380 research outputs found
Integration of VT ETD-db with Banner
The Electronic Thesis and Dissertation database (ETD-db) was developed at Virginia Tech by Digital Library and Archives for the VT Graduate School and the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). The software is freely available and over 100 universities worldwide have implemented the ETD-db system. One drawback of the system is the dependence on user keyed data. At Virginia Tech, like most other universities, there is an administrative database that could provide much of this information. The Banner Administrative System is the central administration system at Virginia Tech. Bannerâs underlying database software is from Oracle. This paper will demonstrate how the ETD-db can be seamlessly integrated with an Oracle database or more specifically the Banner Administrative System, to improve the integrity of the data for ETDs
Delving Into Teachersâ Development Through Portfolio Reflections: Case Studies of Three Teachers
As part of longitudinal research on the role and scope of portfolios in teacher education programs, this study employs a case study approach to systematically examine the portfolio contents and reflections of three teachers enrolled in an advanced professional development masterâs degree program in education; the three teachers were purposely selected as representative of the teachers in our program. Specifically, we examined the written reflections submitted in their program portfolios and transcripts from their exit presentations to identify connections to program learning outcomes and to gain insight into the scope and nature of the change of the teachers during the program. We sought to identify influences that program experiences had on their growth and their teaching practice. We contend that by thorough and systematic examination of portfolio contents, and in particular teachersâ reflections included in the portfolios, programs can gain insights into teachersâ learning, practices, and critical reflection which, in turn, may be used to inform program decisions
Evaluation of West Nile Virus Education Campaign
We evaluated the 2003 Kansas West Nile virus public education campaign. Awareness was widespread but compliance was low. Spanish-speaking persons were poorly informed. Relevant factors included population segment variability, campaign content, media choice, and materials delivery methods
Constraints on the Progenitor System of the Type Ia Supernova 2014J from Pre-Explosion Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
We constrain the properties of the progenitor system of the highly reddened
Type Ia supernova (SN) 2014J in Messier 82 (M82; d ~ 3.5 Mpc). We determine the
SN location using Keck-II K-band adaptive optics images, and we find no
evidence for flux from a progenitor system in pre-explosion near-ultraviolet
through near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. Our upper limits
exclude systems having a bright red giant companion, including symbiotic novae
with luminosities comparable to that of RS Ophiuchi. While the flux constraints
are also inconsistent with predictions for comparatively cool He-donor systems
(T < ~35,000 K), we cannot preclude a system similar to V445 Puppis. The
progenitor constraints are robust across a wide range of R_V and A_V values,
but significantly greater values than those inferred from the SN light curve
and spectrum would yield proportionally brighter luminosity limits. The
comparatively faint flux expected from a binary progenitor system consisting of
white dwarf stars would not have been detected in the pre-explosion HST
imaging. Infrared HST exposures yield more stringent constraints on the
luminosities of very cool (T < 3000 K) companion stars than was possible in the
case of SN Ia 2011fe.Comment: Accepted by ApJ 14 May 2014 with only minor revision
Science of Digital Libraries(SciDL)
Our purpose is to ensure that people and institutions better manage information through digital libraries (DLs). Thus we address a fundamental human and social need, which is particularly urgent in the modern Information (and Knowledge) Age. Our goal is to significantly advance both the theory and state-of-theart of DLs (and other advanced information systems) - thoroughly validating our approach using highly visible testbeds. Our research objective is to leverage our formal, theory-based approach to the problems
of defining, understanding, modeling, building, personalizing, and evaluating DLs. We will construct models and tools based on that theory so organizations and individuals can easily create and maintain fully functional DLs, whose components can interoperate with corresponding components of related DLs. This research should be highly meritorious intellectually. We bring together a team of senior researchers with expertise in information retrieval, human-computer interaction, scenario-based design, personalization, and componentized system development and expect to make important contributions in each of those areas. Of crucial import, however, is that we will integrate our prior research and experience to achieve breakthrough advances in the field of DLs, regarding theory, methodology, systems, and evaluation. We will extend the 5S theory, which has identified five key dimensions or onstructs underlying effective DLs: Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, and Societies. We will use that theory to describe and develop metamodels, models, and systems, which can be tailored to disciplines and/or groups, as well as personalized. We will disseminate our findings as well as provide toolkits as open source software, encouraging wide use. We will validate our work using testbeds, ensuring broad impact. We will put powerful tools into the hands of digital librarians so they may easily plan and configure tailored systems, to support an extensible set of services, including publishing, discovery, searching, browsing, recommending, and access control, handling diverse types of collections, and varied genres and classes of digital objects. With these tools, end-users will for be able to design personal DLs.
Testbeds are crucial to validate scientific theories and will be thoroughly integrated into SciDL research and evaluation. We will focus on two application domains, which together should allow comprehensive validation and increase the significance of SciDL's impact on scholarly communities. One is education (through CITIDEL); the other is libraries (through DLA and OCKHAM). CITIDEL deals with content from publishers (e.g, ACM Digital Library), corporate research efforts e.g., CiteSeer), volunteer initiatives (e.g., DBLP, based on the database and logic rogramming literature), CS departments (e.g., NCSTRL, mostly technical reports), educational initiatives (e.g., Computer Science Teaching Center), and universities (e.g., theses and dissertations). DLA is a unit of the Virginia Tech library that virtually publishes scholarly communication such as faculty-edited journals and rare and unique resources including image collections and finding aids from Special Collections. The OCKHAM initiative, calling for simplicity in the library world, emphasizes a three-part solution: lightweightprotocols, component-based development, and open reference models. It provides a framework to research the deployment of the SciDL approach in libraries. Thus our choice of testbeds also will nsure that our research will have additional benefit to and impact on the fields of computing and library and information science, supporting transformations in how we learn and deal with information
Moving forward in circles: challenges and opportunities in modelling population cycles
Population cycling is a widespread phenomenon, observed across a multitude of taxa in both laboratory and natural conditions. Historically, the theory associated with population cycles was tightly linked to pairwise consumerâresource interactions and studied via deterministic models, but current empirical and theoretical research reveals a much richer basis for ecological cycles. Stochasticity and seasonality can modulate or create cyclic behaviour in non-intuitive ways, the high-dimensionality in ecological systems can profoundly influence cycling, and so can demographic structure and eco-evolutionary dynamics. An inclusive theory for population cycles, ranging from ecosystem-level to demographic modelling, grounded in observational or experimental data, is therefore necessary to better understand observed cyclical patterns. In turn, by gaining better insight into the drivers of population cycles, we can begin to understand the causes of cycle gain and loss, how biodiversity interacts with population cycling, and how to effectively manage wildly fluctuating populations, all of which are growing domains of ecological research
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