Digital Commons Network^™

Myth Or Reality? Crowdsourcing As A Complex Problemsolving Model: Evidence From Software Developed By The Crowd And Professionals, Abhishek Tripathi

Student Work

Crowdsourcing is a problem-solving model. Conventional theory suggests that solving complex problems is a province of professionals, people with sufficient knowledge about the domain. Prior literature indicated that the crowd is also a great source for solving complex problems. However, there is a lack of experimental research to support that crowdsourcing is a useful model for complex problem-solving (CPS), especially in the software development context. The broad goal of this dissertation is to address this research gap and improve understanding of crowdsourcing as a viable and effective CPS model. This research proposed and tested a research model of perceived quality …

A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of The Relations Of Physical And Relational Aggression With Peer Victimization, Ellyn Bass, Lina María Saldarriaga, Josafa M. Da Cunha, Bin-Bin Chen, Jonathan Santo, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

To better address the many consequences of peer victimization, research must identify not only aspects of individuals that put them at risk for victimization, such as aggression, but also aspects of the context that influence the extent of that risk. To this end, this study examined the contextual influences of gender, same-sex peer group norms of physical and relational aggression, and nationality on the associations of physical and relational aggression with peer victimization in early adolescents from Canada, China, Brazil, and Colombia (N = 865; Mage = 11.01, SD = 1.24; 55% boys). Structural equation modeling was used to …

State Of The University Address, Uno Office Of The Chancellor

Chancellor’s Speeches

Good morning.

I want to thank the faculty, staff, students, community members, Board of Regents members, state senators, friends and my family who were able to attend today.

The first time I stood in this spot to deliver a State of the University address, I was interim Chancellor, and I had been in that role for a total of 28 days.

In that speech, I invited you to take a journey with me.

Notes From The Editor, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Notes from International Dialogue's Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conces for Volume 6.

Failure Of Multiculturalism? Immigration, Radical Islamism, And Identity Politics In Europe, Fatos Tarifa, Monica Di Monte

International Dialogue

This paper addresses the issue of how Europe’s ethnic and cultural mix is changing drastically by the large numbers of culturally diverse, especially Muslim immigrants, as well as problems that Western European governments face today as they try to deal with unintended consequences of their liberal policies of multiculturalism. In light of this discussion, radical Islamism and identity politics are seen as long-term challenges for all liberal democracies. We argue that extremist voices among the right-wing populist parties in many Western European countries opposed to immigration and increasingly mobilized around the issue of Muslim minorities, may spur resentment and political …

How We Fight: Ethics In War, Roger Bergman

International Dialogue

As indicated by the editors, the ten essays in this volume “arose from a conference on just war theory held at the University of Sheffield [United Kingdom] in August 2010” (vii). The authors are all academics and all but two are philosophers; the outliers are professors of law and of politics. The emphasis is indeed on just war theory, not investigation of the development of the just war tradition over many centuries in theological, philosophical, or legal contexts, or of its application to historical cases from the remote or recent past. One should not look here for scholarly illumination, say, …

Music And International History In The Twentieth Century, Frédéric Ramel

International Dialogue

For several decades, musicologists have dealt with the role of music in international relations using their own tools. They have focused on musical change in the context of modernity, especially how traditional music and folk music interact with music from other localities. Paradoxically, musicologists have contributed more to the field of international relations than historians or political scientists. Fortunately, those in history and political science have initiated an acoustic turn which aims to fill the gap. Jessica Gienow-Hecht is one historian who has promoted this movement thanks to her well-known monography dedicated to cultural American-German relations in early twentieth century …

An Evaluation Of A Support Program For First-Generation College Students, Aaron Krueger

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a support program for first-generation college students. A qualitative study was conducted evaluating the Young Scholars Program from the perspectives of program participants. Data was collected through interviews with eight current and former program participants. The following research questions informed this study: 1. How do students perceive the program to be impacting their academic experience? 2. How do students perceive the program to be impacting their social experience? 3. How do students perceive the program to be impacting their career development experience? Through analysis of the data, three major themes emerged: Relationships, …

Mapping Omaha: A Geographic Assessment Of The Service Learning P-16 Initiative, Rosa Najera

SLA Scholarship

CUMU (Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities), 2016 Conference, Poster Presentations:

Racial divide in Omaha, NE is apparent—African Americans in the north, Latinos in the south, and Whites in the west, which is visually depicted in Cable’s racial dot map (2013). Beyond racial segregation, according to city data in 2013, 31% of the population are below the poverty level in North Omaha and 22.5% in South Omaha. These two regions result in a 30% poverty rate compared to 18% for all of Omaha. This clearly indicates that not only is the poverty rate higher for North and South regions …

P-16 Service Learning Outcomes: Charting New Paths To Partner And Assess Innovative Collaborations, Julie Dierberger, Libby Ferris

SLA Scholarship

CUMU (Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities), 2016 Conference, Poster Presentations:

Julie Dierberger, and Samantha Kanouse, University of Nebraska at Omaha Commitment to quality service learning instruction at the higher education level has been a major tactic used to achieve the metropolitan mission at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). As service learning has become institutionalized across the campus, expansion to include the P-12 area schools and teachers became not only an important next step in relationship development, but also a means to better serve the Omaha community. To that end, UNO has been partnering with P-12 schools …

Identification Of The Emergent Leaders Within A Cse Professional Development Program, Tracie Evans Reding, Brian Dorn, Neal Grandgenett, Harvey Siy, Jon Youn, Qiuming Zhu, Carol A. Engelmann

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The need for high quality, sustainable Computer Science Education (CSE) professional development (PD) at the grades K-12 level is essential to the success of the global CSE initiatives. This study investigates the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to identify emergent teacher leaders within a high quality CSE PD program. The CSE PD program was designed and implemented through collaboration between the computer science and teacher education units at a Midwestern metropolitan university in North America. A unique feature of this specific program is in the intentional development of a social network. This study discusses the importance of social networks, …

Profane Parables: Film And The American Dream, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Profane Parables: Film and the American Dream, by Matthew S. Rindge (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016).

An Examination Of The Impact Of Drug Court Clients’ Perceptions Of Procedural Justice On Graduation Rates And Recidivism, Cassandra A. Atkin-Plunk, Gaylene Armstrong

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Over the years, researchers have found drug courts reduce recidivism for participants. Scholars have hypothesized that drug courts are effective at producing positive outcomes for participants due in part to a case management approach that implements concepts of procedural justice. Using a convenience sample of participants involved in one drug court, this study adds to the limited body of research on procedural justice and drug courts by examining whether variation in drug court clients’ perceptions of procedural justice is related to their likelihood of graduation from drug court and recidivism. Results, policy implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

“It’S Not A Fucking Book, It’S A Weapon!”: Authority, Power, And Mediation In The Book Of Eli, Seth M. Walker

Journal of Religion & Film

The mediation of religious narratives through sacred texts is intimately bound to the power relations involved in their transmission and maintenance. Those who possess such mediated messages and control their access and interpretation have historically held privileged positions of authority, especially when those positions are not easily contested. The 2010 film The Book of Eli uniquely engages these elements by placing the alleged last copy of the King James Version of the Christian Bible at the forefront of a clash between different individuals in a post-nuclear wasteland. This paper, drawing on Max Weber’s notion of “charisma,” and scholars addressing religion, …

Not Alone: "Ironic Faith," The Comic Worldview, And Process Theology In Monty Python's Life Of Brian, Kathleen J. Cassity

Journal of Religion & Film

Steven Benko points out that far from being anti-religious, Monty Python’s Life of Brian posits a type of belief he calls “ironic faith,” though he believes that the version evoked by this film falls short of calling for social transformation. If, however, we consider the resonance between process theology's "becoming-over-being" and the open-ended “humorous outlook” as articulated by philosopher of comedy John Morreall, we can interpret Life of Brian as suggesting the possibility of social transformation through its concluding evocation of a shared humanity that surmounts isolation, hierarchy, and socially constructed barriers by promoting what sociologist Robert Putnam calls "bridging …

Heri Faculty Survey Fall 2016 Analysis, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Assessment

HERI Faculty Survey Fall 2016 Analysis

Review: Joas, Hans. The Sacredness Of The Person: A New Genealogy Of Human Rights. Washington, Dc: Georgetown University Press, 2013. Xi+217 Pp. $29.00 (Paper), Bharat Ranganathan

Religion Faculty Publications

On what grounds should human rights rest? How should the universality of universal human rights be understood, especially given the putative incommensurability among rival views that obtain in the contemporary world? Do human rights emerge from a particular metaphysics, for example, the idea that human beings are created in the image of God? Or are human rights sufficiently basic that whatever grounds them, for example, respect for humans as ends-in-themselves, is in fact justifiable across any and all moral, political, and religious views? These queries continue to concern both human rights advocates and critics.

Vol. 27 No. 3 (Autumn 2016), Doi 10.18060/21388 Building An Engagement Center Through Love Of Place: The Story Of The Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center, Sara Woods, B. J. Reed, Deborah Smith-Howell

Scholarship of Metropolitan Mission

Universities throughout the United States operate engagement centers to extend campus faculty, staff and student resources to their communities. In 2014, the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) opened the Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (Weitz CEC): a privately funded $24 million, 70,000 square foot facility located in the middle of its original Dodge Street campus. In addition to offices for its service learning and community service enterprises, the CEC houses over thirty university and community organizations and offers extensive space for meetings, dialogue and collaboration. This paper will discuss its strategic and programmatic origins, unique design, and lessons learned in …

A Study Of Norm Formation Dynamics In Online Crowds, Nargess Tahmasbi

Student Work

In extreme events such as the Egyptian 2011 uprising, online social media technology enables many people from heterogeneous backgrounds to interact in response to the crisis. This form of collectivity (an online crowd) is usually formed spontaneously with minimum constraints concerning the relationships among the members. Theories of collective behavior suggest that the patterns of behavior in a crowd are not just a set of random acts. Instead they evolve toward a normative stage. Because of the uncertainty of the situations people are more likely to search for norms.

Understanding the process of norm formation in online social media is …

The Queer Omaha Archives, Amy Schindler

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

The Queer Omaha Archives, in Criss Library Archives & Special Collections at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, preserves and provides access to the history of LGBTQIA+ life in the region. The archives collects, preserves, and makes available to the public material documenting the diverse people and organizations of the greater Omaha region and their experiences and work. In this session, we’ll share how this new community collecting initiative was begun and how the library is extending existing and establishing new relationships with campus and community members to preserve the region’s LGBTQIA+ history and make it available for use.

Gendered Self-Concepts And Drinking Behavior In A National Sample Of Emerging Adults, Samantha S. Clinkinbeard, Tim Barnum

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Despite evidence that males drink more than females, there is much to be learned about gendered explanations for sex differences in alcohol use. We use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data to investigate gendered self-concept as related to alcohol use and related consequences among a sample of emerging adults. Dominance Masculinity (e.g., being aggressive, forceful, dominant) was the most consistent predictor of alcohol-related outcomes for both males and females. Endorsement of feminine characteristics (e.g., compassion, understanding, sympathetic) was protective against binge drinking and social consequences for males whereas endorsement of general masculine characteristics (e.g., independent, assertive, …

Creating Cultural Capital: Cultural Entrepreneurship In Theory, Pedagogy And Practice, Olaf Kuhlke Ed., Annick Schramme Ed., René Kooyman Ed., A. Erin Bass, Ivana Milosevec, Dale Eesley

Faculty Books and Monographs

Editor: Olaf Kuhlke, Annick Schramme, and René Kooyman

Chapter, Examining and reconciling identity issues among artist-entrepreneurs, co-authored by A. Erin Bass, UNO faculty member.

In recent years, the global creative economy has experienced unprecedented growth. Considerable research has been conducted to determine what exactly the creative economy is, what occupations are grouped together as such, and how it is to be measured. Organizations on various scales, from the United Nations to local governments, have released ‘creative’ or ‘cultural’ economy reports, developed policies for creative urban renewal, and directed attention to creative placemaking – the purposeful infusion of creative activity into …

Examining And Reconciling Identity Issues Among Artist-Entrepreneurs (Chapter), A. Erin Bass, Ivana Milosevec, Dale Eesley

Management Faculty Publications

In business schools, research and pedagogy in entrepreneurship focus on new venture creation and management. Developing individuals to think like an entrepreneur and adopt an ‘entrepreneurial identity’ enables them to more effectively build and grow businesses and enjoy financial success. However, the assumption that all entrepreneurs desire financial success may not hold across non-business entrepreneurs. For example, for artists, sacrificing for arts’ sake - or enjoying artistic success at the hands of financial success - is a constant struggle. This ‘artist identity’ stands in stark contrast to the ‘entrepreneurial identity’. Artists create to satisfy an artistic need, rather than a …

Nsse16 Student Comments (Uno), National Survey Of Student Engagement

NSSE

The final page of the NSSE survey asked students to respond to the following question in an open text box:

"If you have any additional comments or feedback that you'd like to share on the quality of your educational experience, please type them below."

Nsse16 Topical Module - Civic Engagement Student Comments (Uno), National Survey Of Student Engagement

NSSE

The final question of the Civic Engagement module asked students to respond to the following question in an open text box:

"Think about the experiences you may have had with local, campus, state, national, or global issues. What about these experiences has been most meaningful to you?"

Application Of Group Testing For Analyzing Noisy Networks, Vladimir Ufimtsev

Student Work

My dissertation focuses on developing scalable algorithms for analyzing large complex networks and evaluating how the results alter with changes to the network. Network analysis has become a ubiquitous and very effective tool in big data analysis, particularly for understanding the mechanisms of complex systems that arise in diverse disciplines such as cybersecurity [83], biology [15], sociology [5], and epidemiology [7]. However, data from real-world systems are inherently noisy because they are influenced by fluctuations in experiments, subjective interpretation of data, and limitation of computing resources. Therefore, the corresponding networks are also approximate. This research addresses these issues of obtaining …

Nebraska Watershed Network, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Newsletters 2015-2016

This newsletter features: Water at Kaneko Gallery; NE Scifest; Raise the Roots; Gifford Park Garden; Sustainability Launchpad; Girl Scouts; and Director's Note

Latinos And The Economic Downturn In Nebraska: Demographic And Socioeconomc Trends 2005-2013/2014, Lissette Aliaga-Linares

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

Researchers from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) have released a new report detailing the demographic and socioeconomic trends of Nebraska’s Latinos before, during and after the 2008 economic crisis.

This publication highlights that although Nebraska fared relatively well during the economic crisis, Latinos, and particularly foreign-born Latinos, appeared to be more affected than others. While many social indicators, such as language proficiency, college enrollment and the like, have shown improvement over time, the socioeconomic status of Latinos overall continues to be vulnerable to economic downturns...

Black Lives Matter | Special Edition Omaha Table Talk, Inclusive Communities

Newsletters 2015-2016

OMAHA, NE, July 20, 2016 - Inclusive Communities will host will host a special edition of its monthly Omaha Table Talk, Black Lives Matter at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (Weitz CEC). Black Lives Matter sheds light on the issues surrounding the discussion of race in relation to the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Rape And Mental Health Outcomes Among Women: Examining The Moderating Effects Of “Healthy” Fear Levels, Ryan E. Spohn, Emily M. Wright, Johanna C. Peterson

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This study examined the mediating and moderating impact of fear of victimization on the relationships between forcible and vicarious rape on depression and PTSD among college women. Forcible and vicarious rape positively affected PTSD and depression symptomology, but fear did not mediate these relationships. Fear moderated the impact of forcible rape on PTSD, but was not a moderator for depression. Findings suggest that there may be “healthy” levels of fear in the aftermath of victimization where having too little fear may leave women unnecessarily vulnerable to victimization, while having too much fear may lead to social isolation and withdrawal.