Digital Commons Network^™

Adolescent Sleep Behavioral Interventions And Opportunities To Improve Cognitive Functioning: A Call For Action Improve Cognitive Functioning: A Call For Action, Leonell Torres-Pagan, Angelica Terepka, Renata Vaysman, Nicole M. Velez-Agosto, John Usseglio

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Sleep is related to cognitive functioning, learning, and brain development in the adolescent population. Recent research indicates a rise in the presence of chronic sleep disorders such as insomnia in adolescents, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, research on the effectiveness of sleep interventions for adolescents is necessary to guide treatment in adolescents. The authors conducted a systematic review of literature examining research on outcomes of treatment interventions for insomnia on sleep quality and cognitive functioning in adolescents. Results indicate a dearth of research examining effectiveness of treatment in adolescents, particularly in relation to the impact of such treatment on …

Predictors Of Traumatic Experiences And Mental Wellbeing Among Recent Immigrant Mothers And Children, Andy Torres, Frances Morales, Amanda Palomin, Marika Dawkins-Cavazos, Alfonso Mercado

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Immigrant mothers face numerous challenges and unique stressors related not only to their role as asylum-seekers but also to their roles as women and caretakers. Some studies suggest that immigrant mothers may exhibit high internalizing symptoms related to pre-migration trauma exposure, while others claim that such symptoms may be due to the internalization of their children’s mental health. In view of this, a total of 60 recently arrived immigrant mothers and their children from Central America, predominantly the Northern Triangle, who arrived via the U.S-Mexico border were sampled. Immigrant mothers and their children were administered a Spanish battery containing health …

Urban And Rural Wage Disparities In Illinois, Josh S. Thum

The Park Place Economist

Widespread urbanization in the United States over the years has changed the economic landscape of the country dramatically. This study explores the effect of working in a rural versus an urban area on wages in Illinois. General research suggests that there may be wage premium for working in urban areas, but this study takes a slightly different approach by focusing on county-by-county data as opposed to regional data. Labor market wages are considered in the context of efficient market theory. Linear regression models are run using data from the American Community Survey in order to explore whether there is a …

Can Money Buy You Mental Health? The Effects Of Economic And Non-Economic Factors On Mental Health, Daniel J. Maisch

The Park Place Economist

This research paper examines the correlation between economic and non-economic factors and mental health. The Mental Health Hygiene Movement began in 1908 and led to the development of a new field of economic study: Mental Health Economics. Existing economic theories are applied to determine how pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors interact with mental health. Data from IPUMS Health Survey was used to run two linear regression models to evaluate how individuals’ social position, human capital characteristics, and demographic characteristics influence their mental health. Results social position, unemployment, educational attainment and mental health. Implications of the results suggest further analysis of mental …

Methodological Considerations In Injury Burden Of Disease Studies Across Europe: A Systematic Literature Review, Periklis Charalampous, Elena Pallari, Vanessa Gorasso, Elena Von Der Lippe, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Sara M. Pires, Dietrich Plass, Jane Idavain, Che Henry Ngwa, Isabel Noguer, Alicia Padron-Monedero, Rodrigo Sarmiento, Marek Majdan, Balázs Ádám, Ala’A Alkerwi, Seila Cilovic-Lagarija, Benjamin Clarsen, Barbara Corso, Sarah Cuschieri, Keren Dopelt, Mary Economou, Florian Fischer, Alberto Freitas, Juan Manuel García-González, Federica Gazzelloni, Artemis Gkitakou, Hakan Gulmez, Paul Hynds, Gaetano Isola, Lea S. Jakobsen, Zubair Kabir, Katarzyna Kissimova-Skarbek, Ann Kristin Knudsen, Naime Meriç Konar, Carina Ladeira, Brian Lassen, Aaron Liew, Marjeta Majer, Enkeleint A. Mechili, Alibek Mereke Alibek Mereke, Lorenzo Monasta, Stefania Mondello, Joana Nazaré Morgado, Evangelia Nena, Edmond S. W. Ng, Vikram Niranjan, Iskra Alexandra Nola, Rónán O’Caoimh, Panagiotis Petrou, Vera Pinheiro, Miguel Reina Ortiz, Silvia Riva, Hanen Samouda, João Vasco Vasco Santos, Cornelia Melinda Adi Santoso, Milena Santric Milicevic, Dimitrios Skempes, Ana Catarina Sousa, Niko Speybroeck, Fimka Tozija, Brigid Unim, Hilal Bektaş Uysal, Fabrizio Giovanni Vaccaro, Orsolya Varga, Milena Vasic, Francesco Saverio Violante, Grant M. A. Wyper, Suzanne Polinder, Juanita A. Haagsma

Articles

Calculating the disease burden due to injury is complex, as it requires many methodological choices. Until now, an overview of the methodological design choices that have been made in burden of disease (BoD) studies in injury populations is not available. The aim of this systematic literature review was to identify existing injury BoD studies undertaken across Europe and to comprehensively review the methodological design choices and assumption parameters that have been made to calculate years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) in these studies.

Supporting Educators Towards More Inclusive Design Of Entrepreneurship Courses, Sylvia Gavigan, Iulia Clitan, Antonio Juan Briones Penalver, Deirdre Mcquillan, Ovidiu Stan, Antonia Christou

Papers

This paper explores inclusive entrepreneurship course design across European universities. Drawing a sample of six cases across five universities the paper adopts a multiple case study research design to explore how educators are supporting the Missing Entrepreneurs according to the OECD definition (women, people with disability, refugees and migrants, young people and seniors). The findings show interesting and innovative pedagogical approaches to emerge by analogy and replication. The paper provides empirical and practical contribution for educators in terms of developing entrepreneurship courses according to the principles of universal design for learning drawing on needs of the Missing Entrepreneurs. The Paper …

Re-Imagining Andragogy For Innovative And Inclusive Leadership Training For Minority Women In Higher Education, Sylvia Gavigan, Nicholas Kiruma, Liz Murphy, Kingsley Author

Papers

The purpose of this case study undertaken in 2021 was to explore the different ways educators in higher education might implement innovative andragogical practices for inclusive leadership training for minority women. There is need for minority women to develop abilities to make personal adjustments as well as receive support from external structures if they are to benefit from leadership training programs and to be successful leaders (Flower, 2021). The potential for innovation to shift towards a more engaged form of teaching and learning is very important in the 21st Century especially for the inclusion of minority women in leadership in …

Opportunities And Barriers Faced By Early-Career Civil Engineers Enacting Global Responsibility, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, John Mitchell

Articles

The term ‘global responsibility’ projects a holistic sense of ethics, sustainability, and obligation. To achieve the long-term viability of human life on Earth, civil engineering must be conducted in increasingly responsible ways, and civil engineers must value and enact global responsibility in their work. Interviews conducted with nine civil engineers in London provide insight regarding engineers’ familiarity with the term, how they learned about it, what opportunities and barriers they face, and what might be done by professional and educational institutions to help them practice more responsibly. Results indicate: the term itself is novel but underlying concepts are not; continuing …

Design Processes For User Engagement With Mobile Health: A Systematic Review, Tochukwu Ikwunne, Lucy Hederman, P. J. Wall

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Despite the importance of user engagement in mHealth system efficacy, many such interventions fail to engage their users effectively. This paper provides a systematic review of 10 years of research (32 articles) on mHealth design interventions conducted between 2011 and 2020. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) model was used for this review with the IEEE, Medline EBSCO Host, ACM, and Springer databases searched for English language papers with the published range. The goal of this review was to find out which design process improves user engagement with mHealth in order to guide the development of …

Flexible Goal-Directed Manipulation Of Representations: Computational Models Of Healthy And Pathological Human Cognition, Giovanni Granato

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The brain is able to manipulate itself, adapting its internal world in a changing environment. In particular it continuously manipulates its representations to achieve goals. This competence is supported by many neurocognitive high-order processes that interact during the performance of a goal-directed behaviour (e.g. attention processes, executive functions, motivational systems). Overall, adult humans often face a new problem trough a change of the `perceptual point of view' (i.e. a representational change), rather then an extended research of the correct action to perform. On the other hand, infants and children contemporary develop motor competence and task-directed perceptual representations (e.g. categorical perception). …

Consumer Reactions To Alcohol Advertising Health Warnings In Ireland: An Experimental Research Study, Vania Filipova

Doctoral

Introduction and Aims As part of several measures to inform consumers about the health risks of alcohol and reduce alcohol consumption, the Irish Government signed into law the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, with Section 13 requiring the implementation of multiple health warnings in all alcohol ads. While health warnings on product labels have been subject to intensive political discussion and academic research, health warnings in alcohol ads have received little attention and empirical support. This doctoral dissertation investigates whether health warnings in alcohol ads can promote cognitive and affective reactions in consumers. Furthermore, this thesis also examines whether the …

Heritage Requires Citizens’ Knowledge: The Cost Place-Making Action And Responsible Research, Heike Oevermann, Ayse Erek, Carola Hein, Conor Horan, Kata Krasznahorkai, Ida Sofie Gøtzsche Lange, Edmond Manahasa, Marijke Martin, Marluci Menezes, Matej Nikšič, Paulina Polko, Juli Székely, Simone Tappert, Pekka Tuominen

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This chapter reflects on responsible science with an eye toward concrete research practice. To this end, we briefly introduce the RRI paradigm (Responsible Research and Innovation) and then highlight seven EU research projects in the context of a transnational COST Action project. This COST Action will investigate how placemaking activities, like public art, civil urban design, and local knowledge production, reshape and reinvent public space, and improve citizens’ involvement in urban planning and urban design, especially in the context of heritage sites. The chapter introduces heritage case studies that either contrast, differentiate, and add to existing knowledge and practices in …

An Exploratory Case Study Into Understanding Teaching Practice And Towards Enhancing Transformative Learning And Graduate Employability At Tu Dublin, Ellen Kampinga

Masters

This research focuses on understanding and enhancing the educational practice towards using pedagogies like transformative learning to enhance graduate employability at a new technological university, TU Dublin, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It was found that teaching practice depends significantly on the lecturer, the discipline area, the graduate skills that are sought after in each module and discipline, and the context of the delivery. The PAGE (Pedagogy Assisting Graduate Employability) framework developed from this research, aims to visualise the connection between the teaching process, pedagogy, and graduate employability. Application of the framework will offer insight into how each unique lecturer …

A Worked Example Of Braun And Clarke’S Approach To Refexive Thematic Analysis, David Byrne

Articles

Since the publication of their inaugural paper on the topic in 2006, Braun and Clarke’s approach has arguably become one of the most thoroughly delineated methods of conducting thematic analysis (TA). However, confusion persists as to how to implement this specifc approach to TA appropriately. The authors themselves have identifed that many researchers who purport to adhere to this approach—and who reference their work as such—fail to adhere fully to the principles of ‘refexive thematic analysis’ (RTA). Over the course of numerous publications, Braun and Clarke have elaborated signifcantly upon the constitution of RTA and attempted to clarify numerous misconceptions …

Volume 31, Number 3, Winter 2022-23, Office Of Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2018-present

VOLUME 31 | NUMBER 3 | Winter 2022-23

ON OUR COVER: Toni Tortorella ’21 sports the mark from the surgery that cured her cancer as a symbol of health advocacy and the support she received from family, friends, faculty and staff.

14 Guardian Angel When IWU nursing student and community leader Toni Tortorella ’21 was diagnosed with cancer, her family at home and school advocated for her health and her academic success. Now she’s a nurse at the hospital that cured her.

18 A Love Letter to IWU After a summer of storytelling about what makes Illinois Wesleyan a unique …

Quality Of Experience Assurance In Wireless Networks For Mpeg-4 Transmission, Mohd Najwan Md. Khambari

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The evolution of IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) has emerged as the most preferred choice for organizations as well as end users and consumers to access the network, especially the Internet. Today, WLAN technology has becoming more mature and slowly taking over the job for information sharing which was once borne by wired networks. WLAN has not only been used to transfer data packets, but also multimedia packets that are more time sensitive. Given the nature of WLAN which is prone to interference, several challenges need to be encountered for WLAN to keep abreast with the ability of …

Biosensing With Back-Gated Graphene Field Effect Transistors, Benjamin O'Driscoll

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The widespread existence of the heavy metal lead in the environment is a severe threat to the health of humans. Lead is a neurotoxin that accumulates over time in the body restricting the cognitive, behavioural and psychological development of children. Since water is one exposure route for chemical hazards like Pb2+ it is envisioned that monitoring drinking water sources with low-cost, sensitive and field-suitable devices is one way that human exposure can be limited. Herein presents graphene field effect transistors (GFETs) functionalised with aptamers as bioreceptors, for the specific detection of Pb2+ ions in water. Functionalising GFETs with bioreceptors facilitates …

Supporting Adherence To Physical Activity In People With Multiple Sclerosis, Rachel Dennett

School of Health Professions Theses

Background The benefits of exercise and physical activity for people with multiple sclerosis are well recognised, as are the challenges faced by many in adhering to these activities over the long term. Adherence is considered by some to be the single most important modifiable factor affecting outcome. With years lived with disability increasing and healthcare resources limited, the need to develop and implement effective and acceptable interventions and support people with adherence to physical activity is pressing. Aim This integrative summary presents work from three related areas regarding exercise and physical activity in people with multiple sclerosis. The body of …

Behavioural Determinants Of Human And Planetary Health: The Role Of Nature Contact And Nature Connectedness., Leanne Martin

School of Psychology Theses

The benefits of natural environments for health and wellbeing are well-established, but less is known about their links human behaviour. This thesis presents a conceptual model proposing that increased contact with - and psychological connection to – nature will be associated with: a) a lower prevalence of health risk behaviours, and b) greater engagement with pro-environmental behaviours, via positive affect, negative affect, community cohesion and temporal discounting. Studies 1-3 used representative cross-sectional datasets to systematically investigate the associations between different types of nature contact, nature connectedness and behavioural outcomes. Study 4 used a bespoke cross-sectional survey to test the full …

Perceived Social Support And Stress: A Study Of 1st Year Students In Ireland, Lavinia Mclean, David Gaul, Rebecca Penco

Articles

Social support is consistently associated with positive outcomes for students, in terms of wellbeing and academic achievement. For first year students, social support offers a way to deal with stressors associated with the challenge of transitioning to university. The current research was conducted with a range of first year students (n = 315) early in their first semester in university. Both male and female students reported moderate levels of social support and perceived stress, while those with higher levels of social support reported lower levels of stress. Gender differences were apparent in both the levels and sources of social …

Self-Perceived Loneliness And Depression During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Two-Wave Replication Study, Alessandro Carollo, Andrea Bizzego, Giulio Gabrieli, Keri Ka Yee Wong, Adrian Raine, Gianluca Esposito

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced countries to impose strict lockdown restrictions and mandatory stay-at-home orders with varying impacts on individual’s health. Combining a data-driven machine learning paradigm and a statistical approach, our previous paper documented a U-shaped pattern in levels of self-perceived loneliness in both the UK and Greek populations during the first lockdown (17 April to 17 July 2020). The current paper aimed to test the robustness of these results by focusing on data from the first and second lockdown waves in the UK. We tested a) the impact of the chosen model on the identification of the …

Dataset Of Parent-Child Hyperscanning Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Recordings, Andrea Bizzego, Giulio Gabrieli, Atiqah Azhari, Mengyu Lim, Gianluca Esposito

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

The term “hyperscanning” refers to the simultaneous recording of multiple individuals’ brain activity. As a methodology, hyperscanning allows the investigation of brain-to-brain synchrony. Despite being a promising technique, there is a limited number of publicly available functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning recordings. In this paper, we report a dataset of fNIRS recordings from the prefrontal cortical (PFC) activity of 33 mother-child dyads and 29 father-child dyads. Data was recorded while the parent-child dyads participated in an experiment with two sessions: a passive video attention task and a free play session. Dyadic metadata, parental psychological traits, behavioural annotations of the play …

To Wine Or Not To Wine? A Scientometric Approach To 65+ Years Of Wine Preference And Selection Studies, Alessandro Carollo, Seraphina Fong, Giulio Gabrieli, Claudio Mulatti, Gianluca Esposito

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Purpose: Among the growing interest towards market segmentation and targeted marketing, the current study adopted a scientometric approach to examine the literature on wine selection and preferences. The current review specifically attempts to shed light on the research that explores the determinants of wine preferences at multiple levels of analysis. Design/methodology/approach: CiteSpace was used to compute a Document Co-Citation Analysis (DCA) on a sample of 114,048 eligible references obtained from 2,846 publications downloaded from Scopus on 24 May 2021. Findings: An optimized network of 1,505 nodes and 4,616 links was generated. Within the network, impactful publications on the topic and …

Exploring Pedagogic And Practical Intersections Of Academic Writing Support For Faculty In Higher Education, Roisin Donnelly, Maria-Jose Gonzalez

Journal Articles

This is a case study of Faculty perceptions of the nature and effectiveness of academic writing provision and practice in a university in Ireland. It is presented in tandem with a case study of student persecptions from an Academic Writing Centre and taken together, both discuss the pedagogical approach adopted by the two pan-university initiatives. The focus of this case study is a Professional Development module for Faculty designed with a dual purpose - to support them to develop their own professional writing for publication, and enabling them to use the same strategies to support and reinforce their students’ academic …

Exploring The Concept Of The Digital Educator During Covid-19, Ana Schalk, Claire Mcavinia, Pauline Rooney

Journal Articles

In this paper, we explore academic identity, specifically the identity of the educator in higher education and academics’ conceptualisations of the digital educator. We suggest that the concept of a digital educator is not only about technology, tools and uses. The context for this exploration is academics’ participation in an online professional development module, Digital Education, and the “pivot online” (Weller, 2020a) during campus closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Through qualitative research, we explored participants’ sense of teaching identity, whether they had or have a concept of being a digital educator and the extent to which these …

A Media Archaeology Of Technologies Of Enchantment, Jane Hutchinson

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

This thesis explores how an understanding of an immaterial dimension of human experience was expressed and experienced in the context of nineteenth century engagement with science and technology. Drawing upon methods of media archaeology, it presents examples of visual technologies where apparatus and images representative of scientific and technological objectivity appear to have been appropriated and modified for the purpose of experiencing this dimension, an experience this thesis calls enchantment. The thesis suggests that some period specific behaviours associated with these visual technologies are sophisticated and subtle mechanisms that contribute to the affective and cognitive experience of enchantment. The flickering …

Social Identity Processes Involved In The Acceptance And Collective Actions Regarding Large-Scale Energy Technologies: The Case Of Deep Geothermal Energy In Cornwall, Wales And Scotland., Francesca Ausilia Tirotto

School of Psychology Theses

Deep geothermal energy has been recognised as an important contributor to future energy demand. However, the development of renewable energy technologies has seen public disagreement hindering the implementation of such technologies. The present study investigated social dimensions underlying public acceptance of deep geothermal energy. Adopting a social identity approach, the present research consisted of four studies. The first was a qualitative study which aimed to understand which socio-psychological dimensions were relevant in the acceptance of the first deep geothermal energy plant in Cornwall, UK. Based on this study and existing theory, a theoretical framework was developed which identified two possible …

Unstacking The Matryoshka Nesting Doll: A Self-Study Of Playful Language Instruction For Adult Second Language Learners, Marine Pepanyan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In the recent three decades teaching second language (L2) vocabulary has expanded from sentence-level morphosyntactic features and pragmatics to the promotion and advancement of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Nevertheless, the L2 instructors are constantly seeking alternative strategies for vocabulary teaching and assessment due to a superficial level of vocabulary memorization and lack of student engagement. As an instructor-practitioner, I undertook a self-study of the process of implementing Playful Language Instruction (PLI) of L2 vocabulary in an Intensive English Program. In this self-study I combined conceptual lenses of theories of play, CLT, and the Adult Learning Theory to examine how playful …

How Do We Use Creative And Personal Memories For Creative Communication?, Tyler Robert Montgomery

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Inspired by the author’s memories, KeyBoard Memories and You have the Right to Forget are two short stage plays exploring topics of identity, time, and justice. This thesis uses personal and creative memories to develop stories in the form of scripts. The thesis begins with an example of creative writing inspired by the author’s personal and creative memories and describes the purpose of the project before moving into a review of literature that explains what memories are, how they work, and the different types of memories. Then the method section describes the methods of journaling and scripting writing, and then …

Not Our Problem: Ingroup Glorification Facilitates Moral Disengagement And Exclusion, Matthew Gunderson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The present study examined how ingroup/outgroup identification and harm predict cognitive restructuring and the shifting of blame. Drawing on Moral Disengagement Theory (Bandura, 1999), which holds that individuals create a new version of reality that allows them to violate their moral beliefs, I hypothesized that implicating the ingroup, lower levels of perceived harm, and higher ingroup glorification would result in more moral disengagement. Integrating Moral Disengagement Theory with Moral Exclusion Theory (Opotow, 1990), I further hypothesized that moral exclusion—the removal of others from the moral community—would also be greater. 422 participants recruited over Prolific read a modified news article about …