Digital Commons Network^™

The Future Of International Law Freedom Of Journalism: A Transitional Justice Framework, Edward L. Carter

Faculty Publications

The overwhelming majority of digital and physical attacks on journalists are done with impunity. This results in lower-quality journalism, less scrutiny of government, and less healthy societies and democracies. The international human rights law concept of transitional justice could bolster collective will and inform legal mechanisms to combat such impunity. Judges and investigators in several recent cases of attacks on journalists have invoked transitional justice concepts, including truth-telling, criminal investigations and prosecutions, reparations, and institutional reforms to guarantee non-recurrence. These mechanisms should be fully implemented to protect journalism at local, national, and international levels.

Effects Of Atlantic Butterfish (Peprilus Triacanthus) In Diets Of Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo): A Case Study Of Climate Change Effects In The Gulf Of Maine, Olivia A. Smith, Elizabeth C. Craig

Faculty Publications

Climate change and associated shifts in marine prey communities can alter food availability for foraging seabirds. This issue is illustrated in the Gulf of Maine by the northward shift of Atlantic butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus; hereafter butterfish) and their subsequent increase in seabird diets. Here, we examine effects of butterfish in diets of the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), a threatened species in this region. Our objectives were to evaluate butterfish suitability for tern chick diet through observing handling time and feeding success, to examine effects of butterfish on tern chick growth, and to explore signs of adaptive foraging in adults. The …

Pattern-Based Target Selection For Treatment Of Irregular Past Tense: A Single-Case Experimental Design For Children With Dld, Kirsten M. Hannig Russell, Amy Wilder, Julie L. Wambaugh

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate difficulty inflecting irregular past tense verbs. We evaluated using phonological-based patterns (i.e., schemas) to select targets for treatment of irregular verb inflection for children with DLD. We hypothesized this approach would result in acquisition of treated verbs, generalization to untreated verbs within the same phonological schema, and increased use of correct irregular verbs in naturalistic contexts.

Method: Treatment was provided to three 7-year-old participants with DLD in the context of multiple baseline design across behaviors and participants. Phonological schemas included vowel change, final alveolar, and dual change irregular verbs. Treatment was …

Packets-To-Prediction: An Unobtrusive Mechanism For Identifying Coarse-Grained Sleep Patterns With Wifi Mac Layer Traffic, Dheryta Jaisinghani, Nishtha Phutela

Faculty Publications

A good night’s sleep is of the utmost importance for the seamless execution of our cognitive capabilities. Unfortunately, the research shows that one-third of the US adult population is severely sleep deprived. With college students as our focused group, we devised a contactless, unobtrusive mechanism to detect sleep patterns, which, contrary to existing sensor-based solutions, does not require the subject to put on any sensors on the body or buy expensive sleep sensing equipment. We named this mechanism Packets-to-Predictions(P2P) because we leverage the WiFi MAC layer traffic collected in the home and university environments to predict “sleep” and “awake” periods. …

Identity And Rituals Of South Asian Communities In Africa: A Missiological Analysis, Andrew Tompkins

Faculty Publications

There is a sizable Indian population throughout sub-Saharan Africa. A majority of the Indian population are practicing Hindus. For Hindus, ritual is a significant part of their faith tradition, often the most important. In Africa, where they are a minority, Indians often cling to these rituals to maintain their identity as both Indian and Hindu. To share Christ among Indians in Africa, a robust understanding of ritual is required. While many Africans have thought about ritual from their cultural backgrounds, Seventh-day Adventist Africans have yet to do as much reflection on the role of ritual and faith. Adventists in Africa …

Cost Estimation Trends For Major Defense Acquisition Programs, Sammantha Jones, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Shawn M. Valentine

Faculty Publications

The authors use both descriptive and inferential techniques to investigate average and standard deviation trends in cost estimates for major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) grouped into decades from the 1970s to 2010s. For total program-cost-growth factors (CGFs), the 2010s exhibited lower CGFs compared to the 1990s. For the program-acquisition-unit cost (PAUC) CGFs, the 2010s appear lower than the 1990s and borderline lower than the 1970s. A statistically significant decreasing trend in the standard deviations of total program CGFs throughout the decades was identified. This lowering variability trend also appeared for PAUC CGFs from the 1980s onward. This finding appears to …

A Case For An Independent Cyber Force, Ian C. Heffron, Mark Reith, James W. Dean

Faculty Publications

Although cyberspace is considered the newest warfighting domain, military analysts and scholars have opined the United States remains woefully behind its peers in cyberspace and have called for the creation of a separate cyber service component. Yet a cohesive and robust discussion on this topic has yet to emerge. This article proposes a general framework that builds on the Joint doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities, and policy (DOTMLPF-P) analysis to address questions of sufficiency and necessity. Such analysis reveals DoD cyber operations do not maximize the United States’ ability to fight a cyber war, especially when …

Domain Restriction Zones: An Evolution Of The Military Exclusion Zone, Cole M. Mooty, Robert A. Bettinger, Mark G. Reith

Faculty Publications

Since the early part of the twenty-first century, US adversaries have expanded their military capabilities within and their access to new warfighting domains. When faced with the growth of adversaries’ asymmetric capabilities, the means, tactics, and strategies previously used by the US military lose their proportional effectiveness. To avoid such degradation of capability, the operational concept of the military exclusion zone (MEZ) should be revised to suit the modern battlespace while also addressing the shifts in national policy that encourage diplomacy over military force. The concept and development of domain restriction zones (DRZs) increase the relevancy of traditional MEZs in …

Integrating Lipid Metabolism, Pheromone Production And Perception By Fruitless And Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4, Jie Sun, Wen Kan Liu, Calder Ellsworth, Qian Sun, Yufeng Pan, Yi Chun Huang, Wu Min Deng

Faculty Publications

Sexual attraction and perception are crucial for mating and reproductive success. In Drosophila melanogaster, the male-specific isoform of Fruitless (Fru), FruM, is a known master neuro-regulator of innate courtship behavior to control the perception of sex pheromones in sensory neurons. Here, we show that the non-sex-specific Fru isoform (FruCOM) is necessary for pheromone biosynthesis in hepatocyte-like oenocytes for sexual attraction. Loss of FruCOM in oenocytes resulted in adults with reduced levels of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), including sex pheromones, and show altered sexual attraction and reduced cuticular hydrophobicity. We further identify Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (Hnf4) as a key target of …

Toward One Health: A Spatial Indicator System To Model The Facilitation Of The Spread Of Zoonotic Diseases, Daniel Jato-Espino, Fernando Mayor-Vitoria, Vanessa Moscardó, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro, Leticia Bartolome Del Pino

Faculty Publications

Recurrent outbreaks of zoonotic infectious diseases highlight the importance of considering the interconnections between human, animal, and environmental health in disease prevention and control. This has given rise to the concept of One Health, which recognizes the interconnectedness of between human and animal health within their ecosystems. As a contribution to the One Health approach, this study aims to develop an indicator system to model the facilitation of the spread of zoonotic diseases. Initially, a literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement to identify relevant indicators related to One Health. The …

Empowering Student Success: Unlocking The Potential Of Project-Based Steel Design Education, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

In the pursuit of student success, it is essential to acknowledge that a singular teaching style does not universally cater to all students. The educator's crucial role lies in creating an optimal learning environment that fosters students' endeavors to excel. This endeavor transcends mere classroom success or employment prospects, encompassing a broader impact on societal well-being. An experiential learning approach, where students actively engage in practical tasks, emerges as the most effective mode of instruction. Integrating project-based learning activities into the curriculum holds immense potential for enhancing student learning. Additionally, the utilization of analysis software tools like FTool and STAAD …

Optimal Estimation Inversion Of Ionospheric Electron Density From Gnss-Pod Limb Measurements: Part I-Algorithm And Morphology, Dong L. Wu, Nimalan Swarnalingam, Cornelius C. J. H. Salinas, Daniel J. Emmons, Tyler C. Summers, Robert Gardiner-Garden

Faculty Publications

GNSS-LEO radio links from Precise Orbital Determination (POD) and Radio Occultation (RO) antennas have been used increasingly in characterizing the global 3D distribution and variability of ionospheric electron density (Ne). In this study, we developed an optimal estimation (OE) method to retrieve Ne profiles from the slant total electron content (hTEC) measurements acquired by the GNSS-POD links at negative elevation angles (ε < 0°). Although both OE and onion-peeling (OP) methods use the Abel weighting function in the Ne inversion, they are significantly different in terms of performance in the lower ionosphere. The new OE results can overcome the large Ne oscillations, sometimes negative values, seen in the OP retrievals in the E-region ionosphere. In the companion paper in this Special Issue, the HmF2 and NmF2 from the OE retrieval are validated against ground-based ionosondes and radar observations, showing generally good agreements in NmF2 from all sites. Nighttime hmF2 measurements tend to agree better than the daytime when the ionosonde heights tend to be slightly lower. The OE algorithm has been applied to all GNSS-POD data acquired from the COSMIC-1 (2006–2019), COSMIC-2 (2019–present), and Spire (2019–present) constellations, showing a consistent ionospheric Ne morphology. The unprecedented spatiotemporal sampling of the ionosphere from these constellations now allows a detailed analysis of the frequency–wavenumber spectra for the Ne variability at different heights. In the lower ionosphere (~150 km), we found significant spectral power in DE1, DW6, DW4, SW5, and SE4 wave components, in addition to well-known DW1, SW2, and DE3 waves. In the upper ionosphere (~450 km), additional wave components are still present, including DE4, DW4, DW6, SE4, and SW4. The co-existence of eastward- and westward-propagating wave4 components implies the presence of a stationary wave4 (SPW4), as suggested by other earlier studies. Further improvements to the OE method are proposed, including a tomographic inversion technique that leverages the asymmetric sampling about the tangent point associated with GNSS-LEO links.

The Determinants Of Sustained Adherence To Covid-19 Preventive Measures Among Older Syrian Refugees In Lebanon, Nisreen Salti, Stephen J. Mccall, Berthe Abi Zeid, Noura El Salibi, Marwan Alawieh, Zeinab Ramadan, Hala Ghattas Ph.D, Sawsan Abdulrahim

Faculty Publications

Introduction Lebanon has battled the COVID-19 pandemic in the midst of an economic crisis. The evolution of the pandemic and a fragile health system have meant that public health policy has had to rely heavily on non-pharmaceutical interventions for disease control. However, changes in disease dynamics, an unraveling economy, and pandemic fatigue have meant that disease control policies need to be updated. Methods Using recent and timely data on older (50 years and above) Syrian refugees in Lebanon, this paper uses multivariate linear probability models to explore the determinants of adherence to two non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 prevention measures (wearing a mask …

Opinion: How Fear Of Nuclear Winter Has Helped Save The World, So Far, Alan Robock, Lili Xia, Cheryl S. Harrison, Joshua Coupe, Owen B. Toon, Charles G. Bardeen

Faculty Publications

The direct effects of nuclear war would be horrific, with blasts, fires, and radiation killing and injuring many people. But in 1983, United States and Soviet Union scientists showed that a nuclear war could also produce a nuclear winter, with catastrophic consequences for global food supplies for people far removed from the conflict. Smoke from fires ignited by nuclear weapons exploded on cities and industrial targets would block out sunlight, causing dark, cold, and dry surface conditions, producing a nuclear winter, with surface temperatures below freezing even in summer for years. Nuclear winter theory helped to end the nuclear arms …

Algorithm 1035: A Gradient-Based Implementation Of The Polyhedral Active Set Algorithm, William W. Hager, Hongchao Zhang

Faculty Publications

The Polyhedral Active Set Algorithm (PASA) is designed to optimize a general nonlinear function over a polyhedron. Phase one of the algorithm is a nonmonotone gradient projection algorithm, while phase two is an active set algorithm that explores faces of the constraint polyhedron. A gradient-based implementation is presented, where a projected version of the conjugate gradient algorithm is employed in phase two. Asymptotically, only phase two is performed. Comparisons are given with IPOPT using polyhedral-constrained problems from CUTEst and the Maros/Meszaros quadratic programming test set.

New Records Of Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Frontalis Zimmermann; Coleoptera: Curculionidae) In New York, New Hampshire, And Maine, Usa Indicate Northward Range Expansion, Caroline R. Kanaskie, Thomas C. Schmeelk, Jessica A. Cancelliere, Jeff R. Garnas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nutrition Interventions Addressing Structural Racism: A Scoping Review, Matthew Greene, Bailey Houghtaling, Claire Sadeghzadeh, Molly De Marco, De'jerra Bryant, Randa Morgan, Denise Holston

Faculty Publications

African Americans experience high rates of obesity and food insecurity in part due to structural racism, or overlapping discriminatory systems and practices in housing, education, employment, health care and other settings. Nutrition education and nutrition-focused policy, systems and environmental changes may be able to address structural racism in the food environment. This scoping review aimed to summarise the available literature regarding nutrition interventions for African Americans that address structural racism in the food environment and compare them with the 'Getting to Equity in Obesity Prevention' framework of suggested interventions. An electronic literature search was conducted with the assistance of a …

In The Ceo We Trust: Negative Effects Of Trust Between The Board And The Ceo, Kee-Hong Bae, Sadok El Ghoul, Zhaoran (Jason) Gong, Omrane Guedhami

Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigate whether and how trust between board members and the CEO (board–CEO trust) affects the performance of mergers and acquisitions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that firms with higher levels of board–CEO trust exhibit poor M&A performance. High trust is associated with low acquisition announcement returns, long-term stock return performance, and post-deal operating performance. This negative effect of board–CEO trust is more pronounced among acquiring companies prone to agency problems. Our results suggest that, in the institutional setting of corporate boards, high trust can be too much of a good thing.

Validating The Spatial Variability In The Semidiurnal Internal Tide In A Realistic Global Ocean Simulation With Argo And Mooring Data, Gaspard Geoffroy, Jonas Nycander, Maarten C. Buijsman, Jay F. Shriver, Brian K. Arbic

Faculty Publications

The autocovariance of the semidiurnal internal tide (IT) is examined in a 32 d segment of a global run of the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). This numerical simulation, with 41 vertical layers and 1/25° horizontal resolution, includes tidal and atmospheric forcing, allowing for the generation and propagation of ITs to take place within a realistic eddying general circulation. The HYCOM data are in turn compared with global observations of the IT around 1000 dbar, from Argo float park-phase data and mooring records. HYCOM is found to be globally biased low in terms of the IT variance and decay of …

The Impact Of Growth Mindset Training On Entrepreneurial Action Among Necessity Entrepreneurs: Evidence From A Randomized Control Trial, Shad Morris, W. Chad Carlos, Geoffrey Kistruck, Robert Lount, Tumsify Elly Thomas

Faculty Publications

Although entrepreneurship training programs are designed to help necessity entrepreneurs acquire skills and capabilities to take entrepreneurial action, participants in these programs often fail to do so. In partnership with a local government agency, we conducted a randomized field experiment involving 165 entrepreneurs in rural Tanzania where in addition to providing technical-skills training, approximately half of the participants also received ‘growth mindset’ psychological training. Those who received the growth mindset training displayed more entrepreneurial action in their business than those in the control group. Importantly, higher levels of entrepreneurial self efficacy mediated the positive impact on entrepreneurial action displayed by …

Imparting Systems Engineering Experience Via Interactive Fiction Serious Games, Thomas C. Ford, David Long, Echo Ford

Faculty Publications

Serious games for education are becoming increasing popular. Interactive fiction games are some of the most popular in app stores and are also beginning to be heavily used in education to teach analysis and decision-making. Noting that it is difficult for systems engineers to experience all necessary situations which prepare them for the role of a chief engineer, in this paper, we explore the use of interactive fiction serious games to impart systems engineering experience and to teach systems engineering principles. The results of a cognitive viability, qualitative viability, and replayability analysis of 14 systems engineering serious games developed in …

Incorporating Resilience When Assessing Pandemic Risk In The Arctic: A Case Study Of Alaska, Sweta Tiwari, Andrey Petrov, Nino Mateshvili, Michele Devlin, Nikolay Golosov, Marya Rozanova-Smith, Mark Welford, John Degroote, Tatiana Degai, Stanislav Ksenofontov

Faculty Publications

The discourse on vulnerability to COVID-19 or any other pandemic is about the susceptibility to the effects of disease outbreaks. Over time, vulnerability has been assessed through various indices calculated using a confluence of societal factors. However, categorising Arctic communities, without considering their socioeconomic, cultural and demographic uniqueness, into the high and low continuum of vulnerability using universal indicators will undoubtedly result in the underestimation of the communities' capacity to withstand and recover from pandemic exposure. By recognising vulnerability and resilience as two separate but interrelated dimensions, this study reviews the Arctic communities' ability to cope with pandemic risks. In …

Inequalities In Wellbeing In Lebanese Children And Different Refugee Subpopulations: A Multidimensional Child Deprivation Analysis, Zeina Jamaluddine, Gloria Safadi, Alexandra Irani, Nisreen Salti, Jad Chaaban, Sawsan Abdulrahim, Alban Thomas, Hala Ghattas Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives:

This study constitutes the first attempt to describe the overlapping deprivations faced by Lebanese children (Lebanese) and that of the three sub-populations of refugees living in Lebanon: Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees from Syria and Syrian refugees.

Methods:

Using data from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Household Survey 2016 (n = 10,555 Lebanese; 7,106 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon; 2,768 Palestinian refugees from Syria and 5,891 Syrian refugee children aged 2 to 17 years old), we report on single and overlapping deprivations (at least two concurrent deprivations) using indicators related to survival …

Impact Of Zein And Lignin-Plga Biopolymer Nanoparticles Used As Pesticide Nanocarriers On Soybean Growth And Yield Under Field Conditions, Colin A.R. Bonser, Jaya Borgatta, Jason C. White, Carlos E. Astete, Cristina M. Sabliov, Jeffrey A. Davis

Faculty Publications

Nanoparticles are being utilized in agriculture as fertilizers, pesticides, and agrochemical-carriers. Designed to be biocompatible and degradable, biopolymer nanoparticles were developed as an alternative to metallic nanoparticles, and though safe-by-design, polymeric nanoparticles must be field-tested prior to largescale use. Several field studies were conducted to observe detrimental effects of biopolymer nanoparticles on plant growth and yield using soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., as a model system. Biopolymer nanoparticles made from lignin or zein were applied as seed treatments to soybean seeds or as foliar sprays (zein only) to soybean plants. Studies using biopolymer nanoparticle seed treatments (nano-STs) measured the germination …

Influence Of Harvest Aid On Soybean Seed Quality Affected By Delayed Harvest And Environment In Louisiana, Priscila Campos, Donnie Miller, Josh Copes, Melanie Netterville, Sebe Brown, Trey Price, David Moseley, Thanos Gentimis, Peters Egbedi, Rasel Parvej

Faculty Publications

Harvest aid application can expedite soybean (Glycine max) harvest and increase efficiency through both weed and crop desiccation and has become a common practice in Louisiana soybean production systems. Field studies in 2019–2020 evaluated the influence of harvest aid application (none, paraquat at 0.28 kg/ha, sodium chlorate at 6.72 kg/ha, or saflufenacil at 0.0498 kg/ha) on seed quality affected by delayed harvest (∼20, 30, or 44 days after optimum harvest timing, i.e., 13% seed moisture). Environment was investigated in both field (natural rainfall events) and environmentally controlled growth chambers (79 or 90°F with 30% or 100% relative humidity and exposed …

Hypothetical Bias Mitigation In Representative And Convenience Samples, Jerrod M. Penn, Daniel R. Petrolia, J. Matthew Fannin

Faculty Publications

This is a case study comparing outcomes for a probability-based representative sample versus a non-probability convenience sample for the valuation of beach condition information among Gulf of Mexico residents. We test the efficacy of several techniques used to adjust for hypothetical bias and sample weighting to reduce hypothetical willingness to pay (WTP). Weighting makes the WTP between the two samples similar, but model equivalence with respect to the significance of explanatory variables is rejected. The results support the use of certainty follow-ups, which consistently reduced WTP, regardless of the sampling approach or weighting.

Reproductive Asynchrony Within Social Groups Of Female Eastern Wild Turkeys, Erin E. Ulrey, Michael J. Chamberlain, Bret A. Collier

Faculty Publications

Coordination in timing of reproduction is driven by multiple ecological and sociobiological processes for a wide array of species. Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) use a male dominance polygynous mating system, where males communicate with females via elaborate courtship displays and vocalizations at display sites. Most females prefer to mate with dominant males; therefore, asynchronous breeding and nesting may occur which can disproportionately influence individual fitness within breeding groups. For female wild turkeys, there are reproductive advantages associated with earlier nesting. As such, we evaluated reproductive asynchrony within and between groups of GPS-tagged female eastern wild turkeys based on …

A Delayed Intervention Start Randomized Controlled Trial Of High- And Low-Tech Communication Training Approaches For School-Age Autistic Children With Co-Occurring Intellectual Disability, Shawn P. Gilroy, Joseph P. Mccleery, Geraldine Leader

Faculty Publications

The researchers designed a delayed intervention start randomized controlled trial to compare improvements in functional communication following augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions. The study compared outcomes from function-based applied behavior analytic (ABA) and eclectic non-ABA forms of classroom-based communication strategies (waitlist control) as well as from high- and low-tech forms of AAC. High-tech AAC consisted of tablet-based communication, and low-tech AAC used an exchange of picture cards. The community-based sample consisted of 29 autistic children with a co-occurring intellectual disability. Participants were randomized to groups (AAC, waitlist control), and each group received approximately 3 months of communication intervention. Multilevel …

Exploring The Experiences Of Pregnant Women In The U.S. During The First Year Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Courtney E. Williams, Dana Berkowitz, Heather M. Rackin

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we integrate the stress process model with symbolic interactionism to frame our analysis of interviews with 35 women who were pregnant and/or gave birth during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. We detail three stressors, highlight their variation, and discuss how they coped with these stressors. Women reported having to navigate contradictory information about the public health crisis, but Black participants simultaneously endured added strain from a heightened awareness of racialized violence. To cope with an overabundance of precarious and contradictory messages, some women sought out information (i.e., information gatherers), others eschewed information (i.e., information avoiders), …

Food-Evoked Emotion, Product Acceptance, Food Preference, Food Choice And Consumption: Some New Perspectives, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.