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 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.
Michael Baranowski
Associate Professor of Political Science
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
The Politics of Food in the United States
My sabbatical project focused on the politics of food, specifically U.S. domestic politics as it relates to issues such as agricultural trade, food safety, farm labor, organic certification, and animal welfare. I began by researching these issues as well as interviewing multiple policy area experts. My intent is for my work to be of use to students as well as the general public. To reach students, I’ve designed a food policy lesson for one of my classes, the results of which I will be presenting at the Midwest Political Science Association’s annual conference. I also intend to integrate food policy lessons into additional classes. To reach the broader public, I’ve distributed my initial research online as a series of short, approachable articles, several of which I have also released as podcast episodes. My longer term goal is for my research to be released by a mass-market publisher.
Kimberly Breitenbecher
Associate Professor of Psychological Science
Department of Psychological Science
Dissemination of Research in Health Psychology
My research interests are at the intersection of health psychology and environmental psychology. Over the past several years, I have conducted research examining how psychological factors (such as catastrophic thinking) and environmental factors (such as exposure to nature) affect aspects of wellbeing, including mood, cognitive functioning, and pain perception. I also recently completed a project evaluating the effectiveness of brief instruction in the use of psychological techniques (mindfulness, distraction, or relaxation) to cope with experimentally-inducted pain. 51AV undergraduate students were involved in all three projects. The purpose of my sabbatical leave was to prepare manuscripts based on these projects and submit them for publication. Specifically, I planned to submit three manuscripts for review. I have accomplished this goal. Two of these manuscripts have been accepted for publication. One manuscript is currently in press at the professional journal titled Ecopsychology. The second manuscript is currently in press at the professional journal titled Գٳdzö.
Richard Durtsche
Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Nordic Research on Physiological Aspects of Drift-feeding in Salmonid Fish and Binational Teaching in Sweden
My sabbatical at Karlstad University (Kau) in Sweden was very productive in scholarship and instruction, was rejuvenating, and collaborative. My research program had two main directives: 1) to develop a new method of digital surface area measurements for body size and energetics in stream/river macroinvertebrates, and 2) measuring the impact of altered developmental temperatures on the metabolism of salmonid fish. These directives were quickly incorporated into several collaborations to enhance the four ongoing research themes of the Kau River Ecology and Management Group including: River Habitat, Drift Foraging in Salmonid Fish, Winter Ecology, and Dam Removal. I completed a collaborative publication on turtle ecology in Conservation Biology and contributed to an invited paper (submitted) on Rivers and Ecocentrism for the Ecological Citizen. I am the lead author on a collaborative manuscript, Surface area – mass relationships in the determination of energetics in stream macroinvertebrates that we plan to submit this fall. I also completed a 5-year strategic plan for the NKU Research and Education Field Station as its Director. I participated in a Sustainability and Stewardship workshop and was a presenter in an Aquatic Ecology and Land-Water Interaction Ph.D. course at Kau. I assisted in the teaching of four Kau Biology courses, directed an intern from France, was the examiner of one Kau honor’s thesis, mentored an NKU honor’s student at Kau, and the advisor of one Kau Master’s student. I also taught a bicultural Northern Temperate Ecology course where NKU students (study-abroad) joined Kau students for field studies in Sweden.
Augustine Frimpong-Mansoh
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy
Seminar/Conference on African Bioethics
My Faculty Sabbatical Leave focused on a collaboration with Dr. Caesar Atuire to organize a seminar/conference on African Bioethics at the University of Ghana, Accra, in the fall of 2017. The University of Ghana approved us to hold the conference on 29-30 May, 2017 and it was very successful. We utilized a multidisciplinary approach, with eight papers presented by distinguished scholars from six academic disciplines (philosophy, religious studies, psychology, social work, and medicine). The presenters were from four different countries: the United States of America, Ghana, Cameroon, and South Africa. The conference was supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Ghana. There were an estimated 200 conference participants, consisting of students, journalists, faculty, university administrators, and health care interest groups (e.g. psychiatrists, traditional healers). We have obtained a book contract with Vernon Press to publish selected papers from the conference. The full manuscript was due to Vernon Press for peer review on June 30, 2018. I have initiated a discussion between a faculty from the Nursing Department here at NKU (Dr. Lynn Smith) and the dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery (Dr. Lydia Aziato) for potential collaborative projects.
Eric Jackson
Professor of Black Studies
Department of History and Geography
An Introduction to Black Studies Textbook
My sabbatical leave provided me with the time I needed to complete the remaining research and revisions of various chapters for my fourth book (and first textbook). Initially this volume was to be published by Pearson/Prentice Hall. However, now this book will be the first (and only) such volume to be published the University of Kentucky Press (Fall 2019), tentatively titled An Introduction to Black Studies. In An Introduction to Black Studies, I feature 17 chapters that focus on the primary eight disciplines of black studies: history, sociology, psychology, religion, black feminism, education, political science, and the arts. Each chapter includes a vignette that introduces an important figure in African American history, such as Frederick Douglass, Louis Armstrong, and Madam C.J. Walker.
Melissa Jones
Professor of Special Education
Department of Teacher Education
Adolescence, Identity and Disability: Teaching Students in Secondary Special Education Programs
The goal of this project was to write a textbook to support the teaching and learning of special education majors, with the working title Adolescence, Identity and Disability: Teaching Students in Secondary Special Education Programs. Specifically, the published textbook would be used in a course taught in the Special Education Program, EDS 572 Secondary Special Education Programs. As a 500 level course, this course is offered to both graduate in-service teachers and undergraduate students seeking special education certification.
One unique aspect of the text is to wed two distinct disciplines: Special Education and Disability Studies. Special Education is driven by the Americans with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004), and instructional materials written from this perspective typically focus on the legal mandates of special education concerning eligibility and the provision of services. Disability Studies offers the unique perspective of individuals who have a disability, enhancing course content by providing a voice to people who live the disability experience through case stories written by individuals with disability. This text is meant to be comprehensive, including chapters on adolescence and identity, transition services for students with disability, the laws governing the discipline of students with disability, inclusive practices at the secondary level, as well as secondary lesson planning for inclusive classrooms.
As a result of the sabbatical leave, six of the nine proposed chapters were drafted for the text, as well as the introduction for the text. Chapter 8, Effective Transition Planning, is being piloted in the EDS 572 course in Fall 2018.
Tonya Krouse
Professor of English
Department of English
Twenty-First-Century Directions in English Studies
During the fall of 2017, I accomplished field-shaping work in both my discipline generally (English Studies) and in my field of specialization (Literary Studies). The bulk of my sabbatical was spent researching and drafting three chapters of Introducing English Studies, an undergraduate textbook that will address the breadth of English as a discipline, which I am co-authoring with Professor Tamara O’Callaghan. These three chapters, which address Rhetoric, Composition, Cinema, Popular Culture, New Media, and Creative Writing, emphasize the flexibility of English Studies. Coming from high school, students often assume that “English” means the study of literature: our textbook reveals how a degree in English translates to an array of skills that help students to succeed in a wide range of twenty-first-century career paths. Per our contract with Bloomsbury Publishing, we submitted our completed manuscript on September 30, 2018, and we anticipate the textbook’s publication in 2019.
My sabbatical also supported research, writing, and course development in my field of specialization, Literary Studies. I researched, wrote, and revised one article (“Virginia Woolf in the Canon of Women’s Literature: Narrative Futures of the Feminist Novel” in the Oxford Handbook on Virginia Woolf, which is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2020). This work prepared me to create one new course, “The Bloomsbury Group: Creative Communities,” and to apply for one external grant to support this course’s development (A Modern Language Association Humanities Innovation Course Development Grant, submitted August 31, 2018).
Yasue Kuwahara
Professor of Electronic Media and Broadcasting
Department of Communication
Chindonya: Vanishing Traditional Performing Art of Japan
The highlight of my sabbatical leave was fieldwork conducted in Japan between April and July. I attended two national competitions, interviewed four professional and two amateur chindon troupes, attended the concerts and accompanied two troupes to their work.
Chindonya is a troupe of street musicians and performers dressed in elaborate costume who are hired to draw customers to shops. Due to lack of interest among the general public, it is extremely difficult to find the published and unpublished sources on chindonya. All the professional performers I interviewed were willing to share what they had and knew and thus I was given access to valuable sources, including the programs of past national competitions, out-of-print books, magazine and newspaper articles, and the recording of the lectures by chindon men. My fieldwork has resulted in the following findings which are the themes for further research:
Chindon holds a truly unique place in Japanese culture. Although music, dance, singing and dramatic message delivery style characterize chindon performance, it is not considered an art form by most practitioners. Even its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, chindon was regarded as subculture. Today, a majority of the Japanese, especially those under the age of 50, do not know chindon. Chindon continues to exist owing to its adoptability and may eventually evolve into an art form.
These findings will be presented at the inaugural Spotlight on Scholarship Conference at the University in October 2018 and at the Popular Culture Association National Conference in Washington, D.C. in April 2019.
Kelly Moffett
Associate Professor of English
Department of English
Published Poetry Collection
Kelly Moffett spent four months in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for her sabbatical, composing and revising 73 poems for a new poetry collection, which has been accepted by the celebrated international press, Salmon Poetry. She also wrote several travel narratives, which will be included in an essay collection that has been accepted by an emerging press being established at Huntington Beach, CA as an outgrowth of a local arts and culture television series. Additionally, she visited classes at Babeș-Bolyai University to share creative writing prompts, and she consulted with UBB professors about creative writing pedagogy and program development. She met with a translator of new Romanian verse in order to learn about Romanian poetry and the translation process; this influenced her own poetry and inspired her to revise her curriculum to include Romanian poets and translation exercises.
Melissa Moon
Associate Professor of Public Administration
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
Prevention of and Response to School Shootings
Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. These school shootings, and others, have been thrust to the forefront of the national dialogue in the United States. The first aspect of my sabbatical focused on common responses to active shooting events. My co-authors and I wrote an article that tested the two competing paradigms in active shooter response: traditional lockdown and multi-option response. Using mock simulations of active shooter events, we found that the multi-option response led to a quicker time to resolution and greater survivability in these simulations. The article, “One Size Does Not Fit All: Traditional Lockdown Versus Multi-Option Responses to School Shootings,” was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of School Violence. The second part of my sabbatical was used to write a book proposal on preventing and responding to active shooter events. In early May, my co-author and I secured a contract with Routledge to write a book titled: Shooter in the School: Prevention, Response, and Survival. The book will highlight the number of school shootings in recent history, discuss the problems of trying to identify gunmen before the rampage occurs, show how responses to school shootings have evolved over time, assess the various environmental measures put into place to harden the school, evaluate the competing training paradigms for teachers, staff, and students, offer a dialogue concerning arming individuals in the school, provide an overview of best practices, and conclude with chapter explaining how this information can translate to mass shootings that occur without the school setting.
Karen Mutsch
Associate Professor of Nursing
Department of Nursing
The Effects of a Clinical Nurse Leader Program: Program Evaluation
The purposes of this project were to evaluate the actions of Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) and to recommend clinical implications to improve patient outcomes with the aim of reducing readmissions, especially for those patients with heart failure (HF). I reviewed 100 charts in the first and second quarters 2018 from the inception of the CNL program in 2016. Of those 100 charts, 36 (36%) patients were admitted with HF and returned within 30 days. Thirty-six (36%) patients did not come back in the hospital after the HF index admission and 28 (28%) patients did not code as an HF diagnosis. All 100 patients were taught the HF protocol by the CNL.
More than half of all 72 patient admissions, 63% in group one, 53% in group two were readmitted to the hospital, and 80% in group two coded HF and had hypertensive heart and chronic kidney disease with HF and stage I through IV chronic kidney disease. Group two had more patients (78% vs. 64%) seen by the cardiologist on their index admission to the hospital. This 14% difference may be significant for the attention needed to care for and the medication management for those with HF which has the potential of keeping patients with HF from returning to the hospital. The CNL needs to pay particular attention to not only HF diagnoses but also those patients admitted with hypertension and kidney disease. In addition, the CNL needs to see if patients are interested in seeing a cardiologist to care for them when they are admitted with HF. Encouragement to patients for prompt follow-up with a PCP, cardiologist and or visit to the HF clinic are of the upmost importance. Implementing a CNL program has the potential to decrease readmission rates and decrease hospital cost.
Bridget Nichols
Associate Professor of Marketing and Sports Business
Department of Marketing, Sports Business and Event Management, and Construction Management
The Effects of a Clinical Nurse Leader Program: Program Evaluation
The main purpose of my sabbatical was to produce a peer reviewed manuscript based on an empirical study bridging a wide gap between the marketing and supply chain literatures. This goal was achieved and a three-experiment study was submitted to the Journal of Operations Management on June 13, 2018. This is an A-level premier journal in supply chain and management science. Recently, we received an encouraging invitation to revise and resubmit the paper. In addition, my research team and I were able to produce another manuscript related to the same topic that is being targeted to a marketing journal. The results of this research were presented at the Academy of Marketing Science World Congress conference in Porto, Portugal on June 27th, 2018. We plan to submit a full manuscript to the Journal of Brand Management by the end of 2018. In addition to these two manuscripts, I was also able to submit one paper to the Journal of Business Research (currently under second round review), one paper to the Journal of Marketing Communications (currently under second round review), and another to the Journal of Business Ethics (currently in first round review).
David Raska
Associate Professor of Marketing
Department of Marketing, Sports Business and Event Management, and Construction Management
Beyond the Growth Mindset
Business academicians have often been accused of not preparing students adequately to become effective contributors to the business world upon graduation. To address this criticism, I dedicated my developmental sabbatical leave to completing a series of short (one to three day long) marketing externships in companies where my former students work and/or companies that my students completed client based projects for. These externships resulted in:
1. In-depth interviewing of 87 industry professionals and collecting both qualitative and quantitative data from a sample of 70 NKU alumni and clients
2. Hands-on learning about workplace culture and project management in 12 different companies
3. Meeting with over 200 new professionals
4. Creating and disseminating student and alumni success content that generated 15K+ views and over 50K+ impressions on LinkedIn and Instagram, respectively
5. Becoming certified as Employee Engagement Expert and learning from five inspiring and passionate influencers in the field of customer and employee engagement
6. Refreshing my course materials
By accomplishing the goals set forth in my sabbatical leave application, I have managed to better understand who my customers are (students, clients as prospective employers, and prospective students from underserved neighborhoods), what their unique and shared needs are, and how to serve them in ways that no one else can. I am proud to report that I have grown both as a professional and human being and in ways that have already created value for not only our students and University, but also our scholarly and community at large.
Erin Strome
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Using Yeast to Identify Genes with Roles in Increased Cancer Risk
As a cancer geneticist working with the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism, my goal is to identify gene mutations that play a role in cancer incidence. My sabbatical work focused around four main projects bolstering my research initiatives. First, I worked on data collection and writing for two manuscripts, one of which was submitted for publication while work is ongoing for the other. Second, I completed the set up for my human tissue culture workspace to enable transition of our work to cell culture as a second model system. Third, I submitted, and was awarded, five grants that will support continued experiments in the lab and create additional data for a sixth, larger, grant submission this summer. Finally, I worked with instructors participating in the Yeast ORFan Gene Project on their classroom implementation of this Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE). Work on data collection and manuscript preparation involved participation by undergraduate research students. The sabbatical provided me with the critical time necessary to analyze data, complete final experiments and focus on writing of manuscripts and grants, as well as expanding my network of yeast researchers and helping me build expertise for the classroom. All of these projects have helped to position me in the best place for receiving future grants, continuing to have projects and support for undergraduate researchers, and collection and publication of additional manuscripts.
Gail Wells
Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Computer Science and Higher Education Leadership Research
The sabbatical leave enabled me to engage in intense study in computer science research needed to support my return to computer science after more than two decades away from the discipline. The research focused on three areas:
(a) re-establishing expertise in computer graphics and preparation for teaching a sequence of upper-level computer graphics courses which haven’t been taught at NKU in over a decade due to lack of faculty proficient in this area. I am now prepared to offer an upper-level graphics course in the fall semester. In conjunction with the course, I plan to engage upper-level/graduate students in graphics research projects.
(b) participating in CS education research focused on improving the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in IT disciplines; studying best practices for the freshman computer science course sequence at universities that have significantly exceeded the national average in recruiting, retaining and graduating under-represented populations in CS; analyzing the P-12 outreach programs aimed at increasing diversity in CS; and participating in the evaluation of programs funded by corporations to increase diversity in both professional IT positions and in CS courses in high schools and higher education.
(c) engaging in research in the area of leadership in higher education that will lead to a book co-authored by James Votruba and Carole Beere. There is an abundance of higher education leadership literature focused on the challenges that college and university leaders confront. The goal of our book is to complement this literature by focusing on the advice offered by those currently in leadership positions. We have surveyed university deans, provosts, and presidents, asking them to share advice they would give to those aspiring to similar leadership positions as well as thoughts concerning the qualities they believe contribute to a leader’s success. Our book will focus on the results of this survey.
Michael Baranowski
Associate Professor of Political Science
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
Book Publishing Plan – Good People, Bad System: How Markets and Government Make Our Lives Worse
The focus of my summer fellowship project was research into policy failure. My initial plan was to look at the politics of food, though I ended up broadening my focus to consider policy failure more generally. I contend that the common public perception of policy failure being the result of inept, corrupt, and lazy public officials is largely incorrect. Instead, I argue that institutional failures of markets and governments are far more to blame. My research involved categorizing types of market and government failures, explaining each of them through the use of multiple real-world examples, and offering a counter-example of how the failure in question can be minimized or eliminated, again through the use of a real-world example. Because I believe this to be an important message that most of the general public is unaware of, I decided to pursue publication of a book that would reach a general audience. To that end, I’ve worked with several publishers experienced with mass-market nonfiction in developing a detailed outline and plan for the book. My hope is to publish my book, tentatively titled, “Good People, Bad System: How Markets and Government Make Our Lives Worse” with either one of the publishers I have been working with or another mass-market publisher. I hope to have a contract by the end of 2018 and expect the book to be published sometime in 2020.
Sara Drabik
Associate Professor of Electronic Media and Broadcasting
Department of Communication
The Changing Role of Women in the International Coffee Industry
Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, and women historically perform an average of 70% of the work in its production. Yet, they participate in only 10% of the commercial aspect and have little to no access to training or education in the industry. This summer fellowship helped support work that began in 2013 to conduct research and create a documentary film that looks at the changing role of women in the coffee industry and how organizations such as the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) are affecting this transition. The fellowship has allowed me the time to further the post-production and analysis process with footage and data gathered during the past five years of research. Over 200 hours of footage has been logged and transcribed this summer. In addition to working with the material from Guatemala, South Africa, Tanzania, and India, I also was able to work on additional follow-up interviews with participants who have been involved throughout the process. An outline for the film has been created and reviewed by members of the IWCA as well as regional documentary filmmakers for feedback for revisions. While a full rough cut is not yet complete, all material is currently being assembled using Adobe Premiere editing software, which will be again be reviewed by members of the IWCA community and filmmaking community. Outlets for screening have been identified and secured locally.
Richard Durtsche
Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Nordic Research on Physiological Aspects of Drift-feeding in Salmonid Fish and Binational Teaching in Sweden
My faculty summer fellowship at Karlstad University (Kau) in Sweden was very productive in scholarship and collaborations. My research program had two main directives: 1) to develop a new method of digital surface area measurements for body size and energetics in stream/river macroinvertebrates, and 2) measuring the impact of altered developmental temperatures on the metabolism of salmonid fish. These directives were quickly incorporated into several collaborations to enhance all four ongoing research themes within the Kau River Ecology and Management Group including: River Habitat where I introduced a new method for macroinvertebrate seine sampling, Drift Foraging in Salmonid Fish where my surface area and energetic measures of macroinvertebrates are used in modeling, Winter Ecology where my measures of salmonid metabolism under different developmental temperatures add to our understanding of the impact of climate change on salmon and river ecosystems, and Dam Removal where I worked on establishing the evaluation of streams (experimental design and macroinvertebrate biomass via surface area measures) before and after dams are removed. The collaborative salmonid metabolism work took me to the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research near Stavanger, Norway in late May and early June for metabolism studies on Brown Trout to test climate change impacts. I also spent time in the laboratory measuring macoinvertebrate energetic contents. I contributed to an invited paper (in press) entitled Rivers, Dams, and Ecocentrism for the Ecological Citizen, and I am the lead author on a collaborative manuscript, Surface area – mass relationships in the determination of energetics in stream macroinvertebrates that we plan to submit later this fall.
Sunil Ketty
Assistant Professor of Media Informatics
Department of Communication
A Teaching Tool for Artists Learning 3D Character Modeling
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man drawing represents the importance of aesthetics, art, human anatomy, and symmetry. Since the 15th Century the world has witnessed many changes, however the pursuit for perfection though creativity remains intact. The evolution of computers in entertainment allow individuals to explore possibilities beyond their imaginations. The use of software combined with modern technology propel those possibilities to new levels. A key component in Computer-Generated Images (CGI) is the ability to produce innovative characters for entertainment. Yet, technology alone cannot take ideas and concepts to lifelike onscreen personalities. Developing believable CG characters is a fundamental technique necessary when entering the industry. Understanding human characteristics is essential when modeling a character capable of being textured, rigged, and animated. The ideologies behind Da Vinci’s sketch resonate true when constructing a CG character. Without those core concepts portrayed through the Vitruvian Man drawing, modern CG characters could not function or perform. The framework that allows an artist to create a character with physical characteristics, emotional qualities, and the ability to perform, begins with an understanding of the most efficient way to plot three-dimensional virtual geometry. A student new to these techniques can have a difficult time translating real world attributes into 3D virtual world attributes. I successfully created a tangible object to assist students when translating between real and virtual concepts during the learning process.
Rasib Khan
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Federated Security Middleware Framework for Internet-of-Things Enabled Smart Environments
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is gaining popularity in both personal and professional spaces. Unfortunately, such devices and services suffer from inefficient collective security management solutions. The conducted research introduced a novel federated security framework for IoT-enabled smart environments. I introduced a core element for smart environments, namely, the Security Hub, as a middleware to ensure consolidated security for the IoT devices. The overall research includes the development of both theoretical and schematic components of the federated middleware IoT security solution. In particular, this Summer Fellowship focused on research towards the integration mechanisms of high-efficiency data transmission and management for the middleware smart-hub, including a secure update patching and device polling mechanism for IoT-enabled environments.
Edward Kwon
Associate Professor of Political Science
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program Under Kim Jong Un
Through quantitative and content analyses on North Korea’s newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, the research found general patterns of North Korea’s military provocations involved in a series of nuclear weapons experiments and intercontinental ballistic missile test fires under Kim Jong Un. Overcoming limitations of rare reliable information sources to confirm the capability of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ICBM programs, the newspaper provides important information to understand the country’s intentions. Although the newspaper is a propaganda vehicle for the regime, the researcher could find a kind of genuine voice of Pyongyang between the lines of many articles. Kim Jong Un’s regime conducted four nuclear weapons experiments and various types of missile test fires, including six long-range, fifteen medium-range, eleven short-range, and five submarine-launched. Unlike his father, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un attempted to conduct those military provocations close to North Korean national holidays, Independence Day of the United States, or immediately after the United States-Republic of Korea joint military exercises. North Korea has tried to maximize propaganda effects towards the world, while it pushes the U.S.-ROK alliance to the edge of a cliff. After six nuclear tests and recently two successful ICBMs tests, North Korea has endeavored to achieve the dreadful nuclear weapons capability by miniaturizing nuclear warheads and establishing a reliable delivery system.
Ellen Maddin
Associate Professor of Educational Technology
Department of Teacher Education
Using Digital Storytelling to Understand Teachers’ Perspectives on Technology Integration
My 2018 summer fellowship provided opportunities to work with teachers in Northern Kentucky and greater Cincinnati to investigate supporting conditions and barriers that influence their use of instructional technology. I chose to do this through video interviews, so the first phase of my project involved designing a video interview protocol and writing a review of literature on the use of video as data in qualitative research methodology. In phase two, I conducted video interviews with teachers and used excerpts from the footage to construct three digital stories that captured their perspectives. I chose digital stories as my products because they are both narrative and informative; creative and documentary. During the fall 2018 semester, I will use the transcripts from these video interviews as data in a more comprehensive research project. My digital stories were co-constructed with participants using planning tools I designed in an earlier study (Maddin, 2012). This approach increased the authenticity of the productions by allowing participants to assist in identifying the mood, planning the storyboard, and suggesting ideas for still images, transitions and animations. The final digital stories will be published as a collection on a website:
Catherine Neal
Associate Professor of Business Ethics and Business Law
Department of Accounting and Business Law
Is there any such thing as an ethical corporate tax inversion? Finding guidance in uncertain legal and political environments through the application of business ethics theory
During the summer of 2018, I examined the ethical implications of corporate tax inversions in shifting legal and business environments in the United States. Recent court rulings in tax reform, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and a changing political environment have created questions about the practice of corporate tax inversions. There is renewed uncertainty about corporations’ ethical duties with regard to citizenship, patriotism, and loyalty to the United States. Corporate tax inversions have been used for many years by U.S. corporations to lower their corporate tax rates and reduce their income tax liability. During an inversion, a U.S. company merges with a foreign company. As part of that transaction, the company moves its headquarters from the U.S. to that of the foreign company, which changes the company’s citizenship. After the inversion, the newly relocated company is subject to the more favorable corporate income tax laws of its new home country, and the United States loses both a corporate citizen and significant income tax revenue. I spent the summer of 2018 analyzing recent changes in the law, considering the reasoning and impact of legislative actions and court rulings, and I began developing ethical guidance for corporate tax inversions through the application of business ethics theory and principles to these complex transactions. Ultimately, this research will enhance the learning of students in my business ethics courses and, through publication, will provide insights for business ethics and corporate tax scholars, corporate leaders, lawmakers, courts, and government agencies.
Bridget Nichols
Associate Professor of Marketing and Sports Business
Department of Marketing, Sports Business and Event Management, and Construction Management
The Spillover Effects of Negative Information about the Supply Chain on Perceptions of Product Attributes: Experiments Applying the Triple-Bottom-Line Paradigm
The main purpose of this study was to examine if messages about extended Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes produce spillover effects that may be detrimental to the brand. Specifically, we focused on the manner in which consumers interpret negative information related to the Triple Bottom Line of firm success (economic, social, environmental factors). This research will bridge a gap between the marketing and supply chain literatures. Strong integration between the two promotes success for the firm (loyalty, profitability, efficiency, etc.) – but research investigating how consumers may interpret failures within the supply chain are lacking. This is a missing piece to the puzzle because a truly market-oriented company places the consumer at the core of every activity and decision they make (Kholi & Jaworski, 199). Importantly, consumers have more access to information about company operations than ever before, largely due to the saturation and adoption of social media.
Reiko Ozaki
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Department of Counseling, Social Work, and Leadership
Evaluation of Domestic Violence Victim Advocates Training in Japan
Domestic violence (DV), or partner abuse in intimate relationships, is recognized as a serious public health and social problem worldwide. Those who assist victims in various capacities are often called advocates and need training in order to serve effectively. A non-profit organization in Japan provides a two-day training for DV victim advocates to reduce erroneous beliefs, increase knowledge about DV, and improve self-confidence on their job. This Summer Fellowship project evaluated the effectiveness of the training using pre- and post-training scores on scales that measured these concepts. The secondary data used for this study were collected from a total of 166 participants between July 2014 and January 2018 in six Japanese cities. The survey was administered before the training began on the first day of the training (pretest) and after the training ended on the second day (posttest). No demographic information was obtained in order to encourage survey participation. The final analytic sample included 145 cases for pretest and 148 for posttest. Independent-samples t-tests found reduction of erroneous beliefs on DV, increase in knowledge about DV, and increase in self-confidence among participants all at statistically significant levels. The findings of this study can support the efforts to continue the training for DV victim advocates in Japan. Future research may investigate factors that contributed to the changes in these scores and long-term impacts of the training in addition to continuing to evaluate the training effectiveness.
Gabe Sanders
Associate Professor of Exercise Science
Department of Kinesiology and Health
Bilateral Asymmetries in Ultrasound Assessments of the Rectus Femoris Throughout an NCAA Division I Volleyball Preseason
Revisions submitted to Sports (Peer Reviewed Journal)
Gabriel J. Sanders, Brian Boos, Frank Shipley and Corey A. Peacock
The purpose of the study was to assess glycogen content of the rectus femoris (RF) muscles utilizing high frequency ultrasound throughout an intensive, 9-day preseason training period in NCAA division I volleyball athletes. In the morning prior to the beginning of practice, athletes (N= 13) left and right RF muscles were assessed via ultrasound to quantify muscle fuel ratings (0-100 score range). The recommended location of the RF ultrasound scans were based on manufacturer guidelines and marked on the athlete. The same technician recorded the measurements throughout the study. To assess daily training load, session ratings of perceived exertion (s-RPE) was utilized. A paired t-test revealed a large significant difference between left (51.7 ± 17.9) and right (32.8 ± 17.4) RF muscle fuel ratings (p < 0.001). There was also a main effect of time on s-RPE (p < 0.001) and left (dominant) RF fuel rating (p = 0.001). s-RPE decreased from the beginning to the end of training camp. However, left RF fuel ratings increased from the first to the second day then remained elevated all throughout preseason. In conclusion, all athletes were left-leg dominant and had a 57.6% bilateral asymmetry between their left and right RF muscle fuel rating despite changes in training load. High frequency ultrasounds are a non-invasive assessment tool that can determine glycogen replenishment asymmetries in the RF. At the end of the summer 2018, I independently published a textbook titled Data Analysis in Sports Science to explain the research process and proper data analysis to practitioners and students. The textbook is available on Amazon with the following ISBN numbers. Sanders, G.J. Data analysis in sports science. Independently Published, KDP. 2018. ISBN 10: 1718077580; ISBN-13: 978-1718077584.
Cory Scheadler
Assistant Professor of Exercise Science
Department of Kinesiology and Health
Statistical Analysis of Track and Treadmill Walking to Support Walking Exercise
The work completed over the summer of 2018 as part of the Faculty Senate Benefits Committee Summer Fellowship has included several important components. A significant amount of time was able to be put into completing participant recruitment and over ninety hours of data collection on an IRB approved human subjects research project. Thirty participants each completed three days of testing, each requiring physical activity and at least thirty minutes of their time. Track walking data was analyzed, and software was updated to improve the response of a self-pacing treadmill to better support walking exercise. Data and statistical analysis of the treadmill and track walking was completed, and preparation of two manuscripts began, with expectations of submitting them to scholarly journals in the coming months. Importantly, two undergraduates in the Kinesiology & Health Department were actively involved in the recruitment and data collection for all participants. These students are currently involved in data analysis, which is ongoing. One of these students is using data to complete her Honors Capstone project and will be the lead author on one of the two manuscripts. The other student is analyzing data as well with plans to present at the Celebration of Student Research and Creativity. The fellowship allowed me to put the necessary time into a research project that was important for myself and students as well.
Kirsten Schwarz
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
From the ground up: how an integrated social-ecological and multi-scalar understanding of soil lead and gardening can inform urban greening efforts
Funds from the Faculty Summer Fellowship allowed me to continue my research on green infrastructure in cities. Specifically, I was able to work on manuscript preparation, submitting three manuscripts and one book chapter for publication. I submitted two grant proposals seeking additional support for the Strategic Depaving project in Newport, KY. I mentored seven research students this summer, six of which worked on community-engaged research in Newport, KY. Our first community design charrette was held on July 24th in collaboration with Westside Citizen’s Coalition. As an AAAS Leshner Fellow I participated in orientation and training in Washington D.C. where I presented my research as part of a public panel on the role of community engagement in food and water security. I was an invited participant in a workshop on urban resilience and social-ecological networks at the University of Waterloo and invited presenter at the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation’s Conference on Modelling Complex Urban Environments. In June 2018, I was elected chairperson-elect for the Ecological Society of America’s Science Communication and Engagement Section. In this role, I attended the 103rd Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA in August 2018. To advance collaborations on urban green infrastructure and environmental justice, I met with collaborators at Ball State to discuss our ongoing research in Toledo, OH.
Jamey Strawn
Professor of Theatre and Dance
School of the Arts, Theatre and Dance Program
Musical Orchestration: Sleeping Beauty
The focus of my summer fellowship was to compose orchestrations for our new musical, SLEEPING BEAUTY. With a book and story by Ken Jones, lyrics by Christine Jones, and music composed by me, the musical is set to be performed by the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati in April 2019. Orchestrating is a time-consuming process. Once the piano score was completed, I then proceeded to generate parts for each of the instruments in the ensemble. Combining the creative writing and the data entry, it took 8-12 hours to produce an orchestration for each of the musical moments in the show. As the orchestrations developed, we made edits and revisions to the material based on the dramatic needs for the production. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to generate these parts and make revisions before we move into the rehearsal and recording phases. In the fall, we will create a demo recording, using these orchestrations. The demo recording will be used by the Children’s Theatre actors in rehearsal and will be made available for future productions. In April 2019, the SLEEPING BEAUTY orchestrations will be played live at the Taft Theatre during the world premiere performances, presented by the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati and featuring several NKU students and alumni.
Christopher Strobel
Professor of Electronic Media and Broadcasting
Department of Communication
Lemons: Videos Illustrating Media Aesthetics
My 2018 summer fellowship and project grant provided the time and funding to create video examples for use in our EMB 140 Introduction to Media Aesthetics class. Envisioned as a tool to serve the lecture portion of our foundational course, the media created through the fellowship and grant consists of two conceptual pieces. The featured video, a short scene entitled Lemons, focuses upon three friends discussing a farcical encounter at a grocery store. This scene, shot and edited in a traditional cinema style, is augmented with alternative selections of footage that utilize aesthetic principles not included in the primary edit. It is the availability of these alternatives - angles, lens choices, framings, audio qualities, editing style, and camera support - that provides the opportunity for our students to visualize each as a legitimate choice in the mediated storytelling experience and then to evaluate the effectiveness of those options. Being able to experience the difference that each option provides should help to clarify the educational experience for our media production students as they begin their academic careers.
Erin Strome
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Detecting Phenotypic Changes Due to Mutations in the SAM1 and SAM2 genes
Cancer geneticists seek to identify all gene mutations that result in higher incidences of cancer. Broadly, genes are the carriers of our genetic information and the regions of our DNA that encode functional products. Mutations can cause complete loss or alteration of these functional products. Our lab has identified two genes called SAM1 and SAM2, which when mutated cause destabilization of the cell’s genome (its full set of genetic material). This destabilization is often a first step in cancer development. For cells to become cancerous they must find ways to avoid their normal instructions. When a cell’s genome is destabilized bits of information (DNA) can be gained or lost. It would be as if you are reading a set of instructions for furniture construction and several steps are missing or are included a second time. This destabilized set of instructions will most likely result in a destabilized piece of furniture and the same holds true for our cells. While we have determined that SAM1 and SAM2 mutations lead to destabilization, we do not know how. This project sought to investigate what is different in SAM1 and SAM2 mutant cells that may be causing this destabilization. We have now identified ~250 different conditions with altered growth of these mutants and this will aid in our full understanding of all the cellular changes present in these cells.
Lindsey Walters
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Selecting the best place to raise a family: Do favorable temperatures outweigh predation risk during nest site selection by Carolina chickadees?
I worked with five NKU undergraduate students over two summers to investigate a puzzle about where birds chose to make their nests. In my previous research, I had found that Carolina chickadee nests were more likely to suffer predation when they were located near the forest edge. However, the birds still nested there just as often as they nested in the safer forest interior. For this behavior to make sense, there must have been some benefit to nesting in the risky edge habitat. My hypothesis was that the nests on the edge were warmer due to greater sun exposure, and therefore they provided a more favorable environment for the incubation of eggs. This project tested my hypothesis by comparing the incubation constancy of female Carolina chickadees to the location of their nests relative to the forest edge. We found that females whose nests were closer to the warmer, but riskier, forest edge had to spend less time incubating their eggs and were able to spend more time foraging for their own food, potentially explaining why they would choose to nest in a riskier location. In addition to investigating this primary question, the students supported by this award also helped collect data for several other research projects in my lab on different aspects of avian parental care. Overall, this project produced new information about avian nest site selection behavior and provided valuable research experience for NKU undergraduate students.
Kimberly Weir
Associate Professor of Political Science
Department of Political Science, Criminal Justice, and Organizational Leadership
Seeking Sustainability in a Global Political Economy
During my Summer Fellowship (2018), I began writing Seeking Sustainability in a Global Political Economy. My book examines how the neoliberal economic system, developed in response to capitalism, undermines the planet and population’s potential survival. Designed to educate students about sustainability issues and convince them of their connection as individuals to the sustainability of the planet, I focus on six commodities (cobalt, corn, water, cotton, palm oil, and sand). This reader will appeal to instructors teaching a variety of courses across a number of disciplines. I used the fellowship to develop an outline for the project, identify the key themes and concepts, conduct research (compiling sources in the process) to identify the most interesting and elucidating commodities to serve as case studies, and narrowed down which combination of a longer list of commodities best covered the widest range of concepts. With these commodities in mind, I filled in the book outline and created a boilerplate for the case studies. I completed rough drafts of three chapters. I intend to present a chapter at the Midwest Political Science Association’s conference in April. These accomplishments have set me up to submit a book proposal to two publishers who have already expressed an interest (Lynne Reinner Publishers and Bloomsbury Publishers).
Janet Bertog
Professor of Geology
Department of Physics, Geology and Engineering Technology
Excavation and initial description of a nearly complete Barosaurus (Sauropoda) skeleton from the Aaron Scott Quarry
Dr. Bertog has been managing a team of students and volunteers from 51AV and Marietta College to excavate the most complete skeleton of the large sauropod dinosaur Barosaurus, an animal that is about 85 feet long. Because it is in very hard rock and remote, excavation has been slow. This skeleton is the most complete of this genus and includes the only known skull material. Excavation is nearly complete, although we have begun working on the hip region – the largest bones in the skeleton. We have made great progress on uncovering these bones, but we still have at least another year before they are fully excavated. At the end of November, the Cincinnati Museum Center will be reopening after a major renovation. Part of this renovation is the inclusion of a new dinosaur hall and the Jurassic Period is a center-piece of this exhibit. Bones of this Barosaurus as well as other significant specimens from the site will be on display. Three students from NKU participated in the trip in May. Two of these students returned in August, one was unavailable. Based on the work we conducted at the site this summer, these three students are presenting at the national Geological Society of America meeting on the bone orientation, weathering and some of the other animals of the quarry.
Thaddeus Bissett
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy
Archaeological Research at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site
In May of 2017, students from 51AV and the University of Cincinnati, and volunteers from the northern Kentucky area, participated in a three-week excavation at the Glacken Site, a Late Archaic (5700 to 3200 years BP) and Early Woodland (3200 to 2300 years BP) prehistoric site located on the property of Big Bone Lick State Historic Site. Students first excavated “shovel test pits” across the site to identify areas with large amounts of archaeological material for further, detailed investigations. Artifacts were more abundant atop a low knoll overlooking Big Bone Creek, and several controlled excavation units were opened to assess the condition and nature of the cultural deposits in that location. Overall, the students exposed and investigated 8.25 square meters of the site, moving more than 4 cubic meters of soil (weighing upwards of 6 metric tons). During the remainder of the summer, I and several student volunteers from the project carefully washed, counted, and sorted the artifacts in preparation for a more thorough analysis. Despite the small area encompassed in the 2017 excavations, we recovered a large amount of cultural material: 2132 stone flakes left behind from the manufacture of stone tools, 908 bone fragments, and 342 pieces of freshwater mussel shell. We also discovered at least two small fire pits. Taken together, these cultural remains suggest that the site may have been used by a large group of people over a long period of time. Further analyses of the artifacts will be conducted in a series of independent study projects by several NKU Anthropology majors during fall of 2017, and their work will be summarized in the final report (which is currently in progress and will be submitted to Big Bone Lick upon completion).
Corrie Danieley
Associate Professor of Theatre
School of the Arts, Theatre and Dance Program
Vocal Freedom for Class and Community
In October 2017, I had the opportunity to study with world‐renowned Shakespeare and theatrical vocal coach, Patsy Rodenburg, at The Michael Howard Studios in New York City. Participating in this competitive workshop deepened my understanding of Shakespeare’s text as well as expanded my knowledge in vocal exercises for the working actor. In rehearsing monologues and scenes under the direction and guidance of Ms. Rodenburg, I learned new ways on how to embody Shakespeare’s text and breathe life into his words. It is important for teachers to continue to be students. Through this experience, I was reminded what it is like to be in my student’s shoes. Gaining a plethora of new vocal and Shakespeare exercises, I am eager to bring clarity to my voice and Shakespeare classes on campus and also into my play rehearsals for main stage productions. I left this workshop feeling empowered – that my voice mattered and I deserve to be heard. This empowerment is exactly what I’m excited to bring to my students, to our campus, and to our community.
Richard Durtsche
Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Nordic Research on Physiological Aspects of Drift-feeding in Salmonid Fish and Binational Teaching in Sweden
My faculty research project at Karlstad University (Kau) in Sweden was very productive in scholarship and collaborations. My research program had two main directives: 1) to develop a new method of digital surface area measurements for body size and energetics in stream/river macroinvertebrates, and 2) measuring the impact of altered developmental temperatures on the metabolism of salmonid fish. These directives were quickly incorporated into several collaborations to enhance all four ongoing research themes within the Kau River Ecology and Management Group including: River Habitat where I introduced a new method for macroinvertebrate seine sampling, Drift Foraging in Salmonid Fish where my surface area and energetic measures of macroinvertebrates are used in modeling, Winter Ecology where my measures of salmonid metabolism under different developmental temperatures add to our understanding of the impact of climate change on salmon and river ecosystems, and Dam Removal where I worked on establishing the evaluation of streams (experimental design and macroinvertebrate biomass via surface area measures) before and after dams are removed. The collaborative salmonid metabolism work took me to the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research near Stavanger, Norway in late May and early June for metabolism studies on Brown Trout to test climate change impacts. I also spent time in the laboratory measuring macoinvertebrate energetic contents. I contributed to an invited paper (in press) entitled Rivers, Dams, and Ecocentrism for the Ecological Citizen, and I am the lead author on a collaborative manuscript, Surface area – mass relationships in the determination of energetics in stream macroinvertebrates that we plan to submit later this fall.
Augustine Frimpong-Mansoh
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy
Seminar/Conference on African Bioethics
I received a project grant to support my Sabbatical Leave to collaborate with a faculty (Dr. Caesar Atuire) to organize a seminar/conference on African Bioethics at the University of Ghana, Accra. The University of Ghana approved us to hold the conference on the 29th – 30th of May, 2017, and it was very successful. We employed a multidisciplinary approach, with eight papers presented by distinguished scholars from six academic disciplines (philosophy, religious studies, psychology, social work, and medicine). The presenters were from four different countries: the United States of America, Ghana, Cameroon, and South Africa. The conference was supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Ghana. There were an estimated 200 participants, consisting of students, journalists, faculty, university administrators (e.g. Provosts, deans, department chairs), and health care interest groups (e.g. psychiatrists, traditional healers). We have obtained a book contract with Vernon Press to publish selected papers from the conference. The full manuscript is due to Vernon Press for peer review on June 30, 2018. I have initiated a discussion between a faculty from the Nursing Department here at NKU (Dr. Lynn Smith) and the dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery (Dr. Lydia Aziato) for potential collaborative projects.
Andrea Gazzaniga
Associate Professor of English
Department of English
Manuscript Transcription for an Open-Access Scholarly Edition of Michael Field’s Diaries
With the financial support of NKU’s Faculty Project Grant, I was able to hire three undergraduate research assistants to transcribe and annotate over 500 manuscript pages from the private journals of collaborative Victorian poets Edith Cooper and Katharine Bradley (“Michael Field”) to be included in a scholarly digital archive entitled “The Michael Field Online Diaries.” This open-access digital archive will eventually house the annotated transcriptions of all 29 diary volumes spanning 26 years of these two remarkable poets and lovers who wrote poetry and drama at the end of the nineteenth-century. By providing scholars around the world with diary transcriptions that have otherwise been difficult to access, this digital archive will invigorate the critical conversation about Michael Field, Victorian poetry, women and gay writers, and late nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century culture.
During the five months my students spent working on the project, they not only deciphered and transcribed pages upon pages of cursive writing but also conducted research on British fin-de-siécle culture and history in order to uncover and annotate the diary’s often cryptic references. These three students were then able to present their research to a national audience of faculty and peers at the 2018 National Conference for Undergraduate Research in Oklahoma City, OK. In addition, their scholarly article detailing their research findings was published in the annual Proceedings from the National Conference for Undergraduate Research Journal.
Yasue Kuwahara
Professor of Electronic Media and Broadcasting
Department of Communication
Chindonya: Vanishing Traditional Performing Art of Japan
The project grant partially financed my fieldwork conducted in Japan between April and July. I attended two national competitions, interviewed four professional and two amateur chindon troupes, attended the concerts and accompanied two troupes to their work.
Chindonya is a troupe of street musicians and performers dressed in elaborate costume who are hired to draw customers to shops. Due to lack of interest among the general public, it is extremely difficult to find the published and unpublished sources on chindonya. All the professional performers I interviewed were willing to share what they had and knew and thus I was given access to valuable sources, including the programs of past national competitions, out-of-print books, magazine and newspaper articles, and the recording of the lectures by chindon men. My fieldwork has resulted in the following findings which are the themes for further research:
Chindon holds a truly unique place in Japanese culture. Although music, dance, singing and dramatic message delivery style characterize chindon performance, it is not considered an art form by most practitioners. Even its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, chindon was regarded as subculture. Today, a majority of the Japanese, especially those under the age of 50, do not know chindon. Chindon continues to exist owing to its adoptability and may eventually evolve into an art form.
These findings will be presented at the inaugural Spotlight on Scholarship Conference at the University in October 2018 and at the Popular Culture Association National Conference in Washington, D.C. in April 2019.
Marc Leone
Associate Professor of Art
School of the Arts – Visual Arts Program
Drawing Technique Video Demonstration
The goals of this project grant were to film high quality videos demonstrating a full range of drawing techniques for my current drawing students. By making these videos accessible to my students on YouTube, outside of class, I am able to provide more one-on-one instruction to students in class. Secondarily, these videos are functioning as a significant outreach tool, offering high quality drawing and instruction on the World Wide Web, reaching not only a regional, but also a national, and international audience. I have students as far away as Pakistan, and on most every continent. I am happy to report that the criteria for the goals I set have been met and have been exceeded. Among these criteria were to make videos clearer, more precise, and communicate more professionally than before. NKU students are demonstrating improved visual drawing skill by having more in depth at home instruction that aligns with on campus studio instruction. Additionally, drawing adjuncts able to easily integrate and follow these videos with their students and to align their courses with mine.
Ellen Maddin
Associate Professor of Educational Technology
Department of Teacher Education
Using Digital Storytelling to Understand Teachers’ Perspectives on Technology Integration
With my 2018 project grant, I was able to purchase digital video recording equipment to record video interviews and produce digital stories that illuminate the supporting conditions and challenges of integrating technology in PK-12 classrooms. Having access to the equipment over the summer allowed me to develop skills in digital photography, videography and the use of WeVideo, a web-based video production tool. To prepare for my project, I enrolled in a MOOC offered by the University of Houston titled “Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling.”
I used excerpts from the video interviews to create three digital stories that illuminate teachers’ experiences with instructional technology. The digital stories are more powerful than the original videos because they combine music, images, text and special effects to create mood and tone, adding dimension to each story. As Gubrium and Turner (2009) suggested, “One affordance of a digital story is that people can publicly represent their experiences through multiple modes that elicit greater illocutionary force.” PK-12 teachers often feel that their suggestions and concerns are overshadowed by politicians, policy-makers, and academics. This collection of digital stories may provide another avenue for teacher voices to be heard.
Kevin Meunte
Professor of Art
School of the Arts – Visual Arts Program
Portrait Painting Workshop
I took a portrait painting workshop with portrait painter James Tennison during the summer of 2017 on Whidbey Island, Washington. At this workshop, I completed two paintings and gained new knowledge in handling the human form especially capturing color in the shadows. A large part of our curriculum for painting students is based on working from the human figure. While at the workshop I took in-progress photographs every twenty minutes of my portrait painting that will serve as a learning aid for our students. I've learned some new methods at the workshop that I can now share in the classroom, as well as incorporate into my own work.
Gabe Sanders
Associate Professor of Exercise Science
Department of Kinesiology and Health
Enhancing athletic performance with wearable microsensor technology and sport analytics
Introduction: The purpose was to quantify a volleyball athlete’s accelerometer-based workloads and utilize a neuromuscular fatigue jump test to assess on-court performance throughout a competitive season.
Methods: One Division I volleyball athlete was monitored throughout each practice and competitive game using a validated wearable microsensor device (Catapult Sports). To assess neuromuscular fatigue, an approach jump (AJ) test was completed weekly. On-court statistics were recorded each game.
Results: Utilizing a forward linear regression model, low intensity decelerations, moderate and high intensity accelerations, and low and high intensity jumps accounted for 91.7% of the variation in weekly relative power assessed via AJ test (p < 0.001). Of those variables, only high intensity jumps were significantly (p = 0.035) different between practices that occurred prior to winning (49.6 ± 26.7) and losing (69.2 ± 39.8) game performances. Additionally, hitting percent was significantly better (.266 ± .190 win; .130 ± .129 loss; p = 0.05) in winning performances.
Conclusions: Alterations in approach jump performance throughout a competitive season is multifaceted; however, limiting high intensity jumps in practice may be advantageous to optimize volleyball performance.
NOTE: The project was completed and additional data collection is ongoing.
Christopher Strobel
Professor of Electronic Media and Broadcasting
Department of Communication
Lemons: Videos Illustrating Media Aesthetics
My 2018 summer fellowship and project grant provided the time and funding to create video examples for use in our EMB 140 Introduction to Media Aesthetics class. Envisioned as a tool to serve the lecture portion of our foundational course, the media created through the fellowship and grant consists of two conceptual pieces. The featured video, a short scene entitled Lemons, focuses upon three friends discussing a farcical encounter at a grocery store. This scene, shot and edited in a traditional cinema style, is augmented with alternative selections of footage that utilize aesthetic principles not included in the primary edit. It is the availability of these alternatives - angles, lens choices, framings, audio qualities, editing style, and camera support - that provides the opportunity for our students to visualize each as a legitimate choice in the mediated storytelling experience and then to evaluate the effectiveness of those options. Being able to experience the difference that each option provides should help to clarify the educational experience for our media production students as they begin their academic careers.
Gang Sun
Assistant Professor of Engineering Technology
Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology
Development of Convertible Modular Intelligence Layer - Digital & Analog System Environment (CMIL-DASE) Platform for Embedded Systems Design
Over the last decade, the rapid advancement of computer, sensor, communication, data storage, and IC technologies has had a tremendous impact on embedded systems design in many different types of industries. Integrating those new devices and technologies into current embedded systems development processes can enhance the competitiveness of products and increase the profitability of the corporation. Although there are a number of hardware development tools available such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. to help engineers create and test prototypes, none of these is fully capable of supporting the rigorous demands of harsh operational environments found in aerospace, automotive, oil & gas, medical, or communications systems prototyping. Furthermore, educational institutes urgently need a comprehensive embedded systems learning platform for undergraduate/graduate education. Unfortunately, very few existing development boards are able to meet our academic needs. In this project, a novel Convertible Modular Intelligence Layer –Digital & Analog System Environment (CMIL-DASE) platform has been designed, developed, and tested. The platform includes a Convertible Modular Intelligence Layer (CMIL) that can be directly interfaced to the DASE board to control all the on-board features. The DASE board encompasses various analog & digital peripherals and new communication interfaces and protocols. This CMIL- DASE platform can provide a comprehensive hardware environment system for embedded systems engineers to facilitate embedded hardware and software development as well as help students learn advanced microcontroller technology and a wide range of new analog and communication devices, so students may easily apply those new devices and techniques to the design of state-of-art and real-time embedded systems.
Lindsey Walters
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Selecting the best place to raise a family: Do favorable temperatures outweigh predation risk during nest site selection by Carolina chickadees?
I worked with five NKU undergraduate students over two summers to investigate a puzzle about where birds chose to make their nests. In my previous research, I had found that Carolina chickadee nests were more likely to suffer predation when they were located near the forest edge. However, the birds still nested there just as often as they nested in the safer forest interior. For this behavior to make sense, there must have been some benefit to nesting in the risky edge habitat. My hypothesis was that the nests on the edge were warmer due to greater sun exposure, and therefore they provided a more favorable environment for the incubation of eggs. This project tested my hypothesis by comparing the incubation constancy of female Carolina chickadees to the location of their nests relative to the forest edge. We found that females whose nests were closer to the warmer, but riskier, forest edge had to spend less time incubating their eggs and were able to spend more time foraging for their own food, potentially explaining why they would choose to nest in a riskier location. In addition to investigating this primary question, the students supported by this award also helped collect data for several other research projects in my lab on different aspects of avian parental care. Overall, this project produced new information about avian nest site selection behavior and provided valuable research experience for NKU undergraduate students.
Justin Yates
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Effects of Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors in risky decision making in rats
Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct that encompasses multiple behaviors (see Evenden, 1999 for a review). Risky choice is one form of impulsive behavior and can be conceptualized as the preference for uncertain, relative to certain, outcomes when the probability of earning the uncertain outcome is low. Risky choice is often measured using a probability-discounting task. Because risky choice is associated with several psychiatric conditions, including pathological gambling, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and substance use disorders, understanding the neurochemical processes underlying probability discounting is important for developing better treatment options for those with disorders characterized by excessive risk.
For this project, we determined the role of the metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) in risky choice. In the current experiment, we tested 24 male Sprague Dawley rats in a probability-discounting procedure, in which animals chose between a small, certain reward (1 sucrose-based pellet) and a large, probabilistic reward (2 sucrose-based pellets). The probability of receiving the large reward decreased across the session for half of the rats, but it increased for the other half. Rats received injections of JNJ 16259685 (JNJ; 0.1-1.0 mg/kg), an antagonist at the mGluR1, and MTEP (1.0-10.0 mg/kg), an antagonist at the mGluR5. The highest dose of JNJ and MTEP significantly reduced the number of trials completed for each group of rats. Additionally, the intermediate dose of JNJ and MTEP reduced the number of trials completed for rats trained on the schedule in which the probability of receiving reinforcement decreased across the session. When the probability of receiving the large magnitude reinforcer increased across the session, each dose of JNJ significantly decreased choice for the large magnitude reinforcer when its delivery was guaranteed. Conversely, only the highest dose of JNJ decreased preference for the large magnitude reinforcer when the probabilities of receiving this alternative decreased across the session. For both groups of rats, each dose of MTEP (1.0-10.0 mg/kg) significantly decreased choice for the large magnitude reinforcer when its delivery was guaranteed. These results suggest that the group I mGluR family is important for discriminating the size of reinforcer magnitudes as opposed to risky choice per se.
