Digital Commons Network^™

Deep Tracks: Using Deep Learning And Procedurally Simulated Data For Automated Vertebrate Footprints Classification, Carolina S. Marques, Afonso Mota, Matteo Belvedere, Diego Castanera, Ignacio Díaz-Martínez, Elisabete Malafaia, Soraia Pereira, Luís Miguel Rosalino, Vanda F. Santos

Faculty Publications

The study of vertebrate footprints provides useful information on animal behavior, locomotion, and ecology. However, automatically classifying these records using photographs is difficult due to the significant morphological variation in footprints and the lack of readily available labeled datasets. To address this issue, this study developed Deep Tracks, a novel Unity application to procedurally create a dataset of simulated footprint images. Two datasets were used to evaluate the influence and impact of the simulated dataset on real footprint classification: (1) a dataset comprising 40,000 simulated footprints, (2) approximately 1,500 real vertebrate footprints from 10 different vertebrate groups. Both simulated and …

Biennial Faculty Activities Report To The Board Of Regents, State Of Iowa, 2025, University Of Northern Iowa

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

Contents:

--- Faculty Responsibilities and Expectations across the Regent Universities
--- Faculty Contributions to Students, Universities, State and Society
--- Distribution of Faculty Activities by Category
--- 2025 data collection process
--- Survey Results
--- Distribution of Credit Hours by Instructor Type
--- Faculty Evaluation and Review Policies
--- Annual Review
--- Promotion & Tenure Review
--- Post-Tenure Review
--- Other

Love, Sex, & Aging: Gendered Perspective On Relationship Desires And Satisfaction In Older Adulthood, William Henninger, Melinda Heinz, Nathan Taylor

Faculty Publications

This research explores gender differences in long- and short-term relationships and sexual satisfaction among older adults. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory posits that as people age, they prioritize immediate emotional satisfaction due to perceptions of limited time. This shift influences older adults’ romantic relationships, increasing the likelihood of seeking meaningful connections and reducing the prevalence of negative emotions. With healthy relationships linked to physical, psychological, and financial benefits, research is needed to further understand older adult romantic relationships. Older adults (n = 155) from the Seniors Together in Aging Research (STAR) completed a survey assessing relationship preferences and current and predicted sexual …

Uni’S First Woman Professor: Laura Ensign And The Struggle For Fair Pay, Rank, And Faculty Governance Under Gilchrist And Seerley, Thomas G. Connors

Faculty Book Gallery

At 29, Laura Ensign’s appointment to the faculty of Iowa’s new State Normal School should have been an unqualified triumph. Yet her hiring by the Board over the objections of James Gilchrist, the school’s principal, placed her under an administrator who detested her from the start. She lived, ate, and worked with her colleagues, pupils, and Gilchrist and his family in the same isolated building on a hill two miles from town. Near her wits’ end after eight years, Ensign tried one final maneuver, one so risky that it would have cost her job had it failed: She began secretly …

Between Two Minds: The Influence Of Numerical Labels On Survey Responses In A Cross-National Study, Gianmaria Bottoni, Eva Aizpurua

Faculty Publications

Previous research highlights the impact of nonverbal cues and visual layouts on respondents’ interpretations and answers to survey questions (Schwarz et al. in Pub Opin Q 55(4):570–582, 1991; Tourangeau et al. in Pub Opin Q 71(1):91–112, 2007; Toepoel and Dillman in Soc Sci Comput Rev 29(2):193–207, 2011). In this study, we investigate the effect of numerical values on responses to five questions measured using 11-point bipolar scales. These questions asked for evaluations of the general impact of climate change and its effects on different groups. Respondents were randomly assigned to scales ranging from 0 to 10, or from − 5 …

Ktrb-Mediated Alkaline Adaptation Drives Enterococcus Faecalis Persistence In The Gastrointestinal Tract Of Helicoverpa Zea, Patrick J. Hurd, Vivian Veto, Geneva Bell, Jerreme J. Jackson

Faculty Publications

Enterococcus faecalis is a commensal enteric bacterium capable of surviving in extreme and diverse environments. Here, we characterized the role of the gene ntpJ, which encodes the KtrB subunit of the KtrAB Na⁺/K⁺ symporter, during the adaptation of E. faecalis to alkaline stress and persistence in Helicoverpa zea (corn earworm). We assessed growth kinetics, biofilm formation, surface adhesion, and gastrointestinal persistence in vivo using an E. faecalis OG1RF mariner transposon mutant (ntpJ-Tn). The ntpJ-Tn mutant showed delayed entry into mid-log phase growth and biofilm formation under standard and alkaline-adjusted conditions relative to the wild-type strain, while adherence …

University Students’ Condom Use During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Cross-Cultural Differences And What Predict Them, Liam Dacosta, James S. Morandini, Rebecca T. Pinkus, Elien De Caluwé, Lik Sam Chan, Olivine Lo, Saowanee Thongnopakun, Sawitree Visanuyothin, Cheryl Harasymchuk, Samantha Joel, Helen C. Harton, Alyssa Mccoy, Victoria Dale, David L. Rodrigues, Judit Takács, Alexandra Sipos, Veronica M. Lamarche, Racidon Bernarte, Viktorija Čepukienė, Ivana M. Jakšić, Bojana Bodroža, Huỳnh Hồng Mai, Tran Thi Hong, Grace Akello, Ivana Hromatko, Asha Ganesan, Jiawei Zhang, Damian Murray, James Moran, Juan Ramón Barrada, Ángel Castro, Claudia Navarro-Roldan, Kuan-Pin Su, Jane Chang, Matthew B. Ruby, Donya Ziadlou, Shin Nakamine, Yutaka Watanabe, Albert Lee, Richelle-Joy Chia, Ilan Dar-Nimrod

Faculty Publications

Humans instinctively adopt methods to reduce their risk of encountering harmful pathogens, yet their adherence to preventive health practices can often be erratic. Condoms exemplify one vital preventive tool against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that, despite their effectiveness, are not consistently utilized. This pattern of behavior appears to persist even during periods of widespread disease transmission, with varied data from the COVID-19 pandemic indicating that condom usage remained inconsistent. The present study aimed to clarify these inconsistencies by examining changes in condom use cross-culturally. Heterosexual participants who were sexually active (N = 3,972 [1,327 men, 2,645 women], Mage= 22.82) across …

Owning Workplace Safety: Investigating Safety Locus Of Control Among Nurses, Archana Manapragada Tedone, Jessica Mesmer-Magnus, Julie J. Lanz, Chockalingam Viswesvaran

Faculty Publications

Workplace accidents and injuries continue to be a challenge in high-risk industries such as healthcare, where safety is a daily critical concern. Although organizational factors such as safety climate have been well-established as predictors of safety-related outcomes, less is known about the role of individual differences in workplace safety. This research investigates safety locus of control, which captures an employee’s tendency to believe that their safety-oriented behaviors actually play a role in preventing safety incidents. Individuals with a highly internal safety locus of control tend to recognize the importance of their own and others’ safety actions for promoting workplace safety …

[Keynote Presentation] Who Owns Our Knowledge? Rethinking Publishing In A Scholar-Led World, Juan Pablo Alperin

Open Access Week Events

The UNI community is invited to attend a lecture by Juan Pablo Alperin, Simon Fraser University. The event is hosted by the Scholarly Communications sections of the three Iowa Regent institutions [Iowa State University, University of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa].

Details:

• Lecture: "Who owns our knowledge? Rethinking Publishing in a Scholar-Led World," by Juan Pablo Alperin
• Date: Monday, October 20, 2025
• Time: 12 noon (Central Time) to 1 pm
• Location: Room LIB ScholarSpace 301 (Light refreshments) or via Zoom (Registration required)

Description: This presentation will discuss how the proliferation of open access …

Home Range Size And Habitat Usage Of Hatchling And Juvenile Wood Turtles (Glyptemys Insculpta) In Iowa, Jeffrey W. Tamplin, Joshua G. Otten, Samuel W. Berg, Nadia E. Patel, Jacob B. Tipton, Justine M.R. Radunzel

Faculty Publications

The Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) is an endangered species in the state of Iowa and a species of conservation concern across their entire range. The Iowa population is characterized by high levels of adult and egg predation, displays little or no annual recruitment, and harbors an extremely low number of juveniles (7.3%). Home range and habitat usage studies of hatchling and juvenile Wood Turtles are limited to a few studies, and only one study of juveniles exists from the state of Iowa. Over a 10 yr period, we conducted a radiotelemetry study in Iowa on seven juvenile wood turtles for …

Multi-Level Salmon Governance And Adaptation To Institutional Change In Indigenous Fishing Communities In Kamchatka, Russia, Tatiana Degai, Maria Monakhova, Andrey Petrov, Victoria N. Sharakhmatova, Yulia Vasilieva

Faculty Publications

Discussions around salmon governance and management systems in the Pacific remain to be the source of debate and tension between recreational fishers, commercial fishing industry, Indigenous communities, government agencies, as well as the scientists (Chalifour et al., 2022; Day, 2023; Reid et al., 2022). While decades were spent on developing the “correct” salmon governance regimes, these systems still fail to respond to the needs of salmon-dependent communities and salmon populations (Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, n.d.; Connors, 2023). In multiple contexts multi-level governance is enforced top-down and is imposed with the pretext of achieving “better” management of resources, yet increasing …

A Comparison Of Deep Neural Network Compression For Citizen-Driven Tick And Mosquito Surveillance, Yichao Liu, Emmanuel Dufourq, Peter Fransson, Joacim Rocklöv

Faculty Publications

Citizen science has emerged as an effective approach for infectious disease surveillance. With advancements in machine learning, entomologists can now be relieved from the labor-intensive task of species identification. However, deploying machine learning models on mobile devices presents challenges due to constraints on battery life and memory capacity. In this study, we explore the potential of various model compression techniques for deploying machine learning models on resource-limited devices, enabling low-energy consumption and on-device processing for disease surveillance in remote or low-resource settings. We compared two main-stream model compression techniques, pruning and quantization on various mobile devices. Our findings indicate that …

Csbs Kudos, Fall 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Social And Behavioral Sciences.

CSBS Kudos

Contents:

--- Faculty Accolades
--- New Faculty & Staff
--- In Memoriam - Carole Edginton
--- In Memoriam - Clemens Bartollas
--- UNI names Allison Rank as inaugural director of the Center for Civic Education
--- Tradition meets tomorrow, one historic image at a time
--- Historian Serena Zabin delivered 52nd annual UNI Becker Lecture on Boston Massacre
--- UNI ROTC program to remain on campus under new U.S. Army structure
--- UNI professor starts first-of-its-kind health initiative in Iowa for retired men
--- UNI hosts third White Coat Ceremony for nursing students
--- UNI welcomes students and community to …

Rhythms: Music At The University Of Northern Iowa, V44, Fall 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. School Of Music.

Rhythms: Music at the University of Northern Iowa

Contents:

From the Director --- 3
Community Outreach --- 8
Amplify Alumni --- 11
Mariachi in Iowa --- 12
Jazz Notes --- 13
Scholarship Benefit Concert --- 14
Student Awards and Honors --- 16
Student Spotlight --- 18
Emeritus Faculty News --- 19
Faculty News and Activities --- 20
Faculty Spotlight --- 23
New Faculty and Retirements --- 24
Alumni News and Updates --- 26
Alumni Spotlight --- 27
From the Foundation --- 29
Opportunities to Give --- 30
Spotlight Series 2025-26 --- 34
Snapshots --- 35

Stories Of Racism And Resistance: A Narrative Analysis Of Stories Told In The Uk Windrush Generation And Descendants Of The Windrush Generation, Jessica Blumsom, Jacqui Scott, Emma Karwatzki, Aishath Nasheeda, David Hernandez-Saca, Alyson Malach, Glenda Andrew

Faculty Publications

The Windrush Generation (WG) and their descendants continue to experience adversity in the UK, including racism and the Windrush Scandal, with such adversities absent from psychological research literature. Intergenerational trauma is a psychological concept explaining that adverse experiences can be transmitted from one generation to impact subsequent generations. There has been limited consideration of the ongoing impact of adverse experiences that span multiple generations, such as experiences of racism within Western Europe. This paper utilised a narrative research design to study the narratives of members of the WG and those of their descendants in the UK. Eight expert by experience …

Supporting Faculty Parents In Professional Development: Case Studies, Recommendations, And A Call For Inclusive Approaches, Anne Marie Gruber, Lindsay Doukopoulos

Faculty Publications

Educational development is often scheduled during academic breaks with the intent of allowing faculty participation; however, this can actually make it more difficult for faculty who are in parenting roles, particularly during summer and school breaks when childcare options are limited. This article provides case studies from two different institutions describing approaches to offering childcare support to faculty participants in professional development. Ultimately, although both cases were successful, they were limited solutions to what is actually a much larger cultural problem. Our discussion shares lessons learned, recommendations, and urges others to embrace inclusive and equity-focused endeavors in supporting faculty caregivers' …

Uprising, Issue 20 [Fall 2025], University Of Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa Student Government.

Uprising

Contents:

Bagel Steak & Bluff Street --- 8
Which Band Member are You? --- 18
My Vine --- 20
Feminine Devine --- 22
Butterfly Effect --- 32
Glass Women --- 34
Artist --- 35
Artist Spotlight --- 36
Braided --- 46
Tied Together --- 48
Reflection of Self --- 58
Feeling out of Tune --- 59
Amalgam --- 60
Girlhood --- 69
Solitude --- 70
Games --- 72
Behind the Scenes --- 75

Quantifying The Relative Importance Of Survival Threats To A Long-Lived Reptile Using Expert Elicitation, Jennifer F. Moore, J. Hardin Waddle, Fred Johnson, Julien Martin, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Jill Fleming, Thomas S. Akre, Donald J. Brown, Yu Man Lee, Jonathan Drescher-Lehman, John Kleopfer, Jeff Tamplin

Faculty Publications

Long-term survival of a conservation-reliant species requires understanding the impact of threats on population growth rate and the management actions that can help mitigate these threats. We used a threat assessment with expert-elicited estimates to determine the relative effect of each stage-specific threat on the population growth rate of the wood turtle Glyptemys insculpta. In addition, we offered potential management actions that could mitigate these threats and examined the relative cost and benefit of each. The experts responded that predators had the largest effect on hatchling and juvenile survival and that road mortality had the largest effect on adult survival. …

Dilute Magnetic Impurity-Induced Effective Phonon Magnetic Moment In Fe-Doped Monolayer Mos2, Hussam Mustafa, Gaihua Ye, Cynthia Nnokwe, Mengqi Fang, Mohamed Kandil, Abdullah Al-Mahboob, Kai Wu, Andrew James Stollenwerk, Timothy E. Kidd, Paul M. Shand, Jerzy T. Sadowski, Eui Hyeok Yang, Yinong Zhou, Rui He, Wencan Jin

Faculty Publications

Realization of large effective phonon magnetic moment in monolayer MoS2 has established an important route for exploring intriguing magnetic phenomena in a nonmagnetic material. The sizable coupling between the orbital transition and the circularly polarized phonon results in the large effective phonon magnetic moment. In this work, using magneto-Raman spectroscopy, we investigate substitutional doping of magnetic atoms as a tuning knob of the electronic and phononic properties of MoS2. We show that Fe-doping polarizes the spin of the conduction bands and introduces a localized Fe band underneath the conduction band. As a result, an additional orbital transition between the Mo …

On Good Terms: Pathways To Decolonizing Science-Appropriated Indigenous Terminologies In Arctic Research, Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov, Vera Kuklina, Alexander Kholodov, Andrey Petrov

Faculty Publications

Many western scientific disciplines adopted Indigenous Knowledge and terminology without deference to or understanding of the original meanings and values attached to Indigenous terms and concepts. This form of scientific appropriation has become a serious barrier to efforts of decolonizing Arctic research. The notion of Alaas is an example of such appropriation by the western science-based system of Indigenous knowledge about human–nature relations. This paper aims to discuss the term Alaas as it is conceptualized in both western science and Indigenous knowledge. The paper will explore the development of “alas” as an international permafrost science term and Alaas as an …

Effects Of Ethics And Culture On One's Trust In Cryptocurrencies: An Inter-Country Configurational Analysis, Arif Perdana, W. Eric Lee, Chu Yeong Lim, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow

Faculty Publications

The characteristics of cryptocurrencies, such as decentralization, fluctuation, and anonymity, have often raised ethical concerns about their impact on privacy, cybersecurity, prosperity, and liberty. With an increased awareness of the potential consequences, it is essential to address how, in the face of ethical challenges, and together with one's unique cultural values, various influences may affect the issue of trust toward cryptocurrencies. From an inter-country perspective, this study examines how ethical elements and cultural dimensions can interact to influence trust. In particular, we examine the ethical and cultural aspects of trust formation among cryptocurrencies’ users in the three predominant countries of …

International Panther Monthly, September 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. Office Of International Engagement.

Office of International Engagement newsletter

Contents:

--- From the Director’s Desk
--- September Recap
--- Student & Scholar Highlights
--- Did You Know?
--- World Window
--- Behind the Scenes
--- October Activities
--- Additional Activities
--- Volunteer with Us

Youth Comorbidity Patterns And Research Domain Criteria (Rdoc)-Informed Factors: A Scoping Review Of Person-Centered Psychopathology Research, June Yung Kim, Wenxing Wei, Liat R. Johnson, Sarah Balser, Anne Marie Gruber

Faculty Publications

Purpose: High rates of comorbid psychopathology have driven a growing body of person-centered research to understand the grouping structure of youth comorbidity by identifying meaningful comorbidity patterns and validating them with neurobehavioral factors. The National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) offers an etiological framework for systematically identifying constructs organized around major functioning domains. This scoping review study mapped person-centered comorbidity studies and synthesized the RDoC-informed factors of comorbidity patterns. Materials and

Methods: We followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. Five databases (e.g. PubMed and CINAHL) were searched. Twenty-five peer-reviewed studies examining comorbidity patterns in youth up to …

Working Group Report: Developing A Playbook Of Equitable Grading Practices, Stephen H. Edwards, David L. Largent, Ben Schafer, Debarati Basu, Amy Csizmar Dalal, Dan Garcia, Brian Harrington, Kevin Lin, Dan S. Myers, Christian Roberson, Giulia Toti, Brett Wortzman

Faculty Publications

Traditional points-based grading can have negative impacts. As a result, many educators are experimenting with alternative grading practices that are more equitable for students. However, educators often face challenges in implementing equitable grading practices due to a lack of clear, practical descriptions of techniques and the fact that not all techniques are universally applicable. This working group addresses this problem using a three-pronged strategy: conducting a systematic literature review to gather documented techniques, compiling ''recipes'' or concrete descriptions of these techniques, and publishing them in an open-source, online ''playbook'' of equitable grading practices as a community resource for educators. This …

“I Feel Like A Lot Of Times Women Are The Ones Who Are Problem-Solving For All The People That They Know”: The Gendered Impacts Of The Pandemic On Women In Alaska, Marya Rozanova-Smith, Andrey N. Petrov

Faculty Publications

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery in urban communities in the Arctic have been substantial, but their gendered aspects remain largely unknown. The goal of this study was to enhance the understanding of the gender-based impact on women in the urban areas of Alaska by exploring strengths and constraints to resilience in the social and economic domains of gender equality during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on grounded theory methodology, this study is based on 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The study methodology utilized a conceptual framework that integrated deficit-based and strength-based analytical perspectives. …

Bovine Neutrophil Migration, Cd11a/Cd18 Expression, And Cytokine Response To Co-Culture With Mammary Gland Endothelial Cells And Epithelial Cells, David J. Mcclenahan

Faculty Publications

Movement of leukocytes from the circulatory system into a site of inflammation is a highly complex process. The migration of neutrophils into the lumen of the mammary gland during mastitis is no exception. There is information about the involvement of bacterial-produced products during this process, but less is known regarding the role of host products. Two bovine cell lines, a primary mammary gland endothelial cell line and an immortalized bovine mammary gland epithelial cell line (Mac-T), along with freshly isolated bovine neutrophils, were used to study this further. The cell lines were grown on inserts and in wells of tissue-culture …

Does Woody Encroachment In Eastern Iowa Crp Fields Depend On Age Or Surrounding Forest Cover?, Drew Denotter, Tyler Evans, Laura Jackson

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Historically, tallgrass prairie covered approximately 85% of Iowa’s landscape. Today, Iowa has experienced the most extensive land conversion and destruction of native habitats, with nearly all of the biodiversity from the native prairie converted to private cropland. This transformation has led to declines in water and soil quality, as well as losses in plant and animal genetic diversity. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) incentivizes farmers to remove land from production and restore it to tallgrass prairie, but these restorations face a growing threat: woody encroachment. Invasive woody species can expand rapidly, with densities increasing over a relatively short period of …

Whole Genome Sequencing Of Bumblebees With Varied Tissue Quantity, Extraction Methods, And Bioinformatic Inquiries, Halle Hoefing, Ai Wen

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Bumblebee populations are a key source of pollination in many local prairies across Iowa, and genetic diversity among these populations is essential to their health. In order to study the variation, it needs to be examined at the genomic level. However, the current method for bumblebee DNA extraction is lethal, and involves removing tissue from the thorax of captured bees. To find a non-lethal method, procedures were adapted from reference literature that used tarsal clippings of bees rather than capturing and freezing the entire bee. DNA was extracted from 18 previously captured Bombus impatiens individuals, among which four bees were …

Tooth Brushing Pressure Detection Using Only A Smartwatch, William Spielbauer, Dheryta Jaisinghani

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

• Roughly half (46%) of American adults aged 30 or older show signs of gum disease.^₁
• Improper tooth-brushing technique – in particular, excessive pressure when brushing – can cause inflammation and recession of the gums due to abrasion (gingivitis).^₂
• While there are ways to track and prevent excessive pressure (smart brushes have this feature built in), these are expensive solutions that require specialized equipment.

Tooth Brushing Technique Detection With Deep Learning On The Edge, Anthony Teal, Dheryta Jaisinghani

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Non-communicable gum disease affects about 42%_[4] of adults aged 30 years and older. Developing a robust model to detect brushing techniques on a smartwatch can help reinforce good brushing habits and prevent gum disease.

The likelihood of someone owning a smart watch compared to a smart toothbrush is staggering. There were around 66,051_^[3] smart toothbrushes sold in 2022, with smartwatches shipping about 150,000,000_[2] units. It is important to have an alternative on a smartwatch, because it will reach far more users.

Data privacy has become a large issue worldwide. With a pre-trained model that is systematically fine-tuned …