Digital Commons Network^™

Forall X: Introduction To Formal Logic, Version 1.40, P.D. Magnus

Philosophy Faculty Books

In formal logic, sentences and arguments in English are translated into mathematical languages with well-defined properties. If all goes well, properties of the argument that were hard to discern become clearer. This book covers translation, formal semantics, and proof theory for both sentential logic and quantified logic. Each chapter contains practice exercises; solutions to selected exercises appear in an appendix

The Declining Presbyterian Church, Joshua A. Edwards

Religious Studies

In this thesis I will discuss how the Presbyterian Church has been declining in membership and in the number of people attending weekly services. Within this study, I use my own church, Niagara Presbyterian Church in Niagara Falls, NY as a case study to further prove what is happening within the Presbyterian Church. Though the trend of declining church attendance can be seen across most denominations, I will show how the Presbyterian Church specifically is struggling and show why it is unique in its situation along with other characteristics of the decline that have happened across the denominations. I close …

Popularity Prediction, Andrew Furgiuele

Computer Science

With the rise in popularity of the Internet, data describing unique types of items has been collected into easy to access sources. Using this newly acquired data, is it possible to predict if an item will become a bestseller while another fade away with time? Popularity prediction is a problem that has attracted a great deal of research recently, and for good reason. The ability to predict an items future rise to popularity or fall to obscurity is a possibly priceless skill and sought out in many different industries such as sales, investments, and marketing. This report enumerates and analyzes …

Forming Community Partnerships, Lori Foley

CHAR

In the event of a disaster, regardless of the type or scope, the first response is always local. For the institutions and organizations charged with safeguarding the nation’s cultural and historic resources – museums, historical societies, libraries, and municipal offices, to name just a few – building relationships with local first responders and emergency managers before disaster strikes is key to ensuring the safety of staff and collections. State emergency management agencies are also collaborating with their state cultural agencies to protect these valuable and vulnerable resources. The resulting emergency networks better position the local community and the state to …

Lessons Learned From Culture In Crisis; Or Protecting The Past To Save The Future, Laurie Rush

CHAR

At the midpoint of the second decade of the 21^st century, the world is experiencing deliberate destruction of cultural property at a scale not seen since the Second World War. Future protection and preservation of cultural heritage depends on learning from tragedy and applying these lessons as pro-actively as possible. First, we are discovering that no matter the threat, there are people who risk their lives to save artifacts and features of their culture, and the motives for this courage are retrospectively clear. For a community to survive a conflict or disaster as a corporate entity, elements of shared …

Keynote Address - When Violent Nonstate Actors Target Cultural Heritage Sites, Victor Asal

CHAR

Why would organizations attack or kill people at cultural heritage sites or destroy such sites? Using data from the Big Allied and Dangerous insurgent dataset that has data on 140 insurgent organizations from 1998-2012, and data from the Global Terrorism Database, this presentation examines the factors that make insurgent groups more likely to attack such sites or kill people at such sites. We look at the impact of organizational ideology, organizational structure and power as well as country level factors.

Mitigation, Response And Recovery, Richard Lord

CHAR

Abstract: Hurricane Harvey ravaged Texas and Louisiana nearly five years after Superstorm Sandy devastated the East Coast and caused 53 deaths, destroyed or severely damaged 100,000 Long Island homes, and left an estimated $42 billion in damages across New York State.

This session will provide an overview of the disaster relief and assistance programs available under the Stafford Act, when they are triggered, and how private non-profit and cultural institutions can plan for natural hazards and take full advantage of available aid. There will also be discussion of the NYS Hazard Mitigation Plan, the Community Risk and Resiliency Act, and …

Informing Responders Using Gis And Gps, Deidre Mccarthy

CHAR

Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005 and created the single largest disaster for cultural resources that the United States has witnessed since the inception of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966. Notably, the NHPA created the National Register of Historic Places, our nation’s catalog of important cultural resources. The NHPA also stipulates that any federal undertaking which may adversely affect National Register eligible resources be mitigated. For the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Katrina created the largest compliance project ever under Section 106 of the NHPA.

Although causing a great deal of damage, Katrina also …

Keynote Address: Climate Change: From Global To New York Scale, Christopher D. Thorncroft

CHAR

This talk is concerned with the science and impacts of climate change from global to New York scales. It will provide an assessment of how the climate has changed over the past Century based on a purely observational perspective. The scientific basis for anthroprogenic climate change will be explained and discussed including a description of the “greenhouse effect” and why it is important for life on this planet. We will briefly discuss global and local consequences of a warmer climate and what we need to be prepared for going forward in the coming decades.

Opening Keynote Address: Using Data To Understand Cultural Destruction, Brian I. Daniels

CHAR

Brian I. Daniels, Ph.D, Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Why is cultural heritage targeted in conflict? Under what circumstances? By whom? Today, due in part to the recent notorious instances of cultural destruction in the Middle East and North Africa, there is perhaps more attention among the broader scientific community than ever before about the phenomenon of cultural loss. At the same time, there are many significant data and analytical gaps. Little social science literature about cultural destruction exists and many critical questions—and avenues of research—are, as of yet, unstudied. A primary reason for this lack …

Speed Dating: Matchmaking With Scholars Archive, Lindsay Van Berkom

Open Access Day

Institutional Repositories (IRs) are known to be awesome for storing, preserving and sharing traditional publication types. However, they can also provide an attractive platform to creatively showcase other forms of academic output that show value and demonstrate the impact an institution has in a particular area of research or subject area. During this segment, audience members will have the opportunity to mix and mingle with people who have worked with Scholars Archive, the University at Albany’s Institutional Repository, in a variety of these new and exciting ways. Through these interactions attendees will make new connections and find the perfect match …

Open Educational Resources Workshops: Instruction, Interaction, Incentive, Elaine M. Lasda, Julie Cuccio Slichko Dr.

Open Access Day

Open educational resources (OERs) are a viable alternative to costly textbooks because they improve economic accessibility to higher education, course completion rates, and student learning outcomes. Through SUNY’s Innovative Instruction Technology Grant program, the University Libraries and Information Technology Services have partnered to create a model for professional development in facilitating the adoption of OERs in online courses. Details of this model will be discussed, and the Fall 2017 program faculty cohort will be announced.

From Lingua To Glossa: Linguistics In Fair Open Access, Johan Rooryck

Open Access Day

Johan Rooryck with be presenting from a remote location via GoToMeeting.

A description of his presentation is below:

Open Access publishing is often said to be the future of academic journals, but the actual move from a subscription model to an Open Access model is not easily achieved. The transition from Lingua to Glossa provides proof of concept that it can be done. This transition was made possible by our model of Fair Open Access, a model for flipping subscription journals to Open Access. This model has 3 main features:

1. Discipline-based: Linguistics in Open Access (LingOA, www.lingoa.eu) helps flipping …

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Youth Developing Political Efficacy Through Social Learning Experiences: Becoming Active Participants In A Supportive Model United Nations Club, Brett Levy

Educational Theory and Practice Faculty Scholarship

Prior research indicates that individuals are more likely to take political action (e.g., vote, contact representatives, protest) when they have higher levels of political efficacy, the belief that one’s actions can influence political processes. In this mixed methods longitudinal study, I draw on Wenger’s and Bandura’s theories of social learning to examine how adolescents’ political efficacy developed during their experiences in a Model United Nations club. Through analyses of data from questionnaires, interviews, and observations, I found that students’ political efficacy increased as they became active club participants. Supportive relationships with club peers and advisors encouraged regular involvement, which in …

From Locus Amoenus To Locus Horribilis: Provincial And Urban Spaces Of Cultural (Re)Assertion And Hegemony In Yates And Sigel’S When The Mountains Tremble And Bustamante’S Ixcanul, Katrina Abad

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

The trope of locus amoenus, or the idyllic representation of heaven on earth, and its counterpart locus horribilis, or the mundane incarnation of hell, was first critically defined by Ernst Robert Curtius in 1953 and identified in religiously influenced literature as early as Latin and medieval European works. Since then, the locus theory has appeared in numerous secular texts and films, such as Marcelo Ferrari’s Sub Terra (2004), as a means of distinguishing the once-pristine ‘purity’ of provincial spaces from the physically and metaphorically cramped mines and buildings produced by an urbanized modernity. This essay seeks to translate …

The Anti-Hero Perspective Of Sebastián Silva’S The Maid, Amber Bradley

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

Many contemporary Latin American films portray a character or a protagonist that strives to bring in an audience to emphasize the “underdog” and their role in society. In Sebastián Silva’s Chilean film, The Maid (2009), Raquel is a maid and nanny, who achieves the exact opposite throughout the movie. This servant’s societal perspectives concerning distinct classes and gender roles are shown through her photographs and passive aggressive actions towards some of the family members and the other women, who are hired to help her lighten the housework of the home. Raquel’s attitude, mistreatment and tricks demonstrate her apparent desire to …

Cinematographic Resources As Meaningful Affordances In A Foreign Language Class, Denise Osborne

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

Cinematographic resources as meaningful affordances in a foreign language class.” In this presentation, Osborne will discuss a proposal for use of films as works of art in foreign languages classes. She will show how cinematographic features (e.g., sound, color, lighting, camera angles, mise-en-scène) and their implication for film narrative − rarely emphasized in foreign language classrooms − can be a powerful tool to engage students in a dialogical and ecological construction of knowledge. Consideration of cinematographic features in scenes from the Brazilian Portuguese films Abril Despedaçado (Cohn & Salles, 2001) and Raízes e Asas (Cabral & Pimenta, 2011), and …

Scapegoating In The Films By Alejando Fernández Almendras, Ilka Kressner

Views from Below: The Underdog in Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Film

Chilean filmmaker Fernández Almendras has examined the processes of victimization of the “poor man” in several of his feature films, most prominently Matar a un hombre [To Kill a Man] (2014, Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Price at Sundance Festival) and Aquí no ha pasado nada [Much Ado About Nothing] (2016). Both works exemplify processes of victimization through verbal performative acts: words in the form of humiliations, menaces and blackmail become the fatal weapons of scapegoating.

The Supreme Court Vs. The President: How The Court Decides The Constitutionality Of Challenged Presidential Actions, Laura Wittern-Keller

Campus Conversations in Standish

In this presentation, Dr. Laura Wittern-Keller discusses the growth of presidential power through unilateral action—executive orders, proclamations, national security directives, and signing statements—and how the Supreme Court has determined the constitutionality of those actions. The precedent usually used by the Supreme Court stems from a 1952 case that found President Harry Truman’s executive order authorizing the seizure of some American steel mills to be an unconstitutional extension of presidential unilateral action. The case, Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer, included a concurrence by Associate Justice Robert Jackson that created a three-part test of presidential orders. That test, modified in …

Exonest: The Bayesian Exoplanetary Explorer, Kevin H. Knuth, Ben Placek, Daniel Angerhausen, Jennifer L. Carter, Bryan D'Angelo, Anthony D. Gai, Bertrand Carado

Physics Faculty Scholarship

The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are currently engaged in an unprecedented era of discovery as recent missions have revealed thousands of exoplanets orbiting other stars. While the Kepler Space Telescope mission has enabled most of these exoplanets to be detected by identifying transiting events, exoplanets often exhibit additional photometric effects that can be used to improve the characterization of exoplanets. The EXONEST Exoplanetary Explorer is a Bayesian exoplanet inference engine based on nested sampling and originally designed to analyze archived Kepler Space Telescope and CoRoT (Convection Rotation et Transits planétaires) exoplanet mission data. We discuss the EXONEST software package …

A Novel Impedance Biosensor For Measurement Of Trans-Epithelial Resistance In Cells Cultured On Nanofiber Scaffolds, Robert A. Schramm, Matthew H. Koslow, Deirdre A. Nelson, Melinda Larsen, James Castracane

Biological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Nanofibrous scaffolds provide high surface area for cell attachment, and resemble the structure of the collagen fibers which naturally occur in the basement membrane and extracellular matrix. A label free and non-destructive method of assessing the interaction of cell tissue and scaffolds aids in the ability to discern the effective quality and magnitude of any scaffold modifications. Impedance cell spectroscopy is a biosensing method that employs a functional approach to assessing the cell monolayer. The electrical impedance barrier function of a cell monolayer represents the level of restriction to diffusion of charged species between all adjacent cells across an entire …

Trna Modification Detection Using Graphene Nanopores: A Simulation Study, Thomas J. Begley, Khadijiah Onanuga, Alan A. Chen, Srivathsan V. Ranganathan

Biological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

There are over 100 enzyme-catalyzed modifications on transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules. The levels and identity of wobble uridine (U) modifications are affected by environmental conditions and diseased states, making wobble U detection a potential biomarker for exposures and pathological conditions. The current detection of RNA modifications requires working with nucleosides in bulk samples. Nanopore detection technology uses a single-molecule approach that has the potential to detect tRNA modifications. To evaluate the feasibility of this approach, we have performed all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulation studies of a five-layered graphene nanopore by localizing canonical and modified uridine nucleosides. We found that in …

Review Of Principles Of Computer Science, Ed. By Donald R. Franceschetti., Michael Knee

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

A review of "Principles of Computer Science" edited by Donald R. Franceschetti.

What Kind Of Is-Ought Gap Is There And What Kind Ought There Be?, P.D. Magnus, Jon Mandle

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

Some philosophers think that there is a gap between is and ought which necessarily makes normative enquiry a different kind of thing than empirical science. This position gains support from our ability to explicate our inferential practices in a way that makes it impermissible to move from descriptive premises to a normative conclusion. But we can also explicate them in a way that allows such moves. So there is no categorical answer as to whether there is or is not a gap. The question of an is-ought gap is a practical and strategic matter rather than a logical one, and …

Conectándonos Con La Comunidad Local En Entornos Digitales Y Presenciales, Jesús Alonso-Regalado

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Presentation focusing on library experiences about connecting with our local communities in both digital and physical environments.

Social Media Internet Resources, Carol Anne Germain

JLAMS

No abstract provided.

Likes, Shares And Follows: Launching A Facebook Page For Your Academic Library, Annie Jansen

JLAMS

This review provides (1) a discussion of best practices, including the content and frequency of posts, and (2) tips on how to get started on a library oriented page. Facebook is a powerful social media platform that, when used correctly, can have beneficial effects for academic library outreach and marketing. However, it is not a catch-all for engagement with students, staff, faculty, and the public. Engagement through Facebook needs to be carefully thought out and well-planned in order to meet the needs of library outreach and work toward the university and library strategic plan.

Will Boosting A Post Bring Them In?: Promoting Library Programs With Facebook Advertising, Cary F. Gouldin

JLAMS

Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform. Academic libraries have had some success using it as an outreach and marketing tool. However, few have taken advantage of Facebook’s advertising options, and most have only focused on increasing engagement and page likes. This paper investigates the effectiveness of using Facebook advertising for the promotion of specific library programs and services. The results of two advertising campaigns, one promoting a workshop series, the other promotion a one-on-one reference service, were analyzed to determine if usage of these programs was increased through advertising. While the advertising campaigns did have a …

Taking Care Of Business: Why Libraries Should Incorporate Listening Into Their Social Media Goals, Maria Atilano

JLAMS

The purpose of this article is to summarize the importance of practicing social listening and online engagement on behalf of one’s library. While the literature shows that libraries, both public and academic, often strategize their social media goals to include listening, a concerted effort should be made by all libraries with an online presence to take an active role in engagement. By including social listening in one’s social media plan, goals and objectives, a library can anticipate a higher rate of engagement and meaningful interactions with their patrons.

Social Media Collaboration: A Case Study From The University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Sarah Christensen, Jaena Manson, Leah Dudak

JLAMS

Large academic libraries with a decentralized structure can lead to individual library units creating and maintaining their own social media accounts with little standardization or cohesiveness across the library system. As a result, social media account owners often duplicate efforts, overwhelming patrons with communication channels, and lacking a consistent message. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I), for example, the library system comprises nearly thirty separate library units, and maintains nearly eighty social media accounts. These accounts are spread across platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, and Flickr, as well as a plethora of blogs. …