Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

We're Swarming Again! Swarming, Collectivity, And Trope: The Case Of Extinction Rebellion, Tyler J. Behymer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the rhetoric of the eco-movement Extinction Rebellion, focusing on the use of swarming and nature tropes to mobilize collective action and revivify contemporary notions of collectivity. Drawing on rhetoric of social movement scholarship, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis, this essay theorizes swarming as a tropological economy that expands the conditions of propriety in the context of collectivity. Through an analysis of Extinction Rebellion’s discourse, this study demonstrates how the naturalization of swarming tropes works in various ways to rewild conventional political discourse, galvanize disruptive collective assembly, and challenge green neoliberalism.

Advisor: Casey Ryan Kelly

Design Of Engineered Nanomaterials For Pfas Adsorption And Catalytic Degradation From Relevant Environmental Conditions, Sheng Yin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of artificially made chemicals whose carbon chains are fully or partially fluorinated. Due to their persistent and pervasive distribution and their adverse effects on human health, the removal of PFAS from the environment has been the focus of current research. This project explores the use of engineered nanomaterials for the effective removal of PFAS through various adsorption and catalytic degradation methods. First, a comprehensive review of recent studies highlights the significant potential of various nanomaterials, including carbon-based, non-metal, single-metal, and multi-metal nanomaterials, for PFAS remediation. These materials are evaluated for their performance, …

Staying Fresh: Unconventional Approaches Towards Advancing Energy Sustainability, Water Resources, And Community Resiliency In The Southwestern United States, Judith Hoyt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses critical challenges in urban heat management, sustainable energy resource utilization, and water quality communication through three studies. Study 1 investigates the impact of roof color on urban heat islands in Tucson, Arizona where approximately 70% of roofs display high albedo (i.e., light) colors. Energy consumption simulations conducted indicate that converting dark- to light-colored roofs could save Tucson approximately $1,400,000 annually in energy costs, highlighting the potential of cool roofs for energy savings and improved thermal comfort. Study 2 assesses the sources of lithium in subsurface waters in West Texas and South Central New Mexico. Water chemistry data …

Gradient Wild Bootstrap For Instrumental Variable Quantile Regressions With Weak And Few Clusters, Wenjie Wang, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the gradient wild bootstrap-based inference for instrumental variable quantile regressions in the framework of a small number of large clusters in which the number of clusters is viewed as fixed, and the number of observations for each cluster diverges to infinity. For the Wald inference, we show that our wild bootstrap Wald test, with or without studentization using the cluster-robust covariance estimator (CRVE), controls size asymptotically up to a small error as long as the parameter of endogenous variable is strongly identified in at least one of the clusters. We further show that the wild bootstrap Wald test …

High Fat Diet & Social Isolation: Interactive Effects On Pain, Cognition, & Neuroinflammation, Ian M. Campuzano

Research Psychology Theses

Prior research has established a role for both social isolation and exposure to high fat Western diets in altering a range of behaviors from reduced memory performance to increased depression-like behaviors. The present study scrutinizes the interplay among these variables during the peri-adolescent developmental phase, utilizing Long-Evans rats as the experimental model. Our overarching hypothesis is that rats exposed to either social isolation, a high-fat diet, or both will result in heightened pain sensitivity, diminished cognitive flexibility, and increased neuroinflammatory responses within brain regions implicated in sociability, cognition, memory, and pain processing. Behavioral flexibility will be assessed using a maze-based …

We Train Ai, Why Not Humans, Too? An Exploration Of Human-Ai Team Training For Future Workplace Viability, Caitlin M. Lancaster

All Dissertations

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workforce is transforming team dynamics, leading to the emergence of Human-AI Teams (HATs). These teams offer opportunities to capitalize on human strengths with AI's prowess, offering significant opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Effective HAT functioning requires aligning human expectations with AI capabilities and bridging knowledge gaps between teammates. Despite this potential, key integration challenges remain, such as developing shared mental models, addressing skill limitations, and overcoming negative AI perceptions. Existing training efforts often apply human-human teaming principles directly to HATs, overlooking AI's role as a teammate and limiting the development of HAT-specific …

Segac: Sample Efficient Generalized Actor Critic For The Stochastic On-Time Arrival Problem, Honglian Guo, Zhi He, Wenda Sheng, Zhiguang Cao, Yingjie Zhou, Weinan Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper studies the problem in transportation networks and introduces a novel reinforcement learning-based algorithm, namely. Different from almost all canonical sota solutions, which are usually computationally expensive and lack generalizability to unforeseen destination nodes, segac offers the following appealing characteristics. segac updates the ego vehicle’s navigation policy in a sample efficient manner, reduces the variance of both value network and policy network during training, and is automatically adaptive to new destinations. Furthermore, the pre-trained segac policy network enables its real-time decision-making ability within seconds, outperforming state-of-the-art sota algorithms in simulations across various transportation networks. We also successfully deploy segac …

Enabling Sustainable Freight Forwarding Network Via Collaborative Games, Pang Jin Tan, Shih-Fen Cheng, Richard Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Freight forwarding plays a crucial role in facilitating global trade and logistics. However, as the freight forwarding market is extremely fragmented, freight forwarders often face the issue of not being able to fill the available shipping capacity. This recurrent issue motivates the creation of various freight forwarding networks that aim at exchanging capacities and demands so that the resource utilization of individual freight forwarders can be maximized. In this paper, we focus on how to design such a collaborative network based on collaborative game theory, with the Shapley value representing a fair scheme for profit sharing. Noting that the exact …

Firm-Level Ai Ethical Awareness: Measurement And Effects, Yan Ma, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With rapid integration of AI technologies into business operation, ethical issues associated with AI development, implementation, and deployment, has become increasingly conspicuous. An effective measure of firm-level AI Ethical Awareness (FAIEA) is crucial for both academics and practitioners to assess FAIEA efficiently. In this study, based on qualitative information in earning conference call, we construct and validate a firm specific measure of FAIEA. Upon establishing a reliable measure, we explore the determinants and consequence of FAIEA. We find Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) engagement and the presence of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) as key determinants of higher FAIEA, suggesting the …

Decoding Gpt Mania In Chinese Stock Market, Yan Ma, Nan Hu, Shuyang Jia

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This study investigates the impact of investor attention on stock market reactions to ChatGPT using dialogues on the Chinese interactive investor platforms (IIPs). We measure investor attention by the number of investors’ questions toward ChatGPT on the IIPs and categorize the firms’ answers as Investing, Speculative, and Absent. The research reveals positive and statistically significant market reactions surrounding the initial questions that occur before firm responses. Positive abnormal returns are also observed around the initial answer dates, with Investing firms evoking the highest market response, followed by Speculative firms, and Absent firms exhibiting the lowest reactions. Our results suggest that …

Reachability-Aware Fair Influence Maximization, Wenyue Ma, Maximilian K. Egger, Andreas Pavlogiannis, Yuchen Li, Panagiotis Karras

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

How can we ensure that an information dissemination campaign reaches every corner of society and also achieves high overall reach? The problem of maximizing the spread of influence over a social network has commonly been considered with an aggregate objective. Less attention has been paid to achieving equality of opportunity, reducing information barriers, and ensuring that everyone in the network has a fair chance to be reached. To that end, the fairness objective aims to maximize the minimum probability of reaching an individual. To address this inapproximable problem, past research has proposed heuristics, which, however, perform less well when the …

Forecasting Commercial Vehicle Miles Traveled (Vmt) In Urban California Areas, Steve Chung, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study investigates commercial truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT) across six diverse California counties from 2000 to 2020. The counties—Imperial, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco—represent a broad spectrum of California’s demographics, economies, and landscapes. Using a rich dataset spanning demographics, economics, and pollution variables, we aim to understand the factors influencing commercial VMT. We first visually represent the geographic distribution of the counties, highlighting their unique characteristics. Linear regression models, particularly the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and elastic net regressions are employed to identify key predictors of total commercial VMT. LASSO regression …

Anopas: Practical Anonymous Transit Pass From Group Signatures With Time-Bound Keys, Rui Shi, Yang Yang, Yingjiu Li, Huamin Feng, Hwee Hwa Pang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An anonymous transit pass system allows passengers to access transport services within fixed time periods, with their privileges automatically deactivating upon time expiration. Although existing transit pass systems are deployable on powerful devices like PCs, their adaptation to more user-friendly devices, such as mobile phones with smart cards, is inefficient due to their reliance on heavy-weight operations like bilinear maps. In this paper, we introduce an innovative anonymous transit pass system, dubbed Anopas, optimized for deployment on mobile phones with smart cards, where the smart card is responsible for crucial lightweight operations and the mobile phone handles key-independent and time-consuming …

Path-Choice-Constrained Bus Bridging Design Under Urban Rail Transit Disruptions, Yiyang Zhu, Jian Gang Jin, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although urban rail transit systems play a crucial role in urban mobility, they frequently suffer from unexpected disruptions due to power loss, severe weather, equipment failure, and other factors that cause significant disruptions in passenger travel and, in turn, socioeconomic losses. To alleviate the inconvenience of affected passengers, bus bridging services are often provided when rail service has been suspended. Prior research has yielded various methodologies for effective bus bridging services; however, they are mainly based on the strong assumption that passengers must follow predetermined bus bridging routes. Less attention is paid to passengers’ path choice behaviors, which could affect …

Optimization Of Customer Service And Driver Dispatch Areas For On-Demand Food Delivery, Jingfeng Yang, Hoong Chuin Lau, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid development and popularization of mobile and wireless communication technologies, on-demand food delivery (OFD) platforms have been able to connect restaurants, customers, and drivers in real time, drastically changing dining and food delivery services. Motivated by the critical need for supply and demand management in the on-demand food delivery market, we focus on the optimization of customer service area and driver dispatch area for on-demand food delivery services. Specifically, for each restaurant, the platform needs to decide the (1) customer service area (CSA), i.e., the surrounding area within which customers can see the restaurant’s information and order food …

Lca Operational Carbon Reduction Based On Energy Strategies Analysis In A Mass Timber Building, Moein Hemmati, Tahar Messadi, Hongmei Gu, Mahboobeh Hemmati

Architecture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Buildings play a significant role in the rise of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Building operations are responsible for 28% of the world’s carbon emissions. It is crucial, therefore, to evaluate the environmental impact of various buildings’ operational phase in order to implement sustainable strategies for the mitigation of their energy usage and associated carbon footprint. While numerous studies have been conducted to determine the carbon footprint of conventional building operation phases, there are still a lack of actual data on the operational carbon (OC) emissions of mass timber buildings. There is also a lack of research pertaining to the …

First Diffusion Course: "The Structure Of Language As A Connection Between Artificial Intelligence, Information And Ethics", Dioneia Monte-Serrat

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

From August 22nd to November 21st, the first Diffusion Course on “The structure of language as a connection between artificial intelligence, information and ethics” will take place on a Thursday of each month, in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. You are cordially invited to sign up for in-person classes and join other researchers and students on this course.

Prime Motivation Of Eratosthenes, Pamela L. King

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The sieve of Eratosthenes is used as a metaphor for the concept of people falling through the social safety net, and people who were once excluded, making efforts to increase inclusiveness.

Building Communities Of Care For Equity, Justice, And Culturally Responsive Practice In Mathematics Education, Nicole Fletcher, B Waid

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Teaching is widely considered one of the “caring professions,” but conceptualizations of care and how care is put into practice in education are not universal. In this article, we draw from a range of perspectives on care that integrate supportive interpersonal relationships, high expectations, and culturally relevant theories of critical care, as well as Queer Theory and Disability Justice, to explore the application of these ideas in mathematics education. We identify key elements for building communities of care in mathematics education contexts: co-constructing community agreements, redefining participation, shifting traditional power structures, collaborative problem solving, and building networks of care beyond …

Suitability Assessment Of Groundwater Quality For Drinking Purposes, Md. Zahidul Islam, M. G. Mostafa

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

The groundwater status of Northwestern Bangladesh is a complex and challenging issue due to its arid and semi-arid climates, increasing population, overexploitation for domestic and irrigation purposes, lack of adequate rainfall, and limited water resources. The study aimed to assess the suitability and health risk of groundwater quality for drinking purposes. A total of one hundred groundwater samples were collected from shallow tubewells in two seasons, the monsoon (MON) and post-monsoon (POM), in northwestern Bangladesh (Ganges River basin) and analyzed using standard methods of analysis (Atomic adsorption spectrometry, UV-visible spectrometry, graphite, ion chromatography). The trends of predominant cations were Ca2+ …

Assessing Consequences And Relevant Thresholds Of Seismic Events In Puerto Rico To Aid The Future Creation Of Consequence-Driven Scenarios, Yahaira D. Alvarez-Gandia

Geography ETDs

Puerto Rico frequently experiences damaging earthquakes due to its location on the northeastern margin of the Caribbean Plate. Its unique combination of factors, including high population, informal construction practices, and environmental risks, such as tsunamis or landslides, create a heightened risk of loss of life and property. Within this context, earthquake scenarios are vital communication, mitigation, and preparedness tools. They provide the opportunity to think critically about possible alternatives to reduce the risks and impacts of these unpredictable events. As an initial step for integrated earthquake scenario development, this study uses semi-structured interviews and the analysis of government reports to …

A Human-Centered Power Conservation Framework Based On Reverse Auction Theory And Machine Learning, Enrico Casella, Simone Silvestri, Denise A. Baker, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Extreme outside temperatures resulting from heat waves, winter storms, and similar weather-related events trigger the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, resulting in challenging, and potentially catastrophic, peak loads. As a consequence, such extreme outside temperatures put a strain on power grids and may thus lead to blackouts. To avoid the financial and personal repercussions of peak loads, demand response and power conservation represent promising solutions. Despite numerous efforts, it has been shown that the current state-of-the-art fails to consider (1) the complexity of human behavior when interacting with power conservation systems and (2) realistic home-level power dynamics. As …

Longitudinal Investigation Of Early Mathematical Achievement And Classroom Strategic Diversity: A Replication And Extension Study, Douglas H. Clements, Yixiao Dong, Crystal A. Day-Hess, Julie Sarama

Early Childhood Special Education: Faculty Scholarship

Developing solution strategies, effortful procedures that students employ to solve a specific problem, is an important mathematical goal. Studies have documented intraindividual strategy variability and its significance for learning, but only some have addressed the interindividual strategic diversity across students within a classroom. This study analyzed classroom strategy diversity using assessments of 527 kindergartens to 2nd-grade students. Latent growth modeling analysis revealed that the best fit was a spline model featuring two phases of linear growth with different growth rates (i.e., one in Kindergarten, the other from Kindergarten spring to second grade). A growth mixture modeling analysis demonstrated that only …

Transforming Libraries Through Engagement: Lessons From A Library Ai Interest Group, Lily Dubach, Rachel Vacek

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Learn how one academic library is engaging with its employees to explore the latest trends, tools, and topics in AI through an interest group (IG). Through stimulating discussions, webinars, guest speakers, demos, and sharing of experiences with AI, the IG empowers its library community to explore and become more comfortable with AI. This session caters to varying levels of AI expertise. Challenges, successes, and valuable insights for deeper engagement will be shared so you can learn how to establish a similar initiative in your library.

07.08.2024 Orsp Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

NSF research infrastructure, IDS (Institute for Data Science), NSF Mentoring Plan Requirement, NSF Pilot for Startups and Small Businesses

Insights On Strategy And Approach For China To Construct A Modern Integrated Circuits Industrial System, Ximing Yin, Beibei Zhang, Tailun Chen, Jiang Yu, Jin Chen

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The integrated circuit (IC) industry is highly complex and systematic, and its key core technology breakthroughs are highly dependent on the support of systematic capabilities. The West especially the United States has accelerated the promotion of the “small-yard, high-fence” strategy, the “New Washington Consensus”, the “de-risking”, and other systematic policies to curb China’s rise. China’s IC industry chain is facing extreme risks such as rupture or blockage. Meanwhile, facing the new mission and requirements of Chinese modernization and new-quality productivity, China needs to accelerate the modernization of the IC industry with new development paradigms, new strategies, and new approaches. Based …

Green Transition Situations And Development Suggestions For Upstream Petroleum Industry, Lirong Dou, Feng Gao, Yun Peng, Xi Wang, Liang Xiong

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In the current global energy transition process, which is accelerating overall but with further uncertainty, the global oil and gas industry is showing four major trends: a shift in business structure from oil and gas dominance to multi-energy complementarity, a shift in market structure from globalization to differentiation between the Eastern and Western hemispheres, a shift in policy orientation from radical transition to orderly development, and an expansion of technological innovation from traditional to emerging fields. Governments of various countries and international oil companies have made adjustments to policies, strategic goals, implementation paths, and other aspects based on their own …

Constructing Problemology That Is Symmetrical To Methodology—Taking Computer Science As An Example, Yuhang Liu, Yunquan Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Institutionalized scientific research encourages free exploration while emphasizing the organization and coordination of research activities. Nevertheless, overcoming dispersion and repetition in the research process is an urgent problem to be addressed. Taking computer science as an example, to implement the problem-oriented concept, this study proposes constructing problemology that is symmetrical to methodology. Methodology is the important manifestation of scientific and technological achievements, and symmetrically, problemology is needed by the scientific research community. The problematique is a crucial component of problemology, representing the level of understanding of problems within the scientific research community. Through problematique as a medium, it connects, bridges, …

Theoretical Connotations And Chinese Practices Of Nature-Based Solutions, Bojie Fu, Jun Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The global ecological environment is confronted with severe challenges such as intensified climate change, drastic reduction of biodiversity and land degradation, which seriously affect the sustainable development of human beings. These challenges promote profound reflection on the relationship between human beings and nature. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has emerged as an innovative concept of global ecological governance thateffectively responds to societal challenges. Its development has gone through embryonic stage, developmental stage and comprehensive application stage. Multidisciplinary principles such as restoration ecology and landscape ecology constitute the theoretical foundation of NbS. China has effectively integrated the concept of NbS with the construction …

Scientific Interpretation Of Notion That “Lucid Waters And Lush Mountains Are Invaluable Assets” And Its Case Study, Kai Fang, Chenglin Li, Sirui Zhu, Ling Zhu, Wei Wu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The notion that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” serves as a basis of thinking for embracing ecological civilization in China’s new era. This study makes an effort to define both ecological economization and economic ecologization, identify the typologies, and elaborate on the theoretical logic of interaction between them. By proposing such a conceptual framework, the study further looks back to the practical experiences in Anji County, the birthplace of the notion, by focusing on the practical logic of the interaction between them. Finally, the study comes up with policy recommendations for the notion: establishing ecological product markets …