Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Adaptive Learning Technique For Facial Recognition, Rachana Dineshkumar Bumb

Master's Theses

This research describes the adaptive learning technique for facial recognition. It is a common practice in convolutional neural network(CNN) based facial recognition to save its trained result on a large dataset and then load and apply it to ongoing facial recognition tasks. This generally used method lacks adaptation, and the ongoing evolution of new knowledge poses a key technical challenge. In this research, we propose a continued learning technique to incorporate new knowledge derived in each facial recognition process. A positive recognition with confidence score is assigned, and the image associated with this confidence is added to the image dataset …

Supervisor And Coworker Support: Their Moderating Roles On The Relationship Between Diversity Climate Perceptions And Retention-Related Outcomes, Sarah Crouse

Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine perceived supervisor support and perceived coworker support as moderators of the relationship between diversity climate perceptions and retention-related outcomes (affective commitment, organizational identification, and turnover intentions). Results from a self-report survey of 150 participants showed that neither perceived supervisor support nor perceived coworker support moderated the relationship between diversity climate perceptions and these outcomes. However, the results showed diversity climate perceptions were positively related to perceived supervisor support and perceived coworker support, and independently predicted these retention-related outcomes. Results also showed that perceived supervisor support was more strongly related to these …

Detecting Feeding And Estimating The Energetic Costs Of Diving In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus) Using 3-Axis Accelerometers, Mason Russell Cole

Master's Theses

Knowledge of when animals feed and the energetic costs of foraging is key to understanding their foraging ecology and energetic trade-offs. Despite this importance, our ability to collect these data in marine mammals remains limited. In this thesis, I address knowledge gaps in both feeding detection and fine-scale diving energetic costs in a model species, the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus). I first developed and tested an analysis method to accurately detect prey capture using 3-axis accelerometers mounted on the head and back of two trained sea lions. An acceleration signal pattern isolated from a ‘training’ subset of synced video …

Influence Of Night Work On Performance During Lunar Telerobotic Operations, Zachary Luke Glaros

Master's Theses

Real-time, reactive telerobotic mission control operations require personnel to actively operate remotely controlled vehicles or robots in real time. Due to the physical separation of the vehicle from the operator, such operations present additional factors that can influence fatigue (degraded mental performance) and workload (mental and physical cost of task requirements), making it difficult to assess how long an individual can conduct operations safely. The upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover will involve remotely controlling a lunar vehicle from an Earth-based mission control station. In order to determine how long personnel could successfully maintain alertness and performance while operating a …

A Silicon Valley Life: A Silicon Valley Love Story, Sharon Simonson

Master's Theses

In the last three decades, Silicon Valley has become one of the world’s most watched and imitated communities. Daily news reporters, long-form journalists, cinema and television-programming producers have crafted a public image, but it represents nothing of the lives of hundreds of thousands of Valley residents. These fabrications obscure and diminish our complex human profile and reduce our uniquely beautiful geography to a place to generate financial profits, with all the damaging disregard such attitudes foster. The essays of A Silicon Valley Life: A Silicon Valley Love Story seek to show our true self: our rich mix of people drawn …

Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Path-Planning For Multi-Agent Systems In Advection-Diffusion Field Reconstruction Tasks, Deepak Talwar

Master's Theses

Many environmental processes can be represented mathematically using spatial-temporal varying partial-differential equations. Timely estimation and prediction of processes such as wildfires is critical for disaster management response, but is difficult to accomplish without the availability of a dense network of stationary sensors. In this work, we propose a deep reinforcement learning-based real-time path-planning algorithm for mobile sensor networks traveling in a formation through a spatial-temporal varying advection-diffusion field for the task of field reconstruction. A deep Q-network (DQN) agent is trained on simulated advection-diffusion fields to direct the mobile sensor network to travel along information-rich trajectories. The field measurements made …

Inclusive Leadership, Psychological Empowerment, And Affective Organizational Commitment: A Mediated Model, Mariah Lyn Van Buskirk

Master's Theses

Inclusive leadership has become an important contextual factor to study in organizations given its impact on positive workplace outcomes. However, little is known about the ability of inclusive leadership to affect a wider range of outcomes and the various mediating mechanisms between inclusive leadership and outcomes. Therefore, the present study explored the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationship between inclusive leadership and affective organizational commitment. It was hypothesized that inclusive leadership would be positively related to affective organizational commitment both directly and indirectly through psychological empowerment. Results of an online survey from 189 employed individuals showed that inclusive …

Prevalence Of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder And Association With Nutrition Status In Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Emily Yelencich

Master's Theses

There is a large body of research on the relationship between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and diet; however, few conclusive, generalizable recommendations have been determined. Regardless, IBD patients often alter their normal dietary intake, which is concerning considering the prevalence of malnutrition in the IBD population. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a feeding disorder that was recently added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and its prevalence and impact on the nutritional status of IBD patients has not previously been described. In this study ARFID risk was measured using the Nine-Item ARFID Screen and in the …

Linking Students Anxiety And Their Academic Achievements In The Subject Of Statistics At Ms-Library And Information Sciences Level In Pakistan, Saeed Ullah Jan

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Anxiety plays a very dynamic role in the academic performance of the students. A normal level of anxiety is beneficial for students. It motivates students for study and hard work that results into a prosperous future, but high level of anxiety badly affects the students learning process. This study explains the students’ anxiety and academic achievements of the MS-Library and Information Science students of Sarhad University of Science and IT, Pakistan. Survey based quantitative approach was applied for data acquisition. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Lack of motivation from teachers, class tests, and assignments were regarded as …

A Neat Approach To Malware Classification, Jason Do

Master's Projects

Current malware detection software often relies on machine learning, which is seen as an improvement over signature-based techniques. Problems with a machine learning based approach can arise when malware writers modify their code with the intent to evade detection. This leads to a cat and mouse situation where new models must constantly be trained to detect new malware variants. In this research, we experiment with genetic algorithms as a means of evolving machine learning models to detect malware. Genetic algorithms, which simulate natural selection, provide a way for models to adapt to continuous changes in a malware families, and thereby …

Mimo Antenna For Fifth Generation Mm-Wave Applications: A Bibliometric Survey, Rajeshwari R. Malekar, Laxmikant K. Shevada, Hema D. Raut, Amruta S. Dixit, Sumit Kumar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Nowadays most discussed technology is mm-wave and 5G communication. The requirement of 5G technology is high bandwidth, high data rate, and low latency. To fulfil these requirements for the current growth in mobile communication multiple input multiple output antenna is used. This bibliometric paper throws light on the various methods used to improve mutual coupling between multiple antennas. Various mutual coupling reduction techniques that are used in MIMO antennas like Dielectric resonator antenna, Electromagnetic Bandgap Structure, Neutralization lines, Defected Ground Structures, Metamaterial, etc. are explained. Scopus database is used for this bibliometric review on mm-wave MIMO 5G technology from the …

Language In Collaborative Spaces: Advantages And Barriers, Ludovica Leone, Cristina Guardiano, Monica Alexandrina Irimia, Elisa Mattarelli, Fabrizio Montanari

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

An indispensable desideratum in collaborative spaces is to foster dynamic, barrier-free environments where professionals from different backgrounds can find common ground for collaborative projects. However, although such goals cannot be met without proficient and effective communication, research on the use of language as the most important means of information exchange in collaborative spaces is still needed. Our contribution in this chapter consists in exploring the linguistic interactions among coworkers of such spaces. We propose a multidisciplinary approach integrating insights from the organizational literature on communication and research methods in theoretical linguistics. The sociolinguistic analysis of two coworking spaces reveals essential …

Bibliometric Review Of Mppt Algorithms For Wind Energy Conversion Systems, Jayshree Ashok Pande, Paresh Nasikkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The existing conventional fuels are going up in prices and going down in availability. This has boosted the demand for renewable resources like wind energy. Wind energy being abundantly available is becoming very popular as it is a freely available pollution-free green energy. Some technical aspects like the tracking of maximum power from the wind energy conversion systems have a very high impact on the efficiency of the wind energy conversion systems. Several algorithms have been implemented for tracking the maximum power point of the wind energy conversion systems. The main objective of this paper is to study the extent …

Interacting With Digital Contents: Understanding The On-Screen Reading Behavior Of Young Adults, Saira Hanif Soroya, Kanwal Ameen

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In Pakistan, the use of electronic gadgets like Ipad, smartphones, laptops, etc. is on the rise. With the exponential growth and availability of digital reading contents, it is also a matter of concern that how readers interact with digital contents? And whether they are aware of features associated with electronic reading devices? The current study aims to examine the level of students’ digital information literacy skills and to understand the status of their interaction with digital contents. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire as a data collection tool. The data were collected from the students of the Higher Education …