Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Introducing Virginia’S Mobile Solution, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) and the 18 local departments of social services (LDSS) identified the lack of technological supports to help child welfare workers complete the administrative tasks of their job as a cause of turnover. The Virginia site rolled out the first part of their intervention (transcription services) in 2018 and is now preparing to roll out a mobile application in late fall 2019. This one-page summary describes COMPASS, Virginia’s mobile app designed to make it easier for workers to manage the administrative aspects of their job.

Nonlinear Reaction–Diffusion Process Models Improve Inference For Population Dynamics, Xinyi Lu, Perry J. Williams, Mevin B. Hooten, James A. Powell, Jamie N. Womble, Michael R. Bower

United States National Park Service: Publications

Partial differential equations (PDEs) are a useful tool for modeling spatiotemporal dynamics of ecological processes. However, as an ecological process evolves, we need statistical models that can adapt to changing dynamics as new data are collected. We developed a model that combines an ecological diffusion equation and logistic growth to characterize colonization processes of a population that establishes long-term equilibrium over a heterogeneous environment. We also developed a homogenization strategy to statistically upscale the PDE for faster computation and adopted a hierarchical framework to accommodate multiple data sources collected at different spatial scales. We highlighted the advantages of using a …

A Discussion Of Value Metrics For Data Repositories In Earth And Environmental Sciences, Cynthia Parr, Corinna Gries, Margaret O’Brien, Robert R. Downs, Ruth Duerr, Rebecca Koskela, Philip Tarrant, Keith E. Maull, Nancy Hoebelheinrich, Shelley Stall

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Despite growing recognition of the importance of public data to the modern economy and to scientific progress, long-term investment in the repositories that manage and disseminate scientific data in easily accessible-ways remains elusive. Repositories are asked to demonstrate that there is a net value of their data and services to justify continued funding or attract new funding sources. Here, representatives from a number of environmental and Earth science repositories evaluate approaches for assessing the costs and benefits of publishing scientific data in their repositories, identifying various metrics that repositories typically use to report on the impact and value of their …

The Skiles Mummy: Care Of A Debilitated Hunter-Gatherer Evidenced By Coprolite Studies And Stable Isotopic Analysis Of Hair, Kirsten A. Verostick, Isabel Teixeira-Santos, Vaughn M. Bryant Jr., Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

The Skiles Mummy (SMM), a naturally mummified adult male from the late archaic period of Lower Pecos Canyonlands of South Texas, represents a unique case of care. SMM is an exceptional mummy within this region due to both the retention of a full head of hair, and having a diagnosed case of megacolon, a complication commonly associated with Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Stable isotopic analysis of his hair is consistent with a diet incorporating of C₄/CAM plants with some C₃ plants, freshwater resources, and higher trophic level animals. However, the segments of hair most …

Review Of Cole, Paul M. Pow/Mia Accounting: Vol. 2: J*P*A*C And The Politics Of Human Skeletal Identification. Palgrave Macmillan. Isbn-13: 978e9811364655; Isbn-10: 9811364656. Xxxi Pages; 1002 Pages, William Belcher

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Dr. Paul M. Cole is an angry scholar. While he attempted to hold in his anger and frustration, he wasn't always successful. This book, unlike Vol. 1 (detailing Dr. Cole's involvement with the Cold War POW/MIA issues and his involvement in archival and policy decisions), is a more personal account of Dr. Cole's participation in the former Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC). JPAC was a military command within the Department of Defense that was the sole authority for the identification of missing US service members from past conflicts, particularly World War II, the Korean War, Southeast Asian Conflict, and the …

Potential Economic Impact Of The Goshen/Gering-Ft. Laramie Tunnel Collapse, Jessica J. Groskopf

Cornhusker Economics

Goshen and Scotts Bluff Counties reside in the High Plains and receive less than 16 inches of average annual precipitation. This low precipitation makes surface-water irrigation a critical component of modern agriculture in this area. Farmers in these counties produce irrigated alfalfa hay, corn, sugar beets, and dry edible beans, as well as other hay and crops.

Surface-water refers to water derived from melted snow that is delivered through a series of dams and canals from the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming along the North Platte River. This infrastructure, often referred to as “The North Platte Project,” was built by …

Network Effects In Blau Space: Imputing Social Context From Survey Data, Miller Mcpherson, Jeffrey A. Smith

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We develop a method of imputing ego network characteristics for respondents in probability samples of individuals. This imputed network uses the homophily principle to estimate certain properties of a respondent’s core discussion network in the absence of actual network data. These properties measure the potential exposure of respondents to the attitudes, values, beliefs, etc. of their (likely) network alters. We use American National Election Survey data (2016 ANES) to demonstrate that the imputed network features show substantial effects on individual level measures, such as political attitudes and beliefs. In some cases, the imputed network variable substantially reduces the effects of …

Permafrost Hydrology Drives The Assimilation Of Old Carbon By Stream Food Webs In The Arctic, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Joshua C. Koch, Xiaomei Xu, Brett A. Poulin, Jennifer Walker, Christian E. Zimmerman

United States National Park Service: Publications

Permafrost thaw in the Arctic is mobilizing old carbon (C) from soils to aquatic ecosystems and the atmosphere. Little is known, however, about the assimilation of old C by aquatic food webs in Arctic watersheds. Here, we used C isotopes (d13C, D14C) to quantify C assimilation by biota across 12 streams in arctic Alaska. Streams spanned watersheds with varying permafrost hydrology, from ice-poor bedrock to ice-rich loess (that is, yedoma). We measured isotopic content of (1) C sources including dissolved organic C (DOC), dissolved inorganic C (DIC), and soil C, and (2) stream biota, including benthic biofilm and macroinvertebrates, and …

Gender, Millennials, And Leisure Constraints: Exploring Golf’S Participation Decline, Lee Phillip Mcginnis, James W. Gentry, Trenton M. Haltom

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the dearth of research regarding why the golf industry, specifically in the United States, is stagnating and, in some cases, losing participants. We focus on why Millennials are not playing golf to the same extent as previous generations. This is a conceptual paper, drawing upon literature in sports, leisure, gender, and marketing to track the current trends in sports participation, leisure, and household production to determine the constraints that might limit golf participation. In this paper, we highlight gender as an important social structure and conceptual lens for understanding social changes, particularly among Millennials, which could also …

Designing Rigorous Tests Of Workforce Interventions In Complex Environments, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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Public child welfare agencies continually struggle with how to address issues of staff recruitment and retention. Furthermore, very little evidence exists regarding what works to attract, select, and retain talented staff. Much of what agencies do to address workforce issues is never formally evaluated and successes are not published widely. Thus, agencies confronted with urgent retention needs have little to go on to identify an intervention that is likely to succeed. The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) was funded by the Children’s Bureau to begin to address this issue, in part through carefully selected, and rigorously evaluated interventions …

Picturing Teacher Agency: Developing Upstanding Heuristics In A Middle Grades Social Studies Methods Course, Jennifer L. Gallagher, Jennifer Farley

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

This paper presents a multi-case study of teacher candidates in a pre-service middle grades social studies methods course. The study aimed to understand how middle grades teacher candidates viewed their future as upstanders with agency in middle grades settings. The focus of the research was on heuristic representations that the teacher candidates created to illustrate how they understood their role in supporting the democratic aims of middle grades social studies. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed through chordal triad of agency theory (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). The findings indicate that preservice teachers best understand their future as change agents through …

Trends In Well-Being In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Nebraska Rural Poll Research Report 19-3, Rebecca Vogt, Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Timothy Meyer, Jason L. Weigle

Rural Futures Institute: Publications

Nebraska’s economy remained strong in the beginning of 2019. However, the continued weakness of the agriculture sector had the possibility of hampering the state’s economic growth. In addition, the March flooding had the potential for negative economic effects. Given these challenges, how do rural Nebraskans feel about their community? Are they satisfied with the services provided by their community? How do rural Nebraskans believe they are doing and how do they view their future? How satisfied are they with various items that influence their well-being? Have these views changed over the past 24 years? This paper provides a detailed analysis …

De Las Escuelas De Estados Unidos A Las Escuelas De México: Desafíos De Política Educativa En El Marco De La Gran Expulsión [From Us Schools To Mexican Schools: Educational Policy Challenges In The Context Of The 'Great Expulsion'], Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This Spanish-language chapter, drawn from a larger book intended to advise Mexico's new national leadership on various issues related to migration, focuses on the steadily growing, overlapping populations of US-born and US-school-experienced children in youth now enrolled in Mexican schools. It notes that that population, numbering more than 600,000, is enrolled all across Mexico, albeit not equally distributed, with municipios (counties) with high international migration rates also hosting high return rates. Moreover it notes that this population's US school experiences were highly varied not only because of their different durations, but because schooling in urban Southern California varies from that …

Accelerating Scholarly Communication: The Transformative Role Of Preprints, Andrea Chiarelli, Rob Johnson, Emma Richens, Stephen Pinfield

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Five take-away messages:

Early and fast dissemination, increased opportunities for feedback and openness are seen as the main benefits of preprints.

The main concerns over preprints are the lack of quality assurance, media potentially reporting inaccurate research and journals rejecting articles if a preprint has been posted.

Twitter has been playing a key enabling role in the current second wave of preprints and preprint servers. It also appears to be the main way researchers are exposed to preprints in the first place.

It is not clear who will be responsible for posting preprints in the long-term – researchers or publishers? …

A Least Cost Analysis: Correlative Modeling Of The Chaco Regional Road System, Sean Field, Carrie Heitman, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

During the ninth through twelfth centuries A.D., Ancestral Pueblo people constructed long, straight roads that interconnected the Chaco regional system across the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. The intent and use of these features has eluded archaeological consensus, although recent research has reiterated the occurrence of long distance timber importation to Chaco Canyon. To enhance our interpretation of these features we offer a large-scale least cost analysis wherein optimal pathways that are modeled to simulate timber importation are compared to the actual road locations. A series of least cost paths were produced through different energy allocation algorithms, at …

Steering Science Through Output Indicators And Data Capitalism, Ulrich Herb

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Since the mid-1920s, a scientist's performance was tracked by using bibliometric information such as the number of publications or their citations. Today, there are unprecedented possibilities for controlling science by analysing data on production and use of scientific information, so that citations only play a subordinate role in the evaluation of science. To illustrate this change, we take a look at the history of the Dutch publishing house Elsevier and its metamorphosis into a research intelligence service provider, because it ideally reflects the new possibilities of logging and controlling science.

Information Resources For Animal Control And Wildlife Damage Management, Stephen M. Vantassel, Michael W. Fall, Serge Lariviére

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

A bumper sticker reads, “If you think education is expensive, you oughta try ignorance.” That statement could not be truer in regard to wildlife damage management. Being willing to learn is a critical attitude for everyone involved in wildlife damage management. Since wildlife damage management intersects so many other disciplines, no single person can be an expert in all of them. In addition, the arrival of an invasive species, changes in building practices (e.g., egress windows, ridge vents), or the implementation of new regulations can confound traditional practices and require new control methods. Thus, it is important to provide a …

Government Responses To Disinformation On Social Media Platforms: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, European Union, France, Germany, India, Israel, Mexico, Russian Federation, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Ruth Levush

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Comparative Summary by Ruth Levush, Senior Foreign Law Specialist, Law Library of Congress, Global Legal Research Directorate

Concerns regarding the impact of viral dissemination of disinformation on democratic systems of government, on political discourse, on public trust in state institutions, and on social harmony have been expressed by many around the world. These concerns are shared by countries with advanced economies as well as those with emerging and developing economies.

The term “disinformation” as used in this report refers to “false information deliberately and often covertly spread . . . in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.” …

Pubfair: A Framework For Sustainable, Distributed, Open Science Publishing Services, Tony Ross-Hellauer, Benedikt Fecher, Kathleen Shearer, Eloy Rodrigues

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Over the last thirty years, digitally-networked technologies have disrupted traditional media, turning business models on their head and changing the conditions for the creation, packaging and distribution of content. Yet, scholarly communication still looks remarkably as it did in the pre-digital age. The primary unit of dissemination remains the research article (or book in some disciplines), and today’s articles still bear a remarkable resemblance to those that populated the pages of Oldenburg’s Philosophical Transactions 350 years ago. In an age of such disruptive innovation, it is striking how little digital technologies have impacted scholarly publishing; and this is also somewhat …

Society Publishers Accelerating Open Access And Plan S - Final Project Report, Alicia Wise, Lorraine Estelle

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Wellcome, UKRI, and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) commissioned Information Power Ltd to undertake a project to support society publishers to accelerate their transition to Open Access (OA) in alignment with Plan S and the wider move to accelerate immediate OA. This project is part of a range of activity that cOAlition S partners are taking forward to support the implementation of Plan S principles. 27 business models and strategies that can be deployed by publishers to transition successfully to OA were published. We surveyed society publishers about their experience of and interest in these models, …

The Impact Of Responsive Feeding Practice Training On Teacher Feeding Behaviors In Tribal Early Care And Education: The Fresh Study, Kaysha Sleet, Susan B. Sisson, Dipti Dev, Charlotte Love, Mary B. Williams, Leah A. Hoffman, Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Establishing healthy eating habits early impacts lifelong dietary intake, which has implications for many health outcomes. With children spending time in early care and education (ECE) programs, teachers establish the daytime meal environment through their feeding practices.

Objective: To determine the effect of a teacher-focused intervention to increase responsive feeding practices in two interventions, one focused exclusively on the teacher’s feeding practices and the other focused on both the teacher’s feeding practices and a nutrition classroom curriculum in ECE teachers in a Native American (NA) community in Oklahoma.

Methods: Nine tribally-affiliated ECE programs were randomly assigned to an intervention: …

Going Beyond Defining: Preschool Educators' Use Of Knowledge In Their Pedagogical Reasoning About Vocabulary Instruction, Julie Dwyer, Rachel E. Schachter

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Previous research investigating both the knowledge of early childhood educators and the support for vocabulary development present in early childhood settings has indicated that both educator knowledge and enacted practice are less than optimal, which has grave implications for children's early vocabulary learning and later reading achievement. Further, the nature of the relationship between educators' knowledge and practice is unclear, making it difficult to discern the best path towards improved knowledge, practice, and children's vocabulary outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to add to the existing literature by using stimulated recall interviews and a grounded approach to examine …

Ag Lenders Panel Provides Insight Into Beef Systems Initiative, Jay Parsons, D. D. Redfearn, Mary E. Drewnoski

Cornhusker Economics

In 2017, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources (IANR) and Nebraska Extension made a commitment to implement a multidisciplinary Beef Systems Initiative (BSI). The BSI is administered by the Center for Grassland Studies and is comprised of six projects designed to develop and support the implementation of beef production systems that optimize feed resource use, natural resource conservation, and producer success in Nebraska through improved management of perennial grasslands and systems of integrated crop-beef cattle production. In addition to the BSI, a parallel project funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) is studying …

Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Child Welfare Workers, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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There is growing evidence to suggest that child welfare workers are experiencing high levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS) as a result of exposure to traumatized clients in crisis (e.g., Barbee, et al, 2018). The Quality Improvement Center on Workforce Development (QIC-WD) surveyed 1,113 front line child welfare workers in 13 jurisdictions between November, 2017 and March, 2018 using the Bride (2007) Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale as part of a comprehensive workforce needs assessment. An average of 54% of participants reported clinical levels of STS. When these elevated numbers are compared to the original Bride research of social workers, they …

Operationalizing The Big Collective Collection: A Case Study Of Consolidation Vs Autonomy, Lorcan Dempsey, Constance Malpas, Mark Sandler

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This is a discussion paper prepared in collaboration with the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Library Initiatives. It presents a framework for operationalizing the BTAA collective collection. A collective collection is a collection managed collaboratively across a network of libraries. We have a very specific focus in this paper on the ”purchased” or print collection, acknowledging that other areas of library collections are sometimes managed collectively, digitized collections for example. The BTAA justifiably claims to be the premier academic collaboration in the US. Once described as “the world's greatest common market in education3,” it leverages the combined research and teaching …

Document Images And Machine Learning: A Collaboratory Between The Library Of Congress And The Image Analysis For Archival Discovery (Aida) Lab At The University Of Nebraska, Lincoln, Ne, Yi Liu, Chulwoo Pack, Leen-Kiat Soh, Elizabeth Lorang

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

This presentation summarized and presented preliminary results from the first weeks of work conducted by the Aida research team in response to Library of Congress funding notice ID 030ADV19Q0274, “The Library of Congress – Pre-processing Pilot.” It includes overviews of projects on historic document segmentation, document classification, document quality assessment, figure and graph extraction from historic documents, text-line extraction from figures, subject and objective quality assesments, and digitization type differentiation.

Digitally-Mediated Practices Of Geospatial Archaeological Data: Transformation, Integration, & Interpretation, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristin Landau

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digitally-mediated practices of archaeological data require reflexive thinking about where archaeology stands as a discipline in regard to the ‘digital,’ and where we want to go. To move toward this goal, we advocate a historical approach that emphasizes contextual source-side criticism and data intimacy—scrutinizing maps and 3D data as we do artifacts by analyzing position, form, material and context of analog and digital sources. Applying this approach, we reflect on what we have learned from processes of digitally-mediated data. We ask: What can we learn as we convert analog data to digital data? And, how does digital data transformation impact …

Managing Farm/Ranch Transfer To Next Generation, Allan Vyhnalek

Cornhusker Economics

The first step to have the next generation come back to the farm or ranch is to get them there. The next step is to keep them there. This requires thought about how to transfer management and ownership of the operation over a period of time. Four phases of transfer have been identified and are discussed in this article.

The first phase is Testing. Before transferring management and ownership, the current owner needs to feel like the younger generation is ‘tested’ or able to effectively help with the operation. One older farmer said to me, “I think my sons want …

Accounting For Risk: Agricultural Land Leases And Natural Disasters, Jim Jansen, Jeffrey Stokes

Cornhusker Economics

According to recent findings from the USDA Agricultural and Resource Management Survey, agricultural land rent totaled $2.44 billion in Nebraska for 2018. The survey found rent as the third largest farm and ranch production expense (USDANASS 2019). Natural disasters limiting the ability of farmers or ranchers to fully utilize rented land pose a financial risk to these operators.

The 2019 floods and related natural disasters lave left many landlords and tenants across Nebraska wondering how resulting damages will influence their agricultural properties . Contractual lease arrangements may have not fully accounted for these natural disasters. This article provides guidance on …

Social Interactions Do Not Drive Territory Aggregation In A Grassland Songbird, S.K. Winnicki, S.M. Munguia, E.J. Williams, W.A. Boyle

United States National Park Service: Publications

Understanding the drivers of animal distributions is a fundamental goal of ecology and informs habitat management. The costs and benefits of colonial aggregations in animals are well established, but the factors leading to aggregation in territorial animals remain unclear. Territorial animals might aggregate to facilitate social behavior such as (1) group defense from predators and/or parasites, (2) cooperative care of offspring, (3) extra-pair mating, and/or (4) mitigating costs of extra-pair mating through kin selection. Using experimental and observational methods, we tested predictions of all four hypotheses in a tallgrass prairie in northeast Kansas, United States. Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) males …