Faculty Research & Creative Scholarship 2020: W-Z

Abstract: In the component-based software system, certain behaviours of components and their composition may affect system reliability at runtime. This problem can be early detected through the automated verification of software architecture design, by which model checking is one of the techniques to achieve this. However, its practicality and performance issue remain challenges. This paper presents a scalable approach for the software architecture verification. The modelling is proposed to manifest the behaviours in the software component, in order to detect problematic behaviours, such as circular dependency and performance bottleneck. The outcome of the verification identifies the problem and the scenarios that cause it. In order to mitigate the verification performance issue, the parallelism is applied to the verification process so that multiple decomposed models can be simultaneously verified on a multi-threaded environment. As some software systems are designed as the monolithic architecture, we present a method that helps to automatically decompose a large monolithic model into a set of smaller sub-models. Our approach was evaluated and proved to enhance the performance of the verification process for the large-scale complex software systems.
Author: Bingyang Wei, Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Abstract: Software architecture design is a key component in software engineering. Teaching it effectively requires instructors come up with challenging real world projects, in which students need to recognize the architectural problems, figure out solutions, compare alternatives and make decisions. On the other hand, keeping students motivated and interested in this topic is also critical. However, truly understanding and appreciating a certain software architecture are not easy for most undergraduate students. Most architecture courses either focus too much on the theoretical concepts or fail to immerse students enough in complex industrial level projects unless the instructors are practicing software engineers. In this paper, we propose a Project-Based Learning experience, which brings an open-source full-fledged system to classroom in order to effectively teach distributed software architecture. Students are introduced the best practices that are widely used in industry to solve some of today’s common architectural problems. Our ultimate goal is to establish a public code repository of realistic projects from popular industrial sectors, so that instructors can reference to improve software architecture’s learning experience even though they are not practicing software engineers.
Author: Bingyang Wei, Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Journal Title: American Nurse Today
Introductory Paragraph: Every year in the United States, 600 to 1,600 newborns experience an in-hospital fall, resulting in injuries that include bruising, abrasions, skull fractures, subdural hematoma, accidental suffocation, and death. Many parents and healthcare workers suffer emotional distress as a result. All healthcare employees who work with parents of newborns can contribute to infant safety by being aware of fall risks and helping to prevent them.
Author: Jo Nell Wells, Professor, Nursing

Description: Spencer Hays grew up in a small town in a family of very little means to become a business leader and a wealthy philanthropist by way of sheer grit and hard work—a true Horatio Alger story. His success was such that he and his wife Marlene were able to bequeath to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris a major collection of French Impressionist and post-Impressionist art—an act of philanthropy so exceptional that they were given the highest civilian honor that France bestows. Hays’s corporate leadership was based upon an extraordinary commitment to his customers and especially to the well-being of his employees in an era when corporations see profits for upper management and stockholders as their chief, if not only, responsibility. Beloved by friends and employees alike for his self-effacement and generosity, Spencer Hays wanted the principles that his corporations operate by to be the primary focus of this book. These principles, which embody commitment and service, undergird the success and growth of his businesses. Spelled out here for the benefit of readers, they are vividly brought to life by the remarkable career of one remarkable man.
Author: Dan Williams, Honors Professor of Humanities and the Director of the TCU Press

Journal Title: PeerJ — the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences
Abstract: The Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) inhabits much of the southern Great Plains of North America. Since the 1950s, this species has been extirpated from much of its eastern range and has suffered declines and local extinctions elsewhere, primarily due to habitat loss. Plans are underway to use captive breeding to produce large numbers of Texas horned lizards for reintroduction into areas that were historically occupied by this species and that currently have suitable habitat. We used mitochondrial markers and nuclear microsatellite markers to determine levels of genetic diversity and population structure in 542 Texas horned lizards sampled from across Texas and some neighboring states to help inform these efforts. Texas horned lizards still retain high genetic diversity in many parts of their current range. We found two highly divergent mitochondrial clades (eastern and western) and three major genetic groupings at nuclear microsatellite loci: a west group corresponding to the western mitochondrial clade and north and south groups within the eastern mitochondrial clade. We also found some evidence for human-mediated movement between these genetic clusters that is probably related to the historical importance of this species in the pet trade and as an iconic symbol of the southwestern United States. We do not know, however, if there are fitness costs associated with admixture (especially for the western and eastern clades) or if there are fitness costs to moving these lizards into habitats that are distinctly different from their ancestral areas. If present, either one or both of these fitness costs would decrease the effectiveness of reintroduction efforts. We therefore recommend that reintroduction efforts should maintain current genetic structure by restricting breeding to be between individuals within their respective genetic clusters, and by reintroducing individuals only into those areas that encompass their respective genetic clusters. This cautionary approach is based on the strong divergence between genetic groupings and their correspondence to different ecoregions.
Author: Dean A. Williams, Professor, Biology

Journal Title: Tectonics
Abstract: Laramide deformation during the Late Cretaceous through early Eocene interrupted the east‐flowing drainage systems from the Sevier hinterland and segmented the Western Interior Foreland Basin in much of western North America into a series of intermontane basins and Precambrian basement‐cored uplifts. In Wyoming, the timing of Laramide deformation and its impacts on drainage patterns during the overlap in the Sevier and Laramide orogenies remain under debate. New detrital zircon U‐Pb geochronologic data from 11 outcrop samples (n = 3,085) in south‐central Wyoming suggest at least two provenance‐distribution phases, distinguished by a substantial increase in zircons of late Paleoproterozoic age (1800–1600 Ma) recorded at approximately 79 Ma. The most likely source of late Paleoproterozoic age zircons is Precambrian basement‐cored uplifts, specifically the Sierra Madre Mountains, signaling the possible middle Campanian initiation of Laramide uplift, earlier than previously recorded. When combined with complementary data sets from surrounding basins, the first provenance‐distribution phase is age discordant, with the earliest evidence of 1800–1600 Ma zircons in the Piceance Basin of Colorado (late Santonian to early Campanian). The second provenance phase shows repeating age distribution patterns that begin with significant contributions from 1800 to 1600 Ma zircon grains and end with much broader and evenly distributed population signatures, confirming previous interpretations of significant Laramide deformation during the Maastrichtian (approximately 70 Ma) as well as uplift and recycling of Upper Cretaceous formations at about 67 Ma.
Author: Xiangyang Xie, Associate Professor, Geological Sciences

Journal Title: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Abstract: Permian carbon isotopic and clay mineralogical records were recovered from the carbonates in the Xikou section, a complete and uninterrupted Upper Carboniferous to Lower Triassic carbonate-dominated succession exposed in Zhen'an, Shaanxi Province, central China, which were used to document carbon isotopic signatures and climatic changes affecting the easternmost Paleo-Tethys region during the Permian. Both carbon isotope and clay mineralogical data suggest fluctuating climatic conditions and trends that can be approximately correlated with eastern Australian glaciations and North American craton during the Artinskian to Capitanian Stages. Two global carbon isotopic anomalies across the Permian-Triassic boundary and the Guadalupian-Lopingian Series boundary were detected for the first time in the stratigraphic record of the South Qinling micro-continental block. The Capitanian Stage comprises an early phase of climatic warming followed by a later phase of climatic cooling. The Kungurian Stage represents a climatic warming interval and the main phase of deglaciation during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA). A δ13C positive shift across the boundary of the Artinskian to Kungurian Stages, together with the following negative excursion recorded in the early Kungurian Stage can be used as an indicator for the boundary between the Artinskian and Kungurian Stage.
Author: Xiangyang Xie, Associate Professor, Geological Sciences

Journal Title: JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth
Abstract: Background: As mobile technology continues expanding, researchers have been using mobile phones to conduct health interventions (mobile health—mHealth—interventions). The multiple features of mobile phones offer great opportunities to disseminate large-scale, cost-efficient, and tailored messages to participants. However, the interventions to date have shown mixed results, with a large variance of effect sizes (Cohen d=−0.62 to 1.65).
Objective: The study aimed to generate cumulative knowledge that informs mHealth intervention research. The aims were twofold: (1) to calculate an overall effect magnitude for mHealth interventions compared with alternative interventions or conditions, and (2) to analyze potential moderators of mHealth interventions’ comparative efficacy.
Author: Qinghua Yang, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies

Journal Title: Health Communication
Abstract: Haze has become one of the most life-threatening problems in China and affects over one billion Chinese people’s health. Chinese people have become more dependent on receiving health information from social media, especially Weibo and WeChat, which shapes their health perceptions and behaviors. To investigate how Chinese people’s exposure to health information on social media influenced their health protective behaviors in response to haze, particularly wearing a PM2.5 anti-haze mask, we conducted a longitudinal web-based survey of mainland Chinese. The results from the structural equation modeling showed that (a) attitude and descriptive norm positively mediated the relationships between using Weibo for health information and behavioral intention while descriptive norm negatively mediated the relationship between using WeChat for health information and intention, and that (b) attitude, descriptive norm, and injunctive norm significantly predicted behavioral intention and wearing mask, but perceived behavior control did not. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Author: Qinghua Yang, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies

Journal Title: Communication Disorders Quarterly
Abstract: This preliminary study investigated the effects of co-treatment by an adapted physical educator and speech-language pathologist on basic concept vocabulary learning in preschool children with Down syndrome as compared with the effects of treatment by either professional alone. In a Repeated Acquisition Design/Adapted Alternating Treatment study, 10 preschool children with Down syndrome were taught five basic concept words each week in a co-treatment intervention, in adapted physical education alone, or in speech-language therapy alone across 9 weeks. Each week, participants participated in a pre- and posttest. Four children learned the most words in the co-treatment condition and the remaining six children did not learn different numbers of words across conditions. Individual characteristics of children in the study were evaluated to determine possible factors that differentiate learning patterns among children. This preliminary study provides evidence that co-treatment may be effective for vocabulary teaching for some children with Down syndrome, particularly those with relatively high nonverbal intelligence.
Author: Rosalyna Yarbrough, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Communication Sciences & Disorders

Presented at Temple University Dance Studies Colloquium
Lecturer: Jessica Zeller, Associate Professor of Dance, Classical & Contemporary Dance

Journal Title: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Abstract: In the United States, more than 200 communities are designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as areas of concern for dioxins. Informing the public about potential risks associated with dioxins and delivering information about how to avoid such risks are essential activities. News coverage of environmental and health problems affects how members of the public assess those problems in terms of both severity and how they are understood, as well as the extent of attention given to the problem by policy-makers. To contextualize public and institutional responses to dioxin contamination and remediation in a dioxin-affected community, we assessed 176 newspaper articles published over 30 years concerning dioxin contamination in Midland, Michigan, in terms of risk, trust in institutions, environmental stigma, and citizen participation. Articles about dioxin contamination and remediation in Midland appeared in both domestic and international newspapers. Domestically, both national and local newspapers covered this issue. The risks for human health and the environment caused by exposure to dioxins were widely covered, with much less media attention given to the trustworthiness of the organizations responsible for managing the risk, environmental stigma, and citizen participation. News coverage of these four themes also changed significantly overtime. Overall, our findings highlight the important role of local news media in communicating risk information, guiding safe behaviors, and facilitating community-level decision-making.
Author: Jie Zhuang, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies