Digital Commons Network^™

A Theory Of Genetic Dimensions In The Law, Yaniv Heled, Liza Vertinsky, Ana Santos Rutschman

Faculty Publications

Since the biotechnology revolution of the 1970s, genetic science and genetic technology have captured the public imagination. They have become a centerpiece of how we understand ourselves, our relationship with other humans, other living beings, our environment, and—indeed—with the universe. Through this evolution of understanding, genetic phenomena have acquired many meanings, some rooted in objective reality and others subjective and dependent on individual perceptions and sentiments.

However, legal decision-making and policymaking have not kept pace and reflect only a partial understanding of the multiple dimensions of genetic phenomena, which are forced into narrowing legal pathways, neglecting vital interests. As the …

Development And Validity Of The ‘Modified Mediterranean Prime Screen’ To Assess Dietary Intake Among Women Of Reproductive Age In Lebanon, Mariam Assaad, Sara Ajjour, Maya Rahme, Laila Al-Shaar, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, Jana Jabbour

Faculty Publications

The Mediterranean Region registers an increasing prevalence of obesity. The region lacks a diet screener to assess obesogenic nutrients. This study aimed to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of the Modified Mediterranean Prime Screen (MMPS) in estimating obesogenic nutrients’ intake among women of reproductive age, as compared with a culturally validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), in Lebanon. We developed the MMPS consisting of thirty-two food/beverage items specific to the Lebanese Mediterranean culture. The MMPS and FFQ were administered in two visits (2 weeks–6 months apart), face to face and via telephone during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. The reproducibility and …

San Antonio Storyscapes: Student Storytelling Partnerships, Lindsey Passenger Wieck, Jenny Hay

Faculty Publications

In spring 2020 and 2021, the City of San Antonio’s Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) ScoutSA team, led by Dr. Jenny Hay, joined Dr. Lindsey Wieck and students in her St. Mary’s University Digital Public History graduate course to implement a community- based pedagogy partnership. Together, we challenged Wieck’s students to produce innovative digital projects for the OHP using a consultant- in- training model to create a project- based learning experience. As a Hispanic- Serving Institution, St. Mary’s Public History program uses projects like these to better ensure that the campus’s predominantly BIPOC students can grow as knowledge producers, providing …

Showcasing Faculty Projects: Beyond Traditional Types Of Publications, Ellen Neuhaus

Faculty Publications

There is value in collecting and preserving faculty projects which gives a broader perspective of faculty work than just the traditional publications (books and journal articles). The projects give a fuller picture of the faculty work at UNI than if just traditional publications were collected.

Hydrometeorological Drivers Of The 2023 Louisiana Water Crisis, P. W. Miller, M. Hiatt

Faculty Publications

During summer and fall 2023, Louisiana experienced a historic local drought while dry conditions elsewhere in the central US withheld vital runoff from the Mississippi River, leading to below-normal discharge into the Gulf of Mexico. Thus, by late October 2023, Louisiana was gripped by two super-imposed water crises: a severe local drought and saltwater contamination in the Mississippi River channel. This study frames the development of the water emergency through the lens of flash drought using the Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI). The EDDI shows south Louisiana experience a flash drought during June 2023, while the Mississippi River basin was …

Top-Down Control Of Ammonia Oxidizers By Grazing In The North Pacific, Silin Ni, Min Nina Xu, Moge Du, Edward A. Laws, Shuh Ji Kao

Faculty Publications

The impact of grazing pressure on ammonia oxidizers (AO) has never been quantified in the field. Here we develop a new method to quantify the grazing rates on AO in aquatic systems. We introduce ¹⁵NH4⁺ tracer into the traditional dilution experiments to measure AO's apparent growth rates by using the end-product of ¹⁵NH4⁺ oxidation, that is, ¹⁵NOx⁻. Field studies in the North Pacific revealed that ¹⁵NOx⁻ in the end-product was sensitive enough to detect AO's grazing rates. Experiments from the lower euphotic zone showed NH4⁺ replete growth rates of 0.40 …

Advancing Objective Mobile Device Use Measurement Inchildren Ages 6–11 Through Built-In Device Sensors: A Proof-Of-Concept Study, Olivia L. Finnegan, Robert Glenn Weaver Med, Phd, Hongpeng Yang, James W. White, Srihari Nelakuditi, Zifei Zhong, Rahul Ghosal Ph.D., Yan Tong, Aliye B. Cepni, Elizabeth L. Adams, Sarah Burkart Mph, Ph.D., Michael W. Beets Med, Mph, Phd, Bridget Armstrong Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Mobile devices (e.g., tablets and smartphones) have been rapidly integrated into the lives of children and have impacted howchildren engage with digital media. The portability of these devices allows for sporadic, on-demand interaction, reducing theaccuracy of self-report estimates of mobile device use. Passive sensing applications objectively monitor time spent on a givendevice but are unable to identify who is using the device, a significant limitation in child screen time research. Behavioralbiometric authentication, using embedded mobile device sensors to continuously authenticate users, could be applied toaddress this limitation. This study examined the preliminary accuracy of machine learning models trained on iPad …

Understanding The Complexities Of Student Learning Progress In Texas: A Study Of Covid-19 And Rural Vs. Non-Rural Districts, Shifang Tang, Zhuoying Wang, Lei Zhang, David Jimenez

Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigate the impact of COVID-19 on academic achievement in Texas public schools. Demographic and Grade 5 STAAR test data were collected from 1155 public school districts for 2018–2019 and 2020–2021. Multiple regression was adopted to analyze the differences between rural and non-rural districts, as well as the impact of demographic characteristics on students’ achievement. The results reveal significant differences in demographic characteristics between the two academic years, with non-rural districts exhibiting a greater decline in academic achievement than rural districts. Additionally, the findings suggest that higher teacher salaries correlate with better academic performance across various subjects …

Development And Evolution Of Clinical Partnerships: K-12 School Leaders' Perspectives, Kimberly Bohannon, Vincent Connelly, Stephen Bigaj, Laura M. Wasielewski

Faculty Publications

PurposeThe purpose of this research study was to examine school leaders’ critical perspectives about the nature of their partnerships with K-12 schools and two Educator Preparation Programs (EPP).Design/methodology/approachData were collected through interviews with K-12 school leaders to obtain partners’ critical perspectives about school–EPP partnerships. The interviews were coded thematically and oriented around the central concept of working to represent the interplay of the participants and their collaborators’ perceptions of the nature and dimensions of school–EPP partnerships.FindingsThe analysis resulted in the construction of a mosaic of school leaders’ collective lived experiences using a statewide conceptual framework as a guide. Four themes …

Analysis Of The Inflection Points Of Height-Diameter Models, Tzeng Yih Lam, Mark J. Ducey

Faculty Publications

The inflection point is an important feature of sigmoidal height-diameter (H-D) models. It is often cited as one of the properties favoring sigmoidal model forms. However, there are very few studies analyzing the inflection points of H-D models. The goals of this study were to theoretically and empirically examine the behaviors of inflection points of six common H-D models with a regional dataset. The six models were the Wykoff (WYK), Schumacher (SCH), Curtis (CUR), Hossfeld IV (HOS), von Bertalanffy-Richards (VBR), and Gompertz (GPZ) models. The models were first fitted in their base forms with tree species as random effects and …

Development And Evolution Of Clinical Partnerships: K-12 School Leaders' Perspectives, Kimberly Bohannon, Vincent Connelly, Stephen Bigaj, Laura M. Wasielewski

Faculty Publications

PurposeThe purpose of this research study was to examine school leaders’ critical perspectives about the nature of their partnerships with K-12 schools and two Educator Preparation Programs (EPP).Design/methodology/approachData were collected through interviews with K-12 school leaders to obtain partners’ critical perspectives about school–EPP partnerships. The interviews were coded thematically and oriented around the central concept of working to represent the interplay of the participants and their collaborators’ perceptions of the nature and dimensions of school–EPP partnerships.FindingsThe analysis resulted in the construction of a mosaic of school leaders’ collective lived experiences using a statewide conceptual framework as a guide. Four themes …

Communication—The Development Of A Stable And Practical Saturated Reference Electrode For Molten Chloride Salt Systems, J. Marvin Torrie, Ranon Fuller, Devin Rappleye

Faculty Publications

A simply constructed, stable, Ni/Ni²⁺ saturated reference electrode (SRE) has potential to measure thermodynamic behavior of molten chloride salts more reliably. Like the Ag/Ag⁺ reference electrode (RE), the Ni/Ni²⁺ SRE is made of commercially available materials. Initial experiments in molten CaCl2 and LiCl show the Ag/Ag⁺ RE potential drifting two times faster than the SRE. Furthermore, experiments show the replicability of SREs by comparing two Ni/Ni²⁺ SREs with different compositions of NiCl₂ which is supportive of saturated phase behavior.

Narrative Analysis In Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease Following Intensive Voice Treatment: Secondary Outcome Variables From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Amy E. Ramage, Kathryn J. Greenslade, Kaila Cote, Jessica N. Lee, Cynthia M. Fox, Angela Halpern, Lorraine O. Ramig

Faculty Publications

Communication is often impaired in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD), typically secondary to sensorimotor deficits impacting voice and speech. Language may also be diminished in PD, particularly for production and comprehension of verbs. Evidence exists that verb processing is influenced by motor system modulation suggesting that verb deficits in PD are underpinned by similarities in the neural representations of actions that span motor and semantic systems. Conversely, subtle differences in cognition in PD may explain difficulty in processing of complex syntactic forms, which increases cognitive demand and is linked to verb use. Here we investigated whether optimizing motor system support …

Effects Of Rf Signal Eventization Encoding On Device Classification Performance, Michael J. Smith, Michael A. Temple, James W. Dean

Faculty Publications

The results of first-step research activity are presented for realizing an envisioned “event radio” capability that mimics neuromorphic event-based camera processing. The energy efficiency of neuromorphic processing is orders of magnitude higher than traditional von Neumann-based processing and is realized through synergistic design of brain-inspired software and hardware computing elements. Relative to event-based cameras, the development of event-based hardware devices supporting Radio Frequency (RF) applications is severely lagging and considerable interest remains in obtaining neuromorphic efficiency through event-based RF signal processing. In the Operational Technology (OT) protection arena, this includes efficient software computing capability to provide reliable device classification. A …

Digital Health Literacy, Vaccine Information Sources, And Vaccine Acceptance Among Parents In Ontario: Quantitative Findings From A Mixed Methods Study, Sarah Ashfield, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Panagiota Tryphonopoulos, Ève Dubé, Maxwell Smith

Faculty Publications

Parents make important vaccination decisions for their children and many variables affect parents’ decisions to accept or decline vaccines. Parents are tasked with locating, understanding, and applying information to inform health decisions often using online resources; however, the digital health literacy levels of parents are unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate parents’ digital health literacy levels, their sources for vaccine information, and analyze how demographics, digital health literacy, health literacy, parental attitudes and vaccine beliefs, trust, and vaccine information sources predict vaccine acceptance. Quantitative findings of a mixed methods study that examined parental vaccine decision making across …

Ihpp 2023 Annual Report, Institute For Health Policy And Practice

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Theory And Tools: The Future Of Technology-Based Learning (Script), Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

We are entering a narrow passage that will see great instability in learning technology, instruction, and distance education. My purpose is to talk about two changes that I believe will redirect the entire future of technology-based education.

Theory And Tools: The Future Of Technology-Based Learning (Slides), Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

We are entering a narrow passage that will see great instability in learning technology, instruction, and distance education. My purpose is to talk about two changes that I believe will redirect the entire future of technology-based education.

Reducing Non-Communicable Diseases Among Palestinian Populations In Gaza: A Participatory Comparative And Cost-Effectiveness Modeling Assessment, Sanjay Basu, John S. Yudkin, Mohammed Jawad, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Bassam Abu Hamad, Zeina Jamaluddine, Gloria Safadi, Marie Elizabeth Ragi, Raeda El Sayed Ahmad, Eszter P. Vamos, Christopher Millett

Faculty Publications

We sought to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of potential new public health and healthcare NCD risk reduction efforts among Palestinians in Gaza. We created a microsimulation model using: (i) a cross-sectional household survey of NCD risk factors among 4,576 Palestinian adults aged ≥40 years old in Gaza; (ii) a modified Delphi process among local public health experts to identify potentially feasible new interventions; and (iii) reviews of intervention cost and effectiveness, modified to the Gazan and refugee contexts. The survey revealed 28.6% tobacco smoking, a 40.4% prevalence of hypertension diagnosis (with a 95.6% medication treatment rate), a 25.6% prevalence …

Empowering Collaborative Application Development: A Robust Framework For Ad-Hoc Distributed Systems, Imran Abbas Khawaja, Kamran Abid, Uzma Farooq, Zaki Malik

Faculty Publications

The amalgamation of ubiquity, mobility, computing prowess, storage, and communication of the portable electronic devices including smartphones, wearable devices, tablets have significantly altered the fabric of human existence. The software applications for these mobile devices possess the capability to disseminate and receive information, thereby enable the development of applications that may execute in collaborative manner. However, in situations with ad-hoc connectivity unavailability of infrastructure and communication breakdown are common, which inhibit information sharing across the devices, and hence affect the applications running in the collaborative spaces. Further the applications developers face challenges while developing reliable collaborative applications that can seamlessly …

Breaking The Spatial Justice Emergency Cycle: The Role Of Foresight Planning, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the critical need to integrate prospective planning into territorial development processes for achieving spatial justice and sustainable urban futures. It highlights the limitations of a reactive approach to urban governance, particularly prevalent in Latin America, where weak institutions and unstable political systems often hinder long-term perspectives. The research emphasizes the importance of strategic foresight as a complementary tool to traditional planning practices. Territorial foresight facilitates the exploration of complex future scenarios, fostering collaborative learning and a shared vision among stakeholders. The study proposes a shift towards a proactive, foresight-driven approach that can help break the vicious cycle …

Speech, Voice, And Language Outcomes Following Deep Brain Stimulation: A Systematic Review, Fatemeh Tabari, Joel I. Berger, Oliver Flouty, Brian Copeland, Jeremy D. Greenlee, Karim Johari

Faculty Publications

Background Deep brain stimulation (DBS) reliably ameliorates cardinal motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET). However, the effects of DBS on speech, voice and language have been inconsistent and have not been examined comprehensively in a single study. Objective We conducted a systematic analysis of literature by reviewing studies that examined the effects of DBS on speech, voice and language in PD and ET. Methods A total of 675 publications were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, CINHAL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases. Based on our selection criteria, 90 papers were included in our analysis. The …

Clear Speech Effects In Production Of Sentence-Medial Mandarin Lexical Tonesa), Jack Rittenberry, Irina A. Shport

Faculty Publications

Adding to limited research on clear speech in tone languages, productions of Mandarin lexical tones were examined in pentasyllabic sentences. Fourteen participants read sentences imagining a hard-of-hearing addressee or a friend in a casual social setting. Tones produced in clear speech had longer duration, higher intensity, and larger F0 values. This style effect was rarely modulated by tone, preceding tonal context, or syllable position, consistent with an overall signal enhancement strategy. Possible evidence for tone enhancement was observed only in one set of analysis for F0 minimum and F0 range, contrasting tones with low targets and tones with high targets.

Exploring Pathways Toward Open-Hardware Ecosystems To Safeguard Genetic Resources For Biomedical Research Communities Using Aquatic Model Species, Yue Liu, Jack C. Koch, Lucía Arregui, Allyssa Oune, Sarah Bodenstein, Maria T. Gutierrez-Wing, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Development of reliable germplasm repositories is critical for preservation of genetic resources of aquatic species, which are widely utilized to support biomedical innovation by providing a foundational source for naturally occurring variation and development of new variants through genetic manipulations. A significant barrier in repository development is the lack of cryopreservation capability and reproducibility across the research community, posing great risks of losing advances developed from billions of dollars of research investment. The emergence of open scientific hardware has fueled a new movement across biomedical research communities. With the increasing accessibility of consumer-level fabrication technologies, such as three-dimensional printers, open …

Sexual Orientation-Based Microaggressions And Cannabis Use Outcomes Among Sexual Minority Individuals: The Impact Of Negative Affect And Coping-Motivated Cannabis Use, Evan M. Threeton, Paige E. Morris, Julia D. Buckner

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Sexual minority individuals report significantly more cannabis use and problems than their heterosexual peers, possibly due to their frequent experiences with sexual orientation-based microaggressions. As a result, sexual minority individuals may turn to cannabis use to cope with the negative affect associated with these experiences. No known studies have tested this hypothesis; therefore, the current study tested if sexual orientation microaggressions are positively associated with negative affect (anxiety and depression), cannabis coping motives, and cannabis-related outcomes (frequency, problems); if coping motives are positively associated with cannabis-related outcomes; and if negative affect and cannabis use to cope with negative affect …

Transitioning From A Research Protocol To A Scalable Applied Pathway For Xenopus Laevis Sperm Cryopreservation At A National Stock Center: The Effect Of Cryoprotectants, Lucía Arregui, Jack C. Koch, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Sperm cryopreservation is a critical tool for safeguarding and managing valuable genetic resources. Protocols for cryopreservation of Xenopus laevis sperm were available but lacking sperm quality evaluation and scalability and the outcomes were inconsistent. The goal of this study was to begin developing a center-level cryopreservation pathway for this species by integrating French straws as containers that would facilitate germplasm repository development. The objectives were to analyze the effect of: (1) three sperm concentrations (33, 50, and 100 × 106 sperm/mL) on post-thaw fertilization, (2) three final concentrations (2.5%, 5%, and 10%) of dimethyl sulfoxide, methanol, and dimethylformamide (DMFA) on …

Song And Genetic Divergence Within A Subspecies Of White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia Leucophrys Nuttalli), Amy Rongyan Luo, Sara Lipshutz, Jennifer Phillips, Robb T. Brumfield, Elizabeth Perrault Derryberry

Faculty Publications

Animal culture evolves alongside genomes, and the two modes of inheritance-culture and genes-interact in myriad ways. For example, stable geographic variation in culture can act as a reproductive barrier, thereby facilitating genetic divergence between "cultural populations."White-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) are a well-established model species for bird song learning and cultural evolution, as they have distinct, geographically discrete, and culturally transmitted song types (i.e., song dialects). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that divergence between culturally transmitted songs drives genetic divergence within Nuttall's white-crowned sparrows (Z. l. nuttalli). In accordance with sexual selection theory, we hypothesized that cultural divergence between …

The Roles Of Perceived Safety Climate And Innovativeness In The Performance Of Sport And Recreation Organizations, Minjung Kim, Han Soo Kim, Brent D. Oja, Jasamine Hill, Claire Zvosec, Paul Yuseung Doh

Faculty Publications

The recent COVID-19 pandemic created an unpredictable environment regarding the safety operations of sport and recreation organizations. This study was designed to examine how safety climate and organizational innovativeness could promote preferred organizational behavior outcomes in college campus sport and recreation centers. A total of 227 sport and recreation employees were recruited through the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association. With the collected data, we employed structural equation modeling to assess the research hypotheses. The results indicated that safety climate and innovativeness positively influenced job engagement, therefore leading to enhanced safety compliance and employee innovativeness, which ultimately resulted in higher …

Editorial Introduction: Exploring The Frontier Of Policy Theory Research, Geoboo Song, Melissa K. Merry, Saba Siddiki, Gwen Arnold, Aaron Smith-Walter, Holly L. Peterson, Creed Tumlison, Heasun Choi, Briana Huett, Davor Mondom, Christopher Giller, Meerim Seiitova

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Apparel For People With Disabilities: A Systematic Literature Review And Future Research Agenda, Md. Rafiqul Islam Rana M.S.,Ph.D, Kerri Mcbee-Black, Ishtehar Sharif Swazan

Faculty Publications

This systematic literature review examines research on adaptive apparel for people with disabilities (PWDs), an underrepresented consumer group. Using the scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol and the theories, contexts, characteristics, and methods (TCCM) framework, 51 articles from three academic databases were analyzed based on specific keywords and inclusion/exclusion criteria. The review highlighted advancements addressing the needs of PWD consumers, such as innovative designs, user-centered methodologies, and inclusive marketing. However, there remain gaps in areas like disability types, methodologies, cultural factors, and societal barriers. The implications of this research underscore the urgent need for the apparel …