MANCaLog: A Logic for Multi-Attribute Network Cascades (Technical Report)

The modeling of cascade processes in multi-agent systems in the form of complex networks has in recent years become an important topic of study due to its many applications: the adoption of commercial products, spread of disease, the diffusion of an idea, etc. In this paper, we begin by identifying a desiderata of seven properties that a framework for modeling such processes should satisfy: the ability to represent attributes of both nodes and edges, an explicit representation of time, the ability to represent non-Markovian temporal relationships, representation of uncertain information, the ability to represent competing cascades, allowance of non-monotonic diffusion, and computational tractability. We then present the MANCaLog language, a formalism based on logic programming that satisfies all these desiderata, and focus on algorithms for finding minimal models (from which the outcome of cascades can be obtained) as well as how this formalism can be applied in real world scenarios. We are not aware of any other formalism in the literature that meets all of the above requirements

Exploring Critical and Indigenous Research Methods with a Research Community: Part I – The Leap

Librarians create collections of works grounded in many western academic forms of research and they conduct research using many of these qualitative and quantitative methodologies as well. But are there perhaps research methods around the margins, ones that might help us ask different questions or let our research serve different ends? In this, the first of two articles, I describe how I discovered critical and indigenous research methods and how my research became grounded in a digital community

Merging Critical Thinking and Information Literacy Outcomes - Making Meaning or Making Strategic Partnership?

The following book chapter will look at critical thinking, how librarians perceive its relationship to information literacy, and what useful strategies can result when these two concepts are combined. To set the stage a few of the major psychological and philosophical theories of critical thinking will be briefly noted. In order to gauge our profession\u27s understanding of critical thinking and its relationship to information literacy, a survey of library literature will be performed. The more rigorous articles from this survey will then be discussed in order to discern the range of positions librarians have taken on the relationship of these two concepts. Moving from theory to practice, the next section will showcase five different models of campus-wide learning outcomes that combine critical thinking and information literacy into one outcome. A special note will be made of unique features of each of the combined outcomes, in the hopes that readers will find that one or more of the models resonate with the learning outcomes at their own institution. Next a recent survey of almost 200 librarians will be analyzed to discover librarians\u27 feelings around the idea of a merged critical thinking and information literacy outcome, as well as the perceived benefits and liabilities of such a merger. Finally, for those information literacy librarians considering adopting strategic partnerships (such as combining critical thinking and information literacy at their campus), some practical advice will be given

Active Learning with Interactive Whiteboards: A Literature Review and a Case Study for College Freshmen

A well-designed classroom that includes appropriate technology can inspire and support successful instructional design. Interactive whiteboards (IWBs), an example of this technology, have been adopted in Great Britain, primarily in primary and secondary schools. While the literature anecdotally suggests that there are benefits associated with using them in classroom instruction little has been written about their application and efficacy in higher education. The author describes an exercise designed for college freshman, and discusses the benefits of the group work and active assignments engendered by the IWB

Evaluative Criteria for Autoethnographic Research: Who’s to Judge? (Chapter 15)

This chapter is a exploration of autoethnography and shows how entrenched positivist assumptions are in our field. The chapter includes a reflection of the author\u27s own experiences with research and to connect them in ways to my academic library community

Reflecting on This Issue

Introduction to this special issue, Reflecting on the Standards

A Guide to Disability Statistics from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

This User Guide provides information on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The 2003 PSID is a nationally representative sample of over 7,000 families. The PSID began in 1968 with a sample of 4,800 families and re-interviewed these families on an annual basis from 1968-1997. Since then, it has re-interviewed them biennially. Following the same families and individuals since 1968, the PSID collects data on economic, health, and social behavior. (See http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/ for detailed information on the PSID). Initially, the PSID identified disability by asking the head of the household whether he, or she when no adult male is present, had a physical or nervous condition that limits his or her ability to work. In 1981 the PSID began asking the head this question with respect to his spouse. Additional questions that provide an opportunity to expand this definition of disability were included in 2003. The User Guide makes use of these new questions to estimate the size of the population with disabilities and the prevalence rate of disability in the population, as well as the employment rate and level of economic well-being. The major strength of the PSID for those interested in disability research is its long-running information on families. No other nationally representative survey has captured such detailed information on the same families over such a long time. Such longitudinal data allows researchers to better understand the dynamics of the disability process and its consequences. Here we demonstrate the comparative advantage of the PSID over traditional cross-sectional data sets. Using the PSID, we identify persons with disabilities of various lengths and show the sensitivity of alternative definitions of the population with disabilities based on the duration of a disability. We also measure how the employment and economic well-being of individuals changes following the onset of a disability. Finally, we provide examples of how the PSID has been used with the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to compare the employment and economic well-being of working-age people with disabilities in the United States and Germany. This analysis uses the equivalized data from these longitudinal datasets contained in the Cornell University Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF)