Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Considering What Counts: On The Clock, Joel Best

Numeracy

For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has presented "crime clocks"--graphs which use clock-face graphs to depict the average time between incidents of particular crimes. Similar devices have been adopted by all sorts of organizations warning that "An instance of X occurs every Y seconds." While this is a popular way of presenting social statistics, it is deeply flawed.

Data-Driven Studies On Social Networks: Privacy And Simulation, Yasanka Sameera Horawalavithana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social media datasets are fundamental to understanding a variety of phenomena, such as epidemics, adoption of behavior, crowd management, and political uprisings. At the same time, many such datasets capturing computer-mediated social interactions are recorded nowadays by individual researchers or by organizations. However, while the need for real social graphs and the supply of such datasets are well established, the flow of data from data owners to researchers is significantly hampered by privacy risks: even when humans’ identities are removed, or data is anonymized to some extent, studies have proven repeatedly that re-identifying anonymized user identities (i.e., de-anonymization) is doable …

Liberté, Égalité, Manifester: Explaining The Yellow Vest Movement In France, Brady L. Cole

Honors Theses

Les Gilets Jaunes, or the yellow vests, is a movement of protestors that have had a large presence in France since 2018. Beginning as an online petition against French President Emmanuel Macron’s fuel tax hike, the movement has quickly amassed several hundred thousand protestors in Paris and other cities across the country. It is the objective of this thesis to examine potential reasons why 300,000 people have felt the need to protest throughout France, apart from the now rescinded fuel tax.

To this end, a sample of data from the Varieties of Democracy database was selected. These variables covered various …

Designing, Developing, And Implementing Real-Time Learning Analytics Student Dashboards, Robert Gordon Bodily

Theses and Dissertations

This document is a multiple-article format dissertation that discusses the iterative design, development, and evaluation processes necessary to create high quality learning analytics dashboard systems. With the growth of online and blended learning environments, the amount of data that researchers and practitioners collect from learning experiences has also grown. The field of learning analytics is concerned with using this data to improve teaching and learning. Many learning analytics systems focus on instructors or administrators, but these tools fail to involve students in the data-driven decision-making process. Providing feedback to students and involving students in this decision-making process can increase intrinsic …

The Visual Representation Of Time In Timelines, Graphs And Charts, Marilyn Mitchell

Marilyn Mitchell

A quick look through many current newspapers and magazines shows that much information is conveyed through information graphics such as economic, scientific, and historical timelines, graphs and charts, many of which contain time-related information. It is important for journalists to understand how these graphics are structured and why they are structured in the ways that they are. This paper presents descriptions of the representation of different types of time (eg historical time, evolutionary time, geological time, etc.) in information graphics and explains the underlying reasons for these representations from a pragmatic basis. Factors such as timescales, coordinate systems, facings of …

Library Space Assessment Poster, Kaitlyn Shamp, Chenisvel Nunez

Sociology Undergraduate

Objective: How are students using our library spaces?

• Collect evidence to inform future space planning and renovations
• What works? What does not work? What is needed?
• Physical spaces must meet the needs of a 21st century student.

Library Space Assessment, Kaitlyn Shamp, Chenisvel Nunez

Sociology Undergraduate

Presented research and data findings of Library Space Assessment to librarians and library staff on how students use the Lavery Library.

How Random Noise And A Graphical Convention Subverted Behavioral Scientists' Explanations Of Self-Assessment Data: Numeracy Underlies Better Alternatives, Edward Nuhfer, Steven Fleisher, Christopher Cogan, Karl Wirth, Eric Gaze

Numeracy

Despite nearly two decades of research, researchers have not resolved whether people generally perceive their skills accurately or inaccurately. In this paper, we trace this lack of resolution to numeracy, specifically to the frequently overlooked complications that arise from the noisy data produced by the paired measures that researchers employ to determine self-assessment accuracy. To illustrate the complications and ways to resolve them, we employ a large dataset (N = 1154) obtained from paired measures of documented reliability to study self-assessed proficiency in science literacy. We collected demographic information that allowed both criterion-referenced and normative-based analyses of self-assessment data. …

Infographics As Eye Candy: Review Of World War Ii In Numbers: An Infographic Guide To The Conflict, Its Conduct, And Its Casualties By Peter Doyle (2013), Joel Best

Numeracy

Peter Doyle. World War II in Numbers: An Infographic Guide to the Conflict, Its Conduct, and Its Casualties, illustrated by Lindsey Johns (Buffalo NY: Firefly Books, 2013). 224 pp. ISBN: 177085195X.

Doyle’s book contains dozens of graphs of statistical data dealing with World War II. Many of these graphs are visually striking. However, they often violate fundamental graphing principles, in that they distort quantitative relationships, use unidentified scales, and often make it difficult to compare quantities. Graphic software makes it easy to create imaginative images, but these can fail to communicate the very information that is the graph’s purpose.

Random Number Simulations Reveal How Random Noise Affects The Measurements And Graphical Portrayals Of Self-Assessed Competency, Edward Nuhfer, Christopher Cogan, Steven Fleisher, Eric Gaze, Karl Wirth

Numeracy

Self-assessment measures of competency are blends of an authentic self-assessment signal that researchers seek to measure and random disorder or "noise" that accompanies that signal. In this study, we use random number simulations to explore how random noise affects critical aspects of self-assessment investigations: reliability, correlation, critical sample size, and the graphical representations of self-assessment data. We show that graphical conventions common in the self-assessment literature introduce artifacts that invite misinterpretation. Troublesome conventions include: (y minus x) vs. (x) scatterplots; (y minus x) vs. (x) column graphs aggregated as quantiles; line …

Ideals Of Largest Weight In Constructions Based On Directed Graphs, A V. Kelarev, Willy Susilo, Mirka Miller, Joe Ryan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We introduce a new construction based on directed graphs. It provides a common generalization of the incidence rings and Munn semirings. Our main theorem describes all ideals of the largest possible weight in this construction. Several previous results can be obtained as corollaries to our new main theorem.

Topological Spaces Associated To Higher-Rank Graphs, Alexander Kumjian, David Pask, Aidan Sims, Michael F. Whittaker

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We investigate which topological spaces can be constructed as topological realisations of higher-rank graphs. We describe equivalence relations on higher-rank graphs for which the quotient is again a higher-rank graph, and show that identifying isomorphic co-hereditary subgraphs in a disjoint union of two rank-k graphs gives rise to pullbacks of the associated C*-algebras. We describe a combinatorial version of the connected-sum operation and apply it to the rank-2-graph realisations of the four basic surfaces to deduce that every compact 2-manifold is the topological realisation of a rank-2 graph. We also show how to construct k-spheres and wedges of k-spheres as …

Using Graphic Methods To Challenge Cryptographic Performance, Brian Cusack, Erin Chapman

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Block and stream ciphers have formed the traditional basis for the standardisation of commercial ciphers in the DES, AES, RC4, and so on. More recently alternative graphic methods such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) have been adopted for performance gains. In this research we reviewed a range of graphic and non-graphic methods and then designed our own cipher system based on several graphic methods, including Visual Cryptography (VC). We then tested our cipher against RC4 and the AES algorithms for performance and security. The results showed that a graphics based construct may deliver comparable or improved security and performance in …

Classifying Political Similarity Of Twitter Users, William K. Paustian

Computer Science Summer Fellows

The emergence of large scale social networks has led to research in approaches to classify similar users on a network. While many such approaches use data mining techniques, recent efforts have focused on measuring the similarity of users using structural properties of the underlying graph representing the network. In this paper, we identify the Twitter followers of the 2016 presidential candidates and classify them as Democrat, Republican or Bipartisan. We did this by designing a new approach to measuring structural similarity, PolRANK. PolRANK computes the similarity of a pair of users by accounting for both the number of candidates they …

The Effects Of X-Axis Rotation On Data Estimation Accuracy, Catherine Mathers

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Researchers, pollsters, marketers, and others use graphical displays to reduce the need for wordy, and often unclear, descriptions of their findings. Numerous studies have attempted to determine important graphical attributes that aid readers’ graphical perception. For example, does three-dimensionality (3D) of a graph help readers to accurately assess the graph’s data? The present study is the first to use eye movement data to quantify how 3D graphs, graph type, the use of gridlines, and data positioning affected readers’ perception and accuracy. Participants viewed 24 different graphs while their eye movements were recorded. Time, fixation, and accuracy were recorded for each …

How Finger Tracing Of Temperature Graphs On An Ipad Can Support Primary School Students' Learning, Shirley Agostinho, Sharon K. Tindall-Ford, Paul Ginns, Steven J. Howard, Wayne Leahy, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 8th Cognitive Load Theory Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, June 15th - 17th, 2015.

Von Neumann Algebras Of Strongly Connected Higher-Rank Graphs, Marcelo Laca, Nadia S. Larsen, Sergey Neshveyev, Aidan Sims, Samuel B. Webster

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We investigate the factor types of the extremal KMS states for the preferred dynamics on the Toeplitz algebra and the Cuntz-Krieger algebra of a strongly connected finite (Formula presented.)-graph. For inverse temperatures above 1, all of the extremal KMS states are of type (Formula presented.). At inverse temperature 1, there is a dichotomy: if the (Formula presented.)-graph is a simple (Formula presented.)-dimensional cycle, we obtain a finite type (Formula presented.) factor; otherwise we obtain a type III factor, whose Connes invariant we compute in terms of the spectral radii of the coordinate matrices and the degrees of cycles in the …

Giving Learning A Helping Hand: Finger Tracing Of Temperature Graphs On An Ipad, Shirley Agostinho, Sharon K. Tindall-Ford, Paul Ginns, Steven J. Howard, Wayne Leahy, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Gesturally controlled information and communication technologies, such as tablet devices, are becoming increasingly popular tools for teaching and learning. Based on the theoretical frameworks of cognitive load and embodied cognition, this study investigated the impact of explicit instructions to trace out elements of tablet-based worked examples on mathematical problem-solving. Participants were 61 primary school children (8-11 years), who studied worked examples on an iPad either by tracing temperature graphs with their index finger or without such tracing. Results confirmed the main hypothesis that finger tracing as a form of biologically primary knowledge would support the construction of biologically secondary knowledge …

Touch-Screen Technology For The Dynamic Display Of 2d Spatial Information Without Vision: Promise And Progress, Roberta L. Klatzky, Nicholas A. Giudice, Christopher R. Bennett, Jack M. Loomis

Spatial Information Science and Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Many developers wish to capitalize on touch-screen technology for developing aids for the blind, particularly by incorporating vibrotactile stimulation to convey patterns on their surfaces, which otherwise are featureless. Our belief is that they will need to take into account basic research on haptic perception in designing these graphics interfaces. We point out constraints and limitations in haptic processing that affect the use of these devices. We also suggest ways to use sound to augment basic information from touch, and we include evaluation data from users of a touch-screen device with vibrotactile and auditory feedback that we have been developing, …

Mean Curvature Flow Of Entire Graphs In A Half-Space With A Free Boundary, V.-M Wheeler

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We study the mean curvature flow of graphs with prescribed contact angle on a fixed, smooth hyperplane in Euclidean space. We obtain long time existence and convergence to a self similar solution of the mean curvature flow orthogonal to the fixed hyperplane.

Progressive Mode-Seeking On Graphs For Sparse Feature Matching, Chao Wang, Lei Wang, Lingqiao Liu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Sparse feature matching poses three challenges to graph-based methods: (1) the combinatorial nature makes the number of possible matches huge; (2) most possible matches might be outliers; (3) high computational complexity is often incurred. In this paper, to resolve these issues, we propose a simple, yet surprisingly effective approach to explore the huge matching space in order to significantly boost true matches while avoiding outliers. The key idea is to perform mode-seeking on graphs progressively based on our proposed guided graph density. We further design a density-aware sampling technique to considerably accelerate mode-seeking. Experimental study on various benchmark data sets …

Kms States On C*-Algebras Associated To Higher-Rank Graphs, Astrid An Huef, Marcelo Laca, Iain Raeburn, Aidan Sims

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Consider a higher rank graph of rank k. Both the Cuntz-Krieger algebra and Toeplitz-Cuntz-Krieger algebra of the graph carry natural gauge actions of the torus Tk, and restricting these guage actions to one parameter subgroups of Tk gives dynamical systems involving actions of the real line. We study the KMS states of these dynamical systems. We find that for large inverse temperatures B, the simplex of KMS B states of the Toeplitz-Cuntz-Krieger algebra has dimension d one less than the number of vertices in the graph. We also show that there is a preferred dynamics for which there is a …

Skew-Products Of Higher-Rank Graphs And Crossed Products By Semigroups, Benjamin Maloney, David Pask, Iain Raeburn

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We consider a free action of an Ore semigroup on a higher-rank graph, and the induced action by endomorphisms of the C ∗-algebra of the graph. We show that the crossed product by this action is stably isomorphic to the C ∗-algebra of a quotient graph. Our main tool is Laca’s dilation theory for endomorphic actions of Ore semigroups on C ∗-algebras, which embeds such an action in an automorphic action of the enveloping group on a larger C ∗-algebra.

Aperiodicity And Primitive Ideals Of Row-Finite K-Graphs, Sooran Kang, David Pask

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We describe the primitive ideal space of the C*-algebra of a row-finite k-graph with no sources when every ideal is gauge invariant. We characterize which spectral spaces can occur, and compute the primitive ideal space of two examples. In order to do this we prove some new results on aperiodicity. Our computations indicate that when every ideal is gauge invariant, the primitive ideal space only depends on the 1-skeleton of the k-graph in question. 2014 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Group Actions On Labeled Graphs And Their C*-Algebras, Teresa Bates, David Pask, Paulette Willis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We introduce the notion of the action of a group on a labeled graph and the quotient object, also a labeled graph. We define a skew product labeled graph and use it to prove a version of the Gross–Tucker theorem for labeled graphs. We then apply these results to the C -algebra associated to a labeled graph and provide some applications in non-Abelian duality.

Twisted C-Algebras Associated To Finitely Aligned Higher-Rank Graphs, Aidan Sims, Benjamin Whitehead, Michael Whittaker

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We introduce twisted relative Cuntz-Krieger algebras associated to finitely aligned higher-rank graphs and give a comprehensive treatment of their fundamental structural properties. We establish versions of the usual uniqueness theorems and the classification of gauge-invariant ideals. We show that all twisted relative Cuntz- Krieger algebras associated to finitely aligned higher-rank graphs are nuclear and satisfy the UCT, and that for twists that lift to real-valued cocycles, the K-theory of a twisted relative Cuntz-Krieger algebra is independent of the twist. In the final section, we identify a sufficient condition for simplicity of twisted Cuntz-Krieger algebras associated to higher-rank graphs which are …

Kms States On The C-Algebras Of Reducible Graphs, Astrid An Huef, Marcelo Laca, Iain Raeburn, Aidan Sims

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We consider the dynamics on the C-algebras of finite graphs obtained by lifting the gauge action to an action of the real line. Enomoto, Fujii and Watatani [KMS states for gauge action on OA. Math. Japon. 29 (1984), 607-619] proved that if the vertex matrix of the graph is irreducible, then the dynamics on the graph algebra admits a single Kubo-Martin-Schwinger (KMS) state. We have previously studied the dynamics on the Toeplitz algebra, and explicitly described a finite-dimensional simplex of KMS states for inverse temperatures above a critical value. Here we study the KMS states for graphs with reducible vertex …

An Elementary Approach To C*-Algebras Associated To Topological Graphs, Hui Li, David Pask, Aidan Sims

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We develop notions of a representation of a toopological grapph E and of a covariant representation of a topological graph E which do onot require the machinery of C* -correspondences and Cuntz-Pimsner alegebars. We show that the C* -algebra generated by a universal representation of E is isomorphic to the Toeplitz algebra of Katsura's topological-graph bimodule, and that the C* palgebra generated by a universal covariant representation of E is isomorphic to Katsura's topological graph C* -algebra. We exhibit our resluts by constructing the isomorphism between the C* -algebra of the row-finite directed graph E with no sources and the …

Remarks On Some Fundamental Results About Higher-Rank Graphs And Their C*-Algebras, Robert Hazlewood, Iain Raeburn, Aidan Sims, Samuel B. G Webster

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Results of Fowler and Sims show that every k-graph is completely determined by its k-coloured skeleton and collection of commuting squares. Here we give an explicit description of the k-graph associated with a given skeleton and collection of squares and show that two k-graphs are isomorphic if and only if there is an isomorphism of their skeletons which preserves commuting squares. We use this to prove directly that each k-graph. is isomorphic to the quotient of the path category of its skeleton by the equivalence relation determined by the commuting squares, and show that this extends to a homeomorphism of …

Kms States On The C*-Algebras Of Finite Graphs, Astrid An Huef, Marcelo Laca, Iain F. Raeburn, Aidan D. Sims

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We consider a finite directed graph E, and the gauge action on its Toeplitz-Cuntz-Krieger algebra, viewed as an action of R. For inverse temperatures larger than a critical value βc, we give an explicit construction of all the KMSβ states. If the graph is strongly connected, then there is a unique KMSβc state, and this state factors through the quotient map onto C*(E). Our approach is direct and relatively elementary.