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State: The Magazine Of Illinois State University, Winter 2025, Illinois State University, University Marketing And Communications

State: The Magazine of Illinois State University (1999-present)

Illinois State University alumni magazine

Eeg-Based Multi-Scale Perturbed Brain Cognitive Pattern Recognition Network For Gamer Level Classification, Lijun Jiang, Yanping Chen, Kexuan Liu, Xingyuan Chen, Li Dong, Weiya Ma, Diankun Gong, Dezhong Yao

General Human Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based classification of video game experts versus amateurs reveals cognitive brain patterns underlying complex abilities, with applications in attention modulation, medical rehabilitation, and health monitoring. While deep learning has advanced EEG-based cognitive state detection, challenges remain in extracting meaningful patterns from noisy data and preventing reverse inference attacks on user privacy. Here, we propose a novel multi-scale perturbed brain cognitive pattern recognition network (MsPE). Its key contributions are: (1) a multi-scale weak encryption method with attention mechanisms that protects privacy by perturbing EEG signals in temporal and frequency domains; (2) ConvFormer modules with adaptive channel sizes (3, 5, 15) …

The Moral Justifications Of The Justice-Experienced: Recidivism In Dark Triadic Morally Disengaging Offenders, Lacy Parrett

Scripps Senior Theses

Little is known about the cognitions of those who commit violent crimes; even less is known about the justification process of those who reoffend after completing a prison sentence. The proposed study suggests analyzing the moral disengagement strategies and personality traits of incarcerated adults to identify recidivism risk factors. Current literature indicates that nonhomicide violent offenders’ use of moral disengagement cognitions that justify the violation of socially accepted morals will moderate the relationship between psychopathic, Machiavellian, and narcissistic personality traits and offenders’ risks of recidivating. Furthermore, it is anticipated that an interaction will exist between moral disengagement and this so-called …

Cashing In Or Giving Back: The Role Of Film Tax Incentives In The Cultural Impact Of Runaway Productions, Karolina Krok

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the internationalization of Hollywood through economic and creative runaway productions driven by international tax incentives. It examines how these incentives can impact not only the commercial but the cultural success of productions filmed abroad, focusing on regions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, California, New York, and New Jersey. The analysis centers on cultural tests and diversity requirements, revealing two main approaches: the first requires a minimum of diversity standards and cultural tests points to be met, while the second prioritizes and rewards productions with the highest achieved assessment of those. Furthermore, …

The Association Between Obstetric Violence And Postpartum Depression Among Latina Women In The United States: An Integrative Review, Natalia Alameda

Scripps Senior Theses

Obstetric violence, a structural form of gender-based violence, involves abuse, mistreatment, or neglect by healthcare providers during obstetric care. It is often associated with childbirth trauma and may result in physical and psychological harm to mothers and children, including postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is a major depressive episode occurring during pregnancy or within four weeks following delivery. While these concepts are often studied independently, few studies examine their intersection, particularly among Latina women in the United States. To address this gap, an integrative literature review was conducted to explore the association between obstetric violence and postpartum depression among Latina women. …

Garcia De Orta And The Colloquies: The Role Of Imperialism And Colonialism In Shaping Knowledge During The Scientific Revolution, Anabhra Singh

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the role of Portuguese doctor Garcia de Orta (1501–1568) and his Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India within the broader framework of the Scientific Revolution, emphasizing the interplay of imperialism, colonialism, and transnational knowledge exchanges in shaping knowledge production. Traditional narratives of the Scientific Revolution often focus on European advancements in physics and astronomy. However, recent scholarship highlights the contributions of non-European knowledge systems and the significant role of empire and trade networks in advancing scientific inquiry. Although Orta’s findings were not novel, the novelty of his text lay in its seamless integration of European, …

Inflammatory Mediators And The Rage Pathway In Placental Tissues Of Pregnancies Complicated By Severe Preeclampsia, Neelima Chandra, Thomas D. Kimble, Kathleen R. Heim, Sharon M. Anderson, Andrew P. Wong, Andrea R. Thurman, Gustavo F. Doncel

CONRAD Publications

Introduction: Preeclampsia (PE) is a complex multisystem disorder of pregnancy associated with abnormal placentation, vascular anomalies, and systemic inflammation and hypertension. Previous research assessing inflammatory triggers of the condition used plasma, amniotic fluid, or explant samples. Studies using placental tissue from either vaginal or cesarean deliveries are confined to semiquantitative analysis using subjective scoring methods and generally involve a small sample size.

Methods: In this study, we have quantified the expression of inflammatory mediators by immunohistochemical image analysis of archived placental tissues obtained from cesarean delivery of preeclamptic, chorioamnionitic, and normal pregnancies.

Results: Among the inflammatory mediators, we found a …

Arbitrator Selection Default Rules, Irene M. Ten Cate

American University Law Review

This Article makes the case for changing the default settings for the selection of arbitrators in international commercial arbitration. For three-member tribunals, the rules of most international arbitration institutions provide that each party picks an arbitrator. The institution or the co-arbitrators then select the tribunal’s president. This prescription, which parties may set aside by agreement, codifies longstanding practices and corresponds to the strong preference of international arbitration insiders. Nonetheless, I argue that arbitration rules should default toward institutional selection of all arbitrators.

Switching the default nudges parties that can’t take full advantage of the arbitrator selection game—due to inexperience, lack …

Shrines Of Discrimination: A Comparative Exploration Of American And Indian Approaches To Balancing Religious Freedom And Equal Rights, Sree Vedala

MC Law Review

Religious freedom and equality, foundational human rights, often clash in legal contexts, particularly when religious practices justify discriminatory actions. The U.S. judiciary has grappled with this tension, as exemplified in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Yeshiva University v. YU Pride Alliance. These cases reflect opposing judicial tendencies: deference to religious beliefs versus prioritization of equality. However, neither case established a clear framework for balancing these rights. This article examines India’s "essentiality test," which assesses whether a religious practice is integral to a faith, as a potential model for resolving such conflicts. By comparing U.S. and Indian …

Securing The Internet Of Wetland Things (Iowt) Using Machine And Deep Learning Methods: A Survey, Guma Ali, Wamusi Robert, Maad M. Mijwil, Malik Sallam, Jenan Ayad

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

Wetlands are essential ecosystems that provide ecological, hydrological, and economic benefits. However, human activities and climate change are degrading their health and jeopardizing their long-term sustainability. To address these challenges, the Internet of Wetland Things (IoWT) has emerged as an innovative framework integrating advanced sensing, data collection, and communication technologies to monitor and manage wetland ecosystems. Despite its potential, the IoWT faces substantial security and privacy risks, compromising its effectiveness and hindering adoption. This survey explores integrating machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques as solutions to address the security threats, vulnerabilities, and challenges inherent in IoWT ecosystems. The …

Self-Attention Enhanced Dual Bigru For Arabic Fake News Detection, Baqer M. Merzah, Jafar Razmara, Jaber Karimpour

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

The rapid proliferation of social media platforms has greatly amplified the dissemination of fake news, representing significant obstacles to public trust and evidence-based decision-making, particularly for the Arabic-speaking population. Meeting the challenge of Arabic fake news detection is a problem compounded by the complex morphological nature of the language, as well as limited resources. This study presents a hybrid deep learning framework that integrates two Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Units (BiGRUs) along with an attention mechanism for efficiently detecting misinformation in Arabic news. The method leverages FastText word embeddings for disambiguating the intricate semantics of the Arabic language. The model is …

End-To-End License Plate Detection And Recognition In Iraq Using A Detection Transformer And Ocr, Younis Al-Arbo, Hanaa F. Mahmood, Asmaa Alqassab

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR), DEtection TRansformer (DETR), Deep Learning for Object Detection, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Region-Specific Vehicle Identification

Pickin In Petticoats: Lotta Crabtree And Women In The Elevation Of The Banjo, Michael Wright

World Music Textbook

This chapter explores early 20th century efforts to distance the banjo from its African American roots to meet the demands of a rising market of women players, highlighting actress Lotta Crabtree's influential role in reshaping the instrument's identity.

Computer Vision-Based Framework For Data Extraction From Heterogeneous Financial Tables: A Comprehensive Approach To Unlocking Financial Insights, Iftakhar Ali Khandokar, Priya Deshpande

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Information extraction from financial document images is crucial in computer vision and NLP, as financial data often exists in image or PDF format, enabling organizations to analyze and make informed business decisions using OCR advancements. The table contents of financial document images are one of the prominent structures to confine important portions of data of the document and many Deep learning-based methods have been proposed to detect Table regions inside document images. The shortcomings of the current approach are that it is bounded within the detection of the table region and struggles in cases such as handling different layouts and …

‘An Intriguing But Ambiguous Privilege’: Adventures In Franco-Irish Relations Through The Prism Of The Diplomatic Meal, Elaine Mahon

Books/Book Chapters

This essay discusses the welcome banquet held in February 1945 in honour of the newly appointed French diplomatic envoy to Ireland, Jean Rivière, hosted by Éamon de Valera at Iveagh House, the headquarters of the Irish Department of External Affairs. The banquet took place at a moment when ‘an intriguing but ambiguous privilege’ had been granted by Charles de Gaulle’s Provisional Government to Ireland as the only country permitted to retain its diplomatic representative to France in the post-liberation period. Following the fall of the Vichy regime and the liberation of France in August 1944, de Gaulle’s government de- manded …

Psychological Reactance Theory And Tax Evasion Intentions, Diana Falsetta, Brian C. Spilker

Faculty Publications

This study experimentally examines how tax administration service inefficiencies in the form of tax return processing delays from paper-filed tax returns indirectly affect taxpayer tax evasion intentions through taxpayers’ psychological reactance to the delay. We further consider whether this indirect effect is different when the taxpayer willingly chooses to paper file their tax return versus when the taxpayer is forced to do so. Consistent with Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT), we find that when taxpayers receive delayed refunds, they experience psychological reactance (e.g., anger and frustration with the tax administration) that increases their tax evasion intentions. Further, we find that the …

An House For The Lord: Solomon's Temple And Temple Worship In Ancient Israel, Dan Belnap

Faculty Publications

It would not be exaggeration to say that at the center of Old Testament history and theology is covenantal worship and the temple. From the Garden of Eden to the altars constructed by Abraham and the patriarchs, and the portable tabernacle of Moses, the concept of sacred space plays a fundamental role throughout biblical history and in the life of ancient Israel. But during the period of the monarchy, it became possible to construct a permanent house for the Lord. Thus, the construction and dedication of the temple are the primary subject within Solomon’s narrative arc. This chapter explores the …

Redesigning Executive Incentives: The Rising Role Of Subjective Performance Measures, Zackery D. Fox

Faculty Publications

Despite the growing use of subjective performance incentives used in executive bonuses, empirical evidence on their effectiveness remains inconclusive. This study explores three aspects of subjective metrics in bonus plan design: their prevalence, the goals they target, and their impact on managerial behavior and firm outcomes. First, I document 53.8 percent of CEO bonus plans include at least one subjective performance measure, and among these plans, an average of 38.9 percent of total bonus weight is allocated to these measures. Using machine learning, I show subjective metrics target incentives related to employees, firm culture, and executive performance. Second, using the …

Farmers' Experiences Of Transitioning Towards Agroecology: Narratives Of Change In Western Europe, Maria Markiewicz-Keszycka, Áine Macken-Walsh, Aileen Carter, Simon Mooney, Emma J. Devereux, Maeve Henchion, Paul Hynds

Conference papers

Transitioning to agroecology on dairy and beef farms is touted as a sustainable response to environmental externalities. The current study conducted narrative interviews with farmers who transitioned towards agroecological food production by implementing pro-environmental diversification measures in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and France. The study aimed to determine farmers' experiences of agroecology and used a thematic approach for the analysis. Results indicate that the motivations, values and principles of farmers transitioning to agroecology are closely aligned with the ideology of the new/peasantry. Farmers' decisions were primarily influenced by ecological principles and a sense of responsibility towards environmental …

Social Care Worker: The Shaping Of An Emerging Title., Martin Power

Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies

The inclusion of the title social care worker in the Health and Social Care Professionals Act (2005) was a crucial development in the journey toward the professionalisation of social care work. With the two year grand-parenting window for entry to the register closed at the end of November 2025, the regulation of social care work has now begun. While this will mean that a definitive number rather than estimates of the number of social care workers in Ireland will be available, ambiguities remain. For example, in spite of the passing of two decades since the inclusion of social care worker …

The Influence Of Financial Data Subscriptions On Analyst Research, Braiden Coleman, Travis Dyer, Mark Lang

Faculty Publications

We use disclosed “source” data from analyst reports to infer brokerage financial data subscriptions (FDS) and investigate their effects on analyst research. When brokerages add FDS, their analysts’ forecast accuracy increases. Effect sizes are at least as large as those for analyst experience, busyness, and brokerage size. Benefits are largest for less experienced and busier analysts with less private access to management forecasting over longer horizons. Although adding new FDS benefits individual analysts, there is substantial overlap in FDS across brokerages, leading to homogenized market views. Specifically, when brokerages have overlapping FDS, their analysts’ forecasts, timing, boldness, recommendations, report content, …

The Future Performance Implications Of Non-Gaap Motivated Investment, Minkwan Ahn, Theodore E. Christensen, Ryan G. Johnson, Melissa F. Lewis-Western

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether consistent non-GAAP reporting is associated with investment efficiency. Prior research finds a positive association between non-GAAP reporting and investment levels, concluding that it represents overinvestment. We corroborate this positive association, but additional tests are not consistent with the conclusion of inefficient overinvestment. Specifically, we explore the relation between investment and future cash flows as a proxy for the realization of investments in positive net present value projects. We find that the investments of firms that consistently report non-GAAP metrics are associated with similar or higher future cash flows than the investments of firms reporting only GAAP earnings, …

W448-002b-03 - College Of Visual And Performing Arts: Theatre And Dance: Theater Season Records, College Of Visual And Performing Arts

University Archives Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Epistolary Technologies Of Separation And Archives Of Emotion, James Daybell

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Intertidal Encounters: Centre For Sustainable Practice In The Arts Quarterly, Sarah Blissett, James Jordan Johnson, Cherry Truluck, Anastasia (A) Alevtin, Monstera Deliciosa, Arbonauts, Sam Hodge, Olga (F) Koroleva

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Intertidal Encounters ask: what are the stories cast up by intertidal being/s and how do they come to matter?

Keynote: New Myths For New Realities: Being 'Up And Doing' In Plymouth, Angela Piccini, Sefryn Penrose

School of Art, Design and Architecture

In this talk, Sefryn Penrose and Angela Piccini discuss projects they've developed as 37 Looe Street Gallery and as arts and heritage consultancy Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic (ButCH). From swanning down the Tamar to the sea to devising and running Gullfest to working as consultants contributing strategy, policy, education, interpretation, and evaluation work for coastal organisations, Sef and Angela are committed to blurring boundaries between creative practice and professional heritage practice as joint forms of world-building. In response to the symposium's focus, Sef and Angela will highlight the importance of working with change and 'loss' through myth, humour …

Extreme Value Theory Analysis Of High Emitter Trends Across Four Us Cities From 1995 To 2021, M. Matti Maricq, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

Extreme value theory provides a direct means to characterize the distribution of high emitters within a vehicle fleet and calculate statistical confidence intervals for comparisons. Defining a “high emitter” as the maximum emitter in a random sample of N vehicles implies in the limit of large N that high emitters follow an extreme value distribution, comprised of three distinct domains. The analysis of over twenty years of roadside remote sensing emissions measurements in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Tulsa reveals clear differences between gasoline vehicle high emitter distributions across pollutants (hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitric oxide (NO)), but …

Prevalence And Concentrations Of Four Waste-Pathogen Combinations From Land-Spreading Across High-Income, Temperate Regions: Meta-Modelling And Distribution Fitting For Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (Qmra), Jennifer E M Mccarthy, Paul D Hynds, Declan J Bolton, Jesús M Frías Celayeta

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

No abstract provided.

Understanding Truth And Reconciliations Processes In An Art-Based Community Project Which Addresses Experiences Of Iatrogenic Harm In Mental Health Services, Joseph French

School of Psychology Theses

Research suggests that some service users may have harmful experiences of mental health services. Truth and reconciliations processes have addressed systemic harm in other contexts. However, these are complex and may have positive and negative impacts. Eight interviews were conducted with seven members of a community arts group which uses a truth and reconciliations approach. Members create art to express harmful experiences of the mental health system and display it at exhibitions where mental health professionals are invited to engage with it. The researcher used a constructivist grounded theory informed approach to understand how artists experienced a truth and reconciliations …

Exploring Individuals’ Experiences Of Working With Probation Who Have Personality Disorder: A Community-Based Participatory Action Research Approach., Nikki Morfey

School of Psychology Theses

Utilizing a Community-Based Participatory Action Research approach, semi-structured interviews were used to explore seven individuals’ experiences of working with Probation who self-identified as screening into the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the data resulted in the construction of six Group Experiential Themes. Findings reflect participant confusion with the Personality Disorder label in light of feeling it was imposed without discussion, speaking to their experiences of the power dynamic in the probation relationship. Participants described being reduced to a case to be managed, with no space to be seen as a person, and a gap between …