Digital Commons Network^™

Long‐Term Monitoring Reveals Differential Responses Mussel And Host Fish Communities In A Biodiversity Hotspot, Irene Sanchez Gonzalez, Garrett W. Hopper, Jamie Bucholz, Carla L. Atkinson

Faculty Publications

Biodiversity hotspots can serve as protected areas that aid in species conservation. Long-term monitoring of multiple taxonomic groups within biodiversity hotspots can offer insight into factors influencing their dynamics. Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) and fish are highly diverse and imperiled groups of organisms with contrasting life histories that should influence their response to ecological factors associated with local and global change. Here we use historical and contempo-rary fish and mussel survey data to assess fish and mussel community changes over a 33 year period (1986–2019) and relationships between mussel abundance and their host fish abundance in Bogue Chitto Creek, a tributary …

Health Differences Between Religious And Secular Subgroups In The United States: Evidence From The General Social Survey, Mark H. Walker, Leah Drakeford, Samuel Stroope, Joseph O. Baker, Alexander L. Smith

Faculty Publications

Religious nonaffiliates who have high certainty in the existence of God or a higher power (theistic nones) have grown rapidly in size in the U.S. in the last 30 years, and are now the fourth largest American religious or secular category. This subgroup has been overlooked in prior research on religion, secularism, and health. We build on recent work on religion and health by distinguishing between atheists, agnostics, and nonaffliliated theists when examining the link between religious or secular identification and self-rated health. Specifically, we advance research on the heterogeneity of secular individuals and health by splitting nonaffiliated theists into …

Revamping Ecosystem Services Through Agroecology—The Case Of Cereals, Gomathy Sethuraman, Nurul Amalina Mohd Zain, Sumiani Yusoff, Yin Mei Ng, Niranjan Baisakh, Acga Cheng

Faculty Publications

Globally, farming systems are mostly dominated by monoculture, which has the advantage of profitability at the expense of ecological systems. Recent years have witnessed an increasing mo-mentum in global efforts to deploy sustainable agriculture practices that mimic ecological processes, with agroecology at the forefront. In addition to the ecological aspect, agroecology also encompasses economic and social aspects targeting the whole food system. Transformative agroecology has been recognized as a stepping stone to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), due to its great potential to build climate change-resilient farming systems while enhancing ecosystem services and reducing biodiversity loss. Nonetheless, the available …

Diversity And N2o Production Potential Of Fungi In An Oceanic Oxygen Minimum Zone, Xuefeng Peng, David L. Valentine

Faculty Publications

Fungi in terrestrial environments are known to play a key role in carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry and exhibit high diversity. In contrast, the diversity and function of fungi in the ocean has remained underexplored and largely neglected. In the eastern tropical North Pacific oxygen minimum zone, we examined the fungal diversity by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS2) and mining a metagenome dataset collected from the same region. Additionally, we coupled ¹⁵N-tracer experiments with a selective inhibition method to determine the potential contribution of marine fungi to nitrous oxide (N₂O) production. Fungal communities evaluated by …

The Association Between Quitline Characteristics And Smoking Cessation By Educational Attainment, Income, Race/Ethnicity, And Sex, David C. Colston, Bethany J. Simard, Yanmei Xie, Marshall Chandler Mcleod, Micheal R. Elliott, Jim F. Thrasher Ph.D., Ma, Ms, Nancy L. Fleischer

Faculty Publications

Little research examines how tobacco quitlines affect disparities in smoking cessation in the United States. Our study utilized data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2018) (TUS-CPS) and state-level quitline data from the North American Quitline Consortium and National Quitline Data Warehouse. We ran multilevel logistic regression models assessing a state-run quitline’s budget, reach, number of counseling sessions offered per caller, and hours of operation on 90-day smoking cessation. Multiplicative interactions between all exposures and sex, race/ethnicity, income, and education were tested to understand potential effect modification. We found no evidence that …

Learners’ Motivational Response To The Science, Pe, & Me! Curriculum: A Situational Interest Perspective, Senlin Chen, Haichun Sun, Xihe Zhu, Ang Chen, Catherine D. Ennis (Posthumous)

Faculty Publications

Background: The Science, PE, & Me! (SPEM) curriculum is a concept-based physical education curriculum that offers students coherent educational experiences for constructing health-related fitness knowledge through movement experiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate students’ motivational response to the SPEM curriculum from the situational interest perspective. Methods: The study used a cluster randomized controlled design in which 30 elementary schools in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the eastern United States were randomly assigned to an experimental or comparison condition. Although all students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades in the targeted schools were eligible to …

Juvenile Punishment, High School Graduation, And Adult Crime: Evidence From Idiosyncratic Judge Harshness, Ozkan Eren, Naci Mocan

Faculty Publications

This paper contributes to the debate on the impact of juvenile crime punishment on high school completion and adult recidivism using administrative data from a southern U.S. state. We exploit random assignment of cases to judges and use idiosyncratic judge stringency in imprisonment to estimate the causal effect of incarceration. We find that juvenile incarceration increases the propensity of being convicted for a drug offense in adulthood while it lowers the propensity to be convicted of a property crime. Juvenile incarceration has also a detrimental effect on high school completion for earlier cohorts, but it has no impact on later …

Volcaniclastic Sandstones Record The Influence Of Subducted Pacific Morb On Magmatism At The Early Izu-Bonin Arc, Anders Mccarthy, Gene M. Yogodzinski, Michael Bizimis, Ivan P. Savov, Rosemary Hickey-Vargas, Richard Arculus, Osamu Ishizuka

Faculty Publications

The remnant rear-arc segment of the early Izu-Bonin arc, known as the Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR), is a key location where magmatic outputs can be constrained during the lifetime of an island arc. We present new geochemical data for coarse-grained basaltic to andesitic volcaniclastic sandstones derived from the KPR and deposited in the Amami Sankaku Basin (IODP Site U1438, Unit III rocks) in the time period 40-30 Ma. Bulk disaggregated and cleaned volcaniclastic sandstones of Unit III at Site U1438 retain primary magmatic signatures and can be used to infer the evolution of magmatic sources of the juvenile Izu-Bonin island arc …

Cost Effectiveness Of Community Led Total Sanitation In Ethiopia And Ghana, Jonny Crocker, David Fuente, Jamie Bartram

Faculty Publications

We conducted cost effectiveness analyses of four different CLTS interventions implemented in Ethiopia and Ghana. In each country, a pilot approach in which additional local actors were trained in CLTS facilitation was compared to the conventional approach. Data were collected using bottom-up costing, household surveys, and observations. We assessed variability of cost effectiveness from a societal perspective for latrine ownership and latrine use outcomes in different contexts. Cost effectiveness ranged from $34–$1897 per household ($5.85–$563 per person) gaining access to a private latrine or stopping open defecation, depending on the intervention, context, and outcome considered. For three out of four …

The Lost Promise Of Disability Rights, Claire Raj

Faculty Publications

Children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable students in public schools. They are the most likely to be bullied, harassed, restrained, or segregated. For these and other reasons, they also have the poorest academic outcomes. Overcoming these challenges requires full use of the laws enacted to protect these students’ affirmative right to equal access and an environment free from discrimination. Yet, courts routinely deny their access to two such laws—the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (section 504).

Courts too often overlook the affirmative obligations contained in these two disability rights …

A Corporate Law Rationale For Reparations, Susan S. Kuo, Benjamin Means

Faculty Publications

Should the United States pay reparations to African Americans? A majority of Americans object that they are not personally responsible for slavery or Jim Crow. The objection is rooted in the principle of ethical individualism, which holds that people can be blamed only for their own actions.

This Article contends that the ethical individualism objection to reparations is misplaced because it assumes that what matters is the culpability of each citizen. We argue that, like a corporation, the United States is a legal person. Consequently, seeking reparations from the United States does not turn on the guilt of its citizens …

Electronic Transitions In Rb2+ Dimers Solvated In Helium, Simon Albertini, Paul Martini, Arne Schiller, Harald Schöbel, Elham Ghavidel, Milan Ončák, Olof E. Echt, Paul Scheier

Faculty Publications

We have measured depletion spectra of the heteronuclear (⁸⁵Rb⁸⁷Rb⁺) dimer cation complexed with up to 10 He atoms. Two absorption bands are observed between 920 and 250 nm. The transition into the repulsive 1²Sigma_u⁺ state of HeRb₂⁺ gives rise to a broad feature at 790 nm (12650 cm^–1); it exhibits a blueshift of 98 cm^–1 per added He atom. The transition into the bound 1 ²Pi_u state of HeRb₂⁺ reveals vibrational structure with a band head at < 15522 cm^–1, a harmonic …

No Evidence That Salt Water Ingestion Kills Adult Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), Donald A. Yee, Catherine Dean, Cameron Webb, Jennifer A. Henke, Gabriela Perezchica-Harvey, Gregory S. White, Ary Faraji, Joshua D. Macaluso, Rebecca Christofferson

Faculty Publications

Various products and insecticides are available that purport to reduce wild populations of adult mosquitoes. Recently, several manufacturers and general public comments on the internet have promoted devices that claim that ingestion of salt will significantly reduce populations of wild mosquitoes to near zero; there are no known scientific efficacy data that support these claims. We tested the survival of nine mosquito species of pest and public health importance across four adult diets: Water Only, Sugar Water Only (8.00%), Salt Water Only (1.03%), and Sugar + Salt Water. Species included the following: Aedes aegypti (L.), Aedes albopictus (Skuse), Aedes dorsalis …

Prospects For Gulf Of Mexico Environmental Recovery And Restoration, Denis A. Wiesenburg, Bob Shipp, F. Joel Fodrie, Sean Powers, Julien Lartigue, Kelly M. Darnell, Melissa M. Baustian, Cam Ngo, John F. Valentine, Kateryna Wowk

Faculty Publications

Previous oil spills provide clear evidence that ecosystem restoration efforts are challenging, and recovery can take decades. Similar to the Ixtoc 1 well blowout in 1979, the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill was enormous both in volume of oil spilled and duration, resulting in environmental impacts from the deep ocean to the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Data collected during the National Resource Damage Assessment showed significant damage to coastal areas (especially marshes), marine organisms, and deep-sea habitat. Previous spills have shown that disparate regions recover at different rates, with especially long-term effects in salt marshes and deepsea habitat. Environmental recovery …

Honor, Excrement, Ethnography: Colonial Knowledge Between Missionary And Militaire In French Algeria, Joseph W. Peterson

Faculty Publications

In 1865, an overly aggressive missionary in the Kabyle mountains of French Algeria was tricked into sitting in human excrement, publicly humiliated by the tribe he hoped to convert. Or was he? Historians of French Algeria have recounted this story as confirmation of the scholarly consensus: that public missions to Muslims were either nonexistent or delusional and short-lived in the early decades of French Algeria. But these historians have relied on a version of the incident that was authored by an unsympathetic military administrator. This article argues that the excremental incident in Kabylie—and the competing versions of what happened there—should …

Theoretical Analysis Of The Adsorption Of Phosphoric Acid And Model Phosphate Monoesters On Ceo2(111), Suman Bhasker-Ranganath, Chuanlin Zhao, Ye Xu

Faculty Publications

Ceria has been shown to catalyze the dephosphorylation of phosphate monoesters at ambient temperature. As a step toward understanding the reaction mechanism on ceria, first-principles density functional theory calculations in the GGA-PW91+U approach have been carried out to study the adsorption of phosphoric acid and two model phosphate monoesters, methyl phosphate and para-nitrophenyl phosphate, on CeO2(111). Consistent patterns are found in terms of energetic, structural, electronic, and vibrational properties upon adsorption. For the parent molecules, bonding of the phosphorous atom directly to a surface lattice oxygen atom (Olatt) is the only stable molecular adsorption state. Common entities that reduce Ce4+ …

Sn Stabilized Pyrovanadate Structure Rearrangement For Zinc Ion Battery, Wangwang Xu, Congli Sun, Na Wang, Xiaobin Liao, Kangning Zhao, Guang Yao, Qiangchao Sun, Hongwei Cheng, Ying Wang, Xionggang Lu

Faculty Publications

Rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have shown great potential for grids-level energy storage system. However, the lack of desirable and stable cathode materials remains challenging. Herein, Sn1.5V2O7(OH)2•3.3H2O, in which pyrovanadate V2O74− group pillared with Sn oxide layer, is developed as an advanced cathode for ZIBs and a hidden reaction mechanism in SnVO cathode through in-situ Raman and ex-situ XANEs, involves the opening of V˭O edge bonding and formation of Sn–O–V bonding, which leads to charge screening effect and facilitates the fast diffusion kinetics for zinc ions, as quantitatively verified by kinetic analysis. Additionally, the tetravalent Sn ions bring about stronger ionic …

Constructing Large-Scale Complex Aquifer Systems With Big Well Log Data: Louisiana Model, Hamid Vahdat-Aboueshagh, Frank T.C. Tsai

Faculty Publications

This study introduces a lithofacies modeling method to construct a complex Louisiana stratigraphy model up to depth of 900 m using more than 114,000 well logs. Lithofacies intervals in one well log can be as many as 76. Louisiana comprises a number of interconnected aquifer systems and distinct geological features, such as angular unconformities, domes, and faults. The method contains processes of tessellation, discretization, translation, and interpolation to accommodate these geological features. First, the model domain is tessellated into tiles. Formations have the same dip direction within the same tile, but may have varying dip angles. Each tile is then …

Investigation Of Field Rut Depth Of Asphalt Pavements Using Hamburg Wheel Tracking Test, Weiguang Zhang, Xiao Chen, Shihui Shen, Louay N. Mohammad, Bingyan Cui, Shenghua Wu, Ali Raza Khan

Faculty Publications

This paper characterized field rutting performance of asphalt pavement based on Hamburg wheel tracking (HWT) rut depth. The rut depths were collected from 50 field pavement sections, and cores from the same test areas were obtained to conduct volumetric properties measurement and HWT test. The relationship between field measurements and HWT rut depth was evaluated; the ranking of HWT results and field rut depth among mixtures was also compared. An analysis of if the HWT rut depth underpredicted or overpredicted field rut depth, or they were equivalent was summarized. A field rut depth predictive model that consisted of HWT rut …

Potentials Of Sustainable Electricity Production From Sawdust By Small-Scale Wood Transformation Units: A Case Study In Cameroon, Kewir Fannyuy Veeyee, Nde Divine Bup, Dorin Boldor, Nkeng George Elambo

Faculty Publications

Wood processing produces large volumes of residues which, when not properly managed, pose an environmental problem in the vicinity and beyond. These residues mainly constituted of sawdust and wood shavings, possess important energy potentials that are largely underexploited in Cameroon. In this work, we investigate the possibility that sawdust generated by wood transformation units (WTU) in Cameroon can be used sustainably to render them self-sufficientin terms of electricity demands through the production of syngas in a gasification process. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in the research. Initially, a questionnaire was employed to quantify the sawdust produced in the …

Response Inhibition Deficits In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation Are Associated With Age And Fall Risk, Carly Moser, Lyndsay Schmitt, Joseph Schmidt, Amanda Fairchild, Jessica Klusek

Faculty Publications

One in 113-178 females worldwide carry a premutation allele on the FMR1 gene. The FMR1 premutation is linked to neurocognitive and neuromotor impairments, although the phenotype is not fully understood, particularly with respect to age effects. This study sought to define oculomotor response inhibition skills in women with the FMR1 premutation and their association with age and fall risk. We employed an antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to index oculomotor inhibition skills in 35 women with the FMR1 premutation and 28 control women. The FMR1 premutation group exhibited longer antisaccade latency and reduced accuracy relative to controls, indicating deficient response inhibition skills. …

High-Latitude Snowfall As A Sensitive Indicator Of Climate Warming: A Case Study Of Heilongjiang Province, China, Lijuan Zhang, Cuizhen Wang, Yongshen Li, Yutao Huang, Fan Zhang, Tao Pan

Faculty Publications

While global distribution and dynamics of snow extent and snow depth have been intensely studied, the response of snowfall events to global warming is complex and remains unclear in current literature. This study explores historical snowfall records since the 1960s at 62 meteorological stations in Heilongjiang Province, and examines the snowfall responses in this most northerly high-latitude snow zone of China. Results confirm a significant increase of annual average temperature with a turn-over year in 1987, representing a shift of a cooler to warmer climate. Our study reports five most sensitive snowfall indicators of the warmer climate: snow intensity, snow …

Santa Claus Rally And The Indian Stock Market: A Comprehensive Analysis, Srinvias Nippani, Shekar Shetty

Faculty Publications

The study examines the leading Indian stock market indices all of which reflect the “Santa Claus rally” effect where significantly higher daily returns accrue to investors in the last five trading days of December and the first two trading days of the following January. The study also reveals that the BSE SENSEX started exhibiting this effect only during the post-1991 period. Additionally, the results indicate that there is a size effect associated with the Santa Claus rally effect wherein small-cap companies outperform mid-cap and large-cap companies. The evidence also suggests that the effect is prominent in eight industry-specific sub-sectors.

Elaborating The Science Of Food Choice For Rapidly Changing Food Systems In Low-And Middle-Income Countries, Christine E. Blake Ph.D., Rd, Edward A. Frongillo Jr. Ph.D., Andrea M. Warren, Shilpa V. Constantinides, Krystal K. Rampalli, Shiva Bhandari

Faculty Publications

The world’s food systems and environments have been changing dramatically, concomitant with changes in overand undernutrition. We elaborate the science of food choice to better understand, analyze, and respond to relationships between changing food environments and food choice. The science of food choice is concerned with generating knowledge about causal drivers of food choice decision making processes and behavior within immediate food and social environments. Three fundamental and interconnected questions undergird this science; 1) what do people eat from the options available and accessible?; 2) how do people interact with food environments?; and 3) why do people decide to acquire, …

Teaching Quantitative Data In The Social Sciences At The University Of New Hampshire: Data Management Plan, Patricia Condon, Louise Buckley, Eleta Exline

Faculty Publications

This data management plan describes data management for the study Teaching quantitative data in the social sciences at the University of New Hampshire. This research study examines social science instructors’ practices in teaching undergraduate students to work with quantitative data. The goal of the study is to understand approaches and challenges associated with teaching data and delineate resources and services needed to support this work. The study at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) is connected to a suite of parallel studies being developed locally at twenty-three other higher education institutions. Ithaka S+R has been hired to coordinate this parallel …

The Race To The Top To Reduce Prosecutorial Misconduct, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

This Essay offers an unconventional approach to deterring prosecutorial misconduct. Trial judges should use their inherent authority to forbid prosecutors from appearing and handling cases in their courtrooms until the prosecutors have completed training on Brady v. Maryland, Batson v. Kentucky, and other types of prosecutorial misconduct. If a single trial judge in a medium-sized or large jurisdiction imposes training prerequisites on prosecutors, it could set off a race to the top that encourages other judges to adopt similar (or perhaps even more rigorous) training requirements. A mandate that prosecutors receive ethics training before handling any cases is …

The Costs Of Dissent: Protest And Civil Liabilities, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the civil costs and liabilities that apply to individuals who organize, participate in, and support protest activities. Costs ranging from permit fees to punitive damages significantly affect First Amendment speech, assembly, and petition rights. A variety of common law and statutory civil claims also apply to protest activities. Plaintiffs have recently filed a number of new civil actions negatively affecting protest, including "negligent protest," "aiding and abetting defamation," "riot boosting," "conspiracy to protest," and "tortious petitioning." The labels are suggestive of the threats these suits pose to First Amendment rights. All of these costs and liabilities add …

The Opioid Doctors: Is Losing Your License A Sufficient Penalty For Dealing Drugs?, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Publications

Imagine that a medical board revokes a doctor's license both because he has been peddling thousands of pills of opioids and also because he was caught with a few grams of cocaine. The doctor is a family physician, not a pain management specialist. Yet, during a one-year period he wrote more than 4,000 prescriptions for opioids--roughly eighteen scripts per day. Patients came from multiple states and from hundreds of miles away to get oxycodone prescriptions. And the doctor prescribed large quantities of opioids--up to 240 pills per month--to patients with no record of previously needing narcotic painkillers. Both federal and …

A Light In Students’ Lives: K-12 Teachers’ Experiences (Re)Building Caring Relationships During Remote Learning, Karyn E. Miller

Faculty Publications

This study illuminates the experiences of K-12 educators as they strove to (re)build caring relationships with students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted during a graduate course for experienced K-12 teachers in the spring of 2020 at a four-year comprehensive university in the United States. Data was collected from reflective learning journals and asynchronous peer discussions, which captured educators’ experiences as they transitioned to remote learning in real-time. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify pertinent themes. Findings suggest that remote learning revealed relationships in need of repair. Educators practiced authentic care and cultivated connectedness by (a) acting …

Never Waste A Crisis: Digital Inclusion For Sustainable Development In The Context Of The Covid Pandemic, Amanda Reed, Kim M. Thompson

Faculty Publications

In responding to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in 2030, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions recently launched the mutual commitment of Library Pledge for Digital Inclusion and its Call to Action along with other international organizations. Domestic and foreign library leaders and well-known experts and scholars discuss the theme of Library and Digital Inclusion. Rao Quan points out that with the development of modern technology, the digital divide has become a growing problem. The National Library of China has put forward an idea of building a “National Smart Library System”, to lead public libraries to realize smart …