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The impact of economic sanctions on China-U.S. scientific collaboration: Evidence from the civilian universities on the U.S. entity list
No full textChina and the United States have enjoyed a long peroid of scientific collaboration. However, the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on China since 2018 appear to have disrupted this productive relationship. This study examines the potential impact of these sanctions on China-U.S. scientific collaboration, using the seven civilian universities, commonly referred to as SSND, as a case study. Drawing on scientific publication data from the Web of Science spanning more than 20 years, we assess how political tensions may have affected collaboration among individual researchers in both countries. Preliminary analysis of over 300,000 records suggests that, following China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and especially around the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, SSND universities formed increasingly strong partnerships with U.S. institutions, benefiting researchers in both nations. However, after the U.S. government issued the Entity List to restrict trade with Chinese companies and even civilian universities, SSND institutions representative of many Chinese universities affected by the sanctions showed a significant decline in collaborations with U.S. affiliations. Instead, they shifted toward partnerships with domestic organizations and institutions in other countries. From a publication output perspective, these sanctions have negatively impacted not only Chinese researchers but also their close American collaborators
Does information literacy help to mitigate misinformation in post-truth era?
Get PDFThe participatory nature of social media is a contributing factor to the rapid spread of unfiltered information. Information literacy (IL) is considered a strong tool to fight back the rise of misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, fake news, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories leading the world into the post-truth era. This study is intended to find out how and why educated citizens of Pakistan use social media. It further enquires about their concerns regarding misinformation on social media, their IL skills, and their intentions to combat misinformation. Drawing upon the post-positivist paradigm, the study adopted a quantitative approach. A structured questionnaire was adapted and administered online through Facebook, WhatsApp, and email. The findings revealed that the participants spent a good amount of their time per day on social media. To pass the time, finding and sharing information and staying in touch were the main reasons for using social media. The respondents often encountered misinformation over social media but appeared less concerned about cross-checking the information to ensure its authenticity. Moreover, they seemed less bothered to consult any fact-checking website to verify the doubted social media content or news. The results indicated a low IL rate among the participants while indicating a positive correlation and significant positive effect of IL skills on misinformation combating intentions. Insights gained from the study provide a basis for designing and programming effective IL interventions to better equip citizens with cognitive abilities to detect and mitigate misinformation hence, be instrumental in improving the flow of quality information on social media
Effects of time passage and web searches on naive internet users' perceived reliability of web information
Get PDFThis study examined how time passage and web searches affect naive internet users' perception of web information reliability. We surveyed 285 participants via crowdsourcing, who read four articles on identity cards and data breaches. Participants rated each article's reliability after reading. We divided the participants into four groups using a between-subjects design. Groups 1 and 3 conducted web searches after reading the articles. Groups 1 and 2 answered the questionnaire immediately after reading, while Groups 3 and 4 waited two weeks before responding. We formulated two hypotheses: First, based on previous studies of sleeper effects—where less credible information appears more reliable over time—we predicted that Groups 3 and 4 would assess low-credibility articles as more reliable compared to other groups. Second, we hypothesized that Groups 1 and 3 who conduct web searches would perceive low-credibility articles as less reliable and high-credibility articles as more reliable compared to the other groups. Our results supported the first hypothesis, confirming the sleeper effect. The second hypothesis was partially supported, as only high-credibility articles were perceived as more reliable after web searches. Content analysis further revealed that time passage and web searches influenced other factors related to how naive internet users assess perceived reliability of web information. While more research is needed on factors like article types and search relevance, our findings offer insights for developing long-term strategies to combat misinformation, enhancing information literacy education, and improving task designs to increase the quality of open-source information
Effects of transfer learning and fine-tuning in domain-specific tasks: A case study of Word2Vec models in materials science
Get PDFFine-tuning and transfer learning are widely used to help models adapt to specific domain tasks and new domains with limited training data. However, their effectiveness in particular tasks within specific domains is not always clear. This study examines the effects of fine-tuning and transfer learning by using “creep” as a representative property and “gas turbine” as a representative application to search relevant materials. Three Word2Vec models are compared: Pei et al.’s model trained on 6.4 million abstracts in materials science (Model 1), a model trained on abstracts and titles from 1 million articles in a specific subarea in materials science: “metallic materials for extreme environments” (Model 2), and a fine-tuned version of Model 1 using Model 2’s corpus (Model 3). The models’ comparison reveals the effects of fine-tuning (Model 1 vs. Model 3) and transfer learning (Model 2 vs. Model 3). Model 3 outperforms Model 2 in identifying materials with the “creep.” This shows that transfer learning from general materials science literature improves performance. However, for the “gas turbine,” Models 2 and 3 achieve 96% accuracy, surpassing Model 1, indicating that fine-tuning improves performance while transfer learning does not. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) confirmed Model 2’s specialized understanding of extreme materials and Model 3’s benefits from transfer learning. The PCA visualization indicates Model 3 shows greater semantic differentiation, while Model 2 displays more semantic similarity. These initial findings revealed the effects of fine-tuning and transfer learning in domain-specific tasks. Future work will expand the scope to fully evaluate both techniques
Inside Out: A Brain's Tale of Introverts and Extraverts
No full textWhat makes us who we are? According to the American Psychological Association, personality is the ‘the enduring configuration of characteristics and behavior that comprises an individual’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns.’ (Detloff, 1972) Two primary types of human personality are introversion and extraversion
Illinois Materials Management & Recycling Opportunities
No full textIn early 2022, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) began collaborating with Illinois EPA (IEPA) to identify on-going study needs associated with the Illinois Materials Management
Advisory Committee (MMAC) Report that was submitted to the Illinois General Assembly in July 2021. IEPA commissioned ISTC to conduct a two-year study focused on researching large volume recyclable materials to better understand recycling and diversion efforts throughout Illinois and barriers and opportunities to further diversion. This study and report are focused on one primary question – Where should IEPA focus their efforts, resources, and funding to further divert these
materials from the landfill?Illinois Environmental Protection Agenc
DEI in Engineering Classroom instruction Observation Instrument (DEI-COI) User Manual & Technical Report v. 2
No full textThis manual provides the information necessary for researchers or university personnel to consider before deciding whether to adopt the use of the DEI in Engineering Classroom Instruction Observation Instrument (DEI-COI)—an observation checklist on the presence/absence of classroom instructional acts that can foster or hinder a DEI-positive classroom atmosphere in undergraduate engineering instruction. This manual serves to explicitly state appropriate and inappropriate uses, provide questionnaire administration directions and options, explain the development and evaluation of the DEI-COI, provide validity evidence in support of its appropriate uses, and provide guidance on how to expand upon the existing DEI-COI for research and operational uses. Additionally, this manual serves to help researchers and university personnel interpret test results.NSF award #230853
Data Quality Assessment of Retracted Papers: �Patterns and Retraction Status Shifts in Titles
No full textThe term “retracted paper” refers to a paper that is officially flagged by the publishing company due to flaws or errors in its content or data. Once a paper is retracted, it is no longer seen as a reliable source of evidence and should not be cited as evidence. To avoid unintentionally citing retracted papers, researchers need to be able to determine which papers are retracted. However, this is difficult because sources have significant discrepancies: one in five articles was indexed as both retracted and not retracted, across Crossref, Retraction Watch, Scopus, and Web of Science, according to our prior work. One reason for these discrepancies is incorrect indexing of DOIs, especially retraction notices and corrigenda. Here, we investigate the most significant discrepancy: 9,937 DOIs that Crossref, but no other sources indexed as retracted publications – meaning that many are likely not retracted at all. In this project, we are combining components of our prior work. Our previous work made pattern-based predictions that labeled each DOI as 'likely_retracted' or 'likely_retraction' based on phrases such as retracted, [retracted], retraction, correction, and correction to (which we call “retraction status patterns”) found at the beginning or end of the title, or as the full title.
Here, we manually inspected each DOI and categorized it as: (i) a retracted paper, (ii) a retraction notice, (iii) both a retracted paper and a retraction notice, or (iv) neither a retracted paper nor a retraction notice. We compared our pattern-based predictions to our manually assigned categories to test how reliable our pattern-based predictions are at distinguishing between retracted publications and retraction notices. We are particularly interested in testing how consistently different journals use retraction phrases in their titles. In the future, we will use validated retraction status patterns to remove corrections and retraction notices from our union list of retracted publications. We will communicate our results to Crossref in order to encourage them to make corrections in their data. Our research will ultimately benefit the entire research ecosystem as data from Crossref is ingested into many bibliographic databases.Alfred P. Sloan Foundation G-2022-19409U.S. National Science Foundation 2046454Perrin Moorhead Grayson and Bruns Grayson Fellowship at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2024-2025
Hunter Participation, Harvest, and Hunting Behavior During the 2024 Illinois Conservation Order
No full textHarvest of light geese (Anser caerulescens, Anser rossii) during the 2024 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order was estimated at 56,125. An estimated 7,459 hunters participated in the 2022 Illinois Light Goose Conservation Order. Hunters spent an estimated 101,739 days afield during 2024, and the majority (66.2%) of the snow (light) goose harvest occurred during the month of February. Hunters were sampled from Harvest Information Program (HIP) registrants who reported they hunted snow and other light geese (including Ross’ and Blue geese) during the 2022 Light Goose Conservation Order. One in 3 hunters had increased harvest of light goose over the previous 5 years. Approximately 15.8% of active light goose hunters used a guide or outfitter while hunting light geese during the 2024 Order. Due to changes in sampling of addresses and calculation of estimates, comparisons should not be made to years prior to 2014.Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration W-112-R-3
For Today and Tomorrow
No full textFor Today and Tomorrow is a short documentary that examines the role of corporate actors in Liberia’s post-conflict recovery, with a focus on Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) and its interventions in rural communities. Against the lingering backdrop of civil war, the film situates oil palm cultivation not simply as an economic enterprise, but as an instrument of social reintegration and nation-building. It foregrounds GVL’s programs that provide former combatants with agricultural training, employment opportunities, and pathways to social reintegration, thereby reframing ex-combatants as agents of rural development rather than residual figures of war. Through a juxtaposition of personal testimonies, communal imagery, and observational footage, the documentary highlights the dialectic between corporate responsibility and grassroots resilience. It presents GVL’s initiatives as a case study in how private-sector capital can be mobilized to address fragile-state vulnerabilities, where livelihoods, dignity, and long-term stability converge. In doing so, the film invites broader reflection on the intersections of extractive industry, social transformation, and the cultural narratives of peacebuilding in post-conflict Africa