Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Determining The Degree Of Collaboration Readiness For Regional Transportation Systems: The Formulation Of A Model, Carol Farver

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify factors, both governmental and universal, that indicate the degree of readiness and/or potential for success of a government collaborative project in the field of regional rapid mass transportation. The study is important because collaboration has been recognized as a tool that can help address such challenges as demonstrating the responsible use of limited resources, anticipating converging technologies, and reacting to rapidly changing technologies. There was very limited availability of tools to assist in ensuring successful collaborations. Although tools have been developed that gauge the degree of collaborative readiness of a project, such …

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 …

New Directions In Hydro-Climatic Histories: Observational Data Recovery, Proxy Records And The Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions Over The Earth (Acre) Initiative In Southeast Asia, Fiona Williamson, Rob Allan, Adam Switzer, Johnny C. L. Chan, Robert James Wasson, Rosanne D'Arrigo, Richard Gartner

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The value of historic observational weather data for reconstructing long-term climate patterns and the detailed analysis of extreme weather events has long been recognized (Le Roy Ladurie, 1972; Lamb, 1977). In some regions however, observational data has not been kept regularly over time, or its preservation and archiving has not been considered a priority by governmental agencies. This has been a particular problem in Southeast Asia where there has been no systematic country-by-country method of keeping or preserving such data, the keeping of data only reaches back a few decades, or where instability has threatened the survival of historic records. …

50 Whys To Look For Genes: Pros And Complications, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers on Science in a Changing World

“Treating the audience as capable of thinking about the complexities that surround the application of genetic knowledge” was the tagline of a series of daily blog posts made over seven weeks in the fall of 2014, posts that included extended quotes from the recently published Nature-Nurture? No (Taylor 2014). This working paper is a compilation of those posts.

Investigating The Relationships Of Project Performance Measures With The Use Of Building Information Modeling (Bim) And Integrated Project Delivery (Ipd), David J. Kelly

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The relationships of project performance with the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) in the construction industry have not been decisively investigated. The potential effect of the technology and strategy on industry operations underscores the need for reliable information about project outcomes associated with their use. The review of the literature has identified discrepancies between the qualitative and quantitative body of work concerning the relationships of key project performance measures and engagement of BIM and IPD. Grounded in structuration theory, which holds that altered outcomes may result from organizational change spurred by radical events (e.g., …

Documentation Of Caddo Ceramic Vessels In The Texas Parks And Wildlife Department Holdings From Goliad State Park, Timothy K. Perttula, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR Research Reports

On February 6, 2015, three Caddo vessels from an unknown site or sites were documented at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Archeology Laboratory, where the standard suite of metadata was collected, accompanied by photographs and 3D models of each vessel. While the donor of these vessels remains unknown, stylistic and technological attributes can be used to posit the potential region of origin.

There are three 3D models included in this report of NAGPRA documentation. To manipulate, measure, and otherwise quantify variability in the models, this document must be downloaded, then opened in either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. These …

Introducing Crhr Research Reports, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR Research Reports

Intruduction to CRHR Research Reports.

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.

Virtual Conference And Meeting Systems: Resources For Online Connections, John Gottfried, Laura Delancey, Carol L. Watwood, Amanda Hardin

DLTS Faculty Publications

Librarians have always tried to stretch the limits of applicable technologies to create effective connections among researchers and resources. We thrive on the tools and tactics that help us do this, and we are always on the prowl for newer, better alternatives. This is one of the best ways we have of keeping high service standards in the face of shrinking budgets and skeletal staffing. Fortunately, there have never been so many technologies to choose from, and there have never been so many challenges calling out for technological intervention.

Hosting online instruction sessions is, for example, an excellent opportunity for …

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 …

Waste And Duplication In Nasa Programs: The Need To Enhance U.S. Space Program Efficiency, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The U.S. Government faces acute budgetary deficits and national debt problems in the Obama Administration. These problems have been brought about by decades of unsustainable government spending affecting all agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (NASA). An outgrowth of this fiscal profligacy is the presence of wasteful and duplicative programs within NASA that prevent this agency from achieving its space science and human spaceflight objectives. These problems occur due to mismanagement of these programs from NASA and the creation of these programs by the U.S. Congress and congressional committees. This occurs because congressional appropriators tend to be more …

Human Factors Considerations In Autonomous Lethal Unmanned Aerial Systems, Kristine Kiernan

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

The United States military is committed to the development of complete autonomy in unmanned vehicles, including armed unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The design and deployment of autonomous lethal UAS raises ethical issues that have implications for human factors. System design, procedures, and training will be impacted by the advent of autonomous lethal UAS. This paper will define relevant vocabulary, review the literature on robot ethics as it applies to the military setting, discuss various perspectives in the research community, address levels of UAS autonomy, and discuss implications for operator training, responsibility, and human-machine interaction. Familiarity with these ethical issues and …

Unmanned Insecurity: The Safety And Privacy Issues Of Unmanned Aircraft Information Assurance, Donna A. Dulo Ph.D.

Aviation / Aeronautics / Aerospace International Research Conference

Information assurance and computer security are foundational paradigms in ground based information systems. However, in the aerial realm of unmanned systems, information security often takes the proverbial back seat to high visibility issues such as safety and privacy. Yet, a secure unmanned aircraft is a basic tenant of safety and privacy in the operational arena. Information assurance and security that are enveloped into an unmanned aircraft protect the systems data, communications, as well as internal operations and permeates not only the aircraft’s systems, but also the system’s interactions with satellites, ground stations, and other aerial entities that share data and …

Research Data And Linked Data: A New Future For Technical Services?, Sherry L. Vellucci

University Library Scholarship

This book chapter examines two futures for academic librarians working in access (technical) services: deeper collaboration on data management with faculty and student researchers and expanded access to library resources on the Semantic Web. Both are concerned with data organization, discovery, access, and support of shared data beyond the library. The chapter examines many aspects of research data from the perspectives of researchers and librarians. It briefly examines events prior to the library's greater involvement with research data, looks at how librarians gained fundamental knowledge and skills to assist with the tasks involved with research data curation, and discusses why …

Cultural Implications Of Late Quaternary Environmental Change In Northeastern Texas, Michael B. Collins, C. Britt Bousman

CRHR Research Reports

Northeastern Texas is one of the most intensely studied archaeological regions of the state, principally for the two reasons that (1) archaeologically-rich Caddoan manifestations have long attracted interest and (2) many large land-modifying projects, such as reservoirs and strip mines, have occasioned environmental studies which include investigations of cultural resources. This greater amount of activity relative to other regions in the state has generally prevailed for more than a century (Guy 1990) and prospects are good that archaeologists will continue to intensely research the area in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, however, they will be hard-pressed to keep pace with the …

Using Photogrammetry To Document, Analyze, And Reverse-Engineer Grave Markers, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

There are a wide range of applications for three-dimensional (3D) data in archaeology, and a diverse array of methods for collecting and analyzing those data. In this article, free 3D photogrammetry software (Autodesk 123D Catch) is used to document a series of grave markers. The data are subsequently exported to Geomagic Design X to demonstrate and briefly discuss the various potential analyses that might be used to illustrate the effects of preservation treatments and marker degradation through time. Further, one marker is reverse-engineered, illustrating the capacity of 3D modeling to expedite the process of design, should elements warrant replacement. Additional …

3d Scan Data Of Caddo Burial Vessels From The Mcspadden Site Near Frankston, Texas, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR Research Reports

In the spring of 2013, three Caddo burial vessels from an unrecorded site near Frankston, Texas were documented at the McSpadden residence in College Station, Texas. All three vessels are intact and are not reconstructed. Scan data was collected using a ZScanner 700CX running VXElements 2.0 via the scanner direct control function in Geomagic Design X. Post-processing of these data occurred in Design X, and quality control for missing data leveraged both Design X and Verify. These data will be used in a study aimed at the 3D geometric morphometric analysis of Caddo vessels. In addition to the study of …

Table Of Contents (V. 27, 2015)

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

From The Past: Indians Of U.S. Spurn All Beads Except Italy’S

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Unattributed newspaper article, probably New York City (a shorter version appeared in The Review, Dayton, Ohio, Nov. 15, 1934). It presents both fact and some fiction, like the Czechs not being able to “horn in” and the Italian beads being made near Milan.

Elite Dress And Regional Identity: Chimú-Inka Perforated Ornaments From Samanco, Nepeña Valley, Coastal Peru, Benjamin Carter, Matthew Helmer

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

This article addresses two central components of the study of perforated ornaments recovered from archaeological contexts: 1) the explication and analysis of the relationship between perforated ornaments and identity production, and 2) the collection of data specific to perforated ornaments. By comparing perforated ornaments from the Chimú-Inka period (ca. 1470-1532) elite tomb at Samanco, Peru, to those from other sites, patterns in the use of perforated ornaments in identity negotiation may be identified and assessed. We demonstrate that perforated ornaments were deployed to demonstrate local, regional, and imperial identities, though in an ambiguous way that could have been mis- or …