Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Nia Project: Baseline Report, Eunice N. Muthengi, Emily Farris, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The onset of puberty and menarche is a particularly vulnerable time for girls, when external pressures are exacerbated by their lack of knowledge of their bodies, their rights, and the implications of their decisions, and by their inability to manage puberty and adolescence safely and comfortably with appropriate menstrual health and hygiene management (MHM) products. Although several programs have previously been developed to address girls’ MHM needs globally, few have been evaluated, and where evidence does exist the results have been mixed. In collaboration with ZanaAfrica, the Population Council is evaluating the Nia Project, a set of interventions for adolescent …

The Nia Project: Baseline Survey Instruments, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document includes all of the Nia Project baseline survey instruments used to collect data in Kenya, providing a multidimensional description of a sample of the participating girls and the schools they attend. The Project is one of the first randomized controlled trials to explore the role of sanitary pad distribution and reproductive health education—individually and in combination—to improve girls’ educational and sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The study collected data from 3,489 girls from 140 schools in three rural Kilifi subcounties: Magarini, Kaloleni, and Ganze.

The Nia Project—Brief, Eunice N. Muthengi, Emily Farris, Karen Austrian

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This brief provides highlights from the Nia Project conducted in Kenya. The study found that while gaps exist in girls’ capabilities, particularly knowledge and attitudes related to menstruation and reproductive health, the Nia Project has the potential to bridge those gaps. The Project is one of the first randomized controlled trials to explore the role of sanitary pad distribution and reproductive health education—individually and in combination—to improve girls’ educational and sexual and reproductive health outcomes. The findings of this study will make a critical contribution to filling an evidence gap in the field of menstrual health and hygiene management, and …

Understanding The Lives Of Adolescents And Young Adults (Udaya) In Uttar Pradesh, India (2015–16), K.G. Santhya, Rajib Acharya, Neelanjana Pandey, Ashish Kumar Gupta, Shilpi Rampal, Santosh Kumar Singh, A.J. Francis Zavier

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The goal of the program of research titled “Understanding the lives of adolescents and young adults (UDAYA) in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh” is to establish the levels, patterns, and trends in the situation of younger (10–14) and older (15–19) adolescents and to assess factors that influence the quality of transitions they make. The study is designed to provide robust insights on how investments in adolescents influence their life course by the time they reach young adulthood; enable evidence-based decisions on the types of programs worthy of scale-up; and furnish important baseline indicators against which the long-term impact of programs can …

Understanding The Lives Of Adolescents And Young Adults (Udaya): Bihar, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Understanding the lives of adolescents and young adults (UDAYA) is a program of research conducted by the Population Council which seeks to: explore the situation and needs of younger (10−14 years) and older (15−19 years) adolescents; describe changes in their situation and needs over time; and assess factors that determine the quality of their transitions from adolescence to young adulthood. UDAYA, implemented from 2015 to 2020, uses community-based repeated cross-sectional surveys, panel surveys, and qualitative methods. With its geographical focus on Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in India, UDAYA illustrates the lives of every fourth adolescent in that country and every …

How Can You Analyze Propaganda Posters? - Introduction, Pamela Nestor

Cold War & Space Race

This infographic provides instructions to teach students how to analyze propaganda posters in a design similar to a propaganda poster. The first example of propaganda was distributed to children on gum wrappers first published in 1947 by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, Minnesota. The second poster was from WWII in 1943 and the third was designed by Dal Holcomb in 1942. The last two were to encourage citizens to not share government secrets.

The Contribution Of Sense Of Place To Social-Ecological Systems Research: A Review And Research Agenda, Vanessa A. Masterson, Richard C. Stedman, Johan Enqvist, Maria Tengö, Matteo Giusti, Darin Wahl, Uno Svedin

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

To develop and apply goals for future sustainability, we must consider what people care about and what motivates them to engage in solving sustainability issues. Sense of place theory and methods provide a rich source of insights that, like the socialecological systems perspective, assume an interconnected social and biophysical reality. However, these fields of research are only recently beginning to converge, and we see great potential for further engagement. Here, we present an approach and conceptual tools for how the sense of place perspective can contribute to social-ecological systems research. A brief review focuses on two areas where relation to …

The Flipside Of Industrial 4.0 : Cyber Security Risk, Pratichi Rajan Mallick

Award-winning Essays

Prize-winning paper for the 2017 Bureau Internationale des Containers (BIC) essay contest.

In the current scenario of market volatility and globalization, the shipping industry is under immense pressure in terms of growth, revenue expansion, trading condition and cost optimization. From the advent of steam powered vessels to the current fiasco of autonomous vessel, the industry has evolved albeit slowly to a data focused industry. The wave of data collection, sharing and utilization to optimize operations via automation is the next phase of industry revolution, Industry 4.0. The convergence of real and virtual worlds as a result of digitalization has been …

Increasing Participation And Improving Engagement In Home Visitation: A Qualitative Study Of Early Head Start Parent Perspectives, Grace S. Hubel, Alayna Schreier, Brian L. Wilcox, Mary Fran Flood, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Home visitation programs are designed to provide comprehensive services that promote parents’ abilities to create stable, nurturing care environments for their children. In order for program goals to be met, parents must participate actively and be engaged with the programs’ mission. However, promoting engagement and participation are complex processes that have been understudied in research on home visitation. The current qualitative study examined how a national, federally funded home visitation program, Early Head Start (EHS), engaged and retained families so that potentially helpful preventative interventions could be delivered. The study also identified barriers to active engagement. Semistructured interviews were conducted …

Age Of Migration Life Expectancy With Functional Limitations And Morbidity Among Mexican Americans, Marc A. Garcia, Luis M. Valderrama-Hinds, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Miriam S. Mutambudzi, Nai-Wei Chen, Mukaila Raji

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The U.S. Mexican American population enjoys longer life expectancies relative to other racial/ethnic groups but is disproportionately affected by chronic conditions and functional limitations. Studying the impact of heterogeneity in age, time and other characteristics of migration among older Mexican Americans can inform our understanding of health disparities and health care needs in later-life. This research employed 20 years of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to assess the proportion of life spent with functional limitations and one or more morbidity (by age of migration and gender) in the United States Mexican American …

Tier 3 Intervention: Expulsion, Natalie Hoff, Shir Palmon, Allie Heifner, Reece L. Peterson

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Conclusion

Expulsion is a disciplinary consequence that has been around for many years and serves the purpose of removing students who violate the school codes of conduct or pose an immediate threat to the school. While this strategy was created with school safety in mind, it has been found to lead to serious detrimental outcomes for students and has apparently been over used due to zero tolerance policies. Not only do schools use this strategy for behaviors for which it was not intended, it is also applied disproportionally to students based on ethnicity, gender, and disability status. To address these …

Mapping Quality Of Life In Nebraska: The Geographic Distribution Of Poverty, Grant Daily, Rodrigo Cantarero, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Soo-Young Hong, Sarah Taylor, Aileen Garcia, Jeong-Kyun Choi, Yan Ruth Xia

Mapping Quality of Life in Nebraska

Headings:

What is poverty?

Federal definitions of poverty: the poverty line

General poverty and poverty brackets

Poverty and vulnerable populations

Child poverty (under 18 years)

Young child poverty (0 - 5 years)

School age poverty (6 - 17 years)

Elderly poverty (65+)

Comparing child, adult, and elderly poverty

Minority poverty

Key points

Nebraska vs. United States

Geographic distribution

Poverty in children and the elderly

Poverty rates for racial/ethnic minorities

References

Athletes Quality Of Life After Retirement, Kevin Estrada

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Professional athletes have had a long life of being able to compete in the sport they love. Once retried, most athletes quality of life worsens. Injuries and the dramatic change from competing sets up a former athlete for adversity. Most people believe that athletes are privileged individuals that earn too much money for the work they do. However, consequences such as bankruptcy, depression, and even suicide points otherwise.

●The findings show that although athletes might have a gifted early life the quick change in lifestyle sets them up for failure. Also I agree that former athletes have a worse quality …

Gender Pay Gap In Athletics, George Siliman

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

The pay gap is a measure of what women are paid relative to men. It is important to to minimize the gender pay gap in athletics so it can successfully help society move in forward progression and not hinder on the past. The effects on women in professional sport setting, and the overall difference between males and females in athletics all play a significant role on the fluctuated pay gap.

Women play a prominent role in athletics but the lack of compensation devalues them as competitors and athletes. In sum, I learned about the fluctuation of the pay gap between …

Fight For Equality, Edgar A. Ruiz-Guaderrama

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

The great author Jane Austen lived during a time period in which there was a patriarchal society installed which made it quite difficult for women rights similar to the Victorian Era. Both in Jane Austen’s society and the Victorian Era, there were huge gaps in gender equality. The society at the time made it easy for men to run everything that happened in society which in turn lead to women being at a huge disadvantage.Jane Austen showed people many examples of this inequality in her book Pride and Prejudice It is crucial as a society to improve from and correct …

Assisted Suicide, Valerie Ontiveros

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Assisted suicide is when a physician helps a terminally ill patient die without pain. As of right now, it is illegal in most states. Organizations about this issue were organized in the late 1930's (Humphry). According to Pro-Con. Org, 79% of patients requested assisted suicide even before they came terminally ill –if it got to that point.

Many states have different laws on assisted suicide. In no doubt, these patients go through a tremendous amount of pain and no one but themselves should decide when enough is enough. Technological advances have allowed this generation to help aid a person when …

What Do Undergraduate Students Know About Scholarly Communication? A Mixed Methods Study, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Merinda Kaye Hensley

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Amid movements that recognize undergraduate students as knowledge creators, transformative work is being done at the intersection of information literacy and scholarly communication. Absent from the literature so far is research related to students’ perception and understanding of scholarly communication. This paper reports a mixed methods study at two major research universities in the United States, where undergraduate student researchers were surveyed and interviewed about their scholarly communication practices and perceptions. This work informs development of programming at the intersection of scholarly communication and information literacy in general, and for those involved with undergraduate research experiences in particular.

New Outreach Initiatives At A Community College, Sharell Walker

Publications and Research

This article explores the development and initiation of new outreach programs by the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) Library department after the hiring of a new librarian. The literature review will address current research that was used in the decision making process whilst putting together outreach initiatives and literature used to develop future ideas. The article discusses the development of these outreach initiatives, the problems encountered during their initial implementation, the outcomes of the programs that were offered, feedback, and the future goals of the library department.

Sexually Dimorphic Aggression Indicates Male Gray Wolves Specialize In Pack Defense Against Conspecific Groups, Kira A. Cassidy, L. David Mech, Daniel R. Macnulty, Daniel R. Stahler, Douglas W. Smith

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Aggression directed at conspecific groups is common among gregarious, territorial species, and for some species such as gray wolves (Canis lupus) intraspecific strife is the leading cause of natural mortality. Each individual in a group likely has different measures of the costs and benefits associated with a group task, such as an aggressive attack on another group, which can alter motivation and behavior. We observed 292 inter-pack aggressive interactions in Yellowstone National Park between 1 April 1995 and 1 April 2011 (>5300 days of observation) in order to determine the role of both sexes, and the influence of pack, …

A Serosurvey Of Diseases Of Free-Ranging Gray Wolves (Canis Lupus) In Minnesota, Usa, Michelle Carstensen, John H. Giudice, Erik C. Hildebrand, J. P. Dubey, John Erb, Dan Stark, John Hart, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech, Steve K. Windels, Andrew J. Edwards

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

We tested serum samples from 387 free-ranging wolves (Canis lupus) from 2007 to 2013 for exposure to eight canid pathogens to establish baseline data on disease prevalence and spatial distribution in Minnesota’s wolf population. We found high exposure to canine adenoviruses 1 and 2 (88% adults, 45% pups), canine parvovirus (82% adults, 24% pups), and Lyme disease (76% adults, 39% pups). Sixty-six percent of adults and 36% of pups exhibited exposure to the protozoan parasite Neospora caninum. Exposure to arboviruses was confirmed, including West Nile virus (37% adults, 18% pups) and eastern equine encephalitis (3% adults). Exposure rates …

The Missing Piece: Assessing Implementation Fidelity, Megan Hodge, Laura W. Gariepy

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Two years ago, our library merged three desks as well as people from three different departments to staff that desk. As part of this consolidation, we developed a new model for answering patron questions that incorporated chat/text, an on-call system, and referrals.

Before assessing whether this new service model was an improvement for our patrons, we first assessed whether we had implemented the model as it was originally envisioned in order to determine whether any failures were a result of the model itself or how the library had implemented the concept of the model. This recipe will introduce the concept …

Creating A Sustainable Graduate Student Workshop Series, Bettina Peacemaker, Martha Roseberry

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose - This paper reports on librarians’ experience creating and sustaining a workshop and webinar series for graduate students over the course of four years.

Design/methodology/approach - Difficulties hosting and promoting stand-alone graduate workshops and a collaborative method for planning workshop days and webinars are described in this case study. Attendance data were collected and recorded for each event and additional quantitative data were collected via registration forms and post-event surveys.

Findings - Working collaboratively as a department eased planning and promotional responsibilities, allowing for a sustainable workshops series. Focusing on a limited number of events per semester and developing …

Loss And Renewal: My Sicilian Roots In New Orleans, Lyndsey Nuebel

4.Inheritances

Lyndsey Neubel reflects on her upbringing in Slidell, Louisiana and her Sicilian family’s roots in the New Orleans area. Using frameworks of critical whiteness, she examines how the suburban environment of Slidell shaped her sense of self and heritage. Neubel’s grandfather tells her about their family’s immigration story, his Sicilian-American identity, and family life in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans. Nuebel explores how racism, segregation, and white flight shaped urban space and the suburbanization of the North Shore. She then analyzes how these sociocultural dynamics affected her preconceptions about New Orleans when she began attending the New Orleans Center …

Upfront: A Way Of Life On Barataria Boulevard, Shelbey Leco

4.Inheritances

Leco examines the culture of the West Bank of New Orleans and her Sicilian, Filipino, and Cajun French heritage. Opening with a detailed ethnographic description of a typical scene in the West Bank Walmart parking lot, Leco frames her thoughts about her hometown of Marrero, Louisiana. In conversations with her parents, Leco learns about her family’s immigration stories, occupations, and foodways. Leco’s paternal great-grandfather was a first generation Filipino-American who lived and worked in Manila Village, a Filipino fishing community on an island in Barataria Bay. Leco then describes her religious upbringing, the Immaculate Conception Parish community, and the cultural …

How China Is Preparing For An Ai-Powered Future, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) research and development (R&D) may be challenged by China’s recent and centralized policy planning aimed at rapidly developing AI-related technologies. The Chinese government supports AI as a strategic area supported by high-level policies with ambitious and quantifiable targets, inter-ministry coordination, government funding for research and development, support for workforce development, and suggestions for international collaboration and expansion. Still, as a relative latecomer in the global AI race, China faces numerous challenges to implement its policy planning, including short-term skills gap and long-term institutional constraints.

Survey Results: Complexities And Overlaps In Existing Citizen Science Mosquito Projects, Yujia He, Elizabeth Tyson

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Currently, multiple projects worldwide engage the public in the scientific process of learning about mosquito biodiversity or monitoring mosquitoes that carry diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika and Malaria. These projects are executed at different invasion-stages and different scenarios of epidemiological risk based on their country of origin. Through surveying 12 international research teams, this brief report illuminates the differences and the overlaps in the protocols and tools used by existing citizen science mosquito monitoring projects. The analysis covers project goals, requirements and support for participants, policy impact, digital tools and data privacy.

Crime In Context: Utilizing Risk Terrain Modeling And Conjunctive Analysis Of Case Configurations To Explore The Dynamics Of Criminogenic Behavior Settings., Joel M. Caplan, Leslie W. Kennedy, Jeremy D. Barnum, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Risk terrain modeling (RTM) is a geospatial crime analysis tool designed to diagnose environmental risk factors for crime and identify the places where their spatial influence is collocated to produce vulnerability for illegal behavior. However, the collocation of certain risk factors’ spatial influences may result in more crimes than the collocation of a different set of risk factors’ spatial influences. Absent from existing RTM outputs and methods is a straightforward method to compare these relative interactions and their effects on crime. However, as a multivariate method for the analysis of discrete categorical data, conjunctive analysis of case configurations (CACC) can …

Women In The Public Sector: Getting Creative With Networking And Mentoring, Nicole Elias, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

In academia, we often think of networking and mentoring activity as a means to an end. Networking and mentoring can be exciting and considered beneficial in helping to produce opportunities for new research projects, collaborative events, and personal/professional development. Alternatively, these practices could be seen as unavoidable for the tenure file or "necessary evils" to satisfy service requirements or some other obligation. Regardless of your view or the external demands placed on your networking and mentoring activity, we find that networking and mentoring can be positive and rewarding if you are able to be a bit creative and devote some …

Territoriality, Monumentality, And Religion In Formative Period Nepeña, Coastal Ancash, David Chicoine, Hugo Ikehara, Koichiro Shibata, Matthew Helmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Do Pinnipeds Have Personality? Broad Dimensions And Contextual Consistency Of Behavior In Harbor Seals (Phoca Vitulina) And California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus), Amber J. De Vere, Malin K. Lilley, Lauren Highfill

Psychology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Personality has now been studied in species as diverse as chimpanzees and cuttlefish, but marine mammals remain vastly underrepresented in this area. A broad range of traits have been assessed only once in each of bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions, while consistent individual differences in a few specific behaviors have been identified in grey seals. Furthermore, the context component of definitions of personality is not often assessed, despite evidence that animals may show individual patterns of behavioral consistency across contexts. The current study therefore aimed to use behavioral coding to assess underlying personality factors and consistency across contexts in …