OU - Graduate Student Publicationshttps://hdl.handle.net/11244/470442024-03-29T08:24:54Z2024-03-29T08:24:54ZUser Studies in Public Library Website RedesignsTheige, Beverlyhttps://hdl.handle.net/11244/3369752023-01-20T06:07:27Z2022-12-24T00:00:00ZUser Studies in Public Library Website Redesigns
Theige, Beverly
This paper highlights the importance of conducting user studies before redesigning a public library website to ensure the needs and wants of the whole community are met. It explores the eight most common user experience research methods and how they are beneficial in determining the design of a virtual public library environment. Because of their core values of access and service to all, public libraries should prioritize user experience research and include children in their user studies when redesigning their websites.
2022-12-24T00:00:00ZOptimal Selection of Short-and Long-Term Mitigation Strategies for Buildings within Communities under Flooding HazardGupta, Himadri SenNofal, Omar M.González, Andrés D.Nicholson, Charles D.van de Lindt, John W.https://hdl.handle.net/11244/3364662022-08-17T05:08:42Z2022-08-09T00:00:00ZOptimal Selection of Short-and Long-Term Mitigation Strategies for Buildings within Communities under Flooding Hazard
Gupta, Himadri Sen; Nofal, Omar M.; González, Andrés D.; Nicholson, Charles D.; van de Lindt, John W.
Every year, floods cause substantial economic losses worldwide with devastating impacts on buildings and physical infrastructures throughout communities. Techniques are available to mitigate flood damage and subsequent losses, but the ability to weigh such strategies with respect to their benefits from a community resilience perspective is limited in the literature. Investing in flood mitigation is critical for communities to protect the physical and socioeconomic systems that depend on them. While there are multiple mitigation options to implement at the building level, this paper focuses on determining the optimal flood mitigation strategy for buildings to minimize flood losses within a community. In this research, a mixed integer linear programming model is proposed for studying the effects and trade-offs associated with pre-event short-term and long-term mitigation strategies to minimize the expected economic losses associated with floods. The capabilities of the proposed model are illustrated for Lumberton, North Carolina (NC), a small, socially diverse inland community on the Lumber River. The mathematically optimal building-level flood mitigation plan is provided based on the available budget, which can significantly minimize the total expected direct economic loss of the community. The results reveal important correlations among investment quantity, building-level short- and long-term mitigation measures, flood depths of various locations, and buildings’ structure. Additionally, this study shows the trade-offs between short- and long-term mitigation measures based on available budget by providing decision support to building owners regarding mitigation measures for their buildings.
2022-08-09T00:00:00ZBenchmarking of Academic Departments using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)Alam, T.E.Gonzalez, A.D.Raman, S.https://hdl.handle.net/11244/3352812022-04-27T05:12:29Z2022-04-01T00:00:00ZBenchmarking of Academic Departments using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
Alam, T.E.; Gonzalez, A.D.; Raman, S.
Purpose – The main objective of the paper is to develop an Investment Model using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that provides a decision-making framework to allocate resources efficiently, such that the relative efficiency is improved within an available investment budget.
Design/methodology/approach – DEA models are used to evaluate the efficiency of the departments relative to their peers and providing benchmarks for the less efficient departments. Secondly, the inefficiencies in departments are identified. Finally, for the less efficient departments, a decision-support system is introduced for optimizing resource allocation to improve efficiency.
Findings – Five of the eighteen academic departments were determined to be inefficient, and benchmark departments were found for those departments. The most prevalent causes for inefficiency were the number of Undergraduate Students per Faculty and the Number of Graduate Students. Results from the Investment Model for Department 12 suggest increasing the Number of Faculty by 2 units and H-Index by 0.5 units, thereby, improving the relative efficiency of the department by 6.8% (88% to 94%), using $290,000 out of $500,000 investment budget provided.
Originality – When an investment budget is available, no study has used DEA to develop a decision-support framework for resource allocation in academic departments to maximize relative efficiency.
Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis; Relative Efficiency; Benchmarking; Resource Allocation; Investment Model; Decision-Support System
2022-04-01T00:00:00ZPrecipitation effects on grassland plant performance are lessened by hay harvestCastillioni, KarenPatten, Michael A.Souza, Larahttps://hdl.handle.net/11244/3345922022-02-15T14:13:31Z2022-02-01T00:00:00ZPrecipitation effects on grassland plant performance are lessened by hay harvest
Castillioni, Karen; Patten, Michael A.; Souza, Lara
Climate and human management, such as hay harvest, shape grasslands. With both disturbances
co-occurring, understanding how these ecosystems respond to these combined drivers may aid in
projecting future changes in grasslands. We used an experimental precipitation gradient combined
with mimicked acute hay harvest (clipping once a year) to examine (1) whether hay harvest
influences precipitation effects on plant performance (cover and height) and (2) the role of interspecific
responses in influencing plant performance. We found that hay harvest reduced the strength
of precipitation effects on plant performance through changes in bare-ground soil cover. Species
performance were mainly influenced by change in abiotic factors, often responding negatively, as
hay harvest increased bare-ground amount. Conversely, altered precipitation without hay harvest
promoted plant species performance through abiotic factors change first, followed by biotic. Most
species, including the dominant grass Schizachyrium scoparium, increased their performance with
greater leaf area index (proxy for canopy structure). Our experiment demonstrates that plant
performance responds directly to abiotic factors with hay harvest, but indirectly without hay harvest.
Positive effects of increasing precipitation were likely due to microhabitat amelioration and resource
acquisition, thus inclusion of hay harvest as a disturbance lessens positive impacts of biotic variables
on species performance to climate change.
2022-02-01T00:00:00Z