Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Toward A Formalism Of Modeling And Simulation Using Model Theory, Saikou Y. Diallo, Jose Padilla, Ross Gore, Heber Herencia-Zapana, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

This article proposes a Modeling and Simulation (M&S) formalism using Model Theory. The article departs from the premise that M&S is the science that studies the nature of truth using models and simulations. Truth in models and simulations is relative as they seek to answer specific modeling questions. Consequently, truth in M&S is relative because every model is a purposeful abstraction of reality. We use Model Theory to express the proposed formalism because it is built from the premise that truth is relative. The proposed formalism allows us to: (1) deduce formal definitions and explanations of areas of study in …

Peering Into The Discourse Of Industrial Design Training Through A Sustainability Lens, Norman M. Su, Haodan Tan, Eli Blevis

Design Thinking Research Symposium

Now well established in HCI, the lens of sustainability may be applied to educational practices in industrial design and interaction design. By sustainability, we mean to include notions of mitigation of the environmental effects of climate change. In this paper, we present an analysis of student projects in a junior and senior industrial design class dataset. Drawing from discourse analysis, we examine how the industrial design classroom serves as a space to socially construct the philosophies and goals inherent in “good” design. We then examine how the lens of sustainability is implicated into the industrial design “way” as espoused by …

Finding Them Before They Find Us: Informatics, Parasites, And Environments In Accelerating Climate Change, Daniel R. Brooks, Eric P. Hoberg, Walter A. Boeger, Scott Lyell Gardner, Kurt E. Galbreath, David Herczeg, Hugo H. Mejía-Madrid, S. Elizabeth Rácz, Altangerel Tsogtsaikhan Dursahinhan

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Parasites are agents of disease in humans, livestock, crops, and wildlife and are powerful representations of the ecological and historical context of the diseases they cause. Recognizing a nexus of professional opportunities and global public need, we gathered at the Cedar Point Biological Station of the University of Nebraska in September 2012 to formulate a cooperative and broad platform for providing essential information about the evolution, ecology, and epidemiology of parasites across host groups, parasite groups, geographical regions, and ecosystem types. A general protocol, documentation–assessment–monitoring–action (DAMA), suggests an integrated proposal to build a proactive capacity to understand, anticipate, and respond …

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky

CMC Senior Theses

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past …

Curriculum Development For Computer Numerical Control Course, Brad Curry

Masters Theses

This study analyzed the past Machine Tool Advanced Skills Technology (MAST), and the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, Inc (NIMS) standards of workforce competency to be used to develop a curriculum, learning objectives and skill sets need by industry for a course on CNC machining. Instructional methods and strategies for delivery were determined for best practices. The coursework was designed and delivered, with an analysis of student learning based on learning objectives performed. Students were surveyed in regard to their understanding of the material covered in the course.

Categories of knowledge needed include machining knowledge about tooling and tool selection, …

Nets Or Vaccines: Malaria Vaccine Research, David Ernenwein

Pepperdine Policy Review

The global battle against malaria has seen many victories in the developed world but the undeveloped world and particularly Africa continue to suffer from this disease. The development of the RTS,S vaccine and ongoing research into additional vaccines have been touted as the solution to the crisis. However, the news of the successful RTS,S trial should be viewed with caution. Concerns over the effectiveness of the existing vaccine and the cost of further development may not be justified, especially given the known effectiveness of current treatment methods. This research must be watched carefully lest the allure of the vaccine blind …

Website Accessibility In Australia And The National Transition Strategy: Outcomes And Findings, Vivienne Conway

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In the most recent statistics, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2012, it was reported that slightly under one in five people stated they had a disability. A further twenty-one percent of the population (4.7 million people) reported that they had a long-term health condition that did not restrict their everyday activities. This total group of people who suffer either a disability or a long-term health condition numbers 8.9 million people, or over thirty-nine percent of the Australian population. Of the people reporting a disability, 3.7 million or eighty-eight percent of that group experienced limitations in the activities …

Organic Interfaces; Or, How Human Beings Augment Their Digital Devices, John Hunter

Faculty Journal Articles

It is a central premise of the advertising campaigns for nearly all digital communication devices that buying them augments the user: they give us a larger, better memory; make us more “creative” and “productive”; and/or empower us to access whatever information we desire from wherever we happen to be. This study is about how recent popular cinema represents the failure of these technological devices to inspire the enchantment that they once did and opens the question of what is causing this failure.

Using examples from the James Bond films, the essay analyzes the ways in which human users are frequently …

Skills Needs Of The Ict Sector In Tanzania, Deirdre Lillis, Fredrick Mtenzi, Diana Mauricaite, Said Jafari, Peter Manifold

Reports

Information and Communication Technology will play a critical role in sustaining the high growth rates experienced by African economies in the last decade. Investment in the ICT sector enables the creation of high quality jobs and acts as an enabling technology for other key industries such as agriculture, mining, finance, health and education. ‘New Software Economy’ models mean international location and company scale are less relevant and enable small organisations to compete globally in niche markets. Unlike many traditional industries which have heavy infrastructure requirements, the key resource of the ICT Sector is its people and the knowledge, skills and …

Automatic Domain Identification For Linked Open Data, Sarasi Lalithsena, Pascal Hitzler, Amit P. Sheth, Prateek Jain

Kno.e.sis Publications

Linked Open Data (LOD) has emerged as one of the largest collections of interlinked structured datasets on the Web. Although the adoption of such datasets for applications is increasing, identifying relevant datasets for a specific task or topic is still challenging. As an initial step to make such identification easier, we provide an approach to automatically identify the topic domains of given datasets. Our method utilizes existing knowledge sources, more specifically Freebase, and we present an evaluation which validates the topic domains we can identify with our system. Furthermore, we evaluate the effectiveness of identified topic domains for the purpose …

Semantics-Empowered Big Data Processing With Applications, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

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. We organize our research around the Five Vs of Big Data, where four of the Vs are harnessed to produce the fifth V - value. To handle the challenge of Volume, we advocate semantic perception that can convert low-level observational data to higher-level abstractions more suitable for decision-making. To handle the challenge of Variety, we resort to the use of semantic models and annotations of data so that much of the intelligent processing …

Flight Energy Management Training: Promoting Safety And Efficiency, Juan R. Merkt

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Poor aircraft energy management can lead to unsafe and inefficient operations. Despite their impact on safety and economy, energy management skills are not adequately taught or evaluated in civilian pilot training. This paper 1) addresses the need for better energy management training, 2) provides a conceptual and pedagogical framework for later curriculum development, and 3) suggests key attributes of an effective training program. To make the case, the study uses energy management to link safety and efficiency. It then synthesizes energy principles across disciplines and illustrates how such principles, once simplified, become powerful instructional tools. Finally, it suggests that an …

Flight Skill Proficiency Issues In Instrument Approach Accidents, Richard O. Fanjoy, Julius C. Keller

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Despite procedural modifications and advanced technology instrumentation, instrument approach phase accidents continue to be an issue in general aviation. This exploratory study details an analysis of instrument approach phase accidents that occurred between 2002 and 2012. Particular attention was focused on instrument proficiency check (IPC) currency for pilots involved in accidents during the approach phase of flight. An analysis suggests that more than half of instrument approach accidents evaluated during this study happened within three and half months of the last IPC. A leading cause of these accidents was failure to control the aircraft. Instrument training issues and potential follow-on …

City Notifications As A Data Source For Traffic Management, Pramod Anantharam, Biplav Srivastava

Kno.e.sis Publications

A common problem for cities of developing countries like India in managing traffic is the lack of basic automated instrumentation to track road conditions or vehicle locations. Still, to help their citizens make informed travel decisions based on changing city dynamics; many cities have an authorized, city-initiated, notification service in place to alert subscribing commuters about road conditions. Here, alternative means may be used to create informal textual notifications e.g., inputs from field personnel, citizen updates, and pre-authorized events from city calendar. In this paper, we show that collections of such notifications, when processed with information extraction techniques, can turn …

Measuring Intensity Of Laser Light Penetrating Flight Decks In Laser Illuminations, Randal J. Demik, Stanley Harriman, Ryan S. Phillips, Charles Crowder, Jennifer A. Pfeifer, Shane F. Mchugh, Steven J. Foster, Elizabeth R. De Waard, Michael Streit, Richard B. Antoniolli, Ernest W. Knight, David S. York, Jacob Luedtke

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Since 2005, reported laser attacks from people on the ground directed towards arriving and departing aircraft have increased over 300%. A laser aimed at the windshield of an aircraft startles a pilot and may cause injury. This study determined empirical evidence of laser intensity in the flight deck and the potential for harm to the human eye at various distances. Results of this study revealed that relatively low-powered lasers had measured intensity levels through cockpit windshields at the 200 and 500 feet distances that may cause damage to crewmembers’ eyes according to standards established by the federal government. At longer …

A Statistical And Schema Independent Approach To Identify Equivalent Properties On Linked Data, Kalpa Gunaratna, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Prateek Jain, Amit P. Sheth, Sanjaya Wijeratne

Kno.e.sis Publications

Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud has gained significant attention in the Semantic Web community recently. Currently it consists of approximately 295 interlinked datasets with over 50 billion triples including 500 million links, and continues to expand in size. This vast source of structured information has the potential to have a significant impact on knowledge-based applications. However, a key impediment to the use of LOD cloud is limited support for data integration tasks over concepts, instances, and properties. Efforts to address this limitation over properties have focused on matching data-type properties across datasets; however, matching of object-type properties has not received …

Mining Effective Multi-Segment Sliding Window For Pathogen Incidence Rate Prediction, Lei Duan, Changjie Tang, Xiasong Li, Guozhu Dong, Xianming Wang, Jie Zuo, Min Jiang, Zhongqi Li, Yongqing Zhang

Kno.e.sis Publications

Pathogen incidence rate prediction, which can be considered as time series modeling, is an important task for infectious disease incidence rate prediction and for public health. This paper investigates the application of a genetic computation technique, namely GEP, for pathogen incidence rate prediction. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional sliding windows in GEP-based time series modeling, the paper introduces the problem of mining effective sliding window, for discovering optimal sliding windows for building accurate prediction models. To utilize the periodical characteristic of pathogen incidence rates, a multi-segment sliding window consisting of several segments from different periodical intervals is proposed and …

Types Of Property Pairs And Alignment On Linked Datasets - A Preliminary Analysis, Kalpa Gunaratna, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Dataset publication on the Web has been greatly influenced by the Linked Open Data (LOD) project. Many interlinked datasets have become freely available on the Web creating a structured and distributed knowledge representation. Analysis and aligning of concepts and instances in these interconnected datasets have received a lot of attention in the recent past compared to properties. We identify three different categories of property pairs found in the alignment process and study their relative distribution among well known LOD datasets. We also provide comparative analysis of state-of-the-art techniques with regard to different categories, highlighting their capabilities. This could lead to …

Conversion Of Greenhouse Gasses Into Energy, Sarah C. Rippe

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

A New Hybrid Reality For Libraries, Pin Pin Yeo

Research Collection Library

Parag Khanna explored the different trends that have brought us to what he terms the “Hybrid Age”, which is digital, global, and as well as social. Libraries continue to play an important role in this because they are uniquely positioned.