Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of The Impacts Of Infusing Data Analysis And Research In An Interdisciplinary Environmental Economics Course, Sean P. Macdonald

Numeracy

This paper explores the impacts of introducing quantitative literacy skills in an interdisciplinary Environmental Economics course typically taught as an issues and policy course without a quantitative component. The study examines the effects of infusing an engaging, student-selected data collection and analysis assignment on students' quantitative reasoning skills, as well as their interest in and attitudes about data analysis and quantitative information. Using data gathered from a set of pre- and post-assessment questions designed to measure changes in quantitative reasoning skills and attitudes, the findings point to significant attitudinal impacts, gains, but smaller, insignificant gains in quantitative reasoning skills.

Quantitative Reasoning In Calculus Iii: Advancing Student Engagement, Confidence, And Aspirations At An Hsi, Tanvir Prince

Numeracy

This study examines the impact of integrating Quantitative Reasoning (QR) into a Calculus III course at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) on student engagement, confidence, and aspirations. The course is offered at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx. It incorporated QR-focused projects on economic inequality, environmental pollution, and access to healthcare. These projects allowed students to apply advanced calculus concepts to real-world social issues. A pre- and post-survey design was employed to assess changes in students’ mathematical confidence, perceptions of relevance, and career and educational goals. Results showed statistically significant gains in confidence and in the belief that advanced math …

Toward Fairer And More Equitable Numeracy Measurement: Improvements To The Quantitative Reasoning For College Science Assessment, Vonna L. Hemmler, Isaac Rosenthal, Kate Follette, Catherine Sarosi, Erin Galyen, Sanlyn Buxner, Jackson Carter, Samantha Maynard, Sarah Bunnell

Numeracy

Numeracy has become an increasingly important 21st-century skill that, due to the relationship between math and science, is often formally developed at the college level in general education science courses. These courses serve a diverse group of students, many of whom have historically experienced science teaching, curriculum, and assessment on the margins. The well-documented biases of assessments in particular against Individuals of Color (IoC) have inspired us to approach numeracy for social justice in our work from this angle, and in this paper, we detail our efforts to revise our validated numeracy assessment to ensure it more fairly and equitably …

Aging And Cognitive Health Evaluation In Elders – Hearing Intervention (Achieve-Hi): Manual Of Operations, Victoria A. Sanchez, Michelle L. Arnold, Nicholas S. Reed, Ann C. Eddins, Theresa H. Chisolm, Haley N. Calloway

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Designing For Engagement: A Comparison Of Canvas And A Visual Peer Review Dashboard, Alon Friedman, Md Dilshadur Rahman, Ly Dinh, Paul Rosen

School of Information Faculty Publications

Peer review is an underutilized yet potentially powerful strategy for fostering evaluative judgment and design literacy in visualization education. Critiquing visual work requires domain-specific competencies that extend beyond generic peer feedback; however, widely adopted platforms such as Canvas provide limited support for the cognitive and visual demands of visualization critique. We introduce VisPeerReview, a visualization-specific learning analytics dashboard (LAD) designed to scaffold peer feedback through an integrated visualization display, rubric-guided prompts, and inline annotation tools. We evaluated VisPeerReview through a three-phase mixed-methods study conducted in an undergraduate data visualization course, comparing it with Canvas’s default peer-review workflow. Drawing on interaction …

Full Issue 19.2

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Guiding Principles For Teaching About Genocide And Other Difficult Pasts, Kerry E. Whigham

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article outlines guiding principles for teaching “difficult pasts”—episodes of large-scale, identity-based violence such as genocide, crimes against humanity, colonialism, and enslavement—in ways that promote peace, human rights, and the prevention of future atrocities. Drawing from the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Education (HGE), Global Citizenship Education (GCED), Peace Education (PE), and Human Rights Education (HRE), it argues that instruction should move beyond the memorization of historical facts toward developing students’ socio-emotional and behavioral capacities to recognize and resist processes of othering, discrimination, and violence. The brief presents three main areas of guidance: curricular content, emphasizing conceptual understanding over rote …

A Cave In Miocene Conglomerate: The Törökpince-Abaliget Cave System, Hungary, Krisztina Sebe, Piroska Pazonyi, Márton Bauer, Bálint Szappanos, Márton Szabó, Zoltán Szentesi, Mihály Gasparik, Ákos Juhász, Luca Pandolfi, Máté Gregorits, József Haász, Ágnes Novothny, Zsófia Ruszkiczay-Rüdiger

International Journal of Speleology

Conglomerate caves are rare, and only a few have been described in the scientific literature. Here, we present a newly discovered and significant cave system in SW Hungary, comprising over 500 m of upper passages and a shorter, lower section of a through-cave developed in Lower–Middle Miocene conglomerates. The formation of these cave passages was controlled chiefly by bedding and fractures. Dissolution has produced typical karstification morphologies, whereas corrasion, granular disintegration, and rock collapse have also played a role in shaping the cave. The cave is dominated by vadose-zone morphologies, but sediment infills indicating upward water flow, along with ceiling …

Alphafold3 And Intrinsically Disordered Proteins: Reliable Monomer Prediction, Unpredictable Multimer Performance, Tuan Minh Dao, Sebastien Ghent, Vladimir N. Uversky, Taseef Rahman

Bellini College REU Symposium (BCREUS)

AlphaFold3 represents a major advance in protein structure prediction, yet its performance on intrinsically disordered proteins remains uncharacterized. We present the first systematic evaluation of AF3 on disordered systems, revealing a striking dichotomy. For monomers, AF3's pLDDT scores reliably predict disorder (MCC: 0.693), matching AlphaFold2 and rivaling dedicated predictors. This consistency across fundamentally di ̄erent architectures confirms that disorder prediction emerges from training data, not model design. For multimers, the picture grows complex. Despite comparable aggregate performance (mean DockQ: 0.563 vs 0.571), AF3 and AF2 achieve these results through fundamentally di ̄erent mechanisms.

Conventional structural features explain 58% of AF2's …

A Secret Society Of Readers: College-Age Mentors’ Literacy Experiences With Young Adolescent Mentees, Lindsay Persohn, Dulcey B. Hunter, Chelsea Rivera, Karyn Z. Mendez, Cheryl R. Ellerbrock, Lucy Monette

Journal of Global Education and Research

This study occurred within Year One and Year Two of an ongoing literacy initiative designed to build reader identities among underserved middle school students. Using a near-peer mentoring model, mentees were paired with college-student mentors to interact weekly around books and reading. Reader interests and identities are influenced by affective and relational approaches through mentored reading experiences and a variety of texts. This qualitative case study (n = 11 of 24 Year One and n = 13 of 37 Year Two mentors) aimed to identify the ways mentor/mentee relationships affect reader interests, attitudes, and skills, and to evaluate the …

Shepherding In France: The Ambiguities Of Caring For Nonhuman Animals In The Roya Valley, France, Daina Pupkevičiūtė

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

F

For over half a century, wolves in France were extinct. In the absence of predators, the shepherds became accustomed to leaving the sheep roaming freely in the mountains in relative safety. However, at the end of the 1980s, wolves returned, resulting in many victims, conflicts, and a stark division between those either for or against the wolf or otherwise sometimes framed as those against or for the survival of the mountain pastoralism tradition. This text looks at the caring relationships humans, such as shepherds, villagers, and others, have towards sheep, wolves, and the landscape in the Roya Valley in …

Crow's Nest, November 16, 2025, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The November 16, 2025 issue of Crow's Nest.

“For Haitian Culture, Being Older [Is] A Blessing”: Perceptions Of Aging, Elderhood, And Dementia In A Haitian Born Sample, Melissa K. Eustache

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how first-generation Haitian immigrants in the United States understand and interpret dementia within the intersecting contexts of culture, migration, and biomedicine. While dementia is constructed as a pathological “loss of self” and a public health epidemic, in American biomedical and popular discourse, this study examines how Haitian-born individuals—socialized within a non-Western cultural and spiritual framework—make sense of cognitive decline and impairment in ways that diverge from Western biomedical narratives. Guided by theoretical orientations from medical anthropology, including Mark Nichter’s idioms of distress, Margaret Lock’s local biologies, and neuroanthropology, this research explores how cultural models of illness, aging, …

Joint Action (In)Action: A Communicatively Constituted Examination Of Shared Governance, Organizational Sustainability, And The Future Of Liberal Arts In Institutions Of Higher Education, Rebecca R. Todd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are at least two versions of higher education today. One is that universities and curriculum need to be reformed to suit contemporary exigencies, particularly market-driven logics and direct paths to desirable job and career outcomes. The other is the story in this dissertation, namely, that the liberal arts hold value for the creation of new knowledge, critical thinking, and empowerment. With this admittedly one-sided corrective to the dominant narrative of higher education, this abstract and dissertation begin.

In the contemporary landscape of American higher education, the liberal arts are under siege. Once heralded as the cornerstone of democratic citizenship …

Reducing Data Requirements In Polymer Science: Deep Neural Networks For Predicting Surface Tension Of Copolymer Compatibilizers, Md Mushfiqul Islam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In polymer chemistry, compatibilization involves adding a substance often a block or graft copolymerto stabilize polymer blends that would otherwise not mix well, leading to rough structures and weak me- chanical properties. Compatibilizers improve miscibility and reduce interfacial tension, which is critical for applications such as mixed-waste polymer recycling. Sequence-controlled polymers offer unique potential by combining the tunable chemistry of synthetic polymers with the precise, function-driven design of biological macromolecules, but unlike proteins, they lack large, evolution-shaped datasets to guide discovery. This research develops a deep learning framework to predict the surface tension of sequence-controlled copolymer compatibilizers across varying concentrations. …

Macgillivray's Warbler At Tommy Thompson Park: New To Ontario, Connor S. Smith

Ontario Birds

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Ontario Field Ornithologists

Ontario Birds

No abstract provided.

The Bird Specimen Collection Of George And Edward White Of Ottawa, Ontario (1874-1949), Daniel F. Brunton

Ontario Birds

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Ontario Field Ornithologists

Ontario Birds

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of The Conservation Status Of The Fuegian Steamer Duck Tachyeres Pteneres In Chile, Gonzalo Medina-Vogel, Gabriela Molina-Maldonado, Carlos Calvo-Mac, Nicole Delgado-Parada, Valeria Gómez-Silva, Elke Schüttler, Benjamín Santibáñez-Bórquez, Jaime R. Rau, Jaime A. Cursach

Marine Ornithology

The Fuegian Steamer Duck Tachyeres pteneres is endemic to the southern cone of South America. Though classified as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, it is categorized as Near Threatened by the Chilean Ministry of Environment. However, few studies have been conducted on this species, and large portions of its distribution remain unsurveyed. This lack of information hinders a full appreciation of the species' conservation status under the IUCN criteria. We therefore conducted extensive surveys along the southern coast of Chile. Between March 2021 and April 2023, we carried out visual censuses at …

Status Of Seabirds In Indonesian Waters, Muhammad Iqbal, Gusti Ayu Widayanti, Ina Aprillia, Diah Komala Sari, Nur Arifah

Marine Ornithology

We report the current status of seabirds in Indonesian waters, where a total of 74 species have been recorded. This includes nine species classified as threatened and 56 species protected under Indonesian law. The majority of seabird species in Indonesia are non-breeding visitors; only 16 have been recorded breeding in the region. Since the 2000s, several new species have been documented, including Red Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius, Lesser-backed Gull Larus fuscus, Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereus, Beck's Petrel Pseudobulweria becki, Heinroth's Shearwater Puffinus heinrothi, Slaty-backed Gull Larus schistiagus, and Slender-billed Gull Chroicocephalus genei. While Indonesian waters encompass extensive and diverse seabird habitats, …

First Confirmed Record Of Common Murre Uria Aalge For The Mid-Atlantic Azores, Luís M. D. Barcelos, Rúben Coelho, João P. Barreiros

Marine Ornithology

On 06 December 2024, a Common Murre Uria aalge was photographed in Praia da Vitória fishing harbour, Terceira, Azores. This constitutes the first record for the archipelago, far from the species' usual nearshore range. The bird remained for several days; plumage features confirmed subspecies U. a. aalge. Alcidae are vagrants in the Azores, with the Little Auk Alle alle and Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica most often reported. This observation refines knowledge of seabird distribution and vagrancy in this mid-Atlantic oceanic archipelago.

From Tropical Shores To High-Altitude Lakes: Preliminary Assessment Of Trans-Himalayan Migration Of Brown-Headed Gulls Chroicocephalus Brunnicephalus Between Sri Lanka And The Tibetan Plateau, Gayomini Panagoda, Iromi K. Wijethunge, Beixi Zhang, Fanjuan Meng, Yiwen Chen, Sarath Kotagama, Taej Mundkur, Sivananinthaperumal Balachandran, Lei Cao, Sampath S. Seneviratne

Marine Ornithology

The Brown-headed Gull (BHGU) Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus is a common non-breeding migrant to Sri Lanka's coasts. However, its migration across the Central Asian Flyway—traversing numerous geographic barriers such as the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to reach the southern Indian peninsula and Sri Lanka—has not been studied. We GPS-tracked two BHGUs between Sri Lanka and their breeding grounds on the Tibetan Plateau from 2021 to 2023, documenting four migrations in total—three northward and one southward. During northward migration (25 April-20 May), the gulls covered 2,786.7 ± 168.0 km in 6.8 ± 1.05 d without any stopovers, although they made several rest …

First Record Of Lesser Frigatebird Fregata Ariel From Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Matthias D. Dehling

Marine Ornithology

The Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel is widespread in the western and central tropical Pacific, where it breeds from Raine Island, Australia, in the west to the Tuamotu Archipelago in the east (Marchant & Higgins, 1990). The non-breeding range is larger, extending northwest to Japan and rarely Russia (Sibley & Clapp, 1967) and northeast, rarely, to the northwest Hawaiian Islands, USA (Pratt et al., 1987), and exceptionally as a vagrant to the continental United States (Howell et al., 2014).

Breeding Phenology And Reproductive Success Of Larid Species Nesting In Cuba, Antonio Garcia-Quintas, Dennis Denis, Christophe Barbraud, Sophie Lanco

Marine Ornithology

Breeding phenology is a life history trait that influences reproductive success and population dynamics, yet it remains poorly studied in tropical seabird species. The Caribbean constitutes a breeding hotspot for seabirds, although information about their phenology and reproductive success is limited. We characterized the breeding phenology and reproductive success of seven larid species during the 2021 breeding season on three cays in Cuba. To document breeding phenological phases, we conducted weekly surveys and used camera traps. We also recorded the number of nests, eggs and fledglings. Overall, the breeding phenology of the studied species was seasonal and relatively synchronous, occurring …

Bonavista Bay Murre Hunters In Newfoundland And Labrador Propose Further Interaction With Biologists And Managers, C. Wayne Humphries, Grant R. W. Humphries, Alexandra M. C. Robbins, Gail S. Fraser

Marine Ornithology

Thick-billed Murres Uria lomvia and Common Murres U. aalge, seabirds with low reproductive rates, delayed reproduction, and high adult survivorship, are hunted in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) by non-Indigenous residents. The traditional hunt has a complex regulatory history as a result of NL joining Canada in 1949 and the protection of non-game species under the Migratory Bird Convention Act. Thirty hunters from the northeastern region of the island of Newfoundland were interviewed about their knowledge of murres, their hunting practices, and their opinions on current hunting regulations. While the hunters had detailed local species knowledge from the region they hunted, …

Communicating The Truth-Telling And Space-Making Of Black Women In Higher Education: A Trap Feminist Study, Chazman Deira Mckoy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation adopts a “for Black women, by Black women” approach to examine how Black women’s lived experiences and performances of racialized gender become communicative acts of agency as they navigate the intersecting challenges of race and gender within pedagogical contexts.

Grounded in Black Feminist Pedagogy and expanded through Trap Feminism, this study celebrates the complexity of racialized gender performances and theorizes them as intentional communicative acts of resistance. These acts not only confront dominant ideologies but also create ongoing spaces for truth-telling, spaces where Black women can reframe how their stories, labor, and brilliance are recognized in academic contexts …

Literacies Of Resistance: How Florida Teachers Story Policy Navigation And Response, Katharine E. Hull

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers are inundated with education legislation and the policy texts and discourses that surround them. Over nine months beginning in March 2024, I collaborated with three Florida P-12 teachers to explore their literacy practices and stories as they engaged with policy in a state that has recently passed an astounding amount of education legislation. This study explored how (1) teachers story the current policy context and their roles within it; (2) teachers use literacy practices to understand and respond to P/policies that impact their labor/working lives; and (3) teachers’ literate identities, agency, and collectivity intersect and shape one another. Guided …

Struggle For Economic Plurality; Economies Of Belonging: Subsistence, Indigneity, And The Contradictions And Margins Of Capitalism In The Andean Highlands, Mario Renato Cavani Quevedo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the collective-oriented economy of the Viacha Highlands, a Quechua community in Cusco, Peru, to show how subsistence agriculture, reciprocity, and ritual practices constitute a coherent non-capitalist system of provisioning and belonging. Drawing on one year of ethnographic immersion, the study situates Viacha’s economy within the Community Economies framework, foregrounding its three commitments: anti- essentialism, pluriversality, and ethical–political praxis. Findings reveal that practices such as ayni-ayni (reciprocal labor exchange) and faina (communal work) resist reduction to wage labor, coexist alongside monetary and capitalist dynamics, and ground social reproduction in responsibility and care. At the same time, capitalist schooling, …

The American Friends Of Irish Neutrality And The American Irish Defense Association: The Last Irish American Committees, Patrick J. Horan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the complex narratives surrounding Irish neutrality during World War II within the Irish American community. It focuses on two key organizations, the American Friends of Irish Neutrality (AFIN) and the American Irish Defense Association (AIDA), arguing that the conflict over neutrality was a pivotal moment in the assimilation of Irish American identity. The study explores how Irish Americans balanced their connection to their ancestral homeland with their desire for full acceptance in the United States.

The research reveals a fervent propaganda war between the AFIN, a grassroots organization defending Ireland’s right to remain neutral, and the AIDA, …