Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

More Than Meets The Eye: Toward An Ontology Of Proximity, Laurie J. Bonnici, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Words cannot describe photographs in the same sense that key words or subject headings can describe verbal documents because words are not native elements of photographs. Words can describe anecdata – reactions and associations that might be functional. Some form of data is coded in some medium, transmitted, received, and decoded. Some forms of coding and circumstances of message making and decoding require little proximity of the recipient to the message maker, while some forms utterly depend on proximity. We explore 10 photographs and interactive data accumulated through interactive exhibition to explore proximity and functional meaning. These examples demonstrate three …

Too Hard To Find With Too Little Time: What School Social Workers Want In Online Resources For Evidence-Based Practice, Michele Patak-Pietrafesa, Natasha K. Bowen, Ashley E. Stewart, Michael S. Kelly

International Journal of School Social Work

School mental health practitioners, including social workers, are mandated through federal, state, and professional entities to provide evidence-based practices to students. Nevertheless, rates of use of evidence-based practices among mental health professionals in schools remain low, even as knowledge about effective practices increases. This study aimed to further knowledge about how to promote and support the use of evidence-based practices among school practitioners using online technology. School social workers attending a summer professional development event took part in focus groups exploring (a) their current perceptions of evidence-based practices, (b) their experiences finding evidence-based practice information online, and (c) their preferences …

Deconstructing Durin’S Day: Science, Scientific Fan Fiction, And The Fan-Scholar, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

An analysis of attempts by fans (including scientists) to either ascribe a Real World date or a consistent Secondary World date to the fictional luni-solar holiday "Durin's Day" in The Hobbit demonstrates the value of such "scientific fan fiction." In particular, such endeavors can increase the scientific knowledge of both the fan-author and audience. These examples can also be used in the classroom or outreach to demonstrate both the impressive level of Tolkien's integration of real-world science in his sub-creation of Middle-earth, as well as highlight the limitations of Tolkien's understanding (an educational endeavor in and of itself).

Automatic Description: A Novel Approach To Documenting Character Description For Consistency In Long – Form Prose, Samantha Akulick

Faculty of Applied Science and Technology - Exceptional Student Work, Applied Computing Theses

Currently, continuity editing for narrative fiction is performed manually. Many hours of human effort are required to comb through written works for inconsistencies. This study investigates the use of syntactic patterns of descriptions in narrative text and subject identification techniques like named entity recognition (NER) and coreferent resolution in narrative text as a step toward automated continuity analysis. This investigation involved examining natural English language to identify patterns used in descriptions and using natural language processing (NLP) techniques to identify those patterns and sentence subjects programmatically. Results were assessed by using the content of well-known works of fiction and two …

Detection Of Distracted Pedestrians Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Igor Grishchenko

Faculty of Applied Science and Technology - Exceptional Student Work, Applied Computing Theses

The risk of pedestrian accidents has increased due to the distracted walking increase. The research in the autonomous vehicles industry aims to minimize this risk by enhancing the route planning to produce safer routes. Detecting distracted pedestrians plays a significant role in identifying safer routes and hence decreases pedestrian accident risk. Thus, this research aims to investigate how to use the convolutional neural networks for building an algorithm that significantly improves the accuracy of detecting distracted pedestrians based on gathered cues. Particularly, this research involves the analysis of pedestrian’ images to identify distracted pedestrians who are not paying attention when …

Getting Serious About Games: A Study Of Work And Play Through Information Systems, Jeffrey K. Mullins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Play and games shape, and are shaped by, culture. They represent an integral and ubiquitous component of humanity. Technological advances are blurring the lines between work and play, and their increasing convergence requires deeper understanding. Organizations seek to harness the motivational power of games to improve instrumental outcomes but face numerous challenges in doing so. Extant theory struggles to inform practice on the use of gameful experiences to achieve practical goals. This dissertation presents three essays that explore the domain of gameful information systems (IS), defined as IS that are designed or perceived to afford or support user experiences similar …

Automatic Exposure Control During Computed Tomography Scans Of The Head: Effects On Dose And Image Quality, Stephen D. Osborne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automatic exposure control (AEC) is effective at reducing potentially harmful radiation doses without sacrificing image quality for many types of computed tomography (CT) scans. However, there is a need for more information regarding the use of AEC for CT head scans. This study was conducted at Johnson County Community Hospital in Mountain City, TN. Preexisting adult CT head scans (n)60 were randomly selected to form 2 stratified samples, (n)30 each. One sample used a standard protocol, and the other used a protocol with a mA-modulated AEC system, Siemens CARE Dose 4D. Causal-comparative analyses were conducted, and …

A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects To Data Being Active Subjects, Hans-Peter Plag, Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag

OES Faculty Publications

The exploitation of potential societal benefits of Earth observations is hampered by users having to engage in often tedious processes to discover data and extract information and knowledge. A concept is introduced for a transition from the current perception of data as passive objects (DPO) to a new perception of data as active subjects (DAS). This transition would greatly increase data usage and exploitation, and support the extraction of knowledge from data products. Enabling the data subjects to actively reach out to potential users would revolutionize data dissemination and sharing and facilitate collaboration in user communities. The three core elements …

Critical Reviews Of Flawed Research On Prostitution, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

A Pilot Qualitative Case Study Of Agricultural And Natural Resources Scientists’ Twitter Usage For Engaging Public Audiences, Jamie Loizzo, Catherine Jones, Abby Steffen

Journal of Applied Communications

Scientists are frequently asked to broadly share their expertise and research with a variety of audiences, beyond typical academic circles in their home disciplines. That could include developing community engagement programs, school outreach, leveraging online social networks, and other activities. The purpose of this study was to examine U.S. agricultural and natural resources (ANR) scientists’ typical science communication channels, their experiences utilizing Twitter for sharing their knowledge, research, and engaging in online public science discussion. Diffusion of Innovations theory and the model of science in-reach versus outreach guided this study. Researchers used a qualitative case study design. Data collection included …

Using Visual Media To Empower Citizen Scientists: A Case Study Of The Outsmart App, Megan E. Kierstead

Masters Theses

To be successful citizen science projects need to do two key things: (1) they need to meaningfully engage the public and they must also provide people with the tools, expertise, and/or training needed to participate in rigorous research that can be used by the scientific community. In some ways, these requirements are potentially at odds. Emphasis on rigor and expertise risks excluding members of the public who do not feel qualified to participate in esoteric or technically difficult scientific research. Conversely, projects that eschew rigorous methods in favor of wider participation might lead to bad data that cannot be used …

Your Data Primer, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

In their recent book Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne describe the 2018 Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal as a Three Mile Island moment for data stewardship. After years of sharing personal data without much thought about how it might be used or abused, the public is now becoming more aware of the need for clearer responsibilities and rights related to the collection, processing, and dissemination of personal information. “Data has always been important to society,” Smith and Browne point out, but “it has never played the role it does today … every aspect of human life is fueled …

Your Data Primer, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

Michael J. Paulus, Jr.

Cyber Metaphors And Cyber Goals: Lessons From “Flatland”, Pierre Trepagnier

Military Cyber Affairs

Reasoning about complex and abstract ideas is greatly influenced by the choice of metaphors through which they are represented. In this paper we consider the framing effect in military doctrine of considering cyberspace as a domain of action, parallel to the traditional domains of land, sea, air, and space. By means of the well-known Victorian science-fiction novella Flatland, we offer a critique of this dominant cyber metaphor. In Flatland, the problems of lower-dimensional beings comprehending additional dimensions are explored at some length. Inspired by Flatland, our suggested alternate metaphor for cyber is an additional (fourth) dimension. We …

Data And Identity: Notes Toward A Theology Of The Digitally Enhanced Self, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

In the HBO-BBC miniseries "Years and Years," a teenager named Bethany (!) comes out as transhuman and tells her parents she wants to “live forever as information ... [to] be data!” As information about us increasingly takes the form of digital data, we are all of us becoming data. Indeed, so much of our attention and agency is engaged with digital information in digital environments that the philosopher Luciano Floridi describes us as “inforgs” living “onlife” in an “infosphere.” Through nearly constant and ubiquitous patterns of digital interactions with human and artificial agents, we are creating digitally extended and enhanced …

Data And Identity: Notes Toward A Theology Of The Digitally Enhanced Self, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

Michael J. Paulus, Jr.

Technology And Hope, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

Michael J. Paulus, Jr.

In Search Of Psychiatric Kinds: Natural Kinds And Natural Classification In Psychiatry, Nicholas Slothouber

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years both philosophers and scientists have asked whether or not our current kinds of mental disorder—e.g., schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder—are natural kinds; and, moreover, whether or not the search for natural kinds of mental disorder is a realistic desideratum for psychiatry. In this dissertation I clarify the sense in which a kind can be said to be “natural” or “real” and argue that, despite a few notable exceptions, kinds of mental disorder cannot be considered natural kinds. Furthermore, I contend that psychopathological phenomena do not cluster together into kinds in the way that paradigmatic natural kinds (e.g., chemical …

Community Forest In Liberia: The Interface Between Sustainable Charcoal Production And Deforestation, Amavie Clement

Capstone Collection

The available data establishes a direct correlation between charcoal production and forest degradation and deforestation in Liberia. Charcoal is the primary energy source for Liberians, especially in urban areas where the bulk of the population lives. It is expected to be the mainstay energy source for years to come because it is affordable, accessible, and convenient to use compared to other forms of energy (i.e. electricity and petroleum gas). However, the current model of charcoal production, based on indiscriminate felling of trees, poses a danger to the environment as it results in widespread forest degradation and deforestation. Therefore, any successful …

Investigating Usage Of Social Media Platforms In South Africa, Adheesh Budree, Kaja Fietkiewicz, Elmar Lins

The African Journal of Information Systems

This study investigated the differences in usage of different social media platforms within the South African context, broken down by user characteristics, specifically gender and age, in addition to investigating the correlation between usage of differing social media platforms. This was carried out to determine which social media needs do the different population groups aim to fulfill when using different social media platforms. Based on the results, the study confirmed the existence of preferences between types of social media platforms and groups of social media platforms in South Africa, based on frequency of use by age group and gender. Social …

Mapping Intellectual Structure Of Published Articles In Information Retrieval During 1983-2017., Mozhdeh Salajeghe Prof., Adel Soleimani Pro., Mahdieh Khazaneha Mrs

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Today information and communication cause the daily growth of published information. Studying all scientific production content and structures for specialist in different fields and publications is impossible. This study aims to analyze the articles regarding information retrieval based on the concepts of co-occurrence network analysis and centrality indicators published in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science[1] during 1983-2017. This is a descriptive study, using Scientometric approach. Its statistical population contains all articles related to Information retrieval in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science during1983-2017. The scientific research on Information retrieval starts in 2002. Based on the scientific map of countries, …

9th Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium, University Of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center Postdoctoral Association

Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium Abstracts

The mission of the Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium (APSS) is to provide a platform for talented postdoctoral fellows throughout the Texas Medical Center to present their work to a wider audience. The MD Anderson Postdoctoral Association convened its inaugural Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium (APSS) on August 4, 2011.

The APSS provides a professional venue for postdoctoral scientists to develop, clarify, and refine their research as a result of formal reviews and critiques of faculty and other postdoctoral scientists. Additionally, attendees discuss current research on a broad range of subjects while promoting academic interactions and enrichment and developing new collaborations.

Animal Pain And The Social Role Of Science, Leslie Irvine

Leslie Irvine, PhD

Assuming that all animals are sentient would mean ending their use in most scientific research. This does not necessarily imply an unscientific or anti-scientific stance. Examining the social role of science reveals its considerable investment in preserving the status quo, including the continued use of animal subjects. From this perspective, the use of animal subjects is a custom that science could move beyond, rather than a methodological requirement that it must defend.

Transhumanism (Dot) Mil: A Bibliometric Analysis Of Technoprogressive Terms In Military Publications, K. Durwood Evans

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Has transhumanism influenced military thinking? Previous work found that transhumanist terms did not appear widely in military publications. The present work analyzes and improves on previous content analysis of transhumanist terms in military literature using the tools of library and information studies.

Knowledge Commons (2019), Michael J. Madison, Brett M. Frischmann, Katherine J. Strandburg

Book Chapters

This chapter provides an introduction to and overview of the knowledge commons research framework. Knowledge commons refers to an institutional approach (commons) to governing the production, use, management, and/or preservation of a particular type of resource (knowledge). The research framework supplies a template for interrogating the details of knowledge commons institutions on a case study basis, generating qualitative data that may be used to support comparative analysis.

Interactive Infographics' Effect On Elaboration In Agricultural Communication, Erin Burnett, Jessica Holt, Abigail Borron, Bartosz Wojdynski

Journal of Applied Communications

In public health, politics, and advertising, interactive content spurred increased elaboration from audiences that were otherwise least likely to engage with a message. This study sought to examine interactivity as an agricultural communication strategy through the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Respondents were randomly assigned a static or interactive data visualization concerning the production of peaches and blueberries in Georgia, then asked to list their thoughts in accordance with Petty and Cacioppo’s thought-listing measure. Respondents significantly exhibited higher elaboration with the interactive message as opposed to the static, extending the results of past research in other communication realms to …

Sedimenting Territory: A Political Geology Of Oil, Earth, And Spatial Politics In Turkey, Zeynep Oguz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Building on the recent turn to the material and earthly aspects of resources and political power in environmental anthropology and political geography, this work historically and ethnographically examines the kinds of territorial politics that oil’s materiality, geological qualities, and infrastructures have generated in Turkey. Despite being surrounded by oil-rich neighbors in the Middle East, Turkey’s domestic oil reserves supply only 7 percent of the country’s oil, all of which has been drilled in the Kurdish provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, and Adıyaman in Turkey’s southeast, where the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 for cultural …

Signals In The Black Stack / Geometyr Design Manual, Jason T. Scaglione

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The following white paper provides a critical accompaniment to my capstone project: the GEOMEtyr Design Manual. GEOMEtyr is a virtual reality to be made accessible as a mobile and web platform for the visualization of certain systemic elements of a utopic world that parallels our own planet’s geographies, polities, and climates. As such, the GEOMEtyr virtualization is designed to derive utopian space from the informational structures of our own world. The operations by which this may be accomplished are broadly described within the accompanying GEOMEtyr manual. The white paper, Signals in the Black Stack, elaborates vital world-building characteristics of informational …

The Internet's Invisible Cleanup Crew, Emily Drabinski

Publications and Research

Review of Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadow of Social Media by Sarah T. Roberts

Do Corporate Owned Adaptive Learning Platforms Perpetuate Banking Style Learning? Integrating Technology For Activism Into Transformational Sustainability Education, Tina M. Garner

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

We live in a world that tends to be controlled by corporations. The public school system should be wary of the problems that corporate control has on education. Even though public schools should not have corporate influence, the fact remains that they do, and this perpetuates Freire's banking style learning. Through time, the corporate influence in education was through educational materials such as book sales. Since the decline of the use of books and the growth of the use of technologies, corporations have followed suit through the sales of Adaptive Learning Platforms. Through leveraging the technology which students enjoy using, …