Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Curbing Environmental Degradation To Balance Sustainable Development: Evidence From China, Muneza Kagzi, Vishal Dagar, Nadia Doytch, Deepika Krishnan, Manisha Raj

Ateneo School of Government Publications

To achieve the goals of sustainable development, it is crucial to check the balance of increased level of international trade along with financial development, foreign direct investment (FDI), energy consumption, and institutional advancement with the quality of the environment. This study focuses on how these variables have caused environmental degradation in China. To achieve Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), i.e. to increase the nation's resilience to natural disasters and hazards related to climate change, to promote climate action and safeguard life as part of sustainable development, this involves the analysis of time-series data sets from 1975 to …

Uncovering Merchants’ Willingness To Wait In On-Demand Food Delivery Markets, Jian Liang, Ya Zhao, Hai Wang, Zuopeng Xiao, Jintao Ke

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While traditional on-demand food delivery services help restaurants reach more customers and enable doorstep deliveries, they also come with drawbacks, such as high commission fees and limited control over the delivery process. White-label food delivery services have emerged as an alternative, ready-to-use platform for restaurants to arrange delivery for customer orders received through their applications or websites, without the constraints imposed by traditional on-demand food delivery platforms or the need to develop an in-house delivery operation. Although several studies have investigated consumer behavior when using traditional on-demand food delivery services, there is limited research on merchants’ behavior when adopting white-label …

Bibliography For "Ai: The Next Chapter Display", Arianna Tillman, Isabella Piechota

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to support a display about artificial intelligence at the Leatherby Libraries during Fall 2024 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.

Does Ceo Agreeableness Personality Mitigate Real Earnings Management?, Shan Liu, Xingying Wu, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite efforts to mitigate aggressive financial reporting, earnings management remains challenging to parties interested in inhibiting its dysfunctional effects. Using linguistic algorithms to assess CEO agreeableness personality from their unscripted texts in conference calls, we find that it is a determinant that mitigates a firm's real earnings management. Furthermore, such an effect is more pronounced when firms confront intensive market competition and financial distress and have weaker managerial entrenchment or when CEOs face stronger internal governance. Our findings persist even after we utilize several alternative real earnings management metrics and control other confounding personalities in prior earnings management studies. The …

The Interplay Of Social Constraints And Individual Variation In Risk Tolerance In The Emergence Of Superspreaders, Earl Carr, Matthew J. Young, Matthew J. Silk, Alexander J. Pritchard, Nina F. Fefferman

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Individual host behaviours can drastically impact the spread of infection through a population. Differences in the value individuals place on both socializing with others and avoiding infection have been shown to yield emergent homophily in social networks and thereby shape epidemic outcomes. We build on this understanding to explore how individuals who do not conform to their social surroundings contribute to the propagation of infection during outbreaks. We show how non-conforming individuals, even if they do not directly expose a disproportionate number of other individuals themselves, can become functional superspreaders through an emergent social structure that positions them as the …

Institutional Data Repositories Are Vital, Jen Darragh, Mikala R. Narlock, Halle Burns, Peter A. Cerda, Wind Cowles, Leslie M. Delserone, Seth Erickson, Joel Herndon, Heidi Imker, Lisa R. Johnston, Sherry Lake, Michael Lenard, Alicia Hofelich Mohr, Jennifer Moore, Jonathan Petters, Brandie Pullen, Shawna Taylor, Briana Wham

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

As funding agencies and publishers reiterate research data sharing expectations (1), many higher-education institutions have demonstrated their commitment to the long-term stewardship of research data by connecting researchers to local infrastructure, with dedicated staffing, that eases the burden of data sharing. Institutional repositories are an example of this investment (2). They provide support for researchers in sharing data that might otherwise be lost: data without a disciplinary repository, data from projects with limited funding, or data that are too large to sustainably store elsewhere. The staffing and technical infrastructure provided by institutional repositories ensures responsible access to information while considering …

Exploring Artificial Intelligence: A Collaborative Small Group Analysis And Application, Ellamarie Powell

AI Assignment Library

In this small group project, students will collaborate to explore the principles and applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Each group will research, analyze, and present on a specific AI topic, highlighting its real-world implications and ethical considerations. The project involves team members contributing to various roles, including research, technical analysis, and presentation. The final deliverable will be a video presentation integrating individual contributions, showcasing a comprehensive understanding of AI and its impact on society. This assignment fosters teamwork, critical thinking, and effective communication skills.

Midwest Data Librarian Symposium: A Model For Regional Communities, Amy Koshoffer, Kelsey Badger, Kristen Adams, Ana Munandar

Library Articles and Research

The Midwest Data Librarian Symposium (MDLS) is an annual unconference covering data and data librarianship. The symposium aims to provide a venue for librarians and others interested in the topics to network, discuss issues related to research data management, and learn from each other. While most of the attendees are from the Midwest area, the symposium is open to all.

MDLS is a community-led effort and has no governing body. In this article, we share our experiences in contributing to MDLS, including the recent MDLS 2023. Coming up on its tenth year in 2024, we believe MDLS offers a valuable …

Recasting The Mould – Librarianship Of The Future: Leveraging Automation, Apis, And Ai, Samantha Seah

Research Collection Library

With leaps in artificial intelligence made in recent years redefining the information landscape and introducing new means of information production, librarianship also must evolve to include new literacies. One way librarians can equip and empower ourselves is by understanding the building blocks of how machines and automation work. Perhaps more important than learning specific programming languages, learning computational thinking provides us with more ways to spot and evaluate problems and devise solutions without extensive coding knowledge. My presentation will take the improvement of membership processing as an example using Power Automate, a low-code Microsoft tool mimicking block programming. The tool …

Dynamic Optimization With Timing Risk, Erin Cottle Hunt, Frank N. Caliendo

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Timing risk refers to a situation in which the timing of an economically important event is unknown (risky) from the perspective of an economic decision maker. While this special class of dynamic stochastic control problems has many applications in economics, the methods used to solve them are not easily accessible within a single, comprehensive survey. We provide a survey of dynamic optimization methods under comprehensive assumptions about the nature of timing risk. We also relax the assumption of full information and summarize optimization with limited information, ambiguity, imperfect hedging, and dynamic inconsistency. Our goal is to provide a concise user …

Weather Risks, Crop Losses, And Risk Proneness: An Examination Of Evolving Risk Preferences Of Rice Farmers In Bangladesh, W. Parker Wheatley, Taznoore Khanam, Valerien O. Pede, Takashi Yamano

Economics Faculty Publications

Changing climate poses significant challenges for smallholder rice farmers. Weather-related deviations from longer-term patterns and crop losses due to abiotic hazards can affect farmer risk preferences and drive adaptive responses. In addition, farmers’ proneness to and past experiences with crop risks such as drought, submergence, and excess soil salinity can impact their baseline risk preferences and their response to changing risks. Using data for Bangladesh from two waves of the Rice Monitoring Survey, climate-related data (precipitation and temperature), farmer reports of crop losses, and measures of proneness to abiotic risks, this article estimates how weather deviations from longer-term trends, crop …

Ai And Academic Integrity, Max Sparkman Research Instruction Librarian, Milne Library, Brandon West Head Of Research & Instruction, Milne Library

Artificial Intelligence, 2024-25

This short module introduces students to important concepts regarding the use of AI and academic integrity. Concepts covered include a brief overview of generative AI, whether or not their use is considered plagiarism, how to use generative AI tools responsibly, and potential use cases. The module ends with a quiz where students can apply concepts from the module to three scenarios.

Psychology And The Digital Everywhere: Artificial Intelligence, Cassie Van Stolk Assistant Professor Of Psychology, Department Of Psychology

Artificial Intelligence, 2024-25

This module within the PSYC 390: Psychology and the Digital Everywhere course investigates the the implications of AI on human experiences using a biopsychosocial lens. Topics covered include an exploration of AI as a tool versus as an autonomous mind, ethical considerations of AI usage, and the promises and pitfalls of AI as a tool within the field of psychology. This module aligns with the "Contemporary Global Challenges, Creativity and Innovation" Participation in a Global Society outcome within the Geneseo GLOBE Curriculum.

Groundwater Modeling Of The Ogallala Aquifer: Use Of Machine Learning For Model Parameterization And Sustainability Assessment, Tewodros Aboret Tilahun

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Addressing groundwater depletion problems in heterogeneous aquifer systems is a challenge. The heterogeneous Ogallala Aquifer, a critical source of groundwater in the central United States, has undergone decades of decline in water levels due to pumping. This project aims to build a robust groundwater model to evaluate optimal scenarios for sustainable use of the groundwater resource within a section of the Ogallala aquifer located in the Middle Republican Natural Resources District (MRNRD). This study follows a comprehensive approach involving parameterization, construction, and optimization. The model is parametrized using hydraulic conductivity and recharge values obtained from a random forest-based machine learning …

The Feasibility Of Utilizing The Open Dynamic Interaction Network (Odin) App To Assess Rema Data Across 30 Days Among Those Recovering From Alcoholism, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Bilal Khan, Jesscia Phelps, Patrick Duryea, Kimberly A. Tyler, Arthur Andrews, Ellie Reznicek, Lucy Napper, Mohamed Saad, Hsuan-Wee Lee

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

About ~4 million people with an alcohol use disorder receive treatment annually, and frequent relapse has produced a rapid revolving door between recovery and use. This paper presents preliminary data from a prospective micro-longitudinal study (30 days) that examines co-evolution of relapse risk processes of people with alcohol use disorders who entered a short-term residential substance use treatment. The primary goal of the current data was to assess the feasibility of using the open dynamic interaction network (ODIN) responsive ecological momentary assessment (rEMA). rEMA collected daily estimates on affect, urges, sober-support engagement, and use. The ODIN app administered twelve questions …

Public Mass Shootings In Texas And California: Routine Activity Theory Comparisons, Mason R. Feinartz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Public mass shootings are a distinct and unique phenomenon that receives vast media and public attention due to the location, weapons used, and amount of people killed or injured. These mass shootings occur in places where people frequent daily in their routine activities and are unexpected, seemingly random, or symbolic events. This study used a casual-comparative quantitative research design using routine activity theory as the foundation to investigate public mass shootings in Texas and California from 1966 to 2023. This study used public open-source data collection and analysis to identify and substantiate all mass shootings that satisfy the research inclusion/exclusion …

Archaeology In Space: The Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (Square) On The International Space Station. Report 1: Squares 03 And 05, Justin St. P. Walsh, Shawn Graham, Alice C. Gorman, Chantal Brousseau, Salma Abdullah

Art Faculty Articles and Research

Between January and March 2022, crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) performed the first archaeological fieldwork in space, the Sampling Quadrangle Assemblages Research Experiment (SQuARE). The experiment aimed to: (1) develop a new understanding of how humans adapt to life in an environmental context for which we are not evolutionarily adapted, using evidence from the observation of material culture; (2) identify disjunctions between planned and actual usage of facilities on a space station; (3) develop and test techniques that enable archaeological research at a distance; and (4) demonstrate the relevance of social science methods and perspectives for improving life …

A ‘Nuclear Bomb’ Or Just ‘A Joke’? Groundwater Models May Help Communicate Nuanced Risks To The Great Salt Lake, Matthew D. Laplante, Piyush Dahal, Shih-Yu Simon Wang, Kirsti Hakala, Avik Mukherjee

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The Great Salt Lake entered the zeitgeist of environmental concern in 2022 when a coalition of scientists and activists warned in a highly publicized report that the lake might be just five years away from complete desiccation, a possibility one state official warned was tantamount to an “environmental nuclear bomb”. Shortly thereafter, an unpredicted and unprecedented pluvial winter resulted in an increase in inflow, temporarily halting the lake’s decline and prompting Utah’s governor to mock the dire prediction as “a joke”, an outcome that speaks to the tension between agenda-setting and trust-building that researchers face when sharing worst-case warnings, particularly …

Sensitivity Of Present And Future Seasonal Precipitation Over Central United States To The Representation Of Rocky Mountain Topography, Ranasinghe Disanayakalage Sherly Shelton Ranathunga

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Precipitation change across the Central United States (USA) is of great interest to the research community. Studies using global climate simulations suggest that the “100^th-Meridian”, which separates the “dry west” from the “moist east” will shift to the east as the climate responds to future emissions pathways. However, these simulations are run at relatively coarse resolutions, which do not accurately represent topography. Here, we perform regional simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to explore the sensitivity of present and future precipitation patterns across the central USA to the representation of the Rocky Mountains (RM). We …

Applying Circuit Theory To Describe Changes In Structural Landscape Connectivity In Response To Wildfire, Christian Ross Nielsen

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding and conserving ecological connectivity is critical to the preservation of vulnerable landscapes. Circuit theory, in which landscapes are imagined as circuit boards with varying resistances to the flow of current, is being increasingly used to model spatially explicit connectivity of landscapes and to inform land management and conservation decision-making. Utilizing continuous, quantitative estimates of percent cover by five land cover functional groups to create a conductance surface, this study expanded upon an established application of circuit theory that used the open-source software Circuitscape to model species-agnostic, omnidirectional connectivity. This model was automated using Python to create time-series connectivity maps …

Assessing, Restoring, And Centering Social-Ecological Relationships For Advancing Social-Ecological Resilience In The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Katia Pilar Carranza Bernal

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Northern Great Plains grasslands are social-ecological systems that were shaped by evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships. European colonization disrupted many of these interactions, including the coupling of fire and grazing, and degraded social-ecological resilience, shifting these grasslands to a new state. For those reasons, my research focused on assessing, restoring, and centering evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships for advancing social-ecological resilience in the Northern Great Plains grasslands. I first performed a study in the Nebraska Sandhillls assessing the potential of patch-burn grazing to support grassland resilience by comparing its effects to those of rotational grazing. Through vegetation and bird …

Analysis Of Drought-Flood Abrupt Alternation Events And Their Impacts In Kenya, Betty Makena

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Drought-Flood Abrupt Alternation (DFAA) is a compound disaster event that refers to the abrupt shift of extreme drought events to extreme floods resulting in exacerbated impacts on already vulnerable communities and hindering their coping abilities. This study aimed to analyze drought-flood abrupt alternation events and their impacts in Kenya. The first chapter aimed to understand historical drought events in the Greater Horn of Africa and their impacts, while drawing comparisons with the recent 2020-2022 drought period, referred to as the ‘triple dip La Niña’. Datasets used in this study include the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS), Normalized …

Assessing Gtfs Accuracy, Gregory L. Newmark

Mineta Transportation Institute

The promised benefits of the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Schedule and Realtime standards are dependent on the underlying quality of the data. Despite this fundamental reliance, there has been relatively little research on techniques and strategies to assess GTFS accuracy. The need for such assessment is growing as federal and state governments increasingly require transit agencies to make these data available to the public. This research fills this gap by presenting a suite of methods and metrics to assess the temporal accuracy of GTFS Realtime and the spatial accuracy of GTFS Schedule feeds. The temporal assessment demonstrates an approach …

Two New Baseball Performance Statistics, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Ever since I was a small child I have been interested in both statistics and baseball, so I guess it was inevitable I would eventually find a way to put the two together. In this short note I'd like to suggest a pair of measures that I feel might be useful in interpreting quality of play: one focusing more on hitting, the other on pitching. Let's start with the one concerning hitting.

We're Swarming Again! Swarming, Collectivity, And Trope: The Case Of Extinction Rebellion, Tyler J. Behymer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the rhetoric of the eco-movement Extinction Rebellion, focusing on the use of swarming and nature tropes to mobilize collective action and revivify contemporary notions of collectivity. Drawing on rhetoric of social movement scholarship, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis, this essay theorizes swarming as a tropological economy that expands the conditions of propriety in the context of collectivity. Through an analysis of Extinction Rebellion’s discourse, this study demonstrates how the naturalization of swarming tropes works in various ways to rewild conventional political discourse, galvanize disruptive collective assembly, and challenge green neoliberalism.

Advisor: Casey Ryan Kelly

Remotely Sensed Early Warning Of Algal Blooms In An Eastern Nebraska Reservoir: A Comparison Of Temporal And Spatial Indicators, Mercy Kipenda

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) detrimentally affect human, animal, and ecosystem health. Remotely sensed early warning systems for cyanoHABs in inland lakes could contribute to more proactive water quality monitoring and help mitigate negative impacts. Advances in freely available remote sensing imagery, with finer spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions, present new opportunities for the development and comparative analysis of methods to detect sudden deterioration in lake water quality. In this thesis, I compared and tested for temporal and spatial early warning signals of cyanoHABs in field-based and remotely sensed datasets from 2019 to 2023 in Pawnee Lake in southeast Nebraska, …

Forecasting Commercial Vehicle Miles Traveled (Vmt) In Urban California Areas, Steve Chung, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study investigates commercial truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT) across six diverse California counties from 2000 to 2020. The counties—Imperial, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco—represent a broad spectrum of California’s demographics, economies, and landscapes. Using a rich dataset spanning demographics, economics, and pollution variables, we aim to understand the factors influencing commercial VMT. We first visually represent the geographic distribution of the counties, highlighting their unique characteristics. Linear regression models, particularly the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and elastic net regressions are employed to identify key predictors of total commercial VMT. LASSO regression …

Effortless Mindfulness Toolkit: Easy Meditation Scripts To Begin Each Class., Brett Whysel

Open Educational Resources

The Effortless Mindfulness in the Classroom Toolkit is an open educational resource designed to create happier classrooms, boost student engagement, and foster a sense of community through brief, effective mindfulness exercises. This comprehensive toolkit provides educators with everything they need to seamlessly integrate mindfulness practices into their teaching routines, regardless of prior experience. The toolkit includes introductory slides, 15 ready-to-use meditation scripts, and accompanying audio recordings, covering a variety of mindfulness techniques such as focused breathing, body scans, and loving-kindness meditations. Each meditation is paired with a reflective prompt to deepen student engagement and reinforce the benefits of mindfulness. Additionally, …

A Flood Of Consequences In Louisville, Kentucky: Using Hgis To Track Refugees Impacted By The 1937 Ohio River Flood, Trevor Harry

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Ohio River flood of 1937 was the most devastating flood in the recorded history of the Ohio River Valley and is commonly referred to as the “Great Flood of 1937”. In January 1937, after nearly two months of continuous precipitation, over 60% of the city of Louisville, Kentucky, was flooded and at least 23,000 residents were displaced. The purpose of this research was to document, map, and compare the pre-flood residential locations, evacuation destinations, and post-flood residential locations of African American and White Louisville refugees from the 1937 Ohio River flood. Socioeconomic information from the manuscript versions of the …

Transforming Grassland Conservation: Challenges And Opportunities Across Law, Policy, And Human Dimensions, Conor D. Barnes

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Great Plains social-ecological systems are facing growing pressure from complex, ‘wicked’ problems. Addressing these problems will require integrating ecological resilience and complex systems thinking concepts into our legal framework in order to better reflect the changing ecological reality of the Great Plains and promote flexibility and adaptability in the face of that change. In this dissertation, I examine how past and present policy priorities have affected social-ecological systems on the Great Plains, and how ecological resilience and complex systems thinking might be applied to grassland management policy. In Chapter 2, I examine the rapid progress made in the adoption of …