Digital Commons Network^™

The New Scarlet Letter A: An Exploration Of The Power Of Online Informational Websites To Influence And Brand Those Impacted By Autism Spectrum Disorders, Barbi Smyser-Fauble

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Technical communication is often perceived by the public as containing objective information that is supported by scientific data. Audiences of such products are unaware of the rhetoric employed within its content that works to perpetuate social constructions of dominant ideologies, including digital texts such as informational websites. This article presents a comparison of the rhetoric employed on two national websites, Autism Speaks and Generation Rescue that convey similar information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), but present ASDs differently in terms of language, tone, and lens. Through the acknowledgement of these differences, I posit that web sites affiliated with the medical/scientific …

Translating Health Care: Stories From Refugees, Providers, And Friends, Kevin Brooks, Miriam Mara

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Drawing on interviews and participatory observation, this article weaves stories of translating healthcare told from the perspectives of refugees, health care providers, and friends. The research finds that while literal translations of documents and information are important to the health care process for refugees of New Americans, cultural translations of concepts like health care and preventive care are perhaps even more important. That translation, however, is not simple or literal either; refugees and New Americans may resist, or remain suspicious of, these concepts even once understood. Friends of refugees can provide an important role in helping with cultural and institutional …

The Hispanic Social Media Revolution: Spanish-Language Healthcare Pages On Facebook Introduction, Nicole St. Germaine

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Although many Hispanics living in the United States do not have a regular health care provider, they are getting healthcare information from the media. The internet is increasingly becoming the place where Hispanics get healthcare information. The number of Hispanics, both Spanish and English speaking, who go online is increasing every year. However, the Hispanic population as a whole is more likely to view videos online and to browse the internet from their mobile phones. The use of social media sites by Hispanics is also growing rapidly. Hispanics look for healthcare information on social media sites such as Facebook and …

Grassroots Emergency Health Risk Communication And Transmedia Public Participation: H1n1 Flu, Travelers From Epicenters, And Cyber Vigilantism, Huiling Ding

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Grassroots risk reduction tactics took new forms in the era of social media. Chinese netizens mobilized human flesh searches (HFS), or cyber vigilantism, to reduce the risks posed by international travelers who might import the H1N1 flu virus into China. My study suggests that at the beginning of the H1N1 flu epidemic, rigorous transmedia intervention efforts were made to discipline the early irresponsible overseas Chinese who traveled extensively after arriving in China, but much less attention was paid to risks posed by foreign travelers. The grassroots risk tactics employed emotional appeals, valuative judgment, and moral condemnation to criticize the irresponsible …

Editor's Introduction, Nicole St. Germaine

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Busy physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators do not have the time to conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews with patients. Researchers in the communication fields, such as the authors whose work is featured in this edition of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, can help fill in these gaps of knowledge and provide insight into some of the best practices and issues that our healthcare professionals need to address to serve these populations more effectively.

Global Training, Multicultural Course Design, And Delivery: The Impact On Cultural Style Adjustments Of Faculty And Global Training Instructors, Christine R. Day, Crissie M. Frye

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Globalization is a reality for businesses and institutions of higher education. Furthermore, many U.S. based firms are expanding their businesses beyond domestic markets. These trends indicate that U.S. born individuals are likely to study or work in multicultural environments domestically and abroad. Research suggests that faculty and trainers adapt their teaching style and classroom policies to accommodate multicultural learners. Disconnections may arise, however, regarding the willingness to include these accommodations. The present exploratory study investigates the inclination and extent to which faculty and trainers adjust their teaching style, content, and policies to adapt to multicultural learners, namely, graduate and undergraduate …

Review Of Network Power: The Social Dynamics Of Globalization. David Singh Grewal. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008., William Carney

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The debate over globalization is often portrayed in both the mainstream media and some segments of academia as one that features two extremes. On one side are the “neoliberals” with a positive yet almost deterministic view of globalization. For them, the growth of an interconnected web of business, nonprofit, and governmental relations will ultimately improve living standards all over the world and the reach of this web has become all but inevitable. On the other side are those who see a nefarious side to globalization. They fear the extinction of cultural differences and ways of life for people powerless to …

In Case You Missed It: Selected Scholarship From The Discipline, Gerald Savage, David Alan Sapp

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

We all tell our undergraduate and graduate students how important it is to keep current in the field. In our professional lives as writers and communicators, that means keeping track of trends in industry and technology; as academics, it means keeping up on our reading—the latest books, recent articles in journals, the proceedings of our major conferences—so that we can contribute to disciplinary conversations, teach our classes with integrity, and advance our own research agendas effectively. As part of this process, we show our appreciation to those who contribute to the knowledge of our field and participate in the process …

Intercultural Rhetoric In The Technical Communication Curriculum: A Review Of The Literature, Jennifer Bracken Scott

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Although many scholars in technical, professional, and business communication have argued for the inclusion of intercultural rhetoric and communication in technical communication curricula, several key tensions have emerged from this effort. These tensions center upon the competencies most necessary for graduates of our programs, as well as approaches for understanding and teaching intercultural communication. This literature review presents a discussion and critique of literature in the field based on articles collected from several major journals as well as book sections in the areas of technical, professional, and business communication; it also offers recommendations for further research and development in this …

Editor's Introduction To The First Edition: Eight Needed Developments And Eight Critical Contexts For Global Inquiry, Barry Thatcher

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

In this introduction, I articulate critical gaps, needed developments, and opportunities for rhetoric and professional communication in global contexts. My tone is intentionally provocative and personal, laying out my positions and concerns based on almost 20 years of experience working in both rhetoric/professional communication and intercultural/global studies. In this introduction, I also demonstrate the power (and beauty) of intercultural and global inquiry to expose unexamined assumptions and problems in current theory, research, and practice in rhetoric and professional communication. The first section introduces eight needed developments for global theory, research, and practice, based on current approaches in rhetoric and professional …

Improve Outcomes In Lean Six Sigma With Servant Leadership, David W. Hoffa, Chad Laux, Manal Alduraibi

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

1. Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore lean leadership within Lean Six Sigma (LSS). The objective of this paper was to explore how LSS program success might be improved by focusing Black Belt efforts on mentoring Green Belts with a servant leadership model. The importance of Green Belt projects is typically overlooked in the literature. The effects of prioritizing the development of Green Belts and building a culture of continuous improvement over the traditional Black Belt project focus is explored.

2. Design/Methodology/Approach

The methodology of this paper is inspired by the authors’ field experiences in managing LSS …

Waste As A Product Of Organisational Culture, Dobrochna Sztajerska, Karolina Pawlusiak

International Conference on Lean Six Sigma

The organisational culture was subjected to studies for many years (Schein, 1983; Svyantek and DeShon, 1993; Sułkowski 2001, Chmielewska-Muciek 2009), so was the muda (waste) concept (Womack and Jones, 1996; Rother and Shook, 2003; Liker, 2003; Lisiecka and Burka, 2015). However, there is no research linking these two constructs, especially when it comes to looking for specific waste depending on the organisational culture.

More Than Mechanisms: Shifting Ideologies For Asset-Based Learning In Engineering Education, Brian E. Gravel, Eli Tucker-Raymond, Aditi Wagh, Susan Klimczak, Naeem Wilson

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Learning spaces, the practices in which people engage, and the representations they use are ideological. Ideologies are coherent constellations of values, beliefs, and practices that impose order on how disciplines like engineering operate. Historically, engineering spaces have been dominated by a relatively technocratic, rationalistic, and exclusionary ideology, but more recent attention to asset-based approaches to engineering education offers transformative promise. Asset-based ideologies can reshape images of legitimized engineering practice, recasting engineering education to disrupt dominant exclusionary ideologies. This paper describes an assets-based learning space, SETC, that recaptures the imagination of engineering for technological and social change. Drawing from extensive ethnographic …

Writing Gender In Early Modern Chinese Women's Tanci Fiction, Li Guo

Comparative Cultural Studies

Women’s tanci, or “plucking rhymes,” are chantefable narratives written by upper-class educated women from seventeenth-century to early twentieth-century China. Writing Gender in Early Modern Chinese Women’s Tanci Fiction offers a timely study on early modern Chinese women’s representations of gender, nation, and political activism in their tanci works before and after the Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864), as well as their depictions of warfare and social unrest.

Women tanci authors’ redefinition of female exemplarity within the Confucian orthodox discourses of virtue, talent, chastity, and political integrity could be bourgeoning expressions of female exceptionalism and could have foreshadowed protofeminist ideals …

Vietnamese Americans: History, Education, And Societal Context, Stacy M. Kula, Vinh Q. Tran, Iraise Garcia, Erika Saito, Susan J. Paik

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

While Asian Americans are often depicted as one high-achieving group, there are in fact a wide diversity of Asian American populations that each have their own history and acculturation experiences in the United States. Vietnamese Americans are a particularly unique group; having come with other Southeast Asian refugee groups after the Vietnam War, they are a relatively recent addition to U.S. society with very different circumstances of arrival in comparison with groups from other regions of Asia. This article takes a historical lens to understand the unique factors surrounding Vietnamese American entry to the United States—including policy, societal reception, co-ethnic …

Hmong American Charter Schools: An Exploratory And Descriptive Study, Pao Lor

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

In this exploratory and descriptive study, I explored, analyzed, and described data provided by existing seven Hmong American charter schools. I aggregated my findings into these categories: communities and history; mission, vision, and/or core/value/future/belief statements; governance structure; curriculum; calendar; student support services; co-curricular activities; student information; staff information; student achievement; parental resources and involvement; communications; budgets/school finance; student enrollment; transportation; and other notable(s). For each category, I summarized the data explored and described, and for most of the categories, I provided supporting details to add depth.

Forty–Five Years On: Two Poems: Coexisting & Again(St) Deportation, Again, Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Forty–Five Years On: Two Poems by Trangđài Glassey-Trầnguyễn:

Coexisting

Again(st) Deportation, Again

Day 785, Koua Mai Yang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Day 785 by Koua Mai Yang

Fatigue And Its Management In The Aviation Industry, With Special Reference To Pilots, Rajee Olaganathan, Timothy B. Holt, Jackie Luedtke, Brent D. Bowen

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Abstract Fatigue is a significant contributing factor that reduces human ability and leads to accidents and threatens the safety of aircraft and human lives. Approximately 70% of fatal accidents that occur in commercial aviation operations are due to human factors. More specifically, crew fatigue contributes to nearly 15 to 20% of the accidents (Akerstedt, 2000). These accidents and incidents are associated with pilot fatigue because of the long duty periods, disruption of circadian rhythms, and inadequate sleep that are common among both commercial and military pilots. Though fatigue is seen in all the disciplines associated with the aviation industry, this …

Equitable Pre-College Engineering Education: Teaching With Racism In Mind, James Holly Jr

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Engineering educators must consider how the cultural backgrounds of students coincide (or diverge) with the epistemological and ontological formation of an engineer. Hence, this work is presented as an exhortation to engineering educators, particularly in a pre-college context, to critically evaluate how race-conscious pedagogies can be exerted in this field. In this autoethnographic study, I convey my attempt to teach engineering with explicit consideration of the sociopolitical context of the Black male youth I taught. As a Black male, I have an insider perspective into the realities that must be navigated to succeed in a racialized society, where Black males …

Insects As A Source Of Phenolic Compounds And Potential Health Benefits, M C. Nino, Lavanya Reddivari, C Osorio, I Kaplan, A M. Liceaga

Department of Food Science Faculty Publications

The use of insects in traditional medicine and unveiling the chemical structure of the bright pigments in butterfly wings led to the discovery of bioactive phenolic compounds in the insect bodies. These metabolites have been found not only due to the insect absorption and metabolisation of the plant-derived phenolic present in their diet, but also from the ability of insects to synthesise phenolic compounds de novo through the sclerotisation process. Plant phenolics are secondary metabolites involved in the protection of tissues against UV radiation, herbivores, and pathogens, as well as pigmentation of fruits and flowers. These bioactive compounds exhibit antioxidant, …

Visitor (Tourist) Harassment Research: Delphi Panels, Shweta Singh, Annmarie Nicely, Liping Cai, Jonathan Day

Visitor Harassment Research Unit Special Papers

The harassment of visitors at destinations is a pressing problem globally. It is also an emerging area of scholastic inquiry. This article explores one research technique that, despite its ability to generate new and innovative solutions to a range of problems, is not currently used in visitor harassment (VH) research: the Delphi Panel Research Method. The authors assert, if applied correctly, the technique could significantly advance knowledge in this research stream. The article also explores the technique’s evolution; the broad thoughts on which the technique is based; when the technique should be used; how the technique should be applied; …

Writing Gender In Early Modern Chinese Women's Tanci Fiction, Li Guo

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Women’s tanci, or “plucking rhymes,” are chantefable narratives written by upper-class educated women from seventeenth-century to early twentieth-century China. Writing Gender in Early Modern Chinese Women's Tanci Fiction offers a timely study on early modern Chinese women’s representations of gender, nation, and political activism in their tanci works before and after the Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864), as well as their depictions of warfare and social unrest.

Women tanci authors’ redefinition of female exemplarity within the Confucian orthodox discourses of virtue, talent, chastity, and political integrity could be bourgeoning expressions of female exceptionalism and could have foreshadowed protofeminist ideals …

Numerical Study And Validation Of Melting And Solidification In Pcm Embedded Heat Exchangers With Straight Tube, Tanjebul Alam, Daniel Bacellar, Jiazhen Ling, Vikrant Aute

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems have shown great potential to enable reliable use of renewable energy and load shifting. LHTES offer high storage density and release energy at near constant temperature because of its use of phase change materials (PCMs). The cylindrical PCM heat exchangers (PCMHX) are one of the most used technologies due to their simplicity. Numerical models for such PCMHX enable engineers to estimate their performance for different design parameters and operating conditions without having to test them all. However, modeling the phase change phenomena can be challenging. To better understand the difficulties involving accurate modeling …

A Lattice Boltzmann Model For Phase Change Material (Pcm) Melting With Porous Media In Heat Exchanger, Dongyu Chen, Amir Riaz, Vikrant C. Aute, Reinhard Radermacher

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

Phase change material (PCM) is widely used in thermal energy storage systems as it can absorb and release a large amount of heat by the phase change process. Both experimental and numerical studies of PCM have increased substantially in the past two decades. Among them, the phase change in porous media is one of the significant topics. The simulation of PCM melting in porous media is required to characterize the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior, and to provide guidance for the further design and optimization of PCM heat exchangers and thermal energy storage systems. In this paper, a model …

Design Optimization Of A-Type Heat Exchangers Based On High Performance, Non-Round Tubes, James Tancabel, Vikrant Aute, Jiazhen Ling, Reinhard Radermacher

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

Air-to-refrigerant heat exchangers (HXs) have been the topic of considerable research as they are the fundamental heat transfer components of HVAC&R systems. For residential and commercial applications, indoor heat exchangers are often in A-type configurations to reduce air-conditioner system footprint while still delivering the required cooling or heating. Classical HX design practices typically assume a uniform frontal air velocity profile to facilitate the use of conventional tube-fin airside heat transfer and pressure drop correlations for performance prediction. However, it is well-reported throughout the literature that A-type HXs experience significant airflow maldistribution which can severely degrade HX performance. Additionally, recent advancements …

Experimental And Theoretical Analysis Of Refrigerant Charge Extraction Methods, Luis Sánchez-Moreno Giner, Francisco Barceló Ruescas, Alejandro López Navarro, José Gonzálvez Maciá

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

According to the European Commission, heating, cooling and domestic hot water (DHW) production implies 79% of the total energy consumed in households. Moreover, as 84% of this energy is still generated from fossil fuels, it is required taking measures in order to improve the current situation. One way to increase the decarbonization in households is the use of heat pumps powered by renewable energy sources. Additionally, the energy captured by heat pumps is considered renewable when a certain efficiency value is achieved (2009/28/CE directive). Nowadays, refrigerants used by heat pumps are mainly hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which have a high global warming …

Integrated Thermal Energy Storage System For Air-Conditioners With Phase-Change Composites, Anurag Goyal, Eric Kozubal, Jason Woods

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a promising solution to store and dispatch energy and shave peak electric load, reducing the operational cost of HVAC systems. We present results of a TES system using phase-change materials (PCM) integrated with an air conditioner. The proposed system uses an organic PCM (tetradecane) encapsulated within compressed expanded natural graphite foams referred to as phase-change composite. The graphite foam encapsulates the PCM eliminating the need for expensive storage vessels, reduces installation costs, and provides higher thermal conductivity that can lead to faster charge/discharge rates. Two serpentines, multi-pass circuits, operating as a heat source and a …

A New Alloy For High Performance Valve Steel For High Efficiency Compressors, Anders Hoel, Jonas Nilsson, Stefan Jonsson, Guocai Chai, Guofan Zhang

International Compressor Engineering Conference

In 2018 the International Energy Association IEA reported that air conditioning will be a major contributor for future electricity consumption (Birol, F. 2018). As recently seen in China, tougher legislation on energy efficiency for air conditioning and refrigeration is being introduced all the time. It is therefore crucial that new compressor models perform at the highest levels in terms of efficiency to reduce global energy consumption. The prerequisites to fulfill this legislation vary for the different applications such as rotary, reciprocating, scroll and linear compressors. However, to succeed in developing more energy efficient compressors, the ability to improve the performance …

Environmental Index For Real Time Feedback On Biowall Indoor Air Quality, William Hutzel, Hengyu Liu, Jun Ho Kim

International High Performance Buildings Conference

This paper describes an ongoing field evaluation of a simplified Environmental Index (EI) that provides a homeowner with an intuitive metric for assessing indoor air quality based on regular measurements of temperature, humidity, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s). These discrete measurements are used to compute an overall weighted score that correlates with the comfort and health of the living space. Although this environmental index is not a rigorous scientific computation, it is an initial point to improve residents’ understanding of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) by providing active feedback. The context of this environmental index work is the Biowall, a living …