Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Tell Me A Science Story: Transforming Engagement With Science Using Creative Nonfiction, Janell C. Walther

SciComm 2016 - Lincoln, Nebraska, September 23-24, 2016

“I definitely felt more engaged with the first one [creative nonfiction]and less tuned out because I had somebody interpreting their response for me. So when he was like “Oh, I was surprised” then I think “Oh, so was I, I was also surprised by the piece of information.” So I was more engaged with it personally even if I didn't retain all the numbers... “

“[The story] seemed more relatable I guess, as a normal, average, everyday person than a whole bunch of scientists talking about facts. Where the facts were still in here, the way that it was written …

Science Not Communicated Is Science Not Done: Present Your Science Powerfully, Melissa Marshall

SciComm 2016 - Lincoln, Nebraska, September 23-24, 2016

Great communication ignites a chain reaction. Discussion: Identify the best presenter of science that you have seen. What made that speaker so effective?

To excel in your presentations, you will need content , passion, and a sharp sense of the audience.

Science not communicated is science not done. Presenting your science powerfully requires mastery of three skills: Be Audience Centered, Filter and focus, Show your science

Becoming an audience focused speaker is one of the most powerful skills you can adopt. Returning to points of common ground satisfies audiences of different technical backgrounds.

Successful technical presentations require you to filter …

How To Talk About Science In The Face Of Religious Mistrust, Clay Farris Naff

SciComm 2016 - Lincoln, Nebraska, September 23-24, 2016

King Ashoka (268to 232 BCE). Ralph Waldo Emerson. Homer Simpson. Us and THEM. Timothy Gay, UNL Prof. of Physics. Ken Miller, Prof. of Biology, Brown. Richard Dawkins. Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis.

THEM = Truthful Humble Evidential Memorable

Theistic Evolution. Human Babies Barely Fit. The right & left laryngeal nerves take wildly differing paths. Progeria. General Theory of Relativity. Sun’s Gravity Bends Starlight. GPS & Relativity. Sugar vs. Fat. U.S. stock market. Pope. Dalai Lama. Epicurus.

Understanding How Intentionally Unplugging From Cell Phones Shapes Interpersonal Relationships And The Undergraduate College Experience, Jadelin P. Felipe

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of what motivated college students—the Unplugged Students—to intentionally use their cell phones less and how they understood the impact that unplugging had on their interpersonal relationships and college experience. Nine undergraduate college students from four private schools were interviewed in one-on-one semi- structured interviews. These students, considered non-users, provided a particularly useful perspective as these students made a conscious choice to counteract social norms and experienced both being plugged in and unplugged. Cell phones and the act of unplugging proved to make up a complex and more nuanced topic than …

Spice: A Software Tool For Studying End-User’S Insecure Cyber Behavior And Personality-Traits, Anjila Tamrakar

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Insecure cyber behavior of end users may expose their computers to cyber-attack. A first step to improve their cyber behavior is to identify their tendency toward insecure cyber behavior. Unfortunately, not much work has been done in this area. In particular, the relationship between end users cyber behavior and their personality traits is much less explored. This paper presents a comprehensive review of a newly developed, easily configurable, and flexible software SPICE for psychologist and cognitive scientists to study personality traits and insecure cyber behavior of end users. The software utilizes well-established cognitive methods (such as dot-probe) to identify number …

Analyzing Clinical Depressive Symptoms In Twitter, Amir Hossein Yazdavar, Hussein S. Al-Olimat, Tanvi Banerjee, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

350 million people are suffering from clinical depression worldwide.

An Evaluation Of The Acceptability And Effects Of A Computer-Delivered Values-Based Behavioral Activation Treatment For Depression Among Older Adults, Kellie Reynolds

Dissertations

Depression is a common psychological disorder among older adults and is associated with serious secondary effects to health and social well-being. Behavioral activation has been found to be an efficacious treatment for depression. However, there is limited research on the treatment effects of behavioral activation with older adults. In general, older adults under-utilize mental health treatments. Computer-delivered treatments have been developed to address access and under-utilization. The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the acceptability and effects of a computer-delivered values-based behavioral activation treatment for depression in older adults. This study consisted of two phases. Phase I consisted of …

What Motivates High School Students To Take Precautions Against The Spread Of Influenza? A Data Science Approach To Latent Modeling Of Compliance With Preventative Practice, William L. Romine, Tanvi Banerjee, William R. Folk, Lloyd H. Barrow

Kno.e.sis Publications

– This study focuses on a central question: What key behavioral factors influence high school students’ compliance with preventative measures against the transmission of influenza? We use multilevel logistic regression to equate logit measures for eight precautions to students’ latent compliance levels on a common scale. Using linear regression, we explore the efficacy of knowledge of influenza, affective perceptions about influenza and its prevention, prior illness, and gender in predicting compliance. Hand washing and respiratory etiquette are the easiest precautions for students, and hand sanitizer use and keeping the hands away from the face are the most difficult. Perceptions of …

Privacy And The Information Age: A Longitudinal View, Charles E. Downing

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

As information systems and data storage capacity become increasingly sophisticated, an important ethical question for organizations is “What can/will/should be done with the personal information that has been and can be collected?” Individuals’ privacy is certainly important, but so is less costly and more targeted business processes. As this conflict intensifies, consumers, managers and policy makers are left wondering: What privacy principles are important to guide organizations in self-regulation? For example, do consumers view the five rights originally stated in the European Data Protection Directive as important? Comprehensive? Is there a product discount point where consumers would forsake these principles? …

An Empirical Investigation On Ceo Turnover In It Firms And Firm Performance, Peiqin Zhang, David Wierschem, Francis A. Mendez Mediavilla, Keejae P. Hong

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Drawn upon upper echelon theory and organizational theory, this research proposes to examine the impact of CEO turnover in IT firms on firm performance in terms of both sustainable accounting performance and market performance. We find that CEO turnover is a significant determinant of firm performance, especially in IT firms. This paper contributes to the IS literature by investigating the CEO turnover impact in IT firms compared to other industries. This study also has practical implications by providing the guideline for IT firms on the CEO turnover policy. Such firms should place additional emphasis on their succession planning efforts.

Facebook Use Among African American And Hispanic Students: An Exploratory Investigation Of Perceived Academic Impact, Sathasivam Mathiyalakan, Sharon D. White, Jorge O. Brusa

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Facebook is one of the world’s leading social networking sites. It is pervasive in students’ lives and can impact their academic careers in a variety of ways. However, little research exists evaluating the use of Facebook in minority academic settings. An early step in this direction is to gain an understanding of how different student demographic groups use Facebook. An interest in further assessment of Facebook’s role in diverse segments of academia motivates the collection and analysis of Facebook-related data from minority serving institutions such as Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). This study presents …

Crowdsourcing Management Education Assessment, Owen P. Hall Jr, Charla Griffy-Brown

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Assessment is now at the center of the new business education zeitgeist. This focus is the direct result of feedback from the business community regarding the growing gap between their needs and graduates from many business schools. Recently this divide has fallen under even closer scrutiny because of increasing student debt and the growing controversy over return-on- investment. Today business leaders are looking for web-savvy, problem-solving graduates. To this end, AACSB and regional accrediting bodies are calling for the adoption of comprehensive collaborative learning strategies to better align graduates’ skill sets with the real needs of business. Crowdsourcing, which is …

Towards A Taxonomy Of Challenges In An Integrated It Governance Framework Implementation, Mathew Nicho, Suadad Muamaar

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The rapid adoption of IT governance (ITG) frameworks in organizations worldwide, along with the subsequent need to select and integrate overlapping ITG frameworks has presented practitioners with challenges in choice and integration of frameworks. In this respect, the purpose of this study was to explore the ITG frameworks integration (ITGFI) challenges faced by organizations worldwide; develop and test a theory-based integrated ITG challenges (IIC) taxonomy model created from extant literature; and validate and compare these with those empirically extracted from three case studies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results present the audience with a taxonomy of a prioritized …

Comparative Empirical Analysis On Computer Software Piracy Behaviors Between China And The United States: An Exploratory Study, Xiang Fang, Sooun Lee

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Using the data collected from several universities in China and the United States, which have drastically different piracy rates, economic development stages, income levels, and national cultures, this study aims to identify which demographic factors affect software piracy significantly. Totally, the dataset includes 600 valid responses. Multivariate data analysis, supported by Multivariate Analysis of Variance and Turkey’s test, reveals that among various factors, country difference and gender most significantly influence software piracy. In addition, this study offers recommendations on how to curb software piracy effectively.

Facebooking The Tanzanian Elections: Citizen And Party Campaigners In The Social Media Ecosystem, Deodatus P. Shayo

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The 2015 presidential election cycle in Tanzania featured social media networks in electoral campaigning. Citizen and party campaigners emerged and used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp mobile instant-messaging application to recruit and mobilise voters. This article attempts to examine the most recent explosion of citizen and party election campaigners on Facebook. The analysis focuses on their engagement with Facebook campaigns, and whether the use of this social media platform amplified the promotion of presidential candidates. The findings indicate that some presidential candidates were hardly visible on Facebook and could not get citizen and party campaign-initiated support. Some were actively …

Why Does Film And Television Sci-Fi Tend To Portray Machines As Being Human?, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper identifies, and attempts to explain, a lack of diversity in the way that cinema and television science fiction represents robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Through a qualitative content analysis of recent film and television portrayals, it is argued, that a limited and limiting vision predominates. This limitation may serve to ideologically reinforce the power of corporate elites. It may also hamper discussion and debate around technological possibilities and their relationship with society.

There has been a slew of entertainment productions since 2013 that represent AI and robotics. This work examines Her (2013), Transcendence (2014), Interstellar (2014), Chappie (2015), …

The Rise Of China's Hacking Culture: Defining Chinese Hackers, William Howlett Iv

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

China has been home to some of the most prominent hackers and hacker groups of the global community throughout the last decade. In the last ten years, countless attacks globally have been linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or those operating within the PRC. This exploration attempts to investigate the story, ideology, institutions, actions, and motivations of the Chinese hackers collectively, as sub-groups, and as individuals. I will do this using sources ranging from basic news coverage, interviews with experts and industry veterans, secondary reportage, leaked documents from government and private sources, government white papers, legal codes, blogs …

Underground Infrastructure: Planning, Development And Revitalization, Guoliang Meng

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

The challenges facing Liuzhou’s underground infrastructure system today are unlike any it has ever faced before. Frequent underground gas pipeline leaks and explosions are impacting the safety and quality of citizens’ lives. To develop a safe, efficient and economical underground infrastructure system, Liuzhou City will have to do three things: (1) create a unified administrative department for underground pipeline administration, (2) conduct a citywide underground pipeline survey by stages and create an information platform to share the underground pipeline data, and (3) develop a public-private partnership to construct a utility tunnel. The poster outlines these critical steps in Liuzhou’s underground …

The Social Implications Of Wellness, Mary G. Fisher

BU Well

This paper presents the existing health disparities between populations of varying socio-economic statuses in the US as part of a broader discussion of the modern wellness industry. The discussion highlights the threat modern wellness poses to the individual and society and the implications these threats have on the health and future of the US if the wellness industry is left unchecked.

Understanding The Human Domain: Modification And Utilization Of A Leopold Matrix To Assess The Impact Of Activity Based Intelligence And Open Source Information Or Other Proposed Solutions, Kenneth Sydnor

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The emphasis on understanding the human domain (HD) over the last decade of war, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency operations has provided opportunities to test multiple new tools, data sources and analytical approaches to age-old intelligence problems. While these tools were utilized in Iraq and Afghanistan with varying degrees of success, a comprehensive analytical method was not developed to assess the benefits of the proposed solutions and their impact on understanding the human domain. Given the paradigm shift away from an academic or scholarly way of viewing the Human Domain towards a nomenclature and understanding denoted in “physical” geography-type terms, what tool …