Digital Commons Network^™

Regulation Of Radioactive Fracking Waste, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman, Nichole Leclair

Publications and Research

Natural gas extracted form shale reached record production totals in 2015 in the United States and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts natural gas production will continue to increase. Wastes from shale gas extraction can contain the radioactive isotopes radium-226 (Ra-226) and radium-228 (Ra-228), which decay further into radon (Rn). Exposure to radon, a form of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, after smoking. This article explores how states handle the disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) and/or NORM waste from oil and gas operations to …

In Anthropocene Air: Deleuze's Encounter With Shakespeare, Steven Swarbrick

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A How-To Guide On Bringing Undergraduate Research To Community And Technical Colleges, Angelo Kolokithas, Olga Calderón

Publications and Research

Increasing the interest and participation of students in STEM is a priority for colleges, universities, and the nation as a whole. As new generations of students embark in training and in learning novel technologies to deal with the challenges of emerging infectious diseases, crop and food production, and the development of new and better sustainable alternatives in the face of a changing environment on our planet, we must also evolve our approach to teaching and learning. One strategy that may be found helpful as students face the challenges ahead is to instill inquiry and problem-solving skills as part of their …

What We Mean When We Talk About Reading: Rethinking The Purposes And Contexts Of College Reading, Rachel Ihara, Ann Del Principe

Publications and Research

This study illuminates faculty beliefs about reading by closely examining their attitudes toward assigned readings and faculty professional reading practice. Drawing upon interview data from instructors teaching in a range of disciplines at a two-year college, we suggest that conversations about reading would benefit from greater awareness of the various contexts and purposes for reading. Rather than talk about reading as something students either "do" or "don’t do", or do well or poorly, we draw attention to the ways that different purposes for reading shape reading behaviors for students and faculty alike.

The Legacy Of Multics And Secure Operating Systems Today, John Schriner

Publications and Research

This paper looks to the legacy of Multics from 1963 and its influence on computer security. It discusses kernel-based and virtualization-based containment in projects like SELinux and Qubes, respectively. The paper notes the importance of collaborative and research-driven projects like Qubes and Tor Project.

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks Enable Discrimination Of Heterogeneous Digital Pathology Images, Pegah Khosravi, Ehsan Kazemi, Marcin Imielinski, Olivier Elemento, Iman Hajirasouliha

Publications and Research

Pathological evaluation of tumor tissue is pivotal for diagnosis in cancer patients and automated image analysis approaches have great potential to increase precision of diagnosis and help reduce human error.

In this study, we utilize several computational methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) and build a stand-alone pipeline to effectively classify different histopathology images across different types of cancer.

In particular, we demonstrate the utility of our pipeline to discriminate between two subtypes of lung cancer, four biomarkers of bladder cancer, and five biomarkers of breast cancer. In addition, we apply our pipeline to discriminate among four immunohistochemistry …

Validation Of A Lottery, Xiaona Zhou

Publications and Research

The NY Pick 4 lottery consists of four "randomly" chosen digits from 0 to 9. For this to be fair, each digit should be equally likely to occur. To determine whether this is the case, a Chi-squared goodness of fit test will be applied to historical data. This provides a quantitative way of measuring how well the observed frequency of digits matches our expectations of a fair lottery. The Chi-squared distribution gives us a number beyond which we reject fairness. However, there is another possibility. If the difference between the fair model and the observed frequency is too small, that …

Effect Of X-Word Grammar And Traditional Grammar Instruction On Grammatical Accuracy, Sue Livingston, Andi Toce, Cyndi Casey, Fernando Montoya, Bonny R. Hart, Carmela O'Flaherty

Publications and Research

This study first briefly describes an instructional approach to teaching grammar known as X-Word Grammar and then compares its effectiveness in assisting students in achieving grammatical accuracy with traditionally taught grammar. Two groups of L2 pre-college students were taught using curricula and practice procedures in two different grammar texts over a three-month period of time for 20% of their class time. Essays written at three different times were analyzed for the correct and incorrect use of sentence patterns and verb constructs. Results demonstrated that improvement (writing with less error) was larger in both categories for the X-Word Grammar group and …

Researchers' Participation In And Motivations For Engaging With Research Information Management Systems, Besiki Stvilia, Shuheng Wu, Dong Joon Lee

Publications and Research

Researchers’ participation in online RIMSs

This article examined how researchers participated in research information management systems (RIMSs), their motivations for participation, and their priorities for those motivations. Profile maintenance, question-answering, and endorsement activities were used to define three cumulatively increasing levels of participation: Readers, Record Managers, and Community Members. Junior researchers were more engaged in RIMSs than were senior researchers. Postdocs had significantly higher odds of endorsing other researchers for skills and being categorized as Community Members than did full and associate professors. Assistant professors were significantly more likely to be Record Managers than were members of any other seniority …

Kratylos: A Tool For Sharing Interlinearized And Lexical Data In Diverse Formats, Daniel Kaufman, Raphael Finkel

Publications and Research

In this paper we present Kratylos, at www.kratylos.org/, a web application that creates searchable multimedia corpora from data collections in diverse formats, including collections of interlinearized glossed text (IGT) and dictionaries. There exists a crucial lacuna in the electronic ecology that supports language documentation and linguistic research. Vast amounts of IGT are produced in stand-alone programs without an easy way to share them publicly as dynamic databases. Solving this problem will not only unlock an enormous amount of linguistic information that can be shared easily across the web, it will also improve accountability by allowing us to verify analyses across …

Higher Cluster Categories And Qft Dualities, Sebastián Franco, Gregg Musiker

Publications and Research

We introduce a unified mathematical framework that elegantly describes minimally supersymmetry gauge theories in even dimensions, ranging from six dimensions to zero dimensions, and their dualities. This approach combines and extends recent developments on graded quivers with potentials, higher Ginzburg algebras, and higher cluster categories (also known as m-cluster categories). Quiver mutations studied in the context of mathematics precisely correspond to the order-(m + 1) dualities of the gauge theories. Our work indicates that these equivalences of quiver gauge theories sit inside an infinite family of such generalized dualities.

Evolution Of Western Library Catalogs: The Rising Expectations Of Users, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This paper traces the historical development of library catalogs from primitive catalogs in ancient times to current next generational catalogs, which are summarized into three stages: the agricultural catalog stage, the industrial catalog stage and the information catalog stage. In particular, this paper focuses on the discussion of the rise of users’ expectations on library catalogs at different stages and gives emphasis to what impact they have created accordingly.

Lab Manual Design With Engineering Learning Style And Flipped Learning Model In Computer Engineering Technology Education, Yu Wang, Sunghoon Jang

Publications and Research

We have designed a lab manual based on Felder-Silverman learning style model (FSLSM) and the flipped classroom model for engineering education. This lab manual is developed for early junior year course of “Microcomputer Systems Technology” and emphasizes student-centered active learning experiences with more practical exercises and open-ended questions. Instead of taking traditional assembly language to study computer architecture, we are looking for a different approach to teach students to learn the assembly language by embedding an inline assembly language module into a C program. Our lab guide consists of online videos and practical exercises on various platforms including Microsoft Windows …

Design Of Cloud Based Robots Using Big Data Analytics And Neuromorphic Computing, Ashwin Satyanarayana, Janusz Kusyk, Yu-Wen Chen

Publications and Research

Understanding the brain is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing twenty-first century science. While a traditional computer excels in precision and unbiased logic, its abilities to interact socially lags behind those of biological neural systems. Recent technologies, such as neuromorphic engineering, cloud infrastructure, and big data analytics, have emerged that can narrow the gap between traditional robots and human intelligence. Neuromorphic robotics mimicking brain functions can contribute in developing intelligent machines capable of learning and making autonomous decisions. Cloud-based robotics take advantage of remote resources for parallel computation and sharing large amounts of information while benefiting from analysis of …

Using Multiple Instructional Mediums To Foster Critical Literacy Skills With The Adult Lingusitic Diverse Learner, Kaemanje Thomas

Publications and Research

Critical reading is the apex of tertiary education and the chief focus in higher education courses as they prepare adults for the workforce. Without significant improvements in academic preparation and support, many linguistically diverse [LD] students will have higher dropout rates in their first year of college. Developmental reading instruction practices are designed to emphasize moving the first-year LD students from sub-par reading levels towards the application and development of critical reading skills, as demanded by their college courses. Many community colleges across the United States, prepare assessments tests in reading and mathematics for most, if not all, newly admitted …

Understanding The Academic Motivations Of Students With A History Of Reading Difficulties: An Expectancy-Value-Cost Approach, Bradley W. Bergey, Rauno Parrila, S. Hélène Deacon

Publications and Research

We examined the academic self-efficacy, positive subjective task values, and perceived effort costs of first-year undergraduates with (n = 168) and without (n = 314) a self-reported history of reading difficulty, and further their relations with academic achievement and satisfaction. Students with a self-reported history of reading difficulty described lower academic self-efficacy, earned lower grades, and accrued fewer credits. The groups did not differ significantly in their positive task values, effort costs, academic satisfaction, or institutional retention. Path analyses indicated that for both groups, academic self-efficacy and effort costs were predictive of first-year academic performance while intrinsic value was predictive …

Spooky Grammatical Effects, Joseph C. M. Davis

Publications and Research

Linguistic constructs often correspond to nothing concrete: Descriptivists’ zero morpheme, generativists’ trace, variationists’ null instantiation, and Columbia School’s null signal. These represent structural relations with no phonetic substance. Columbia School has posited, moreover, three types of relatively insubstantial semantic structure: The residual member and the including member are semantic value oppositions within a grammatical system, each defined by the system’s other members. In the opposition of substance, in my own work, two signals share a value from one semantic substance but only one of them bears a meaning from an additional semantic substance. All of these …

Casimir Effect In (2+1)-Dimensional Yang-Mills Theory As A Probe Of The Magnetic Mass, V. Parameswaran Nair, Dimitra Karabali

Publications and Research

We consider the Casimir effect in a gauge-invariant Hamiltonian formulation of nonabelian gauge theories in (2+1) dimensions, for an arbitrary gauge group. We show that the result is in good agreement with recent lattice simulations. We also argue that the Casimir effect may be viewed as a good probe of magnetic screening effects in (3+1)-dimensional gauge theories at high temperatures.

Continuity Of Transcriptomes Among Colorectal Cancer Subtypes Based On Meta-Analysis, Siyuan Ma, Shuji Ogino, Princy Parsana, Reiko Nishihara, Zhirong Qian, Jeanne Shen, Kosuke Mima, Yohei Masugi, Yin Cao, Jonathan A. Nowak, Kaori Shima, Yujin Hoshida, Edward L. Giovannucci, Manish K. Gala, Andrew T. Chan, Charles S. Fuchs, Giovanni Parmigiani, Curtis Huttenhower, Levi Waldron

Publications and Research

Background: Previous approaches to defining subtypes of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and other cancers based on transcriptomes have assumed the existence of discrete subtypes. We analyze gene expression patterns of colorectal tumors from a large number of patients to test this assumption and propose an approach to identify potentially a continuum of subtypes that are present across independent studies and cohorts.

Results: We examine the assumption of discrete CRC subtypes by integrating 18 published gene expression datasets and >3700 patients, and contrary to previous reports, find no evidence to support the existence of discrete transcriptional subtypes. Using a meta-analysis approach to …

Social Science Perspectives On Drivers Of And Responses To Global, Andrew K. Jorgenson, Shirley Fiske, Klaus Hubacek, Jia Li, Tom Mcgovern, Torben Rick, Juliet B. Schor, William Solecki, Richard York, Ariela Zycherman

Publications and Research

This article provides a review of recent anthropological, archeological, geographical, and sociological research on anthropogenic drivers of climate change, with a particular focus on drivers of carbon emissions, mitigation and adaptation. The four disciplines emphasize cultural, economic, geographic, historical, political, and social‐structural factors to be important drivers of and responses to climate change. Each of these disciplines has unique perspectives and makes noteworthy contributions to our shared understanding of anthropogenic drivers, but they also complement one another and contribute to integrated, multidisciplinary frameworks. The article begins with discussions of research on temporal dimensions of human drivers of carbon emissions, highlighting …

Supercycle In Great Earthquake Recurrence Along The Japan Trench Over The Last 4000 Years, Kazuko Usami, Ken Ikehara, Toshiya Kanamatsu, Cecilia M. Mchugh

Publications and Research

On the landward slope of the Japan Trench, the mid-slope terrace (MST) is located at a depth of 4000–6000 m. Two piston cores from the MST were analyzed to assess the applicability of the MST for turbidite paleoseismology and to find out reliable recurrence record of the great earthquakes along the Japan Trench. The cores have preserved records of ~ 12 seismo-turbidites (event deposits) during the last 4000 years. In the upper parts of the two cores, only the following earthquakes (magnitude M ~ 8 and larger) were clearly recorded: the 2011 Tohoku, the 1896 Sanriku, the 1454 Kyotoku, and …

On The Relationship Between Economics And Ethics, Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Economics and ethics have been linked since the days of Adam Smith, but this connection became tenuous after the formalization of economic theory in the twentieth century, the success of which in academia, government, and business serves to insulate it from ethical critique. Nonetheless, a field of “economics and ethics” has developed to restore this connection, albeit in two directions with disparate methodological approaches: one applying mainstream economic theory, primarily based in utilitarian ethics, to topics of ethical concern, and the other incorporating alternate forms of ethics, such as deontology and virtue ethics, to enrich economic analysis.

Evolution Of The Modern Baboon (Papio Hamadryas): A Reassessment Of The African Plio-Pleistocene Record, Christopher C. Gilbert, Stephen R. Frost, Kelsey D. Pugh, Monya Anderson, Eric Delson

Publications and Research

Baboons ( Papio hamadryas) are among the most successful extant primates, with a minimum of six distinctive forms throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. However, their presence in the fossil record is unclear. Three early fossil taxa are generally recognized, all from South Africa: Papio izodi , Papio robinsoni and Papio angusticeps. Because of their derived appearance, P. angusticeps and P. robinsoni have sometimes been considered subspecies of P. hamadryas and have been used as biochronological markers for the Plio- Pleistocene hominin sites where they are found.

We reexamined fossil Papio forms from across Africa with an emphasis on their distinguishing features and …

Nsf Noyce Recruitment And Mentorship, Fangyang Shen, Janine Roccosalvo, Jun Zhang, Yanqing Ji, Yang Yi, Lieselle Trinidad

Publications and Research

This research discusses the detailed experiences of recruitment and training of Noyce interns to become qualified STEM teachers. In this paper, both successful experiences and challenges in the first four years of a NSF Noyce project are discussed with the three-tier model. In addition, this model has proven to be effective by using two types of evidences. First, the survey data collected from over twenty-five STEM teacher candidates is described. Secondly, the actual interview data and student feedback are reported.

The Modulatory Effect Of Expectations On Memory Retrieval During Sentence Comprehension, Luca Campanelli, Julie A. Van Dyke, Klara Marton

Publications and Research

Memory retrieval and probabilistic expectations are recognized factors in sentence comprehension that capture two different critical aspects of processing difficulty: the cost of retrieving and integrating previously processed elements with the new input words and the cost of incorrect predictions about upcoming words or structures in a sentence. Although these two factors have independently received substantial support from the extant literature, how they interact remains poorly understood. The present study investigated memory retrieval and expectation in a single experiment, pitting these factors against each other. Results showed a significant interference effect in both response time to the comprehension questions and …

Special Values Of Ibukiyama-Saito L-Functions, Brad Isaacson

Publications and Research

Following the method of Arakawa, we express the special values of an L-function originally introduced by Arakawa and Hashimoto and later generalized by Ibukiyama and Saito at non-positive integers by finite sums of products of Bernoulli polynomials. As a corollary, we prove an infinite family of identities expressing finite sums of products of Bernoulli polynomials by generalized Bernoulli numbers.

Finding Influential Nodes For Integration In Brain Networks Using Optimal Percolation Theory, Gino Del Ferraro, Andrea Moreno, Byungjoon Min, Flaviano Morone, Úrsula Pérez-Ramírez, Laura Pérez-Cervera, Lucas C. Parra, Andrei Holodny, Santiago Canals, Hernán A. Makse

Publications and Research

Global integration of information in the brain results from complex interactions of segregated brain networks. Identifying the most influential neuronal populations that efficiently bind these networks is a fundamental problem of systems neuroscience. Here, we apply optimal percolation theory and pharmacogenetic interventions in vivo to predict and subsequently target nodes that are essential for global integration of a memory network in rodents. The theory predicts that integration in the memory network is mediated by a set of low-degree nodes located in the nucleus accumbens. This result is confirmed with pharmacogenetic inactivation of the nucleus accumbens, which eliminates the formation of …

Two-Dimensional Maximal Repetitions, Amihood Amir, Gad M. Landau, Shoshana Marcus, Dina Sokol

Publications and Research

Maximal repetitions or runs in strings have a wide array of applications and thus have been extensively studied. In this paper, we extend this notion to 2-dimensions, precisely defining a maximal 2D repetition. We provide initial bounds on the number of maximal 2D repetitions that can occur in a matrix. The main contribution of this paper is the presentation of the first algorithm for locating all maximal 2D repetitions in a matrix. The algorithm is efficient and straightforward, with runtime O(n^2 log n log log n+ rho log n), where n^2 is the size of the input, and rho is …

What Kinds Of Comparison Are Most Useful In The Study Of World Philosophies?, Nathan Sivin, Anna Akasoy, Warwick Anderson, Gérard Colas, Edmond Eh

Publications and Research

Cross-cultural comparisons face several methodological challenges. In an attempt at resolving some such challenges, Nathan Sivin has developed the framework of “cultural manifolds.” This framework includes all the pertinent dimensions of a complex phenomenon and the interactions that make all of these aspects into a single whole. In engaging with this framework, Anna Akasoy illustrates that the phenomena used in comparative approaches to cultural and intellectual history need to be subjected to a continuous change of perspectives. Writing about comparative history, Warwick Anderson directs attention to an articulation between synchronic and diachronic modes of inquiry. In addition, he asks: If …

Octet Baryons In Large Magnetic Fields, Amol Deshmukh, Brian C. Tiburzi

Publications and Research

Magnetic properties of octet baryons are investigated within the framework of chiral perturbation theory. Utilizing a power counting for large magnetic fields, the Landau levels of charged mesons are treated exactly giving rise to baryon energies that depend nonanalytically on the strength of the magnetic field. In the small-field limit, baryon magnetic moments and polarizabilities emerge from the calculated energies. We argue that the magnetic polarizabilities of hyperons provide a testing ground for potentially large contributions from decuplet pole diagrams. In external magnetic fields, such contributions manifest themselves through decuplet-octet mixing, for which possible results are compared in a few …