Communication Commons^™

Ua12/2/1 Healthy Living Guide, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special healthy living edition of the College Heights Herald.

• Moore, Brittiny. Sustainability Committee to Create a Healthier Campus Environment
• Matthews, Carly. WKU Addresses Food Waste in Beneficial Methods – Sustainability, Dining Services
• Sullivan, Tommy. Students Explore Different Ways to Get Up the Hill
• Mayo, Marcel. Students on SNAP: Hilltoppers Offer Insight Into Healthy Diet On a Budget – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
• Davis, Sydney. Group X Classes Offer a Nontraditional Workout – Physical Fitness
• Pettway, Shantel. Popular Versus Unpopular Foods on Campus – Dining Services, Restaurants
• Moore, Mollie. Where to Find the Best Vegan Food on Campus – Dining Services, …

Automatic Emotion Identification From Text, Wenbo Wang

Kno.e.sis Publications

Emotions are both prevalent in and essential to most aspects of our lives. They in- fluence our decision-making, affect our social relationships and shape our daily behavior. With the rapid growth of emotion-rich textual content, such as microblog posts, blog posts, and forum discussions, there is a growing need to develop algorithms and techniques for identifying people’s emotions expressed in text. It has valuable implications for the studies of suicide prevention, employee productivity, well-being of people, customer relationship management, etc. However, emotion identification is quite challenging partly due to the following reasons: i) It is a multi-class classification problem that …

Scalable Euclidean Embedding For Big Data, Zohreh S. Alavi, Sagar Sharma, Lu Zhou, Keke Chen

Kno.e.sis Publications

Euclidean embedding algorithms transform data defined in an arbitrary metric space to the Euclidean space, which is critical to many visualization techniques. At big-data scale, these algorithms need to be scalable to massive dataparallel infrastructures. Designing such scalable algorithms and understanding the factors affecting the algorithms are important research problems for visually analyzing big data. We propose a framework that extends the existing Euclidean embedding algorithms to scalable ones. Specifically, it decomposes an existing algorithm into naturally parallel components and non-parallelizable components. Then, data parallel implementations such as MapReduce and data reduction techniques are applied to the two categories of …

Evaluating A Potential Commercial Tool For Healthcare Application For People With Dementia, Tanvi Banerjee, Pramod Anantharam, William L. Romine, Larry Wayne Lawhorne

Kno.e.sis Publications

The widespread use of smartphones and sensors has made physiology, environment, and public health notifications amenable to continuous monitoring. Personalized digital health and patient empowerment can become a reality only if the complex multisensory and multimodal data is processed within the patient context, converting relevant medical knowledge into actionable information for better and timely decisions. We apply these principles in the healthcare domain of dementia. Specifically, in this study we validate one of our sensor platforms to ascertain whether it will be suitable for detecting physiological changes that may help us detect changes in people with dementia. This study shows …

Domain Specific Document Retrieval Framework For Real-Time Social Health Data, Swapnil Soni

Kno.e.sis Publications

With the advent of the web search and microblogging, the percentage of Online Health Information Seekers (OHIS) using these online services to share and seek health real-time information has in- creased exponentially. OHIS use web search engines or microblogging search services to seek out latest, relevant as well as reliable health in- formation. When OHIS turn to microblogging search services to search real-time content, trends and breaking news, etc. the search results are not promising. Two major challenges exist in the current microblogging search engines are keyword based techniques and results do not contain real-time information. To address these challenges, …

Executive Function Predictors Of Children's Talk, Jacqlyne D. Weber

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Relatively few studies have investigated the relationship between executive functioning (EF) and language development, and even fewer have researched hot and cool EF as a predictor language development. This study is an investigation into the relationship between EF and language development in preschool aged children. More specifically, the ability for hot or cool EF to predict language, this will be the focus of the study. It was found that hot EF was a better predictor of language development in preschool aged children.

"Time For Dabs": Analyzing Twitter Data On Butane Hash Oil Use, Raminta Daniulaityte, Robert G. Carlson, Farahnaz Golroo, Sanjaya Wijeratne, Edward W. Boyer, Silvia S. Martins, Ramzi W. Nahhas, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Trust Management: Multimodal Data Perspective, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Entity Recommendations Using Hierarchical Knowledge Bases, Siva Kumar Cheekula, Pavan Kapanipathi, Derek Doran, Prateek Jain, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Recent developments in recommendation algorithms have focused on integrating Linked Open Data to augment traditional algorithms with background knowledge. These developments recognize that the integration of Linked Open Data may or better performance, particularly in cold start cases. In this paper, we explore if and how a specific type of Linked Open Data, namely hierarchical knowledge, may be utilized for recommendation systems. We propose a content-based recommendation approaches that adapts a spreading activation algorithm over the DBpedia category structure to identify entities of interest to the user. Evaluation of the algorithm over the Movielens dataset demonstrates that our method yields …

A Case For An Ecological Approach And Against Language Commodification In Elt, Vinicius O. Souza

MA TESOL Collection

This paper aims to provide an alternative approach to the English language education practiced in many developing countries which can help reverse their current low-proficiency status, as revealed by standard international examinations such as the PISA scores and others. The author argues that this can be best accomplished by adopting an ecological approach to teaching which promotes language learning as emergent and socially situated phenomena, two concepts largely neglected by current teaching methods. In fact, many of these countries have long been dominated by an extremely commodified and cognitivist ELT market, where business interests have taken precedence over pedagogical considerations. …

Domain Specific Document Retrieval Framework On Near Real-Time Social Health Data, Swapnil Soni

Kno.e.sis Publications

With the advent of web search and microblogging, the percentage of Online Health Information Seekers (OHIS) using these services to share and seek health information in real-time has increased exponentially. Recently, Twitter has emerged as one of the primary mediums for sharing and seeking of the latest information related to a variety of topics, including health information. Although Twitter is an excellent information source, the identification of useful information from the deluge of tweets is one of the major challenges. Twitter search is limited to keyword-based techniques to retrieve information for a given query and sometimes the results do not …

National Collegiate Athletic Association Head Coaches' Satisfaction With Athletic Training Services 2015, Whitney Larson

Master's Theses

Athletic trainers and coaches have a significant amount of interaction regarding the care of an athlete. This communication and cooperation is necessary to providing effective care. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of satisfaction that head coaches have with those providing athletic training services across all three NCAA Divisions. Overall satisfaction and four satisfaction categories (professionalism, communication, knowledge/ability, and accessibility) were examined. A total of 40 head coaches from NCAA Division I, II, and III schools participated in the study. The instrument used was originally developed by Beer (2004) and was modified to fit the current …

Analyzing The Social Media Footprint Of Street Gangs, Sanjaya Wijeratne, Derek Doran, Amit P. Sheth, Jack Dustin

Kno.e.sis Publications

Gangs utilize social media as a way to maintain threatening virtual presences, to communicate about their activities, and to intimidate others. Such usage has gained the attention of many justice service agencies that wish to create better crime prevention and judicial services. However, these agencies use analysis methods that are labor intensive and only lead to basic, qualitative data interpretations. This paper presents the architecture of a modern platform to discover the structure, function, and operation of gangs through the lens of social media. Preliminary analysis of social media posts shared in the greater Chicago, IL region demonstrate the platform’s …

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …

Manipulating The Mass Distribution Of A Golf Putter, Paul J. Hessler Jr.

Senior Honors Projects

Putting may appear to be the easiest but is actually the most technically challenging part of the game of golf. The ideal putting stroke will remain parallel to its desired trajectory both in the reverse and forward direction when the putter head is within six inches of the ball. Deviation from this concept will cause a cut or sidespin on the ball that will affect the path the ball will travel.

Club design plays a large part in how well a player will be able to achieve a straight back and straight through club head path near impact; specifically the …

Big Data And Smart Cities, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Consumer Inferences Of Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Claims On Packaged Foods, Gaeul Kim

Open Access Theses

With the growing public demands in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the food industry, CSR claims have begun to appear on food packages, as companies started communicating their CSR initiatives to consumers. Although food packages emerged as an important CSR communication tool, consumers' processing of CSR claims and the effects of these claims on product evaluations still remain unknown. In this regard, the present study carries two important research questions. First, do non-health/nutrition-related CSR claims influence consumers' product evaluations, such as perceived health benefits or tastes? If so, how does the effect of CSR claims differ by type of CSR …

Context-Driven Automatic Subgraph Creation For Literature-Based Discovery, Delroy H. Cameron, Ramakanth Kavuluru, Thomas Rindflesch, Amit P. Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Olivier Bodenreider

Kno.e.sis Publications

Background: Literature-based discovery (LBD) is characterized by uncovering hidden associations in non-interacting scientific literature. Prior approaches to LBD include use of: 1) domain expertise and structured background knowledge to manually filter and explore the literature, 2) distributional statistics and graph-theoretic measures to rank interesting connections and 3) heuristics to help eliminate spurious connections. However, manual approaches to LBD are not scalable and purely distributional approaches may not be sufficient to obtain insights into the meaning of poorly understood associations. While several graph-based approaches have the potential to elucidate associations, their effectiveness has not been fully demonstrated. A considerable degree of …

Smart Data - How You And I Will Exploit Big Data For Personalized Digital Health And Many Other Activities, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

On Using Synthetic Social Media Stimuli In An Emergency Preparedness Functional Exercise, Andrew Hampton, Shreyansh Bhatt, Gary Alan Smith, Jeremy S. Brunn, Hemant Purohit, Valerie L. Shalin, John M. Flach, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper details the creation and use of a massive (over 32,000 messages) artificially constructed 'Twitter' microblog stream for a regional emergency preparedness functional exercise. By combining microblog conversion, manual production, and a control set, we created a web based information stream providing valid, misleading, and irrelevant information to public information officers (PIOs) representing hospitals, fire departments, the local Red Cross, and city and county government officials. PIOs searched, monitored, and (through conventional channels) verified potentially actionable information that could then be redistributed through a personalized screen name. Our case study of a key PIO reveals several capabilities that social …

2015 Oklahoma Research Day Full Program, Northeastern State University

Oklahoma Research Day Abstracts

This document contains all abstracts from the 2015 Oklahoma Research Day held at Northeastern State University.

Gender-Based Violence In 140 Characters Or Fewer: A #Bigdata Case Study Of Twitter, Hemant Purohit, Tanvi Banerjee, Andrew Hampton, Valerie L. Shalin, Nayanesh Bhandutia, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Public institutions are increasingly reliant on data from social media sites to measure public attitude and provide timely public engagement. Such reliance includes the exploration of public views on important social issues such as gender-based violence (GBV). In this study, we examine big (social) data consisting of nearly fourteen million tweets collected from Twitter over a period of ten months to analyze public opinion regarding GBV, highlighting the nature of tweeting practices by geographical location and gender. We demonstrate the utility of Computational Social Science to mine insight from the corpus while accounting for the influence of both transient events …

Ua12/2/2 2015 Talisman: Resurgence, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

2015 Talisman yearbook.

• Osborne Sam. Into the Woods – Big To-Do Music & Arts Festival
• Spalding, Shelley. The Outliers – Greeks
• Badjie, Haddy. The Right to Live – Racism
• Gibson, Helen. Net Worth – Soccer
• Greer, John. Sustaining Seasons – Sustainability
• Wegert, Sally. Bloom – Eva Ross
• Cislo, Everett. Harvest – Hemp
• Kolb, William. Preserve – John All
• Voorhees, Jessica. Making Strides – Track & Field
• Greer, John. The Science Guy – Bill Nye
• Cole, Tanner. Lip Service – Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Belknap, Abby. Race to the Senate
• Gibson, Helen. Game of Loans – Student Financial Aid
• Belknap, Abby. …

Knowledge Enabled Approach To Predict The Location Of Twitter Users, Revathy Krishnamurthy, Pavan Kapanipathi, Amit P. Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

Knowledge bases have been used to improve performance in applications ranging from web search and event detection to entity recognition and disambiguation. More recently, knowledge bases have been used to analyze social data. A key challenge in social data analysis has been the identification of the geographic location of online users in a social network such as Twitter. Existing approaches to predict the location of users, based on their tweets, rely solely on social media features or probabilistic language models. These approaches are supervised and require large training dataset of geo-tagged tweets to build their models. As most Twitter users …

Mining Behavior Of Citizen Sensor Communities To Improve Cooperation With Organizational Actors, Hemant Purohit

Kno.e.sis Publications

Web 2.0 (social media) provides a natural platform for dynamic emergence of citizen (as) sensor communities, where the citizens generate content for sharing information and engaging in discussions. Such a citizen sensor community (CSC) has stated or implied goals that are helpful in the work of formal organizations, such as an emergency management unit, for prioritizing their response needs. This research addresses questions related to design of a cooperative system of organizations and citizens in CSC. Prior research by social scientists in a limited offline and online environment has provided a foundation for research on cooperative behavior challenges, including ‘ …

The Use Of Oral History And Narrative Research In Broadening The Historical Foundation Of The Agricultural Communication Field, Natalie L Federer

Open Access Dissertations

The historical foundation of the agricultural communication community (consisting of both academics and the profession) is shallow and void of humanistic perspective, and there is a minimal amount of historical content that focuses on academic and professional history. The need to explore and interpret historical dimensions of this field is vital to further development of the discipline as an academic and professional field. Oral history was utilized to capture and preserve the interview content from a small sample of agricultural communication and Extension professionals and faculty while narrative research, interpretative theory, and constructivism were utilized to further understand and interpret …

Value Oriented Big Data Processing With Applications, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

We discuss the nature of Big Data and address the role of semantics in analyzing and processing Big Data that arises in the context of Physical-Cyber-Social Systems. To handle Volume, we advocate semantic perception that can convert low-level observational data to higher-level abstractions more suitable for decision- making. To handle Variety, we resort to semantic models and annotations of data so that intelligent processing can be done independent of heterogeneity of data formats and media. To handle Velocity, we seek to use continuous semantics capability to dynamically create event or situation specific models and recognize relevant new concepts, entities and …

The Impact Of Parents' Categorization Of Their Own Weight And Their Child's Weight On Healthy Lifestyle Promoting Beliefs And Practices, Allison C. Sylvetsky-Meni, Scott Gillespie, Trisha Hardy, Jean A. Welsh

Exercise and Nutrition Sciences Faculty Publications

Objective. To evaluate parents’ beliefs and practices related to childhood obesity and determine if these are influenced by parent’s perception of their own weight or their child’s weight.

Methods. Parents of obese (n = 689) or normal weight (n = 1122) children 4–15 years in Georgia, USA, were randomly selected to complete a telephone survey. Frequency of child obesity-related perceptions, beliefs, and practices were assessed, stratified by parent-perceived self-weight and child weight status, and compared using Chi-squared tests and multivariate logistic regression.

Results. Most parents, regardless of perceived child weight, agreed that child overweight/obesity can cause serious illness …

Extracting City Traffic Events From Social Streams, Pramod Anantharam, Payam Barnaghi, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Cities are composed of complex systems with physical, cyber, and social components. Current works on extracting and understanding city events mainly rely on technology enabled infrastructure to observe and record events. In this work, we propose an approach to leverage citizen observations of various city systems and services such as traffic, public transport, water supply, weather, sewage, and public safety as a source of city events. We investigate the feasibility of using such textual streams for extracting city events from annotated text. We formalize the problem of annotating social streams such as microblogs as a sequence labeling problem. We present …

Understanding Social Effects In Online Networks, Huda Alhazmi, Swapna S. Gokhale, Derek Doran

Kno.e.sis Publications

Understanding the motives behind people’s interactions online can offer sound bases to predict how a social network may evolve and also support a host of applications. We hypothesize that three offline social factors, namely, stature, relationship strength, and egocentricity may also play an important role in driving users’ interactions online. Therefore, we study the influence of these three social factors in online interactions by analyzing the transitivity in triads or three-way relationships among users. Analyzing transitivity through the lens of triad census for four popular social networks, namely, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Slashdot, we find that: (i) users’ interactions are …