African Americans in Times of War

Bibliography and photograph of a display of government documents from Auburn University Libraries.https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/lib-services-govdoc-display-ethnic/1018/thumbnail.jp

An Examination of Gender & Sexuality Dynamics in Latinx/A/O-Based Co-Educational Fraternities

Centering the stories of Queer People of Color, this critical narrative inquiry project examined the dynamics around gender and sexuality in Latinx/a/o-based fraternities. In particular, the narratives of two Queer Women of Color and a queer non-binary individual revealed how these participants decided to join their organization and what their experiences were like once they were affiliated. Through two semi-structured interviews and a reflection journaling project, participants shared how they often encountered moments of exclusion despite occasionally feeling a sense of inclusion in their chapters/organizations. Implications for research and practice are then offered

Social Media as a Source of (Dis)Connection for Queer Women of Color in Culturally-Based Sororities

Centering the stories of twenty Queer Women of Color (QWOC) affiliated with culturally-based sororities, this narrative inquiry study examined how social media platforms influenced the connection that participants felt to their organization. Using data from two semi-structured interviews and a reflection journal project, findings revealed how social media engagement contributed to participants’ experiences in conflicting ways. Although social media spaces became avenues for Queer Women of Color to connect with other QWOC, participants also reported witnessing oppressive attitudes from sorority members that negatively informed their perceptions of their organizations. Implications for research and practice are offered

Exploring Roles of Emotion in Fake News Detection

Detecting fake news is becoming widely acknowledged as a critical activity with significant implications for social impact. As fake news tends to evoke high-activating emotions from audiences, the role of emotions in identifying fake news is still under-explored. Existing research made efforts in examining effective representations of emotions conveyed in the news content to help discern the veracity of the news. However, the aroused emotions from the audience are usually ignored. This paper first demonstrates effective representations of emotions within both news content and users’ comments. Furthermore, we propose an emotion-aware fake news detection framework that seamlessly incorporates emotion features to enhance the accuracy of identifying fake news. Future work will include thorough experiments to prove that the proposed framework with the emotions expressed in news and users’ comments improves fake news detection performance

Characterizing Strength Loss in High Plasticity Clays along Alabama Highways

Strength loss in high plasticity clay soils is a common occurrence along roadways in western and central Alabama and has considerable impact on pavement distress and slope failures. Approximately $16 million was spent to repair slope failures in western and central Alabama between 2005 and 2015 with many of these failures occurring in areas with high plasticity Prairie clays. Selecting strengths for these soils to use in slope stability analyses is often a key source of uncertainty and the selected strengths must account for effects of loading conditions and any potential changes in strength over time. For high plasticity clay, such as the Prairie clays in Alabama, repeated cycles of wetting and drying can reduce the available drained shear strength to the fully softened condition before large movements occur. This reduction in strength can lead to failure without any change in loading and accounting for this potential strength loss when analyzing the stability of these slopes is critical to obtain accurate results. The torsional ring shear test can measure both the fully softened strength (used for first time failures) and the residual strength (used for ongoing or reactivated failures) of high plasticity clays. For this study, clay samples were collected at six landslide sites around Alabama. Samples were tested to determine the index properties, electrical resistivity, mineralogy, and fully softened and residual strengths. The results from these tests were compared with existing correlations to determine which correlations were the most appropriate for use in Alabama. For three of the sites, slope stability analyses were performed to compare with observed performance at the site. The results show that the strength envelopes from ring shear testing are consistent with the observations at all three sites, although nonlinear envelopes are needed for some sites. Recommendations are provided for correlations that can be used to estimate strengths when ring shear testing is not available and for cases where existing correlations do not provide good estimates

Development of Guidance for Unsignalized Intersections on Rural Multilane Divided Highways

This research project examines the safety performance of unsignalized intersections on rural divided highways in Alabama. A summary of the safety problem at these intersections is provided; the concern is the relatively high frequency and severity of crashes at these locations, typically associated with vehicles entering from the minor road and failing to successfully cross or turn left onto the second directional roadway. The project objectives included review of the literature, examination of a small set of such intersections in Alabama with innovative treatments, factors that influence safety performance and approaches to estimating performance, and developing design guidance for these locations. During the course of this study, ALDOT developed an Intersection Control Evaluation (ICE) policy, which to some extent addresses the last objective. This study reviewed the literature, estimated calibration factors for safety performance functions for three-leg and four-leg intersections of this type, reviewed geometric and traffic control features that may improve safety performance, and examined differences in safety performance among several selected intersections in Alabama. A review of the literature and current practice found many treatments with respect to geometrics and traffic control devices that can be applied to the conventional form of this type of intersection with the goal of reducing crash frequency and crash severity. An analysis involving 47 three-leg and 65 four-leg intersections in the state yielded recommend calibration factors for the relevant safety performance functions. Several selected sites with atypical design and traffic control treatments were reviewed. Finally, a traffic conflict study across several intersections with conventional and unconventional treatments was conducted to further identify the types of conflicts that contribute to poor safety performance

Load Rating for Corrugated Metal Culverts under Shallow Cover Depths

The accuracy and applicability of existing methodologies and tools for load rating of corrugated metal culverts under shallow cover were thoroughly investigated through numerical modeling and field testing. The basis of three existing spreadsheet rating tools were investigated. Two existing culverts that are more than 80 years old and whose cover over the crown is significantly less than current design and construction requirements were instrumented and load tested. The test data was then used to improve the accuracy of the analytical rating factors using the approach defined in the AASHTO Manual for Bridget Evaluation. The plane strain finite element program CANDE that was developed specifically for culvert analysis and design and is widely used, plus two general-purpose finite element software, Abaqus and Plaxis, were extensively employed to understand the soil-structure interaction phenomena and assess culvert rating methodology. Recommendations for addressing the deficiencies of the existing \u201csimplified\u201d spreadsheet tools for low cover situations were developed and incorporated into a new spreadsheet-based tool

Built-In Self-Test for Automatic Analog Frequency Response Measurement

Abstract-We present a Built-In Self-Test (BIST) approach based on direct digital synthesizer (DDS) for functional test of analog circuitry in mixed-signal systems. DDS with delta-sigma noise shaping is used to generate test signals with different frequencies and phases. The DDS-based BIST hardware implementation can sweep the frequencies through the interested bands and thus measure the frequency response of the analog circuit. The proposed BIST approach has been implemented in Verilog and synthesized into a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The actual device under test (DUT) was implemented using a Field Programmable Analog Array (FPAA) to form a complete BIST testbed for analog functional tests

Evaluation of Jobsite Cylinder Curing Practices for the Alabama Concrete Industry

The effect of initial curing temperature and duration on the 28-day compressive strength of concrete was experimentally evaluated. Concrete cylinders were cured at six initial curing temperatures (60, 68, 78, 84, 90, and 100 \u2070F) for three different initial curing durations (24, 48, and 72 hours). After the initial curing duration was complete, the cylinders were moved to final curing in a moist cure room that maintained a temperature of 73.5 \ub1 3.5 \ub0F until compressive strength testing at 28 days. Eight different concretes were produced at elevated temperatures to simulate summer placement conditions. The results confirm that as the initial curing temperature increases, the 28-day concrete compressive strength decreases. When cured at an initial curing temperature of 100 \u2070F, a maximum reduction of 23% in the 28-day compressive strength occurred. It is critical to maintain initial curing temperatures ranging from 60 to 80 \u2070F because then the change in 28-day strength remains within the acceptable ranges. When the initial curing temperature ranges from 60 to 80 \u2070F, then increasing the initial curing duration from 48 hour to 72 hour does not significantly affect the 28-day concrete compressive strength. The maximum initial curing duration can thus be increased from 48 to 72 hours, which will permit cylinders made on Fridays to be transported to their final curing location on Mondays