mesylate resistance
Inspiration – the ability to stimulate creative thinking – has many sources. One of these is the ... more Inspiration – the ability to stimulate creative thinking – has many sources. One of these is the stimulus inherent in materials. It is one that, since the beginning of time, has driven humans to take materials and make something out of them, using their creativity to choose function and form in ways that best exploit their attributes. This chapter draws together the ideas developed in the book, with emphasis both on the technical and on the sensual aspects of material usage.
This dissertation uses a mixed methods design to explore the process of EFL students’ writing and... more This dissertation uses a mixed methods design to explore the process of EFL students’ writing and peer review, setting up a paradigm of peer compared to self review, with teacher support. The findings that surfaced were identified in themes, with the most overarching theme being that the value of peer review came not from the actual feedback that the peers gave each other, but rather from the collaborative process of peer review. Students who were actively engaged in peer review often did not take the exact advice given, but the process of exchanging feedback followed by face-to-face discussion prompted them to think of new ideas of their own that they incorporated into their revisions. The following findings are related to this major one. (1) Both the writing proficiency of the student writers and the understanding they have of the feedback given have a symbiotic relationship and greatly affect how they apply feedback. In this study, students at higher writing proficiencies tended ...
Background Late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging is an effective tool for assess... more Background Late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging is an effective tool for assessment of atrial fibrosis. The degree of left atrial fibrosis is a good predictor of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) ablation success at 1 year, but the association between left atrial fibrosis and long‐term ablation success has not been studied. Methods and Results Late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance images of sufficient quality to quantify atrial fibrosis were obtained before the first AF ablation in 308 consecutive patients. Left atrial fibrosis was classified in 4 Utah stages (I, 0–10%; II , 10–20%; III , 20–30%; and IV , >30%). Patients were followed up for up to 5 years until the time of first arrhythmia recurrence or second ablation. A total of 308 patients were included; the mean age was 64.5±12.1 years, and 63.4% were men. During follow‐up, 157 patients experienced an arrhythmia recurrence and 106 patients underwent a repeated ablation. A graded effect was observed in whi...
Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open, 2018
Intravenous therapy is a common practice among many specialties. Intravenous therapy extravasatio... more Intravenous therapy is a common practice among many specialties. Intravenous therapy extravasation is a potential complication to such therapy. Hospitals without a dedicated wound care team trained in these interventions will often default to plastic surgical consultation, making an understanding of available interventions essential to the initial evaluation and management of these injuries. The goal of this article was to provide plastic surgeons and health care providers with a general overview of the acute management of intravenous infiltration and extravasation injuries. Though the decision for surgical versus nonsurgical management is often a clear one for plastic surgeons, local interventions, and therapies are often indicated and under-utilized in the immediate postinfiltration period. Thorough knowledge of these interventions should be a basic requirement in the armamentarium of plastic surgery consultants.
common malignancy caused by alkylating agents in treated cancer patients (for review see Shulman,... more common malignancy caused by alkylating agents in treated cancer patients (for review see Shulman, 1993). Secondary W.David Henner 2 leukemias have also been reported for patients treated with
This article offers a rereading of Pudd'nhead Wilson's enslaved character Roxy. It analyz... more This article offers a rereading of Pudd'nhead Wilson's enslaved character Roxy. It analyzes Twain's language of textual creation, revision, and violence in Those Extraordinary Twins, and describes how it pertains to Roxy's storyline. These physical descriptions connect directly to Roxy's violent circumstances and continuous efforts to enact change—or “revision”—in her life. Pudd'nhead Wilson, in turn, refers to the language of textual creation to illustrate the deeply embedded narratives of enslavement against which Roxy struggles. This article also contends that Roxy's fingerprint is an important text that embodies the haunting presence of slavery, in both her life and in the antebellum South as a whole. Finally, it discusses how this critical reading of Twain's language of textual and physical violence can also be applied to Jim's enforced acts of “inscription” in the concluding chapters of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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