Digital Commons Network^™

Fake News Detection On The Web: An Lstm-Based Approach, Piyush Vyas, Jun Liu, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

The acceptance and popularity of social media platforms for the dispersion and proliferation of news articles have led to the spread of questionable and untrusted information (in part) due to the ease by which misleading content can be created and shared among the communities. While prior research has attempted to automatically classify news articles and tweets as credible and non-credible. In this work, we complement such research by proposing an approach that utilizes the amalgamation of natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning techniques such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). We used publicly available datasets that contain labeled news articles …

The Role Of Privacy Within The Realm Of Healthcare Wearables' Acceptance And Use, Thomas Jernejcic, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

While there are definite benefits attributed to wearables, there are also notable risks, especially in the realm of security where personal information and/or activities are often accessible to third parties. Users weigh the benefits with the risks (Privacy Calculus) and often opt for the wearable device despite concern that their information may or will be disclosed (Privacy Paradox). While past research has focused on specific technologies, the paradox of disclosure despite concern for privacy has not been the primary focus, particularly regarding the manifestation of the paradox specific to the acceptance and use of healthcare wearables. The purpose of this …

Understanding The Public Sentiment And Discourse On Covid-19 Vaccine, Kruttika Sutrave, Rajesh Godasu, Jun Liu

Research & Publications

The novel Coronavirus disease has negatively impacted human lives in various aspects leading to the global health crisis and economic fallout. The availability of vaccines in the U.S. is a relief. However, many people are not in favor of the COVID-19 vaccine. The study aimed to identify the emotions and themes of discourse related to the COVID-19 vaccine posted on Twitter. Sentiment analysis and topic modeling techniques were employed to discover the sentiment and prevalent themes. The findings suggest that overall, the public has positive opinions towards the vaccine. Those people that show positive opinions appreciate the efforts of leadership, …

Empathizing With Mhealth App Users In Application Design: Early-Stage Persona Development Through Social Media Data Mining, Martinson Ofori, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

The pervasiveness of mobile technologies has led to the paradigm known as mHealth. Research has shown that mHealth is useful for self-management of chronic conditions but is plagued by usability issues. Design approaches such as Design Thinking advise the use of “personas” to represent real users and aid the design of user-centered and empathy-oriented mHealth applications. The current study develops three representative personas that could inform the development of a diabetes-management mobile application using about 1.35 million social media posts that represent about 40.81% of diabetes-related conversations on Twitter. This study demonstrates that social media could be useful in human-centered …

An Approach For Weed Detection Using Cnns And Transfer Learning, Martinson Ofori, Omar F. El-Gayar

Research & Publications

No abstract provided.

Agile Project Management: A Systematic Literature Review Of Adoption Drivers And Critical Success Factors, Cherie Noteboom, Ofori Martinson, Kruttika Sutrave, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

No abstract provided.

Interoperability And Digital Health Platform: A Design Science Research, Madhu Gottumukkala, Omar El-Gayar, Cherie Noteboom

Research & Publications

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Knowledge Acquisition, Sharing And Utilization On Organizational Performance Of Higher Education Institutions (Heis), And The Moderating Role Of Organizational Culture, Armel Djangone, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

No abstract provided.

An Lstm Based Approach For The Classification Of Customer Reviews: An Exploratory Study, Jun Liu, Akhilesh Chauhan, Piyush Vyas

Research & Publications

Significant research has been conducted to address the problem of identification and elimination of malicious content. The credibility of such information is always in question, especially in the E-commerce domain. This research proposes a classification model that automatically classifies customer reviews as credible or non-credible. This model encompasses a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) as a classification technique. The preliminary results have shown the potential of our model to classify customer reviews as credible/non-credible based on textual features.

Proliferation Of Health Misinformation On Social Media Platforms: A Systematic Literature Review, Jun Liu, Gitika Vyas, Piyush Vyas

Research & Publications

This paper presents a systematic literature review to provide a conceptual framework and future research directions for the identification and detection of health misinformation on social networking sites. We have found the health misinformation problem is yet to evolve and requires more exploration towards the identification of reliable techniques. We have extracted the existing literature from five research databases. The focus of this review is to explore various concepts, techniques, and datasets adopted by the prior studies. After applying Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines we have got 27 final papers to include in this review. …

Prediction Of Patient Willingness To Recommend Hospital: A Machine Learning-Based Exploratory Study, Jun Liu, Loknath Sai Ambati, Piyush Vyas, Giridhar Reddy Bojja, Martinson Ofori

Research & Publications

Health organizations are diligently working to achieve the zenith in service outcome and furtherance of patient satisfaction by embracing patient-centric policies. Patient recommendation is a critical indicator of patient satisfaction and hospital service quality. Evidence suggests that patient recommendation is the most valuable form of marketing. However, hospitals often encounter patients' unwillingness to recommend them. Prior studies mainly rely on patient survey data to determine factors that impact patients’ willingness to recommend hospitals. Our study aims to identify factors that are not readily available in the patient surveys but have significant impact on hospital recommendation. Our proposed Machine Learning (ML) …

Security Analytics, Tania Williams, Omar F. El-Gayar, Thomas H. Morris

Research & Publications

Security analytics, which separates malicious activity from normal usage patterns, leverages data analytics to assist with system security. The field encompasses analytic capabilities that enable the analysis of large quantities of structured and unstructured data across large infrastructures in a short amount of time, allowing monitoring and surveillance of activity such as network traffic, web transactions, network servers and nodes, and user credentialing to detect threats and to provide an overall picture of a system’s security posture.

A Clustering And Treemap-Based Approach For Query Reuse And Visualization In Large Data Repositories, Yousra Harb, Surendra Sarnikar, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

No abstract provided.

A Museum’S Guide To Queer Inclusivity, Ashtin O. Ashbrook

Museum Studies Theses

LGBT+ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, also called queer) people have always existed. The history of queer people has been repressed and destroyed. As culture changes and becomes more accepting of these identities, queer people are living more openly, and history is being well recorded. Museums are institutions that are responsible for representing and perpetuating cultural views, and therefore have a responsibility to include a diverse variety of people. One strategy to normalize queerness is to integrate it into museums. This guide will explore queer inclusion, with an emphasis on transgender inclusion, in all different types of museums. The following …

Regional And Seasonal Activity Predictions For Fall Armyworm In Australia, James L. Maino, Rafael Schouten, Kathy Overton, Roger Day, Sunday Ekesi, Bosibori Bett, Madeleine Barton, Peter C. Gregg, Paul A. Umina, Olivia L. Reynolds

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Since 2016, the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, has undergone a significant range expansion from its native range in the Americas, to continental Africa, Asia, and in February 2020, mainland Australia. The large dispersal potential of FAW adults, wide host range of immature feeding stages, and unique environmental conditions in its invasive range creates large uncertainties in the expected impact on Australian plant production industries. Here, using a spatial model of population growth and spread potential informed by existing biological and climatic data, we simulate seasonal population activity potential of FAW, with a focus on Australia's grain production regions. Our …

Tsetse Blood-Meal Sources, Endosymbionts And Trypanosome-Associations In The Maasai Mara National Reserve, A Wildlife-Human-Livestock Interface, Edward Edmond Makhulu, Jandouwe Villinger, Vincent Owino Adunga, Maamun M. Jeneby, Edwin Murungi Kimathi, Enock Mararo, Joseph Wang’Ang’A Oundo, Ali Abdulahi Musa, Lillian Wambua

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

African trypanosomiasis (AT) is a neglected disease of both humans and animals caused by Trypanosoma parasites, which are transmitted by obligate hematophagous tsetse flies (Glossina spp.). Knowledge on tsetse fly vertebrate hosts and the influence of tsetse endo-symbionts on trypanosome presence, especially in wildlife-human-livestock interfaces, is limited. We identified tsetse species, their blood-meal sources, and correlations between endosymbionts and trypanosome presence in tsetse flies from the trypanosome-endemic Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) in Kenya. Among 1167 tsetse flies (1136 Glossina pallidipes, 31 Glossina swynnertoni) collected from 10 sampling sites, 28 (2.4%) were positive by PCR for trypanosome DNA, most (17/28) …

Effects Of Rhizobia And Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi On Yield, Size Distribution And Fatty Acid Of Soybean Seeds Grown Under Drought Stress, Nicholas O. Igiehon, Olubukola O. Babalola, Xavier Cheseto, Baldwyn Torto

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Soybean (Glycine max L.) is among the most economically important legumes that provide more than 1/4 of food (for man) and animal feed. However, its yield is comparatively low, most especially under drought stress. The aim of this study therefore was to assess the ability of Rhizobium spp. and mycorrhizal fungi to enhance the yield, seed size and fatty acid content of soybean grown under semi-arid environment. Rhizobium sp. strain R1 was found to possess nitrogen-fixing gene coniferyl aldehyde dehydrogenase function while Rhizobium cellulosilyticum strain R3 was found to have nitrogen-fixing genes cysteine desulfurase SufS and cysteine desulfurase IscS activity. …

Cannibalism, Oviposition And Egg Development In The Edible Long-Horned Grasshopper, Ruspolia Differens (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) Under Laboratory Conditions, J. P. Egonyu, M. M. Miti, C. M. Tanga, A. Leonard, S. Subramanian

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Reliance on seasonal wild harvests of the edible long-horned grasshopper Ruspolia differens (Serville) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) needs to be broken through developing efficient mass rearing protocols. This study aimed at boosting productivity of laboratory colonies of R. differens through understanding ways of minimising cannibalism, selecting suitable oviposition substrates and enhancing egg development and hatchability. Firstly, we investigated the extent of cannibalism in a colony of R. differens relative to total mortality, sex, diurnality, growth stage, body parts eaten and visual barriers (presence/absence of cardboard egg trays). R. differens cadavers recovered from cages with/without the egg trays were scored for cause of …

Act45+ : Aménagements Des Conditions De Travail Pour Les Travailleurs Seniors Âgés De 45 Ans Et Plus, Alessia Negrini, Marc Corbière, Jessica Dubé

Fiches

No abstract provided.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – Blue Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document reports on field research conducted in 2021. It includes work on corn, soybean and the management of several weeds in North Dakota.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – Yellow Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document reports on field research conducted in 2021. It includes work on minor crops and the management of several weeds in North Dakota.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – Gold Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document reports on field research conducted in 2021. It includes work on sugarbeets and the management of several weeds in North Dakota.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – White Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document provides environmental, indexes, abbreviations and collaborators in 2021.

The Long History Of Feminist Legal Theory, Tracy Thomas

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This chapter challenges the conventional idea that feminist legal theory began in the 1970s. The advent of legal feminism is usually placed in the second wave feminist movement, birthed by the political activism of the women’s liberation movement and nurtured by the intellectual leadership of women scholars newly entering legal academia. However, legal feminism has a much longer history, going back more than a century earlier. While the term “feminist” was not used in the United States until the 1910s, the foundations of feminist legal theory were first conceptualized as early as 1848 and developed over the next one hundred …

The Jurisprudence Of The First Woman Judge, Florence Allen: Challenging The Myth Of Women Judging Differently, Tracy Thomas

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

A key question for legal scholars and political scientists is whether women jurists judge differently than men. Some studies have suggested that women judges are more likely to support plaintiffs in sexual harassment, employment, and immigration cases. Other studies conclude that women are more likely to vote liberally in death penalty and obscenity cases, and more likely to convince their male colleagues to join a liberal opinion. Yet other studies have found little evidence that women judge differently from men.

This article explores the jurisprudence of the first woman judge, Judge Florence Allen, to test these claims of gender difference …

Reclaiming The Long History Of The "Irrelevant" Nineteenth Amendment For Gender Equality, Tracy Thomas

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

The Nineteenth Amendment has been called an “irrelevant” amendment. The women’s suffrage amendment has been deemed insignificant as a constitutional authority, reduced to a historical footnote. In the Supreme Court canon, it has been diminished as a text that “merely gives the vote to women.” With the accomplishment of that simple task, the amendment has been assumed to offer little guidance to modern constitutional analysis or gender equality. The Nineteenth Amendment has become a “constitutional orphan,” disconnected from its historical origins and precedential place in constitutional jurisprudence.

This constricting view of the Nineteenth Amendment ignores the structural implications and significant …

Rulifying Reasonable Expectations: Why Judicial Tests, Not Originalism, Create A More Determinate Fourth Amendment, Michael Gentithes

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

For decades, commentators have decried the Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment search jurisprudence as a hopelessly confusing jumble. Critics save their harshest barbs for the judicially created “reasonable expectations of privacy” test, suggesting that it provides little guidance and leaves search cases open to wide judicial discretion. Motivated by such critiques, several Justices have recently claimed that an originalist approach could replace the reasonable expectations test, limit judicial discretion, and clarify the Fourth Amendment’s meaning.

This Article provides a comprehensive defense of the reasonable expectations test against originalist calls to abandon it. It notes two flaws in the originalist response. First, …

Naturally Occurring Compounds With Larvicidal Activity Against Malaria Mosquitoes, Trizah K. Milugo, David P. Tchouassi, Reginald A. Kavishe, Rhoel R. Dinglasan, Baldwyn Torto

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit Plasmodium parasites that cause human malaria. Currently, vector control is the most widely deployed approach to reduce mosquito population and hence disease transmission. This relies on use of insecticide-based interventions including Long-lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs) and Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) where scale-up has contributed to a dramatic decline in malaria deaths and morbidity over the past decade. Challenges to their effective use include the emergence and spread of insecticide resistance by malaria vector populations coupled with the inability to curb outdoor transmission. Under these situations, use of larvicides through larval source management (LSM) can complement these …

Agency, Gender And Development In Oromia, Ethiopia, Kristie Drucza, Lemlem Aregu, Mulunesh Tsegaye

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

This paper argues that the postcolonial revolution in knowledge about gender and power relations has not touched the agricultural sector nor literature. Using the validation data from a medium-n qualitative data study in Amhara and Oromia, Ethiopia, the paper presents a case study on farm gate selling to show how a nuclear family model is shaped by power relations that are seeded in the colonial past and yet are reproduced in the present. Ethiopian men do not share resources equally with their wife/family. So, women need to ‘help themselves’ to the stored harvest to manage the household’s needs. The paper …

Trapping, Identification And Rearing Of Edible Palm Weevils In Kenya And Uganda, J. P. Egonyu, K. J. Gitonga, F. M. Khamis, R. S. Copeland, P. Finyange, R. Odhiambo, G. Ddamulira, C. M. Tanga, S. Subramanian

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Palm weevils, Rhynchophorus spp. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) double as devastating invasive pests of palms, and delicacies in many communities. This study evaluated ethyl acetate and 3-methyl-octan-4-ol for trapping palm weevils from coconut, oil and raffia palms in Kenya and Uganda; taking into account the distance of traps on oil palm from a forest or raffia palm. Eggs from the weevils from different locations were incubated and their larvae reared on sugarcane under laboratory conditions. All the 285 weevils collected were identified by morphological and molecular techniques as Rhynchophorus phoenicis, and the catch was female-biased. 3-methyl-octan-4-ol attracted more weevils than ethyl acetate. …