Digital Commons Network^™

Fertility Control Options For Management Of Free-Roaming Horse Populations, Ursula S. Bechert, John W. Turner Jr., Dan L. Baker, Douglas C. Eckery, Jason E. Bruemmer, Candace C. Lyman, Tulio M. Prado, Sarah B. King, Mark A. Fraker

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The management of free-roaming horses (Equus ferus) and burros (E. asinus) in the United States has been referred to as a “wicked problem” because, although there are population control options, societal values will ultimately determine what is acceptable and what is not. In the United States, free-roaming equids are managed by different types of organizations and agencies, and the landscapes that these animals inhabit vary widely in terms of access, size, topography, climate, natural resources, flora, and fauna. This landscape diversity, coupled with contemporary socioeconomic and political environments, means that adaptive management practices are needed to regulate these free-roaming populations. …

Examining Foods And Beverages Served And Child Food Insecurity Across Early Care And Education (Ece) Programs In Communities With High Rates Of Obesity And Food Insecurity, Deepa Srivastava, Lucy R. Zheng, Dipti A. Dev

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine implementation of serving food and beverage evidence-based practices (nutrition EBPs) across CACFP participating licensed childcare centers (CCCs, n = 51) and family childcare homes (FCCHs, n = 49) in central California. Results indicated that FCCHs reported significantly higher (p < .05) implementation of nutrition EBPs and barriers than CCCs. Both CCCs and FCCHs refer families to WIC/SNAP when they observe child food insecurity and control how much food is served to children. It is important to consider organizational structure (CCCs, FCCHs) and child food insecurity when developing policies/interventions for improving implementation of nutrition EBPs in ECEs.

Situated Data: Feminist Epistemology And Data Curation, Scout Calvert

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

In the last decade or more, academic libraries have taken up the challenge of providing data curation and research data support, bringing expertise in metadata and digital preservation to key aspects of the research data life cycle. This activity has hastened since 2013, when the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memo directing federal funding agencies to require data, among other products of research, to be shared as a condition of funding.1 The OSTP memo did not come out of the blue, but recognized changes in data practice in some disciplines as the costs of …

Better To Be Loved By Some? Firm Flaunting As An Impression Management Strategy, A. Erin Bass, Michael D. Pfarrer, Ivana Milosevic, Varkey K. Titus Jr.

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Firms can use a range of proactive impression management behaviors to reduce the impact of a negative event on firmoutcomes. When a negative event is unpredictable, we theorize that firms can engage in ostentatious behaviors that display the firm’s affluence and robust resource base. We term these behaviors “flaunting,” and we present a twopart model that investigates how flaunting can reduce the impact of an unpredictable negative event on firm outcomes and why it is effective at doing so. In part one, we theorize how flaunting can generate net positive stakeholder group evaluations by enhancing distinctiveness among stakeholder groups. In …

Examining Responses To A Racist Event In A Sorority And Fraternity Life Community: A Case Study, Crystal Eufemia Garcia, Antonio Duran, Michael Anthony Goodman

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Racism has been interwoven in implicit and explicit ways within historically white sorority and fraternity life (SFL) communities since their inception. However, few studies have provided insight to how practitioners address the realities of racism in SFL broadly, or specifically how SFL practitioners have attended to race-based incidents on their local campuses, the success of these initiatives, and to what degree their actions have been sustainable over time. This project sought to contribute insight to these dynamics by mobilizing a case study approach guided by an institutional response framework to focus on how a particular SFL community at Sunnydale University …

Falling Into The Gap: The Coloniality Of Achievement Gap Discourses And Their Responses, James S. Wright, Taeyeon Kim

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States, achievement gap discourses contribute substantially to the educational framework that minoritized students (students of color) are inherently – intellectually and academically – behind White students. This paper will show the pervasive power of achievement gap discourses and their influence on school policy, practices, and norms. Additionally, we highlight how some of the most …

Intraguild Predation Is Increased In Areas Of Low Prey Diversity In A Generalist Predator Community, Stella F Uiterwaal, Amber Squires, Bennett Grappone, Brian Dillard, Ariadne Castaneda, Sora L. Kim, John Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. Niche differentiation and intraguild predation (IGP) can allow ecologically similar species to coexist, although it is unclear which coexistence mechanism predominates in consumer communities. Until now, a limited ability to quantify diets from metabarcoding data has precluded the use of sequencing data to determine the relative importance of these mechanisms.

2. Here, we pair a recent metabarcoding quantification approach with stable isotope analysis to examine diet composition in a wolf spider community.

3. We compare the prevalence of resource partitioning and IGP in these spiders and test whether factors that influence foraging performance, including individual identity, morphology, prey community …

Revisiting The Rainbow: Culturally Responsive Updates To A Standard Clinical Resource, Angela M. Dietsch, Richard Mocarski, Debra A. Hope, Nathan Woodruff, Miechelle Mckelvey

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose

Cultural responsivity is essential for efficacious and affirming clinical relationships. This may be especially important with historically marginalized clients, such as transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people seeking behaviorally based affirming communication services. We recommend modifications to standard tools for diagnostics and training that otherwise might undermine our efforts to create an inclusive and affirming environment.

Method

Modifications to the Rainbow Passage, a standardized paragraph utilized for eliciting speech samples in clinical settings, focused on nongendered terminology and the elimination of content with religious connotations.

Results

The recommended edits to the Rainbow Passage maintain similar length, cadence, and phonetic balance …

Integrating Robotics Into Wildlife Conservation: Testing Improvements To Predator Deterrents Through Movement, Stewart W. Breck, Jeffrey T. Schultz, David Prause, Cameron Krebs, Anthony J. Giordano, Byron Boots

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background Agricultural and pastoral landscapes can provide important habitat for wildlife conservation, but sharing these landscapes with wildlife can create conflict that is costly and requires managing. Livestock predation is a good example of the challenges involving coexistence with wildlife across shared landscapes. Integrating new technology into agricultural practices could help minimize human-wildlife conflict. In this study, we used concepts from the fields of robotics (i.e., automated movement and adaptiveness) and agricultural practices (i.e., managing livestock risk to predation) to explore how integration of these concepts could aid the development of more effective predator deterrents.

Methods …

A Social Network Analysis Of Actors Involved In Wild Pig (Sus Scrofa) Management In Missouri, Hailey E. Ellis, Meredith J. Grady, Lauren Jaebker, Alan D. Bright, Keith M. Carlisle

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause significant damage to agriculture and native ecosystems and can transmit diseases to animals and people. Management responses designed to reduce population numbers are needed to mitigate these threats. Identifying networks of key actors, including the ways in which they interact, is valuable for purposes of better understanding opportunities or constraints that generate or impede effective management responses. The goal of our study was to understand the network of organizations, and the personnel working within them, that were active in wild pig management, research, or policy initiatives in Missouri during 2018–2020 by 1) identifying …

Factors Affecting The Recovery Of Mexican Wolves In The Southwest United States, Stewart W. Breck, Amy J. Davis, John Oakleaf, David L. Bergman, Jim Devos, J. Paul Greer, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Recovering and maintaining large carnivore populations is a global conservation challenge that requires better knowledge of the factors affecting their populations, particularly in shared landscapes (i.e. non-protected areas where people occupy and or utilize the land).
2. The Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) is an endangered wolf subspecies being recovered on shared landscapes in the Southwest United States and Mexico. We used data from the U.S. program to model population growth, evaluate the impact of management removal and illegal killing relative to other demographic factors, and test hypotheses about factors influencing rates of management removal and illegal killing.
3. From …

Rethinking ‘Responsibility’ In Precision Agriculture Innovation: Lessons From An Interdisciplinary Research Team, Edward Prutzer, Maaz Gardezi, Donna M. Rizzo, Mary Emery, Scott Merrill, Benjamin E.K. Ryan, Panagiotis D. Oikonomou, Juan P. Alvez, Damilola T. Adereti, Rubaina Anjum, Appala R. Badireddy, Dwarika Bhattarai, Skye Brugler, Nicholas Cheney, David Clay, Sharon Clay, Ali Dadkhah, Joshua W. Faulkner, Deepak R. Joshi, Christopher Koliba, John Mcmaine, Semhar Michael, Sardorbek Musayev, Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, George Pinder, Taylor Ricketts, Andrew W. Schroth, Scott Turnbull, Asim Zia

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

We examine the interactions, decisions, and evaluations of an interdisciplinary team of researchers tasked with developing an artificial intelligence-based agricultural decision support system that can provide farmers site-specific information about managing nutrients on their land. We answer the following research questions: (1) How does a relational perspective help an interdisciplinary team conceptualize ‘responsibility’ in a project that develops precision agriculture (PA)? and (2) What are some lessons for a research team embarking on a similar interdisciplinary technology development project? We show that how RI is materialized in practice within an interdisciplinary research team can produce different understandings of responsibility, notions …

The ‘Hijacking’ Of The Scandinavian Journal Of Information Systems: Implications For The Information Systems Community [Opinion], Sune Dueholm Müller, Johan Ivar Sæbø

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Journal hijacking, which refers to the attempted brand takeover of a journal by a third party, is a nascent threat confronting the information systems (IS) community, as evidenced by cybercriminals having established an online presence, masquerading as the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). The SJIS hijacking damages the journal's reputation, leads to payment and publication scams, involves identity theft among unsuspecting IS researchers, and results in tarnished author reputations. Beyond SJIS, journal hijacking presents a threat, not only to the IS community, but also to science and academic integrity in general if researchers and readers cannot distinguish between fake …

Proposing Urban Agroforestry Designs For Lincoln, Nebraska: A Model From Berlin, Germany, Noah Johnson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Given the threat of a worsening climate crisis, there is a strong need for community and ecosystem resilience. Diverse urban agroforestry systems have the potential to accomplish both and meet many of the objectives outlined in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska’s climate action plan. Additionally, Berlin, Germany could provide an effective model for Lincoln in this regard given the city’s extensive history of established urban agroforestry systems. The objective of this study then is to develop a design for an urban agroforestry site modeled on Berlin’s allotment gardens and tailored to Lincoln’s needs. The methods for creating this design included …

Nitrates In Nebraska, Michelle Zenk

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

For my senior thesis project, I decided to study nitrate pollution to better understand and analyze how college students in Nebraska viewed and understood the complex issue of nitrate pollution. From my study only half of college students surveyed viewed nitrate pollution as a problem. Only 15 percent of college students test their water for nitrates, and most college students were knowledgeable on how nitrate pollution occurs. Due to the negative impacts of nitrate pollution within human health, soil health, and ecosystem function further work needs to be completed to raise awareness and knowledge on the impacts of nitrate pollution.

Off The Rails: Cinematic Trains As Technological Controls Of The Natural World, Trinity Thompson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Short train rail lines across the United States are seeing increased national funding to reduce toxic chemical spills caused by train derailments, the most notable of which happened in February 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. A year prior, the film White Noise (2022) featured a similar toxic train derailment incident, taking place, too, in Eastern Ohio, and featuring actors from the town of East Palestine. In considering other films featuring trains, I identified a pattern of environmental conflict, leading me to question the relationship between trains and the natural environment as portrayed in popular cinema. To conduct my research, I …

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (Nasis) 2023 Methodology Report, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

No abstract provided.

The Joker Controversy: An Origin Story, Brandon Bosch, Lisa Kort-Butler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The Joker has been in the Batman comics for over 80 years and appeared on small and large screen as Batman’s violent arch-nemesis. In the month prior to its theatrical release, commentary about the 2019 film Joker spurred a viral media reaction with concerns about the film inciting violence. To understand this phenomenon, we used Google Trends to trace a timeline of online media reactions mapped to events. Then, we analyzed over 200 news stories, commentary articles, and film reviews for explanatory narratives. We noted four key moments: the Venice Film Festival; an open letter by family members of victims …

Religious Exemption, Lgbt Rights, And The Social Construction Of Harm And Freedom, Emily Kazyak, Kelsy Burke, Maia Behrendt, Marissa Oliver

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In this article, we examine how courts make decisions in religious exemption cases that implicate LGBT rights in a wide range of contexts including education, employment, and medical care. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis of 50 federal cases decided between 1990 and 2020, we demonstrate a shift in how anti-LGBT sentiment is expressed by parties bringing religion-based claims—from a broad condemnation of LGBT identity to a narrow condemnation of same-sex marriage—and find that courts are more likely to rule in favor of the latter. We show how courts construct competing understandings of harm and religious freedom depending on the context …

Making The Case: Examining Outcomes Of Religious‑Based Claims In Federal Litigation Involving Lgbt Rights, Emily Kazyak, Kelsy Burke, Marissa Oliver, Maia Behrendt

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Introduction In this manuscript, we analyze 62 US federal cases from 1990 to 2020 that implicate the issue of religious freedom and LGBT rights. Popular and scholarly commentary on the advancement of LGBT rights in the twenty-first century has speculated a rise in religious exemption litigation as a strategy to oppose such rights. Yet, we lack empirical data to confirm or reject this assumption and to understand patterns and trends within such cases.

Methods We perform bivariate analyses to examine trends with regard to how the court rules on these cases.

Results Our findings show that religious litigants are not …

Nebraskans Attitudes Towards Innovations In Food Production And Processing 2019 And 2020 – Methodology Report, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

SURVEY QUESTIONS

Social Vulnerability And The Prevalence Of Opioid Use Disorder Among Older Medicare Beneficiaries In U.S. Counties, Tse-Chuan Yang, Seulki Kim, Stephen A. Matthews, Carla Shoff

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: Recent research has investigated the factors associated with the prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among older adults (65+), which has rapidly increased in the past decade. However, little is known about the relationship between social vulnerability and the prevalence of OUD, and even less about whether the correlates of the prevalence of OUD vary across the social vulnerability spectrum. This study aims to fill these gaps. Methods: We assemble a county-level data set in the contiguous United States (U.S.) by merging 2021 Medicare claims with the CDC’s social vulnerability index and other covariates. Using the total number of …

Prospective Attitude About The Importance Of Planning Pregnancies Is Associated With Retrospective Attitude Toward A Specific Pregnancy, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Shreffler, Stacy M. Tiemeyer, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Several theories of fertility behavior assume that planning is important to women. Is this a reasonable assumption? To answer this question, the authors used the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. Among women with unsure or positive fertility intentions at wave 1, most (75 percent) agreed with the statement “It is important to plan my pregnancies.” Logistic regression, adjusted for control variables, indicated that fertility intentions are a distinct construct from pregnancy planning attitudes. Multinomial regression of retrospective pregnancy attitude three years later among a subsample of women who had pregnancies during that period indicated that women who felt that it …

Accuracy Of Covid-19 Relevant Knowledge Among Youth: Number Of Information Sources Matters, Patricia Wonch Hill, Judy Diamond, Amy N. Spiegel, Elizabeth Vanwormer, Meghan Leadabrand, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Can comics effectively convey scientific knowledge about COVID-19 to youth? What types and how many sources of information did youth have about COVID-19 during the pandemic? How are sources of information associated with accurate COVID-19 knowledge? To answer these questions, we surveyed youth in grades 5–9 in a Midwestern United States school district in the winter of 2020–2021. The online survey used measures of COVID-19 knowledge and sources, with an embedded experiment on COVID-19 relevant comics. Guided by an integrated science capital and just-in-time health and science information acquisition model, we also measured level of science capital, science identity, and …

Tactile Arts Club, Hayden Hauge, Rowan Havranek

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

Students will build tactile skills while learning how to crochet, knit, and sew, and they will have a finished project in their hands at the conclusion of the club.

Rural Movers Studies ... People Are Moving For Community Attributes And Jobs, Marilyn R. Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

University of Minnesota researchers conducted a Rural Movers Study to determine the motivations of people who moved within one to five years to rural Minnesota communities. Their findings are not unlike earlier research conducted at the University of Nebraska in 2008. The Rural Movers Study showed that 31 % of respondents moved due to a job or job offer. However, this was not one of the primary reasons individuals moved. For those individuals who did not move for employment, 76% wanted to find a good environment for raising their children, 67% moved to be closer to relatives, 64% looked for …

Social Networks And Instructional Reform In Stem: The Teaching‑Research Nexus, John Skvoretz, Katherine Kappelman, Ariel Marcy, Jacob D. Mcalpin, Jennifer E. Lewis, John P. Ziker, Karl Mertens, Brittnee Earl, Susan E. Shadle, Brian A. Couch, Stephanie Feola, Luanna B. Prevost, A. Kelly Lane, Blake Whitt, Marilyne Stains

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Instructional reform in STEM aims for the widespread adoption of evidence based instructional practices (EBIPS), practices that implement active learning. Research recognizes that faculty social networks regarding discussion or advice about teaching may matter to such efforts. But teaching is not the only priority for university faculty – meeting research expectations is at least as important and, often, more consequential for tenure and promotion decisions. We see value in understanding how research networks, based on discussion and advice about research matters, relate to teaching networks to see if and how such networks could advance instructional reform efforts. Our research examines …

Demographic Groups Differ In Urban Recreational Behavior, Brandon Barlow

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

Urban recreational behavior is an essential component to understanding both how our recreational opportunities will be utilized and how they can be further improved. By improving recreational opportunities, we can ensure safe and reliable emotional and physical outlets for users. As urban areas continue to expand both in geographic area and in population size, urban recreational opportunities will also see growth in the number of recreational users. Demographics provide the opportunity to further understand and predict recreational behavior, producing a variety of decision management tools. Our goal was to understand differences in urban recreational behavior among demographic groups. To address …

The Creation Of The Global Scales For Early Development (Gsed) For Children Aged 0–3 Years: Combining Subject Matter Expert Judgements With Big Data, Gareth Mccray, Dana Mccoy, Patricia Kariger, Magdalena Janus, Maureen M. Black, Susan M. Chang, Fahmida Tofail, Iris Eekhout, Marcus Waldman, Stef Van Buuren, Rasheda Khanam, Sunil Sazawal, Ambreen Nizar, Yvonne Schönbeck, Arsène Zongo, Alexandra Brentani, Yunting Zhang, Tarun Dua, Vanessa Cavallera, Abbie Raikes, Ann M. Weber, Kieran Bromley, Abdullah Baqui, Arunangshu Dutta, Imran Nisar, Symone B. Detmar, Romuald Anago, Pacifico Mercadante, Fan Jiang, Raghbir Kaur, Katelyn Hepworth, Marta Rubio-Codina, Samuel N. Kembou, Salahuddin Ahmed, Gill A. Lancaster, Melissa Gladstone

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Introduction With the ratification of the Sustainable Development Goals, there is an increased emphasis on early childhood development (ECD) and well-being. The WHO led Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) project aims to provide population and programmatic level measures of ECD for 0–3 years that are valid, reliable and have psychometrically stable performance across geographical, cultural and language contexts. This paper reports on the creation of two measures: (1) the GSED Short Form (GSED-SF)— a caregiver reported measure for population-evaluation— self-administered with no training required and (2) the GSED Long Form (GSED-LF)— a directly administered/observed measure for programmatic evaluation—administered by …

Interdisciplinary Design Studio: Programming Document Visioning For A Robotic Demonstration, Research, And Engagement Dairy, Steve(N) Hardy, Nate Bicak, Sarah Alduaylij, Noor Al-Maamari, Devyn Beekman, Kelsey Belgum, Lauren Chubb, Nicholas Forte, Mitchell Hill, Joshua Holstein, Dylan Lambe, Phuong Le, Mia Leriger, Elizabeth Loftus, Josh Lorenzen, Megan Lovci, Alex Martino, Zade Miller, Hannah Morgan, Annabelle Nichols, Collin Shearman, Rebecca Sowl, Nalin Theplikhith, Angela Vu, Shaylee Wagner, Ethan Watermeier, Trever Zelenka

Architecture Program: Student Creative Activity

The 2022 COLLABORATE Design Studio brought together students from various disciplines to address a complex, real-world project which required collaborative input from different perspectives. The studio worked to advance the co-creation of knowledge between external stakeholders, students, and instructors. The course was co-taught by faculty from different disciplines, and areas of expertise. During the semester, Nate Bicak and Steven Hardy worked with students from Architecture and Interior Design in collaboration with students in Dr. Tami Brown-Brandl’s students in Biological Systems Engineering and Animal Science to explore the values, spatial qualities, and area requirements of a Robotic Demonstration, Research, and Engagement …