Digital Commons Network^™

Land Cover Change Analysis In The State Of California Using Nlcd Data, Indumathi Jeyachandran

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Land cover change is critical to be monitored as land cover change has significant impacts on flooding, ground water recharge, and urban air temperature. In this paper, key findings from a land cover change analysis study performed in the State of California are presented. National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) was used for this study. Time series of NLCD data during the time period of 2001 through 2016 was used for the analysis. NLCD data processing was done in ArcMap 10.6.1. This paper includes the methodology in detail, and the results of the …

Unpacking Challenges In Student-Faculty Partnerships On Departmental Action Teams, Gina M. Quan, Joel C. Corbo, Sarah Wise, Courtney Ngai

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper is a case study analysis of one student-faculty partnership working to enact departmental change. Students as Partners (SaP) is an approach in which students and faculty work in partnership on the co-design of a curricular or institutional change effort. Our team implements SaP through Departmental Action Teams (DATs), which are facilitated teams of faculty, students, and staff within a single STEM department working on an issue related to undergraduate education. In our research, we aim to understand the ways in which SaP becomes enacted in DATs. Through analyzing interviews with student and faculty members of a single DAT, …

Metatheme Analysis: A Qualitative Method For Cross-Cultural Research, Amber Wutich, Melissa Beresford, Cindi Sturtzsreetharan, Alexandra Brewis, Sarah Trainer, Jessica Hardin

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In recent years, there has been a florescence of cross-cultural research using ethnographic and qualitative data. This cutting-edge work confronts a range of significant methodological challenges, but has not yet addressed how thematic analysis can be modified for use in cross-cultural ethnography. Thematic analysis is widely used in qualitative and mixed-methods research, yet is not currently well-adapted to cross-cultural ethnographic designs. We build on existing thematic analysis techniques to discuss a method to inductively identify metathemes (defined here as themes that occur across cultures). Identifying metathemes in cross-cultural research is important because metathemes enable researchers to use systematic comparisons to …

Centrality Of Youth Engagement In Media Involvement, Yoshitaka Iwasaki

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Contextualized within the popularity of new media, youth engagement is a very important concept in the practice of public involvement. Guided by the current literature on youth engagement and media studies, this chapter examines the key engagement-related notions involving youth and media usage. Being informed by a variety of case studies on youth engagement through the use of media within various contexts globally, the chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges of engaging youth through media involvement. The specific notions covered in this chapter include (1) the role of “hybrid” media in youth engagement, (2) “intersectionality” illustrating the diversity of youth …

Malware Classification Using Long Short-Term Memory Models, Dennis Dang, Fabio Di Troia, Mark Stamp

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Signature and anomaly based techniques are the quintessential approaches to malware detection. However, these techniques have become increasingly ineffective as malware has become more sophisticated and complex. Researchers have therefore turned to deep learning to construct better performing model. In this paper, we create four different long-short term memory (LSTM) based models and train each to classify malware samples from 20 families. Our features consist of opcodes extracted from malware executables. We employ techniques used in natural language processing (NLP), including word embedding and bidirection LSTMs (biLSTM), and we also use convolutional neural networks (CNN). We find that a model …

Malware Classification With Gmm-Hmm Models, Jing Zhao, Samanvitha Basole, Mark Stamp

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Discrete hidden Markov models (HMM) are often applied to malware detection and classification problems. However, the continuous analog of discrete HMMs, that is, Gaussian mixture model-HMMs (GMM-HMM), are rarely considered in the field of cybersecurity. In this paper, we use GMM-HMMs for malware classification and we compare our results to those obtained using discrete HMMs. As features, we consider opcode sequences and entropy-based sequences. For our opcode features, GMM-HMMs produce results that are comparable to those obtained using discrete HMMs, whereas for our entropy-based features, GMM-HMMs generally improve significantly on the classification results that we have achieved with discrete HMMs.

The Dialectic Of Presence And Interpretation In Everyday Aesthetics: Applying Heidegger And Gumbrecht To A Walk In One’S Neighborhood, Thomas Leddy

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Gumbrecht’s Heidegger-inspired book, Production of Presence, provides valuable tools for resolving issues in everyday aesthetics. Gumbrecht distinguishes between “presence cultures” and “interpretation cultures.” (Gumbrecht 2004) We live in an interpretation culture, and yet even in our culture there are presence effects. Gumbrecht understands aesthetic experience in terms of the idea of presence. His paradigms are great works of art and great athletic events, all of which take us away from the everyday. I argue that his theory can be adapted, ironically, to everyday aesthetics, in particular to the experience of taking a walk. Much of what we experience aesthetically while …

A Theory Of Reciting As Asian American Buddhist Practice: The Young Buddhist Editorial As A Discursive Site Of Recitation, Funie Hsu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This article contributes a theory of reciting as Asian American Buddhist practice. I argue that when Asian American Buddhists share their stories and experiences, they perform a critical form of religious reciting. This reciting articulates the reality of Asian American Buddhist existence amidst ongoing legacies of exclusion. It displaces the predominance of narratives about Asian American Buddhists told by others. Moreover, reciting forges networks of knowledge, recognition, and sangha amongst Asian American Buddhists. This article then investigates the recently established web platform, The Young Buddhist Editorial (YBE), as an example of the layered reciting practices amongst young Asian American Buddhists. …

So You Want To Publish: Becoming A Researcher, Amanda Izenstark, Ann Agee, Holly Jackson, Anna Sandelli, Lindsay Roberts

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

New librarians, experienced librarians, and those considering a change in career may want to start writing or researching for a variety of reasons, including meeting professional requirements. In this article, we share some tips for getting started, or perhaps inspiration for bringing old ideas back to life.

Teachers Of Color Implementing Restorative Justice Practices In Elementary Schools, Saili Kulkarni, Melanie Chong

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Federated Research Information Management In R&D Organizations: Analysis Of Indian Research Information Network System (Irins), Sunil Tyagi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose: The present study sought to analyze the IRINS implemented Research & Development Organizations in India, their top departments, scientist’s publications and citations of individual organization.

Methodology: The data were collected from the website of Indian Research Information Network System (IRINS) and the data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and using simple calculations.

Findings: The analysis finds that the CSIR-NAL has the highest scientist/faculty members 386 (47.02%). The CSIR-NIIST has the highest Scopus citation 39180(26.96%) and cross ref citation 43238(32.60%). The CSIR-NIIST ranks first with 2223 scholarly resources. The Clinical Research Centre, ACTREC has the highest scholarly resources 1289(38.88%) with …

Mapping The Metadata Challenges In Libraries: A Systematic Review, Imran Ghaffar Sulehri, Nosheen Fatima Warraich Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Background. In the information and knowledge world, libraries always played their important role and found as early adopters of new techniques and technologies for dissemination of information.

Purpose. If we understand the metadata as a researcher’s perspective, it is exploratory in its nature which provides guidance to the further data which is explanatory. There are many metadata challenges which affect the execution and accessibility of relevant data. These challenges must be recognized at one place so that LIS professionals having interest in metadata could be able to understand these challenges and hurdles concerning with libraries. So, this this study is …

Next Generation Data Analytics: Text Mining In Library Practice And Research, Muhammad Arshad, Amjid Khan, Pervaiz Ahmed, Nadia Abbas Shah

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Text mining is the process and technique used for searching, retrieving and extracting high quality, useful and purposeful information from the ocean of unstructured and unclassified data and information in the form of text written in natural language. It is also referred to as text engineering, text data mining or text analytics. Text mining is an emerging field of research. The purpose of this paper is to review text mining in general and with special context to library and information science. Text mining involves artificial intelligence. Hence, this system is very efficient in its work as compared to human capabilities …

Scientometric Analysis Of Indian Physics Literature During 2004-2018, S C. Hosamani, C Krishnamurthy

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The paper deals with the Indian physics literature published in resources as reflected in Web of Science (WOS) during the period 2004-2018. The study analyses India’s performance based on its publication output in physics, few Scientometric indices, such as the number of publications, number of citations, activity index, relative growth rate, doubling time, patterns of communication in national and international journals, are considered for portraying the different dimensions, Most prolific scientists and Institutions, and national & international collaboration from India were also considered. It was examined that during 2004-2018 there was a substantial increase in yearly output of Indian physics …

Educational Use Of Smartphone Among University Students: A Survey Of World-Ranked Universities In Pakistan, Sadaf Rafiq, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Tahira Yasmin, Awais Rafiq

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of smartphones in achieving educational goals. Moreover, this study also explores the required library services that should be accessible via smartphone. A quantitative research approach was adopted and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed among those students who currently using smartphones to answer the survey. Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the purpose of the students in relation to use their smartphones. The findings indicate that the university students had a positive attitude to use the smartphone for academic purposes on average and across the board. They used the smartphones on …

Relevance Of Availability Of Information Resource Centres On Rural Development In Akure North Local Government Of Nigeria, Adewusi Akinola, Felix Akinola Adewusi Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

This study attempts to x-ray relevance of availability of information resource centres on rural development in Akure North Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria. The study reveals that information resource centres are not available in the communities under the local government. The essence of rural development, appraisal of various initiatives in Nigeria, information needs of rural dwellers and information resource centre were discussed in the study. The need for provision of information resource centres in rural communities was also discussed. It is revealed that with valuable up-to-date information resources in the centres it would empower and enable the people irrespective …

Research Productivity Of Chemistry Department, Tezpur University: A Scientometric Study, Nayana Borah Research Scholar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the research publication of Chemistry department, Tezpur University. The SCOPUS database has been used to extract the data published during 2000 to 2020. The retrieved data has been analyzed on the following parameters; year-wise distribution of publication, form-wise distribution, authorship pattern, degree of collaboration, most productive authors, collaborative institution and preferred source for publication. A total of 1148 records have been retrieved and MS Excel is used to analyze the data. During the time period, the highest number of publication was in 2014, 95.56% of the publication were published in the form …

Towards An Organizationally Sensible Hr Risk Assessment In Academic Libraries: A Case Of A University Library, Chaminda Chiran Jayasundara Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Employees can be a resource of sustained success and a competitive advantage in any orgnisation, reliant on skilled workforce. However, dearth of trained labour force to drive the manpower requirement of local industries has become a long lasting burden in some small counties. These countries do not have adequate professional advancement opportunities for librarians and support staff to become professionals or paraprofessionals due to lack of openings for specialist education in the field of librarianship. Thus, human resource risks in libraries of such countries are comparatively higher. It is therefore needed to identify and assess the severity and impact of …

Bibliometric Analysis Of Chemistry Nobel Laureate George Pearson Smith, Abhay Maurya

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The scientometric analysis of Nobel Laureate George P. Smith, who had been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2018, reveals that the author has published 55 papers in various fields between 1971 and 2019. The subjects included 26 articles in Biomolecular Interactions, 17 papers in Genomics, 10 in Protein, and 2 in Evolutionary Biology. The forms of publications included 45 article papers, 1 book chapter, 2 editorials, 6 reviews, and 1 short survey. 17 of his publications were single-authored, 18 two authored, 9 three and four authored, and 1 five and six authored. The highest no papers were published …

The Perceptions Of Library Professionals Towards Technological Trends In Public Sector Universities Of Pakistan, Mr. Muhammad Ishtiaq Deputy Librarian, Prof.Dr. Rais Ahmed Samdani, Dr.Asstt. Prof. Shehzad Ahmed

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Purpose: This study explores the perceptions of Library professionals towards the technological trends used in the Public Sector Universities of Pakistan.

Methodology/Approach: The quantitative research method was adopted while using a questionnaire as a data collection tool. A total of 106 questionnaires were distributed among the Head librarians working in the public Sector Universities of Pakistan. All questionnaires were sent through emails except a few which has been sent through post. Some 73 surveys were received back, and all were found usable. The overall response rate of the study was 68.4% percent; a bit low due to …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Lithium-Ion Batteries Operating In California's Electrical Grid In 2019, Peter J. Hilkene

Master's Theses

This work examines the impact on greenhouse gas emissions of energy storage devices operating on the California electrical grid during the year 2019. As solar power gains a greater share in California’s energy production, tools for storing the intermittent energy produced from solar and other variable generation sources become important in continuing their growth. In this study, the impact of the deployment of energy storage capacity in California was determined using three charging and discharging strategies. The first, meeting peak net-demand with solar, looked at battery charging when solar production was highest and discharging when net-demand is highest. The second …

An Efficient Design Methodology For Complex Sequential Asynchronous Digital Circuits, Tomasz Chadzynski

Master's Theses

Asynchronous digital logic as a design alternative offers a smaller circuit area and lower power consumption but suffers from increased complexity and difficulties related to logic hazards and elements synchronization. The presented work proposes a design methodology based on the speed-independent sequential logic theory, oriented toward asynchronous hardware implementation of complex multi-step algorithms. Targeting controller-centric devices that perform data-driven non-linear execution, the methodology offers a CSP language-based controller workflow description approach and the specification of a project implementation template supported by a two-stage design process. First, the CSP layer describes complex speed-independent controller behavior offering better scalability and maintainability than …

The Impact Of Compensation On Engagement And Organizational Tenure: The Moderating Role Of Perceived Organizational Support, Alexis Johnson

Master's Theses

Compensation is a crucial tool utilized by companies to help attract, retain, and motivate employees. However, previous research has overlooked the ways in which compensation might add value to important employee outcomes such as engagement and organizational tenure. Therefore, this present study aimed to close this gap by examining the relationship between pay level and engagement, as well as pay level and organizational tenure. It was hypothesized that higher pay levels would increase the engagement dimensions of dedication, vigor, and absorption in an employee, and that higher pay levels would increase organizational tenure in an individual. It also sought to …

Influence Of Social Circles On User Recommendations, Chaitanya Krishna Kasaraneni

Master's Theses

Recommender systems are powerful tools that filter and recommend content relevant to a user. One of the most popular techniques used in recommender systems is collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering has been successfully incorporated in many applications. However, these recommendation systems require a minimum number of users, items, and ratings in order to provide effective recommendations. This results in the infamous cold start problem where the system is not able to produce effective recommendations for new users. In recent times, with escalation in the popularity and usage of social networks, people tend to share their experiences in the form of reviews …

A Meta-Analysis Of Fmri Studies On Emotion Processing In Major Depressive Disorder, Madison Morocco

Master's Theses

The processing of an emotional stimulus involves a multi-step process that includes appraising and identifying a stimulus as well as producing an affective state in response. Many individuals with depressive disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD) experience impairments related to emotion processing, likely caused by changes in the structure and function of brain regions important for emotion processing. However, the precise neural differences underlying emotion processing impairments in MDD remain unclear given conflicting findings in the neuroimaging literature. This lack of clarity has hindered the development of novel neurostimulation treatments for MDD, which require targeting of specific brain areas. …

Transfer Learning For Hyperspectral Images Utilizing Channel Selection Techniques And Ensemble Methods, Scott Daniel Vogel

Master's Theses

Hyperspectral images contain information from a wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum than natural images which gives them potential for better classification ability. However, hyperspectral datasets are typically small due to the expensive equipment needed to obtain the images, which can limit classification performance. One solution to this problem is transfer learning, in which a model trained on one dataset is reused for a separate dataset. Research has shown that transfer learning between hyperspectral datasets can give improved performance over models without transfer learning when training data are limited. Since extra hyperspectral data are not always available, the solution proposed …

Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine With A Toroidal Aerospike Nozzle, Kyle Stewart

Master's Theses

This thesis describes the coupling of a nuclear thermal rocket engine with a toroidal aerospike nozzle. The coupling of the two systems consists of two phases. The first of these phases begin with top-level systems and subsystems analysis and design of the new engine. The second phase is the analysis and characterization of the major engine systems through the use of computational fluid dynamics analysis. With the coupling of the nuclear thermal rocket engine with the aerospike nozzle, the new system will be known as the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion System. Due to the uniqueness of coupling a nuclear thermal rocket …

Lstm-Enabled Level Curve Tracking In Scalar Fields Using Multiple Mobile Robots, Kunj J. Parikh

Master's Theses

Autonomous mobile sensor networks are ideal candidates for exploring large-scaleunknown fields with tasks ranging from source seeking, level curve tracking, mapping an unknown field, and many more. In this work, we investigate the problem of level curve tracking in unknown scalar fields using a limited number of mobile sensors. The level curve tracking problem has been studied in many applications such as monitoring the propagation of fire boundaries and the algae blooms. We design and implement a long short term memory (LSTM) enabled control strategy for a mobile sensor network to detect and track the desired level curve. We develop …

Identifying Key Residues Involved In Allosteric Regulation Of Human Sirt1 Deacetylation Activity, Angelina Huynh

Master's Theses

SIRT1 is a mammalian NAD+-dependent lysine deacetylase involved in the regulation of physiological processes. Sirtuin-activating compounds (STACs) such as resveratrol bind to the allosteric site within the N-terminal domain (NTD) to regulate activity. Understanding these allosteric effects on SIRT1 would provide insights into drug design to modulate SIRT1-dependent deacetylation on specific substrates. The overall goal of this research is to identify key residues that are involved in allosteric activation of the enzyme, also known as an allosteric switch-like region. Using computational methods based on the primary sequence of SIRT1, we identified residues 186-193 to have a propensity to exhibit switch-like …

Cat Tracks – Tracking Wildlife Through Crowdsourcing Using Firebase, Tracy Ho

Master's Projects

Many mountain lions are killed in the state of California every year from roadkill. To reduce these numbers, it is important that a system be built to track where these mountain lions have been around. One such system could be built using the platform-as-a-service, Firebase. Firebase is a platform service that collects and manages data that comes in through a mobile application. For the development of cross-platform mobile applications, Flutter is used as a toolkit for developers for both iOS and Android. This entire system, Cat Tracks is proposed as a crowdsource platform to track wildlife, with the current focus …