Digital Commons Network^™

A Cyclically Adjusted Spatio-Temporal Kernel Density Estimation Method For Predictive Crime Hotspot Analysis, Ya Han, Yujie Hu, Haojie Zhu, Fahui Wang

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a new method for predictive crime hotspot analysis that further improves the kernel density estimation (KDE) method and the spatio-temporal kernel density estimation (STKDE) method by accounting for temporal crime cycles and is therefore termed the ‘cyclically adjusted STKDE (cSTKDE) method’. The case study on robbery incidents in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shows a temporal cycle with a 6-month period of statistical significance from January 2010 to May 2018. This identified period is incorporated into the temporal kernel function of the new cSTKDE method. For validation, the Forecast Accuracy Index (FAI) and Forecast Precision Index (FPI) are used …

Exploring The Spatial Autocorrelation In Soil Moisture Networks: Analysis Of The Bias From Upscaling The Texas Soil Observation Network (Txson), Yaping Xu, Cuiling Liu, Lei Wang, Lei Zou

Faculty Publications

Microwave remote sensing such as soil moisture active passive (SMAP) can provide soil moisture data for agricultural and hydrological studies. However, the scales between station-measured and satellite-measured products are quite different, as stations measure on a point scale while satellites have a much larger footprint (e.g., 9 km). Consequently, the validation for soil moisture products, especially inter-comparison between these two types of observations, is quite a challenge. Spatial autocorrelation among the stations could be a contribution of bias, which impacts the dense soil moisture networks when compared with satellite soil moisture products. To examine the effects of spatial autocorrelation to …

Natural Dyeing With Madder: Exploring Traditional Techniques And Color Characteristics, Guangguo Tian, Rongrong Cui, Chuanlan Liu, Xiaorui Hu

Faculty Publications

The color red has a significant presence in cultures around the world. The organic dye madder, derived from plants, has been used throughout human civilization and remains an important natural dye. The research reviews five traditional madder dyeing techniques from China, Europe, Turkey, and Japan. The techniques are applied to cotton, linen, silk, and wool fabrics, and their similarities and differences are compared and analyzed. Additionally, the environmental sustainability, resource conservation, and process efficiency of these dyeing techniques are also evaluated in this article. The chromatic value of dyed textile color was tested by means of an American Hunterlab spectrophotometer, …

Lidar-Change-Based Mapping Of Sediment Movement From An Extreme Rainfall Event, Silvia E. Piovan, Michael E. Hodgson, Paolo Mozzi, Dwayne E. Porter, Bryan Hall

Faculty Publications

Mapping landscape change at fine scales (e.g. < 1.0 m resolution) using airborne LiDAR data from manned aircraft is a significant challenge. This challenge is magnified in disaster response contexts. A combination of collection and processing factors contributes to horizontal and vertical errors (and resulting uncertainty) in each pre- and post-LiDAR derived digital elevation model (DEM). Subsequently, the errors in the change surface from the two (or more) DEMs are an accumulation of the errors in the individual DEMs. Thus, reliable mapping erosion/deposition changes at sub-meter precision in change detection studies using LiDAR data is largely the domain of terrestrial LiDAR or sUAS with LiDAR scanners rather than manned aircraft. Unfortunately, terrestrial and sUAS LiDAR scanners are not well suited for mapping large areas and sUAS collections are subject to additional airspace constraints compared to manned aircraft. In this study, we probed one of the significant issues in airborne LiDAR change projects–vertical height errors from sequential flight lines. A simplified solution for determining flight line vertical biases in areas of low topographic relief with natural cover types was developed and tested for normalizing point clouds. The approach was tested in a fine-scale erosion/deposition study from an extreme rainfall event that eroded and deposited sand at depths of about 1.0 m. Airborne LiDAR had been collected prior to the rainfall event, and another airborne LiDAR collection was made 1 month after the event. Eleven field campaigns to collect reference data and visit anomalies in the change surface were conducted in a 15-month period after the event, beginning 25 February 2016 and ending 8 May 2017. The validation results indicate accuracies for the pre-event and post-event LiDAR derived DEMs were 7.8 cm and 13.0 cm RMSE, respectively. After modeling vertical errors and corrections applied to the post-event point clouds, the RMSE for the post-event DEM was 8.3 cm. In the depositional use case, 27 locations were sampled with auger boreholes/sand pits and compared with LiDAR-based change. The LiDAR-based change detection analysis resulted in predicted sand depth accuracies of 94% with a mean error of 4.7 cm.

Monitoring Of Wave, Current, And Sediment Dynamics Along The Chincoteague Living Shoreline, Virginia, Hongqing Wang, Qin Chen, Nan Wang, William D. Capurso, Lukasz M. Niemoczynski, Ling Zhu, Gregg A. Snedden, Kevin S. Holcomb, Bowdoin W. Lusk, Carol A. Wilson, Sean R. Cornell

Faculty Publications

Nature-based features, also called living shorelines, are increasingly applied in coastal protection and restoration. However, the processes and mechanisms (feedbacks and interactions) of wave attenuation, current velocity change, and sediment deposition and erosion along the living shoreline remain unclear, thus limiting the adaptive management of living shoreline restoration projects for coastal shoreline resilience under future storm conditions. In this study, wave, current, and sediment dynamics along the Little Toms Cove living shoreline, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia, a low wave energy environment, were investigated during a 2-month winter period in 2019 to examine the effects of living shoreline structures on …

Improving Social Media Use For Disaster Resilience: Challenges And Strategies, Nina S.N. Lam, Michelle Meyer, Margaret Reams, Seungwon Yang, Kisung Lee, Lei Zou, Volodymyr Mihunov, Kejin Wang, Ryan Kirby, Heng Cai

Faculty Publications

This paper develops a social media-disaster resilience analysis framework by categorizing types of social media use and their challenges to better understand and assess its role in disaster resilience research and management. The framework is derived primarily from several case studies of Twitter use in three hurricane events in the United States–Hurricanes Isaac, Sandy, and Harvey. The paper first outlines four major contributions of social media data for disaster resilience research and management, which include serving as an effective communication platform, providing ground truth information for emergency response and rescue operations, providing information on people’s sentiments, and allowing predictive modeling. …

Investing In Abolition, Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal

Faculty Publications

This Article situates the prison within a broader macro-financial trend, what I call “community capture.” As private equity firms have consolidated the market for carceral services, they have also gained control over other essential social infrastructure, like housing and healthcare. By layering debt, fees, and aggressive profit expectations over companies or assets that provide for basic needs, their strategies intensify the economic pressures communities face. These strategies rely on various forms of coordination and legal protection from contestation. To demonstrate this process in the context of mass incarceration, this Article tells the story of Securus, a dominant carceral service company …

In Pursuit Of Sustainable Educational Development: The Philippines And The English Dilemma, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

The English language poses a dilemma in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially for education in countries with high multilingualism, high poverty and unequal schooling, such as the Philippines. This chapter considers Goal 1 (reducing poverty), Goal 4 (promoting educational quality) and Goal 10 (reducing inequalities) in relation to what has become an array of executive orders, regulations and laws that have shifted in the political winds, even as the judiciary has tried to navigate a measured course. It underscores how the primacy of English in the national consciousness, tied to global markets, undercuts multilingual policies based in …

Local Observations Of Climate Change And Impacts On Livelihoods In Kamchatka, Russia, Victoria N. Sharakhmatova, Drew Gerkey

Faculty Publications

Indigenous communities throughout the Arctic are confronting unprecedented challenges arising from anthropogenic climate change. The inextricable connections between their livelihoods and social and environmental systems, combined with a rich foundation of individual and inter-generational collective experience and knowledge, make Indigenous communities particularly adept at observing changes in climate and understanding their impacts. In this chapter, we apply the protocol from the Local Indicators of Climate Change Impacts project to document observations and impacts of climate change in Khailino, an Indigenous community on the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Northeast Siberia, Russia. We use individual interviews to identify what …

Residential Segregation And County-Level Covid-19 Booster Coverage In The Deep South: Surveillance Report And Ecological Study, Chengbo Zeng, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Zhenlong Li, Xiaowen Sun, Huan Ning, Xueying Yang, Sharon Weissman, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background: COVID-19 had a greater impact in the Deep South compared with other regions in the United States. While vaccination remains a top priority for all eligible individuals, data regarding the progress of booster coverage in the Deep South and how the coverage varies by county and age are sparse. Despite existing evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 vaccinations at the individual level, there is an urgent need for evidence at the population level. Such information could highlight vulnerable communities and guide future health care policy-making and resource allocation.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate county-level COVID-19 booster coverage …

Using Geospatial Social Media Data For Infectious Disease Studies: A Systematic Review, Fengrui Jing, Zhenlong Li, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Geospatial social media (GSM) data has been increasingly used in public health due to its rich, timely, and accessible spatial information, particularly in infectious disease research. This review synthesized 86 research articles that use GSM data in infectious diseases published between December 2013 and March 2022. These articles cover 12 infectious disease types ranging from respiratory infectious diseases to sexually transmitted diseases with spatial levels varying from the neighborhood, county, state, and country. We categorized these studies into three major infectious disease research domains: surveillance, explanation, and prediction. With the assistance of advanced computing, statistical and spatial methods, GSM data …

Is Idaho English Really “The Epitome Of Average English”?, Joseph A. Stanley, Katrina Jackson

Faculty Publications

“Epitome of Average English”?

Preston (1989:64–65) chapter 3: “Where they speak correct English”

• Indianans ranked all 50 states’ English from most correct to least correct
• Mississippi’s ratings clustered low.
• Indiana’s ratings clustered high
• New York’s was bimodal.
• Florida’s was uniform.
• Idaho’s was normally distributed, centered around the middle.

“Idaho… [shows] a remarkably normal histogram… It is, apparently, the epitome of average English for these raters. Perhaps it is a least-caricatured state, meeting the negative definition of Standard English – the variety which displays no known non-standard elements.”

Who Invests In Crypto? Wealth, Financial Constraints, And Risk Attitudes, Darren Aiello, Scott R. Baker, Tetyana Balyuk, Marco Di Maggio, Mark J. Johnson, Jason Kotter

Faculty Publications

We provide a first look into the drivers of household cryptocurrency investing. Analyzing consumer transaction data for millions of U.S. households, we find that, except for high income early adopters, cryptocurrency investors resemble the general population. These investors span all income levels, with most dollars coming from high-income individuals, similar to equity investors. High past crypto returns and personal income shocks lead to increased cryptocurrency investments. Higher household-level inflation expectations also correlate with greater crypto investments, aligning with hedging motives. For most U.S. households, cryptocurrencies are treated like traditional assets.

Comparing & Contrasting Economic And Natural Law Approaches To Policymaking, Eric Kades

Faculty Publications

Eric Claeys’s monograph, Natural Property Rights, offers a comprehensive and thoughtful articulation of a general theory of property rights rooted in the natural law tradition. This detailed review compares Claeys’s work with the consequentialist law and economics perspective on property. After contrasting their objectives, assumptions, and methodologies this article concludes that, unlike more absolutist approaches, Claeys’s flavor of natural property rights places a modicum of weight on the welfare effects central to economic analysis. This restrained nod in the direction of practicality, however, does not eliminate some of the long-known weaknesses of natural law. Perhaps the most glaring gap …

Sociophonetics And Dialectology, Dominic Watt, Margaret E. L. Renwick, Joseph A. Stanley

Faculty Publications

In this chapter we explore how the investigation of phonetic detail in speech seen through a sociolinguistic lens can inform and enhance our understanding of dialectal variation in languages. We begin by examining how sociophonetics can be considered an offshoot of dialectology, later to mature into a free- standing discipline during the late twentieth century. We next discuss the reconvergence of sociophonetics and dialectology as it became clearer that the two approaches to the study of language variation are, in combination, greater than the sum of their parts, even if their agendas may place different emphases on what should be …

Historical Records: Reissuing As Curatorial Practice In Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music, Dan Blim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Friction-In-Design Regulation As 21st Century Time, Place, And Manner Restriction, Brett Frischmann, Susan Benesch

Faculty Publications

Digital networked society needs friction-in-design regulation that targets the digital architectures, supposedly smart (data-driven, algorithmic) systems, and interfaces that shape human interactions, behavior, and will (beliefs, preferences, values, intentions). The relentless push to eliminate friction for the sake of efficiency has hidden social costs that affect basic human capabilities and society. A general course correction is needed.

Friction in the digital networked environment can come in many forms. It can be as simple as a time delay prior to publishing a social media post, a notice that provides salient information coupled with a nudge toward actual deliberation, or a query …

Global South Research Collaboration: A Comparative Perspective, Abdoulaye Gueye, Edward Choi, Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela, Gustavo Gregorutti

Faculty Publications

Research collaboration has become a major research topic in the social sciences. While this literature has mainly focused on collaborative dynamics in the Global North, more recent studies have examined these dynamics within the Global South. This article expands the scope of analysis by comparing the level of co-publications by Global South-based scholars with Global South-based colleagues and that between academics at Global South institutions and researchers in Global North universities. It shows that academic partnerships within the Global South are less common than instances of collaboration between the Global South and Global North. The relatively weak Global South collaborative …

A Tree-Ring Record Of Historical Fire Activity In A Piedmont Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris Mill.) Woodland In North Carolina, Usa, Monica T. Rother, Thomas W. Patterson, Paul A. Knapp, Tyler J. Mitchell, Nell Allen

Faculty Publications

CO₂ capture from industrial point source waste streams represents an important need for achieving the global goal of carbon-neutrality. Compared with conventional liquid sorbents, solid sorbents can exhibit several distinct advantages, including enhanced lifetime and reduced energy consumption for sorbent regeneration. Considering that reducing CO₂ emission is a great challenge, reaching approximately 37 billion metric tons just in 2021, ideal sorbent solutions should not only exhibit a high capture performance but also enable large scale manufacturing using low-cost precursors and simple processes. In this work, we demonstrate the use of a commodity polymer, polystyrene-block-polyisoprene-block-polystyrene …

A Bayesian Susceptible-Infectious-Hospitalized-Ventilated-Recovered Model To Predict Demand For Covid-19 Inpatient Care In A Large Healthcare System, Stella Coker Watson Self Ph.D., Ms, Rongjie Huang, Shrujan Amin, Joseph Ewing, Carolina Rudisill, Alexander C. Mclain Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained healthcare systems in many parts of the United States. During the early months of the pandemic, there was substantial uncertainty about whether the large number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization would exceed healthcare system capacity. This uncertainty created an urgent need to accurately predict the number of COVID-19 patients that would require inpatient and ventilator care at the local level. As the pandemic progressed, many healthcare systems relied on such predictions to prepare for COVID-19 surges and to make decisions regarding staffing, the discontinuation of elective procedures, and the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) …

A Bayesian Susceptible-Infectious-Hospitalized-Ventilated-Recovered Model To Predict Demand For Covid-19 Inpatient Care In A Large Healthcare System, Stella Coker Watson Self Ph.D., Ms, Rongjie Huang, Shrujan Amin, Joseph Ewing, Caroline Rudisill, Alexander C. Mclain

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained healthcare systems in many parts of the United States. During the early months of the pandemic, there was substantial uncertainty about whether the large number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization would exceed healthcare system capacity. This uncertainty created an urgent need to accurately predict the number of COVID-19 patients that would require inpatient and ventilator care at the local level. As the pandemic progressed, many healthcare systems relied on such predictions to prepare for COVID-19 surges and to make decisions regarding staffing, the discontinuation of elective procedures, and the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) …

The Hypertension Cascade Of Care In The Midst Of Conflict: The Case Of The Gaza Strip, Bassam A. Abu Hamad, Zeina Jamaluddine, Gloria Safadi, Marie Elizabeth Ragi, Raeda El Sayed Ahmad, Eszter P. Vamos, Sanjay Basu, John S. Yudkin, Mohammed Jawad, Christopher Millett, Hala Ghattas Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Although hypertension constitutes a substantial burden in conflict-affected areas, little is known about its prevalence, control, and management in Gaza. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and correlates of hypertension, its diagnosis and control among adults in Gaza. We conducted a representative, cross-sectional, anonymous, household survey of 4576 persons older than 40 years in Gaza in mid-2020. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews, anthropometric, and blood pressure measurements. Hypertension was defined in anyone with an average systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg or average diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg from two consecutive readings or a hypertension diagnosis. The mean age …

Using Solar Radiation Data In Soil Moisture Diagnostic Equation For Estimating Root-Zone Soil Moisture, Olumide Omotere, Feifei Pan, Lei Wang

Faculty Publications

The soil moisture daily diagnostic equation (SMDE) evaluates the relationship between the loss function coefficient and the summation of the weighted average of precipitation. The loss function coefficient uses the day of the year (DOY) to approximate the seasonal changes in soil moisture loss for a given location. Solar radiation is the source of the energy that drives the complex and intricates of the earth-atmospheric processes and biogeochemical cycles in the environment. Previous research assumed DOY is the approximation of other environmental factors (e.g., temperature, wind speed, solar radiation). In this article, two solar radiation parameters were introduced, i.e., the …

Diversifying And Perennializing Plants In Agroecosystems Alters Retention Of New C And N From Crop Residues, Marshall D. Mcdaniel, Jeffrey A. Bird, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Tom M. Schmidt, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Managing soils to retain new plant inputs is key to moving toward a sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Management practices, like diversifying and perennializing agroecosystems, may affect the decomposer organisms that regulate how new residue is converted to persistent soil organic matter. Here we tested whether 12 years of diversifying/perennializing plants in agroecosystems through extended rotations or grassland restoration would decrease losses of new plant residue inputs and, thus, increase retention of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in soil. We tracked dual-labeled (13C and 15N), isotopically enriched wheat (Triticum aestivum) residue in situ for 2 years as it decomposed in three …

Bioenergy Crops As A Promising Alternative To Fossil Fuels In Louisiana: A Geographic Information System (Gis) Perspective, Yaw A. Twumasi, Zhu H. Ning, John B. Namwamba, Abena B. Asare-Ansah, Edmund C. Merem, Harriet B. Yeboah, Judith Oppong, Matilda Anokye, Diana B. Frimpong, Priscilla M. Loh, Julia Atayi, Rechael N.D. Armah, Caroline Y. Apraku, Opeyemi I. Oladigbolu, Cynthia C. Ogbu, Leah W. Njeri, Joyce Mcclendon-Peralta

Faculty Publications

Rising greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change, and the world’s focus has shifted to the need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. There has been a rise in the published literature on the utilization of crops for bioenergy production in Louisiana. However, very few scholarly documents have used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the distribution of potential bioenergy crops in Louisiana. This study seeks to fill the void by evaluating the potential of bioenergy crops in Louisiana for energy production using GIS. Given this objective, the agricultural census data for 1999, 2009, 2019, and 2020 obtained from …

Spatial And Temporal Changes Of Sand Mining In The Yangtze River Basin Since The Establishment Of The Three Gorges Dam, Yugai Ma, Yingying Chai, Y. Jun Xu, Zijun Li, Shuwei Zheng

Faculty Publications

The global demand for sand and gravel is at 50 billion tons per year, far exceeding global resource capacities. It reached 7.6 billion tons in 2021 in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB), China. However, production is severely limited in the YRB. Therefore, the incongruity between the supply and demand of river sand is prominent. Wise management of decreasing sand resources in the YRB has become critical since the Three Gorges Dam became operational in 2003. This study synthesized spatial and temporal changes in sand mining activities and quantities along the Yangtze River and its major tributaries from 2004 to 2020. …

Channel Bed Adjustment Of The Lowermost Yangtze River Estuary From 1983 To 2018: Causes And Implications, Ming Tang, Heqin Cheng, Yijun Xu, Hao Hu, Shuwei Zheng, Bo Wang, Zhongyong Yang, Lizhi Teng, Wei Xu, Erfeng Zhang, Jiufa Li

Faculty Publications

Deltaic channels are significant landforms at the interface of sediment transfer from land to oceanic realms. Understanding the dynamics of these channels is urgent because delta processes are sensitive to climate change and adjustments in human activity. To obtain a better understanding of the morphological processes of large deltaic channels, this study assessed the evolution and response mechanism of the South Channel and South Passage (SCSP) in the Yangtze Estuary between 1983 to 2018 using hydrology, multibeam echo sounding and historical bathymetry datasets. Decadal changes in riverbed volume and erosion/deposition patterns in the SCSP were assessed. The results showed that …

Leaf Habit Affects The Distribution Of Drought Sensitivity But Not Water Transport Efficiency In The Tropics, German Vargas G., Norbert Kunert, William M. Hammond, Z. Carter Berry, Leland K. Werden, Chris M. Smith-Martin, Brett T. Wolfe, Laura Toro, Ariadna Mondragón-Botero, Jesús N. Pinto-Ledezma, Naomi B. Schwartz, María Uriarte, Lawren Sack, Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira, Jennifer S. Powers

Faculty Publications

Considering the global intensification of aridity in tropical biomes due to climate change, we need to understand what shapes the distribution of drought sensitivity in tropical plants. We conducted a pantropical data synthesis representing 1117 species to test whether xylem-specific hydraulic conductivity (KS), water potential at leaf turgor loss (ΨTLP) and water potential at 50% loss of KS (ΨP50) varied along climate gradients. The ΨTLP and ΨP50 increased with climatic moisture only for evergreen species, but KS did not. Species with high ΨTLP and ΨP50 values were associated with both dry and wet environments. However, drought-deciduous species showed high ΨTLP …

Social Inequalities In Climate Change-Attributed Impacts Of Hurricane Harvey, Kevin T. Smiley, Ilan Noy, Michael F. Wehner, Dave Frame, Christopher C. Sampson, Oliver E.J. Wing

Faculty Publications

Climate change is already increasing the severity of extreme weather events such as with rainfall during hurricanes. But little research to date investigates if, and to what extent, there are social inequalities in climate change-attributed extreme weather event impacts. Here, we use climate change attribution science paired with hydrological flood models to estimate climate change-attributed flood depths and damages during Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas. Using detailed land-parcel and census tract socio-economic data, we then describe the socio-spatial characteristics associated with these climate change-induced impacts. We show that 30 to 50% of the flooded properties would not have flooded …

Reference Database Of Teeth Images From The Family Bovidae, Juliet K. Brophy, Gregory J. Matthews

Faculty Publications

Researchers typically rely on fossils from the Family Bovidae to generate African paleoenvironmental reconstructions due to their strict ecological tendencies. Bovids have dominated the southern African fauna for the past four million years and, therefore, dominate the fossil faunal assemblages, especially isolated teeth. Traditionally, researchers reference modern and fossil comparative collections to identify teeth. However, researchers are limited by the specific type and number of bovids at each institution. B.O.V.I.D. (Bovidae Occlusal Visual IDentification) is a repository of images of the occlusal surface of bovid teeth. The dataset currently includes extant bovids from 7 tribes and 20 species (~3900). B.O.V.I.D. …