Communication Commons^™

Finding Companionship On The Road Less Travelled: A Netnography Of The Whole Food Plant-Based Aussies Facebook Group, Robyn Chuter

Theses : Honours

Chronic conditions are now the leading contributors to the burden of disease and associated healthcare expenditure in Australia. Wholefood plant-based diets are an evidence-based approach to the prevention, management and even reversal of many types of chronic disease. However, numerous practical, cognitive, social and intrapersonal barriers inhibit the ‘mainstreaming’ of plant-based diets (PBDs). Online communities may provide the informational, emotional and social support to help members overcome these barriers. However, there is a paucity of research on both the support needs of people attempting to follow PBDs in Australia, and the role that online community membership plays in providing this …

Metrics For Evaluating Quality Of Embeddings For Ontological Concepts, Faisal Alshargi, Saeedeh Shekarpour, Tommaso Soru, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Although there is an emerging trend towards generating embeddings for primarily unstructured data and, recently, for structured data, no systematic suite for measuring the quality of embeddings has been proposed yet. This deficiency is further sensed with respect to embeddings generated for structured data because there are no concrete evaluation metrics measuring the quality of the encoded structure as well as semantic patterns in the embedding space. In this paper, we introduce a framework containing three distinct tasks concerned with the individual aspects of ontological concepts: (i) the categorization aspect, (ii) the hierarchical aspect, and (iii) the relational aspect. Then, …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 19 2018, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

New For Discovery: Scholarworks@Uark, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Message From The Department Head Of Horticulture And Food Science, Wayne Mackey

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

"What's Ur Type?" Contextualized Classification Of User Types In Marijuana-Related Communications Using Compositional Multiview Embedding, Ugur Kursuncu, Manas Gaur, Usha Lokala, Anurag Illendula, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Raminta Daniulaityte, Amit P. Sheth, Budak Arpinar

Kno.e.sis Publications

With 93% of pro-marijuana population in US favoring legalization of medical marijuana, high expectations of a greater return for Marijuana stocks, and public actively sharing information about medical, recreational and business aspects related to marijuana, it is no surprise that marijuana culture is thriving on Twitter. After the legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical purposes in 29 states, there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of drug-related communication on Twitter. Specifically, Twitter accounts have been established for promotional and informational purposes, some prominent among them being American Ganja, Medical Marijuana Exchange, and Cannabis Now. Identification and characterization …

Personalized Prediction Of Suicide Risk For Web-Based Intervention, Amanuel Alambo, Manas Gaur, Ugur Kursuncu, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Jeremiah Schumm, Jyotishman Pathak, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Across the United States, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 34, and younger people are more prone to mental health problems, suicidal thoughts, and behaviors. For instance, 80% of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder have suicide-related behaviors, and between 4-9% of them commit suicide. Moreover, the social stigma associated with mental health issues and suicide deter patients from sharing their experiences directly with others. In such a situation, social media that provides a free and open forum for voluntary expression can provide insights into suicide ideation and self-destructive behavior.

Reddit is a …

Feasibility Of Recording Sleep Quality And Sleep Duration Using Fitbit In Children With Asthma, Amit Sheth, Hong Y. Yip, Utkarshani Jaimini, Dipesh Kadariya, Vaikunth Sridharan, Revathy Venkataramanan, Tanvi Banerjee, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Maninder Kalra

Kno.e.sis Publications

Sleep disorders are common in children with asthma and are increasingly implicated in poor asthma control. Smart wearables such as the Fitbit wristband allow monitoring of users’ sleep duration and quality in their natural surroundings. However, the utility and efficacy of using such wearable devices to monitor sleep in pediatric patients with asthma have not been well-established. Thus, the objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of recording sleep quality and sleep duration using Fitbit in children with asthma.

Khealth Digital Personalized Healthcare Technology For Pediatric Asthma, Utkarshani Jaimini, Hong Y. Yip, Revathy Venkataramanan, Dipesh Kadariya, Vaikunth Sridharan, Tanvi Banerjee, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Maninder Kalra, Amit Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Episodic:Traditional Clinician Centric Healthcare

Questions to be answered:

1.Can we reduce the number of asthma attacks through continuous monitoring of the patient's health condition?

2.Can we predict the asthma attack based on the data collected from the patient?

3.Can we predict the asthma vulnerability score for a patient?

4.Can we predict the asthma severity level of a patient?

5.Can we understand the casual relationship between the asthma symptom and the possible factors responsible for it?

Personalized Health Knowledge Graph, Amelia Gyrard, Manas Gaur, Saeedeh Shekarpour, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Our current health applications do not adequately take into account contextual and personalized knowledge about patients. In order to design “Personalized Coach for Healthcare” applications to manage chronic diseases, there is a need to create a Personalized Healthcare Knowledge Graph (PHKG) that takes into consideration a patient’s health condition (personalized knowledge) and enriches that with contextualized knowledge from environmental sensors and Web of Data (e.g., symptoms and treatments for diseases). To develop PHKG, aggregating knowledge from various heterogeneous sources such as the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, clinical notes, and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) is necessary. In this paper, we …

Single And Pair Housed Chacma Baboons’ (Papio Ursinus) Response To Caregivers’ Use Of Species-Specific Behavior, Josefine Holm

All Master's Theses

Most captive primates suffer from stereotypical or abnormal behavior which can be reduced by implementing enrichment protocols. There is, however, often spatial or economic limitations to facilities’ enrichment programs, and implementing the most beneficial and cost-effective enrichment is therefore crucial to ensure the best welfare for captive primates. Social enrichment has been designated as the most effective type of enrichment, but often captive primates cannot be housed in social groups. Through this study, I wanted to determine if species-specific behavioral interactions between human caregivers and captive chacma baboons (Papio ursinus)would alter the baboons’ behaviors, and if these interactions could …

A Mixed Methods Sequential Explanatory Study Of Male Farmers' Health Beliefs, Attitudes And Practices In Rural Kerry, Chrystal O'Brien

Theses

Aim/Background: Beliefs and attitudes about health directly and indirectly influence concomitant behaviours, practices and health outcomes. In Ireland, male farmers are experiencing a disproportionate burden of ill health in preventable lifestyle diseases, yet there is a lack of behavioural research in relation to male farmers and their health. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the health beliefs, attitudes and practices of male farmers in rural Kerry, and to explore healthcare professionals' insights of male farmers' health beliefs, attitudes and practices.

Methodology: The study adopted a mixed methods design. Phase one of the study involved structured interviews with …

Examining The Credentials Of Food Bloggers And The Online Environment Of Food Blogs, Jessica Coburn

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study evaluated characteristics of food blogs and food bloggers that potentially affect food choices. It was hypothesized that most food bloggers would not have a nutrition-related degree and food blog environments wouldn’t be supportive of health-conscious food choices. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a novel evaluation tool on 187 blogs, out of which 100 blogs met inclusion criteria. Because some blogs had multiple bloggers, two samples were investigated: 111 bloggers (n1 = 111) and 100 food blogs (n2 = 100). Data were gathered from a randomized list of blogs taken from americanfoodbloggers.com. Results showed that 6% of bloggers …

Wildlife As Pets: Reshaping Public Perceptions Through Targeted Communication, Rosanna M. Vail

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

Watered Down: The Challenges Of Managing Water Resources In Montana, Beau E. Baker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Like much of the American West, Montana sits in the cross hairs of climate change. State drought resiliency projects and cooperative watershed management are on the rise in the face of decreased snowpack, early runoff, precipitation variability and lower seasonal stream flows. Population growth, land use practices, recreation and tourism all contribute to pressures on state water supplies.

Montana is faced with the arrival of invasive species that threaten the ecological health of its lakes, rivers and streams. State budget constraints and depressed agency capacity are hurting our ability to fend off these threats. There’s a lack of public education …

Animal Welfare Frames: How Social Media Messages Bridge The Gap Between The Protein Industry And Consumers, Olivia Norton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two articles in this thesis used content analysis to analyze and compare animal welfare related website and Twitter content of the top five animal protein producing companies in the United States. In the first article, the animal welfare website content of Cargill, Tyson Foods Inc., Smithfield, JBS® and Sysco were analyzed for persuasive frames, common topics, and key terminology to describe their corporate positions on animal welfare. Sysco’s main page devoted to animal welfare dominated the word count with 1,045 words, while JBS®’s main animal welfare page used only 265 words to communicate the company’s views. The most commonly …

Signature Whistle Production During A Bottlenose Dolphin Group Integration, Megan S. Broadway

Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins are an important species of interest because they possess a variety of abilities that are relatively rare in the animal kingdom, one being complex acoustic communication. Signature whistles - distinctive calls that are unique for each individual – are one of the most studied call types, but we know little about how these calls are used in various contexts, such as during an introduction. Looking at the socio-behavioral context in which signature whistles are used is likely the best way of learning how these whistles are used in a particular context (Caldwell, Caldwell, & Tyack, 1990). For this …

A Study Of The Urban Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) Population In Baton Rouge, Louisiana Using Social Media, Ahsennur Soysal

LSU Master's Theses

Foxes are timid yet resourceful animals that are integrated into many urban environments. Because they are elusive, collecting information about the number of urban foxes, their diet and spatial distribution, their interactions with the ecological community in their urban habitat, as well as residents’ response to them, is difficult. Involving stakeholders to participate in the data collection on wildlife via citizen science on social media is one way to overcome this complication, while simultaneously engaging residents in the ecology happening around them. Therefore, we used social media as the platform to engage the public to document and map the foxes …

Safe, Patricia Lent

Occasional Paper Series

The first four sections of this essay chronicle her attempts to make sense of September 11 in the succeeding weeks and months. The final section—”Corn, Beans, and Squash”—was written to and for her students at the end of the school year.

Gender Differences In Virologic Response After Antiretroviral Therapy In Treatment-Naïve Hiv-Infected Individuals: Results From The 550 Clinic Hiv Cohort Study., Andrea Reyes-Vega, Alejandra Loban, Kavitha Srinivasan, Stephen P. Furmanek, Conner English, Mary Bishop, Cathy Spencer, Daniel Truelove, Julio A. Ramirez, Anupama Raghuram, Paula Peyrani

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Background

Controversy still exists regarding gender differences in virologic response between treatment-na•ve HIV-infected individuals. The objective of this study was to evaluate gender difference in virologic and immunologic response to antiretroviral therapy in treatment-na•ve HIV-infected individuals. Methods

This was a retrospective, observational study of treatment-na•ve HIV-infected individuals managed at the 550 clinic who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) between January 1st, 2010 and December 31, 2015. Patients with available viral load and CD4 counts before and one year after initiating ART were included in this study. Virologic suppression was defined as < 48 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL, and mmunologic recovery was defined as a CD4 count increase of at least 150 cells/mm3. Dichotomous variables were reported in number and percentages and analyzed using Chi-squared tests and Fisher’s exact (whichever was appropriate). Continuous variables were reported as median and interquartile range (IQR) and analyzed using Wilcox rank-sum tests. Multivariate analyses performed were logistic regressions with adjustment for other covariates. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. R version 3.3.2 was used for the statistical analysis. Results

A total of 70 women and 90 men were included …

Luchadoras: Resistencias Contra La Violencia De Género Por Las Mujeres En La Región De San Ramón, Olivia "Livey" Beha

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This qualitative study describes the dynamic resiliency-building process against gender-based violence in two rural coffee-producing communities in the region of San Ramon, Nicaragua. It examines the methods and efficacy of economic empowerment and educational interventions facilitated by the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives Augusto Cesar Sandino (UCA San Ramón) in addressing gender inequality, preventing gender-based violence, and increasing access to resources for women in the cooperatives of El Privilegio and Danilo Gonzales. This complex ecology, comprised of the interactions between women, their communities, available resources, and institutions, is assessed through the lens of women’s individual perspectives as they engage in three …

Community Perception Of The Hiv Vaccine In Western Kenya: Acceptability, Potential Behavior Changes, And Views On Compulsory Vaccination, Deborah Keen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) suppresses the immune system by attacking T cells, leading to the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV affects over 30 million people around the world and 1.6 million people in Kenya. On August 18, 1987, the FDA sanctioned the first human testing of a candidate vaccine for HIV. Currently, multiple HIV vaccines—projected to be on the market in five to ten years—are being tested for efficacy and safety. The goal of this study was to explore opinions related to the HIV vaccine so that there is a guide for future policy development in Western Kenya. …

Humans As Prey: Coping With Large Carnivore Attacks Using A Predator-Prey Interaction Perspective, Vincenzo Penteriani, Giulia Bombieri, José María Fedriani, José Vicente López-Bao, Pedro José Garrote, Luca Francesco Russo, María Del Mar Delgado

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The number of attacks on humans by large carnivores in North America is increasing. A better understanding the factors triggering such attacks is critical to mitigating the risk of future encounters in landscape where humans and large carnivore co-exist. Since 1955, of the 632 attacks on humans by large carnivores, 106 (17%) involved predation. We draw on concepts and empirical evidence from the Predator-Prey Interaction Theory to provide insights into how to reduce predatory attacks and, thus, improve human-large carnivore co-existence. Because large carnivore-caused mortality risks for humans are comparable to those shown by other mammal species in response to …

Desert Pool {If Every Desert Was Once A Sea}, Karen Miranda Abel

The Goose

Desert Pool {If every desert was once a sea} is a site-specific art project by Canadian artist Karen Miranda Abel completed in 2016 while artist-in-residence at Joya: arte + ecología, an arts-led research centre situated in an alpine desert within a national park in southern Spain. The elemental installation represents an envisioning of the ancient sea that occupied the Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park millions of years before the current desert ecology, a time when its highest mountain peaks may have been islands.

Media, Institutions And Voting: Perceptions Of Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans: 2017 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

Conclusion

Rural Nebraskans most trust information received from local news sources (TV and newspapers) and public sources (PBS and public radio). They least trust information from social networking sites and Internet blogs. Most rural Nebraskans are somewhat or very confident in their ability to recognize news that is made up.

Most rural Nebraskans have confidence in their local institutions (public safety agencies in their community; public schools in their community; and voting and election systems in their county). On the other hand, over one-quarter of rural Nebraskans have very little confidence in the following national institutions: U.S. House of Representatives, …

Acoustic Signatures Of Habitat Types In The Miombo Woodlands Of Western Tanzania, Sheryl Vanessa Amorocho, Dante Francomano, Kristen M. Bellisario, Ben Gottesman, Bryan C. Pijanowski

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The Miombo Woodlands of Tanzania comprise several habitat types that are home to a great number of flora and fauna. Understanding their responses to increasing human disturbance is important for conservation, especially in places where people depend so directly on their local ecosystem services to survive. Soundscapes are a powerful approach to study complex biomes undergoing change. The sounds emitted by soniferous fauna characterize the acoustic profile of the landscapes they inhabit such that habitats with the highest acoustic abundance are considered as the most diverse and possibly more ecologically resilient. However, acoustic variability within similar habitat types may pose …

Discovering Explanatory Models To Identify Relevant Tweets On Zika, Roopteja Muppalla, Michele Miller, Tanvi Banerjee, William L. Romine

Kno.e.sis Publications

Zika virus has caught the worlds attention, and has led people to share their opinions and concerns on social media like Twitter. Using text-based features, extracted with the help of Parts of Speech (POS) taggers and N-gram, a classifier was built to detect Zika related tweets from Twitter. With a simple logistic classifier, the system was successful in detecting Zika related tweets from Twitter with a 92% accuracy. Moreover, key features were identified that provide deeper insights on the content of tweets relevant to Zika. This system can be leveraged by domain experts to perform sentiment analysis, and understand the …

Telling Fire’S Story Through Narrative And Art, Stephen W. Barrett

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Modern works by highly skilled narrative authors and artists have become increasingly useful for telling the story of wildland fire in the United States. Using unconventional means—and with partial funding by the Joint Fire Science Program—creative individuals have spawned some colorful and heartfelt messages that convey insightful information about wildland fire, climate, and other elements of nature to an increasingly receptive public. Recent narrative works by well-known authors, such as Stephen J. Pyne, and creative art pieces by well-established and emerging artists have helped depict fire in a new light to audiences that scientists may rarely reach. This issue of …