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Thyreos Completes Seed Funding From Invest Nebraska, Strategic Angel Investors, Nebraska Combine

The Combine

First paragraph:

Thyreos (https://www.thyreosvaccines.com/), a vaccine company that is developing a novel vaccine platform that protects against a range of herpesviruses, has announced a $750,000 investment round led by Invest Nebraska with participation from other local angel investors in the animal health and veterinary space.

Lutz Strategic Analysis, Ashley Tyler

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Lutz, an accounting firm in Nebraska, was founded in 1980 and has grown radically since. It now has four divisions – Accounting, Finance, Talent, and Technology – and over 275 employees. When analyzing the external environment, a PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, and SWOT analyses were done. These found the external environment can have an impact on the industry, however, accounting is a job that will always be needed, and growth is almost always available. Lutz’s current strategy for growth is a resource-based view of the firm that involves being a one-stop-shop for customers. It is also looking for new firms …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: April 28, 2021, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The LEI-N rose by 1.49% during March 2021. The indicator has risen during each of the last six months, suggesting that the Nebraska economy will expand at a robust pace through the summer of 2021. In March, the leading indicator primarily rose due to strong business expectations and rising airline activity. The pace of recovery in airline passenger enplanements improved during March. In addition, March respondents to the Survey of Nebraska Business reported plans to increase sales and employment over the next six months. Manufacturing hours worked also rose in March while there was a small decline in initial claims …

Fourth Spring Meeting: April 23rd, 2021

Golf Management Program: Publications

Fourth Spring Meeting: April 23rd, 2021

PGM Student Club, PGA Golf Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Seductive Details In Training, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are seductive details?

In a learning environment, seductive details are interesting but unimportant details that are not necessary to achieve the instructional objective (Garner et al., 1989). The information may be tangentially related to the topic but is not relevant to the main teaching goal. Such details are often included for the purpose of making the topic more interesting and engaging. There are many potential types of seductive details; they can be visual, verbal, or aural—static or dynamic images (e.g., illustrations, photos, animations), written or spoken words (e.g., text, narration), or sounds (e.g., music; Sundararajan & Adesope, 2020).

Why …

Allianz Life Strategic Audit, Evan Powell

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Allianz Life is a company that specializes in creating life insurance and annuity products to wholesale to financial professionals. The company is based out of Minneapolis, MN, and is a subsidiary of the parent company Allianz SE. Allianz SE is the 46th largest company in the world and ranks number one for assets managed by an insurance company. Allianz SE is based out of Munich, Germany. This report aims to learn more about Allianz Life through internal and external analysis. The following analytical tools will be included: PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, and SWOT analysis. These tools help to explain the …

Pacific Life Strategic Analysis, Jake Litel-Smith

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Pacific Life is one of the most recognizable names in life insurance. The company is known for its brand and consistent delivery on its promises for over 150 years. This study shows a comprehensive analysis of Pacific Life, including external and internal considerations. Porter’s Five Forces and PESTEL will provide a guide to understanding the environment outside of the company. A SWOT analysis will provide a better grasp on the company’s current market position. The analysis will conclude with an understanding of Pacific Life’s current strategy and recommendations for its future success.

Cohen And Milstein Strategic Analysis, Noah Marik

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Cohen Milstein is a medium-sized law firm operating out of six U.S. cities. It is a boutique-style firm specializing in niche areas of law and litigates higher-profile cases other firms avoid. This paper will examine Cohen and Milstein to understand its market position and competitiveness within the legal industry. The legal industry provides a unique set of challenges to firms as technology advances, new laws are imposed, and customer relationships evolve. To explore Cohen and Milstein, I will employ various tools, including Porter’s Five Forces, PESTEL, and SWOT analyses. Following the firm's evaluation through these metrics, strategic recommendations will be …

Supporting The Child Welfare Workforce During The Coronavirus Pandemic: Provision Of Personal Protective Equipment, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

At the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic some child welfare jurisdictions required continued, in-person contact with children and families, and workers struggled to obtain appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, gloves, gowns, hand sanitizers, to protect themselves (and their families), as well as their clients. In March of 2020, the National Council on Juvenile Crime and Delinquency conducted a survey of juvenile justice and child welfare agencies in 20 states on agency response to COVID-19. Child welfare agency respondents reported that inadequate PPE was the most significant challenge they faced at that point in the pandemic. Survey recommendations included …

Supporting The Child Welfare Workforce During The Coronavirus Pandemic: Addressing Worker Stress And Trauma, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Studies and our own assessment of secondary trauma in the eight QIC-WD study sites indicate that up to 75% of child welfare caseworkers, especially those with high caseloads and exposure to traumatized families and children, are at risk of experiencing secondary traumatic stress and PTSD. The Coronavirus pandemic exacerbated an already beleaguered workforce. Data from previous pandemics is alarming. Research from the SARS pandemic indicates that survivors often developed PTSD which could last for many years. Those most affected were health care workers who, similar to child welfare workers, were impacted by the social isolation imposed by authorities to contain …

A Commonly Forgotten Tool In Retirement Planning: Health Savings Accounts, Austin Duerfeldt

Cornhusker Economics

Many individuals are aware of IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and others when starting to build their retirement portfolio. These plans all have their benefits and drawbacks that need to be accounted for. What surprises many is there is another tool that you may be qualified for and are underutilizing. A Health Savings Accounts commonly referred to as an HSA, has some interesting possibilities that could be useful. An HSA is a type of savings account that lets you set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualifying medical expenses. While you cannot generally use this money saved …

Supporting The Child Welfare Workforce During The Coronavirus Pandemic: Technology, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The child welfare workforce is responsible for ensuring children’s safety and well-being, delivering treatment, and intervention services to families. Workers must document child and family information, service plans, and visit records in secure data systems, that are often only accessible from an office. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, many states had to rapidly pivot to remote technology to conduct mandatory visits of children in foster care and engage in supervised visitation between children and their families. They also had to determine how to provide oversight of treatment and intervention services required through case plans even though many provider services had …

Workforce Scorecards, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

What Is a Child Welfare Workforce Scorecard?

A Workforce Scorecard is a tool that can be used to track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to workforce outcomes of interest. This approach is derived from the balanced scorecard (Kaplan & Norton, 1992) and HR scorecard (Becker, Huselid, & Ulrich, 2001) strategic planning tools. The process involves linking key strategic goals to workforce-related initiatives and KPIs to demonstrate the alignment between the outcomes being measured and overarching child welfare strategic goals. The scorecard allows agency leaders to monitor progress towards key HR and workforce objectives. The scope of the scorecard can be …

Pedagogical Agents, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are pedagogical agents?

Pedagogical agents are “lifelike characters presented on a computer screen that guide users through multimedia learning environments” (Clarebout & Heidig, 2012, p. 2568). Pedagogical agents can vary in multiple ways. The following characteristics have been most studied: appearance (two-dimensional [2D] vs. three-dimensional [3D]), eye gaze, facial expression, gesturing, motion, and gender. The simplest pedagogical agent would be a static, 2D image with just text, and a complex agent would be a dynamic, 3D person or character that talks, gestures, and has eye movements and facial expressions.

Why are pedagogical agents valuable?

Pedagogical agents are valuable because …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Intervention Background, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

What is the intervention and why was it selected? The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) conducted a comprehensive needs assessment with nine participating Ohio counties in partnership with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). The assessment revealed that organizational culture and climate across counties was above average in rigidity and resistance, and below average in engagement. In addition, over half of staff had recently experienced elevated levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS) symptoms. Supervision was also identified as a challenge at every level of the agencies (i.e., from directors to managers, managers to frontline supervisors, …

The Integral Of Education Technology In The Society, Prof. Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Abstract

Are there ways people can better utilize technology to suit their needs in the society of ours? It has been inferred that without technology, our lives would be miserable. The societal factors of using technology are an important area of the technical education system in the world. Are we really learning and using technologies to our advantage? Does technology provide the necessary ingredients or proper ways for the education of all in the society? A look into what constitutes the means and how technology education can be improved and be implemented is explored and emphasized in this work. The …

Twitchtv Strategic Analysis, Carter Matt

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

TwitchTV is a livestreaming platform that exists within the livestream community industry. It connects content creators known as streamers with viewers that can engage with the streamer and community via chat. This report seeks to provide an analysis of TwitchTV’s current position within this industry and provide recommendations for further developing its platform. It also seeks to analyze trends in the industry and environment that may affect TwitchTV in the short and long term. Specific tools utilized to analyze these trends and growth opportunities include a Porter’s Five Forces analysis, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis.

Trader Joe's Case Study, Madisson Magee

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

My senior project is focused around analyzing Trader Joe’s business model and writing a case study focusing on the management strategies of the company. I wanted to know what made them so successful and recognizable as brand in the grocery store industry. My case study is based off of a Harvard Business School published case. Not only did I want to understand their success, but also what factors impact them and what issues they face in maintaining a successful business model. To do this, I analyzed many aspects of their company, where they stand against competitors and internal and external …

Walmart Strategic Analysis, Christian Burbach

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This strategic analysis of Walmart touches on the factors that affect the business going forward. Ecommerce, PESTEL analyses, and other analyses come together in this article.

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: March 31, 2021, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The LEI-N rose by 1.05% during February 2021. The indicator has risen during each of the last five months, suggesting that the Nebraska economy will expand solidly through the summer of 2021. In February, the leading indicator primarily rose due to increased manufacturing activity and strong business expectations. There was a large increase in manufacturing hours worked and respondents to the February Survey of Nebraska Business reported plans to increase sales and employment over the next six months. Airline passenger counts also rose modestly, while there was a small decline in initial claims for unemployment insurance on a seasonally-adjusted basis. …

Third Spring Semester Meeting: March 26th, 2021

Golf Management Program: Publications

Third Spring Semester Meeting: March 26th, 2021

PGM Student Club, PGA Golf Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Data Visualization (Video), Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

Data visualization can communicate data in a clear, concise, and engaging way that is easy for us to understand. During the convening of the Institute, the QIC-WD Data Visualization Team lead, Robert Blagg, conducted a presentation on data visualization that addressed the following:

How to make data visualizations useful?

• How can you better collect and organize data to support visualization?
• How can you develop visualizations that respect visual perception of information?
• How can you better focus users on actionable findings?

To learn more about data visualization, watch Dr. Blagg’s 9-minute presentation.

Dr. Blagg’s Data Visualization Resource summarizes key …

Training Tests, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are training tests?

For this purpose, training tests include any form of knowledge assessment intended to gauge learning from training. Tests can be of varying lengths, formats (e.g., true/false, multiple choice, short answer), or labels (e.g., quiz, learning checks). The important feature is that they require learners to practice retrieving training-related information from memory. Thus, the focus here is on knowledge and understanding, versus skill acquisition.

Why are training tests valuable?

Training tests are valuable because the act of taking a test improves subsequent learning outcomes. More specifically, people who take a test perform better on later assessments of …

Building A Comprehensive Tree Index: Arbor Day Foundation Project, Coleman Cooper, Joe Dawson, Brock Wordekemper, Charlie Kramer, Evan Steinberger, Lauren Leapley

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA and the Tree Campus Higher Education programs create benefits for cities and colleges all over America by following the standards set forth in the application to the programs. The Arbor Day Foundation can use the insights received from this application to capitalize on this data and create value for the partner organizations.

Our recommendations to create value for the Arbor Day Foundation are:

1) Create a uniform Arbor Day Foundation Tree Index to apply to college campuses in Tree Campus Higher Education

2) Expand the use of the Arbor Day Foundation Tree Index …

Illusional Marketing: The Use Of Storytelling, User Experience And Gamification In Business, Adnan Veysel Ertemel

Zea E-Books Collection

“This book is a must-have for marketers who need to use a composite set of tools to break through the attention economy. The book is also for the general public who might be concerned about the growing and numbing screen time that takes people away from doing other things.” — Philip Kotler on Illusional Marketing

Digital platforms know how to “hook” consumers and keep them glued to the screen. These products were developed based on psychologists’ research into the way the human brain works. These are new weapons in the marketing toolkit that will become even more effective when combined …

Organizational Cynicism, Dana Hollinshead, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is organizational cynicism?

Organizational cynicism is defined as “a negative attitude toward one's employing organization, comprising three dimensions: (1) a belief that the organization lacks integrity; (2) negative affect toward the organization; and (3) tendencies to disparaging and critical behaviors toward the organization that are consistent with these beliefs and affect” (Dean et al., 1998, p. 345). Measures of organizational cynicism include statements such as “I’ve pretty much given up trying to make suggestions for improvements around here” (Tesluk et al., 1990, p. 283) and “I believe that [the organization] says one thing and does another” (Brandes et al., …

Advertising During The Covid-19 Global Pandemic: The Rise Of Influencer Marketing Strategies In A Recession, Bre Tenhulzen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States in January of 2020 and has since impacted nearly all industries, including advertising. Consumers, the guiding factors for all advertising strategies, faced drastic lifestyle changes and behavior shifts which sent current strategies askew. The virus has created insurmountable unknowns, thus advertising and marketing experts must rely on historical and recent data to develop strategies for brands forging ahead. COVID-19 is the first global crisis in the age of social media which has both helped and hindered communication during the crisis. Additionally, emerging influencer marketing strategies are proving more effective than ever as brands …

Coaching, Megan Paul, Tara Myers

Umbrella Summaries

What is coaching?

There is no single universally recognized definition of coaching. In the context of the workplace, common elements of coaching definitions include a one-on-one systematic relationship, learning, behavioral change, self-awareness, and improved performance (Grover & Furnham, 2016). Some notable differences in definitions include who receives the coaching, who conducts the coaching, the type of behavior change that is targeted, and the nature of the coaching behaviors. For example, several definitions focus more exclusively on top leaders receiving coaching from external, professional coaches (e.g., Kilburg, 1996); known more commonly as executive coaching, this was a common arrangement when workplace …

3d Printing Of Human Microbiome Constituents To Understand Spatial Relationships And Shape Parameters In Bacteriology, Jacques Izard, Teklu Kuru Gerbaba, Shara R. P. Yumul

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Effective laboratory and classroom demonstration of microbiome size and shape, diversity, and ecological relationships is hampered by a lack of high-resolution, easy-to-use, readily accessible physical or digital models for use in teaching. Three-dimensional (3D) representations are, overall, more effective in communicating visuospatial information, allowing for a better understanding of concepts not directly observable with the unaided eye. Published morphology descriptions and microscopy images were used as the basis for designing 3D digital models, scaled at 20,000×, using computer-aided design software (CAD) and generating printed models of bacteria on mass-market 3D printers. Sixteen models are presented, including rod-shaped, spiral, flask-like, vibroid, …

Second Spring Semester Meeting: February 26th, 2021

Golf Management Program: Publications

Second Spring Semester Meeting: February 26th, 2021

PGM Student Club, PGA Golf Management, University of Nebraska-Lincoln