Digital Commons Network^™

Social Media In Diabetes Education: A Viable Option?, Julie Cooper, Jill N. Cox, Marilyn A. Corbin

Journal of Extension

As Extension educators are encouraged to implement more cost-effective and efficient means of programming, the use of Web-based social media has become a popular option. Penn State Extension implemented a social media awareness survey among participants in its community-based diabetes education program to determine familiarity with this medium, along with rates of current and future use. Results indicated a level of comfort with email and Facebook options, while many preferred more traditional methods of communication. Future research is needed to determine if this online mode of learning may be more effective in targeting a younger Dining with Diabetes population.

Profiling H-2a Program Participants In Tobacco Farming: Implications For Extension, Jane H. Starnes, Shiferaw T. Feleke, Harwood D. Schaffer, Kelly J. Tiller

Journal of Extension

The challenge to meet tobacco's labor requirements by domestic sources has prompted tobacco growers to seek a foreign source of labor through the H-2A program. The H-2A program is the only legally sanctioned program allowing farm employers to bring foreign workers into the country to perform seasonal and temporary agricultural work. The article profiles H-2A program participants in major tobacco growing states. The results will help Extension personnel better understand their constituents' labor needs and inform the design of specific Extension programs and workshops in farm labor management, labor laws and regulations as well as labor cost-saving measures.

E-Newsletters: A Simple Way To Integrate Technology With Extension Programming, Luke Erickson, Lyle Hansen

Journal of Extension

Extension educators can easily include technology in regular programming. Several Extension faculty conducted a survey to determine the overall effectiveness of a electronic newsletter (e-newsletter). Results indicated that this e-newsletter had a wide viral reach, provided strong local impact in terms of confidence and behavior changes, increased website traffic, and helped establish a strong web presence. This e-newsletter also helped increase programming requests and strengthen relationships with local legislators and other leaders. The implication is that e-newsletters are cost-effective, time-friendly, and relatively non-technical tools for expanding the reach of local Extension programs, and for reaching online audiences.

Mixed-Mode Surveys: A Strategy To Reduce Costs And Enhance Response Rates, Daniel Tobin, Joan Thomson, Rama Radhakrishna, Luke Laborde

Journal of Extension

Mixed-mode surveys present one opportunity for Extension to determine program outcomes at lower costs. In order to conduct a follow-up evaluation, we implemented a mixed-mode survey that relied on communication using the Web, postal mailings, and telephone calls. Using multiple modes conserved costs by reducing the number of postal mailings yet maintained an acceptable response rate (67.1%). The case presented here provides further evidence that using mixed-mode survey techniques provides Extension with a tool to conduct rigorous survey research while adapting to budget constraints.

Six Discourse Markers In Tunisian Arabic: A Syntactic And Pragmatic Analysis, Chris Adams

Theses and Dissertations

The following study is a description and analysis of six discourse markers in Tunisian Arabic. In it I will attempt to determine the syntactic and pragmatic roles of each marker, describing its function in discourse. The final analysis will be based on the pragmatic model of relevance theory.

I have based my study on thirty-two (32) texts in Tunisian Arabic, looking at frequently-occurring discourse markers in these texts and analyzing them based on their discourse roles in terms of local cohesion and pragmatic inference.

The conclusions of this study focus on the conceptual and procedural content of each discourse marker. …

A Phenomenological Study Of Experienced Teacher Perceptions Regarding Cooperative Learning Training And Cooperative Learning Implementation In The Classroom, Susan Robinson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study sought to explore the perceptions of experienced teachers regarding cooperative learning training and its implementation in the classroom. Twelve total participants, nine teachers and three administrators, volunteered for this six-week study at a private, K3 - 12 school in Broward County, Florida. The study's purpose was guided by the following questions: (1) What do experienced teachers perceive about cooperative learning training as it relates to their classroom teaching? (2) What do experienced teachers perceive regarding cooperative learning use as it relates to their classroom teaching? (3) What are the impacts of cooperative learning training and implementation …

Making Disciples Through Evangelism: A Plan For The Evangelist Who Only Has One Chance At A New Convert, Richard Hertless

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Making disciples is an integral part of being a Christian. God has called some to be Evangelists (Ephesians 4:11). The rationale of the project is the need to fulfill the Great Commission's command of "making disciples." The value of this project is the plan that is developed to ensure that new converts will be placed with a disciple to confirm his or her Christian growth. This project will take the reader through a step-by-step plan to prepare, conduct and follow-up on an evangelism event to ensure that the Great Commission is fulfilled for the new convert to successfully walk in …

Revitalisasi Sumber Daya Manusia Polri Untuk Sinergitas Kinerja Dalam Integrated Criminal Justice System, Dian Agung Wicaksono

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

human resources, integrated criminal justice system, police education

Peran Mediasi Persepsi Kohesi Sosial Dalam Hubungan Prediktif Persepsi Pemanfaatan Ruang Terbuka Publik Terhadap Kesehatan Jiwa, Afifatun Nisa, Juneman Juneman

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

Various phenomena involving university students such as suicide and gang fights indicate that students mental health conditions of need to be worried about. Some studies had linked the public space utilization with social interaction facilitation and social cohesion, as well as social cohesion with mental health. The original contribution of this research is that it employed perceived social cohesion as the mediating variable of the predictive relationship between public open space utilization with mental health. The design of this research is non-experimental, predictive correlational. As many as 375 university students in Jakarta participated in this research (Mage = 20.8 years …

Representasi Tindak Tutur Calon Gubernur Sulawesi Selatan: Analisis Wacana Kesopanan Berbahasa, Yusri Yusri, Yuni Handayani, Riskawati Riskawati

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

The research looks into the Governor Candidate of South Sulawesi’s representation of speech acts leading up to the governor’s election in 2013, in particular into politeness and the relation between cultural speech acts in South Sulawesi society and universal politeness maxim. The research is qualitative with pragmatic approach. This research uses written data from the utterances of the South Sulawesi’s incumbent Governors printed in the biggest mass media in South Sulawesi—Harian Fajar and Tribun Timur—for 4 months, in April, May, June, and July. The data, in the form of utterances produced by the politicians, are analyzed based on maxims that …

Singapore Inflation Expectations: Expecting The Unexpected, Aurobindo Ghosh, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

The study of inflation expectations of Singapore house-holds is a multi-disciplinary industry-relevant research that comes out of a partnership between Singapore Management University (SMU) and MasterCard. The research team for this MasterCard-SKBI Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx) project applied rigorous methods using current internet-based marketing survey tools for data-collection and advanced econometric techniques to analyse the data. The updates from the quarterly waves are keenly followed by policymakers, market watchers and the media because of the enormous importance of cost of living to individuals and businesses alike.

Creativity And Thinking Skills Integrated Into A Science Enrichment Unit On Flooding, Audrey C. Rule, Jean Suchsland Schneider, Denise A. Tallakson, Diane Highnam

Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications

Floods that used to happen every hundred years are now occurring more frequently. Human influences on the damage inflicted by flooding need to be well-understood by future voters and property-owners. Therefore, the timely topic of flooding was used as the focus of a special multi-grade enrichment short course taught by two university education professors for 26 preK-8th grade high-achieving and creative students. During the course, students listened to guest speakers (city council member, meteorologist, and environmentalist), watched two flood-related videos, read books on floods, viewed electronic presentations related to dams and recent floods, discussed causes, effects, and mitigations of flooding, …

Effect Of Business Intelligence And It Infrastructure Flexibility On Organizational Agility, Xiaofeng Chen, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

There is a growing use of business intelligence (BI) for better management decisions in different industries. However, empirical studies on BI are still scarce in academic research. This research investigates BI from an organizational agility perspective. Organizational agility is the ability to sense and respond to market opportunities and threats with speed. Drawing on systems theory and literature on organizational agility, business intelligence, and IT infrastructure flexibility, we hypothesize that BI use and IT infrastructure flexibility are two major antecedents to organizational agility. We developed a research model to examine the effect of BI use and IT infrastructure flexibility on …

Investigating Intelligent Agents In A 3d Virtual World, Yilin Kang, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Web 3.0 involves "intelligent" web applications that utilize natural language processing, machine-based learning and reasoning, and intelligent techniques to analyze and understand user behavior. In this research, we empirically assess a specific form of Web 3.0 application in the form of intelligent agents that offer assistance to users in the virtual world. Using media naturalness theory, we hypothesize that the use of intelligent agents in the virtual world can enhance user experience by offering a more natural way of communication and assistance to users. We are interested to test if media naturalness theory holds in the context of intelligent agents …

Agent-Based Virtual Humans In Co-Space: An Evaluative Study, Yilin Kang, Ah-Hwee Tan, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Co-Space refers to interactive virtual environment modelled after the real world in terms of look-and-feel, functionalities and services. We have developed a 3D virtual world named Nan yang Technological University (NTU) Co-Space populated with virtual human characters. Three key requirements of realistic virtual humans in the virtual world have been identified, namely (1) autonomy: agents can function on their own, (2) interactivity: agents can interact naturally with players, and (3) personality: agents can exhibit human traits and characteristics. Working towards these challenges, we propose a brain-inspired agent architecture that integrates goal-directed autonomy, natural language interaction and human-like personality. We conducted …

Semiochemicals From Herbivory Induced Cotton Plants Enhance The Foraging Behavior Of The Cotton Boll Weevil, Anthonomus Grandis, D. M. Magalhães, M. Borges, R. A. Laumann, E. R. Sujii, P. Mayon, J. C. Caulfield, C. A.O. Midega, Z. R. Khan, J. A. Pickett, M. A. Birkett, M. C. Blassioli-Moraes

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, has been monitored through deployment of traps baited with aggregation pheromone components. However, field studies have shown that the number of insects caught in these traps is significantly reduced during cotton squaring, suggesting that volatiles produced by plants at this phenological stage may be involved in attraction. Here, we evaluated the chemical profile of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by undamaged or damaged cotton plants at different phenological stages, under different infestation conditions, and determined the attractiveness of these VOCs to adults of A. grandis. In addition, we investigated whether or not VOCs released by …

China's Rare Earths Export Quotas: Out Of The China-Raw Materials Gate, But Past The Wto's Finish Line?, Han-Wei Liu, John Maughan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Several recent studies have discussed the ramifications of the China – Raw Materials case for China's rare earths. However, none of these studies has conducted a thorough investigation of China's current export quota regime for rare earths or how it might stand up under WTO rules, assuming that it would be treated the same. This article makes no such assumption, investigating China's export quota regime for rare earths as it stands in early June 2012. The regime is somewhat improved over that applied during the Raw Materials case and could allow a more favourable WTO ruling. However, if General Agreement …

Finding Thoughtful Comments From Social Media, Gottipati Swapna, Jing Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online user comments contain valuable user opinions. Comments vary greatly in quality and detecting high quality comments is a subtask of opinion mining and summarization research. Finding attentive comments that provide some reasoning is highly valuable in understanding the user’s opinion particularly in sociopolitical opinion mining and aids policy makers, social organizations or government sectors in decision making. In this paper we study the problem of detecting thoughtful comments. We empirically study various textual features, discourse relations and relevance features to predict thoughtful comments. We use logistic regression model and test on the datasets related to sociopolitical content. We found …

On Recommending Hashtags In Twitter Networks, Su Mon Kywe, Tuan-Anh Hoang, Ee Peng Lim, Feida Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Twitter network is currently overwhelmed by massive amount of tweets generated by its users. To effectively organize and search tweets, users have to depend on appropriate hashtags inserted into tweets. We begin our research on hashtags by first analyzing a Twitter dataset generated by more than 150,000 Singapore users over a three-month period. Among several interesting findings about hashtag usage by this user community, we have found a consistent and significant use of new hashtags on a daily basis. This suggests that most hashtags have very short life span. We further propose a novel hashtag recommendation method based on collaborative …

Extracting And Normalizing Entity-Actions From Users' Comments, Swapna Gottipati, Jing Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the growing popularity of opinion-rich resources on the Web, new opportunities and challenges arise and aid people in actively using such information to understand the opinions of others. Opinion mining process currently focuses on extracting the sentiments of the users on products, social, political and economical issues. In many instances, users not only express their sentiments but also contribute their ideas, requests and suggestions through comments. Such comments are useful for domain experts and are referred to as actionable content. Extracting actionable knowledge from online social media has attracted a growing interest from both academia and the industry. We …

Reputation As Public Policy For Internet Security: A Field Study, Qian Tang, Leigh L. Linden, John S. Quarterman, Andrew Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cybersecurity is a national priority in this big data era. Because of the lack of incentives and the existence of negative externality, companies often underinvest in addressing security risks and accidents, despite government and industry recommendations. In the present article, we propose a method that utilizes reputation through information disclosure to motivate companies to behave pro-socially, improving their Internet security. Using outbound spam as a proxy for Internet security, we conducted a quasiexperimental field study for eight countries through SpamRankings.net. This outgoingspam-based study shows that information disclosure on outgoing spam can help reduce outgoing spam, approximately by 16 percent. This …

Laboratory And Field Performance Of The Biosand Point Of Use Water Filtration System In The Artibonite Valley, Haiti, Andrew John Sisson

Masters Theses

The research presented here is summary two years of studying the Biosand filter (BSF) both in Haiti during March 2011 and in the laboratory. In Chapter 2, we examined the long term use and sustainability 55 BSF systems near Deschapelles, Haiti and 47% were found to be no longer in use. Interviews with BSF owners revealed problems related to intermittent filter use. A review of 17 BSF field studies also was included to compare and substantiate observations made in Haiti. Together, previous field studies and our observations point toward the importance of providing culturally appropriate technologies and education materials explaining …

The Role Of Saturated Fatty Acids In Connexin Expression On Endothelial Cells And Eosinophils, Kurt Anthony Ashack

Masters Theses

Eotaxin is a potent chemoattractant for eosinophils that becomes elevated in the tissues in response to inflammation and increased adiposity. Therefore, eosinophil migration into adipose tissue should increase in diet-induced obese individuals, yet it does not. This suggested to us that something within the cellular microenvironment of diet-induced obese individuals might be altering the endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecules (ELAM) such as VCAM-1 or selectins on the endothelial cells, thus preventing eosinophils from entering the inflamed tissue. Connexons are gap junctions in endothelial cells and on immune cells such as macrophages that are composed of connexins and have been shown to …

Hadoop-Cc (Collaborative Caching) In Real Time Hdfs, Meenakshi Shrivastava

Theses

Data is being generated at an enormous rate, due to online activities and use of resources related to computing. To access and handle such enormous amount of data spread, dis- tributed systems is an efficient mechanism. One such widely used distributed filesystem is Hadoop distributed filesystem (HDFS). HDFS follows a cluster approach in order to store huge amounts of data, it is scalable and works on low commodity. It uses MapRe- duce framework to perform analysis and carry computations parallely on these large data sets. Hadoop follows the master/slave architecture decoupling system metadata and appli- cation data where metadata is …

Semi-Supervised Heterogeneous Evolutionary Co-Clustering, Pankaj Andhale

Theses

One of the challenges of the machine learning problem is the absence of sufficient number of labeled instances or training instances. At the same time generating labeled data is expensive and time consuming. The semi-supervised approach has shown promising results to solve the problem of insufficient or fewer labeled instance datasets. The key challenge is incorporating the semi-supervised knowledge into the heterogeneous data which is evolving in nature. Most of the prior work that uses semi-supervised knowledge has been performed on heterogeneous static data. The semi-supervised knowledge is incorporated into data which aid the clustering algorithm to obtain better clusters. …

Maddy The Mathasaurus: An Interactive Math Game That Introduces The Concept And Properties Of Multiplication And Designed With Consideration For Children With Adhd, Mansi Vora

Theses

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is one of the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in kids, and is estimated to affect about 8-10% of school-aged children. Research shows that out of these children about 26% particularly have Math learning disabilities. The cognitive ability to understand and solve complex mathematical problems requires high level of concentration over a longer duration of time. This ability is disrupted in certain children due to ADHD. Therefore these students are likely to receive lower grades or even failure in standardized measures. However, if an educational environment is created that is specifically targeted towards reducing the …

Note – The Right To Be Forgotten, Robert Kirk Walker

UC Law Journal

Information posted to the Internet is never truly forgotten. While permanently available data offers significant social benefits, it also carries substantial risks to a data subject if personal information is used out of context or in ways that are harmful to the subject’s reputation. The potential for harm is especially dire when personal information is disclosed without a subject’s consent. In response to these risks, European policymakers have proposed legislation recognizing a “right to be forgotten.” This right would provide persons in European Union countries with a legal mechanism to compel the removal of their personal data from online databases. …

Diversity May Be Justified, Anita Bernstein

UC Law Journal

What about diversity as a rationale for affirmative action is compelling enough to justify the hurts it inflicts on individuals? Judges, legislators, public opinion, and implementers of diversity programs in education and the workforce have defended their initiatives either with vague, anodyne, ill-founded paeans or, more often, with silence about what the rationale achieves. They have offered no justification of diversity. From the premise that any state action that generates (or even risks) harm must be supported with reason, this Article undertakes the task of justification. What makes diversity unique among the rationales for affirmative action, this Article argues, is …

Diversity May Be Justified, Anita Bernstein

UC Law Journal

What about diversity as a rationale for affirmative action is compelling enough to justify the hurts it inflicts on individuals? Judges, legislators, public opinion, and implementers of diversity programs in education and the workforce have defended their initiatives either with vague, anodyne, ill-founded paeans or, more often, with silence about what the rationale achieves. They have offered no justification of diversity. From the premise that any state action that generates (or even risks) harm must be supported with reason, this Article undertakes the task of justification. What makes diversity unique among the rationales for affirmative action, this Article argues, is …

The Rebound Effect: The Use Of Short-Term Mating Strategies After The Dissolution Of A Significant, Loving Relationship, Sarah L. Pierce

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.