Using digital tools to create an inventory of gender-inclusive bathrooms at the University of Notre Dame

Sparked during a conversation about classroom applications of digital scholarship, this project combines an important social justice issue with digital tools. Since Fall 2017, Gender Studies students, with the support of the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, have collected data in the field, locating and evaluating the single-occupancy all-genders bathrooms on Notre Dame\u27s campus to create a map that helps members of the campus community find the facilities they need. These data have been collated into a database and a webmap (https://genderstudies.nd.edu/bathrooms/). While the project has met with significant support and success, we will also present on future directions and ways this work can be extended to other campuses with similar needs

The African Origin of Complex Projectile Technology: An Analysis Using Tip Cross-Sectional Area and Perimeter

Despite a body of literature focusing on the functionality of modern and stylistically distinct projectile points, comparatively little attention has been paid to quantifying the functionality of the early stages of projectile use. Previous work identified a simple ballistics measure, the Tip Cross-Sectional Area, as a way of determining if a given class of stone points could have served as effective projectile armatures. Here we use this in combination with an alternate measure, the Tip Cross-Sectional Perimeter, a more accurate proxy of the force needed to penetrate a target to a lethal depth. The current study discusses this measure and uses it to analyze a collection of measurements from African Middle Stone Age pointed stone artifacts. Several point types that were rejected in previous studies are statistically indistinguishable from ethnographic projectile points using this new measure. The ramifications of this finding for a Middle Stone Age origin of complex projectile technology is discussed

Leveraging Critical Information Literacy to Develop Social Justice-Minded Data Literacy Competencies

Librarians who interact with data in different contexts can come together in a community of practice – leveraging each other\u27s perspectives to collectively engage with critical librarianship and reimagine social justice-related learning outcomes for information and data literacy programming. Specifically, this paper explores the overlapping goals of different critical literacies (such as critical information literacy and QuantCrit), showcasing that synergies exist between social justice-oriented librarians with distinctive roles and responsibilities. By leveraging a community of practice as a vehicle for continuing education in inclusive pedagogy, librarians can empower their patrons, students, and colleagues to challenge and act upon surrounding data ecosystems that continue to marginalize and harm. Conversations surrounding social justice perspectives in data literacy also open opportunities for librarians to confront systematic forces within librarianship itself (tensions between different librarian roles, DEIA barriers, and unequal distribution of resources)

Exploring perceptions of healthcare technologies enabled by artificial intelligence: An online, scenario-based survey

BACKGROUND: Healthcare is expected to increasingly integrate technologies enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) into patient care. Understanding perceptions of these tools is essential to successful development and adoption. This exploratory study gauged participants\u27 level of openness, concern, and perceived benefit associated with AI-driven healthcare technologies. We also explored socio-demographic, health-related, and psychosocial correlates of these perceptions. METHODS: We developed a measure depicting six AI-driven technologies that either diagnose, predict, or suggest treatment. We administered the measure via an online survey to adults (N = 936) in the United States using MTurk, a crowdsourcing platform. Participants indicated their level of openness to using the AI technology in the healthcare scenario. Items reflecting potential concerns and benefits associated with each technology accompanied the scenarios. Participants rated the extent that the statements of concerns and benefits influenced their perception of favorability toward the technology. Participants completed measures of socio-demographics, health variables, and psychosocial variables such as trust in the healthcare system and trust in technology. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the concern and benefit items identified two factors representing overall level of concern and perceived benefit. Descriptive analyses examined levels of openness, concern, and perceived benefit. Correlational analyses explored associations of socio-demographic, health, and psychosocial variables with openness, concern, and benefit scores while multivariable regression models examined these relationships concurrently. RESULTS: Participants were moderately open to AI-driven healthcare technologies (M = 3.1/5.0 ± 0.9), but there was variation depending on the type of application, and the statements of concerns and benefits swayed views. Trust in the healthcare system and trust in technology were the strongest, most consistent correlates of openness, concern, and perceived benefit. Most other socio-demographic, health-related, and psychosocial variables were less strongly, or not, associated, but multivariable models indicated some personality characteristics (e.g., conscientiousness and agreeableness) and socio-demographics (e.g., full-time employment, age, sex, and race) were modestly related to perceptions. CONCLUSIONS: Participants\u27 openness appears tenuous, suggesting early promotion strategies and experiences with novel AI technologies may strongly influence views, especially if implementation of AI technologies increases or undermines trust. The exploratory nature of these findings warrants additional research

Combining natural language processing and metabarcoding to reveal pathogen-environment associations.

Cryptococcus neoformans is responsible for life-threatening infections that primarily affect immunocompromised individuals and has an estimated worldwide burden of 220,000 new cases each year-with 180,000 resulting deaths-mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Surprisingly, little is known about the ecological niches occupied by C. neoformans in nature. To expand our understanding of the distribution and ecological associations of this pathogen we implement a Natural Language Processing approach to better describe the niche of C. neoformans. We use a Latent Dirichlet Allocation model to de novo topic model sets of metagenetic research articles written about varied subjects which either explicitly mention, inadvertently find, or fail to find C. neoformans. These articles are all linked to NCBI Sequence Read Archive datasets of 18S ribosomal RNA and/or Internal Transcribed Spacer gene-regions. The number of topics was determined based on the model coherence score, and articles were assigned to the created topics via a Machine Learning approach with a Random Forest algorithm. Our analysis provides support for a previously suggested linkage between C. neoformans and soils associated with decomposing wood. Our approach, using a search of single-locus metagenetic data, gathering papers connected to the datasets, de novo determination of topics, the number of topics, and assignment of articles to the topics, illustrates how such an analysis pipeline can harness large-scale datasets that are published/available but not necessarily fully analyzed, or whose metadata is not harmonized with other studies. Our approach can be applied to a variety of systems to assert potential evidence of environmental associations

Using Digital Scholarship and Citizen Science to Reduce Lead Poisoning Risk in Indiana

Lead exposure remains a prevalent public health issue in many communities. In some cases, the exposure risk comes from contaminated water, but in others it is from the legacy of lead-based paint or contaminated soils. Here, we report on recent work using digital scholarship techniques along side a citizen science model to increase awareness and reduce environmental hazards in the affected city of South Bend, Indiana. Over the past two years, we have worked closely with local community organizations, civic entities and concerned individuals to develop a home test kit that puts the tools to determine risk in the hands of residents. We have also used digital scholarship techniques (mobile data collection apps, interactive dashboards and story maps) to involve the community and start advocating for change surrounding this issue

Three-Dimensional Gigapan Views of Archaeological Sites and Artifacts: Examples from the Paleolithic of Southwest France

The use of Gigapan imagery in an archaeological context allows for quick, very high resolution recording of excavationsurfaces, artifacts and surrounding areas. At the Paleolithic site of Abri Castanet (France), we have, since 2008, used aGigapan imager mounted horizontally to record lateral variation across our active excavation surface. Using GIS softwareand topographic data from our onsite Total Station, we can then minimize distortion, plot the image relative to artifact andfeature locations and display all of these data in three-dimensions. This gives us a unique way to record and analyze patternsof variation across a constrained archaeological horizon. In addition, we have recently began a project using this technique torecord, process and project imagery of early Upper Paleolithic engraved blocks and rockshelter ceilings, representing some ofthe earliest examples of cave art in Europe.</p

Experimental use and quantitative performance analysis of triangular flakes (Levallois points) used as arrowheads

a b s t r a c t The invention and widespread use of projectile weaponry is a characteristic presumed to exist only with Homo sapiens. However, as finds of wooden material during the early development of projectile weapons are extremely rare, this remains a contentious topic. Recent work has proposed a series of ballisticallysignificant morphological characteristics of stone points that yield information about their potential use. Here we report on initial experimental approaches to quantifying the performance of relatively simple stone points as arrow armatures. Two experimental trials were performed using a series of 51 Levallois points. The first, against a uniform density target, was designed to give an overall indication of performance. The second, against a simulated animal carcass, demonstrated the durability of these points. The results of this study suggest that small Levallois points could have functioned as arrowheads, albeit ones likely to break after limited use. They also suggest that these points&apos; penetrating power is strongly controlled by their morphometric characteristics, most notably their perimeter. This latter finding refines a method for assessing hypothetical Paleolithic stone points on the basis of tip cross-sectional area previously proposed by others

CD8 + T Cells and Macrophages Regulate Pathogenesis in a Mouse Model of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

© 2016 American Society for Microbiology. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an important emerging pathogen that was first described in 2012. While the cell surface receptor for MERS-CoV has been identified as dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), the mouse DPP4 homologue does not allow virus entry into cells. Therefore, development of mouse models of MERS-CoV has been hampered by the fact that MERS-CoV does not replicate in commonly available mouse strains. We have previously described a mouse model in which mDPP4 was replaced with hDPP4 such that hDPP4 is expressed under the endogenous mDPP4 promoter. In this study, we used this mouse model to analyze the host response to MERS-CoV infection using immunological assays and transcriptome analysis. Depletion of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, or macrophages has no effect on MERS-CoV replication in the lungs of infected mice. However, we found that depletion of CD8+ T cells protects and depletion of macrophages exacerbates MERS-CoV-induced pathology and clinical symptoms of disease. Overall, we demonstrate an important role for the inflammatory response in regulating MERS-CoV pathogenesis in vivo