The 50 most-cited articles in Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, 2016

This paper presents a new randomized approach to high-dimensional low rank (LR) plus sparse matrix decomposition. For a data matrix D ϵ ℝN1×N2, the complexity of conventional decomposition methods is O(N1N2r), which limits their usefulness in big data settings (r is the rank of the LR component). In addition, the existing randomized approaches rely for the most part on uniform random sampling, which may be inefficient for many real world data matrices. The proposed subspace learning-based approach recovers the LR component using only a small subset of the columns/rows of data and reduces complexity to O(max(N1,N2)r2). Even when the columns/rows are sampled uniformly at random, the sufficient number of sampled columns/rows is shown to be roughly O(rμ), where μ is the coherency parameter of the LR component. In addition, efficient sampling algorithms are proposed to address the problem of column/row sampling from structured data.

The employment of visual, auditory and tactile senses directly related to specific body limbs associated with task performance has been shown to give a person a perception of body ownership. However, there is much less evidence of the influence on body ownership of sensory data associated with parts of the user’s body that are not directly associated with the task being performed. For example, if arms and hands are the functional parts in a first person perspective game, do other body parts such as the torso or legs affect the person’s sense of illusion in ways that can increase or decrease the sense of body ownership? To show the effectiveness of appropriate indirect cues to an irrelevant body part, we conducted a virtual mirror based experiment. Specifically, we created a virtual reality system that has four mirror-reflected body conditions in which a participant can see his or her real lower body, a human avatar’s lower body, a generic avatar’s lower body or no lower body in the virtual mirror. With this system, we observed the effects of each condition on the user’s sense of…

Deterioration of road infrastructure arises from aging and various other factors. Consequently, inspection and maintenance have been a serious worldwide problem. In the United States, degradation of concrete bridge decks is a widespread problem among several bridge components. In order to prevent the impending degradation of bridges, periodic inspection and proper maintenance are indispensable. However, the transportation system faces unprecedented challenges because the number of aging bridges is increasing under limited resources, both in terms of budget and personnel. Therefore, innovative technologies and processes that enable bridge owners to inspect and evaluate bridge conditions more effectively and efficiently with less human and monetary resources are desired. Traditionally, qualified engineers and inspectors implemented hammer sounding and/or chain drag, and visual inspection for concrete bridge deck evaluations, but these methods require substantial field labor, experience, and lane closures for bridge deck inspections. Under these circumstances, Non-Destructive…

A proper edge-coloring of a graph G by positive integers is called an interval edge-coloring if the colors assigned to the edges incident to any vertex in G are consecutive (i.e., those colors form an interval of integers). The notion of interval edge-colorings was first introduced by Asratian and Kamalian in 1987, motivated by the problem of finding compact school timetables. In 1992, Hansen described another scenario using interval edge-colorings to schedule parent-teacher conferences so that every person's conferences occur in consecutive slots. A solution exists if and only if the bipartite graph with vertices for parents and teachers, and edges for the required meetings, has an interval edge-coloring. A well-known result of Vizing states that for any simple graph G, χ0(G) ≤ ∆(G)+1, where χ0(G) and ∆(G) denote the edge-chromatic number and maximum degree of G, respectively. A graph G is called class 1 if χ0(G) = ∆(G), and class 2 if χ0(G) = ∆(G) + 1. One can see that any graph admitting an interval edge-coloring must be of class 1, and thus every graph of class 2 does not have…

Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) conservation practices permitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), under authority of the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, include translocations in which eggs or turtles are taken into captivity for various reasons and intervals, and turtles are later released into coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) or the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWAO). In 2013, the IUCN Species Survival Commission defined conservation translocation as the deliberate movement of organisms from one site for release in another, with the intention that it must yield a measurable conservation benefit at the levels of a population, species or ecosystem, and not only provide benefit to translocated individuals. Translocations of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles that are found injured, ill, or otherwise debilitated, then rescued, resuscitated if necessary, rehabilitated, and released into the GoM or the NWAO have not been evaluated to determine whether they qualify as conservation translocations. We refer to…

Human responses to an interaction with a Virtual Human (VH) can be influenced by both external factors such as technologyrelated limitations, and internal factors such as individual differences in personality. While the impacts of external factors have been studied widely, and are typically controlled for in application scenarios, less attention has been devoted to the impacts of internal factors. We present the results of a human-subject experiment where we investigated a particular internal factor: the effects of extraversion-introversion traits of participants on the sense of social presence with a VH in an Augmented Reality (AR) setting. Our results indicate a positive association between a condition where the VH proactively requests help from the participant, and participants indicating higher social presence with the VH, regardless of their personality. However, we also found that extraverted participants tended to report higher social presence with the VH, compared to the introverted participants. In addition, there were differences in the duration of when the participants…

Sequencing the ceramics in Guatemala’s Holmul region has the potential to answer important questions in Maya archaeology. The Holmul region, located in northeastern Guatemala between the central Peten lowlands to the west and the Belize River Valley to the east, encompasses roughly ten square kilometers and contains at least seven major archaeological sites, including two large ceremonial and administrative centers, Holmul and Cival. The Ceramic Sequence of the Holmul Region, Guatemala illustrates the archaeological ceramics of these prehistoric Maya sites in a study that provides a theoretical starting point for answering questions related to mid- and high-level issues of archaeological method and theory in the Maya area and larger Mesoamerica. The researchers’ ceramic sequence, which uses the method of type:variety-mode classification, spans approximately 1,600 years and encompasses nine ceramic complexes and one sub-complex. The highly illustrated book is formatted as a catalog of the types of ceramics in a chronological framework. The authors undertook this study with three…

Teaching and learning in the current milieu of standards-based accountability has resulted in a near-exclusive focus on academic growth and development for students in today's schools. This is particularly acute for gifted students, whose label inherently focuses on superior intellectual capacity and aptitude for academic success. However, there is a growing demand for equal support of social-emotional learning (SEL) across the globe. In the United States, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has shed significant light on the power of affective development for school-aged children, indicating that, without it, students are limited in their ability to reach their full potential. The proposed Taxonomy of Affective Curriculum for Gifted Learners is intended to provide a framework to reduce the disparity in focus between cognitive and social-emotional development for a population that requires affective support in response to the effects of asynchronous development as well as an inherent proclivity for heightened capacity for emotional intelligence and…

Companies have taken the initiative to be socially responsible over the years. In the past, the focus for companies has been on maximizing wealth. With the growth of corporate social responsibility (CSR), there has been many debates regarding its benefits. More companies are beginning to realize the value of being socially responsible and how critical it is to business function. This paper researches past studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance. This relationship is then tested using a reliable source of data on corporate social responsibility performance. This study uniquely looks at the accounting and market-based measurements of financial performance. The dataset includes most of the S&P 500 firms and covers years 2005-2014. An empirical model is constructed which includes factors that were found significant in the works of Capon, Farley, and Hoenig (1990). The relationships are tested using cross-sector/panel data time-series regressions. Results indicate that CSR and the accounting measurements of financial performance are…

The separation of memory and computing units in current Von-Neumann computer architecture leads to unwanted energy hungry data movement and insufficient memory bandwidth. Developing an energy efficient in-memory computing platform is promising to address such issues. Spintronic devices, utilizing electron spin as state variable for information processing and data storage, have demonstrated non-volatility, low power, zero leakage current and high area density advantages over conventional CMOS technology, which makes it an excellent candidate for future in-memory computing design. In this work, we propose a low power in-memory computing platform using a novel 4-terminal magnetic domain wall motion (4T-DWM) device, in which the proposed 4T-DWM device can be employed as both non-volatile memory cell and in-memory logic. The proposed design leads to the unity of memory and logic. Based on our device-circuit SPICE-level simulation, the proposed memory cell writing energy is one order lower than the standard one transistor one magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) based memory design with writing…

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Disasters are times when people tend to act with sympathy for victims and appear more responsive to calls for donations. In particular, major disasters stimulate philanthropic behaviour. However, motivations and behavioural patterns for individuals and organizations vary significantly (Martin et al., 2006). Individuals might approach disasters with empathy, but not necessarily with knowledge of how and what to donate. Corporations, on the other hand, may have quite mixed motives and may or may not have applicable expertise. Some establish deep, long lasting relationships with disaster relief agencies; many others make ad hoc contributions that may end up congesting the system since they are not organized properly (Zhang et al., 2009).

Toll plazas are becoming an essential part of the highway system, especially within the state of Florida. Many crashes reported on highways occur at toll plazas. A primary reason for many vehicle collisions happening at these facilities is the fact that each toll plaza agency has different design, signage and marking criteria. This, in turn, causes driver confusion and possible last minute weaving maneuvers. Even though the varying design of toll plazas is a clear highway safety factor, research in the field is very limited but expanding. This study focuses on one toll plaza, in particular the Dean Mainline Toll Plaza, located in Orlando, Florida. The toll plaza is located directly between two roads that are in close proximity of each other. Because of this, the toll plaza is very close to the on- and off- ramps, which can be even more confusing and stressful for a driver entering or leaving the highway. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficiency of the Dean Mainline Toll Plaza in order to make recommendations to improve or maintain the current toll plaza…

Wheelchair mounted robotic arms can help people with disabilities perform their activities of daily living (ADL). The autonomy of such a system can range from full manual control (both wheelchair and robotic arm controlled by the human) to fully autonomous (with both the wheelchair and the robotic arm under autonomous control). Many ADLs require the robot to pick up an object from a cluttered environment - such as a glass of water from a table where several other objects exist. In this paper, we concentrate on the task of finding the optimal position of the base of the robotic arm (which is normally a rigid point on the wheelchair) such that the end effector can easily reach the target (regardless whether this is done through human or robot control). We introduce the ease-of-reach score ERS, a metric quantifying the preferences for the positioning of the base. As the brute force computation of ERS is computationally expensive, we propose an approach of estimating the ERS through a mixture of Gaussians. The parameters of the component Gaussians are learned offline and depend on the…

This dissertation addresses some analytical and numerical aspects of a problem of weighted low-rank approximation of matrices. We propose and solve two different versions of weighted low-rank approximation problems. We demonstrate, in addition, how these formulations can be efficiently used to solve some classic problems in computer vision. We also present the superior performance of our algorithms over the existing state-of-the-art unweighted and weighted low-rank approximation algorithms. Classical principal component analysis (PCA) is constrained to have equal weighting on the elements of the matrix, which might lead to a degraded design in some problems. To address this fundamental flaw in PCA, Golub, Hoffman, and Stewart proposed and solved a problem of constrained low-rank approximation of matrices: For a given matrix $A = (A_1\;A_2)$, find a low rank matrix $X = (A_1\;X_2)$ such that ${\rm rank}(X)$ is less than $r$, a prescribed bound, and $\|A-X\|$ is small.~Motivated by the above formulation, we propose a weighted low-rank approximation problem that generalizes the…

In this work we consider the problem of surface currents suppression using graphene in the context of microwave cancer treatment. Most of the research on graphene has been focused on its applications at terahertz frequencies, and not at microwave frequencies. The use of microwave cancer ablation technique using a coaxial slot antenna is being limited because of the existence of surface currents which lead to the heating of the healthy tissues along its outer surface. In this work we propose to use graphene which is a single-atom sheet of carbon, as a solution to prevent the propagation of surface currents on the outer conductor of the coaxial antenna. We show that by properly designing and tuning the conductivity of the graphene layer, we can not only suppress the surface currents, but also control the amount of energy deposited in the surrounding tissue.

A good human videographer is adept at selecting the best vantage points from which to film a subject. The aim of our research is to create an autonomous quad-copter that is similarly skilled at capturing good photographs of a moving subject. Due to their small size and mobility, quadcopters are well-suited to act as videographers and are capable of shooting from locations that are unreachable for a human. This paper evaluates the performance of two vantage point selection strategies: 1) a reactive controller that tracks the subject's head pose and 2) combining the reactive system with a POMDP planner that considers the target's movement intentions. Incorporating a POMDP planner into the system results in more stable footage and less quad-copter motion.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women worldwide with an average probability for a woman to develop breast cancer in her life of about 12%. Among the large variety of medical assessment techniques, thermography has attracted attention in applications related to detection and diagnosis due to its capability to provide valuable information on the physiological variations typical of early stages in cancer development thus making possible to diagnose patients in early stages so more thorough examinations can be done in proper time and manner. This paper presents a digital processing approach that allows identification and subsequent isolation of the region of interest in thermograms based texture analysis of the image. This algorithm was tested on case studies thermograms exhibiting different types of cancer and the results showed successful identification and extraction of the region of interest in all cases. Results are presented with different types of cancer in men and women and different image angles showing the robustness of the proposed method.

Traditionally, the lithotomy position is the most commonly used birthing position in western cultures. The purpose of this literature review was to examine the differences in maternal and neonatal outcomes when alternative labor positions are used. Implications for future use of alternative labor positions were explored. Peer reviewed, English-language research articles published from 2009 to 2015 were included for synthesis. Study results revealed that the lithotomy position is linked to multiple negative maternal outcomes. Birthing in a water pool or in a lateral position has been linked to more optimal maternal and neonatal outcomes compared to other positions. Health care providers, and nurses in particular, should be educated on the benefits and consequences of both the lithotomy position and alternative labor positions. Using this evidenced based research, health care professionals can educate women and families as they encounter the birthing process. Further research is needed to identify additional birthing outcomes of labor positions, specifically neonatal outcomes of the…

Focusing on positive service encounters, this study examined the relationships among employee behaviors, customers' positive emotions, and subsequent customer behaviors. A comprehensive framework of positive service encounters and ten hypotheses were developed based on an in-depth literature review and an application of the theory of cognitive appraisal and the theory of positive emotions. The dissertation employed a survey design with measurements from previous research and collected data with Amazon Mechanical Turk. The target sample (N=299) was individuals that had a positive interaction with an employee at hotels over the last six months. The Structural Equation Modeling results suggested that employees' mutual understanding affects customer gratitude and employees' unsolicited behaviors and competence influence customer delight. Subsequently, customer gratitude has a positive relationship with customers' repurchase intentions and word-of-mouth. In addition, customer delight has a positive relationship with customer' repurchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth. However, the…

Manufacturing is a crucial element in the global economy. During the last decade, the national manufacturing sector loses nearly 30% of its workforce and investments. Consequently, the quality of the domestic goods, global share, and manufacturing capabilities has been declined. Therefore, innovative ways to optimize the usage of the Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) are required to form a new manufacturing era. This research is presenting a framework to optimize the design of SMS. This includes the determination of the suitable machines that can perform the job efficiently, the quantity of those machines, and the potential messaging system required for sharing information. Multiple reviews are used to form the framework. Expert machine selection matrix identifies the required machines and machine parameter matrix defines the specifications of those machines. While business process modeling and notation (BPMN) captures the process plan in object-oriented fashion. In addition, to agent unified modeling language (AUML) that guides the application of message sequence diagram and…

Safety is an essential issue for organizations to survive, especially for hazardous industries such as the construction industry. The construction industry is considered to be one of the major industries that help in the growth of the economy and the infrastructure of all countries. Recently, scholars have paid increasing attention to the concept of safety culture due to its role in decreasing the occurrences of accidents and injuries. Safety culture has become the focus of all industries and has received much attention in recent years, especially within the construction industry. Absence of this culture is a major cause of injuries and accidents in the construction field. In the construction industry, personnel's perception of safety culture is vital to prevent accidents or behavior misconduct. Also, focusing on personnel's safety culture on construction sites provides an opportunity to decrease risks and unsafe behaviors to improve the overall safety level. Workers' performance and behaviors are shaped by their awareness and view of safety culture inside their work environment.…

Because of the significant and sensitive role of verb tenses in learning English, the current study examined the occurrence of the twelve verb tenses that native writers (NWs) utilized in their selected academic papers at the college level. In doing so, the study created a baseline of relative frequency of verb tense usage that may benefit further studies, especially those connected with the teaching grammar to English learners. The main linguistic items targeted for tabulation in this study were the 12 verb tenses, modals, perfect modals, and imperatives. These items were elicited from an original corpus of 31 research papers written by undergraduate students studying at UCF. The total size of this original corpus is 103,181 words, with the length of papers varying from 1,964 words to 6,676 words. In order to analyze the data and facilitate a more accurate counting process, the researchers used a code coloring method. The results revealed that the most frequently used tenses were present simple, past simple, modals, and present perfect, while future progressive, future perfect, and…

This paper presents a novel 3D-printed low-cost, light weight, broadband and high gain planar graded index (GRIN) lens. The GRIN lens was designed to transform spherical wavefronts into planar wavefronts which can be used for antenna gain enhancement. Fused deposition modelling 3D-printing was used to fabricate the lens in a single process with bespoke radially varying relative permittivity. Measured results showed that the lens had a realised gain of 16 to 24 dBi over the Ku-band frequency range from 12 to 18 GHz when fed by a conical horn.

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The involvement of women in human trafficking within the United States has received limited research attention. Human trafficking encompasses labor, sex, and organ trafficking (Roberts, 2012). In 2009 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that women play a significant role in human trafficking. Nagel and Johnson (1994) conclude that, historically, female offenders have stayed at the edge of the criminal justice system. Generally, theories about prosecution and conviction outcomes derive from the study of male offenders. Women can be involved in all aspects of the human trafficking organizations, from the recruitment, to the supervision of prostitutes and to the finances. Pulling from the chivalry theory framework, this study used data sourced from the FBI on human trafficking offenders and their sentencing outcomes to compare the discrepancies between men and women. The current research adds to the existing literature by examining the gender discrepancy on human trafficking case outcomes. The analysis measures how gender influences court-related decisions.

The 21st century workforce is very different from the workforce of our predecessors. With the rise in automation and technology there are new demands that are being placed on employers to produce goods that are faster, more personalized, and more accessible. In order to meet these demands, this generation of employees must have a skillset that complements these demands. This skillset includes communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity (4C) skills. The problem of practice addressed in this dissertation is the lack of 4C skills among students currently in the K-12 education system, and the lack of opportunities students have to develop these 4C qualities. This problem was examined through a pilot study that was conducted in the context of a fifth grade setting in a small and rural school district in northeastern Florida. Teachers volunteered to provide a two-week unit of instruction to their students that focused on the development of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity (4C) skills within the context of state mandated curricular…

The first comprehensive synthesis of a major topic in Andean archaeology, this volume reconstructs the complex and situational motivations underlying ritual killing and the broader range of pre- and post-killing rites that were integral to ancient liturgies of violence.

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This study investigates the impact of the spatial dimensions and angle of orientation of automobile blind spots during side-sweep accidents. A simulation framework was created that models in detail the situational awareness and decisions of the driver (e.g., checking mirrors before initiating a lane change). The simulation takes into account the detailed position of the blind spots, which depend on the geometry of the windows and mirrors of the vehicle. Using this simulator, a study was performed to evaluate the correlation between the magnitude and the orientation of the blind spots, the frequency of side-sweep accidents in various conditions (e.g., traffic density and relative velocity) and time to change the lane. Also, the number of side-sweep accidents was studied depending on the percentage and how often drivers look before changing lanes and drivers who failed to check their mirrors before a lane change.

In this paper we focus on a scenario where one or several robotic bodyguards protect a VIP moving in a public environment from physical assaults. To provide maximal physical protection, the robotic bodyguards need to consider the movement of the crowd as well as the obstacles in the environment. We propose two algorithms: Threat Vector Resolution (TVR) for a single bodyguard robot and Quadrant Load Balancing (QLB) for multiple bodyguards acting as a team. We evaluate the proposed approaches using metrics of the threat level and movement dynamics. The simulation study compares the results of the proposed approaches against rigid bodyguard team formations for various crowd configurations and team sizes.

Nonverbal behaviors such as facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, postures and their coordination with voice tone and prosody have strong impact on the process of communicative interactions. Successful employment of nonverbal behaviors plays an important role in interpersonal communication in the classroom between students and the teacher. Student teachers need to improve their teaching skills, from communication to management, and prior to entering the classroom. To support these aspects of teacher preparation, we developed a virtual classroom environment, TeachLivETM for teacher training, reflection and assessment purposes. In this work we investigate the connections between gestures and vocalization characteristics of participants in a teaching context for two settings within the TeachLivE environment. We have developed an immediate feedback application that is presented to the participants in one of the study settings. It provides visual cues to the participant in front of the tracking sensor any time that she exhibits a closed stance. Identification of these type of…

Estimates demonstrate that 52- 92% of acquired learning is lost within a year following training (Arthur, Bennett, Stanush, & McNelly, 1997; Saks, 2002), wasting billions in organizational spending on training each year (Miller, 2012, 2013, 2014). As such, research on training transfer has garnered attention from theoretical and empirical research alike (e.g., Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Blume, Ford, Baldwin, & Huang, 2010; Ford & Weissbein, 1997; Tracey, Tannenbaum, & Kavanagh, 1995) to better understand the factors which enhance the process of training transfer. Among the various factors that have been identified as important, factors of the work environment have received much attention in the recent research. In fact, empirical work has shed light to the roles of organizational support and motivation to transfer in predicting training transfer. Beyond this basic understanding, research is needed to explore the nature of transfer in different evaluation contexts and the differential effects of various levels of support. Thus, the current dissertation uses meta-analytic techniques to…

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Culturally Mediated Writing Instruction invites students to take an inquiry stance toward issues of interest and significance—exploring issues, framing questions, gathering information, synthesizing findings into messages, publishing or presenting their findings, and assessing their efforts before moving on to other inquiries. CMWI can be seen as a rich and dynamic landscape of literacy tasks, routines, practices, materials, and dialogues that invites students to ask questions and to look for answers to those questions. Data from four high-school classrooms illustrate that CMWI teachers made interdependent and layered instructional decisions in response to students' needs, and that they provided mediation toward for primary goals or instructional targets: confidence and risk-taking; concept development and content knowledge; skills and strategies for meaning-making; and linguistic awareness and cross-linguistic transfer.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and almost every state DOT are showing extreme interest in the application of automated and connected vehicles (ACV). This combined application can significantly reduce crashes, energy consumption, pollution and the costs of congestion which in turn will offer a fundamental change to the U.S. transportation network and system. The objective of this technology assessment project is to evaluate the vehicle technologies, actions, laws and policies that are now in place and to assess their future usage. The assessment also evaluates the highest level of automated vehicles called autonomous or self-driving vehicles. In fact, autonomous vehicles are the area that is receiving the most interest from both the general public and government agencies. The project will also evaluate how electric vehicles (EVs) will participate in this future ACV transportation system.

For several decades amphibian populations have been declining. Historically, the bacterium A. hydrophila (Ah) was hypothesized to be the causal factor in amphibian disease and population declines. However, with the discovery of a chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) in 1998, which was identified on the skin of amphibians during documented mortality events, Ah research became of minor interest as focus shifted to Bd. Recent studies into the immunocompromising abilities of Bd, however, have opened new questions about its relationship with Ah and their combined effects on a host. In this study, I explore the relationship between infection with these two pathogens, Bd and Ah, in two amphibian species from distinct regions of the United States. I developed a novel qPCR assay to measure the microbial load of Ah on the skin of two anuran species, Lithobates yavapaiensis (N=232) and Pseudacris ornata (N=169), which have confirmed Bd infections. I use a logistic regression model to identify whether significant relationships exist between these two pathogens, disease, and…

Students’ frequent exposure to inquiry-based science teaching is presumed more effective than their exposure to traditional didactic instruction in helping improve competence in content knowledge and problem solving. Framed through theoretical perspectives of inquiry-based instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy, this study examines this assumption using TIMSS 2007 US eighth-grade student data. Data analysis revealed three instructional approaches, including more inquiry based, mixed, and practice based, were popularly practiced in classrooms. More inquiry-based instruction was not significantly associated with content and problem solving achievements across Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic American students. The mixed teaching approach had a significant positive relationship for Hispanic American student’s content and problem solving achievement. The relationship between practice-based approach with content and problem solving achievements of all three racial/ethnic groups were not significant. This study questions the popular assumption of the effectiveness of…

In 1912 journalist Marc Goodnow visited the pine forests of north Florida seeking information for an article he was writing on the turpentine industry. Goodnow’s findings, which appeared in an exposé entitled “Turpentine: Impressions of the Convicts’ Camps of Florida,” shocked the nation. In the article Goodnow described how he stood in horror and watched as a black convict was forced to be a “runner” in a deadly game of hide and seek. In this weekly occurrence, which trained camp dogs to track down escaped convicts, the man was given a five-minute head start and then required to lead the dogs on a chase through the swamps and saw-palmetto thickets of the forest. Goodnow described the chaotic scene: “Suddenly the baying of hounds grew near and raucous; every tree became a soundingboard—a voice in itself. Nearer and nearer came a great scuffling and crunching. A man plowed his way through the mat of dead leaves, grass, and pine needles— a negro running long, his face burnished with sweat, casting furtive glances over his shoulder. On his body was the flannel garb of a convict. For a…

Assistive robots promise to increase the autonomy of disabled or elderly people by facilitating the performance of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Learning from Demonstration (LfD) has emerged as one of the most promising approaches for teaching robots tasks that are difficult to formalize. LfD learns by requiring the operator to demonstrate one or several times the execution of the task on the given hardware. Unfortunately, many ADLs such as personal grooming, feeding or reading depend on the head pose of the assisted human. Trajectories learned using LfD would become useless or dangerous if applied naively in a situation with a different head pose. In this paper we propose and experimentally validate a method to adapt the trajectories learned using LfD to the current head pose (position and orientation) and movement of the head of the assisted user.

Interactive training environments typically include feedback mechanisms designed to help trainees improve their performance through either guided- or self-reflection. When the training system deals with human-to-human communications, as one would find in a teacher, counselor, enterprise culture or cross-cultural trainer, such feedback needs to focus on all aspects of human communication. This means that, in addition to verbal communication, nonverbal messages must be captured and analyzed for semantic meaning. The goal of this dissertation is to employ machine-learning algorithms that semi-automate and, where supported, automate event tagging in training systems developed to improve human-to-human interaction. The specific context in which we prototype and validate these models is the TeachLivE teacher rehearsal environment developed at the University of Central Florida. The choice of this environment was governed by its availability, large user population, extensibility and existing reflection tools found within the AMITIES framework underlying the TeachLivE system. Our…

Factors affecting English learners' (ELs) motivation and identity have been explored in second language (L2) learning contexts; however, research examining L2 motivation and identity under the effect of bullying victimization is rare although ELs are one of the populations that are physically and psychologically affected from bullying. Using a unique perspective by merging L2 motivation, L2 identity, and bullying concepts under social ecological framework, this dissertation study is the first study investigating the relationship between bullying victimization, L2 Motivational Self System, and L2 identity. The data were derived from 1022 ELs through a self-report survey that was adapted and tested for measurement model validity and reliability. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results indicated that there was a strong relationship between bullying victimization, including traditional bullying and cyberbullying, L2 Motivational Self System, and L2 identity. Traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization affect ELs' feared L2 selves. This…

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been popular tools for social and political movements in non-democratic societies in which traditional media outlets are under government control. Activists in Saudi Arabia, particularly women, have launched several campaigns through social media to demand the right to drive for women. This study used framing theory as the foundation for looking at the degree to which cognitive, emotion, and religious or moral language has been used to frame discussion of this issue on Twitter. Additionally, this study observed the relationship between these linguistic attributes in Twitter and retweeting behavior to understand the characteristics of the discourse that relate to the potential influence of the message. The results suggested that, within the sociopolitical discussion in social media, cognitive language was expressed the most often, particularly insight and causation language. The results also suggested that tweets containing cognitive language are more likely to be retweeted than those with emotion language. However, among the…

Over the past decade, cyber-sexual assault (also known as "nonconsensual pornography" or "revenge porn") has gained the attention of legal experts, the media, and most recently, the counseling profession. Whereas this nonconsensual sharing of sexually explicit images online, through social medial, or other forms of technology has been demonstrated to have significant impacts on victims, researchers have focused heavily upon the legality of these actions (i.e. should there be consequences for posting nude/semi-nude photos of non-consenting adults to the internet), but there has been a lack of attention to the mental health consequences of cyber-sexual assault on victims. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical support to how the psychological aftermath of cyber-sexual assault mirrors that of sexual assault and thus should be taken as seriously as sexual assault (clinically and legally). This study was conducted to investigate the direction and strength of relationships among latent variables associated with trauma symptomology (i.e., emotional dysregulation, trauma guilt,…

The focus of this dissertation was to examine wrong-way driving (WWD) events on Florida toll roads and Interstates. The universe of WWD data contains many sources of WWD events or incidents. Most of the previous research focused only on WWD crashes without considering other data such as WWD citations and 911 calls related to WWD incidents. While WWD citations and 911 calls data is abundant, this data has been largely overlooked in other studies. This dissertation provides a novel and holistic approach for evaluating WWD risk, which considers other risk factors such as WWD citations and 911 calls in addition to WWD crashes. WWD crashes are rare because they are less than 3% of all crashes, which makes them difficult to predict and analyze. WWD is very dangerous especially on high-speed limited access facilities. A right way driver on the mainline has very little time to take an action and avoid a wrong-way vehicle since the combined approach speed rates of both vehicles is very high. There is an average of 300 to 400 fatalities every year in the United States due to WWD crashes.…

Capstone courses are commonly employed in engineering curricula to prepare students for professional practice through a culminating design experience. A project-based experiential approach is typically employed, which gives rise to various issues concerning the methods and factors involved with the creation of effective student teams. This paper presents a unique methodology for assignment of students to multidisciplinary capstone projects and teams. The methodology described involves compilation and mapping of student interests, knowledge and capabilities needed to fulfill project requirements. In addition to describing the mapping process, data collected on 679 students over four semesters is used to explore the factors that have an impact on team effectiveness. These factors include academic performance, practical engineering experience, career interests, project preferences, personality, and technical skills.

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