ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst

This article presents the current status of AI tools in library resources and systems, such as those licensed by Clarivate, Elsevier, and EBSCO. It also offers thoughts on the utility of the tools, how they work, their problems, and their context within the offerings of the companies that own them. With this information, library workers will be able to make better informed decisions about which, if any, AI tools to subscribe to, activate, or opt out of in their library resources and systems.

Designers are well positioned to transfer visual methods from design-focused prospective sensemaking activities to qualitative social science methods in order to deepen translational research efforts. This paper contributes to the discussion regarding methods designers can employ to strengthen hypothesis building when working with qualitative data by demonstrating the use of visual tools available in Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS) software. The paper outlines steps in the initial analysis process for a research project investigating the relationship between collaborative professional practices and design outcomes. The pilot data were analyzed in MAXQDA to conduct thematic analysis with codes developed inductively and added to a deductive organizing framework. The Visual Tools, including MaxMaps and the Code Matrix Browser, were employed to build visualizations that identified emerging thematic relationships, and to develop and refine hypotheses. This paper argues that visual tools available in CAQDAS software position designers to build on their disciplinary expertise to more meaningfully contribute to research methods that seek to improve the built environment.

Identifying characteristics that influence pathogen transmission at shared resources is a key goal in disease ecology. Pollinators foraging on shared flowers can deposit feces containing pathogens, which then survive for a certain amount of time and may be acquired by subsequent visitors. All these components - where the feces land, whether the pathogen survives, and whether it is contacted by subsequent visitors - can be shaped by floral traits. We experimentally manipulated the arrangement of inflorescences in space (horizontal versus vertical) to ask how it influences defecation patterns, pathogen survival and pathogen acquisition from leaves and flowers using Bombus impatiens bumblebees, their gut pathogen Crithidia bombi, and two legume plant species, Securigera varia and Lotus corniculatus. To measure defecation, we allowed infected bees to forage in individual cages with a horizontal or vertical floral arrangement, and determined where and how many fecal drops were deposited. We also applied C. bombi inoculum to flowers and leaves of each floral arrangement to examine variation in pathogen survival, and evaluated pathogen acquisition by exposing uninfected bees to drops of C. bombi inoculum placed on either flowers or leaves in vertical or horizontal floral arrangements. Floral arrangement affected fecal deposition patterns; in horizontal floral cages, the majority of feces (88%) were found on the flowers, while only 40% of feces in vertical floral cages were deposited on flowers. Interestingly, both survival and acquisition of the pathogen were influenced by the plant part but not floral arrangement. Pathogen survival was significantly higher on flowers than on leaves, and uninfected bumblebees were more likely to acquire infection by foraging on flowers inoculated with C. bombi compared to inoculated leaves. Thus, plants with horizontally arranged flowers resulted in greater pathogen deposition to flowers, which is likely to increase transmission due to higher survival and acquisition from flowers compared to leaves. This study highlights floral arrangement as an important but underexplored trait that shapes pathogen deposition patterns and transmission risks among pollinators.