Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communicative Ai And Techno-Semiotic Mediatization: Understanding The Communicative Role Of The Machine, Göran Bolin

Human-Machine Communication

Mediatization discourse has so far mainly been centered on media from institutional or social-constructionist approaches. The technological developments within communications industries coupled with the wider societal process of datafication might, however, beg for dusting off the smaller, although the long-time existing, technological approach to mediatization as a complement to the two other approaches, in order to understand aspects of automation and human-machine communication. This theoretical article explores how existing mediatization approaches can refocus to include lessons learned from human-machine communication. The first section accounts for the main mediatization approaches. The second section discusses debates on communication, artificiality, and meaning-making. The …

A New Family Member Or Just Another Digital Interface? Smart Speakers In The Lives Of Families With Young Children, Giovanna Mascheroni

Human-Machine Communication

Based on longitudinal qualitative research involving twenty families with at least one child aged eight or younger, the article provides an account of how families, as distinctive communicative figurations, adopt, use and make sense of smart speakers through diverse socially situated practices. Findings show that parents and children enter in a communicative relationship with smart speakers based on their attribution of human-like or machine-like traits to the device, and the device response to their expectations. Moreover, engaging in communicative practices through and with smart speakers, family members subvert or reinforce existing power relations. However, smart speakers acquire new agency by …

Mediatization And Human-Machine Communication: Trajectories, Discussions, Perspectives, Andreas Hepp, Göran Bolin, Andrea L. Guzman, Wiebke Loosen

Human-Machine Communication

As research fields, mediatization and Human-Machine Communication (HMC) have distinct historical trajectories. While mediatization research is concerned with the fundamental interrelation between the transformation of media and communications and cultural and societal changes, the much younger field of HMC delves into human meaning-making in interactions with machines. However, the recent wave of “deep mediatization,” characterized by an increasing emphasis on general communicative automation and the rise of communicative AI, highlights a shared interest in technology’s role within human interaction. This introductory article examines the trajectories of both fields, demonstrating how mediatization research “zooms out” from overarching questions of societal and …

Smoothing Out Smart Tech’S Rough Edges: Imperfect Automation And The Human Fix, Christian Katzenbach, Christian Pentzold, Paloma Viejo Otero

Human-Machine Communication

In this article, we take issue with an idea of autonomous and efficient automation that is upheld through the paradoxical conjunction of a flawed vision of the technological fix and the under-acknowledged human work required to fill in the gaps between machines and users. Our argument is based on two case studies that sit at opposite tails of automation processes: the front end of self-service checkouts and the back end of content moderation. This juxtaposition allows us to surface three themes on how the hype around automation is enabled by human interventions: the ad-hoc sociality in situated practices of automation, …

Phun With Phages: Discovering Novel Bacteriophages In The Soil, Julia Kutz, Ryan Dodds, Logan Dykstra, Taylor M. Rentschler, Emma Steinhardt, Megan Vangarven, Jacie Vanderwaal, Shayler Vangelder, Byron Noordewier, Sara S. Tolsma

Celebration of Research

We used three bacterial hosts: Mycobacterium smegmatis, Microbacterium foliorum, and Gordonia terrae, to isolate novel bacteriophages from soil samples. We named these phages, created high titer lysates, and purified their DNA genomes. We have archived the high titer lysates at Northwestern College and the University of Pittsburgh. The genomes of three of our phages were sequences at the University of Pittsburgh and we will be sequencing the remaining genomes this summer. Additionally, we are planning to image our phages with transmission electron microscopy at the University of Iowa or Nebraska yet this semester.

Gender Bias In The Hiring Process: The Sexism You Don’T See, Jessica Nibbelink

Celebration of Research

Men and women have often been seen as opposite sides of a spectrum. The tension between masculinity and femininity is created through forced stereotypes. These gendered stereotypes along with implicit gender bias work together to enforce gender discrimination. An area of society that is impacted by this gender discrimination is the workplace. The current study looks to investigate the gender discrimination that is found in the workplace, and more specifically in the hiring process. Through the use of fake gendered resumes, participants report employer perception scores which are used to dissect gender favoritism in the hiring process. Though this study …

Prepplates: Meal Prep For Busy Lives, Alec Coronado Garcia, Luc Roelofs, Kade Fey

Celebration of Research

PrepPlates is an innovative meal idea based in Sioux County. Our purpose is clear: to transform the way people approach mealtime by providing not only nourishment but also a comprehensive dining experience suited to their preferences and lifestyles. Our business venture aims to revolutionize the meal kit industry by providing convenient, affordable, and high-quality meal solutions tailored to the preferences and lifestyles of our demographic. Through research and strategic planning, PrepPlates emerges as a beacon of innovation in the competitive landscape of meal preparation services. Rooted in a comprehensive understanding of demographic and market trends, our business model is tuned …

Dementia Worry In A Young Adult Population: Investigating Its Relationships With Anxiety, Coping Strategies, And Memory, Anneka Sterk

Celebration of Research

Dementia worry is a specific form of health-related anxiety in which individuals worry about or fear developing or having dementia. To a severe degree, this may affect their psychological well-being. Previous literature has only studied dementia worry in middle-late aged adults. This study investigated dementia worry in a young adult population and focused on its relationship with possible correlates, coping skills, trait anxiety, and memory. A multiple regression analysis was performed in which only subjective memory and trait anxiety showed significant, positive correlations. All other variables included in the regression analysis showed no significant correlations. There were no significant differences …

Perceived Severity Of Trauma: The Impact Of Gender And Exposure, Macy Hajek

Celebration of Research

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that may influence the perceived severity of traumatic events. Perceived severity scores were examined in a 2x2 factorial ANOVA with the factors of gender and trauma exposure. A qualitative measurement of the most feared trauma was also investigated. Participants were a convenience sample of 98 Northwestern College Students ranging from ages 17 to 22. Perceived severity scores and the most feared trauma were obtained using an adapted version of the Trauma History Questionnaire. A Trauma History Screener was used to divide participants into trauma exposure groups. It was hypothesized that females …

Does Testing Help Learning? Mindset And Testing’S Impact On Memory And Accuracy Of Judgments, Jessica Nibbelink, Anneka Sterk, David Grandel

Celebration of Research

To conduct a replication of a previous experiment (Kornell & Son, 2009) to measure the accuracy and judgement of learning between two ways of studying and if receiving feedback after testing altered their learning. Participants were tasked with learning 4 lists of Indonesian words, half of the participants learned by re-exposure to the words while the other half learned by test-taking. The test-taking group was further divided into feedback or no-feedback conditions. Contrary to the previous study we found that testing did not impact memory. However, self-testing did make learners more accurate in their judgments of what they knew. Students …

Exploring The Dilemma Of Innocent Defendants In The Plea Bargaining System, Taylor Van Ostrand, Dr. Jay Medenwaldt

Celebration of Research

This study investigates the challenges faced by innocent defendants in the plea bargaining system. The dilemma arises from the choice between a risky trial and an immediate conviction for a reduced charge. The research, conducted with fifty-six undergraduate students, the rationality of innocent defendants, the influence of jail threats, socioeconomic status, and gender differences. Using hypothetical scenarios, participants review documents related to a fictitious charge, and ANOVA as well as chi-square statistical analyses are employed to assess the impact of various factors on plea decisions. Surprisingly, the presence of jail time did not significantly influence the likelihood of innocent defendants …

Inventory For Baker-Cederberg/Rochester General Hospital, Rochester General Hospital

Finding Aids

Inventory for Baker-Cederberg/Rochester General Hospital archival record groups. There are 31 record groups listed.

Hong Kong’S Political Landscape From The Media Coverage In The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement, Kexin Sun

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

The study aims to obtain a deeper understanding of the political landscape in Hong Kong by investigating agenda-setting and narratives that are being presented by media from Hong Kong and mainland China during The Anti-ELAB Movement in 2019. News stories about The Anti-ELAB Movement from five media outlets in Hong Kong and mainland China are collected to answer three questions. First, does their agenda-setting differ in the collected news stories? Second, what specific issues do those media navigate differently? Third, what do those news stories reveal about the political landscape?

Hong Kong is a complex blend of Chinese and Western …

Transformative Agreements: Where To Begin, Jeff Graveline, Peggy Kain

Libraries Professional Work

Network of Alabama Academic Libraries (NAAL) webinar presentation

Latent Classification Of Multi-Model Non-Homogeneous Continuous-Time Markov Chains, Joonha Chang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) model and latent clustering models are commonly used to study longitudinal measures of categorical outcomes. Because of its simple but powerful Markovian property, CTMC models have been widely used in medical and public health researches. Due to limitations in the standard CTMC model, there have been some studies on non-homogeneous continuous-time Markov chain (NH-CTMC) that utilized time-dependent rates, but the progresses have been limited. NH-CTMC can be more powerful than CTMC by its default nature of time-dependent rate that can be fitted to a wider range of applications in medical studies. In this study, we …

Can Podcasts Reduce Affective Polarization By Combating Contextomy Via Long-Form Discussions?, Luke D. Hartvigsen

Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing concern regarding political polarization in the United States, most notably the phenomenon of affective polarization, which is when polarization increases negative feelings toward those who differ politically. The current dissertation project sought to address this issue by testing a media intervention using podcasts. Podcasts allow speakers to talk for hours uninterrupted through long-form discussions, whereas other media often edit political discussions to the point of contextomy (editing and framing a quote out of its proper context). Podcasts were created for this dissertation which differed on the political message of the podcast guest (conservative vs. liberal), and …

Patterns, Drivers, And Implications Of Postfire Delayed Tree Mortality In Temperate Conifer Forests Of The Western United States, Sebastian Busby, Cody Evers, Andrés Holz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conifer forest resilience may be threatened by increasing wildfire activity and compound disturbances in western North America. Fire refugia enhance forest resilience, yet may decline over time due to delayed mortality—a process that remains poorly understood at landscape and regional scales. To address this uncertainty, we used high-resolution satellite imagery (5-m pixel) to map and quantify delayed mortality of conifer tree cover between 1 and 5 years postfire, across 30 large wildfires that burned within three montane ecoregions in the western United States. We used statistical models to explore the influence of burn severity, topography, soils, and climate moisture deficit …

The Effects Of Therapy Dogs On Students, Chloe Romack

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the effects therapy dogs have on students. It begins with a literature review of 17 articles that involve animal-assisted interventions with students and children. The main topics covered include the definition of a therapy animal and how dogs can influence learning, socialization, emotional well-being, anxiety, and depression. It also discusses how dogs can be used in therapy and special education classrooms as well as the major concerns of dogs in schools. Drawing upon the previous research, a survey was sent to school staff in the Paw Paw Public School District. The participants of this study consisted of …

Overnight Shifts And Poverty: A Look At How Money Affects Sleep, Jared Scott

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Overnight shift work has been clearly linked to overall poorer sleep. Additionally, socio-economic status (SES) is a strong predictor of many health outcomes, including sleep health. This study looks at the intersection of shift work and SES as they relate to sleep health.

Data on 9,210 workers aged 18 years and older were acquired from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. These workers self-identified their typical shift as overnight, evening, daytime, or rotating. Data on poverty income ratios (PIR) was also collected and was used to generate SES groups of poverty (PIR ≤ 1), below median (PIR ≥ 1 …

Cmv And Brain Volume, Scott Maclean, Ashley Catchpole, Ethan Coulter, Elijah Davis, Bethany Richmond, Thomas Farrer, Dawson Hedges, Shawn Gale, Lance Erickson

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

In a sample of UK adults aged 40-69, we conducted multivariable regression analysis on the relationship between cytomegalovirus (CMV) and brain volume accounting for several health covariates. Although no main effects emerged, we found that socioeconomic status moderated the relationship, such that in low socioeconomic groups, CMV predicted lower thalamic and hippocampal volumes.

Sexual Assault And The Impact On Identity And Mothering: Women's Lived Experiences, Madelin Cerullo

Counseling and Psychology Dissertations

Literature on traumatic events, particularly those of a sexual nature, suggests that these events have an impact on one’s wellbeing and ability to parent. However, limited literature centers a women’s experience, with little attention focused on identity formation, the role of mothering, and healing as an outcome (Babcock et al., 2015; Clifford et al., 2020. Much extant literature focuses on predetermined themes that narrow participants’ reports and fail to capture lived experiences (Carothers Bert et al., 2009) with emphasis on significant disruptions to lives because of the traumatic event (Clifford et al., 2020). When literature considers these topics as part …

The Current - Volume 34 Issue 12, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Framing Contestation And Public Influence On Policymakers: Evidence From Us Artificial Intelligence Policy Discourse, Daniel S. Schiff

Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund

As artificial intelligence (AI) policy has begun to take shape in recent years, policy actors have worked to influence policymakers by strategically promoting issue frames that define the problems and solutions policymakers should attend to. Three such issue frames are especially prominent, surrounding AI’s economic, geopolitical, and ethical dimensions. Relatedly, while technology policy is traditionally expert-dominated, new governance paradigms are encouraging increased public participation along with heightened attention to social and ethical dimensions of technology. This study aims to provide insight into whether members of the public and the issue frames they employ shape—or fail to shape—policymaker agendas, particularly for …

Protecting American Children: A Social-Ecological Analysis Of Pactp4, Julia Rossmiller

Student Works

The quantity of pesticides used annually in the United States exceeds one billion pounds every year, and the amount is only rising. The current law that governs the use of pesticides—The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), permits the use of 72 known pesticides that have been proven harmful and are banned in other countries. Research links the usage of pesticides to the health of individuals, families, and whole communities within the environment. Moreover, dangerous pesticides have been shown to disproportionately affect children, agricultural workers, people of color, and low-income communities. Despite the mounting evidence that confirms the adverse …

The Holobiont, Food Justice, And Gaia 2.0 A Post-Human(Ist) Approach To Functional Medicine, Rosalynn A. Vega

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Functional medicine is a personalized and holistic approach to treating chronic disease. In this article, I build upon posthumanist literature by examing how functional medicine practitioners are decentering and destabilizing what it means to be human. Functional medicine discourse on the holobiont, which considers the human as an assemblage of different microbial species, reframes the “humananimal” (see Nayar 2018) as the “humicrobe.” I engage Gaia 2.0 (see Lenton and Latour 2018) when analyzing the interconnectivity, interdependence, and mutualism of all life. My approach to interconnectivity interweaves both functional medicine descriptions of systems biology and Luhmann’s (2012) approach to system’s theory …

Unveiling The Librarian Of Tomorrow: Why Librarians Are Needed Now More Than Ever, Essraa Nawar

Library Articles and Research

"I fell in love with Libraries the moment I set foot in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, where I had the privilege of working for five enriching years. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina stands as a modern reincarnation of the legendary ancient library, a beacon of learning and exchange. Reflecting on its revival, I marvel at the timeless significance of libraries throughout history. From the fabled repositories of knowledge in Alexandria, Athens, and Constantinople to their contemporary counterparts, libraries have endured as bastions of enlightenment and progress. The spirit of international collaboration that birthed the Bibliotheca Alexandrina underscores the global significance …

Intrinsic Vs. Extrinsic Religiosity: Implications For The Parasympathetic Nervous System, Sydnee Bond, Hannah Hornberger, Parker Mckasson, Patrick Steffen Phd

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Background

Intrinsic religiosity is a deeply rooted connection to one's faith. Individuals with high intrinsic religiosity find purpose and meaning through their spiritual connections. Extrinsic religiosity is primarily driven by social or other superficial factors. Intrinsic religiosity has demonstrated associations with lower self-reported stress, however, associations between intrinsic/extrinsic religiosity and baseline heart rate variability (HRV), a proxy measure of the parasympathetic nervous system, have not been studied. We hypothesize that higher self-reported stress will be associated with a lower baseline HRV, higher intrinsic religiosity will be correlated with higher baseline HRV, and intrinsic religiosity will serve as a buffer, such …

Designing Social-Ecological Programs To Support Extension Participants In Civic Engagement, Angela S. Gupta, Nathan Meyer, Michelle Prysby, Shelly A. Johnson, Gail Epping Overholt

Journal of Extension

To address a need to support volunteer and citizen engagement with decision-makers in addressing social-ecological challenges, we designed and tested a “flipped classroom” training to teach civic engagement processes in the context of invasive species management. We pilot-tested the curriculum in seven states. Using results from in-course and delayed surveys, we demonstrate that participants increased their capabilities for engaging decision-makers and took civic engagement actions related to invasive species issues. Although participant recruitment and retention were lower than expected, the overall results suggest that the training approach is an effective design for satisfying participant needs and achieving learning outcomes.

Evaluation Of The Michigan Water School: Water Education Program For Local Leaders, Heather A. Triezenberg, Jennifer Hunnell, Erick Elgin, Bindu Bhakta, Mary Bohling

Journal of Extension

Local leaders are essential for helping Michigan achieve its 30-year water strategy goals. The Michigan Water School is an Extension nonformal educational program to address the knowledge gap of local leaders. We evaluated programs conducted from 2017-2019. Results revealed program outcomes in knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of criticalness to work, and stewardship and behavioral intentions aligned to water quality, water quantity, and field experience units. Growth areas for program improvement include water policy, economics, planning, and finance as well as expanding the focus of the program for transformational leadership and to broaden recruitment efforts.

An Instrument To Evaluate 4-H Cloverbud Stem Programming, Alisha M. Hardman, Donna J. Peterson, Mariah S. Morgan, H. Elizabeth Solace

Journal of Extension

Evaluation data is needed to demonstrate the impact of 4-H science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programming on children and youth. However, collecting evaluation data from cloverbuds (ages 5-7) is particularly challenging given their developmental age. We adapted an observational Cloverbud evaluation tool to measure basic life skills, essential elements of positive youth development experiences, and, unique to this tool, STEM specific experiences. We developed the STEM items using educational science standards allowing Extension to document STEM in addition to youth development outcomes. Doing so, may increase the adoption of 4-H STEM programming by teachers in the school setting.