Opportunities to Improve Academic Research Through Open Research Practices

Presented at the 2018 Polytechnic Summit, June 4--6, in Lima, Peru.<br

Supporting the Success of Service Learning Initiatives in Higher Education

<div>The work presented here stems from a four-year, National Science Foundation-funded project, designed to investigate the use of humanitarian service learning in education including a specific focus on international service learning and the work of Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB). As part of this work, our research team has conducted interviews or focus groups with a total of 42 students, 12 faculty, and 12 professional volunteers or mentors involved in EWB. One of the recurring themes that has emerged from these interviews is that, in most cases, the work that goes into creating and maintaining service learning opportunities receives little institutional support, both from a faculty and student perspective.</div><div><br></div><div><i>Presented at the Polytechnic Summit, 6 June 2018 in Lima, Peru.</i><br></div

Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormann’s (Q J Speech 58(4):396–407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) messages can be communicated to the audience (public). The SCT concepts in the sustainability reporting’s communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and director’s reports

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Reading tea leaves worldwide: decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass‐loss rate and stabilization

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large‐scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial mass‐loss rates and stabilization factors of plant‐derived carbon, using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). The stabilization factor quantifies the degree to which easy‐to‐degrade components accumulate during early‐stage decomposition (e.g. by environmental limitations). However, agriculture and an interaction between moisture and temperature led to a decoupling between initial mass‐loss rates and stabilization, notably in colder locations. Using TBI improved mass‐loss estimates of natural litter compared to models that ignored stabilization. Ignoring the transformation of dead plant material to more recalcitrant substances during early‐stage decomposition, and the environmental control of this transformation, could overestimate carbon losses during early decomposition in carbon cycle models

Engineering Archive Progress Update and Server News

An update on the status of Engineering Archive

Twitter in the engineering classroom

Includes graph, tables, and bibliographical references.The micro-blogging platform, Twitter, has been employed by some in higher education as a tool for enhanced student engagement. This platform has shown promise as an educational tool for the promotion of critical reading and writing and concise expression of ideas. However, it is unclear in what settings and under what circumstances Twitter can be effectively employed in the engineering classroom. These questions were explored over a multi-semester study of student participation in directed social media discussions within the engineering classroom. The various cohorts of students included in this study were drawn from engineering courses. Comparisons were made between these multiple cohorts on the basis of active engagement in the assigned tasks, performance on homework and examinations, and overall course performance. Through the process of using this practice in the classroom, it was found that there was difficulty encouraging engineering students to participate in Twitter discussions regardless of the incentive provided. Limited evidence was found of greater course achievement correlating with greater participation in Twitter based tasks. It is expected that greater effort is required in familiarizing students with the Twitter platform and increasing their comfort level with asking questions and carrying out discussions in a public forum.This work was supported in part by the UW-Stout Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center.University of Wisconsin--Stout. Nakatani Teaching and Learning Cente