Digital Commons Network^™

Sacral Variability In Tailless Species: Homo Sapiens And Ochotona Princeps, Robert G. Tague

Faculty Publications

Homo sapiens is variable in number of sacral vertebrae, and this variability can lead to obstetrical complication. This study uses the comparative method to test the hypothesis that sacral variability in H. sapiens is associated with absence of a tail. Three species of lagomorphs are studied: Ochotona princeps (N = 271), which is tailless, and Lepus californicus (N = 212) and Sylvilagus audubonii (N = 206), which have tails. Results show that O. princeps has (1) higher diversity index for number of sacral vertebrae (0.49) compared to L. californicus (0.25) and S. audubonii (0.26) and (2) significantly higher percentage of …

Impact Of High-Resolution Topographic Mapping On Beach Morphological Analyses Based On Terrestrial Lidar And Object-Oriented Beach Evolution, Xuelian Meng, Xukai Zhang, Rodolfo Silva, Chunyan Li, Lei Wang

Faculty Publications

This research applied terrestrial LiDAR for laboratory beach evolution experiments to quantify the impact of resolution on topographic mapping and change analyses. The multi-site registration and multi-Temporal scanning processes produced high accuracy (-0.002 - 0.003 m) topographic models in a wave tank environment. Morphological analyses based on surface change and profiles showed that models of all resolutions were capable of capturing major sediment changes in relatively smooth areas. However, higher resolution models were necessary in areas with rough surfaces and sudden elevation changes, while coarser resolution models smoothed the roughness and underestimated feature height (e.g., peaks and troughs). Decreasing resolutions …

Engendering The Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty And Sexual Difference In The Inventions Of Angkor, By Ashley Thompson, London, Routledge, 2016, Xvi + 203 Pp., Us$145.00 (Hardback), Isbn 978 0 4156 7772 1, Erik W. Davis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

'People Are Enemies To What They Don't Know' Managing Stigma And Anti-Muslim Stereotypes In A Turkish Community Center, Crystal Paul, Sarah Anna Becker

Faculty Publications

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, anti-Muslim discourse and sentiment has become pervasive in the West. Using a collaborative ethnographic approach, we observe how participants at a Turkish Community Center (TCC) cultivate stigma management strategies against the cultural backdrop of post-9/11 anti-Muslim stereotypes. In our analysis, we use Goffman's work on stigma and critical race theory to explore the socially embedded nature of stigmatization processes for Turkish Muslims in a local community center. Our findings reveal how aspects of Turkish culture and Islam, together with a structural context …

Editorial, Jamal Jokar Arsanjani, Michael Leitner, Alexander Zipf

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Frontiers In Spatial And Spatiotemporal Crime Analytics - An Editorial, Marco Helbich, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Land Use Influencing The Spatial Distribution Of Urban Crime: A Case Study Of Szczecin, Poland, Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

This paper falls into a common field of scientific research and its practical applications at the interface of urban geography, environmental criminology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The purpose of this study is to identify types of different land use which influence the spatial distribution of a set of crime types at the intra-urban scale. The originality of the adopted approach lies in its consideration of a large number of different land use types considered as hypothetically influencing the spatial distribution of nine types of common crimes, geocoded at the address-level: car crimes, theft of property-other, residential crimes, property damage, …

Predictability Of Helminth Parasite Host Range Using Information On Geography, Host Traits And Parasite Community Structure, Tad Dallas, Andrew W. Park, John M. Drake

Faculty Publications

© Cambridge University Press 2016. Host-parasite associations are complex interactions dependent on aspects of hosts (e.g. traits, phylogeny or coevolutionary history), parasites (e.g. traits and parasite interactions) and geography (e.g. latitude). Predicting the permissive host set or the subset of the host community that a parasite can infect is a central goal of parasite ecology. Here we develop models that accurately predict the permissive host set of 562 helminth parasites in five different parasite taxonomic groups. We developed predictive models using host traits, host taxonomy, geographic covariates, and parasite community composition, finding that models trained on parasite community variables were …

Book Review: The State We’Re In: Reflecting On Democracy’S Troubles By Joanna Cook, Nicholas J. Long, And Henrietta L. Moore, Kwame Badu Antwi-Boasiako

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Designing A Course For Peer Educators In Undergraduate Engineering Design Courses, Gina Quan, Chandra Turpen, Ayush Gupta, Emilia Tanu

Faculty Publications

Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduate peer educators who participate in weekly pedagogyseminars and work alongside faculty instructors in active-learning based undergraduate courses.While LA programs were initially developed for science and math courses, many LA programssupport LAs in a wide range of disciplines. This paper describes a pilot adaptation of the LAprogram for engineering design courses that we have developed at the University of Maryland,College Park Campus. All LAs assist in 14 separate sections of University of Maryland’sengineering design course for first-year undergraduate students. Our seminar integrates topicsfrom the discipline-general LA pedagogy seminar (cognitive science of learning, facilitation ofclassroom discourse, collaboration, …

The Tax-Immigration Nexus, Tessa R. Davis

Faculty Publications

Tax and immigration law have a shared interest in defining community. In order to implement a tax, we must know who belongs to the taxable community. At the same time, immigration law must define and administer the requirements for membership in the national community. Despite the differing objectives of tax and immigration law—raising revenue and deciding who may enter, remain, and become a citizen in the United States, respectively—both of these regimes uses a concept of citizenship to define their respective communities. Starting from this common thread of the relevance of citizenship to both immigration and tax law, this Article …

Zika, Pregnancy, And The Law, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

This Essay situates a crucial component of the public health response to Zika - the effort to develop a safe and effective vaccine - within the broader literature. It does so in an effort to highlight the need to revisit the relationship between law and pregnancy - not only in the areas legal scholars have prioritized so far, but also in the context of routine and emergency maternal health, which has heretofore been largely assumed to be governed by straightforward norms and practices based on medical evidence and physician ethics. In fact, whereas the current literature tends to assume or …

Black Death Bodies, Sharon Dewitte, Maryanne Kowaleski

Faculty Publications

The fourteenth-century Black Death was one of the most important and devastating epidemics in human history. It caused or accelerated important demographic, economic, political, and social changes throughout the Old World and has therefore been the subject of scholarly research in a variety of fields, including history, anthropology, demography, and molecular biology. In this paper, we examine the Black Death (specifically, the first and second outbreaks of fourteenth-century plague, c. 1347–1351 and 1361–1362) from bioarchaeological and historical perspectives, focusing on attempts to reconstruct mortality patterns and addressing the questions: Who died in England during the Black Death? How did they …

Territoriality, Monumentality, And Religion In Formative Period Nepeña, Coastal Ancash, David Chicoine, Hugo Ikehara, Koichiro Shibata, Matthew Helmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Traditional Problems: Gay Marriage And The Backlash Against Indian Sovereignty, Marcia A. Yablon-Zug

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alienation And Reconciliation In Social-Ecological Systems, Ann M. Eisenberg

Faculty Publications

After rancher Ammon Bundy’s forceful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal “tyranny” in 2016, mainstream commentary dismissed Bundy and his supporters as crackpots. But the dismissal of the occupation as errant overlooked this event’s significance. This conflict: 1) involved a clash over scarce natural resources, of the type that will likely gain more frequency and intensity in the face of climate change; and 2) highlighted the popular idea that the federal government and federal environmental regulations are the enemy of the (white, rural, male) worker. This thread of antienvironmental, anti-federal alienation among many working people has …

Review Of Rice: Global Networks And New Histories, Ed. By Francesca Bray, Peter A. Coclanis, Edda L. Fields-Black, And Dagmar Schäfer, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Does Personality Similarity In Bottlenose Dolphin Pairs Influence Dyadic Bond Characteristics?, Kelsey R. Moreno, Lauren Highfill, Stan A. Kuczaj

Faculty Publications

Social structures are critical to the success of many species and have repercussions on health, well-being, and adaptation, yet little is known about the factors which shape these structures aside from ecology and life history strategies. Dyadic bonds are the basis of all social structures; however, mechanisms for formations of specific bonds or patterns in which individuals form which types of bonds have yet to be demonstrated. There is a variety of evidence indicating personality may be a factor in shaping bonds, but this relationship has not been explored with respect to bond components and is yet to be demonstrated …

No-Analogue Future: Challenges For The World Of Nature In A World Without Precedent, Sean Kammer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Kinship And The Self-Organization Of Exchange In Small-Scale Societies, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Circulation of material goods is common in small-scale societies. Even where exchange is not coordinated above the level of the household, goods produced in one area are consistently conveyed to distant settlements. Numerous ethnographic studies demonstrate that exchange transactions are common among kin, and that the circulation of goods in small-scale societies is structured by kinship ties. From an individual’s point of view, the number of kinfolk available to exchange with and where they live strongly affect access to nonlocal goods. This paper explores the interrelationships among kin networks, settlement organization, and exchange using agent-based modeling, ethnographic studies, and archaeological …

The Meaning Of Giving Birth: Voices Of Hmong Women Living In Vietnam, Cheryl A. Corbett, Lynn Clark Callister, Jamie Peterson Gettys, Jacob R. Hickman

Faculty Publications

Increasing knowledge about the sociocultural context of birth is essential to promote culturally sensitive nursing care. This qualitative study provides an ethnographic view of the perspectives of birthing of Hmong mothers living in the highlands of Vietnam. Unique cultural beliefs exist in Hmong culture about the spiritual and physical wold as well as ritual practices associated with childbearing. This includes variations of ancestor worship, reincarnation, and healing practices by shamans. Traditionally, Hmong families take an active role in childbirth with birth frequently occurring in the home. Situated within a large collaborative anthropology project, a convenience sample of 8 Hmong women, …

Veiling In Fear Or In Faith? Meanings Of The Hijab To Practicing Muslim Wives And Husbands In The United States, Zahra Alghafli, Loren Marks, Trevan Hatch, Andrew Rose

Faculty Publications

This article examines the Muslim practice of wearing the hijab—the veiling and covering of a woman’s head and body. More specifically, this study aims to present insiders’ perspectives regarding the personal understandings of the hijab among 20 wives and 20 husbands (n = 40) in religious Shia and Sunni Muslim families living in the United States. Qualitative analysis yielded three emergent themes: (1) The hijab as a symbol of religious commitment; (2) The hijab as a tool of protection, rather than oppression, for women and families; and (3) Two different views of Muslims’ reasoning behind the hijab. These …

Using Wearable Devices For Non-Invasive, Inexpensive Physiological Data Collection, James Gaskin, Jeffrey Jenkins, Thomas Meservy, Jacob Steffen, Katherine Payne

Faculty Publications

Using sensors to gather physiological data about users can provide valuable insights for Information Systems (IS) research that are not availed through traditional measures. While useful in many laboratory settings, many of these physiological sensors (e.g., fMRI, EEG, EKG, etc.) are impractical and severely limited in other scenarios due to (1) prohibitive cost, (2) small sample size, (3) invasiveness, and (4) the difficulty to match psychological traits to physiological measures. In this study, we demonstrate how inexpensive consumer-grade wearable technologies overcome these first three limitations while we extend existing research on exploring the fourth limitation.

Development Of Scenarios For Land Cover, Population Density, Impervious Cover, And Conservation In New Hampshire, 2010–2100, Alexandra M. Thorn, Cameron P. Wake, Curt D. Grimm, Clayton R. Mitchell, Madeleine M. Mineau, Scott V. Ollinger

Faculty Publications

Future changes in ecosystem services will depend heavily on changes in land cover and land use, which, in turn, are shaped by human activities. Given the challenges of predicting long-term changes in human behaviors and activities, scenarios provide a framework for simulating the long-term consequences of land-cover change on ecosystem function. As input for process-based models of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem function, we developed scenarios for land cover, population density, and impervious cover for the state of New Hampshire for 2020–2100. Key drivers of change were identified through information gathered from six sources: historical trends, existing plans relating to New …

Threshold Concepts And Core Competences In The Library And Information Science (Lis) Domain: Methodologies For Discovery, Virginia Tucker

Faculty Publications

Researchers have used a variety of methodologies for investigating threshold concepts, and this paper considers these approaches for library and information science (LIS) domains. The focus is on specific benefits of constructivist grounded theory for eliciting evidence of core knowledge, and elements of research design for this purpose are discussed, including the importance of collecting experiences from the learners themselves as well as effective protocols for data gathering and analysis through the use of active tasks and semi-structured interviews. The discussion extends to implications of the research design for how it may be applied to thematic analysis more broadly and …

Translanguaging: Definitions, Implications, And Further Needs In Burgeoning Inquiry, Luis E. Poza

Faculty Publications

The term translanguaging has appeared with growing frequency in research about the education of linguistic minority students. Amid increasing application of the term, concern emerges regarding the consistency of its definitions and characterizations, specifically with respect to the term’s social justice implications, which risk dilution. Early instances (García, 2007, 2009a) position the term as both a pedagogical strategy for supporting multilingual learners and a critique of existing conceptualizations of language and bilingualism that have historically marginalized particular speech communities. In this review of recent literature, I analyze 53 texts published between 1996 and 2014 for their definitions, exemplifications, and attributed …

The Higher-Ed Organizational-Scholar Tension: How Scholarship Compatibility And The Alignment Of Organizational And Faculty Skills, Values And Support Affects Scholar’S Performance And Well-Being, Milagros Pereyra-Rojas, Enrique Mu, James Gaskin, Tony Lingham

Faculty Publications

Scholars and institutions alike are concerned with academic productivity. Scholars not only further knowledge in their professional fields, they also bring visibility and prestige to themselves and their institutions, which in turn attracts research grants and more qualified faculty and graduate students. Many studies have been done on scholar productivity, and many of them focus on individual factors such as gender, marital status, and individual psychological characteristics. Also, a few studies are concerned about scholars’ well-being. We propose a causal model that considers the compatibility of the scholarship dimensions valued by scholars and institutions and their academic alignment with actual …

Lexicography In-Your-Face: The Active Semantics Of Pastaza Quichua Ideophones, Janis B. Nuckolls, Tod D. Swanson, Diana Shelton, Alexander Rice, Sarah Hatton

Faculty Publications

English:

We argue that a multimodal approach to defining a depictive class of words called ‘ideophones’ by linguists is essential for grasping their meanings. Our argument for this approach is based on the formal properties of Pastaza Quichua ideophones, which set them apart from the non-ideophonic lexicon, and on the cultural assumptions brought by speakers to their use. We analyze deficiencies in past attempts to define this language’s ideophones, which have used only audio data. We offer, instead, an audiovisual corpus which we call an ‘antidictionary’, because it defines words not with other words, but with clips featuring actual contexts …

Agent-Based Modelling Of The Relationships Among Kinship, Residence, And Exchange, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

In the North American Southwest, archaeological research has documented ceramic exchange networks in which spatially proximate households in consumer communities have greatly varying amounts of imported pottery. This paper uses agent-based modelling to gain insight into the processes responsible for these distributions. The agent-based model used here tracks kinship ties among agents representing individuals who give birth, marry, co-reside with spouses, and exchange things in a virtual landscape filled with small settlements of up to a few hundred individuals. Exchange of goods in the model flows through the kinship networks. The results suggest that the differential distribution of goods among …

Sourcing Basalt From The Santiago Quarry In Chihuahua, Mexico Using Xrf, Michael T. Searcy, Todd Pitezel, Eric Christiansen

Faculty Publications

During survey in 2013, we identified the only known vesicular basalt quarry in the Casas Grandes region in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico. Using XRF, we analyzed basalt from the Santiago Quarry and compared the results to the chemical characterization of formal tools (mostly mano and metate fragments) recovered at the site of Paquimé in order to determine if this quarry was one of the sources exploited by prehistoric stoneworkers during the Medio period (AD 1200–1450).