Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Synthesis Of Mn3o4-Encapsulated Graphene Sheet Nanocomposites Via A Facile, Fast Microwave Hydrothermal Method And Their Supercapacitive Behaviour, Li Li, Kuok Hau Seng, Zhixin Chen, Hua-Kun Liu, Ivan P. Nevirkovets, Zaiping Guo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Well-crystallized Mn3O4-anchored reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites have been successfully synthesized via a facile, effective, energy-saving, and scalable microwave hydrothermal technique for potential application as supercapacitor material. Integrating these nanostructures resulted in a strong synergistic effect between the two materials, consequently leading to a hybrid composite with higher specific capacitance compared to the bare Mn3O4 nanoparticles. The results from different sorts of characterization indicate that the Mn3O4 particles were deposited and anchored on graphene sheets. The capacitance value of the rGO(31.6%)–Mn3O4 nanocomposite reached 153 F/g, much higher than that of the bare Mn3O4 (87 F/g) at a scan rate of …

User Taglines: Alternative Presentations Of Expertise And Interest In Social Media, Hemant Purohit, Alex Dow, Omar Alonso, Lei Duan, Kevin Haas

Kno.e.sis Publications

Web applications are increasingly showing recommended users from social media along with some descriptions, an attempt to show relevancy - why they are being shown. For example, Twitter search for a topical keyword shows expert twitterers on the side for 'whom to follow'. Google+ and Facebook also recommend users to follow or add to friend circle. Popular Internet newspaper- The Huffington Post shows Twitter influencers/ experts on the side of an article for authoritative relevant tweets. The state of the art shows user profile bios as summary for Twitter experts, but it has issues with length constraint imposed by user …

Are Twitter Users Equal In Predicting Elections? A Study Of User Groups In Predicting 2012 U.S. Republican Primaries, Lu Chen, Wenbo Wang, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Existing studies on predicting election results are under the assumption that all the users should be treated equally. However, recent work [14] shows that social media users from different groups (e.g., “silent majority” vs. “vocal minority”) have significant differences in the generated content and tweeting behavior. The effect of these differences on predicting election results has not been exploited yet. In this paper, we study the spectrum of Twitter users who participate in the on-line discussion of 2012 U.S. Republican Presidential Primaries, and examine the predictive power of different user groups (e.g., highly engaged users vs. lowly engaged users, right-leaning …

The Ssn Ontology Of The W3c Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group, Michael Compton, Payam Barnaghi, Luis Bermudez, Raul Garcia-Castro, Oscar Corcho, Simon Cox, John Graybeal, Manfred Hauswirth, Cory Andrew Henson, Arthur Herzog, Vincent Huang, Krzysztof Janowicz, W. David Kelsey, Danh Le Phuoc, Laurent Lefort, Myriam Leggieri, Holger Neuhaus, Andriy Nikolov, Kevin Page, Alexandre Passant, Amit P. Sheth, Kerry Taylor

Kno.e.sis Publications

The W3C Semantic Sensor Network Incubator group (the SSN-XG) produced an OWL 2 ontology to describe sensors and observations — the SSN ontology, available at http://purl.oclc.org/NET/ssnx/ssn. The SSN ontology can describe sensors in terms of capabilities, measurement processes, observations and deployments. This article describes the SSN ontology. It further gives an example and describes the use of the ontology in recent research projects.

Demonstration: Dynamic Sensor Registration And Semantic Processing For Ad-Hoc Mobile Environments (Semmob), Pramod Anantharam, Gary Alan Smith, Josh Pschorr, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

SemMOB enables dynamic registration of sensors via mobile devices, search, and near real-time inference over sensor observations in ad-hoc mobile environments (e.g., fire fighting). We demonstrate SemMOB in the context of an emergency response use case that requires automatic and dynamic registrations of sensor devices and annotation of sensor observations, decoding of latitude-longitude information in terms of human sensible names, fusion and abstraction of sensor values using background knowledge, and their visualization using mash-up.

Using Social Influence To Predict Subscriber Churn, Derek Doran, Veena Mendiratta, Chitra Phadke, Dan Kushnir, Huseyin Uzunalioglu

Kno.e.sis Publications

The saturation of mobile phone markets has resulted in rising costs for operators to obtain new customers. These operators thus focus their energies on identifying users that will churn so they can be targeted for retention campaigns. Typical churn prediction algorithms identify churners based on service usage metrics, network performance indicators, and demographic information. Social and peer-influence to churn, however, is usually not considered. In this paper, we describe a new churn prediction algorithm that incorporates the influence churners spread to their social peers. Using data from a major service provider, we show that social influence improves churn prediction and …

Understanding User Triads On Facebook, Derek Doran, Alberta De La Rosa Algarin, Swapna S. Gokhale

Kno.e.sis Publications

Contemporary approaches that analyze user behavior on online social networks only consider interactions among dyads, which are pairs of directly connected users. A large body of sociological work, however, suggests that mutual connections among users can influence their activities, leading to differences between two- and three-way interactions. This paper explores the dynamics of triads among Facebook users based on the wall posts from the New Orleans regional network. Initially, each connection is categorized as a close friendship or an acquiantance, contingent on the number of wall posts exchanged. Subsequently, the impact of different types of connections comprising triads is examined …

How I Would Like Semantic Web To Be, For My Children., Raghava Mutharaju

Kno.e.sis Publications

Semantic Web, since its inception, has gone through lot of developments in its relatively nascent existence; right from people's perception, to the standards and to its adoption by the industry and more importantly by the scientific community. This impressive growth only seems to increase. In this paper, we project this growth to the next 10 years and highlight some of the facets on which Semantic Web could have a major impact on. We also present the challenges that Semantic Web and its community has to deal with in order to get there.

Do Students Using Electronic Books Display Different Reading Comprehension And Motivation Levels Than Students Using Traditional Print Books?, Casey Wells

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The effect of electronic books on the reading comprehension of middle and high school students was examined using an experimental posttest-only control-group design. A convenience sample of 140 randomly assigned middle and high school English students at an independent school in eastern North Carolina participated. Half of the students used passages from text read on tablets while half utilized traditional print text passages. Data was collected during one class period in which the reading comprehension section of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests®, a 35 minute test containing 48 questions, was administered. Reading comprehension data was analyzed using an independent t-test. The …

An Efficient Bit Vector Approach To Semantics-Based Machine Perception In Resource-Constrained Devices, Cory Andrew Henson, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The primary challenge of machine perception is to define efficient computational methods to derive high-level knowledge from low-level sensor observation data. Emerging solutions are using ontologies for expressive representation of concepts in the domain of sensing and perception, which enable advanced integration and interpretation of heterogeneous sensor data. The computational complexity of OWL, however, seriously limits its applicability and use within resource-constrained environments, such as mobile devices. To overcome this issue, we employ OWL to formally define the inference tasks needed for machine perception – explanation and discrimination – and then provide efficient algorithms for these tasks, using bit-vector encodings …

Iexplore: Interactive Browsing And Exploring Biomedical Knowledge, Vinh Nguyen, Olivier Bodenreider, Jagannathan Srinivasan, Todd Minning, Thomas Rindflesch, Bastien Rance, Ramakanth Kavuluru, Himi Yalamanchili, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Satya S. Sahoo, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

We present iExplore, a Semantic Web based application that helps biomedical researchers study and explore biomedical knowledge interactively. iExplore uses the Biomedical Knowledge Repository (BKR), which integrates knowledge from various sources ranging from information extracted from biomedical literature (from PubMed) to many structured vocabularies in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). The current version of BKR provides a unified provenance representation for 12 million semantic predications (triples with a predicate connecting a subject and an object) derived from 87 vocabulary families in the UMLS and 14 million predications extracted from 21 million PubMed abstracts. To engage the domain experts in …

Apps And Apple Devices: Productive Icloud Uses, Cyrus Ford Zarganj

Library Faculty Presentations

This program introduces useful apps for librarians who have two or more Apple devices such as an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. You can learn how to use the iCloud, sync devices together, and about other useful apps for librarians to work on their projects from different places with different Apple devices without carrying files.

Privacy Preserving Boosting In The Cloud With Secure Half-Space Queries, Shumin Guo, Keke Chen

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper presents a preliminary study on the PerturBoost approach that aims to provide efficient and secure classifier learning in the cloud with both data and model privacy preserved.

Computing Perception From Sensor Data, Payam Barnaghi, Frieder Ganz, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper describes a framework for perception creation from sensor data. We propose using data abstraction techniques, in particular Symbolic Aggregate Approximation (SAX), to analyse and create patterns from sensor data. The created patterns are then linked to semantic descriptions that define thematic, spatial and temporal features, providing highly granular abstract representation of the raw sensor data. This helps to reduce the size of the data that needs to be communicated from the sensor nodes to the gateways or highlevel processing components. We then discuss a method that uses abstract patterns created by SAX method and occurrences of different observations …

Recent Advances In Integrating Owl And Rules, Matthias Knorr, David Carral Martinez, Pascal Hitzler, Adila A. Krisnadhi, Frederick Maier, Cong Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

As part of the quest for a unifying logic for the Semantic Web Technology Stack, a central issue is finding suitable ways of integrating description logics based on the Web Ontology Language (OWL) with rule-based approaches based on logic programming. Such integration is difficult since naive approaches typically result in the violation of one or more desirable design principles. For example, while both OWL 2 DL and RIF Core (a dialect of the Rule Interchange Format RIF) are decidable, their naive union is not, unless carefully chosen syntactic restrictions are applied.

We report on recent advances and ongoing work by …

A Tableau Algorithm For Description Logics With Nominal Schema, Adila Krisnadhi, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a tableau algorithm for the description logic ALCOV. This description logic is obtained by extending the description logic ALCO with the expressive nominal schema construct that enables DL-safe datalog with predicates of arbitrary arity to be covered within the description logic framework. The tableau algorithm provides a basis to implement a delayed grounding strategy which was not facilitated by earlier versions of decision procedures for satisfiability in expressive description logics with nominal schemas.

Reconciling Owl And Non-Monotonic Rules For The Semantic Web, Matthias Knorr, Pascal Hitzler, Frederick Maier

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

We propose a description logic extending SROIQ (the description logic underlying OWL 2 DL) and at the same time encompassing some of the most prominent monotonic and nonmonotonic rule languages, in particular Datalog extended with the answer set semantics. Our proposal could be considered a substantial contribution towards fulfilling the quest for a unifying logic for the Semantic Web. As a case in point, two non-monotonic extensions of description logics considered to be of distinct expressiveness until now are covered in our proposal. In contrast to earlier such proposals, our language has the 'look and feel' of a description logic …

Using Attribute Behavior Diversity To Build Accurate Decision Tree Committees For Microarray Data, Qian Han, Guozhu Dong

Kno.e.sis Publications

DNA microarrays (gene chips), frequently used in biological and medical studies, measure the expressions of thousands of genes per sample. Using microarray data to build accurate classifiers for diseases is an important task. This paper introduces an algorithm, called Committee of Decision Trees by Attribute Behavior Diversity (CABD), to build highly accurate ensembles of decision trees for such data. Since a committee's accuracy is greatly influenced by the diversity among its member classifiers, CABD uses two new ideas to "optimize" that diversity, namely (1) the concept of attribute behavior–based similarity between attributes, and (2) …

The Future Of Citizen Science: Emerging Technologies And Shifting Paradigms, Greg Newman, Andrea Wiggins, Alycia Crall, Eric Graham, Sarah Newman, Kevin Crowston

DataONE Sociocultural and Usability & Assessment Working Groups

Citizen science creates a nexus between science and education that, when coupled with emerging technologies, expands the frontiers of ecological research and public engagement. Using representative technologies and other examples, we examine the future of citizen science in terms of its research processes, program and participant cultures, and scientific communities. Future citizen‐science projects will likely be influenced by sociocultural issues related to new technologies and will continue to face practical programmatic challenges. We foresee networked, open science and the use of online computer/video gaming as important tools to engage non‐traditional audiences, and offer recommendations to help prepare project managers for …

The Problem Of Data, Lori Jahnke, Andrew Asher, Spencer D.C. Keralis

Other Faculty Research and Publications

Jahnke and Asher explore workflows and methodologies at a variety of academic data curation sites, and Keralis delves into the academic milieu of library and information schools that offer instruction in data curation. Their conclusions point to the urgent need for a reliable and increasingly sophisticated professional cohort to support data-intensive research in our colleges, universities, and research centers.

Twitris+: Social Media Analytics Platform For Effective Coordination, Gary Alan Smith, Amit P. Sheth, Ashutosh Sopan Jadhav, Hemant Purohit, Lu Chen, Michael Cooney, Pavan Kapanipathi, Pramod Anantharam, Pramod Koneru, Wenbo Wang

Kno.e.sis Publications

Twitris+ is a Semantic Social Media analytics platform to provide technologies for analyzing large-scale social media streams across Spatio-Temporal-Thematic (STT) and People-Content-Network (PCN) dimensions. It provides holistic situational awareness from one interface and enables organizational actors to engage in well-coordinated ways for desired tasks during emergency response.

The Latent Maximum Entropy Principle, Shaojun Wang, Dale Schuurmans, Yunxin Zhao

Kno.e.sis Publications

We present an extension to Jaynes’ maximum entropy principle that incorporates latent variables. The principle of latent maximum entropy we propose is different from both Jaynes’ maximum entropy principle and maximum likelihood estimation, but can yield better estimates in the presence of hidden variables and limited training data. We first show that solving for a latent maximum entropy model poses a hard nonlinear constrained optimization problem in general. However, we then show that feasible solutions to this problem can be obtained efficiently for the special case of log-linear models---which forms the basis for an efficient approximation to the latent maximum …

Exploring The Impact Of Knowledge And Social Environment On Influenza Prevention And Transmission In Midwestern United States High School Students, William L. Romine, Tanvi Banerjee, William S. Barrow, William R. Folk

Kno.e.sis Publications

We used data from a convenience sample of 410 Midwestern United States students from six secondary schools to develop parsimonious models for explaining and predicting precautions and illness related to influenza. Scores for knowledge and perceptions were obtained using two-parameter Item Response Theory (IRT) models. Relationships between outcome variables and predictors were verified using Pearson and Spearman correlations, and nested [student within school] fixed effects multinomial logistic regression models were specified from these using Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC). Neural network models were then formulated as classifiers using 10-fold cross validation to predict precautions and illness. Perceived barriers against taking precautions …

What Kind Of #Communication Is Twitter? A Psycholinguistic Perspective On Communication In Twitter For The Purpose Of Emergency Coordination, Hemant Purohit, Andrew Hampton, Valerie L. Shalin, Amit P. Sheth, John Flach

Kno.e.sis Publications

The present research aims to detect coordinated citizen response within social media traffic to assist emergency response. We use domain-independent linguistic properties as the first step in narrowing the candidate set of messages for domain-dependent and computationally intensive analysis.

Integration Of Multiple Stakeholders In Scientific Research: A Sensemaking-Sensegiving Approach, Nicolas Battard, Paul F. Donnelly, Vincent Mangematin

Conference papers

This paper argues that senior scientists in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology build a new vision of their research activity in order to encompass multiple stakeholders such as policy makers, funding agencies and PhD students. Through a qualitative and inductive study and the lens of sensemaking and sensegiving, we show that senior scientists shape new boundaries in order to make the new vision visible to both internal and external stakeholders. Finally, they engage in sensemaking and sensegiving on a daily basis in order to adapt and sustain their activity over time.

When Antitrust Met Facebook, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Social networks are among the hottest phenomena on the Internet. Facebook eclipsed Google as the most visited website in both 2010 and 2011. Moreover, according to Nielsen estimates, as of the end of 2011 the average American spent nearly seven hours per month on Facebook, which is more time than they spent on Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, Microsoft, and Wikipedia combined. LinkedIn’s May 19, 2011 initial public offering (“IPO”) surpassed expectations, placing the value of the company at nearly $9 billion, and approximately a year later, its stock price had risen another 20 percent. Facebook followed suit a year later with …

Iexplore: A Provenance-Based Application For Exploring Biomedical Knowledge, Vinh Nguyen, Olivier Bodenreider, Thomas Rindflesch, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

W3c Semantic Sensor Networks: Ontologies, Applications, And Future Directions, Cory Andrew Henson

Kno.e.sis Publications

Plenary Talk discussing the W3C Semantic Sensor Network, including the ontology, applications, and future directions.

Now It Is Impossible 'Simply To Continue Along Previous Lines': A Partial Design Sketch Of Enactable Social Theorizing, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers on Science in a Changing World

A compilation of 39 notes provides the basis for two shifts: from shaping a better social theory to allowing for social theorizing; and from representing social dynamics to enacting the social theorizing so as to repeatedly define and pursue engagements in the heterogeneous dynamics that intersect in all kinds of society-making. A key move is to bring the multiple strandedness of changing social life into the center by combining, on one hand, the analysis of intersecting processes, which link across scales in the production of any outcome and in their own on-going transformation, and, on the other hand, a participatory …

The Uncertain Future Of "Hot News" Misappropriation After Barclays Capital V. Theflyonthewall.Com, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

All Faculty Scholarship

This is a follow-up piece to Professor Balganesh's 'Hot News': The Enduring Myth of Property in News, 111 COLUM. L. REV. 419 (2011), based on the Second Circuit's decision in Barclays Capital Inc. v. Theflyonthewall.com, 650 F.3d 876 (2d Cir. 2011).