Digital Commons Network^™

Dreams Interrupted: A Mixed-Methods Research Project Exploring Latino College Completion, Kate Sablosky Elengold, Jess Dorrance, Amanda Martinez, Patricia Foxen, Paul Mihas

Faculty Publications

Latino students are entering college at record numbers; Today, almost 3.8 million Latinos are enrolled in colleges and universities across the United States. Yet Latino students trail their White and Asian peers in attaining college degrees. The overall completion gap exceeds ten percentage points.

Although scholars and advocates have pointed to several different barriers facing Latino college students, a persistent narrative focuses on Latino students’ aversion to taking on student debt. In response, researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and UnidosUS undertook a multi-year mixed-method study to test and interrogate whether and how debt aversion affects Latino college …

Urban Bat Pups Take After Their Mothers And Are Bolder And Faster Learners Than Rural Pups., Lee Harten, Nesim Gonceer, Michal Handel, Orit Dash, H. Bobby Fokidis, Yossi Yovel

Faculty Publications

Background: Urbanization is rapidly changing our planet and animals that live in urban environments must quickly adjust their behavior. One of the most prevalent behavioral characteristics of urban dwelling animals is an increased level of risk-taking. Here, we aimed to reveal how urban fruitbats become risk-takers, and how they differ behaviorally from rural bats, studying both genetic and non-genetic factors that might play a role in the process. We assessed the personality of newborn pups from both rural and urban colonies before they acquired experience outdoors, examining risk-taking, exploration, and learning rates.

Results: Urban pups exhibited significantly higher risk-taking levels, …

The Power Of Tolerance Vs. Unselfishness As A Cultural Determinant Of Cooperation, Kimmo Eriksson, Brent Simpson, Irina Vartanova

Faculty Publications

Cooperation in collective action problems and resource dilemmas is often assumed to depend on the values of the individuals involved, such as their degree of unselfishness and tolerance. Societal differences in cooperation and cooperative norms may therefore result from cultural variation in emphasis on these personal values. Here we draw on several cross-national datasets to examine whether society-level emphasis on unselfishness and tolerance and respect for other people predict how societies vary in cooperation [in a continuous prisoner’s dilemma (PD)] and in norms governing cooperation [in a common pool resource dilemma (CPR)]. The results suggest that high levels of cooperation …

An Extended Essay On Church Autonomy, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

The doctrine of church autonomy has its own exclusive line of precedent running from Watson v. Jones (1872) through Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral (1952) - where the doctrine was first recognized as having First Amendment stature - and culminating with renewed vigor for religious institutional autonomy in the unanimous decision of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012). Attention to church autonomy has expanded rapidly since the Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor, and its scope is much disputed as it pushes aside other claims and interests. In its most familiar form—the “ministerial exception” - it is …

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Intellectual Property Jurisprudence, Ryan Vacca, Ann Bartow

Faculty Publications

On September 18, 2020, the world lost an irreplaceable leader. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after many years of battling cancer, had passed away. Although she will primarily be remembered for her work on gender equality—as both advocate and jurist—Justice Ginsburg signiicantly impacted other areas of the law. One such area is intellectual property. During her time on the U.S. Supreme Court, she authored 20 opinions in these areas—11 copyright, seven patent, and two trademark—and joined the opinions of her colleagues in many others.

Realigning The Clean Water Act: Comprehensive Treatment Of Nonpoint Source Pollution, Robin M. Rotman, Ashley A. Hollis, Kathleen M. Trauth

Faculty Publications

Nonpoint source pollution is the biggest threat to water quality in the United States today. This Article argues for stronger federal controls over nonpoint source pollution. It begins by examining the history of water quality regulation in the United States, including the passage and amendment of the Clean Water Act and the evolving definition of “navigable waters” over time. The Article then discusses recent rulemaking and litigation developments, including the Clean Water Rule, the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, and the County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund case. It offers three recommendations. First, the Article calls for a congressional …

Trapping Soybean Looper (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) In The Southeastern Usa And Implications For Pheromone-Based Research And Management, Daniel E. Fleming, Jeffrey A. Davis, Fred R. Musser, Silvana V. Paula-Moraes, Ronald C. Stephenson, Christopher A. Wheeler, Earl Eugene Ringpis, Tyler S. Crum, J. Khai Tran

Faculty Publications

Novel strategies for the management of soybean looper, Chrysodeixis includens (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), are needed due to its increasing importance, costs, and challenges of management in soybeans (Glycine max [L.] Merr.; Fabaceae) in the Americas. Pheromone-mediated mating disruption may be 1 such novel strategy, but an effective tool for estimating mating disruption success must be found. The technique of trapping male moths using pheromone baited traps is a common method for assessing mating disruption technology. This paper reports on the testing of 2 trap types and 3 commercially available lures containing (Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate as the major active component. Trapping was …

Managing Corpses From Different Castes In The Eastern Subterranean Termite, Jizhe Shi, Chi Zhang, Sirui Huang, Austin Merchant, Qian Sun, Chuan Zhou, Kenneth F. Haynes, Xuguo Zhou

Faculty Publications

Corpse management is essential for social animals to maintain colony health. In the eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, workers carry out undertaking behaviors to mitigate the risks associated with the dead. In this study, we hypothesized that termites would respond differently to the corpses from different castes based on their postmortem chemical signatures. To test this hypothesis, we 1) documented the behavioral responses of the workers toward corpses from different castes, and 2) profile the chemical signatures of these corpses. Corpses from all castes were retrieved inside the nests and cannibalized when they were decomposed <64 >h, regardless of the presence …

Identifying Areas Of Overlap And Distinction In Early Lexical Profiles Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Late Talkers, And Typical Talkers, Eva Jiménez, Eileen Haebig, Thomas T. Hills

Faculty Publications

This study compares the lexical composition of 118 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 12 to 84 months with 4626 vocabulary-matched typically developing toddlers with and without language delay, aged 8 to 30 months. Children with ASD and late talkers showed a weaker noun bias. Additionally, differences were identified in the proportion of nouns and verbs, and in the semantic categories of animals, toys, household items and vehicles. Most differences appear to reflect the extent of the age differences between the groups. However, children with ASD produced fewer high-social verbs than typical talkers and late talkers, a difference that …

Deep Belief Network Based Audio Classification For Construction Sites Monitoring, Michele Scarpiniti, Francesco Colasante, Simone Di Tanna, Marco Ciancia, Yong Cheol Lee, Aurelio Uncini

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a Deep Belief Network (DBN) based approach for the classification of audio signals to improve work activity identification and remote surveillance of construction projects. The aim of the work is to obtain an accurate and flexible tool for consistently executing and managing the unmanned monitoring of construction sites by using distributed acoustic sensors. In this paper, ten classes of multiple construction equipment and tools, frequently and broadly used in construction sites, have been collected and examined to conduct and validate the proposed approach. The input provided to the DBN consists in the concatenation of several …

A 3d Printed Vitrification Device For Storage In Cryopreservation Vials, Yue Liu, Andy Lin, Terrence R. Tiersch, William Todd Monroe

Faculty Publications

Sperm cryopreservation by vitrification is a promising approach for small-bodied animals such as zebrafish (Danio rerio). However, most vitrification tools adopted in aquatic research were initially designed for applications other than sperm (such as human embryo freezing) and, thus, pose challenges for adoption to sperm vitrification. Three-dimensional (3D) printing combined with open hardware sharing is an emerging strategy to address challenges in the development of cryo-preservation tools. The goal of this study was to develop a 3D printed Vitrification Device for Cryo-Vials (VDCV) that can be integrated with the existing vial storage systems. The VDCV combined the vitrification and handling …

Population Structure, Gene Flow, And Sex-Biased Dispersal In The Reticulated Flatwoods Salamander (Ambystoma Bishopi): Implications For Translocations, Steven T. Williams, Jean P. Elbers, Sabrina S. Taylor

Faculty Publications

Understanding patterns of gene flow and population structure is vital for managing threatened and endangered species. The reticulated flatwoods salamander (Ambystoma bishopi) is an endangered species with a fragmented range; therefore, assessing connectivity and genetic population structure can inform future conservation. Samples collected from breeding sites (n = 5) were used to calculate structure and gene flow using three marker types: single nucleotide polymorphisms isolated from potential immune genes (SNPs), nuclear data from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and the mitochondrial control region. At a broad geographical scale, nuclear data (SNP and MHC) supported gene flow and little structure (FST …

Cage's Imitation Game: Cheap Imitation And Song Books Through The Sketches, Jeffrey Perry

Faculty Publications

The theme of John Cage’s Song Books (1970), according to Cage, is contained in the statement “We connect Satie with Thoreau” (Cage 1970a, 1). Previous studies of Cage’s Song Books have not asked what I feel to be obvious questions: how, precisely, does Cage connect Satie with Thoreau? To what end? And how does Cage connect to Satie and Thoreau (and to the other sources from which he borrows)? I make use of Cage’s sketch materials to seek answers. I examine three of the Solos for Voice from Song Books that make use of the cheap-imitation procedure that Cage had …

Are The Dead Sea Scrolls From Khirbet Qumran?, Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to remain the subject of an intense academic debate concerning their interpretation, their authors, and whether there is a connection between the caves in which these documents were discovered and the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran. The answers to these questions are important because of the unprecedented number of fragmentary documents in this collection and their diverse contents. Because Roland de Vaux found the same types of pottery in the Scroll caves that he uncovered inside Khirbet Qumran, most scholars view the Scrolls as archaeological objects that are associated with this settlement. Khirbet Qumran’s architectural …

A Perspective On Bribes And Bribery, Annetta Gibson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Organic Cotton Clothing Purchase Behavior: A Comparative Study Of Consumers In The United States And Bangladesh, Md Nakib Ul Hasan, Chuanlan Liu, Bulbul Ahmed

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the differences and similarities of organic cotton clothing (OCC) purchase behaviors of the consumers who lie at the top and the bottom of the apparel supply chain. The influences of consumers’ sustainability knowledge and social norms on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions were examined to understand within the framework of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Sample data were collected from the United States and Bangladesh and, finally, 136 useable responses were used for the data analysis. Among the useable responses, 85 samples were from the US (containing 91.76% female participants and …

Tick Salivary Gland Extract Induces Alpha-Gal Syndrome In Alpha-Gal Deficient Mice, Shailesh K. Choudhary, Shahid Karim, Onyinye I. Iweala, Shivangi Choudhary, Gary Crispell, Surendra Raj Sharma, Claire T. Addison, Mike Kulis, Brian H. Herrin, Susan E. Little, Scott P. Commins

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is characterized by delayed hypersensitivity to non-primate mammalian meat in people having specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) to the oligosaccharide galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose. AGS has been linked to tick bites from Amblyomma americanum (Aa) in the U.S. A small animal model of meat allergy is needed to study the mechanism of alpha-gal sensitization, the effector phase leading to delayed allergic responses and potential therapeutics to treat AGS.

Methods: Eight- to ten-weeks old mice with a targeted inactivation of alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase (AGKO) were injected intradermally with 50 μg of Aa tick salivary gland extract (TSGE) on days …

Evaluating The Vulnerability Of Farming Communities To Winter Storms In Iowa, Us, Yiyi Zhang, Bingquing Liang

Faculty Publications

Winter storms have been reported as the second-most frequent catastrophe in the Midwest of the United States and can create non-negligible impacts on farming communities that highly rely on climatic-sensitive resources and activities. However, few studies have attempted to assess the vulnerability to winter storms in rural contexts. Focusing on all counties in Iowa, US, as the study area, this research aimed to evaluate the vulnerability of farming communities to winter storms and its major determinants. It first identified both climatic and non-climatic indicators for quantifying winter storm exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity by reviewing previous related studies and examining …

A Dose Of Dignity : Equitable Vaccination Policies For Incarcerated People And Correctional Staff During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Itay Ravid, Jordan M. Hyatt, Steven L. Chanenson

Faculty Publications

Since its emergence in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the lives of millions of Americans. As it so often is during times of crisis, our most vulnerable communities have disproportionately suffered and were overlooked. Among these myriad communities, incarcerated people became a particularly potent symbol of our failure to handle the spread of the virus. In December 2020, a beacon of hope emerged with the introduction of new cutting-edge vaccines which promised to bring the world back to where it was just a year-and-a-half ago. Here again, however, policy and politics have led states to adopt different distribution …

Ocean Regime Shift Is Driving Collapse Of The North Atlantic Right Whale Population, Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod, Charles H. Greene, Kimberley T.A. Davies, David G. Johns

Faculty Publications

Ocean warming linked to anthropogenic climate change is impacting the ecology of marine species around the world. In 2010, the Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf regions of the Northwest Atlantic underwent an unprecedented regime shift. Forced by climate-driven changes in the Gulf Stream, warm slope waters entered the region and created a less favorable foraging environment for the endangered North Atlantic right whale population. By mid-decade, right whales had shifted their late spring/summer foraging grounds from the Gulf of Maine and the western Scotian Shelf to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The population also began exhibiting unusually high …

Honoring The Mother Of All People; Contemporary Indigenous Leadership In Revitalizing Environmental And Cultural Sustainability, Katharine A. Duderstadt, Alexandra G. Martin, Svetlana Peshkova, Siobhan Senier, Jennifer F. Brewer, Daniel R. Howard

Faculty Publications

This series of events brings Indigenous perspectives from 22 Indigenous speakers across the U.S. and Arctic regions to discussions of sustainable futures within the New Hampshire community. There is growing movement in the academic community to understand how Indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage can deepen our thinking about sustainable futures. While most researchers recognize that anthropogenic climate change and other sustainability challenges require humanistic as well as scientific approaches, many have yet to thoroughly understand the colonial legacies that initiated many of these sustainability problems and continue to impede our study and solutions. The 2020-2021 Sidore Series was designed to …

On The Anguish Of Going: An Actor’S Endgame, Jennifer Cavenaugh

Faculty Publications

Sometimes a theatrical production comes along that illuminates a familiar text, bringing parts of the story into a new focus or revealing other parts hitherto unseen. The Endgame Project, conceived by veteran New York actors Dan Moran and John Christopher Jones, is one of these productions. In this conception of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, Clov and Hamm, two characters with diminishing physical abilities, are played by Jones and Moran, two seasoned actors who are both living with Parkinson’s disease. The Endgame Project creates a powerful joining of Beckett’s script and the Parkinson’s disease that holds the principal actors in its …

Suicide Attempts In Us Veterans With Chronic Headache Disorders: A 10-Year Retrospective Cohort Study, X. Michelle Androulakis, Siyuan Guo, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Jason Sico, Peter Warren, Alec Giakas, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., B Lee Peterlin, Roy Mathew, Deborah Reyes

Faculty Publications

Objectives: A large-scale retrospective analysis of veterans with chronic pain was con-ducted to examine (1) the annual incidence of suicide attempts (SA) in veterans with chronic headache and other chronic pain conditions, and (2) the risk of SA in men and women with chronic headache and chronic headache concurrent with traumatic brain injury (TBI) as compared to non-headache chronic pain.

Methods: This retrospective study (N=3,247,621) analyzed National Veterans Affair Health Administrative data of patients diagnosed with chronic head, neck, back and other chronic pain from 2000 to 2010. Multivariable Poisson regression was used to explore the relative risks of SA …

Drivers Of Food Choice Among Children And Caregivers In Post-Earthquake Nepal, Pepijn Schreinemachers, Rachana Manadhar Sherestha, Bishal Gole, Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Puspa Lal Ghimire, Bhishm P. Subedi, Tilman Brück, Ghassan Baliki, Ishwori P. Gautam, Christine E. Blake

Faculty Publications

Food systems in many countries are experiencing a shift from traditional foods toward processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt, but low in dietary fiber and micronutrients. There is an urgent need to better understand drivers of changing food behavior, particularly for lower-income countries. This study analyzes drivers of food choice among children and parents in rural Nepal. It uses qualitative data collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions with school children, parents and teachers. The study reveals substantial changes in food behavior during the past decade with increased consumption of rice, meat, and highly processed snack …

Sex-Specific Spatial Use Of The Winter Foraging Areas By Magellanic Penguins And Assessment Of Potential Conflicts With Fisheries During Winter Dispersal, Samanta Dodino, Vitor Hugo Rodrigues Paiva, Nicolás A. Lois, Luciana Riccialdelli, Michael J. Polito, Klemens Pütz, Andrea Raya Rey

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Risks To Listed Species From The Use Of Atrazine In The Usa: A Perspective, Philip N. Smith, Kevin L. Armbrust, Richard A. Brain, Wenlin Chen, Nika Galic, Lula Ghebremichael, Jeffrey M. Giddings, Mark L. Hanson, Jonathan Maul, Glen Van Der Kraak, Keith R. Solomon

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Heteroacene-Based Amphiphile As A Molecular Scaffold For Bioimaging Probes, Tharindu A. Ranathunge, Mahesh Loku Yaddehige, Jordan H. Varma, Cameron Smith, Jay Nguyen, Iyanuoluwani Owolabi, Wojciech Kolodziejczyk, Nathan I. Hammer, Glake Hill, Alex Flynt, Davita L. Watkins

Faculty Publications

The challenges faced with current fluorescence imaging agents have motivated us to study two nanostructures based on a hydrophobic dye, 6H-pyrrolo[3,2-b:4,5-b’]bis [1,4]benzothiazine (TRPZ). TRPZ is a heteroacene with a rigid, pi-conjugated structure, multiple reactive sites, and unique spectroscopic properties. Here we coupled TRPZ to a tert-butyl carbamate (BOC) protected 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)propanoic acid (bisMPA) dendron via azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition. Deprotection of the protected amine groups on the dendron afforded a cationic terminated amphiphile, TRPZ-bisMPA. TRPZ-bisMPA was nanoprecipitated into water to obtain nanoparticles (NPs) with a hydrodynamic radius that was TRPZ-PG was encapsulated in pluronic-F127 (Mw …

An Everlasting Witness: Ancient Writings On Metal, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

After reviewing and updating the best studies of writing on metals in the ancient world, the paper examines scholarly and scriptural texts that explain what writing on metal meant to ancient scribes. Finally, the paper turns to what writing on metal meant to the Nephites.

Modern Archaeology And The Brass Plates, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Contemporary Palestinian archaeology has produced two major threats to traditional interpretations of the history of ancient Israel. Scientific discomfort with the exodus story as an explanation for the sudden population expansion in southern Palestine at the beginning of the Iron Age (c.1200 BCE) has led to a wide variety of theories about how these Israelites could have been drawn from existing populations in the general area. And a glaring mismatch between the biblical glorification of David and Solomon’s “empire” and disparagement of the northern kingdom combined with the archaeological finding that the cities of the northern kingdom were far larger …

Daily Energy Expenditure Through The Human Life Course, Herman Pontzer, Yosuke Yamada, Hiroyuki Sagayama, Philip N. Ainslie, Lene F. Andersen, Liam J. Anderson, Lenore Arab, Issaad Baddou, Kweku Bedu-Addo, Ellen E. Blaak, Stephane Blanc, Alberto G. Bonomi, Carlijn V.C. Bouten, Pascal Bovet, Maciej S. Buchowski, Nancy F. Butte, Stefan G. Camps, Graeme L. Close, Jamie A. Cooper, Richard Cooper, Sai Krupa Das, Lara R. Dugas, Ulf Ekelund, Sonja Entringer, Terrence Forrester, Barry W. Fudge, Annelies H. Goris, Michael Gurven, Catherine Hambly, Asmaa El Hamdouchi, Marjije B. Hoos, Sumei Hu, Noorjehan Joonas

Faculty Publications

Total daily energy expenditure (“total expenditure”) reflects daily energy needs and is a critical variable in human health and physiology, but its trajectory over the life course is poorly studied. We analyzed a large, diverse database of total expenditure measured by the doubly labeled water method for males and females aged 8 days to 95 years. Total expenditure increased with fat-free mass in a power-law manner, with four distinct life stages. Fat-free mass-adjusted expenditure accelerates rapidly in neonates to ~50% above adult values at ~1 year; declines slowly to adult levels by ~20 years; remains stable in adulthood (20 to …