Digital Commons Network^™

Information Outlook, July/August 2014, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 2014

Volume 18, Issue 4

To What Extent Have Icts Contributed To E-Governance In Uganda?, Robert Waiswa, Constant Okello-Obura

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to receive unprecedented attention because of their pervasive influence on society. One such sphere of influence is their role in empowering the citizenry in tackling the fundamental facets of governance which, according to the World Bank, include: graft, rule of law, government effectiveness, voice and accountability, political instability and violence, and regulatory burden – a role giving rise to the concept of e-Governance. Uganda has variously attempted to promote e-Governance; huge sums of financial resources and other factor inputs have been sunk in ICT initiatives. The question which arises is, to what extent …

The Effect Of Platelet-Rich Plasma (Prp) On Muscle Contusion Healing In A Rat Model., Demetris Delos, Matthew J. Leineweber, Salma Chaudhury, Saif Alzoobaee, Yingxin Gao, Scott Alan Rodeo

Faculty Publications

Background: Current therapy for muscle contusions is usually limited to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and/or use of the RICE principle (rest, ice, compression, elevation); thus, other forms of treatment that can potentially accelerate the rate of healing are desirable. Hypotheses: A local injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) would lead to accelerated healing rates compared with controls; also, delayed administration of PRP would lead to a blunted response compared with immediate treatment. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Forty-six male Lewis rats each underwent a single blunt, nonpenetrating impact to the gastrocnemius muscle via a drop-mass technique and subsequently received either a …

The People Versus The Octopus: California Progressives And The Origins Of Direct Democracy, Glen Gendzel

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Direct democracy, for better or for worse, has become California's most distinctive and emblematic political institution. Initiative, referendum, and recall elections were added to the state constitution in 1911 as part of Governor Hiram Johnson's “progressive” movement, which redeemed the state from control by “The Octopus”, meaning the Southern Pacific Railroad monopoly that had a stranglehold on the state's economy and government. Progressive reformers expected that California voters would use direct democracy to tame the Octopus and to protect themselves against such wealthy special interests in the future. Over time, however, those same interests proved adept at using direct democracy …

Expressions, Summer 2014 Mailer, San Jose State University, College Of The Humanities And The Arts

Expressions (College of Humanities and the Arts)

College of Humanities and the Arts Newsletter, Summer 2014 Mailer

An Assessment Of The Use Of Radio And Other Means Of Information Dissemination By The Residents Of Ado- Ekiti, Ekiti-State, Nigeria., Ezekiel Babatope Familusi Mr, Peter Olufemi Owoeye Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study assessed the use of radio and other means of information dissemination among the residents of Ado-Ekiti. It is a survey research employing descriptive research design of the survey type, the instrument used to collect data was questionnaire. The sampled population was one hundred and twenty residents of Ado-Ekiti (120) were selected to participate in the study using simple random sampling technique while the collected data was analysed using tables, bar chart, simple percentage and frequency count, mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that radio is the most important instrument in information dissemination because it reaches larger …

Reading Habits Among Students And Its Effect On Academic Performance: A Study Of Students Of Koforidua Polytechnic, Micheal Owusu-Acheaw

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study sought to assess the reading habits among students and their effects on their academic performance. The study was conducted in Koforidua Polytechnic situated in the Eastern Region of Ghana. A questionnaire was used for the data collection. The data collected were analyzed quantitatively with the use of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Figures and tables were used to present the results of findings. From the total of 1052 copies of questionnaire distributed, 1000 copies, representing 95.0% were filled and returned. The findings showed that majority of the respondents acknowledge the importance of reading, 81.9% of the …

Expressions, Summer 2014, San Jose State University, College Of The Humanities And The Arts

Expressions (College of Humanities and the Arts)

College of Humanities and the Arts Newsletter, Volume 3

Spartan Daily, May 7, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 39

Nurses' Perceptions Of Structural Empowerment: A Practice Review Process Pilot, Andrea M. Lee-Riggins

Doctoral Projects

Nurses are professionally and morally obliged to monitor and evaluate nursing practice via active participation in review mechanisms that are designed to promote patient safety and care delivery, thereby improving patient care quality (American Nurses Association [ANA], 1988, 2001, 2004; O'Rourke, 2006). The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was to develop, pilot, and evaluate a nurse practice review process with frontline nurses within Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital (FHSH), a small specialty hospital, affiliated with Community Medical Centers (CMC) in Fresno, California. A nurse practice algorithm was subsequently developed and structural empowerment was assessed with the …

Spartan Daily, May 1, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 37

System Safety Principles: A Multidisciplinary Engineering Perspective, Joseph Saleh, Karen Marais, Francesca Favaro

Faculty Publications

System safety is of particular importance for many industries. Broadly speaking, it refers to the state or objective of striving to sustainably ensure accident prevention through actions on multiple safety levers (technical, organizational, and regulatory). While complementary to risk analysis, it is distinct in one important way: risk analysis is anticipatory rationality examining the possibility of adverse events (or accident scenarios), and the tools of risk analysis support and in some cases quantify various aspects of this analysis effort. The end-objective of risk analysis is to help identify and prioritize risks, inform risk management, and support risk communication. These tools …

The Lingering Killer: Agent Orange, Sharon Ungerfeld

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper explores the utilization of the chemical herbicide, Agent Orange, as it was sprayed over Vietnam during the Vietnam War in 1961 to 1971. The United States government, military, and corporations acted irresponsibly by creating the chemical and spraying it as a war tactic. The outcome of the spraying includes detrimental socioeconomic impacts, environmental degradation, and health problems. The socioeconomic impact is explained with statistics and an explanation of loss of job and education capabilities. With data on the destroyed trees and vegetation, this paper demonstrates the degree to which the environment faced harm. The health effects of Agent …

Spartan Daily, April 29, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 35

Spartan Daily, April 22, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 32

Spartan Daily April 22, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 32

Phys 123: Physics Of Animation Course Redesign, Alejandro Garcia

Innovative Teaching – Course Redesign Project Posters 2014

Poster summarizing course redesign activities for PHYS 123: Physics of Animation.

Spartan Daily, April 10, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 28

Spartan Daily, April 8, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 26

Spartan Daily, April 3, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 25

Bangladesh: An Overview Of Open Access (Oa) Initiatives, Md. Nazim Uddin, Tracey Lynn Pérez Koehlmoos, Shaikh A Shahed Hossain

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The present paper describes about the universal access to knowledge and information in the network and digital environment. The paper discusses the Open Access (OA) and Institutional Repositories (IR) initiatives for global access, repository, preservation, and organized management of networked information services in an environment where both the users and resources are at varied locations. The paper highlights the importance of open access and Institutional Repositories initiatives to the system of scholarly communication in Bangladesh. The paper explains research communities’ benefits of open access, salient features of ICT in Bangladesh, initiatives of institutional repositories in Bangladesh, open access movement in …

The Use Of Electronic Journal Articles By Academics At Mzuzu University, Malawi., Lizzie Malemia

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The use of information technology for scholarly publication is now commonplace all over the world. Academic communities in Africa are part of this transformation. The purpose of this study was to investigate academics’ use of scholarly electronic journal articles at Mzuzu University and assess the factors influencing their behaviour. Data collection instruments used for the study were the use of a questionnaire to the academics, interview with Deans of Faculties and follow up e-survey to some academics at Mzuzu University. The findings revealed that most academics had general knowledge of the electronic journals and this did not vary with education. …

Parallelized Rigid Body Dynamics, John Calvin Linford

Master's Projects

Physics engines are collections of API-like software designed for video games, movies and scientific simulations. While physics engines often come in many shapes and designs, all engines can benefit from an increase in speed via parallelization. However, despite this need for increased speed, it is uncommon to encounter a parallelized physics engine today. Many engines are long-standing projects and changing them to support parallelization is too costly to consider as a practical matter. Parallelization needs to be considered from the design stages through completion to ensure adequate implementation. In this project we develop a realistic approach to simulate physics in …

Attribute Selection Methods In Rough Set Theory, Xiaohan Li

Master's Projects

Attribute selection for rough sets is an NP-hard problem, in which fast heuristic algorithms are needed to find reducts. In this project, two reduct methods for rough set were implemented: particle swarm optimization and Johnson’s method. Both algorithms were evaluated with five different benchmarks from the KEEL repository. The results obtained from both implementations were compared with results obtained by the ROSETTA software using the same benchmarks. The results show that the implementations achieve better correction rates than ROSETTA.

Dart: Declaratively Rendering 2d Sketches In Canvas, Jesus Rocha

Master's Projects

Dart is a recent programming language for the web browser. It features structured programming through traditional class-based syntax, metaprogramming via mirror-based reflection and scriptable rendering of 2D shapes with the Canvas API. This project explores Dart as a potential host for a domain-specific language (DSL) to produce figures, like those found in entry-level programming books. The goal is for instructors or book authors to generate figures such as the ones that appear in a typical CS1/CS2 text book. Figures from the book are analyzed and a library for rendering them declaratively is developed. Dart was able to provide a convenient …

Spartan Daily, March 18, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 21

Spartan Daily, March 11, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 18

Spartan Daily, March 6, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 17

Spartan Daily, March 5, 2014, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 142, Issue 16

Alienating Students: Marxist Theory In Action, Megan Thiele, Yung-Yi Diana Pan, Devin Molina

Faculty Publications, Sociology

Karl Marx is one of the most significant and widely known sociologists. Although he is largely credited for his macro perspectives, he made important contributions by detailing the micro experiences of the worker in a capitalist system. This piece details a hands-on learning activity that allows students to experience both alienation and non-alienation in the classroom. By offering an experiential activity to pair with readings on the topic, students will be better able to grasp this fundamental, yet often difficult to understand, core concept of Marxist theory.