Spartan Daily, February 18, 2025

Volume 164, Issue 11https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartan_daily_2025/1010/thumbnail.jp

The Data-Driven Library: Communicating the value of your school library program to administrators, parents, students, and colleagues

This article examines the use of data dashboards as a tool for teacher librarians to advocate for their school library programs. It emphasizes the importance of linking library services to district priorities to secure funding, increase collaboration, and demonstrate the library’s impact on student outcomes. An eight-step process is detailed, including defining objectives, identifying target audiences, collecting and visualizing data, and publishing dashboards using accessible tools like Google Workspace. By crafting coherent, audience-specific narratives, librarians can highlight how their programs support educational goals, improve resource utilization, and foster collaboration. The article concludes that data dashboards provide a sustainable and compelling way for librarians to communicate their value to administrators, faculty, students, and parents

Inspection Technologies for Construction and Maintenance of Highway Infrastructure – Review and Analysis

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) seek to provide high quality infrastructure that meets or exceeds the desired quality standards crucial for ensuring safety and efficiency in our nation\u27s transportation systems. Efficient inspection practices—which enable conformance with plans, specifications, and quality standards—are an essential part of this effort. In this digital age, state DOTs are relying on emerging technologies to improve inspection practices. However, there is limited knowledge available regarding various emerging technologies used for highway infrastructure construction and maintenance inspection. This study identifies various emerging technologies that are implemented at the state DOTs and their uses/applications for various inspection purposes. The emerging technologies studied in this project include Remote Sensing and Monitoring Technologies—specifically, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)—as well as Building Information Modelling (BIM), and Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). Based on a comprehensive literature review and content analysis of journal articles, technical reports, state DOT documents/reports, templates, and guidelines on the identified technologies, the research findings indicate different usage levels among state DOTs and found that DOTs use these technologies for applications such as structural inspection, verifying quantities, bridge and visual inspection, safety inspection, inspection workforce training, inspection documentation, and measurements of pay quantities, among others. This study serves as a valuable resource for state DOTs seeking to maximize the benefits of their investments and embrace innovative inspection technologies to ensure safety and efficiency in the nation\u27s transportation infrastructure

Dynamic Imprints of Colliding-wind Dust Formation from WR 140

Carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet (WR) binaries are a prominent source of carbonaceous dust that contribute to the dust budget of galaxies. The “textbook” example of an episodic dust-producing WR binary, WR 140 (HD 193793), provides us with an ideal laboratory for investigating the dust physics and kinematics in an extreme environment. This study is among the first to utilize two separate JWST observations, from Cycle 1 ERS (2022 July) and Cycle 2 (2023 September), to measure WR 140’s dust kinematics and confirm its morphology. To measure the proper motions and projected velocities of the dust shells, we performed a novel point-spread function (PSF) subtraction to reduce the effects of the bright diffraction spikes and carefully aligned the Cycle 2 to the Cycle 1 images. At 7.7 μm, through the bright feature common to 16 dust shells (C1), we find an average dust shell proper motion of 390 ± 29 mas yr−1, which equates to a projected velocity of 2714 ± 188 km s−1 at a distance of 1.64 kpc. Our measured speeds are constant across all visible shells and consistent with previously reported dust expansion velocities. Our observations not only prove that these dusty shells are astrophysical (i.e., not associated with any PSF artifact) and originate from WR 140, but also confirm the “clumpy” morphology of the dust shells, in which identifiable substructures within certain shells persist for at least 14 months from one cycle to the next. These results support the hypothesis that clumping in the wind collision region is required for dust production in WR binaries

Jensen, Billie Barnes (1933-2025)

University of Colorado (magna cum laude), 1955, BA University of Colorado, 1959, MA University of Colorado, 1962, PhDhttps://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/erfa_bios/1009/thumbnail.jp

Understanding Mobility-Related Challenges for AAPI Older Adults: A Preliminary Study in Southern California

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) Nationwide, the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is projected to constitute 11 percent of people 65 years and older in the United States by 2050 (He et al., 2005). The challenges limiting the transportation and mobility of AAPI older adults include, but are not limited to, language barriers, cultural barriers, anti-Asian hate, accessibility to public transit, traffic safety and public security concerns, and changes to mobility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project conducted an extensive literature review and a preliminary multi-language survey in Southern California to better understand mobility-related challenges for Asian American and Pacific Islander older adults. The results of this project can provide government agencies and organizations with recommendations for policy and program changes to benefit AAPI older adults and the broader communities

Examining equity and graduation rates at two institutions using a course deficit model and the collaborative learning through active sense-making in physics curriculum

We have previously described the reformed introductory physics course, collaborative learning through active sense-making in physics (CLASP), for bioscience students at a large public research one university (Original University) and presented evidence that the course was more successful and more equitable than the course it replaced by several measures. Now we compare the original success of CLASP with an implementation at a second institution. We find that the original results hold at another institution despite some changes to the original curriculum and a somewhat different student population. We find that students who take CLASP are (1) less likely to drop, (2) less likely to fail, and (3) do as well in later coursework when compared to students who took the courses that CLASP replaced, even if that coursework is not similarly reformed. We find the above items to be independently true for historically marginalized students and remarkably, also find that (4) marginalized students who take CLASP are more likely to graduate from a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics field. We use a course deficit model perspective to examine these results and discuss some of the factors that may have contributed to this success. We argue that higher education has the tools needed to significantly increase equity and improve student success and retention

Survey of Building Information Modeling for Infrastructure (BIM4I)

The rapid development of information technologies is transforming how data and information are produced, shared, exchanged, and managed. This transformation is accelerating in state departments of transportation (DOTs) across the country due to the pressing need for efficient means of delivering transportation projects and an enhanced need for internal and external collaboration. A key driver for this transformation is the implementation of Building Information Modeling for Infrastructures (BIM4I). The primary objective of this research was to develop actionable recommendations for DOTs to facilitate the effective adoption of BIM4I, based on national and international lessons learned and best practices. A four-step methodology was employed including: (1) a literature review identified key stakeholders and best practices; (2) data collection targeting transportation agencies included a survey of 94 participants and 18 follow-up interviews; (3) data analysis utilized statistical and content analysis to extract themes and insights; and (4) tailored recommendations were formulated based on findings. Main recommendations include: • Strategic Planning: Establish a clear definition of Building Information Modeling (BIM), create an implementation plan including a roadmap with defined objectives, and assess organizational readiness for BIM adoption. • Standardization and Training: Develop clear standards and guidelines for BIM usage, prioritize data quality, and invest in training. • Technology Integration: Ensure that BIM tools and software are compatible with existing systems and establish a user-friendly Common Data Environment (CDE) for effective data sharing. • Collaboration and Communication: Foster interdepartmental and cross-stages collaboration and engage stakeholders early in the design process to enhance understanding of project impacts. Recommendations from this research will help DOTs transitioning to digital delivery to enhance efficiency, collaboration, and project outcomes, providing a framework for effective BIM integration