Digital Commons Network^™

Context Determines Strategies For 'Activating' The Inclusive Classroom, Bryan Dewsbury

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A number of reports have called for the transformation of college science pedagogy. For instructors interested in transforming their own classrooms, the number of approaches, tools, and literature on pedagogical transformation can be overwhelming. The literature is rich with examples of the positive significant effects of active learning, but is lacking on frameworks that can help guide implementation. In this manuscript, I use Fink’s conceptual framework for “creating significant learning experiences” and a conceptual framework for inclusive teaching and learning to focus on how situation-specific drivers inform the choice of active learning strategies. I argue essentially that while, on average, …

Implications Of Climate Change For Shipping: Ports And Supply Chains, Austin Becker, Adolf K. Y. Ng, Darryn Mcevoy, Jane Mullett

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

Ports are an important economic actor—at local, national, and international scales—that have been identified as being vulnerable to future changes to the climate. This paper details the findings from an international review of state‐of‐the‐art knowledge concerning climate risks, and adaptation responses, for ports and their supply chains. Evidence from both academic and gray literature indicates that there has already been major damage and disruption to ports across the world from climate‐related hazards and that such impacts are projected to increase in the years and decades to come. Findings indicate that while a substantial—and growing—body of scientific evidence on coastal risks …

Seasonal Variation In Testes Size And Density Detected In Belugas (Delphinapterus Leucas) Using Ultrasonography, Justin Thomas Richard, Todd Schmitt, Martin Haulena, Noël Vezzi, J. Lawrence Dunn, Tracy A. Romano, Becky L. Sartini

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Belugas are thought to exhibit seasonal variation in testes size, but a temporal gap in postmortem sampling of wild belugas has precluded a description of the occurrence or the extent of this seasonal variation. This study aimed to utilize longitudinal monitoring of belugas in aquaria with known siring histories to assess seasonal variation in testes size, and its association with circulating testosterone concentration and testicular tissue density. Testes volume was estimated using linear measurements obtained via ultrasonography. Testicular tissue density was assessed by measuring the pixel intensity (PI) of ultrasound images of the testis. Five adult males, including 4 proven …

Aquaculture Genomics, Genetics And Breeding In The United States: Current Status, Challenges, And Priorities For Future Research, Hisham Abdelrahman, Marta Gomez-Chiarri, Et Al

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Advancing the production efficiency and profitability of aquaculture is dependent upon the ability to utilize a diverse array of genetic resources. The ultimate goals of aquaculture genomics, genetics and breeding research are to enhance aquaculture production efficiency, sustainability, product quality, and profitability in support of the commercial sector and for the benefit of consumers. In order to achieve these goals, it is important to understand the genomic structure and organization of aquaculture species, and their genomic and phenomic variations, as well as the genetic basis of traits and their interrelationships. In addition, it is also important to understand the mechanisms …

The Continuum Of Beach Enclosure: Socioeconomic Implications For Coastal Communities In The Dominican Republic, Melvin Alvarez

Open Access Master's Theses

Unprecedented proliferation in tourism and coastal development in the Dominican Republic (DR) has transformed the shoreline into a site of conflict as the public and traditional users lose access to the shore. This case study research, based on ethnography and interview data, explores the processes leading to beach privatization and how the Continuum of Beach Enclosure (CBE) affects the socioeconomic structure of local communities and entrepreneurs. Global trends in enclosure of the common are combined with Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model to highlight coastal development in the context of DR. The study concludes that different forms of capital (social, …

Impact Of Chronic Nitrogen Loading On Greenhouse Gas Fluxes In Coastal Wetlands, Katelyn Ann Szura

Open Access Master's Theses

Coastal wetlands are valuable ecosystems that historically have not been protected and have been lost at rapid rates. Recently, they have gained attention for their potential role in climate change mitigation given that they have the ability to sequester and store large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). While other ecosystems can sequester and store carbon as well, salt marshes have the unique ability to store vast amounts of carbon while emitting relatively negligible amounts of methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N2O). These are additional greenhouse gases (GHGs) that can be emitted from ecosystems, particularly CH4 …

Effect Of Birdsfoot Trefoil On Exsheathment Of Haemonchus Contortus In Rumen Fistulated Sheep, Karalyn Lonngren

Open Access Master's Theses

This study has been developed to address the issue of small ruminant parasite resistance to commercial anthelmintics and to examine the possibility of controlling these parasites using feeds with condensed tannin containing plants. The goal of the research was to determine whether birdsfoot trefoil hay prevents the exsheathment of Haemonchus contortus and whether efficacy differs among birdsfoot trefoil cultivars.

During the first phase of research, a method for testing the exsheathment of H. contortus in vivo was developed. Various larvae containment capsules were tested to see whether the larvae could escape from the capsules. The most successful capsules were then …

Perspectives On Emerging Monitoring Technologies: Understanding Factors That Affect Adoption, Nelle D'Aversa

Open Access Master's Theses

There are numerous technological acceptance and adoption theories that seek to explain how, why, and at what rate new technologies diffuse through systems over time. While the models can be used to explain why users adopt technologies, they do so in a general way and few, if any, studies have addressed the factors that affect monitoring technology adoption in coastal management. This study explores coastal managers’ and water quality monitors’ perspectives on water quality monitoring technology using various technology acceptance and adoption theories as a theoretical framework to better understand the factors that affect water quality monitoring technology adoption in …

Relationship Communication: Introduction To The Special Issue, David T. Mcmahan

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

The Dyadic Influence Of Attachment And Affection On Relationship Satisfaction, Gemme M. Campbell, Grace Ellen Brannon, Emily A. Rauscher, Colin Hesse, Sara L. Trask

Iowa Journal of Communication

Using affection exchange theory, this study proposed a mediating model between attachment style, affectionate communication, and relationship satisfaction. This dyadic model used marital couples to test actor and partner effects. Overall, results supported the predicted model, including several significant indirect effects. Specifically, affection mediated the relationships between anxious attachment for wives and relationship satisfaction for both wives and husbands. Affection also mediated the relationship between anxious attachment for husbands and husband relationship satisfaction. Affection also mediated the relationship between avoidant attachment for wives and wife relationship satisfaction, as well as between avoidant attachment for husbands and husband relationship satisfaction. Additionally, …

Keeping The Peace: Daughters In-Law's Relational Maintenance Behaviors With Their Mothers In-Law, Mary E. Donato, Scott A. Myers

Iowa Journal of Communication

The purpose of this study was to identify the specific behaviors daughters-in-law (DILs) use to maintain relationships with their mothers-in-law (MILs). Participants were 85 DILs who identified the behaviors they use to maintain their relationships with their MILs. Together, they identified 416 behaviors that were then coded into 14 categories of relational maintenance behaviors: mediated communication, family involvement, showing respect, keeping the peace, thoughtfulness, avoiding contact, expressing gratitude, visits, instrumental help, sharing meals, joint activities, frequent communication, common interests, and husband as buffer. From this, we concluded there are three general categories of behaviors in which DILs use: DILs engage …

Front Matter - Table Of Contents - Preface

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Haunted By The Past: Examining The Breakup Story Through Duck's Dissolution Model, Sara L. Trask

Iowa Journal of Communication

After a breakup, individuals are often haunted by the presence of their past relationships, making relationship termination one of the most emotionally painful events that individuals throughout their lifetime (Sprecher, Felmlee, Metts, Fehr, & Vanni, 1998). Some individuals even go as far to believe that relationship termination is like experiencing the death of one they loved (Emery, 2004). Using three of the five processes of Duck's Dissolution Model (DDM) (1982; 2005), this study examined what individuals' breakup stories reveal about their ability to adjust after a breakup has occurred. The study interviewed 18 individuals who shared their personal stories of …

Knapp's Model Of Relational Development In The Digital Age, Robert L. Duran, Lynne Kelly

Iowa Journal of Communication

The purpose of this study was to re-examine Knapp's (1978) model of the stages of relationship development to identify the ways in which communication technologies are used within those stages as romantic relationships progress. The goal was to incorporate technological activities into the descriptions of Knapp's stages of relational growth to better reflect how college students conduct their romantic relationships. Undergraduate students (N = 251) completed a survey, including a measure of their relationship stage (Welch & Rubin, 2002) as well as measures of their uses of Facebook, texting, and cell phone calling in the context of the relationship. Results …

Iowa Journal Of Communication, Volume 49, Number 1, Fall 2017 [Download Entire Issue]

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Economic Recovery Through Spiritual Awakening: Ronald Reagan's Use Of Grace-Emancipating Convenantal Rhetoric, Meg H. Kunde

Iowa Journal of Communication

This article explores how President Ronald Reagan used grace-emancipating covenantal rhetoric in his presidential discourse to make individual faith a prerequisite for national unity and create a spiritual space in which the people could perform their faith in God, freedom, and individualism, the values upon which his economic policies rested. This analysis of covenantal rhetoric recognizes the importance of the Puritan's covenant of grace as an integral and necessary part of covenantal rhetoric, an aspect that has not been given due attention in previous rhetorical scholarship.

Iowa Journal Of Communication, Volume 49, Number 2, Spring 2017 [Download Entire Issue]

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Elementary School Students' Identity Negotiations In Their Literacy Classrooms, Kimberly Ilosvay, Jeff Kerssen-Griep

Iowa Journal of Communication

Existing research reveals too little about how elementary-level students make sense of their teachers' and others' interpersonal communication with them, particularly regarding how it impacts students' identity development and engagement in teaching-learning relationships and instruction. Addressing this timely exigency, this study applied a cross-disciplinary conceptual framework to examine identity aspects of elementary school students' interpersonal and relational communication experiences in and around their literacy learning classrooms. Guided by Hecht et al.'s (2005) communication theory of identity (CTI) and examining themes that emerged among 103 face-to-face interviews with second-through fifth-graders, this paper reports key findings related to four interpenetrating identity layers, …

Front Matter - Table Of Contents

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Creating Digital Displays Of Grief: Appropriateness, Relationality, And Mourning Loss, Jenna L. Currie-Mueller, Kay M. Beckermann, Adam J. Copeland, Gunther-Michael Jahnl

Iowa Journal of Communication

More than half of enrolled college students experience a significant loss during their education. When coping with loss, students may turn to social media to express grief This study explored how college students participate in communicating loss online and how students perceive grief expressions and mourning messages of others on social media. Data was collected through virtual focus group interviews with 26 participants and analyzed using eclectic and pattern coding (Saldana, 2013). Results indicate participants perceived online mourning as either appropriate or inappropriate based on relational tie, channel, and perceived authenticity of the other's communication. When observing others' grief, participants …

Review Of Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise Of Astro-Blackness, Toniesha L. Taylor

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Review Of Contemporary Studies Of Sexuality & Communication: Theoretical And Applied Perspectives, Valerie Peterson

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Trying To Fit In With The Weird Parts Of The Internet: Online Subcultures And Content Creation, Isak Fedeler Knivsland

Honors Program Theses

Creating my thesis project has been quite a journey - perhaps a longer and more tedious journey than I anticipated, but rewarding nonetheless. Starting this project in the fall, I simply had the goal of making cool music, producing videos to accompany it, and getting some people to watch it. This is much easier said than done, however.

In my head, this was to be a pretty straightforward project. I had made electronic music before and had been improving at it. I had edited some videos, though not for a few years. And I had experimented with marketing content. The …

Organizational Culture: An Analysis Of The Aggregate Impact On Financial Performance, Arijan Alagic

Honors Program Theses

Strong organizational culture, although an intangible asset, can produce tangible gains for businesses in the form of stock returns. This study uses Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in America to identify companies with strong organizational culture. Of those 100, I used the stock performance of 20 public companies who have (1) been on the list for at least 10 years and (2) have been publicly traded for at least 10 years. Each of the companies is assigned a matching industry sector and the returns are compared to the overall stock market, represented by the S&P 500. From …

Proxy Access And Optimal Standardization In Corporate Governance: An Empirical Analysis, Reilly S. Steel

Faculty Scholarship

According to the conventional wisdom, “one size does not fit all” in corporate governance. Firms are heterogeneous with respect to their governance needs, implying that the optimal corporate governance structure must also vary from firm to firm. This one-size-does-not-fit-all axiom has featured prominently in arguments against numerous corporate law regulatory initiatives, including the SEC’s failed Rule 14a-11 — an attempt to impose mandatory, uniform “proxy access” on all public companies — which the D.C. Circuit struck down for inadequate cost-benefit analysis.

This Article presents an alternative theory as to the role of standardization in corporate governance — in which investors …

Ptab, Patents, And The Constitution, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Oil States vs. Greene’s Energy Group, et al. on whether the Patent and Trademark Office, acting through the Patent and Trial Appeal Board (PTAB), can decide the validity of existing patents. The question, in particular, is whether the PTAB is unconstitutionally extinguishing private property rights in a non-Article III forum without a jury. At stake, therefore, is a range of vital issues, including patents, property, and the right to be heard in a real court, with a jury.

Toward Building A Legal Knowledge-Base Of Chinese Judicial Documents For Large-Scale Analytics, Amarnath Gupta, Alice Z. Wang, Kai Lin, Haoshen Hong, Haoran Sun, Benjamin L. Liebman, Rachel E. Stern, Subhasis Dasgupta, Margaret Roberts

Faculty Scholarship

We present an approach for constructing a legal knowledge-base that is sufficiently scalable to allow for large-scale corpus-level analyses. We do this by creating a polymorphic knowledge representation that includes hybrid ontologies, semistructured representations of sentences, and unsupervised statistical extraction of topics. We apply our approach to over one million judicial decision documents from Henan, China. Our knowledge-base allows us to make corpus-level queries that enable discovery, retrieval, and legal pattern analysis that shed new light on everyday law in China.

Cedar Falls Community Main Street: A Gap Analysis Of Customer & Business Owner Perceptions, Cassie Evers

Honors Program Theses

Cedar Falls, Iowa is a small town of approximately 40,000 people, which has a traditional Main Street district, lined by historic buildings filled with shops, restaurants, offices, and apartments alike (“Current Cedar Falls, Iowa Population, Demographics and Stats”). This main street district is managed by an organization called Community Main Street. Cedar Falls Community Main Street (CMS) has done extensive research to gain an understanding of their market by surveying customers. However, they lack information on their business owners and managers’ opinions. This study focused on surveying area business owners to provide valuable information about business leaders’ opinions to Community …

Lip Detection And Adaptive Tracking, Benjamin Wang

Master's Theses

Performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems utilizing only acoustic information degrades significantly in noisy environments such as a car cabins. Incorporating audio and visual information together can improve performance in these situations. This work proposes a lip detection and tracking algorithm to serve as a visual front end to an audio-visual automatic speech recognition (AVASR) system.

Several color spaces are examined that are effective for segmenting lips from skin pixels. These color components and several features are used to characterize lips and to train cascaded lip detectors. Pre- and post-processing techniques are employed to maximize detector accuracy. The trained …

Invariant Two-Component Structure Of The Repeatable Battery For The Assessment Of Neuropsychological Status (Rbans), Elisabeth M. Vogt, Gregory D. Prichett, James B. Hoelzle

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status is a brief neurocognitive instrument used to evaluate cognitive functioning in clinical settings. Prior investigations of the factor structure have revealed subtle differences across samples. It was hypothesized that these differences are primarily the result of methodological decisions made by researchers. The present study utilized empirically supported extraction criteria (parallel analysis; minimum average partial procedure) and uniformly investigated 5 samples. RBANS data from 4 previously published studies (Carlozzi, Horner, Yang, & Tilley, 2008; Duff, Hobson, Beglinger, & O'Bryant, 2010; Duff et al., 2006; Wilde, 2006) were reanalyzed, and a new clinical …