The faculty development programs offer an opportunity for faculty members to grow professionally, to remain current with developments in their disciplines, and to infuse these experiences into the classroom to enhance student learning. As illustrated below, NKU’s faculty development programs have enabled our faculty members to undertake important work in their fields, often including students in their research, and have brought renown to the university.
SABBATICAL LEAVES are granted by the University to promote the professional growth and effectiveness of the faculty. Sabbatical leaves are granted to enable recipients, based on merit, to devote additional time to scholarly activity and research, advanced study, or artistic performance—all in pursuit of academic objectives. Tenured, full-time faculty, and department chairs are eligible to apply for sabbatical leave.
SUMMER FELLOWSHIPS provide funds to support professional development during the summer months. Examples of types of activities that may be applicable include: improving teaching skills; research; scholarly writing; creative or artistic projects; preliminary studies and literature searches; and attending seminars or courses related to one’s field or professional work. Full-time tenure-track or tenured faculty may apply for a faculty summer fellowship. Each faculty member awarded a fellowship for summer 2022 received an award of $6,000.
PROJECT GRANTS provide funds to pay expenses, purchase equipment, and to cover other financial needs for sabbatical leaves, faculty summer fellowships, and for other instructional, scholarly, and creative activities where financial support is not available through department budgets. Full-time tenure-track or tenured faculty may apply for a faculty project grant not to exceed $6,000. In 2021-22, 9 faculty members completed project grants.
The projects below were undertaken from Fall 2021 through Summer 2022.
Alyssa Appelman
Associate Professor
College of Informatics
A mixed-methods study on the state of newsroom copy editors
Changes in media consumption and production have led to an upheaval in journalistic norms and practices. The role of social media has blurred the distinctions between news content and non-news content. Low levels of media trust — compounded by “fake news” concerns — have complicated the work of professional journalists. Through my 2021-2022 sabbatical leave and project grant, I collected data on the roles and responsibilities of copy editors within the current media landscape. First, I conducted an online survey of 472 editors across a variety of media fields. Most reported high job satisfaction, and many specifically noted strong passion for the field and the work. To add more context to those findings, I conducted 15 follow-up interviews. Most talked about feeling their work was misunderstood and undervalued. Overall, the study revealed industry challenges and identified potential gaps in the way we’re training students to enter this field.
Mark Bardgett
Professor
Department of Psychological Science
Long-term Consequences of Early-life Antipsychotic Drug Administration
A significant proportion of children diagnosed with pediatric psychiatric disorders are prescribed antipsychotic drugs. The use of these drugs in children has occurred despite an absence of research addressing their impact on brain development and behavioral and neural outcomes later in life. This sabbatical leave enabled me to compose and submit one manuscript and begin a second one describing research from my lab that fills this scientific gap. At the same time, I supervised the research of two paid student research assistants that specifically addressed the effects of early-life antipsychotic drug administration on the density of dendritic spines – portions of neurons that receive information from neighboring neurons. One of the students presented this research as part of an Honors In Psychology thesis. The manuscripts prepared during my sabbatical and simultaneous work conducted and presented by my student research assistants should serve to stimulate further research in this area and provide crucial empirical data to policymakers and practitioners making crucial decisions regarding the health care of children.
Alina Campan
Professor
School of Computing and Analytics
Read between the Tweets (Twitter Sentiment Analysis)
Online social networks (OSNs) are a primary way to spread and consume information. An important aspect of OSNs is that they are open: users can post anything – within certain boundaries established by the OSN provider; this leads to the proliferation of information with various degrees of truthfulness, with intentional or unintentional disinformation purpose. So, observing human sentiment and trending patterns of messages in OSNs is a timely area of research and might have important practical applications. The overarching goal of my work was to create a platform for the collection of Twitter data matching selected keywords and the analysis of tweet-sets to understand the spreading of information, volume-wise and sentiment-wise. As part of this analysis goal, it was necessary to experiment with various tweet sentiment analysis (TSA) methods.
Chris Curran
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Incorporation of Optogenetics and Invertebrate Models into Undergraduate Neuroscience Teaching and Research
This sabbatical leave was designed to provide intensive training in Optogenetics with a collaborator at the University of Cincinnati. Optogenetics is an emerging technology with wide application in neuroscience research. The focus of the applicant’s research is genetic susceptibility to widespread pollutants with an emphasis on chemicals that harm the developing brain. If we understand how these chemicals interact with nerve cells at the genetic level, we can intervene more effectively to reduce their negative impacts. The collaborator, Dr. Ilya Vilinsky, is known nationally for incorporating Optogenetics into undergraduate neuroscience laboratory courses by using simpler, invertebrate animal models such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. All major objectives were accomplished along with additional professional development and collaborative activities not originally proposed, which were enabled by the sabbatical release time. Prior to this sabbatical, there was no Neuroscience or Genetics course using optogenetics techniques. Following the sabbatical, laboratory exercises were developed and incorporated in the Fall 2022 NEU 302/L Neurosignaling lecture and lab courses. This provided students in Biological Sciences and Neuroscience with skills and knowledge in state-of-the-science techniques which will make them more competitive for their future careers. This sabbatical project was highly successful in expanding my skills and knowledge in areas that will be important to remain competitive as a toxicology researcher and an effective instructor in a STEM field despite some early modifications necessitated by the winter COVID surge.
Sara Drabik
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
The Changing Role of Women in the International Coffee Industry
This project grant allowed me to continue my longitudinal research on the changing role of women in the international coffee industry. My work on this project over the past eight years shows that gains have slowly been made for women in coffee. Currently, those gains are at risk of being rolled back by a global pandemic, economic volatility, and a fast-changing climate. In the spring of 2022, I returned to a previously studied coffee farm in Guatemala to see what changes have occurred and how their workers are navigating these changes; visited a coffee processing plant in Antigua currently adjusting to changing climates and cultural shifts; and attended a coffee symposium in Maine where I interviewed twenty-one women in coffee from around the globe. Additionally, funds allowed for post-production assistance to work with the twenty-four new interviews and multiple hours of observations footage. I am honored to be able to document the past gains, the new challenges, and the people who are tirelessly fighting for gender equality in the coffee industry.
Wei Hao
Professor
School of Computing and Analytics
Cloud App Performance and Security
Cloud apps have become important in our daily lives. Performance and security are critical issues that cloud apps are facing. One effective solution to the issues is edge computing. During my sabbatical, from January to May 2022, I researched an edge computing-based approach to accelerate cloud app performance and make cloud app more secure. The major accomplishments include (1) I used Amazon edge computing services, such as CloudFront and Lambda@Edge, to bring cloud apps and their data closer to end users. It accelerates cloud app performance and reduce network traffic; (2) I defined cost factors and developed a cost function that measures the performance gains and losses to assist caching decision making; (3) I analyzed the edge server’s log file to capture access patterns of client requests; (4) I designed web access control lists to achieve fine-grained control over the requests that cloud apps respond to. I defined condition-based security rules that allow, block, or monitor cloud requests. These security mechanisms at edge servers protect cloud apps against diverse security threats; (5) Based on my sabbatical research, I am writing a research paper; (6) I used Amazon cloud and edge computing services for my sabbatical project, so I gained a deep understanding of cloud and edge computing. It helped me develop a new course, CYS 439 Cloud Security, and new teaching materials (examples, slides, hands-on labs, assignments, and projects) for CIT 438 Cloud Computing. I am teaching CIT 438 in Fall 2022. I plan to teach CYS 439 in 2023.
Theodore Hodgson
Professor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Impact of the COVID Pandemic on Student Learning in Mathematics and Statistics
The sabbatical proposal included a dual focus on the impact of the COVID pandemic on student learning in mathematics and teaching strategies employed during and after the pandemic. The emergence of COVID-19 in the U.S. dramatically altered mathematics teaching practices in virtually all high schools. Beginning in March 2020, classrooms across the country transitioned from face-to-face instruction to some form of distance education. In some cases, problem packets were delivered to students by hand and returned to teachers for evaluation. More commonly, however, classes were moved to an online format. COVID-19 restrictions on in-person teaching were not fully lifted until Fall 2021, although frequent outbreaks (and the resulting need to quarantine and employ distance learning) continue to disrupt student learning. Through observations of mathematics teachers in two Northern Kentucky high schools and data collected from these schools, it was found that the student grades in mathematics actually increased during the pandemic, as compared to pre-COVID grades. With respect to content mastery, however, students’ score on standards-based school assessment declined, with lower achieving students exhibiting the greatest declines in achievement. One positive impact of the pandemic is teachers’ use and confidence with technology. In particular, many of the technologies enacted during the pandemic remain fixtures in teachers’ classrooms and continue to increase accessibility and engagement.
Yi Hu
Professor
School of Computing and Analytics
Anomaly Detection in Data Lake Access in Cloud Computing
Today more and more companies and organizations are utilizing multi-cloud environment for deployment of their IT infrastructure and data management systems. This is quite different from their traditional approaches of having a well-guarded data center with a significant amount of security devices securing the network perimeter and well-equipped physical security options. The challenges are real because now the walls, i.e., network perimeters, are gone. The problem of existing cloud platforms is that although they are great at logging cloud activities on each of their own platforms and detecting cybersecurity incidents within their own cloud, they are not that capable of detecting malicious cloud traffic sent from one cloud to another. What’s more is that they are not able to identify anomalous cloud data lake access activities in the multi-cloud environment. That is why the efforts of this project help develop new schemes for defending cloud data lake. During the sabbatical, I designed the machine learning based anomaly detection architecture and scheme for identifying malicious data access in cloud data lake. This includes a layered architecture consists of multiple stages that include extracting data lake access logs from cloud vendors, a cross-cloud logging layer, a concern-based streaming layer, data access and user activity profiling layer, and alert dashboard layer. In addition, user data privacy is respected by designing appropriate data sanitizing schemes.
Jang-Chul Kim
Professor
Department of Accounting, Economics, and Finance
New Listings between Non-US Stocks and U.S. IPO Stocks
During my sabbatical period I have collected and retrieved all Trade and Quote data from TAQ dataset released by the NYSE. I investigate liquidity and information asymmetry for sample of non-US stock listings and U.S. IPO listings on the NYSE. My results suggest that non-US stock listings tend to have wider spreads, larger price impact of trades, and higher probability of information-based trading than those of the U.S. IPO listings. In addition, our results show using various trading-day windows that the differences in liquidity and information asymmetry are not just in the short-term but also in the long-term. Furthermore, liquidity and information asymmetry measures for non-US stock listings are significantly related to the macro-institutional quality of its home country such as political risk and absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, and voice and accountability. I find that non-US stocks from countries with lower institutional quality metrics tend to have lower liquidity and higher information asymmetry.
Jennifer Kinsley
Professor
Chase College of Law
The Psychology of Censorship
During the Spring of 2022, I spent a one-semester sabbatical working on a project entitled The Psychology of Censorship. The project consisted of extensive interdisciplinary research in the fields of law and psychology related to the First Amendment right of free expression and various psychological theories, studies, and reports that relate to how the human mind responds to threats.
Originally developed by psychologist Jack Brehm in the late 1950s, the theory of psychological reactance posits that when something threatens or eliminates a person’s freedom, they will react by seeking to restore the freedom. In a similar vein, Princeton psychologist Eldar Shafir has discovered that when a human need becomes scarce, the scarcity mindset that results causes those in need to become preoccupied with filling it. As applied to speech, both theories dictate that individuals whose speech is censored will hyperfocus on the need to speak and will act in ways designed to restore their ability to speak freely. As a result, the effect of censorship is therefore the opposite of what is intended: a doubling down on the censored idea rather than elimination of it from the speech marketplace. In the end, censorship is therefore more harmful than speech.
Edward Kwon
Professor
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program and Denuclearization
During my sabbatical leave period, I completed a research paper which was submitted to a peer-review journal and is currently under review. The research analyzed the progress of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, nuclear strategy, and the direction of WMD, as well as to search for feasible ways to induce Pyongyang to denuclearize. North Korea has expedited the progress of nuclear weapons and ICBM developments through six nuclear test and various test-launches of missiles. Pyongyang’s nuclear strategy has evolved into an offensive war-fighting purpose rather than defensive one. Kim Jong Un’s longer term nuclear strategy aims to develop nuclear-tipped ICBM capable to reach the continental United States, as well as decoupling Washington from its extended deterrence commitment to Seoul. Dire economic hardship has led Kim to two summits regarding a denuclearization deal, but Trump and Kim failed to reach a visible result. The United States’s unwavering stance on the Complete, Verifiable and Irreversible Dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program and North Korea’s a step-by-step approach could not be negotiated to reach agreeable terms of condition. Through critical evaluation of the summits between Trump and Kim as well as Moon and Kim, the paper provides several important lessons on how to deal with North Korea. Kim Jong Un’s mindset and strategic calculation of a denuclearization deal with Trump, amid the recent progress of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ICBMs programs, are investigated. Given the failure to reach a denuclearization agreement, Pyongyang is not expected to readily give up its nuclear weapons.
Daniel McGee
Professor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Optimizing Calculus 1 Instruction at NKU
This project is built around multi-representational understanding, a growth mindset and Professional Noticing. Multi-representational understanding of mathematics concepts can be achieved through activities that create contexts for students to see the commonality among multiple representations (tables, graphs, formulas and situations) of the same mathematical concepts. A growth mindset approach to mathematics education emphasizes engaging students so that they exercise their mind with activities that help them figure out mathematical concepts rather than memorizing procedures. Professional noticing presents an organizational framework for aiding students that do not fully understand mathematical concepts. It requires that a non-unique learning progression be identified for the associated mathematical concept. It then (i) creates a discussion designed to navigate the learning progression with a student, (ii) uses the discussion to determine where the student’s understanding lies along the learning progression, and (iii) provides effective intervention focused on the now identified needs of the student.
In this project, we first created activities focused on a growth mindset and multi-representational understanding that encompass the Calculus 1 curriculum at NKU. These materials are available to all interested professors and are already impacting Calculus 1 instruction at NKU. We then conducted research on the advantages of using a Professional Noticing framework to help struggling students that are using these Calculus 1 materials. We found that this approach has the potential to significantly help high-risk students. Finally, we are disseminating these materials and research findings at the university, regional and national levels.
Marcos Misis
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
Changes in Police Agencies' Leadership Philosophies and Styles in Response to Public Backlash of the Use of Lethal Force on Minorities
Police have a unique role in the United States legal system. Aside from being agents of law, tasked with enforcing and upholding the legislation and statutes of their local jurisdictions, they also serve to provide their communities with security, safety, and guidance. Policing goes far beyond affecting arrests and fighting crime. In fact, one of the main mandates of local police agencies is fostering relationships within the members of the communities they serve as a main tool to effective policing. Unfortunately, recent incidents involving police use of lethal force on minority citizens have dramatically strain the relations between the police and many of the communities they serve. To this extent, several social and political movements, such as Blacks Lives Matter, “defunding the police”, and others have taken center in a more hostile environment against law enforcement agencies. In an era of dominated by social media platforms and constant news cycles on TV and internet outlets, police officers have become highly scrutinized in their daily operations.
The focus of this study was to determine how police agencies are dealing with such challenges and what leadership philosophies and styles police chiefs are using to help their departments and officers in this climate. In the course of the research, 22 police chiefs from three Midwestern states were interviewed. Findings showed that the biggest challenges police agencies face are those relating to recruitment and retention of officers, media bias towards police, funding for daily operations, anti-police rhetoric, the relationship between officers and the community, and misconceptions about police work.
Bethany Noblitt
Professor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Connecting Abstract Algebra to the High School Mathematics Curriculum
In this project, I worked directly with a high school mathematics teacher, Emily Earls, to plan, implement, and revise lessons for a high school mathematics class that make connections between abstract algebra concepts and high school mathematics. Emily Earls (NKU graduate with majors in mathematics, statistics and secondary education) is a teacher at Cooper High School in Union, KY. I worked with Emily and current NKU undergraduate, Abby Leonhard, to identify and investigate mathematical connections between abstract algebra concepts and high school mathematics. Then, we co-planned four lessons that aimed to facilitate connection-making between the abstract algebra concept of a group and solving one-step equations. A fifth lesson connected the group concept to symmetries of an equilateral triangle. Emily and I co-taught the first four lessons in her high school mathematics classroom. We administered pre- and post-assessments for the lessons as well as a final participant survey. Emily and Abby also completed a reflection on their participation in the project. We have begun the analysis of the student assessments and survey. The data analysis will focus on answering the question, “How does connection-making between abstract algebra concepts and high school mathematics affect the learning of high school students and high school teachers?” Findings from this study will hopefully be disseminated as a published manuscript in an appropriate mathematics education journal and presentation at a national and/or state mathematics education conference.
Scott Nutter
Professor
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Astroparticle Physics Research
This full-year sabbatical was focused on furthering astroparticle physics research at NKU through continued research on the HELIX and ISS-CREAM experiments, and applications for new grants to support additional projects, resulting in new grants for SuperTIGER and TIGERISS, and a continuation grant for HELIX. Each of these NASA-sponsored experiments measures a different aspect of cosmic rays to better understand their production and acceleration mechanisms in the most violent places in the galaxy, such as supernovae and binary neutron star mergers. HELIX awaits a flight slot from either Sweden or Antarctica, where Nutter is responsible for instrument field recovery. ISS-CREAM took data from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017-2019, and analysis of those data continues. The new SuperTIGER grant supports instrument simulations development at NKU to help better understand data from an Antarctic flight of the instrument. TIGERISS, a brand new $20M project funded through the NASA Astrophysics Pioneers program, will be designed, built, tested, and launched to the ISS over the next five years. NKU is responsible for instrument simulations.
Tamara O'Callaghan
Professor
Department of English
Medieval Literature and the Digital Humanities
My Sabbatical allowed me to work on the following research and teaching goals:
1. Launch of a new digital humanities project, Gazemapping the Reading Experience of Medieval Manuscripts, that uses eye-tracking technology to examine the extent to which the physical design of a medieval manuscript page directs our reading and reception of the written and visual text.
2. Draft of a proposal for a co-authored book monograph based on extended reality and reading based on my continuing digital humanities project, The Augmented Palimpsest: Engaging Students Though AR Encounters with the Past.
3. Development of HNR 330: Build a Better Book, an experiential learning-based course in which students design and create multimodal tactile books for blind and visually impaired children in Africa in collaboration with the (Cincinnati, OH).
4. With two NKU colleagues, writing and submission of a successful application for a ($25,000) to launch a General Education humanities-based pathway that will target NKU students in pre-professional majors.
5. Delivery of two oral presentations at an international conference (virtual); revision of one of those presentations for submission to a scholarly journal; and submission and acceptance of three proposals based on my sabbatical research and pedagogy design for international conferences in 2023.
6. Completion of an 8-week online synchronous course, Python for Humanists (Texas A&M University), an introduction to the programming language Python and its potential for research in the humanities.
Vincent Owhoso
Professor
Department of Accounting, Economics, and Finance
Do Levels of Corruption and Rule of Law Exacerbate Perceived Fraud Risks During a Pandemic?
During my sabbatical, I investigated the impact of levels of corruption and rule of law on whether pandemics exacerbate perceived fraud risks. Internal auditors and civil servants participated in this study. The participants received a case instrument and assessed their own perceived fraud risks during a pandemic and non-pandemic conditions in a high corruption versus low corruption environments. The theory suggests that if normal internal control procedures and practices were relaxed during a pandemic such as COVID-19, this could lead to increased sharp practices among employees of an organization due to inadequate levels and frequency of supervision and monitoring of employee activities. Consequently, internal auditors and civil servants are more likely to perceive higher fraud risks during a pandemic than a non-pandemic condition in both high corruption and low corruption environments. The results show that internal auditors and civil servants assessed their perceived fraud risks significantly higher during a pandemic than a non-pandemic condition, independent of the level of corruption environment or the rule of law regime.
The implication is that management should refrain from significantly reducing or relaxing normal internal control practices during a pandemic or at any time. Relaxing routine and normal internal control practices can lead to reduced supervision and monitoring of employees and their activities in a timely manner. Relaxing internal control conditions could also lead to increased levels of fraudulent activities among employees, whether corporations are in high corruption versus low environments or whether they are in strong rule of law regimes or weak rule of law regimes. Organizations should consider deploying technologies with artificial intelligence capabilities in their businesses to serve as redundant internal controls bridges during pandemics.
Emily Shifley
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
FGF targets play diverse rolls during vertebrate embryonic development
My research is focused on understanding how genetic signaling pathways guide the development of vertebrate embryos. There are a number of birth defects that affect various organs and we do not know the causes of all of these syndromes. Using the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, we can manipulate genetic signals that normally guide embryonic development in order to understand the roles different genes play in this process. The goal of my sabbatical was to advance my research in developmental biology at NKU and submit an external NIH funded grant application and manuscript. I was able to write and successfully obtain an external grant from KY-INBRE, an organization funded by the NIH, to support my research in developmental biology at NKU. This grant is allowing my research lab to gather preliminary data necessary for another NIH funded R15 grant application. I was also able to gather data on a specific set of genes for a publication and, although these experiments extended beyond the sabbatical period, the data is now ready for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Lastly, I was able to involve undergraduate students in these research projects providing experiential learning and fulfilling the goal of my sabbatical to advance developmental biology research at NKU.
Monica Wakefield
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy
Developing Research on Wild Olive Baboons (Papio anubis) and Co-directorship of the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project (UNBP), Laikipia, Kenya
In spring 2022, I took a sabbatical to focus on my newly established research project and received a Faculty Project Grant to help support the fieldwork portion of my activities. The primary goal was to develop new scholarly research on behavioral ecology of wild olive baboons at the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project (UNBP), Kenya. UNBP is one of the longest-running primatological research sites with continuous observation and data collection spanning 50 years. This presents a wealth of opportunities for myself and NKU students in terms of research at the site and access to long-term data yet to be analyzed. My sabbatical phase focused on developing and writing grant proposals for my ongoing scholarship and involvement at the site. This included a 6-week visit to the site to establish connections and collect pilot data/samples. I was able to meet all of my goals for the sabbatical period. In addition to meeting stated goals, I worked with long-term project data to analyze and present research female reproductive parameters and am working on a manuscript with these data; submitted two grant proposals; and established a “lab group” at NKU for collaborative student research experience utilizing the UNBP data.
Lynne Zajac
Associate Professor
School of Nursing
Exploring Microaggressions and Transcultural Health Care in the Distance Learning Environment
The purpose of my sabbatical was to accomplish three goals in the areas of transcultural health care, and diversity, equity and inclusion in online education. To achieve goal one, I explored the experiences of 12 diverse graduate nursing students’ perceptions of racial microaggressions in the online environment through one-on-one interviews; five themes emerged from the qualitative data. The findings informed the development of faculty teaching strategies to decrease microaggressions in online environments. Goal 2 was the development of two transcultural courses, which include topics in transcultural health, social determinants of health, and health equity. Plans include a Microcredential in Transcultural Healthcare. Goal 3 was the creation of a repository of online images of diverse health care workers for faculty to use for instructional materials. I created a document which includes links to several free resources of diverse images and inclusive teaching materials. During the sabbatical, I engaged in activities that heightened my awareness of inequities in education, healthcare, and in my community. Even at this stage of my career, the additional activities provided me with capabilities to be a more effective educator and better human. I am grateful to NKU for this time of professional growth.
Seth Adjei
Assistant Professor
School of Computing and Analytics
Extending the Capabilities of a Student Learning Support System to Support Elementary Computer Programming
In many tertiary institutions, elementary computer programming courses have become one of the key general education courses taught at the university. These courses are meant to help students develop or hone their problem-solving skills. At NKU, one of the courses that satisfy this need is the INF 120 Elementary Programming course. Many students who enroll in this course lack the prerequisite skill set required to successfully complete the course. To assist INF 120 instructors to assess and prepare the students for the course, I enhance PLACEments, an adaptive assessment and remediation system, intended to give faculty an idea of students’ understanding of the course material and to help diagnose any misconceptions they may have experienced in class. The system traverses a prerequisite skill graph as it presents problems to the students and as it assigns remedial practice questions and tutorials to support their learning. To augment this feature, during Summer 2022, instructional videos were created for the 41 distinct topics that were identified from the INF 120 course. For each topic, a short (5- to 15-minute) video that explains the concepts and/or discusses an application of the concepts was created. These videos are currently being incorporated into the PLACEments platform and are intended to be made available to instructors and students of the INF 120 class sections at the College of Informatics. A study is planned for Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 to understand the effect of the set of instructional videos on the learning and teaching of elementary programming.
Junko Agnew
Assistant Professor
Department of World Languages and Literatures
Analysis of Manchukuo Films and Literature
The primary objectives of this research trip (June 13 - July 7) were to collect Manchukuo films and the sources related to Manchukuo films and literature as well as to meet the scholars who specialize in Manchukuo. As a result of the Project Grant, I made significant strides in the areas of professional development, research, and teaching.
My research project centers on the analysis of films produced in Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in northeast China that lasted only fourteen years from 1932 to 1945. Although Manchukuo was a Japanese colony, Japan presented it as an independent state. As a part of my existing interest in the role of cultural production in the state-building project in Manchukuo, I wanted to analyze the content and context of the available films produced by the Manchukuo film industry. My initial interest is the role of the well-known actress Rikoran/Yamaguchi Yoshiko in Manchukuo films who was born to Japanese parents but was promoted as a Chinese actress. Through the examination of her films, this study illuminates the simulative nature of Manchukuo film by interrogating the role of gender and ethnicity in the construction of a utopian Manchukuo identity.
Rupesh Agrawal
Assistant Professor
School of Computing and Analytics
Study of Obstructive Sleep Apnea as a Risk Factor for Stroke in Patients with AF
The summer fellowship support led me to refocus on the project to develop the research foundation to study and develop a Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) to support the inclusion of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) as a risk factor for stroke in patients with AF. The CHA2DS2-VASc score is the current stroke-risk stratification scheme (RSS) based on comorbidities, age, and gender. A literature review was conducted to establish a) The background to finalize international disease classification (ICD) codes, b) conduct a literature review to extract identify research focused on the targeted population (African Americans and Hispanic Veterans vs. all Veterans), c) Evaluate the current progress in the field, and d) Identify other resources such as datasets that can help me in future research. Healthy People 20301 tracks sleep health and cardiovascular deaths from heart disease and stroke, and there has been no improvement in mortality since 2019, and only 33.1 adults seek medical advice for OSA. The Statistics from Healthy People initiative validates reasons to continue research on heart and sleep health.
Sara Drabik
Associate Professor
School of Media and Communication
The Changing Role of Women in the International Coffee Industry
Women historically perform an average of 70% of the work in coffee production but participate in only 10% of the trade. While research has shown that increased access to resources for women in agriculture can have numerous positive effects, very little information exists specifically on women in the coffee industry. My work on this project over the past eight years shows that gains have slowly been made for women in coffee. Currently, those gains are at risk of being rolled back by a global pandemic, economic volatility, and a fast-changing climate. It is critical that we understand these challenges and address them to mitigate the damages to women, their communities, and the coffee industry as a whole. This summer fellowship allowed the time for editing, revisions and fine-tuning that is needed to create a finished documentary film. I was also able to receive feedback on a rough cut from an Academy Award nominated documentary film editor and to work with a local editor on implementing new footage and research that was created during my sabbatical in the spring. I am honored to be able to document the past gains, the new challenges, and the people who are tirelessly fighting for gender equality in the coffee industry.
Sharmanthie Fernando
Professor
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Thermodynamics of black holes with a cosmological constant
We studied a black hole called Bardeen black hole. It is derived from General Theory of Relativity combined with a theory of electrodynamics and a cosmological constant. The black hole has mass and electric charge. The main motivation of this project is to study thermodynamical properties of the black hole such as thermodynamical laws and phase transitions. First, the geometry of the black hole was studied in detail. Many of the works in the literature has the pressure P = - L/ (8p). However, I found out the Bardeen black hole does not satisfy the first law with the conventional pressure. Hence, I have studied two other formalisms that have different approaches in defining pressure and corresponding thermodynamical laws for black holes. There are much technical details that has to be navigated in these two approaches. In continuing the work, I am planning to study if there are phase transitions in Bardeen black holes. I will also explore if these black holes can be used as heat engines.
Allyson Graf
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychological Science
Preparation to Expand the Application of Sexual Possible Selves into Adulthood
This study seeks to extend the concept of sexual possible selves, how we anticipate and avoid certain potential sexual outcomes, across the adult lifespan. Presently, this psychological construct has only been examined in young adults. Progress made this summer included: regular, virtual meetings with the team of researchers who conducted the original studies (Anders et al.); a literature review to support the extension of sexual possible selves beyond young adulthood; evaluation of recruitment options for each phase of the study; identification of potential longitudinal research options; and attendance at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association for networking and feedback. The timing of the collaboration is fortuitous as Anders et al. were in the process of developing a measurement tool. I lent my expertise to testing and refining this tool to be usable with adults of all ages. The ability to plug into this progress and lead the next chapter in understanding sexual possible selves as a lifespan process is quite exhilarating. This project has the potential to be my career-defining contribution to the field. While the initial goal is to demonstrate the existence of sexual possible selves within different age groups, next we would study change in sexual possible selves by conducting longitudinal research.
Jessica Lott
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy
An Intersectional Approach to Latinx Reproductive Negotiation
The purpose of this fellowship was to transform previous research about Latinx reproductive negotiation and family formation into a journal article. In my ethnographic research, I collected qualitative interviews from a group of middle-class, heterosexual Latinx parents and with a similar group who did not have children during. This study is an intervention in the literature on Latino/a reproduction that assumes large family size as well as the literature on voluntarily childless couples, who are generally assumed to be Anglo in the American context.
Over the summer, I drafted a journal article exploring the ways that Latinas in my study negotiate pressures from family to have children, and a desire to prioritize their careers as part of their middle-class identities. I found that women in my study utilized one of three approaches in this negotiation: forgoing motherhood (voluntarily childless), delaying either motherhood or career, or leaning on family support to mitigate role conflict (engaging the core cultural value of familismo).
Debra Meyers
Professor
Department of History and Geography
Creating an Anthology to Promote Healing and Spiritual Growth for Victims of Sexual Assault
We must find innovative, intersectional, and inclusive remedies for the vacuity of sexual assault assistance within traditional religious organizations. Toward that end, my summer 2022 Faculty Senate Fellowship allowed me to focus on creating an anthology for survivors that will promote healing and spiritual growth for victims of sexual assault. The NKU Faculty Senate Summer Fellowship supported both my research for my introduction and my chapter as well as editing chapters submitted by contributors during the summer of 2022. Routledge plans to have the book available in both hard cover and paperback by February 2023. This book will form the foundation for an undergraduate course that will offer many intersectional and culturally competent options for women, men, and non-binary conforming adults to explore in order to create their own safe healing conditions and establish pathways for spiritual growth. This religious studies/gender studies cross-listed course could be offered as soon as the fall of 2023.
Kevin Muente
Professor
School of the Arts
Visual Arts
Time to Make the Paintings
I finished 3 decent sized paintings this summer, 2 smaller paintings, 4 figure drawings, 3 working drawings for paintings, accumulated more photo references and have an additional decent sized (30 x 48 in.) painting in process. I was also awarded a Faculty Project Grant to take a 2 week painting and drawing workshop in Italy. After returning from Italy I also took 2 workshops via zoom: "Expressive Painting From Zoom and Photos," August 10 - 11, by Steven Assael; and "Wednesday Webinar: Quick Sketch with a Limited Palette," August 10, from the Portrait Society of America, by Dominique Medici. One painting completed this summer, The War on Peace, was selected for the national juried exhibition Exhibitour 2022 at D. Anthony Gallery, Wausau, WI, August - October 2022.
Julie Olberding
Professor
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
Exploring New Government, Nonprofit, and Community Development Initiative(s) at NKU
During my Summer Fellowship, I explored new and different ways to engage with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and related entities in our region – both at the programmatic level of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) and at the individual level as an MPA Professor. At the programmatic level, the Fellowship provided the opportunity to deepen relationships with our three community partners in the tuition reduction pilot project – City of Cincinnati, City of Covington, and Northern Kentucky Area Development District (NKADD) – through open houses, networking events, and a press conference. For the longer term, I examined initiatives in MPA programs at other universities that engage with and assist public, nonprofit, and related organizations. I developed a draft framework – tentatively titled “NKU MPA Government, Nonprofit, and Community Assistance” – to enhance awareness and interest regarding the various ways that NKU MPA program, faculty, and students engage with and support these organizations in our region. I also developed relevant language for our MPA program’s web site and possibly for a flyer to share with leaders and managers in these organizations. At the individual level, I advanced my research with NKU colleagues toward publication in scholarly outlets: 1) “Regional Governance in Northern Kentucky: Interlocal Collaboration and Institutional Collective Action” with Dr. Darrin Wilson; 2) “Extending Research of Neighborhood Governance Systems: An Empirical Study of Community Councils in Cincinnati, Ohio” with Dr. Darrin Wilson; and 3) “Community Youth Risk and Protective Factors, Five Years After a Municipal Youth and Family Master Plan" with Drs. David Tataw and Suk-hee Kim.
Lindsey Walters
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Assessing the use of nestling tree swallow feathers as a bioindicator of environmental mercury contamination
I mentored five NKU undergraduate research students during summer 2022. For this project, we developed a new method which uses tree swallow feathers as a bioindicator of environmental mercury pollution. Mercury is a persistent environmental toxin with harmful impacts on many organisms, but ecotoxicologists need more tools to assess patterns of organismal mercury uptake from the environment. In birds, ingested mercury is sequestered into growing feathers in order to eliminate it from the body. Our goal was to determine whether enough mercury was present in the feathers of nestling tree swallows so that feather samples could be used to assess environmental mercury amounts on their own, instead of using more invasive blood samples. We compared the concentration of total mercury found in samples of feathers and blood, which we took from the same tree swallow nestlings at the same time. We determined that feathers had proportional, but much higher, levels of mercury than blood did. With almost no mercury present in the blood at this stage, we concluded that feathers alone may be used to gauge lifetime body burden in tree swallow nestlings. This means that feathers from nestling tree swallows are an ideal way to assess mercury contamination because they are both more accurate and easier to sample than blood. These data can be used to develop a non-invasive protocol that can utilize this abundant bird for continent-wide assessment of local mercury pollution levels.
Lauren Williamson
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Role of sex hormones in learning impairments caused by inflammation
The purpose of this project was to examine how sex hormones, such as estradiol and testosterone, may mediate inflammation within the brain. Previous work in my laboratory has shown that males are more sensitive to inflammation in adulthood, but the role of sex hormones is still unclear in a specific behavior, context-object discrimination. My hypothesis is that estradiol, expressed more highly by female rats, may protect their brains from inflammation during learning events. I further hypothesize that testosterone may predispose male rats to increased sensitivity to inflammation, leading to their memory impairments. Four undergraduate students, including an international exchange student, worked on this project during the summer. We tested 32 rats on the context-object discrimination behavioral procedure and harvested tissue from all animals. We then measured hormones and inflammatory markers within the blood. We found that our rats struggled to learn, but there were clear markers of inflammation within the blood. We will continue analyses into the academic year and all 3 NKU students have returned to the laboratory. Overall, this project produced novel data about sex differences in learning and supported my time to give many NKU undergraduate students a valuable research experience.
Justin Yates
Professor
Department of Psychological Science
Study: Risky Decision-making in Rodents
The goal of the current summer fellowship was to develop a new behavioral task to study risky decision making in rodents: the equivalent expected value (EEV) task. The development of this task is important as current models of risky decision making often confound risky choice with other constructs such as suboptimal decision making and behavioral flexibility, which makes elucidating the neural mechanisms of risky decision making difficult. In the EEV task, rats make a choice between one of two reinforcers (both 0.5% liquid saccharin). The magnitudes and probabilities associated with each reinforcer will differ; however, the expected value (or utility) of each reinforcer will be identical. Because the expected value is equivalent across reinforcers, there is no suboptimal choice as rats will earn the same amount of saccharin over time. Yet, one option is “riskier” as the probability of receiving reinforcement is lower. During the fellowship, I equipped the operant chambers in my laboratory with liquid receptacles for liquid saccharin, tone generators (used to signal the magnitudes of each reinforcer alternative), and nosepoke apertures. The apertures contain a light that will flash in accordance with the probability of receiving each alternative. I also wrote the code necessary to run the behavioral experiments. On August 29, we began testing animals in the EEV task. Once animals have been trained in the EEV task, my students and I will test the effects of various doses of d-amphetamine (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 mg/kg) on risky decision making.
Mahdi Yazdanpour
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Development of a Mind-controlled Mini Industrial Robotic Arm
Integrating the electrical activities of the human brain with mechatronic systems to develop mind-controlled systems has become one of the most cutting-edge research topics in the Human-Robot Interaction and Robotics communities. In this multidisciplinary research project, we designed and implemented a mind-controlled mini-industrial robotic arm which can be controlled by the human thoughts.
This project was implemented in two phases. In phase 1, we developed a fully 3D printed desktop industrial robotic arm which can be controlled using the Marlin firmware by receiving the geometry code (g-code) commands from a brain computer interface (BCI). In phase 2, we designed and implemented an electroencephalography (EEG)-based brain computer interface which monitors and analyzes human brainwaves captured by an EEG brainwear. The captured brain neurosignals are classified and then converted to meaningful commands in order to control the robotic arm. This brain computer interface enables users to control this desktop industrial robotic arm in different translational directions using the power of their minds. In addition, the BCI created from this research project can be used as a control interface for any robotic system which use human thoughts or motor imaginations as action drivers.
Alyssa Appelman
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
A mixed-methods study on the state of newsroom copy editors
Changes in media consumption and production have led to an upheaval in journalistic norms and practices. The role of social media has blurred the distinctions between news content and non-news content. Low levels of media trust — compounded by “fake news” concerns — have complicated the work of professional journalists. Through my 2021-2022 sabbatical leave and project grant, I collected data on the roles and responsibilities of copy editors within the current media landscape. First, I conducted an online survey of 472 editors across a variety of media fields. Most reported high job satisfaction, and many specifically noted strong passion for the field and the work. To add more context to those findings, I conducted 15 follow-up interviews. Most talked about feeling their work was misunderstood and undervalued. Overall, the study revealed industry challenges and identified potential gaps in the way we’re training students to enter this field.
Ali Balapour
Assistant Professor
School of Computing and Analytics
Player performance and success: The case of gamers and eSport players
Reports suggest that on average eSport players earn $60,000 per year while the top ones earn over a million dollars per year. With such a massive buzz around this career, little has been studied about the role of IT in this professions’ life cycle, development stages, and the toll it takes on the players to achieve success in such an adventurous career. In order to address this gap, I performed two studies. First, I compared three dominant psychological theories that are used to explain players experience (Flow, Cognitive Absorption, and Immersion) and found that immersion and flow have the highest degree of overlap and are the best lens to explain players’ psychological experience, with immersion being more comprehensive. Second, I performed a few focused interviews with successful eSport players, and well-known gaming YouTubers/ Streamers. I found that while the carrier offers many exciting opportunities, the players deal with psychological and mental challenges such as cyber bullying and harassment, sleep deprivation, and lack of support from one’s social circle due to stigma.
Joe Cobbs
Professor
Department of Marketing, Sports Business, and Construction Management
Perpetual Student Engagement with the Know Rivalry Project: Foreign Assessments
The purpose of the Know Rivalry (KR) Project is to research, organize, and comparatively analyze the phenomenon of rivalry. In the six years prior to this fellowship and project grant, NKU students in COB have been engaged in collecting and analyzing survey data from sports fans in the United States and Canada. The survey measures fans’ impressions of rivalries and associated reactions to rival fans in terms of prejudice and relationship discrimination. The summer fellowship, project grant and support from Informatics+ enabled cross-disciplinary expertise to be applied to the project's expansion to achieve process sustainability and international reach, while also getting more NKU students and faculty involved in the collaboration. Dr. Cobbs worked with several students from COB to execute a new round of data collection across five sports leagues in North America, and expand the collection to leagues in Asia, Australia, and Europe. Close to 20,000 valid survey responses have been recorded in 2021.
Sara Drabik
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
The Changing Role of Women in the International Coffee Industry
This project grant allowed me to continue my longitudinal research on the changing role of women in the international coffee industry. My work on this project over the past eight years shows that gains have slowly been made for women in coffee. Currently, those gains are at risk of being rolled back by a global pandemic, economic volatility, and a fast-changing climate. In the spring of 2022, I returned to a previously studied coffee farm in Guatemala to see what changes have occurred and how their workers are navigating these changes; visited a coffee processing plant in Antigua currently adjusting to changing climates and cultural shifts; and attended a coffee symposium in Maine where I interviewed twenty-one women in coffee from around the globe. Additionally, funds allowed for post-production assistance to work with the twenty-four new interviews and multiple hours of observations footage. I am honored to be able to document the past gains, the new challenges, and the people who are tirelessly fighting for gender equality in the coffee industry.
Suk-hee Kim
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
eLearning to Advance Racial and Ethnic Diversity Friendly University Initiative
This study aims to investigate NKU student, faculty, and staff experiences, perception, and awareness of racial and ethnic diversity in an online learning environment, and how best to incorporate racial and ethnic diversity into pre-existing university curriculum.
NKU students, faculty, and staff were surveyed about:
• Experiences with racial and ethnic diversity within the online curriculum
• Opinions about the effects of infusing racial and ethnic diversity into online curriculum, and into the world at large
• Areas where there might be gaps in diversity
• Ideas for eLearning resources that encourage diverse racial and ethnic representation
The overall study results showed that while many consider NKU online learning to be friendly towards racial and ethnic diversity, there are many gaps in diversity and inclusion that can be addressed. The Online Learning and Student Success Initiative, a hub for learning about racial and ethnic diversity at NKU, is being developed in response to needs identified by the NKU community in a pre-survey. The goal of the Initiative is to equip NKU students, faculty, and staff with the tools needed to be culturally competent, regardless of field. The Initiative hub aims to fill gaps in accessibility of online diversity resources at NKU and seeks to increase representation of people of color at NKU through showcasing guest speakers through speaking events and other webinars.
Nivanthi Mihindukulasooriya
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Monitoring the water quality of karst springs in Northern and Northeastern Kentucky
The objective of this project was to monitor the water quality of less known springs in Northern and Northeastern Kentucky in order to understand different environmental factors contributing to water quality. Following goals were accomplished during the grant period from 05/01/2021 to 06/30/3022.
· Prepared a map of commonly known springs in Northern and Northeastern Kentucky region that are within a reasonable driving distance (1-2 hour drive) from NKU, using published databases – this map contained 30 springs in Northern and Northeastern Kentucky
· Conducted field studies from May to June of 2021 to determine if the springs were still present– out of the 30 documented springs only ten were identified in the field.
· Monitored the concentrations of heavy metals, and other important water quality parameters in the identified springs once a month from June to September, additionally the salt spring at Big Bone Lick was measured twice a month from June till September
All the monitored springs recorded elevated levels of nitrate at least once during the monitoring period. The higher nitrate levels were commonly recorded following storm events suggesting that the aquifers directly recharge from contaminated runoff. The arrival of contaminants at a spring can vary depending on local geological conditions. Further research is required to determine the source of the contaminants and the contaminant arrival time into spring following a storm event.
Monica Wakefield
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy
Developing Research on Wild Olive Baboons (Papio anubis) and Co-directorship of the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project (UNBP), Laikipia, Kenya
In spring 2022, I took a sabbatical to focus on my newly established research project and received a Faculty Project Grant to help support the fieldwork portion of my activities. The primary goal was to develop new scholarly research on behavioral ecology of wild olive baboons at the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project (UNBP), Kenya. UNBP is one of the longest-running primatological research sites with continuous observation and data collection spanning 50 years. This presents a wealth of opportunities for myself and NKU students in terms of research at the site and access to long-term data yet to be analyzed. My sabbatical phase focused on developing and writing grant proposals for my ongoing scholarship and involvement at the site. This included a 6-week visit to the site to establish connections and collect pilot data/samples. I was able to meet all of my goals for the sabbatical period. In addition to meeting stated goals, I worked with long-term project data to analyze and present research female reproductive parameters and am working on a manuscript with these data; submitted two grant proposals; and established a “lab group” at NKU for collaborative student research experience utilizing the UNBP data.
Justin Yates
Professor
Department of Psychological Science
Individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to be diagnosed with a substance use disorder; however, the effects of long-term psychostimulant treatment on addiction are mixed. Preclinical studies are useful for further elucidating the relationship between ADHD and addiction-like behaviors, but these studies have focused on male subjects only. The goal of the current study was to determine if early-life administration of methylphenidate (MPH) increases reinstatement of methamphetamine (METH) conditioned place preference (CPP). Male and female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKYs) received either MPH (1.5 mg/kg; p.o.) or vehicle (1.0 ml/kg) during adolescence (postnatal day [PND] 28-54). Two weeks after cessation of MPH treatment, rats were tested for CPP. During the pretest and the posttest (days 1 and 10), rats explored all three compartments of the CPP apparatus in a drug-free state. During the conditioning phase, rats received either an injection of METH (1.0 mg/kg; s.c.) or saline (1.0 ml/kg) on alternating days and were isolated to one end compartment, with one compartment being associated with METH and the other compartment being associated with saline. Rats were then given extinction sessions, which were identical to the pretest/posttest. Once rats met extinction criteria, they were tested for reinstatement. Rats received a priming injection of METH (0.25 mg/kg; s.c.) before exploring all three compartments. Reinstatement of METH seeking was not affected by adolescent treatment history, strain, or sex. These results suggest that discontinuation of MPH administration does not increase relapse-like behavior in an animal model of ADHD.
Lynne Zajac
Associate Professor
School of Nursing
The Experience of Microaggression for Diverse Online Graduate Nursing Student
Racial microaggressions are forms of bias and discrimination and are statements of offensive and intimidating insults to people of color. Research points to the presence of microaggressions in the face-to-face higher education academic environment, but studies are lacking in the online setting. A faculty project for my one-semester sabbatical was a qualitative study. I conducted 12 one-on-one Zoom interviews with racially diverse graduate students about their experiences of microaggressions in the online educational environment. The results of the study along with evidence from the literature, informed the creation of faculty strategies to decrease microaggressions to promote a safe inclusive online learning space. The experience of this research study deepened my understanding of how to create safe and inclusive spaces for diverse learners in the online learning milieu.
