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From Prairie To Practice: Environmental Controls And A Forensic Taphonomic Framework In Southeastern Nebraska, Jessica F. L. Gammage

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Forensic taphonomy examines the postmortem processes that affect human remains, but much of the existing research has been developed in environments that differ significantly from those encountered in the Central Great Plains. This creates limitations when applying established models to regions like southeastern Nebraska, where decomposition is shaped by tallgrass prairie ecosystems, loess-derived soils, and strong seasonal variability. Addressing this gap is important for improving the accuracy and reliability of medicolegal interpretations.

This study evaluates how environmental conditions influence decomposition in southeastern Nebraska and proposes a regionally grounded framework for forensic taphonomic research. Drawing on existing literature, regional ecological data, …

Parks Coble, Jr., Unl History; Chinese Nationalists & Business, Chinese-Japanese Relations, Mark A. Griep, Parks M. Coble Jr.

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Dr. Parks Coble, Jr. was awarded the ORCA in 2005. He was born in Waterloo, South Carolina in 1946 but he grew up in Columbia. He earned his bachelor’s in history at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Next, he traveled 740 miles northwest to earn his doctorate at the University of Illinois in Champaign. In 1976, he became an assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska, where he quickly rose through the ranks. His early work focused on the relationship between Chinese business elites and leaders of the Chinese National Government movement during a very interesting …

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif In Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations In Mesoamerica, The American Southwest, And The Andes, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Zea E-Books Collection

No abstract provided.

Performance Of Illustrations And Images As Language In Sarnath Banerjee’S All Quiet In Vikaspuri, Akanksha Barthwal Ms

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri, fictionalizes but at the same time addresses water wars and political ideologies in the city of Delhi. By the means of eco-critical approach in the name of Vi-kas (development) Banerjee discuss the acts of slow violence subverted on nature in the name of progress (vikas). Through text/ images the author depicts chaos and challenges for the readers in more direct and obscene ways. The current paper attempts to look at Banerjee’s illustrations and images as new form of language emerged in modern Indian literature with the possibly that illustrations have more effect on …

The Impact Of Community On Professional Identity In Computer Science Education, Ian A. Kollipara

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the application of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in Computer Science Education. The work consists of two qualitative studies examining related but distinct populations: (1) K–12 CS teachers and (2) undergraduate CS students. The first study presents a retrospective analysis of conneCTION, an online CoP for K–12 CS educators, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and design considerations that inform future platform development. The second study investigates how participation in a CoP can mitigate negative and exclusionary stereotypes in CS. This study was conducted in an under-explored context: a small, private, religious, Midwestern university, and examines an existing community, the Programming …

From Prairie To Practice: Forensic Taphonomy, Ethics, And Regional Ecology In Southeastern Nebraska, Jessica F. L. Gammage

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Forensic taphonomy examines the postmortem processes that affect human remains within specific environmental contexts and plays a critical role in medicolegal death investigation. Despite significant advances in decomposition research, experimental studies remain geographically and environmentally uneven, limiting the transferability of postmortem interval (PMI) estimation methods across regions. The Central Great Plains are underrepresented in forensic taphonomic research despite its distinct ecological and geomorphological characteristics.

This thesis evaluates southeastern Nebraska as a specific regional setting for forensic taphonomic research by integrating ecological, pedological, and geomorphological data with current forensic literature. Tallgrass prairie vegetation, loess-derived soils, seasonal moisture variability, and dynamic fluvial …

Understanding Roma Oppression In Europe Through Humantarian Forensic Analysis, Christal L. Quinn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This thesis examines the marginalization of Roma people in Europe, and how humanitarian forensic practices may help Roma communities in their quest for justice and recognition. The study draws exclusively on secondary information to examine the social, political, and legal issues affecting the Roma communities, who have endured centuries of institutional discrimination, marginalization, and violence. This thesis identifies ways in which systematic oppression continues to limit Roma communities’ access to education, housing, healthcare, and legal protection through a review of relevant literature and applicable theoretical frameworks. The study also examines the relevance of forensic science, particularly its humanitarian applications, in …

Rehumanizing Anatomized Individuals: Using Osteobiographies As A Step Towards Reparative Justice, Lillie C. Turpin

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

In 1985, India banned the export of human remains. This ended the major trade route for primarily US and European anatomical supply companies. Until this point, companies like Carolina Biological Supply exploited and erased vulnerable people's identities, molding them into anonymous anatomical specimens. This study investigates the life and postmortem history of twenty-five individuals, previously used as anatomical specimens, housed at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Using an osteobiographical approach, this research reconstructs aspects of these individuals' lived experiences and examines how anatomical preparation practices reflect structural violence and apathy.

Skeletal analysis of twenty-five individuals revealed a range of biological profiles, …

Non-Destructive Automated Classification Of Human And Large Mammal Long Bone Fragments: A Deep Learning Approach Using Micro-Ct Histomorphology And Grad-Cam Interpretation, Kathleen Marie Kelley

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This study explores the development and validation of an automated, deep learning system designed to differentiate human from large mammal long bone fragments using micro-CT imagery. A comprehensive dataset of cross-sectional µCT images was assembled from human and animal skeletal material processed at the DPAA, Nebraska. A convolutional neural network (CNN) based on a ResNet-18 architecture, utilizing transfer learning from ImageNet weights, was trained to classify µCT images as human or animal. The model achieved a mean classification accuracy of 89.85% (± 8.27%) across five sample-level cross-validation folds, with a sensitivity of 96.21% and a 95% bootstrap confidence interval of …

Roads To Antiochia Ad Cragum: Pedestrian Survey And A Least Cost Path Model Of Roman Roads In The Vicinity Of Antiochia Ad Cragum, Southern Türkiye, Alexander W. Pastor

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Antiochia ad Cragum, a Roman site located in modern southern Türkiye, has been intensively investigated through archaeological study. However, the surrounding landscape has received less attention. This thesis addresses this gap by examining how this past settlement might have been accessed, which is an important step in gaining a better understanding of how people and resources traveled overland and how infrastructure was made to accommodate this travel. Pedestrian survey was conducted along posited western and eastern segments of a Roman-era road, finding remains consistent with but not definitively establishing this interpretation. In addition, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to …

The Consumptive Female Ideal: The Case Study Of “Snow White”, Nayla G. Torres Ruiz

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Tuberculosis (TB), also known as “consumption” or “phthisis,” was one of the most pervasive and culturally significant diseases of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Despite its high mortality rate—claiming more lives than cholera and smallpox combined—TB was widely romanticized in art, literature, and popular culture, particularly as a feminine disease associated with beauty, purity, fragility, and moral virtue. The physical traits of consumption—pale skin, rosy cheeks, red lips, glassy eyes, and a slender, delicate frame—became an ideal of female beauty, one that many women sought to emulate through restrictive diets, toxic cosmetics, and evolving fashion trends, such as increasingly tight …

Rewriting The Boer ‘Slim’: Alice Stopford Green’S Reports On St. Helena’S Prisoner Of War Camp And Her Impact On British Views Of Boer Prisoners, Natasja A. Swanson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Alice Stopford Green (1847 – 1929) was a prominent Irish historian and politician, known for her role as a political activist in the Irish Home Rule movement. Her lesser-known legacy is her investigative journalism on prisoner conditions in British prisoner of war camps during the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902). Her reports on Boer conditions in the Deadwood Prisoner of War Camp on the island of St. Helena reflected maltreatment and institutional abuse by the British Government. These discoveries supported the minority English opposition that thought that England was overstepping the rules of civilized warfare. Green was primarily concerned …

Decomposition Study Using Pigs In Southeastern Nebraska During The Fall And Winter Seasons, Ryan Bodine

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

When an individual is found deceased, one of the tools used in the identification process is estimating the post-mortem interval (PMI). This estimate is used to determine how long an individual has been deceased once their remains are found. To estimate an accurate PMI, knowing how decomposition is affected by external factors is key. The transition period from fall to winter in southeastern Nebraska consists of fluctuating temperatures as the seasons transfer from fall to winter. This thesis investigates how decomposition is affected during this transition period while also looking at two different environments that are common in Nebraska, prairies …

Exploring The Biocultural Profile Of The Undocumented Populations Of The Sonoran Corridor: A Skeletal Assessment Of The Prevention Through Deterrence Strategy, Mary A. Vaughn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Over the last thirty years the mortality rate of the undocumented population at the US-Mexico border has risen, requiring methods distinguishing US-born individuals from immigrants to improve the likelihood of identification and repatriation through foreign consulates. Forensic anthropologists with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) have advocated for the use of the biocultural profile, combining the biological profile with factors including oral health, osteological stress, and personal effects. The biocultural profile serves two purposes, functioning both as a tool for identification and with which to document structural inequality within communities of origin.

This study examines changes in …

Program And Proceedings, The Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2026: 146th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program and abstracts of the proceedings for the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 136th annual meeting, 2025

Sessions

Aeronautics and Space Science

Anthropology

Biological and Medical Sciences

Earth Sciences

Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Science

Physics and Engineering

General Poster Session

2026 Maiben Lecture: Shifting Extremes: Understanding Nebraska’s Changing Climate and Preparing for What Lies Ahead, Deborah Bathke

2026 Friends of Science Awards: Julie Shaffer and Irina Filina

2026 C. Bertrand and Marian Othmer Schultz Colleaguate Schoalrship Award: Piper Ryschon and Bryce Reeson

In Memoriam: Paul Royster

Reconstructing Nebraska’S Late Quaternary Paleoenvironment, Landscape Change, And Human–Environment Dynamics Using Diatoms And Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating, Gosia Mahoney

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

This dissertation examines Holocene environmental change and human–environment interactions in the Nebraska Sand Hills by integrating geomorphic, paleoenvironmental, and geochronological data. It presents three complementary studies that together explore how climatic variability, local landscape processes, and human activity influenced environmental systems.

The first study reconstructs the early Holocene evolution of a dune-dammed valley in the central Sand Hills. Stratigraphic, sedimentological, and diatom evidence indicate that eolian activity resulted in a blocked fluvial system, leading to elevated groundwater levels and the formation of a wetland that later developed into a lake. Notably, this transformation occurred under relatively dry conditions, demonstrating that …

Interview With Orca Award Winner Paul Olson, Unl English; Literature, Curricular Reform, Great Plains Studies, Mark A. Griep, Paul A. Olson

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Paul Olson was awarded the ORCA in 1984. He was born in 1932 in Washburn, Wisconsin. During his youth, his family also farmed in Nebraska and South Dakota. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. Next, he earned a master’s in English from the University of Nebraska, had a Fulbright fellowship to spend a year at London University in England, and earned his doctorate in medieval and Renaissance studies from Princeton University in New Jersey. In 1957, he joined UNL as an assistant professor of English and was soon promoted to full professor. One of his …

Beyond Green: Re-Reading "Wicked" As Anthropological Text, Tan Gia Bao Huynh

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper examines "Wicked" through the lens of cultural borderlands, revealing how the musical dramatizes the creation and navigation of social boundaries. By analyzing Elphaba's journey, the research demonstrates how her green skin serves as a powerful metaphor for cultural otherness, while her experiences at Shiz University and beyond illustrate strategies of resistance, accommodation, and identity formation familiar to those navigating between dominant and marginalized spaces. Particularly significant is the paper's examination of Oz's propaganda system, which demonstrates how cultures manufacture monsters and heroes through selective storytelling and public ritual. This analysis offers fresh insights into "Wicked's" enduring appeal, suggesting …

Interview With Orca Award Winner David Forsythe, Unl Political Science; International Human Rights, Mark A. Griep, David Forsythe

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Prof. David Forsythe was awarded the ORCA in 1982. He was born in North Carolina and earned a bachelor’s in political science from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. Next, he earned a master’s and doctorate in Politics from Princeton University in New Jersey. In 1973, he joined UNL as an associate professor of political science and was soon promoted to full professor. In 1993, he became chair of his department and received the Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professorship of Political Science. He has authored, co-authored, or edited about 30 books on was International Human Rights, Law, and Politics, and has …

Unl Authorship And Open Access Citation Impacts After A Decade (2015-2024): A Preliminary Report On Articles Indexed By Elsevier’S Scopus, David C. Tyler, Pei-Ying Chen, Erica Defrain

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

The authors addressed the following research questions:

• Did the articles with UNL Lead Authors produce more citations than articles with UNL Contributing Authors?
• Did OA, as identified by Scopus at the journal and article levels, generate more citations?
• Were citation totals associated with the number of extra-publisher OA avenues?
• Were some publishers associated with higher citation counts than others?
• Did some subjects, by Library of Congress classification, generate more citations than others?

Sticky Science In Court, H. A. Spitzer

Nebraska Law Review

Litigation routinely employs scientific evidence to aid judicial fact-finding and decision-making. This is especially important in areas like family law, where legal standards—such as the best interests of the child—often depend in part on scientific findings. Yet the legal system’s gatekeeping doctrines (Frye, Daubert, and Federal Rule of Evidence 702) apply primarily to expert testimony, leaving other pathways through which scientific evidence reaches courts largely unchecked. These other pathways include citations in briefs and opinions to non-peer-reviewed or non-scientific sources such as law reviews, treatises, and self-published materials, which often become outdated and are not well positioned …

Interview With Orca Award Winner Pill-Soon Song, Unl Chemistry; Photochemist And Photobiologist, Mark A. Griep, Pill-Soon Song

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Dr. Pill-Soon Song was born in Osaka, Japan. When he was 13 his family moved back to Korea. Something in his youth must have sparked an interest in science because he enrolled at Seoul National University where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s in agricultural chemistry with an emphasis on biochemistry. Next, he earned a doctorate from the University of California at Davis and did postdoctoral work at Iowa State University in Ames with David Metzler. In 1987, after about 21 years as a faculty member in the chemistry department at Texas Tech University, he joined UNL chemistry as chair …

Tallina Linnahall: Arquitectura Soviética Y Mundo Prehispánico, Isabel Bargallo, Montserrat Bargalló Sánchez

Actas seleccionadas del SIMPOSIO ARTE 4.2: Migraciones en la imagen prehispánica: transitando territorios del pasado al presente. 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2025.

Existen construcciones que nos recuerdan morfológicamente aspectos de la arquitectura precolombina que no tienen, en principio, relación cultural alguna con el pasado mesoamericano y que no responden tampoco a la función que desempeñaban las construcciones originales, o quizás sí. Éste es, sin duda, el caso del Linnahall de Tallin, donde no podemos dejar de preguntarnos los motivos que llevaron a unos arquitectos europeos, específicamente a dos profesionales estonianos, a inspirarse en las formas prehispánicas para proyectar y construir un espacio monumental que formó parte de las instalaciones de los Juegos Olímpicos de Moscú (1980) en la capital de Estonia. ¿Podemos …

El Papel De Tonantzin-Guadalupe En La Conservación Del Pensamiento Nahua Durante La Cristianización De Mesoamérica, Marina Valls I García

Actas seleccionadas del SIMPOSIO ARTE 4.2: Migraciones en la imagen prehispánica: transitando territorios del pasado al presente. 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2025.

Dentro de este ciclo de estudios sobre la imagen del poder se aprovecha la ocasión para focalizar en el estudio de la imagen religiosa de la Virgen de Guadalupe y su papel en la conversión del México precolombino. Partiendo de la base antropológica en que el poder siempre es respaldado por la religión de una cultura, profundizamos a entender como este proceso “político” es mimetizado y acompañado no solo por la creación de una imagen de poder religioso sino por diversas luchas de poder entre el pensamiento nahua y el católico, así como entre las distintas órdenes cristianas que participan …

Aves, Felinos Y Ofidios En Los Templos Montaña Amerindios, Sarai Ramos Muñoz

Actas seleccionadas del SIMPOSIO ARTE 4.2: Migraciones en la imagen prehispánica: transitando territorios del pasado al presente. 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2025.

El siguiente estudio se centra en la comparación de las representaciones pictóricas de aves, felinos y ofidios de algunos de los principales Templos Montaña, tanto de la zona andina, como de Mesoamérica. Dentro de él se pueden apreciar las similitudes y diferencias arquitectónicas y escultóricas simbólicas de estas imágenes. El análisis comparativo se realiza a través de un estudio iconográfico e iconológico de la arquitectura escultórica de dichos templos y de cada una de las representaciones zoomorfas relacionadas con el concepto del Axis Mundi prehispánico, centrándose en el águila, el jaguar y la serpiente. Al mismo tiempo se analiza la …

“No Ifs, Ands, Or Butts”: Analyzing Race And Gender In Sex And The City Through Black Feminist Theory, Daniella Orias

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article analyzes Season 3, Episode 5 of Sex and the City, “No Ifs, Ands, or Butts,” through the lens of Black feminist theory. It investigates how race and gender are constructed, stereotyped, and selectively represented within the episode’s narrative. The analysis focuses on two Black characters who were featured only in one episode of the series, Adeena and Chivon, and examines how the show portrays harmful stereotypes such as the angry Black woman (Adeena) and sexualized Black male (Chivon) in the episode. These limited and harmful representations are further scrutinized by the fact that the show is often …

Review Of Vampire Forensics: Uncovering The Origins Of An Enduring Legend, Elizabeth Brandt

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend (2010) by Mark Collins Jenkins.

Chapter 1: A Brief Introduction: Rhombus Motifs In Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Presents a brief introduction to rhombus motifs in textiles.

Chapter 4: The Grid Patterns In The Vestments And Headdresses Of Female Statuary From The Classic Period Cultures Of Central Veracruz, Chantal D. Huckert

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

This chapter focuses on grid designs appearing on female clothing in Late Postclassic Nahua sources, in Maya sources, and on the Late Classic figurines of Central Veracruz. This study examines cross-hatched lattice patterns based on repetitions of rhombus and quincunx motifs associated with the sentient Mesoamerican Earth complex. The attached catalog presents a clear reference to these motifs and their variants, while the rest of the chapter is divided into two sections and addresses the general cross-hatched lattice pattern and the associated motifs. The first section discusses the all-over grid design, dotted or not, on the clothing of Mexican highland …

Chapter 5: The “Dotted-Grid” And “Dotted-Diamond” Motifs On Skirts: Fertility And Power During The Epiclassic And Early Postclassic Periods In Central And Western Mesoamerica (600 To 1200 Ce), Juliette Testard

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses gender, apparel, and attributes with respect to the Epiclassic shift in politics and ideology, the grid, hatched, and rhomboidal patterns in central Mexican imagery during the Epiclassic, and the dotted-grid and dotted-diamond motifs on female figurines during the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Periods.