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Dual Narration and Externalizing Interiority in Esther Yi\u27s \u27Y/N\u27
No full textPositive and negative reviews of Esther Yi’s Y/N (2023) almost exclusively focus on the novel’s relationship with online fan culture, which, while prevalent, says little about N, its lead character and narrator. This paper therefore places N at the root of its discussion of Y/N, as it explores her agency as a dual narrator: one who narrates her day-to-day experiences alongside excerpts of her creative work, a third-person self-insert fanfiction based around K-pop superstar Moon. It specifically argues that the core of N’s conflict is not a romantic or sexual obsession with Moon, as has been claimed by previous critics, but her need to project onto him, displacing her internal monologue onto him rather than claiming direct ownership. It first examines the narrative relationship between Esther Yi, N, and Y/N as a fictocritical dynamic, where the line between fictional narrative and literary critique is blurred due to its paratextual subject. It then proposes N as a failed fictocritic: one attempting to conceptualize a “true” version of Moon, but only succeeding in revealing her own psychological hang-ups. The tension between N and her paratextual subject—Moon’s rigidly constructed, highly marketable persona—allows the novel to expand its discussion globally, thus allowing the reader to contemplate the relationship between artists and audiences in the twenty-first century, a dynamic increasingly defined by the Internet. This paper concludes by considering the implications of Y/N’s abrupt ending, one which purposefully avoids resolving N’s identity crisis in favor of retreating to an already dead fantasy
Gender Moderation on Students’ Adoption of WhatsApp for Learning-Support Communication in Sub-Saharan Africa
Full text linkGender moderation in students’ adoption of WhatsApp for supporting distance learning has not been explored. This study applied the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model to analyze the moderation effects of gender on students’ adoption intentions of WhatsApp for learning. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to obtain 273 participants. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results showed that gender significantly moderated the effects of(a) performance expectancy on behavioral intention such that the effect was stronger for males than females, and (b) social influence on behavioral intention such that the effect was stronger for females than males. Effects of effort expectancy, mobile self-efficacy, and facilitating conditions on behavioral intention were not moderated by gender. Implications of the findings for practice were discussed and recommendations were made for further research
Evaluation of STE(A)M Education: An Analysis of Research and Practices from 2014 to 2023
Full text linkSTEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and STEAM (by including Arts) education (hereafter STE(A)M education) has been widely studied and practiced. Evaluation plays an important role in assessing and improving the effectiveness of relevant initiatives. Although there has been extensive research on evaluating STE(A)M education, little attention has been paid to examining the patterns of said evaluations. To address the research gap, this paper analyses relevant work on the evaluation of STE(A)M education practices with respect to their countries/regions, levels of education, discipline domains, pedagogical approaches, objectives of evaluation, evaluation areas, as well as data collection and analysis methods. It covers 339 publications from 2014 to 2023 which were collected from Scopus. Based on content analysis, the findings reveal a global interest in STE(A)M education and its evaluation, with a focus on secondary education and the core STEM subjects. The findings also highlight a diverse range of pedagogical approaches being used in STE(A)M education, with problem-based learning being the most popular. There has been a shift in evaluation objectives over the years, indicating a greater emphasis on determining the effectiveness of STE(A)M education and improving student learning performance. While academic achievement remained the most commonly evaluated area, there has been growing recognition of the importance of evaluating skills and competencies in STE(A)M education. The results also show a wide range of data sources and data analysis methods adopted for the evaluations
The Southern Miss Bower Academic Center: A Recent Academic Library-Athletics Partnership
Full text linkIn 2019, A. Blake Denton published a literature review that identified and described 35 partnerships between academic libraries and athletics programs at higher education institutions in the United States, 20 of which were established for library marketing and development purposes. Recognizing that the literature documenting marketing and development partnerships was dated, he published a study in 2021 that provided updated, more comprehensive accounts for eight participating institutions and an analysis of the evolving nature of their relationships over time. This third article analyzes the partnership at the University of Southern Mississippi that resulted in the relocation of the athletics program’s Bower Academic Center to Cook Library. Building on the foundation established by both publications, the present case study provides three main contributions to this niche of library and information science literature: (1) documents and analyzes a previously unknown academic library-athletics partnership; (2) revises the literature concerning these relationships; and (3) offers several applications for practitioners interested in establishing similar arrangements at their institutions
This is How We Roll: How a Trolley Got a Second Life to Take the Library to its Community
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Balancing Open Access and Ethical Responsibility: The Sensitivity of Sharing Endangered Species Data
No full textInstitutional repositories (IRs) play a critical role in facilitating the open sharing and longterm preservation of scientific data, including biodiversity and conservation research. However, when it comes to archiving and disseminating data on endangered species, there are unique ethical challenges that must be addressed, particularly regarding the sensitivity of location data. This presentation will explore the ethical considerations surrounding the sharing of endangered species data, focusing on the potential risks posed by publicly accessible location information.
The geographic coordinates of species sightings, habitat data, and breeding sites are often vital to conservation efforts, but they can also be misused, especially in the context of poaching and illegal wildlife trade. Researchers and conservationists face a delicate balance between making data openly available for the advancement of science and protecting the species they aim to conserve. This presentation will examine strategies for mitigating the risks of data misuse, such as anonymizing or aggregating location data, using access controls, and collaborating with stakeholders to ensure ethical data-sharing practices.
Drawing on real-world examples from ongoing research in endangered species conservation, this session will provide attendees with practical guidelines for managing sensitive data within IRs. It will also consider the role of IRs in supporting ethical stewardship of environmental and biodiversity data while ensuring that scientific research is not hindered by overly restrictive data access policies. Finally, the session will prompt a broader conversation about how IRs can navigate the complexities of data sensitivity in the context of open science and contribute to responsible, transparent, and secure data-sharing in the conservation community
Learning to Let Go: Weeding for Sustainability in a Mature Repository
No full textWeeding isn’t just for print collections. As repositories mature, organizational complexity can creep in and collections become orphaned, irrelevant, or embarrassing to stakeholders or the host institution. Eleven years after launching our Digital Commons-based repository, Georgia Southern Commons, the University Libraries at Georgia Southern University have embarked on a wide-ranging audit of over 1,900 collection and community structures and over 150,000 items. This project has been complicated by the fact that Digital Commons provides no direct means of visualizing collection and community hierarchies or how records are collected across structures.
During this session, presenters will share how we’ve overcome these limitations to understand the structure and content of these collections so that we can weed content we no longer wish to support, as well as simplify the organizational structure of the repository overall. While letting go can be hard to do, the long-term sustainability of repositories may depend on learning how
Privacy-Aware AI-Based Agricultural Monitoring Using Internet of Drones
Full text linkArtificial Intelligence (AI) has become a vital tool for agricultural farming. AI-based image processing models utilizing different machine learning (ML) algorithms and deep learning (DL) offer advanced functionalities in disease detection, yield estimation, land use, etc. This thesis examines AI-driven techniques utilizing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) with the addition of Federated Learning (FL) to analyze satellite and drone images for agricultural insights, especially in detecting Cotton diseases. The AI models improve agricultural farming in many ways, such as using data to make critical decisions, reducing labor costs, pest infestations, etc. Moreover, these models allow farmers to minimize yield losses by making early interventions. AI models can also efficiently use land by analyzing soil conditions and crop performance. This thesis utilizes various ML models and an FL model for classifying cotton plant diseases. In addition, we used an authentication scheme to collect the images securely. We received accuracy scores of over 90%. The results are promising; however, future work should focus on validating that the results are good on new and unseen data. This will ensure that the model is robust
Development and Characterization of a Pro-Angiogenic Peptide Amphiphile for Deep Dermal Burn Healing via Spray Delivery
Full text linkSevere burns and other dermatological injuries are frequently accompanied by a range of comorbidities and aesthetic challenges that patients must contend with. The complexity of burn care is exacerbated by the lack of a standardized surgical protocol, as treatment strategies are tailored to individual patient factors, including overall health status, wound size and location, as well as the expertise and resources available to the surgical team. Most commonly, deep dermal burns are treated through grafting, which effectively covers the injury site, but requires the creation of a second wound on the body of approximately the same size. This produces a second wound capable of incurring infection which is detrimental to healing patients, and assumes the patient has sufficient healthy skin to utilize. Peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are a class of biomaterials composed of a peptide head and a hydrocarbon tail that self-assemble into nanostructures driven by non-covalent interactions between amino acids, leading to fiber formation through the incorporation of amino acid residues that engage in strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Importantly, these PA nanofibers can be designed to contain amino acids that prompt assembly into scaffolds highly reminiscent of the extracellular matrix and are shear thinning, making them ideally suited for spray delivery in wound healing applications. Peptide amphiphiles can also be functionalized to contain bioactive epitopes that are displayed on the exterior of the fibers, which can support desired cell processes such as blood vessel formation. Furthermore, PAs can also ionically crosslink with divalent cations via chelation with terminal carboxylic acid groups in the PA nanofibers, to form gels and create a favorable material profile to act as a scaffold for cell proliferation and reconstruction. In this work, PA monomers were synthesized by solid-phase peptide synthesis, with the molecular weight and purity of the PAs determined using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Supramolecular polymerization of the PAs was evaluated through a Nile Red assay of the PA monomers, Circular dichroism (CD) was used to examine the internal ordering of the PA molecules during assembly, transmission electron microscopy was utilized for analysis of the nanofiber morphology, scanning electron microscopy aided in confirming the self-assembly post-spray, and rheological assessments were performed on the gelled PAs to assess viscoelasticity of the biomaterials. Biocompatibility of the PAs was assessed using a lactate dehydrogenase assay in human embryonic kidney cells. Cell viability and migration through gelled PAs was analyzed using confocal microscopy. Lastly, the angiogenesis capabilities of the bioactive PA nanofibers were assessed via blood vessel formation using an endothelial cell tube formation assay. All of these properties together prove for a promising future in the use of PAs as an effective biomaterial for tissue reconstruction, with the potential to significantly advance wound healing therapie