Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Decentralized Multimedia Data Sharing In Iov: A Learning-Based Equilibrium Of Supply And Demand, Jiani Fan, Minrui Xu, Jiale Guo, Lwin Khin Shar, Jiawen Kang, Dusit Niyato, Kwok-Yan Lam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has great potential to transform transportation systems by enhancing road safety, reducing traffic congestion, and improving user experience through onboard infotainment applications. Decentralized data sharing can improve security, privacy, reliability, and facilitate infotainment data sharing in IoVs. However, decentralized data sharing may not achieve the expected efficiency if there are IoV users who only want to consume the shared data but are not willing to contribute their own data to the community, resulting in incomplete information observed by other vehicles and infrastructure, which can introduce additional transmission latency. Therefore, in this paper, by modeling the …

Multiobjective Stochastic Optimization: A Case Of Real-Time Matching In Ride-Sourcing Markets, Guodong Lyu, Wang Chi Cheung, Chung-Piaw Teo, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Problem Definition: The job of any marketplace is to facilitate the matching of supply with demand in real-time. Success is often measured using various metrics. The challenge is to design matching algorithms to balance the trade-offs among multiple objectives in a stochastic environment, to arrive at a “compromise” solution, which minimizes say the ℓp-norm-based distance function (for some 1 ≤p ≤∞) between the attained performance metrics and the target performances.Methodology/Results: We observe that the sample-average-approximation formulation of this multi-objective stochastic optimization problem can be solved by an online algorithm that uses only gradient information from “historical” (i.e., past) sample information, …

Religious Stewardship And Pro-Environmental Action: The Mediating Roles Of Environmental Guilt And Anger, Shu Tian Ng, Kimin Eom

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Past research has found that stewardship belief can motivate pro-environmentalism among religious individuals. The present study investigates the emotional pathways linking religious stewardship belief and pro-environmental policy support. In an online experiment conducted with Christians in the United States (N = 604), we experimentally primed stewardship belief (N = 195) using a video that highlighted the human responsibility to care for God’s creations. We also included a control condition (N = 206) and a religion condition (N = 203), which presented a more generic religious message. As demonstrated in a mediation model, the stewardship manipulation (vs. …

Exploring The Dynamics Of Cross-Boundary Interactions In Qinglinkou, China: The Perspective Of Networks Of Second-Home Owners, Meiling Wu, Mengqiu Cao, Jiuxia Sun

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Cross-boundary interactions between second-home owners and local are complex over time–networks form and evolve within second-home owners and between owners and locals, each with its deliberately selective inclusion and exclusion. However, little attention has been paid to this phenomenon in the literature. This study, based on social network analysis alongside qualitative interviews, explores the dynamics of interactions between second-home owners and locals by analysing the networks formed by second-home owners in Qinglinkou, China. The ways in which second-home owners maintain and strengthen pre-existing networks with other owners and forge new links with locals, shape the cross-boundary interactions between the two …

Drivers Of Tree Canopy Loss In A Mid-Sized Growing City: Case Study In Portland, Or (Usa), Yunjae Ock, Vivek Shandas, Fernanda Ribeiro, Noah Young

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The benefits of the urban tree and tree canopy (UTC) are increasingly crucial in addressing urban sustainability. Yet, increasingly evident from earlier research is the distributional inequities of UTC and active efforts to expand tree plantings. Less is known about the dynamics of UTC loss over time and location. This study aims to understand the dynamics of UTC change, especially canopy loss, and to investigate the drivers of the loss. This study draws on a high–resolution dataset of an urban canopy in Portland, Oregon, USA, assessing changes in UTC from 2014 to 2020. By integrating demographic, biophysical, and policy data …

Utilizing Hyperspectral Remote Sensing For Saline Soil Assessment In The Emirate Of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Alya Hassan Aldhaheri

Theses

This study presents the application of hyperspectral remote sensing techniques to measure soil salinity. Soil salinity is a major concern in many arid and semi-arid regions, affecting crop productivity and ecosystem health. In most arid and semi-arid areas various levels of salinity can be encountered including sabkhas. Sabkha (salt flat) is a geological feature composed of saline and salt marshes that typically occur in shallow or coastal environments within arid and semi-arid climates. Traditional methods of measuring soil salinity are time-consuming and labor-intensive, making remote sensing techniques an attractive alternative. This study employed a hyperspectral sensor specifically the SVC-XHR-1024i to …

Effects Of Voice Pitch On Social Perceptions Vary With Relational Mobility And Homicide Rate, T. Aung, A.K. Hill, J.K. Hlay, C. Hess, M. Hess, J. Johnson, L. Doll, S.M. Carlson, C. Magdinec, I. González-Santoyo, R.S. Walker, D. Bailey, S. Arnocky, Bryan Choy Kwok Cheng, Li, Norman P., T. Kyritsis, Q. Atkinson, B. Jones, J. Koster, J. Burns

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Fundamental frequency (fo) is the most perceptually salient vocal acoustic parameter, yet little is known about how its perceptual influence varies across societies. We examined how fo affects key social perceptions and how socioecological variables modulate these effects in 2,647 adult listeners sampled from 44 locations across 22 nations. Low male fo increased men’s perceptions of formidability and prestige, especially in societies with higher homicide rates and greater relational mobility in which male intrasexual competition may be more intense and rapid identification of highstatus competitors may be exigent. High female fo increased women’s perceptions of flirtatiousness where relational mobility was …

Ux/Ui Hub: User Experience/User Interface Information Hub For Navigating College, Sydney Yae-Rhee Leia Kong

Graphic Communication

The User Experience, User Interface (UX/UI) industry has grown exponentially in the last couple of years. According to a PubMed Central journal article, Understanding UX Better, UX has attracted an increasing interest in recent years, extending the views on usability. This growth exists both in academic institutions and the technology industry, evidenced by increasing numbers of UX-related degrees at undergraduate and graduate levels and also by high job demand (Marques). With this new emergence, the Graphic Communication (GrC) major, specifically the concentration in UX/UI, has caught the attention of numerous prospective Cal Poly SLO students interested in front-end design and …

Sappling: An Interactive Platform For Creative Expression And Collaboration, Alex Aquino

Graphic Communication

Sappling is a new application that aims to tackle some of the shortcomings of traditional social media, which currently dominates the way we interact with friends and other users online. In its initial phase, we plan to target a certain demographic of people that we feel would benefit most from the platform, such as engineers or musicians. As a part of my project, I plan to help identify which group we want to target in this development stage, using survey data and other metrics to measure different groups and their likelihood to benefit from this new platform. As some research …

Adaptation Of The Client Diagnostic Questionnaire For East Africa, Edith Kamaru Kwobah, Suzanne Goodrich, Jayne Lewis Kulzer, Michael Kanyesigye, Sarah Obatsa, Julius Cheruiyot, Lorna Kiprono, Colma Kibet, Felix Ochieng, Lukoye Atwoli

Internal Medicine, East Africa

Research increasingly involves cross-cultural work with non-English-speaking populations, necessitating translation and cultural validation of research tools. This paper describes the process of translating and criterion validation of the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire (CDQ) for use in a multisite study in Kenya and Uganda. The English CDQ was translated into Swahili, Dholuo (Kenya) and Runyankole/Rukiga (Uganda) by expert translators. The translated documents underwent face validation by a bilingual committee, who resolved unclear statements, agreed on final translations and reviewed back translations to English. A diagnostic interview by a mental health specialist was used for criterion validation, and Kappa statistics assessed the strength …

Dawn’S First Light: A New Flag Rises Over Syracuse, New York, Andrew Frasier, Winn W. Wasson

Librarian Publications

In July 2023, after 18 months of community engagement led by local non-profit Adapt CNY and its Syracuse Flag Initiative, the City of Syracuse, New York, joined hundreds of other municipalities around the country that have improved their city flags. Based on a contributed paper about the Syracuse Flag Initiative that was presented at at the 2023 North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) conference, this article (reproduced with permission) appeared in the March 2024 edition of NAVA's quarterly magazine, Vexillum, The article delivers an overview of the Syracuse Flag Initiative's process and serves as a roadmap for other communities also …

Temperature Forecasts For The Continental United States: A Deep Learning Approach Using Multidimensional Features, Jahangir Ali, Linyin Cheng

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accurate weather forecasts are critical for saving lives, emergency services, and future developments. Climate models such as numerical weather prediction models have made significant advancements in weather forecasts, but these models are computationally expensive and can be subject to inaccurate representations of complex natural interconnections. Alternatively, data-driven machine learning methods have provided new dimensions in assisting weather forecasts. In this study, we used convolutional neural networks (CNN) to assess how geopotential height at different levels of the troposphere may affect the predictability of extreme surface temperature (t2m) via two cases. Specifically, we analyzed temperature forecasts over the continental United States …

The Accuracy Of Anal Self- And Companion Exams Among Sexual Minority Men And Transgender Women: A Prospective Analysis, Alan G Nyitray, Timothy L Mcauliffe, Cameron Liebert, Michael D Swartz, Ashish A Deshmukh, Elizabeth Y Chiao, Lou Weaver, Ellen Almirol, Jared Kerman, John A Schneider, J Michael Wilkerson, Lu-Yu Hwang, Derek Smith, Aniruddha Hazra

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA) annual incidence among sexual minority men with and without HIV is 85/100,000 and 19/100,000 persons, respectively, which is significantly higher than the overall incidence (2/100,000). Incidence may also be higher in transgender women. Since SCCA tumours average ≥30 mm at diagnosis, we assessed the accuracy of individuals to self-detect smaller anal abnormalities.

METHODS: Using convenience sampling, the study enrolled sexual minority men and transgender women, aged 25-81 years, in Chicago, Illinois and Houston, Texas, USA, during 2020-2022. Individuals were taught the anal self-examination and anal companion examination (ASE/ACE). Then, a clinician performed …

Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease And Related Dementias In Persons With Glaucoma: A National Cohort Study, Casey Crump, Jan Sundquist, Weiva Sieh, Kristina Sundquist

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Glaucoma is a heterogeneous group of optic neuropathies that potentially may be associated with other cerebral neurodegenerative processes leading to dementia. However, prior studies have been inconsistent. We examined dementia risks after glaucoma diagnosis in a large population-based cohort.

DESIGN: National matched cohort study.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 324 730 persons diagnosed with glaucoma during 1995-2017 in Sweden and 3 247 300 age- and sex-matched population-based controls without prior dementia.

METHODS: Cox regression was used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) for Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and all-cause dementia in persons with glaucoma compared with controls, adjusting for …

Multiple Proceedings And Abuse Of Procedure On Bri Disputes, Mariam Gotsiridze

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article argues that specific mechanisms and best practices should be adopted by different players in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) dispute resolution ecosystem to mitigate the risks of multiple proceedings and abuse of procedure. Specifically, (i) states should enhance their multilateral and bilateral treaty practices; (ii) arbitral institutions should enhance their arbitral rules as well as cooperate with each other; and (iii) states should direct more efforts to dispute prevention and amicable dispute settlement. This article will explain what these best practices and mechanisms are.

Quality Indicators In Surgical Oncology: Systematic Review Of Measures Used To Compare Quality Across Hospitals, Megan Mcleod, Kari Leung, C S. Pramesh, Peter Kingham, Miriam Mutebi, Julie Torode, Andre Ilbawi, Jade Chakowa, Richard Sullivan, Ajay Aggarwal

General Surgery, East Africa

Background: Measurement and reporting of quality indicators at the hospital level has been shown to improve outcomes and support patient choice. Although there are many studies validating individual quality indicators, there has been no systematic approach to understanding what quality indicators exist for surgical oncology and no standardization for their use. The aim of this study was to review quality indicators used to assess variation in quality in surgical oncology care across hospitals or regions. It also sought to describe the aims of these studies and what, if any, feedback was offered to the analysed groups.

Methods: A literature search …

Culture, Politics, And Economics: Alcohol And The Dynamic Social Environment Of Celtic Europe, Trevor Davidson

Undergraduate Student Work

Celtic culture in Iron Age Europe set the stage for many modern European nations and their cultural geographies. This paper seeks to question the connection between historical accounts of Celtic culture and the production and consumption of alcohol. In particular, the interactions between alcohol and the cultural, economic, and political of Celtic Age European populations is explored through modern archaeological sciences and geographic interpretation. From this research, a clear connection between regional environments and trends of alcohol production, trade, and flavor preference is demonstrated from thematic artifacts and bioarchaeological remains. Interactions between the southern Celtic tribes and Mediterranean cultures is …

Usaid Response To Ostp Memo, 2022: Public Access Plan (March 2024)

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

USAID response to OSTP memo, 2022: Public Access Plan (March 2024)

The Effect Of Water Pollution Regulation On Prices: Evidence From Wisconsin’S Phosphorus Rule And Sewer Utility Bills, Andrew G. Meyer, Zach Raff

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

In this paper, we estimate the consumer impacts of Wisconsin's “phosphorus rule”, which created the most stringent statewide water quality and effluent standards for phosphorus in the country. We examine how compliance with the rule affects real billing rates at sewer utilities in Wisconsin, providing the first empirical estimates of water pollution regulation on utility billing rates. We find that compliance with the phosphorous rule increases the average real sewer utility bill in our sample by 7–12%. Our results imply that sewer utilities pass through approximately $65.8 million to residential sewer rate payers annually, which is roughly ⅔ of the …

Trends In Sleep Duration In The Us From 2004 To 2018: A Decomposition Analysis, Jiahui Xu, Liying Luo, Alyssa Gamaldo, Ashton Verdery, Melissa Hardy, Orfeu M Buxton, Qian Xiao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Average sleep duration in the United States declined in recent years, and the decline may be linked with many biopsychosocial factors. We examine how a set of biopsychosocial factors have differentially contributed to the temporal trends in self-reported sleep duration across racial groups between 2004-2005 and 2017-2018. Using repeated nationally representative cross-sections from the National Health Interview Survey, we decompose the influence of biopsychosocial factors on sleep duration trends into two components. One component corresponds to coefficient changes (i.e., changes in the associations between behaviors or exposures and sleep duration) of key biopsychosocial factors, and the other part accounts for …

Cultural Context Index: A Geospatial Measure Of Social Determinants Of Health In The United States, Alaina M Beauchamp, Gordon C Shen, Syed H Hussain, Atif Adam, Linda Highfield, Kai Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Minority populations will continue to grow in the United States. Such pluralism necessitates iterative, geospatial measurements of cultural contexts. Our objective in this study was to create a measure of social determinants of health in geographic areas with varying ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity in the United States. We extracted geographic information systems data based on community characteristics that have known associations with population health disparities from 2015 to 2019. We used principal component analysis to construct a Cultural Context Index (CCI). We created the CCI for 73,682 census tracts across 50 states and five inhabited territories. We identified hot …

The Interplay Of Interdependence And Correlation In Bilateral Trade, Takashi Kunimoto, Cuiling Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Crémer and McLean (1988) show that the seller can extract full surplus almost always by an incentive compatible, individually rational mechanism in a single-unit auction model with a finite type space in which agents' beliefs are correlated and their valuations can be interdependent. We first show that this paradoxically positive result can be extended to a model of bilateral trades. To make it more realistic, we investigate when ex-post efficiency and ex-post budget balance in bilateral trades can also be achieved by an incentive compatible, individually rational mechanism. We identify a necessary condition for the existence of such mechanisms and …

Robust Inference On Correlation Under General Heterogeneity, Liudas Giraitis, Yuefei Li, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

Considerable evidence in past research shows size distortion in standard tests for zero autocorrelation or zero cross-correlation when time series are not independent identically distributed random variables, pointing to the need for more robust procedures. Recent tests for serial correlation and cross-correlation in Dalla, Giraitis, and Phillips (2022) provide a more robust approach, allowing for heteroskedasticity and dependence in uncorrelated data under restrictions that require a smooth, slowly-evolving deterministic heteroskedasticity process. The present work removes those restrictions and validates the robust testing methodology for a wider class of innovations and regression residuals allowing for heteroscedastic uncorrelated and non-stationary data settings. …

High Frequency Principal Component Analysis Based On Correlation Matrix That Is Robust To Jumps, Microstructure Noise And Asynchronous Observation Times, Dachuan Chen

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper developed the high frequency estimation for the principal component analysis (PCA) based on correlation matrix. This estimation methodology is robust to jumps, microstructure noise and asynchronous observation times simultaneously, which is enabled by the newly proposed Truncated and Smoothed Two-Scales Realized Volatility (Truncated S-TSRV) estimator. The general framework of our methodology is constructed based on the estimation of realized spectral functions with respect to the spot correlation matrix. A new asymptotic representation for the element-wise estimation error of the spot correlation matrix estimate has been derived, resulting in a new bias correction term which is much more complex …

Taking Pleasure In Distinction: Unlocking Specialty Coffee Preference, Ondrej Mitas, Danny D. Han, Belle Struijer, Lotte Willems, Thomas H. Chatwick

Journal of Global Business Insights

Specialty coffee, comprising a tenth of the global coffee trade, is distinguished by its strict quality requirements and traceable origins. The diverse flavor profiles of specialty coffee raise demands on providers to serve individual taste preferences. Prior research has not sufficiently explored how to predict customer preferences for specific flavor profiles or how these preferences influence behavioral intentions such as revisiting or recommending a café. This study hypothesized that customer involvement, the extrinsic factors of coffee experience, and culinary risk-taking would predict flavor preference, which would in turn affect behavioral intentions. In an experiment involving 47 participants, individuals tasted and …

Horse Racing And Historical Horse Racing’S Impact On The Kentucky Economy: Possible Hhr Saturation?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The Commonwealth of Kentucky currently has 5 thoroughbred racing tracks and 3 harness racing tracks (Kentucky Horse Racing Commission 2023 and Mint Julep Louisville 2021). As Table 1 below shows, the industry employees roughly 7,000 people (direct jobs), and these jobs annually support another 2,000 jobs or so throughout the state. These 2,000 jobs are jobs that are provided by the suppliers to the horse race tracks (indirect jobs) and jobs that are created by the spending of the race track employees and the employees of suppliers on food, housing, transportation, and clothing by vendors and retailers throughout the state …

“Safe” Annuity Retirement Products And A Possible Us Retirement Crisis, Thomas E. Lambert, Christopher B. Tobe

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This paper examines a looming possible crisis in many Americans’ retirement plans due to the proliferation of annuity products in their retirement investment portfolios. As defined benefit pension plans have almost completely disappeared as a means of retirement savings and have been replaced by defined contribution retirement plans over the last 40 to 50 years, a great number of private and public sector defined contribution retirement plans have become laden with insurance contracts called annuities. Of the remaining solid defined benefit plans many, through a process called Pension Risk Transfer are being converted to high-risk single entity annuities. Such products …

Military-Connected Small Business Profiles: Access To Capital And Resources Across Revenue Stages, Rosalinda V. Maury, Adam Pritchard

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This research brief presents a thorough analysis of the military-connected entrepreneurship ecosystem, detailing the progression of business development from inception to sustainability. Leveraging data from the NSMAE and bolstered by generous financial support from Walmart, it outlines the specific challenges and growth opportunities faced by military-affiliated small businesses. These challenges include navigating access to capital, overcoming operational hurdles, and seizing growth opportunities. This brief categorizes businesses into five stages—Foundational, Startup/Launch, Growth, Acceleration, and Sustainability—characterized by distinct financial conditions, operational challenges, and resource management strategies.

Can Neural Networks Reach Human Vision Levels On Object Recognition Tasks?, Luke D. Baumel, Mikayla Cutler, Matt Hyatt, Joseph Tocco, William Friebel, Nicholas Baker Dr., George K. Thiruvathukal Dr.

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Object recognition is a crucial function of biological vision; it allows us to draw conclusions about a visual scene that transcends the image formed by the retina. However, the task of object recognition quickly becomes a challenge when hindrances such as viewing angle, object distance from observer, illuminant qualities, and potential occlusions become active variables. Additionally, the diversity of visual features within the same category of object, coupled with the numerous contexts in which an object may be observed is demonstrative of the formidable task that is object recognition. Previous research showed a significant texture bias in Convolutional Neural Networks’ …

[Whm] Writers & Poets: Women Of The Rio Grande Valley & Their Works, Shannon Pensa, Special Collections & Archives

Library Display Posters

Each March UTRGV Special Collections & Archives recognizes the historical contributions and achievements of women to the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. This year we focus on women writers and poets and highlight their works.