Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Primo Usability And Teachability With Help From The Users, Barbara Valentine, Beth West

Faculty & Staff Publications

In the aftermath of a consortium migration to a shared cloud-based resource management and discovery system, a small college library implemented a web usability test to uncover the kinds of difficulties students had with the new interface. Lessons learned from this study led to targeted changes, which simplified aspects of searching, but also enhanced the librarians’ ability to teach more effectively. The authors discuss the testing methods, results, and teaching opportunities, both realized and potential, which arose from implementing changes.

The View From Ventress - 2016, University Of Mississippi. College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Newsletters

Special Section: Collabortions. To better understand the world and to tackle its complex problems, collaboration between disciplines offers a critical path forward. Faculty research and teaching interests to give students multidisciplinary educational opportunities. In this special section, we present the latest offerings in the College—two new minors, a new integrated fine arts course, and integrated science courses—along with a glimpse of the other multidisciplinary majors and minors.

Quantitative Framework For Social Cultural Interactions, Taranjeet Singh Bhatia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For an autonomous robot or software agent to participate in the social life of humans, it must have a way to perform a calculus of social behavior. Such a calculus must have explanatory power (it must provide a coherent theory for why the humans act the way they do), and predictive power (it must provide some plausible events from the predicted future actions of the humans). This dissertation describes a series of contributions that would allow agents observing or interacting with humans to perform a calculus of social behavior taking into account cultural conventions and socially acceptable behavior models. We …

Cover

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Wildlife And Local Community Investigation In Trans-Boundary Area Between China-Mongolia Borders, Weikang Yang, Wenxuan Xu, Canjun Xia, Wei Liu, Xingyi Gao

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

During June 2008, and August and December 2010, we investigated both the status of wildlife and local human communities in the great Gobi trans-boundary area between China and Mongolia. We surveyed Baytik Mountain (called Baitag Bogdt on the Mongolian side of the border)( 44°59′ - 45°21′N，90°30′ - 90°53′E), which is located in the West of Great Gobi B strict protected area (GGB) and connected with Dzungarian Gobi. The Kazakh shepherds still maintain their nomadic life here in Baytik Mountains. The region was divided into summer, winter and transitional pasture, and most of the livestock were goats and sheep. We also …

New Data On Small Mammals Of Neolithic Sites And Burial Grounds In Mongolia, Fedora Khenzykhenova, Nataly Schepina, Dashzeveg Tumen, Myagmar Erdene, Nataly Tsydenova, D. Khatanbaatar

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

New data about animals obtained by Mongolian paleoanthropologists, National University of Mongolia and Russian archaeologist, Institute of Mongolian, Buddist and Tibetan studies, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences were obtained under the direction of Professors Dashzeveg Tumen and Myagmar Erdene. The faunistic materials were excavated from localities of different origins including burial grounds, old cities, and Neolithic sites in different areas of Mongolia. Species composition of the large mammal fauna included two species and, the small mammal fauna was represented by two species of lagomorphs, and six species of rodents which are also components of the recent fauna of Mongolia.

Predicting The Impact Of Future Climate On Ecologically Important Macroalgae, Charlie Phelps

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Macroalgae play an important role in coastal reef systems and are often referred to as ecosystem engineers. They serve as primary producers, supporting a diverse range of organisms, and are a sink for atmospheric CO2. Water acidification and ocean warming caused by anthropogenic activities are affecting many marine flora and fauna, potentially impacting the physical and chemical performance of macroalgae and the consumption rates of associated herbivores. Many studies have focused on ocean acidification or ocean warming individually but there is an overall lack of research investigating the combined effects and the ensuing repercussions on consumer-prey relationships.

Three species of …

Building Online Community On Snac: A Netnographic Study Of The Early Years Sector, Ruth Wallace, Leesa Costello, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

‘‘Build it and they will come,’’ an adage critiqued as a common misconception of participatory engagement with online communities. Previous research indicated that a netnographic approach based upon researcher– participant engagement would provide the best opportunity to build and sustain a successful support community [...].

Egg On Hegranes: Geophysical Prospection, Coring, & Test Excavations—Report 2016, John M. Steinberg, Brian N. Damiata, Rita S. Shepard, Kathryn Anne Catlin, John W. Schoenfelder

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

This report describes the 2016 archaeological work at the farm of Egg is in the southernmost part of Hegranes, North Iceland.

An Empirical Investigation Of Factors Affecting Resistance To Using Multi-Method Authentication Systems In Public-Access Environments, Joseph Marnell

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of history, different means of object and person identification as well as verification have evolved for user authentication. In recent years, a new concern has emerged regarding the accuracy of verifiable authentication and protection of personal identifying information (PII), because previous misuses have resulted in significant financial loss. Such losses have escalated more noticeably because of human identity-theft incidents due to breaches of PII within multiple public-access environments. Although the use of various biometric and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies is expanding, resistance to using these technologies for user authentication remains an issue. This study addressed the …

Hegranesþing On Hegranes: Geophysical Prospection Interim Report 2013 – 2015, Brian N. Damiata, John M. Steinberg, John W. Schoenfelder, Douglas J. Bolender

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Geophysical surveys were conducted at Hegranesþing on Hegranes in North Icelad during the summers of 2013 and 2015.

A Trace Metal Content Database Of Cave Sediments Of Midcontinent U.S.A., Matthew Dale Smith

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The midcontinent of the United States has thousands of documented caves. These caves contain cave sediments, which are the accumulation of biological, geological, and anthropological debris. At this time there is no known database for trace metals of cave sediments of the midcontinent United States. Considering that caves host a wide variety of life, it is important to create a database to examine potential effects of trace metals on cave systems. In order to develop this baseline, 14 caves were sampled from across the midcontinent. Caves were selected based on geologic and hydrologic attributes. The sediments were analyzed for the …

Middle Preclassic Period Maya Greenstone "Triangulates": Forms, Contexts, And Geology Of A Unique Mesoamerican Groundstone Artifact Type, Terry G. Powis, Sherman Horn Iii, Gyles Iannone, Paul F. Healy, James F. Garber, Jaime J. Awe, Sheldon Skaggs, Linda A. Howie

Publications and Research

Over the past twenty years our understanding of the Middle Preclassic (900–300 BCE) period has become much clearer through archaeological investigations at a number of sites located in the Upper Belize River Valley region of the eastern Maya Lowlands. While the picture of Middle Preclassic Maya life, including their material culture, has sharpened, there are aspects that remain uninvestigated. One artifact type, identified as greenstone triangulates, has been found at several Belize Valley sites and in a variety of contexts. Although a number of these multifaceted, polished groundstone items have been recovered, little research has focused on their distribution and …

Unequal Edge Inclusion Probabilities In Link-Tracing Network Sampling With Implications For Respondent-Driven Sampling, Miles Q. Ott, Krista J. Gile

Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications

Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) is a widely adopted linktracing sampling design used to draw valid statistical inference from samples of populations for which there is no available sampling frame. RDS estimators rely upon the assumption that each edge (representing a relationship between two individuals) in the underlying network has an equal probability of being sampled. We show that this assumption is violated in even the simplest cases, and that RDS estimators are sensitive to the violation of this assumption.

Open Educational Resources Textbook List, Zachariah Claybaugh, Chelsea Stone

Librarian Publications

Discipline specific OER textbook list for departments at SHU, compiled by Zach Claybaugh and Chelsea Stone.

University Of North Florida Environmental Center Annual Report 2016, Natalie Sassine, Tiffany Torres, James W. Taylor, Maria Mark

Annual Reports

2016 Annual Report of the Environmental Center at the University of North Florida

Cleaning Up Minnesota's Archeological Record With Maid: The Minnesota Archeological Integrated Database, Andrew Allen Brown

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Minnesota archeologists face many difficulties in conducting archeological research and managing the state's cultural resources such as a lack of standardized data formats and field/lab procedures, a lack of a centralized data repository, and insufficient existing databases. The purpose of this thesis is to build the foundation for a database system that addresses these difficulties along with being efficient and effective for entering, managing, and analyzing archeological data produced in the field and in the lab. The Minnesota Archeological Integrated Database is being built to be a long-lasting, constantly evolving system to be used by archeologists and cultural resource managers …

Animism Among Western Buddhists, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Myriad instances of animist phenomena abound in the Buddhist world, but due to the outdated concepts of thinkers such as Edward Tylor, James George Frazer, and Melford Spiro, commonly scholars perceive this animism merely as the work of local religions, not as deriving from Buddhism itself. However, when one follows a number of contemporary scholars and employs a new, relational concept of animism that is based on respectful recognition of nonhuman personhoods, a different picture emerges. The works of Western Buddhists such as Stephanie Kaza, Philip Kapleau Roshi, and Gary Snyder express powerful senses of relational animism that arise specifically …

Analyzing The Geo-Dependence Of Human Face Appearance And Its Applications, Mohammad T. Islam

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Human faces have been a subject of study in computer science for decades. The rich of set features from human faces have been used in solving various problems in computer vision, including person identification, facial expression analysis, and attribute classification. In this work, I explore the human facial features that depend on the geo-location using a data- driven approach. I analyze millions of public domain images to extract the geo-dependent human facial features and explore their applications. Using various machine learning and statistical techniques, I show that the geo-dependent features of human faces can be used to solve the image …

Defining Biodiversity: A Local Assessment Of The Tahuayo River, Peru Using Self-Directed Photography, Rozsika D. Steele

All Master's Theses

The Área de Conservación Regional Comunal Tamshiyacu Tahuayo (ACRCTT), located in Loreto, Peru, protects 420,000 hectares of the Amazon basin. In 2009, the ACRCTT received formal government recognition after three decades of advocacy and conservation work by resident communities. Local resource users who live a subsistence lifestyle possess sophisticated Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) that can be used to identify which constituents of biodiversity are culturally relevant. This information can help resource managers develop an operational definition of biodiversity. Self-directed photography is a research method that allows participants the opportunity to direct data collection and empowers them to visually communicate their …

Effects Of Landscape Fragmentation On Land Loss, Weijia Cheng

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal Louisiana, the seventh largest delta on earth, is one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the United States of America (USA) because of its land loss problem. Coastal land loss is usually caused by many complicated factors. With the rapid increase in human activities, more studies on land loss have focused on the anthropogenic elements, but less on the pattern of the landscape. It is expected that the type of spatial arrangement, such as high degree of fragmentation, would affect the degree of land erosion. A quantitative evaluation of coastal landscape fragmentation and its influences on land loss …

The Pathology Of Command And Control: A Formal Synthesis, Michael Cox

Dartmouth Scholarship

One of the most important theories in the study of environmental governance and policy is the pathology of command and control, which describes the negative consequences of top-down, technocratic governance of social and ecological systems. However, to date, this theory has been expressed somewhat inconsistently and informally in the literature, even by the seminal works that have established its importance and popularized it. This presents a problem for the sustainability science community if it cannot be sure of the precise details of one of its most important theories. Without such precision, applications and tests of various elements of the theory …

Mathematical And Anthropological Analysis Of Northern Luzon Funeral Textile, Ma. Louise Antonette N. De Las Peñas, Analyn V. Salvador-Amores

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The study presents a mathematical analysis and provides an anthropological perspective of the funeral textile of the indigenous communities in northern Luzon, Philippines. In particular, a symmetry analysis is performed, based on principles of group theory and transformation geometry, on the various repeating patterns found in funeral garments and blankets. Results show that particular frieze groups and plane crystallographic groups are favored due to choice of motifs which are reflective of cultural beliefs and funeral traditions, as well as weaving style and methodology. The results of the analysis point to the depth of mathematics present in the work of the …

Understanding And Combatting Terrorist Networks: Coupling Social Media Mining With Social Network Analysis, Benn Van Den Ende

Australian Information Security Management Conference

Throughout the past decade the methods employed by terrorist organisations have changed drastically. One of these key changes has been associated with the rise of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogging in general. Terrorist organisations appear to be using the wide reach and vast network capabilities created by social media to disseminate propaganda, radicalise susceptible individuals, recruit potential fighters and communicate strategic and operational objectives. However, this growing terrorist presence on Social Media can also offer invaluable insights into the social networks of terrorist organisations through the use of Social Media Mining and Social Network Analysis. By …

Reconstructing Late Pleistocene And Holocene Paleoenvironments Using Playa-Lunette System Sediments Within The Harney Basin Of Southeastern Oregon, Usa, Joe Collins

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Paleoenvironmental investigations of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the Harney Basin of eastern Oregon have been limited to date. This Dissertation investigates and links the stratigraphy of Rimrock Draw Rockshelter (35HA3855) (RDR) and two surrounding playas, Rimrock Lake and Hay Lake, located on the western margin of the Harney Basin, in order to identify paleoenvironmental shifts during the last ~20 kyr. An emphasis also is given to demonstrating the potential for playas in the Harney Basin to record changes in paleoclimate, as well as the application of multivariate statistics to interpret paleoenvironments from sedimentary grain size data. Stratigraphy …

A Flipped Classroom Redesign In General Chemistry, Scott A. Reid

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The flipped classroom continues to attract significant attention in higher education. Building upon our recent parallel controlled study of the flipped classroom in a second-term general chemistry course (J. Chem. Educ., 2016, 93, 13–23), here we report on a redesign of the flipped course aimed at scaling up total enrollment while keeping discussion sizes small (i.e.,students), and maintaining equivalent contact hour load for faculty and workload for students. To that end, the course format featured lecture contact pushed outside of the classroom in the form of video lectures (mean duration 13 minutes) paired with online …

Fact Sheet, Yale University Office Of Institutional Research

Fact Sheets

No abstract provided.

Communication Patterns And Strategies In Software Development Communities Of Practice, Shreya Kumar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Some of the greatest challenges in the relatively new field of software development lie in the decidedly old technology of communication between humans. Software projects require sophisticated and varied communication skills because software developers work in a world of incomplete, imperfect information where teams evolve rapidly in response to evolving requirements and changing collaborators. While prescriptive models for software process such as Agile suggest ways of doing, in reality these codified practices must adapt to the complexities of a real workplace. Patterns, rather than rules of behavior within software process are more suitable to the varied and mutable nature of …

Environmental Leadership: Exploring Environmental Dissonance Involving Natural Resource Consumption And Ecosystem Degradation, Thomas L. Tochterman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As the corporate world, communities, and individuals become more globalized and demands on natural resources increase, a new emphasis on environmental leadership including a new pragmatic environmental ethos is needed to meet certain basic human needs of future generations. The research problem addressed in this study was the lack of knowledge concerning how environmental cognitive dissonance influences consumption practices related to inefficient resource utilization and ecosystem degradation. The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of the breadth and depth of environmental cognitive dissonance among visitors to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The research questions addressed …

Comparative Analysis: Successes And Failures Of St. Louis, Stephen Anane-Boakye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The St. Louis School District (SLSD) provided its students with a virtual education program (VEP) but abandoned it following a cut in federal funding, omitting an alternative pathway for students to complete their education. The problem addressed in this study was the effect of technology and management's decision to discontinue the VEP. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine management's role and the effect of the technology in discontinuing the VEP. Dewey's theory of education and Koskela and Howell's theory of management established the theoretical foundation for the study. A purposeful sampling selection approach was used to recruit …