Proceed With Extreme Caution: Citation to Wikipedia in Light of Contributor Demographics and Content Policies

Courts and advocates have shown an increasing willingness to cite to Wikipedia. This trend has piqued the attention of scholars, who have considered the permanency concerns raised by citations to Wikipedia and critiqued how courts and advocates have used Wikipedia. This Article adds to the growing scholarship on the Wikipedia citation trend by examining the contours of the Wikipedia contributor crowd and the principles underlying Wikipedia\u27s content in order to better inform the evaluation of Wikipedia as a potential authoritative source. Part I provides an overview of the Wikipedia citation trend in cases and federal appellate briefs. Part II describes the ongoing judicial and scholarly debate about citation to Wikipedia. Part III first examines the size and demographics of the Wikipedia contributor crowd by using systems data and published surveys. Part III then examines Wikipedia\u27s editorial and content policies, which guide the Wikipedia contributor crowd in creating content. Finally, Part IV considers the Wikipedia contributor crowd and the editorial and content policies discussed in Part III in the context of traditional evaluative criteria. This evaluation calls into question some of the assumptions underlying the justifications for relying on Wikipedia. Thus, despite the trend, legal writers should proceed with extreme caution when considering reliance on Wikipedia

Mentorship Relationships: A Phenomenological Study Investigating Experiences of Secondary Teachers

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to investigate teachers’ experiences in their mentoring relationships. This study investigated the experiences of 12 secondary teachers with varying levels of teaching experience from the Camel County School District in northeastern Wyoming. Kram’s (1983) original mentorship model guided this study, along with social network theory. The focus of this inquiry was to explore how teachers experience the initiation and cultivation phase of the mentorship relationship within their schools, and how these mentorship relationships positively affect the teachers involved. Data collection methods included interviews, participant-written essays, and focus group sessions to answer the central research question: What are the experiences of mentorship relationships for teachers from different levels in their educational career? Interviews, essays, and the focus group discussion were analyzed to find central themes among the experiences of teachers within their mentorship relationships. Findings from this study provided rich descriptions of secondary teachers’ experiences with mentorship relationships, regardless of their experience level. The analysis exposed that all teachers benefit from participating in mentorship relationships whether they are new or seasoned teachers and regardless of whether they serve as the mentor or the mentee in the relationship

Essential Fish Habitat project status report

: Groundfish that associate with rugged seafloor types are difficult to assess with bottom-trawl sampling gear. Simrad ME70 multibeam echosounder (MBES) data and video imagery were collected to characterize trawlable and untrawlable areas, and to ultimately improve efforts to determine habitat-specific groundfish biomass. The data were collected during two acoustic-trawl surveys of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) during 2011 and 2012 by NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) researchers. MBES data were collected continuously along the trackline, which included parallel transects (1-20 nmi spacing) and fine-scale survey locations in 2011. Video data were collected at camera stations using a drop camera system. Multibeamderived seafloor metrics were overlaid with the locations of previously conducted AFSC bottomtrawl (BT) survey hauls and 2011 camera stations. Generalized linear models were used to identify the best combination of multibeam metrics to discriminate between trawlable and untrawlable seafloor for the region of overlap between the camera stations or haul paths and the MBES data. The most discriminatory models were chosen based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC). The two best models were developed using data collected at camera stations with either oblique incidence backscatter strength (Sb) or mosaic Sb in combination with bathymetric position index and seafloor ruggedness and described over 54% of the variation between trawlable and untrawlable seafloor types. A map of predicted seafloor trawlability produced from the model using mosaic Sb and benthic-terrain metrics demonstrated that 58% of the area mapped (5,987 km2 ) had \u3e 50% probability of being trawlable and 42% of being untrawlable. The model predicted 69% of trawlable and untrawlable haul locations correctly. Successful hauls occurred in areas with 62% probability of being trawlable and haul locations with gear damage occurred in areas with a 38% probability of being trawlable. This model and map produced from multibeamderived seafloor metrics may be used to refine seafloor interpretation for the AFSC BT surveys and to advance efforts to develop habitat-specific biomass estimates for GOA groundfish populations

Vibratory behaviour of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) interleaved with nylon nanofibers

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the inclusion of nylon nanofibers on the global dynamic behaviour of GFRP composite laminates. The vibration behaviour of GFRP composites reinforced with nylon nano-fibres is considered experimentally and numerically using a finite element model. The present analysis of clamped-clamped beams investigates the natural frequencies, the damping and the stiffness of virgin and nano-interleaved composite laminates. The numerical modelling uses ANSYS Workbench 16.2. Experimental and numerical results showed a significant effect of the nylon nanofibers on the dynamic behaviour of the composites. Nano-modified composites demonstrated a consistent increase in the damping ratio and inter-laminar strength. However, the variation in natural frequencies and stiffness due to the nanofibers was very small. This study contributes to the knowledge about the macro dynamic properties of nylon interleaved GFRP composites. It demonstrates that a simple FE model can be used to accurately predict the dynamic behaviour of such nano-composites

Law Students and Cell Phone Use: Results of a Six-School Survey

The sight of a law student using his or her cell phone now is so common that law professors do not give it a second thought. But what, exactly, is the student doing? Texting with friends? Shopping? Watching a movie? To try to find out, during the Fall 2019 semester we asked our six diverse law schools to take an online survey consisting of eighteen questions. To our knowledge, this is the first phone survey of law students. This paper presents the results of the survey, exploring applications used (text, social media, email, etc.) and differences by audience (e.g., whether students used text or email with employers as opposed to friends)

Future Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Excavation (FLAME) - A Podcast Series of the CLIR Curated Futures Project

Our podcast series holds the microphone up to archivists, scholars, and museum staff who work with collections pertaining to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities. Thus far, two paths have emerged: (1) reinterpreting archival, library, museum content that come from predominantly white colonial perspectives; and (2) introducing underrepresented BIPOC narratives into the mainstream. Such efforts have already been evolving in local BIPOC libraries, archives, and museums, in neighborhoods, and in tribal communities. In speaking with BIPOC scholars, archivists, librarians and non-BIPOC allies, many have recommended establishing contact with the communities to whom the collections belong, making sure that they have gained full agency over the life cycle and uses of the materials that pertain to BIPOC cultures and points of view. We aim to understand how their archival practices provide more agency for BIPOC communities, differing from those practiced by the “first” university systems. In short, our work sits at the juncture of both a re-definition (especially for Predominantly White institutions) and a continuingly strengthened construction of archives (for BIPOC communities)