Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Community Engagement Newsletter, March 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. Office Of Community Engagement.

Community Engagement Newsletter

Contents:

--- Community Engagement Celebration Day
--- Engaged Department Institute
--- Engaged Faculty Institute
--- INSPIRE Conference
--- Cedar Valley Nonprofit Awards
--- Earth Day 2025
--- McElroy Youth Leadership Funds
--- Veridian Community Engagement Fellowship
--- Koob Fund for Student Community Engagement
--- UNI Engaged Podcast

Universal Dependencies For Amahuaca, Candy Angulo, Pilar Valenzuela, Roberto Zariquiey

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

This paper presents the creation of a Universal Dependency (UD) treebank for Amahuaca (Peru), marking the first UD treebank within the Headwaters subbranch of the Panoan family, spoken mostly in Peru and Brazil. While the UD guidelines provided a general framework for our annotations, language-specific decisions were necessary due to the rich morphology of the Amahuaca language. The paper also describes specific constructions to initiate a discussion on several general UD annotation guidelines, particularly those concerning clitics and morpheme-level dependencies.

Broadening Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, And Inclusion In The Process And Development Of Climate Assessments, Eric K. Chu, Gillian Bowser, Abby Frazier, Alyssa Quintyne, Linda Shi, Pamela Mcelwee

Geography

Comprehensive assessments of scientific knowledge are essential to inform efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change impacts. The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), released in late 2023, adopted clear diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) goals and trainings, which helped diversify expert participation, broaden the types of knowledge included, and widen public engagement. This Letter, written by NCA5 authors, reflects on the impacts and limitations of these efforts and suggests specific actions to further promote collaboration, honor and recognize the knowledge of frontline communities, and guide more just and holistic climate assessments.

Research On The Influence Of The Quantity And Quality Of Young Talents On Regional Economic Development, Jinzhao Liu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study focuses on the critical impact of both the quantity and quality of young talent on regional, particularly urban, economic development in terms of pace and quality. The paper examines how educated and innovative youth serve as catalysts for economic progress, driving innovation and entrepreneurship in urban areas. Through an examination of economic growth theories and innovation-driven development models, the research employs a Cobb-Douglas production function for empirical analysis, revealing the significant positive influence of high-quality young populations on regional GDP growth.

Concurrently, case studies of Zhongguancun and Suzhou's textile industry demonstrate the transformative power of young talent in …

Towards A Global Understanding Of Tree Mortality, Andres Holz, International Tree Mortality Network

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rates of tree mortality are increasing globally, with implications for forests and climate. Yet, how and why these trends vary globally remain unknown. Developing a comprehensive assessment of global tree mortality will require systematically integrating data from ground-based long-term forest monitoring with large-scale remote sensing. We surveyed the metadata from 466 865 forest monitoring plots across 89 countries and five continents using questionnaires and discuss the potential to use these to estimate tree mortality trends globally. Our survey shows that the area monitored has increased steadily since 1960, but we also identify many regions with limited ground-based information on tree …

Patagonia's Late Holocene Lake Sediments Reveal No Major Black Carbon Sources For Antarctica, Sandra O. Brugger, David B. Mcwethy, Nathan Chellman, Oliver Heiri, Kyla Sara Zaret, Joseph R. Mcconnell, Andres Holz, Joseph R. Mcconnell

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Black carbon from biomass and fossil fuel burning is an important aerosol in the climate system. Understanding its historical variation is crucial to constrain current anthropogenic and wildfire impacts on the atmosphere. Patagonia was proposed previously as a major source region for the late 13th century black carbon increase observed in an ice core from the northern Antarctic Peninsula but not in continental Antarctic ice cores. Here, we reconstruct regional black carbon trends using high-resolution measurements of refractory black carbon (rBC) in two Patagonian lake-sediment cores spanning the last two millennia and compare the results with other records of fire …

The Flourishing Child: Understanding How Adults And Children Perceive Flourishing From The Start Of Life, Jacqueline A. Davis, Belinda Davey, Emily Segers, Zenobia Talati, Desiree Silva, Susan L. Prescott, Lisa Y. Gibson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The current narrative surrounding children’s health and wellbeing often focuses on adversity and dysregulation with a lack of positive messaging. However, promoting protective and buffering factors may be as important as reducing adverse exposures. While the concept of flourishing is commonly applied in the context of adults, defining what flourishing means for children in current academic literature remains unclear. Our study addressed this gap by undertaking a grounded theory approach and consulting extensively with consumers and key stakeholders, both adults and children. This enabled us to elucidate a conceptual framework and identify determinants, as well as to examine perceived barriers …

Exploring Parent Self-Efficacy In Children's Digital Device Use: Understanding Shame And Self-Stigma Through A Mixed-Methods Approach, Stephanie C. Milford, Lynette Vernon, Joseph J. Scott, Nicola F. Johnson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study utilized a mixed-methods approach to explore the relationship between shame, parental self-stigma, and parental self-efficacy in managing children's digital device use, while considering societal pressure and social media influence. Data was collected via an online survey administered to parents of school-aged children. The sample included 394 predominantly female Australian parents. Quantitative analyses, including confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, were complemented by qualitative thematic inductive content analysis. Results indicated a significant mediation effect of self-stigma on the relationship between shame and self-efficacy. Qualitative analysis revealed themes of societal pressure, judgement-based pressure, and social media pressure, highlighting contextual …

Pilbara Fat-Tailed Macropods: Using Multivariate And Morphometric Analyses To Explore Spatial And Stylistic Variability, Shiqin He, Syed Zulqarnain Gilani, Patrick Morrison, Michael Hughes, Jo Mcdonald

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper presents a pioneering analysis of a distinctive engraved motif from the Pilbara region: the fat-tailed macropod (kangaroo). This stylistic analysis has used a combination of conventional qualitative and multivariate techniques with less commonly deployed geometric morphometrics analysis (GMA). Focusing on a distinctive engraved motif in Australia’s northwest, this study has quantified the stylistic characteristics of the fat-tailed macropod depictions by identifying the significant attributes that contribute to this motif’s schema. By using both multivariate analysis and GMA software, we have developed a more nuanced understanding of the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of this deep-time indigenous artistic tradition. Differing …

Understanding The Role Qualitative Methods Can Play In Next Generation Impact Assessment, Heidi Walker, Alan Bond, A. John Sinclair, Alan P. Diduck, Jenny Pope, Francois Retief, Angus Morrison-Saunders

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Since its inception, impact assessment (IA) has been perceived by many to be a largely technical, quantitative exercise. However, as jurisdictions shift towards a more sustainability-oriented IA that accounts for a wider range of social, cultural, economic, health and well-being, and equity implications of proposed projects and strategic initiatives, values and subjectivity come more to the fore. Making predictions now needs innovative, and rigorous applications of qualitative methods that enable meaningful inclusion of diverse knowledges, values, and information sources, whilst at the same time giving confidence to decision makers and other stakeholders about the evidence base. Adopting such qualitative methods …

Explaining Police Officer Intentions To Leave Their Career Field, Michael T. Rossler, Charles Scheer

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Research examining police officer retention has generally relied upon general work environment predictors to explain intentions to leave a police career. Recent research has applied theory explaining departures as a multistep process, where job satisfaction and stress mediate the relationship between work conditions and leaving the profession. These prior inquiries have been methodologically limited in the number of predictors and agencies included. The current inquiry uses a survey of eight police agencies to test the conceptual framework that job satisfaction and stress mediate the relationship between workplace environment and intentions to leave policing. Findings indicate that many commonly theorized predictors …

Milner Library Technical Services Department 2024 Annual Report, Milner Library

Milner Library Publications

Annual Report for the Technical Services Department of Milner Library, Illinois State University, for calendar year 2024.

Measurement Of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillation Parameters Using Convolutional Neural Networks With 9.3 Years Of Data In Icecube Deepcore, Karen Andeen

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The DeepCore subdetector of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory provides access to neutrinos with energies above approximately 5 GeV. Data taken between 2012 and 2021 (3387 days) are utilized for an atmospheric 𝜈𝜇 disappearance analysis that studied 150 257 neutrino-candidate events with reconstructed energies between 5 and 100 GeV. An advanced reconstruction based on a convolutional neural network is applied, providing increased signal efficiency and background suppression, resulting in a measurement with both significantly increased statistics compared to previous DeepCore oscillation results and high neutrino purity. For the normal neutrino mass ordering, the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters and their 1⁢𝜎 errors …

Tracking News Narratives: Topic Modeling, Sentiment, And Media Coverage Patterns, Alexandria G. Lai

Theses and Dissertations

This study introduces a novel content-driven influence measurement framework, built around a custom influence formula that integrates Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and influence metrics to analyze media narratives over time. Applied to news coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic, the framework identifies key topics, sentiment patterns, and influential sources. Results demonstrate its ability to distinguish between transient political controversies and sustained public health discourse while capturing shifts in media influence. While effective, refinements in topic separation, sentiment analysis, and temporal weighting could enhance adaptability. This study highlights the novel influence formula …

Simulating The Impact Of Self-Sensing Materials On Aircraft Sortie Generation, Harmoni J. Blackstock

Theses and Dissertations

In conjunction with the Air Force Research Laboratory Materials Lab(AFRL-RX), this study evaluates the potential military value of the prototype material sensing composites on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operations in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and close air support (CAS) missions within a contested Indo-Pacific theater. Using a Simio based simulation,UAV performance was assessed under varying combat conditions, focusing on Remote Sensing, deployment strategies, initial lay-downs, and varying loss rates. Re-sults show that UAVs equipped with Remote Sensing technology significantly improved sortie generation and logistical efficiency. Scenario 17 achieved the highest sortie rate(965.5 sorties), outperforming the next-best scenario by 25 sorties. …

Island Nation Duress: Simulating Passive Peer-To-Peer Bluetooth Communication During Disaster Relief, Jason K. Medeiros

Theses and Dissertations

Pacific Islands under U.S. jurisdiction are highly vulnerable to natural disasters, yet many lack the infrastructure to effectively respond and recover. Clear communication during and after such events is critical for evacuation, hazard awareness, and first responders’ coordination. This research explores a simulation-based approach using Bluetooth communication to relay messages across Guam, assessing its efficiency through statistical analysis. By examining regional differences and geographic impacts on Bluetooth messaging, the study aims to identify key factors that enhance peer-to-peer communication for timely and effective disaster response.

Job Demands And Resources: A Look At The Vha Workforce To Support Dod Goals, Anthony J. Rivera

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationships between job demands, job resources, burnout, turnover intention, and workplace attitudes among employees of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) through the lens of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The findings reveal both expected and novel insights. Consistent with prior research, the study confirms that excessive job demands, without enough resources to balance then, lead to burnout. This, in turn, increases turnover intention and negatively affects how employees view leadership and the work environment. A significant discovery, however, challenges conventional assumptions: favorable job demands were positively correlated with turnover intention, suggesting that employees in favorable roles …

Cognitive Warfare In The South China Sea: Analyzing Media Influence And Public Opinion In Taiwan, Wyatt F. Blatti

Theses and Dissertations

In a time where conflict extends beyond traditional battlefields, cognitive warfare emerges as a powerful tool to influence perceptions and gain strategic advantages. This study investigates China’s cognitive warfare strategies against Taiwan through trend analysis, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis of news media articles from March 2013 to August 2024 to uncover evolving techniques and mitigation efforts. The findings highlight the potential for tracking cognitive campaigns overtime but will require more than news media alone and suggests future research to better understand indicators of cognitive warfare.

An Agent-Based Modeling Framework For Evaluating The Linkage Between Disaster Facility Damage And Mental Health, Emily S. Reeves

Theses and Dissertations

This research establishes a novel agent-based modeling framework to establish the linkage between disaster-induced facility damage and mental health outcomes and the evaluation of treatment methods within the civilian and USAF mental health spheres. The study models the degradation and recovery of agent mental health using simulated data and evaluates the efficacy of three distinct treatment approaches through statistical methods. The methodology integrate agent-based modeling with resilient engineering concepts to simulate mental health resilience curves based on vulnerability, exposure, and facility damage. Agents’ mental health indices were tracked through phases of degradation, stagnation, and recovery based on the three treatments …

Analysis Of Nuclear Security And Safety Integration Using Survey Responses And Pairwise Comparison Methods, Sheila V. Gbormittah, Theodore A. Thomas, Jason Timothy Harris

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Integrating nuclear security and safety is important for implementing and sustaining nuclear technology because it promises improved and effective management. This integration is an ongoing effort to ensure that both work together with minimal conflicts. This research aimed to determine the preferred level at which nuclear security and nuclear safety integrate by using the pairwise comparison methods of decision-making. This methodology used survey responses from women nuclear professionals to identify the most-desired criteria at three levels: strategic, operational, and cultural. The strategic level includes actions that government officials and regulators can take. The operational level encompasses actions that deliver the …

The Benefits Of Service With The Applied Sport Management Association: Make A Contribution!, Chad Seifried

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The Applied Sport Management Association’s Distinguished Service and Mentorship Award was initiated in 2022 as a renaming and repurposing of the ASMA Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award presented from 2009 to 2020. This service and mentorship award recognizes an ASMA member who has exhibited continued, exemplary service to ASMA, who connects sport management research with practitioners in an applied manner, and who demonstrates dedication to students and mentorship within the ASMA. Recipients of this award provide a keynote address to the ASMA membership at the annual conference. The content of this address is published in the Journal of Applied Sport Management, …

Wright State University's Celebration Of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities From Thursday, March 13, 2025, Wright State University

Celebration of Undergraduate & Graduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Abstract Books

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students' oral and poster presentations at Wright State University's Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities on March 13, 2025.

Assessing The Impact Of Anti-Dei Legislation In Florida: An Exploratory Study, Diane L. Odeh, Jan-Martijn Meij

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The aim of this study determines what influence, if any, legislation aimed at censoring discussions and practices related to equity has on the ethical decision-making behavior of staff and faculty at a regional university within the state of Florida. Using inductive analysis, themes related to how one navigates profession-based ethics, political pressures, and personal ethics in higher education work will be evaluated. This contributes to the field of administrative ethics by exploring how ideology-based political pressure and direct legislative intervention on the bureaucracy impacts the practice of promoting social equity within public administration; and how an individual balances competing ethical …

Urban Planning For Regional Food Equity, Miriam Caroline Sullivan

City and Regional Planning

47 million people, including 14 million children, face food insecurity in the United States of America annually. Defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as: when people don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where their next meal will come from. Food insecurity is a systemic issue caused by systems greater than any individual failure. Poverty and unemployment, lack of affordable housing, chronic public health issues, racism and discrimination all play a role in the state of American food security (Feeding America, n.d.). A tenet of this research and project development is the right of all people, …

Digital Inclusion And Systemic Barriers: The Role Of Technology In Shaping The Participation Of Women Of Color In Hybrid Workspaces, Sanket Patole, Rob E. Carpenter, Rochell Mcwhorter

Human Resource Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rise of hybrid and remote work models, facilitated by digital technologies, has been widely regarded as a means of enhancing workforce diversity and inclusion. However, this study critically examines how these digital workplaces simultaneously reinforce systemic inequalities, particularly for women of color. Drawing on digital divide theory and intersectionality theory, this research explores the ways in which women of color navigate technological barriers, algorithmic bias, and workplace surveillance while developing adaptive strategies to assert their authority in digital spaces. Through a qualitative, interpretivist approach, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 women of color working in hybrid and remote …

Factors Associated With Student Engagement In Online Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review, Yam B. Limbu, Christopher Mckinley

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

While extant literature reveals various factors associated with student engagement in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings are inconsistent. A systematic review of the factors influencing student engagement in online learning during the pandemic will provide state-of-the-art knowledge of existing literature and offer future research directions. This study systematically reviews factors driving college student engagement in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Performed in accordance with the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, a systematic search of four databases identified 50 eligible studies. The most prevalent factors associated with student engagement were student-related factors …

Why Ai’S Role In Advancing Sustainability Is Underestimated, Lipika Bhattacharya

CCX Research

AI has quietly, but powerfully, woven itself into the fabric of our everyday lives. Yet, AI's potential impact on creating a more sustainable world is undervalued. The author examined artificial intelligence's (AI) role in advancing sustainability. She outlined how AI can be applied in various domains such as agriculture, water management, industry, urban planning, and biodiversity conservation for transformative effects.

74/1 | Hellenistic Nysa-Scythopolis Stratigraphy And Architecture, Gabriel Mazor, Walid Atrash, Debora Sandhaus

IAA Reports—Monograph Series of the Israel Antiquities Authority

This is the fifth volume of publications of the Bet She’an Archaeological Project, describing the large-scale IAA excavations at the site of Bet She’an–ancient Nysa-Scythopolis, during 1986–2002. Bet She’an V: Hellenistic Nysa-Scythopolis is the second volume presenting the full excavation report of the IAA excavations at Tel Iẓṭabba, conducted between 1991 and 1994. The first volume in this series, Bet She’an IV (IAA Reports 62), focused on two corpora of finds: stamped amphora handles and sealings. The current volume, Bet She’an V, is comprised of two parts (IAA Reports 74/1, 74/2) dedicated to the stratigraphy, architecture and finds from the …

Examining The Dangers Of The Digital Age, A Book Review Of Online Child Sexual Grooming Discourse, Olivia L. Villeneuve

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The Swahili Version Of The Cd-Risc 10 Resilience Scale: Psychometric Properties And Factors Associated With Resilience Among Healthcare Workers In Tanzania, Kevinson Mwangi, Sabina Odero, Gideon Mbithi, Rachel Odhiambo, Rosemary Stephen, Tumbwene Mwansisya, Eunice Pallangyo, Eunice Ndirangu, Amina Abubakar

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background: Despite the central role of resilience in promoting mental well-being, little is known about the resilience process among healthcare workers in East Africa, partly due to the lack of adequately standardised and psychometrically sound assessment tools for our context. This study provides the first psychometric evaluation of the Swahili version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10) among nurses/midwives and community health volunteers (CHVs) in Tanzania, potentially informing the accuracy of measuring resilience in this setting. Additionally, we examine factors associated with self-reported resilience as measured by the CD-RISC 10 scale.

Methods We used cross-sectional data on nurses/midwives …