Collected here are faculty and staff works, both creative and academic.
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Weight gain trajectory and pain interference in young adulthood: Evidence from a longitudinal birth cohort study
Jamie Lynch
Introduction: Obesity is associated with chronic pain, but the contribution of body mass index (BMI) trajectories over the life course to the onset of pain problems remains unclear. We retrospectively analyzed how BMI trajectories during the transition to adulthood were associated with a measure of pain interference obtained at age 29 in a longitudinal birth cohort study.
Methods: Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort (follow-up from 1997 to 2015) were used to determine BMI trajectories from age 14 to 29 via group trajectory modeling. At age 29, respondents described whether pain interfered with their work inside and outside the home over the past 4 weeks (not at all, a little, or a lot). Multivariable ordinal logistic regression was used to evaluate pain interference according to BMI trajectory and study covariates.
Results: Among 7,875 respondents, 11% reported “a little” and 4% reported “a lot” of pain interference at age 29. Four BMI trajectory group were identified, varying in starting BMI and rate of weight gain. The “obese” group (8% of respondents) had a starting BMI of 30 kg/m2, and gained an average of 0.7 kg/m2/year. On multivariable analysis, this group was most likely to have greater pain interference, compared to “high normal weight” (OR=1.47; 95% CI: 1.15, 1.89), “low normal weight” (OR=1.44; 95% CI: 1.12, 1.85), and “overweight” trajectories (OR=1.33; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.73).
Conclusions: Obesity and rapid weight gain during the transition to adulthood were associated with higher risk of pain interference among young adults.
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Chronic Wasting Disease In Cervids: Prevalence, Impact And Management Strategies
Nelda A. Rivera, Adam L. Brandt, Jan E. Novakofski, and Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that affects members of the cervidae family. The infectious agent is a misfolded isoform (PrPSC) of the host prion protein (PrPC). The replication of PrPSC initiates a cascade of developmental changes that spread from cell to cell, individual to individual, and that for some TSEs, has crossed the species barrier. CWD can be transmitted horizontally and vertically, and it is the only TSE that affects free-ranging wildlife. While other TSEs are under control and even declining, infection rates of CWD continue to grow and the disease distribution continues to expand in North America and around the world. Since the first reported case in 1967, CWD has spread infecting captive and free-ranging cervids in 26 states in the US, 3 Canadian provinces, 3 European countries and has been found in captive cervids in South Korea. CWD causes considerable ecologic, economic and sociologic impact, as this is a 100% fatal highly contagious infectious disease, with no treatment or cure available. Because some TSEs have crossed the species barrier, the zoonotic potential of CWD is a concern for human health and continues to be investigated. Here we review the characteristics of the CWD prion protein, mechanisms of transmission and the role of genetics. We discuss the characteristics that contribute to prevalence and distribution. We also discuss the impact of CWD and review the management strategies that have been used to prevent and control the spread of CWD.
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Whose Story is it, Now? Re-examining Women’s Visibility in 21st Century Secondary World History Textbooks
Erica M. Southworth, Jenna Kempen, and Melonie Zielinski
In 2005 Clark, Ayton, Frechette, and Keller (2005) conducted a content analysis study on secondary world history textbooks to determine whether women’s inclusion had increased or decreased between 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s. They reported women’s severe marginalization in the texts even though the percentages of women’s inclusion had increased over the course of the decades. We conducted a replication study of the content analysis performed by Clark et al. from a feminist research lens and analyzed 2000 and 2010 editions of the same textbooks to determine if female inclusion had increased. Our findings revealed that very little to no progress has been made towards the equitable inclusion of women. We conclude by urging social studies educators to advocate for gender-based content reforms in state and national social studies exams as an avenue for obtaining gender-balanced textbooks.
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Revealing the ‘social consequences of unemployment’: the Settlement Campaign for the Unemployed on the Eve of Depression
Abigail Trollinger
This article analyzes the strategy and rhetoric of the National Federation of Settlements’ 1928 project on unemployment. During the Hoover years settlement workers assembled an extensive catalog of case studies, which offer a glimpse into the home life of the jobless and their families at the beginning of the Great Depression. From their research the NFS Committee on Unemployment published a series of books and articles that depicted the unemployed as the undeserving victims of economic change, and called for policies to protect them. Throughout, settlement workers focused on the families of the unemployed, drawing on gendered notions of work and family and lifting up policies that protected male breadwinner households. Thus, settlement leaders re-cast unemployment as a social, rather than an economic, problem. In all, settlement research, writing, and reception presented a skeptical voting public with a palatable argument for social insurance that brought the experiences of the jobless to the voting public and to policymakers, demonstrating a process of “policymaking from the middle.” In so doing, they redeemed the newly unemployed and the insurance plans intended to protect them.
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You Lead Like a Girl: Gender and Children’s Leadership Development
Alexa J. Trumpy and Marissa Elliott
Recent leadership initiatives encourage children, particularly girls, to defy gender stereotypes. Yet, those creating and participating in these initiatives, like all members of our culture, have their own gender biases, have received gender socialization, and live in a society where the masculine is more valued than the feminine. We conducted participant observation of two gender-segregated leadership summer camps to examine how camp counselors and directors teach leadership to boys and girls. We find counselors unintentionally reinforce gender stereotypes and promote gender-typical behavior while attempting to break down these same stereotypes and behavioral expectations. We argue the gender-segregated environment leads to a problematic “separate but equal” approach to thinking about leadership that advances the individual abilities of boys and girls but does less to decrease gender disparities in emotional development, physical competition, or leadership styles. This research contributes to our understanding of how well-intentioned organizations and authorities, seeking to minimize gender disparities and develop strong leaders, unwittingly reproduce gender differences and perpetuate gender inequality.
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Catastrophe Bonds: An Interview with Oliver Ressler
Brandon Bauer and Oliver P. Ressler
An Interview with Brandon Bauer and Oliver Ressler on the occasion of his exhibition at St. Norbert College and the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay: "Catastrophe Bonds", the first survey of Oliver Ressler‘s work in the United States. The exhibition focuses on forms of grassroots democracy as well as economic and political alternatives to the existing state of global affairs. This interview was published in the book that accompanied the exhibition.
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On the absence of a normal nonabelian Sylow subgroup
Mark W. Bisslier, Jacob Laubacher, and Corey F. Lyons
Let G be a finite solvable group. We show that G does not have a normal nonabelian Sylow p-subgroup when its prime character degree graph Δ(G) satisfies a technical hypothesis. Δ(G)">
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Influence of the geographic distribution of prion protein gene sequence variation on patterns of chronic wasting disease spread in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Adam L. Brandt, Michelle L. Green, Yasuko Ishida, Alfred L. Roca, Jan Novakofski, and Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla
Managing and controlling the spread of diseases in wild animal populations is challenging, especially for highly social and mobile species. Effective management would benefit from information about disease susceptibility, allowing limited resources to be focused on areas or populations with a higher risk of infection. Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that affects cervids, was first detected in Colorado. In 2002 CWD was detected in Illinois and Wisconsin and has since spread through many counties. Specific nucleotide variations in the prion protein gene (PRNP) sequence have been associated with reduced susceptibility to CWD in white-tailed deer. Though genetic resistance is incomplete, the frequency of deer possessing these mutations in a population is an important factor in disease spread (i.e. herd immunity). In this study we sequenced 625 bp of the PRNP gene from a sampling of 2433 deer from Illinois and Wisconsin. In north-central Illinois where CWD was first detected, counties had a low frequency of protective haplotypes (frequency < 0.20); whereas in northwestern Illinois counties, where CWD cases have only more recently been detected, the frequency of protective haplotypes (frequency > 0.30) was much higher (p < 0.05). Protective haplotype frequencies varied significantly among infected and uninfected geographic areas. The frequency of protective PRNP haplotypes may contribute to population level susceptibility and may shape the way CWD has spread through Illinois. Analysis of PRNP haplotype distribution could be a powerful tool to assess CWD risk and best allocate resources to contain and reduce the spread of infection.
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Properties of the Secondary Hochschild Homology
Jacob Laubacher
Abstract. In this paper we study properties of the secondary Hochschild homology of the triple (A, B, ε) with coefficients in M. We establish a type of Morita equivalence between two triples and show that H•((A, B, ε);M) is invariant under this equivalence. We also prove the existence of an exact sequence which connects the usual and the secondary Hochschild homologies in low dimension, allowing one to perform easy computations. The functoriality of H•((A, B, ε);M) is also discussed.
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Bar simplicial modules and secondary cyclic (co)homology
Jacob Laubacher, Mihai D. Staic, and Alin Stancu
Abstract. In this paper we study the simplicial structure of the complex C•((A, B, ");M), associated to the secondary Hochschild cohomology. The main ingredient is the simplicial object B(A,B, "), which plays a role equivalent to that of the bar resolution associated to an algebra. We also introduce the secondary cyclic (co)homology and establish some of its properties (Theorems 3.9 and 4.11).
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Knowledge Asymmetries and Service Management: Three Case Studies
Jamie O'Brien and John Walsh
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information systems are used by knowledge-intensive service firms and identify their effects on client–provider interactions. The paper uses data from case studies of service-related departments of three multinational firms. We identified several broad trends present in all three case companies. The required degree of knowledge specialisation, coupled with the ability to leverage knowledge created during service interactions resulted in high degrees of knowledge asymmetries between service provider and clients, which led to clients becoming the recipients of knowledge rather than co-creators. Differences between the cases related to the varying degrees to which information systems had been used to support service interactions. We therefore provide a model that outlines three key phases of activity. Individualisation involves the categorisation and location of tacit knowledge. This was followed by the codification and leveraging of service interactions through standardisation. Finally, the ability to provide alternative, more customised services, was achieved through modularisation. Increasing levels of specialisation of labour resulted in increasing knowledge asymmetries between service provider and client, reducing the need for client participation and co-production. Firms progress through three stages of development using information systems to support leveraging knowledge required for service delivery. The findings are based on case studies of departments within three multinational firms and would benefit from further empirical testing. The paper contributes to the existing literature in several ways. It focusses specifically on knowledge-intensive service firms, where labour is highly specialised. It gives information systems an explicit and significant role in examining how service elements may be leveraged. Finally, it outlines an exploratory model for managing this process.
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Both Reintroduction and Recolonization Likely Contributed to the Re-establishment of a Fisher Population in East-central Alberta
Gilbert Proulx, Keith B. Aubry, Adam L. Brandt, Jessica R. Brandt, Benjamin N. Sacks, Jun J. Sato, and Thomas L. Serfass
Recently, Stewart et al. (2017) investigated the origins of contemporary fisher populations in the Cooking Lake Moraine (CLM) of east-central Alberta, Canada, where fishers (Pekania pennanti) from Ontario and Manitoba, Canada were reintroduced in the early 1990s. To address this objective, Stewart et al. (2017) compared microsatellite alleles from extant fisher populations in the CLM to those from Ontario, Manitoba, and other Alberta populations. They reported that the CLM population clustered with adjacent native Alberta populations, consistent with recolonization, but also that 2 of 109 microsatellite alleles in the CLM occurred only in the source populations from Ontario and Manitoba. Rather than allowing for the possibility that these alleles descended from reintroduced fishers, the authors speculated that they represented random mutations among fishers that recolonized the area naturally from nearby populations in Alberta, and concluded that the reintroduction had failed completely. We disagree with this conclusion for 2 reasons. We contend it is more likely that the 2 alleles represent a genetic signature from the individuals released during the reintroduction, rather than being the result of mutations. We further suggest that, irrespective of the genetic legacy of introduced fishers in the recovered population, the presence of reintroduced fishers in the CLM may have helped facilitate natural recolonization of the area by fishers from surrounding areas. In our view, Stewart et al.’s (2017) findings do not demonstrate conclusively that the reintroduction program failed; on the contrary, we argue that their findings indicate that reintroduced fishers likely contributed to the long-term persistence of fishers in the CLM. The uncertainty surrounding this case underscores the importance of genetic monitoring following reintroductions.
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On the (Male) Fringes: How Early Religious Women remain “Subordinate” in World History Textbooks
Erica M. Southworth
Second Wave feminist researchers identified male-dominated curriculum formats in late twentieth century curriculum materials. This study builds off their work and advances the conversation of women’s inclusion by current United States secondary world history textbook content via a feminist lens to determine the extent of women’s agency in the accounts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The purpose was to determine if textbooks portrayed these patriarchal religions as exclusively male, thereby presenting inaccurate portrayals of the religions and the agents involved, which directly violates NCSS Standards. This study used critical discourse analysis to identify patterns of female marginalization and omission, indicating that modern textbooks still use male-dominated content. This article concludes with pertinent information about early female religious leaders to promote more gender-balanced religious agency discussions in the classroom.
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Where are our students, developmentally?
Cristi Burrill and Jennifer Nissen
Overview of student development theory specific to first-year students and helping first year students be successful. Presented at summer 2017 training for all Gateway course instructors.
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A Knowledge-Based Framework for Service Management
Jamie O'Brien and John Walsh
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information and communication technologies are used for service standardisation, customisation, and modularisation by knowledge-intensive service firms through the development and empirical validation of a knowledge-based framework. This paper uses 59 in-depth interviews, observational data, and document analysis from case studies of three service-related departments in high-technology, multinational knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs). Prior research does not conceptualise the relationships between service customisation, standardisation and modularisation. This paper seeks to overcome this gap by integrating insights from research on the role played by both knowledge and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to construct and validate a framework to deal with this gap. It outlines the implications for service firms’ use of ICT to deal with increasing knowledge intensity as well as indicating the circumstances under which service knowledge is best customised, standardised and modularised. Further testing in other industries would prove useful in extending the usefulness and applicability of the findings. The originality of the paper lies in developing and validating the first framework to outline the relationship between how service knowledge is customised, standardised or modularised and indicating the associated issues and challenges. It emphasises the role of knowledge and technology. The value of this framework increases as more firms deal with increasing knowledge intensity in the services they provide and in their use of ICTs to reap the benefits of appropriate knowledge reuse.
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Using Student GPA to Show the “Nutritional Value” of a Library Service
Mitchell Scott
Students can interact, or not interact, with their campus library in a variety of ways and through a variety of services—circulation, interlibrary loan, instruction, using our physical spaces, accessing electronic materials, to name a few. Comparing the GPA of library users to non-users is a valuable assessment strategy for demonstrating the value-added impact or “nutritional value” of library services on our users
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Map It! Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences in Social Studies with IHMC CmapTools
Erica M. Southworth
As a free software tool, IHMC CmapTools redefines the concept mapping learning strategy with an infusion of technology to provide students with meaningful and non-rote learning experiences. The following review discusses what IHMC
CmapTools is, the literature-supported academic benefits of student-employed concept mapping, and how my secondary social studies colleague and I introduced this software to his students to create meaningful learning opportunities with social studies content. After working with IHMC CmapTools for over four years in both social studies and non-social studies classes, I would strongly encourage social studies educators in grades 5-12 to consider implementing this tool in their instruction as a means of enriching both their students’ engagement with social studies material and their students’ understanding of their own metacognitive processes.
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Mitogenomic sequences support a north–south subspecies subdivision within Solenodon paradoxus
Adam L. Brandt, Kirill Grigorev, Yashira M. Afanador-Hernández, Liz A. Paullino, William J. Murphy, Adrell Núñez, Aleksey Komissarov, Jessica R. Brandt, Pavel Dobrynin, David Hernández-Martich, Roberto María, Stephen J. O'Brien, Luis E. Rodríguez, Juan C. Martínez-Cruzado, Taras K. Oleksyk, and Alfred L. Roca
Solenodons are insectivores found only in Hispaniola and Cuba, with a Mesozoic divergence date versus extant mainland mammals. Solenodons are the oldest lineage of living eutherian mammal for which a mitogenome sequence has not been reported. We determined complete mitogenome sequences for six Hispaniolan solenodons (Solenodon paradoxus) using next-generation sequencing. The solenodon mitogenomes were 16,454–16,457 bp long and carried the expected repertoire of genes. A mitogenomic phylogeny confirmed the basal position of solenodons relative to shrews and moles, with solenodon mitogenomes estimated to have diverged from those of other mammals ca. 78 Mya. Control region sequences of solenodons from the northern (n = 3) and southern (n = 5) Dominican Republic grouped separately in a network, with FST = 0.72 (p = 0.036) between north and south. This regional genetic divergence supports previous morphological and genetic reports recognizing northern (S. p. paradoxus) and southern (S. p. woodi) subspecies in need of separate conservation plans.
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Predicting Use: COUNTER usage data found to be predictive of ILL use and ILL use to be predictive of COUNTER use.
Mitchell Scott
More and more libraries are investigating the possibility of breaking apart or unbundling their Big Deal publisher packages. In doing so, libraries acknowledge and ready themselves for the possibility of a significant portion of journal use shifting to interlibrary loan (ILL), and attempt to estimate what this shift from subscription to the ILL mode means in terms of costs. This study investigates three years of ILL usage data for 169 journals prior to undertaking subscriptions and then COUNTER usage for these same journals over a three year subscription period. The result suggests a predictive ratio of ILL requests to COUNTER uses and COUNTER uses to ILL requests.
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Prion protein gene sequence and chronic wasting disease susceptibility in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Adam L. Brandt, Amy C. Kelly, Michelle L. Green, Paul Shelton, Jan Novakofski, and Nohra E. Mateus-Pinilla
The sequence of the prion protein gene (PRNP) affects susceptibility to spongiform encephalopathies, or prion diseases in many species. In white-tailed deer, both coding and non-coding single nucleotide polymorphisms have been identified in this gene that correlate to chronic wasting disease (CWD) susceptibility. Previous studies examined individual nucleotide or amino acid mutations; here we examine all nucleotide polymorphisms and their combined effects on CWD. A 626 bp region of PRNP was examined from 703 free-ranging white-tailed deer. Deer were sampled between 2002 and 2010 by hunter harvest or government culling in Illinois and Wisconsin. Fourteen variable nucleotide positions were identified (4 new and 10 previously reported). We identified 68 diplotypes comprised of 24 predicted haplotypes, with the most common diplotype occurring in 123 individuals. Diplotypes that were found exclusively among positive or negative animals were rare, each occurring in less than 1% of the deer studied. Only one haplotype (C, odds ratio 0.240) and 2 diplotypes (AC and BC, odds ratios of 0.161 and 0.108 respectively) has significant associations with CWD resistance. Each contains mutations (one synonymous nucleotide 555C/T and one nonsynonymous nucleotide 286G/A) at positions reported to be significantly associated with reduced CWD susceptibility. Results suggest that deer populations with higher frequencies of haplotype C or diplotypes AC and BC might have a reduced risk for CWD infection – while populations with lower frequencies may have higher risk for infection. Understanding the genetic basis of CWD has improved our ability to assess herd susceptibility and direct management efforts within CWD infected areas.
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Joseph Mitchell and the City: A Conversation with Thomas Kunkel and Gay Talese
Thomas Kunkel
On Oct. 07, 2015, former President Thomas Kunkel, author of Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker (Random House, 2015) and President of St. Norbert College, joined Gay Talese, journalist at Columbia University for an event called “Joseph Mitchell and the City: A Conversation with Thomas Kunkel and Gay Talese.” The two, joined by Steve Coll, staff writer at The New Yorker and Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, discussed Joseph Mitchell and his status as an “icon of New York history”.
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Returning to your alma mater...and I'm not talking about homecoming!
Cristi Burrill
Thought piece on returning to work for your alma mater. Published to the NASPA Women in Student Affairs Knowledge Community blog.
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Memories of Franziska
Mary Alyce Lach SSND
This story is a glimpse into the life of Franziska Huber Gerhardinger, the mother of Blessed Mother Theresa, the Foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
Franziska was a joy-filled woman with a generous heart. In love and faith, she contributed everything she had to the young community of the School SIsters of Notre Dame.
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The Land Scouts: Guide Book
Katie D. Ries
The Land Scouts promote modern land stewardship and are open to all. The Guide Book gives an overview of the scouts as well as information on getting started earning badges and hosting a troop.
