Impact for Agents

Impact for agents. Most of the agent research community has been predicting greater impact for years and many of us have been working to help the process along. Yet the tremendous growth on the research front has not been met with

How Users’ Perceptions of E‐Books Have Changed—Or Not: Comparing Parallel Survey Responses

This project focuses on comparing the results of two surveys conducted on e‐book usability at college and university libraries across the state of Florida. The first survey was carried out by librarians from the University of Florida in 2009 and provided benchmark responses for similar questions asked in a follow‐up survey completed in 2014. Results of the two surveys conducted five years apart are an enlightening snapshot of user feedback on e‐book usability, while providing insight on key issues and trends in e‐book use. In addition to measuring side‐by‐side results of the two Florida surveys, the paper frames this comparison in a broader context by drawing upon data taken from other surveys published on e‐book use in academic libraries

Managing, Marketing, and Measuring Open Resources

Academic libraries face many opportunities and challenges in managing, marketing, and measuring open resources (OR). Many questions arise when incorporating OR into an academic library collection. How do libraries select quality OR for inclusion in the collection? What tools and practices are used to manage electronic access? How can libraries better market OR to faculty? How can libraries measure the use and usefulness of OR? This paper outlines a project launched to improve the management of OR at the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries; as well as incorporating feedback garnered at the Charleston Conference discussion forum on the topic, particularly on how academic and special libraries are handling OR offered to users

Not seeing the forest for the trees: size of the minimum spanning trees (MSTs) forest and branch significance in MST-based phylogenetic analysis

Copyright: © 2015 Teixeira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedTrees, including minimum spanning trees (MSTs), are commonly used in phylogenetic studies. But, for the research community, it may be unclear that the presented tree is just a hypothesis, chosen from among many possible alternatives. In this scenario, it is important to quantify our confidence in both the trees and the branches/edges included in such trees. In this paper, we address this problem for MSTs by introducing a new edge betweenness metric for undirected and weighted graphs. This spanning edge betweenness metric is defined as the fraction of equivalent MSTs where a given edge is present. The metric provides a per edge statistic that is similar to that of the bootstrap approach frequently used in phylogenetics to support the grouping of taxa. We provide methods for the exact computation of this metric based on the well known Kirchhoff's matrix tree theorem. Moreover, we implement and make available a module for the PHYLOViZ software and evaluate the proposed metric concerning both effectiveness and computational performance. Analysis of trees generated using multilocus sequence typing data (MLST) and the goeBURST algorithm revealed that the space of possible MSTs in real data sets is extremely large. Selection of the edge to be represented using bootstrap could lead to unreliable results since alternative edges are present in the same fraction of equivalent MSTs. The choice of the MST to be presented, results from criteria implemented in the algorithm that must be based in biologically plausible models.AST, PTM, JAC and APF were partly supported by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (http://www.fct.pt/), under project/grants NETDYN PTDC/EIA-CCO/118533/2010, DATASTORM EXCL/EEI-ESS/0257/2012 and UID/CEC/50021/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Student Outcomes from the Collective Design and Delivery of Culturally Relevant Engineering Outreach Curricula in Rural and Appalachian Middle Schools

Middle school is a pivotal time for career choice, and research is rich with studies on how students perceive engineering, as well as corresponding intervention strategies to introduce younger students to engineering and inform their conceptions of engineering. Unfortunately, such interventions are typically not designed in culturally relevant ways. Consequently, there continues to be a lack of students entering engineering and a low level of diverse candidates for this profession. The purpose of this study was to explore how students in rural and Appalachian Virginia conceive of engineering before and after engagement with culturally relevant hands-on activities in the classroom. We used student responses to the Draw an Engineer Test (DAET), consisting of a drawing and several open-ended prompts administered before and after the set of engagements, to answer our research questions related to changes in students’ conceptions of engineering. We used this study to develop recommendations for teachers for the use of such engineering engagement practices and how to best assess their outcomes, including looking at the practicality of the DAET. Overall, we found evidence that our classroom engagements positively influenced students’ conceptions of engineering in these settings

Evaluating Mental Health in Cuban Refugees: The Role of the Refugee Health Screener-15

The Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) is widely used in refugee populations, but the psychometric properties and clinical utility have not been evaluated in Cuban refugees and entrants. The current study explored results from the Spanish version of the RHS-15 in a sample of 53 Cuban entrants and refugees, and of these, 17.6% screened positive for a mental health concern. Analyses suggested that a positive screening was significantly related to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder; however, it was not associated with demographic variables such as gender, mode of transport, or the number of countries through which a refugee traveled before arriving in the United States. A factor analysis of the measure revealed a 4-factor solution is most appropriate when used with Cuban individuals. Results provide preliminary evidence regarding the measure’s psychometric properties, and demonstrate that the Spanish version of the RHS-15 is an appropriate screening tool for the mental health of newly arrived Cuban entrants and refugees. Future studies should further validate the Spanish version RHS-15 in Cuban entrants and refugees, and explore its efficacy amongst Latino refugees of other nationalities

The CSU Accelerator and FEL Facility

The Colorado State University (CSU) Accelerator Facility will include a 6-MeV L-Band electron linear accelerator (linac) with a free-electron laser (FEL) system capable of producing Terahertz (THz) radiation, a laser laboratory, a microwave test stand, and a magnetic test stand. The photocathode drive linac will be used in conjunction with a hybrid undulator capable of producing THz radiation. Details of the systems used in CSU Accelerator Facility are discusse

Measured and modeled humidification factors of fresh smoke particles from biomass burning: role of inorganic constituents

During the 2006 FLAME study (<b>F</b>ire <b>L</b>aboratory <b>a</b>t <b>M</b>issoula <b>E</b>xperiment), laboratory burns of biomass fuels were performed to investigate the physico-chemical, optical, and hygroscopic properties of fresh biomass smoke. As part of the experiment, two nephelometers simultaneously measured dry and humidified light scattering coefficients (<i>b</i><sub>sp(dry) </sub> and <i>b</i><sub>sp(RH)</sub>, respectively) in order to explore the role of relative humidity (RH) on the optical properties of biomass smoke aerosols. Results from burns of several biomass fuels from the west and southeast United States showed large variability in the humidification factor (<i>f</i>(RH)=<i>b</i><sub>sp(RH)</sub>/<i>b</i><sub>sp(dry)</sub>). Values of <i>f</i>(RH) at RH=80–85% ranged from 0.99 to 1.81 depending on fuel type. We incorporated measured chemical composition and size distribution data to model the smoke hygroscopic growth to investigate the role of inorganic compounds on water uptake for these aerosols. By assuming only inorganic constituents were hygroscopic, we were able to model the water uptake within experimental uncertainty, suggesting that inorganic species were responsible for most of the hygroscopic growth. In addition, humidification factors at 80–85% RH increased for smoke with increasing inorganic salt to carbon ratios. Particle morphology as observed from scanning electron microscopy revealed that samples of hygroscopic particles contained soot chains either internally or externally mixed with inorganic potassium salts, while samples of weak to non-hygroscopic particles were dominated by soot and organic constituents. This study provides further understanding of the compounds responsible for water uptake by young biomass smoke, and is important for accurately assessing the role of smoke in climate change studies and visibility regulatory efforts