Students Partnering with Faculty (SpF)

Ageist cues in jobs ads: a field examination of subtle age discrimination
Irina Gioaba, School of Management and Marketing, CBPM 

The proposed project expands our knowledge on the nature and consequences of age discrimination. By examining subtle forms of age discrimination, this work provides novel insights into the contexts (prior to hiring and on the job), content (stereotypical language), frequency, and consequences (job attractiveness, fairness, intentions to apply) of bias manifested against older and younger workers. We expect the findings resulted these studies to make several contributions to management scholarship and practice. First, this research provides unique empirical support to previous theory on subtle discrimination (Jones et al.,2017) by documenting the existence of age discrimination manifested subtly through wording in job advertisement. Next, it has implications for the age discrimination literature by showing evidence of discriminatory treatment beyond overt forms. Finally, these findings inform organizations about applicants’ perceptions and reactions and highlight the need to be vigilant of their practices. It is important that organizations understand the ramifications of age discrimination and are aware of the negative impact of such displays and take steps to curtail the occurrence of subtle discrimination.

The Linguistic Environment of Early Childhood Classrooms During Summer
Eleni Zgourou, School of Curriculum and Teaching, COE

Teacher-child language interactions have been the focus of many research studies. During these interactions, teachers have a unique opportunity to engage children in rich linguistic exchanges. For example, during free play, teachers can join in and engage children in cognitively-stimulating talk, introducing new vocabulary, asking questions, expanding on children’s ideas and feelings, responding to children’s questions and initiatives, and exposing children to grammatically- and syntactically-complex sentences (Dickinson, et al., 2008). Such rich interactions are especially beneficial for children’s language development (Dickinson & Porche, 2011), which is the foundation for later academic achievement (Lonigan et al., 2008). Most studies, however, have focused on teacher-child language interactions occurring during the academic year. A number of studies have also documented that children, especially those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, experience learning loss during the summer primarily because children are not exposed to high-quality learning experiences during that period of time (Johnson et al., 2015; Kim & Quinn, 2013). This is especially true for reading competences, with many children performing even 3 months lower in the fall than they did in the spring of the previous year (Allington et al., 2010; Kim & White, 2008; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the linguistic strategies to which children are exposed in early childhood settings that operate in summer and examine those strategies in relation to children’s language skills.

Effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Community-Based Group Interventions to Address Mental Health and Social Participation in Children 5-7 years-old of marginalized identities with limited resources and access to therapeutic services: A Pilot Study.
Mansi Brat & Amanda Sarafian, Department of Counselor Education & Department of Occupational Therapy, CHPHS

This is a multidisciplinary project rooted in child development and holistic psychological well being. The scope of this project is to target inequities of care across occupational therapy and counseling disciplines amongst marginalized communities. By partnering with Kean OT clinic/local community clinics, researchers aim to build avenues for children ages 5-7 years old to get equitable access to mental health care and social participation while fostering parent-child relationships and highlighting how the skills learned from the study shape children’s minds. This project will open and enhance partnership between Kean and local community clinics catering to mental health care needs of underrepresented children/families. By building a community-based group project integrated in IPNB, researchers aim to support children and parents/caregivers in learning the mechanisms of IPNB while aiming to collect significant results pre-to-post study. This project will aid the development of both research and clinical acumen amongst occupational therapy graduate students and counselor education graduate students. It will impact their overall growth as future professionals while they learn to integrate IPNB practices into their own careers. Researchers hope to expand the study’s avenues to larger scale grants in the future and add to the scholarship of their respective disciplines while outlining novel approaches to child mental health and social participation.

The Lived Experiences of Threatened Afghan Scholars and Students: A Collective Case Study of their Journey from Trauma to Safety
Jane M. Webber, Department of Counselor Education, CHPHS

In this SPF project we will collaborate with the human rights workers in Italy in conducting a collective case study with the overarching goal to explore the lived experiences of the Afghan refugees on their journey from fear to safety. The overarching goal is to explore the experiences of Afghan refugee professors and students after they left Afghanistan and navigated to resettlement to EU Universities. The project goals are to:
1. establish a safe space for Afghan refugees to tell their story of fleeing and resettling;
2. chronicle the process of their journeying to safety, stabilization, and resettlement;
3. explore moments of empowerment, resilience, and posttraumatic growth, as well as distress and discouragement throughout the process; and
4. understand refugees’ perspectives regarding met and unmet needs during and after the resettlement process.

Community Facilitation of Child/Youth Resilience in Time of War and Rebellion
Margaret S.(Peggy Sue) Wright, School of Nursing, CHPHS

The goal is to build from the youth’s experiences a list of community activities, actions and characteristics that can be used by communities, humanitarian response and public health organizations to support youth resilience and develop assets that will help youth survive and even thrive despite circumstances of armed conflict that surround them. Thematic coding, using Grounded Theory concepts of open and axial coding will be used to search for resilience factors. Preliminary code list will come from published work of Search Institute’s Developmental Assets Framework. Through Grounded Theory methodology additional codes will be found. Codes from the ‘Developmental Assets Framework’ that are not found in the biographies and memoirs will be discontinued. During the process of crystallization of the coding codes from the preliminary list maybe modified to better represent the found information.

Linguistic & non-linguistic factors of language attrition in Spanish-English heritage bilinguals
Iyad Ghanim, School of Communication Disorders & Deafness, CHPHS

Our study is uniquely poised to determine what other factors relevant to these populations results in a change in language proficiency over time. This study intends to capture the wide diversity of social and cultural backgrounds and a range of linguistic ability, use patterns, and language contexts that are found in our state. Therefore, the overall purpose of this project is to determine what factors best predict language proficiency measures in heritage Spanish-English bilinguals with early English acquisition and a range of Spanish proficiency. This will help determine which factors contribute to participants’ speaking and understanding skills in their heritage language and the maintenance of these skills over time.

Investigating the impact of inequity and intergenerational effects of childhood adversity among racial and ethnic minorities
Fei Shen, School of Psychology, CLA

As society becomes increasingly aware of the profound influences of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on underrepresented communities, preventing and intervening ACEs among racial and ethnic minority communities is critical because those actions may help break the cycle of inequalities. This study will fill research gaps by calling attention to addressing factors contributing inequity as well as exploring barriers to health and social care associated with child’s behavioral outcomes. Kean University will benefit as a minority serving institution because this study will inform students and other members of the community regarding factors contributing to inequity among racial and ethnic minority communities and provide insight toward trauma informed care. Systemic collaboration among community members is urgently needed to reveal hidden racism, reduce barriers to access health and social care, and extent social support. Ultimately, to improve the racial/ethnic minority population’s health and well-being, we need a social change to acknowledge and address social injustice, historical oppression, and health disparities that are intertwined with ACEs among racial/ethnic minorities.

From the Border to the Big Apple: Asylum, Immigration, and the Politics of Reception in New York City’s Emerging “Humanitarian Crisis”
Jared P. Van Ramshorst, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, CLA

This project will benefit Kean University by deepening its commitment to engaged, urban research. Designated as New Jersey’s first urban research university, this project will expand Kean University’s role in conducting research and generating solutions to issues in urban communities. Furthermore, this project will aid in Kean University’s pursuit to reach R2 designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, as I expect to develop several conference presentations and peer-reviewed journal articles from research. This project will also yield several benefits to students. It will provide an opportunity for students to engage firsthand in original fieldwork and research under the leadership and supervision of faculty, and it will extend student learning beyond the classroom into local communities. At its conclusion, students will be given the opportunity to present at a national conference and publish in a peer-reviewed journal. Taken together, these benefits will better prepare students for their careers and lives after Kean University. Finally, this project will deepen understandings of asylum, immigration, and the politics of reception by first, embracing an interdisciplinary approach that includes perspectives from anthropology, geography, migration studies, political science, sociology, and urban studies. Second, it contributes to these discipline and fields of study by investigating ongoing and recent developments in the U.S. that have not yet been examined. New York City’s so-called “humanitarian crisis” has only emerged in the past six months, leaving important questions over asylum, immigration, and the politics of reception ripe for study.

Object Motion Detection from Videos Using AI Transformers
Yulia Kumar & J. Jenny Li, Department of Computer Science and Technology, CSMT

Our research topic is related to the validation of AI and Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms and systems through scientific experiments, including but not limited to their mathematical interpretation, cyberinfrastructure requirements, uncertainty handling and functional correctness. Our research activities include: 1) designing and conducting experiments utilizing cyberinfrastructure to validate the most advanced AI algorithms such as AI video motion detection and AI natural language processing, 2) brainstorming and collaborating with a multi-university team on the mathematical interpretations of latest AI/ML algorithms, e.g., projects with Rutgers DIMACS and Occidental College, and 3) reporting research results and attending conferences to present and publish research outcomes. These research activities will benefit Kean through the outreach to diverse groups of students and the promotion of student researchers. Our research achievement will also help Kean gain reputable recognition from AI/ML and Computer Science Education communities.

Deep Learning-Based Breast Ultrasound Image Analysis
Kuan Huang, Department of Computer Science and Technology, CSMT

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer mortality among women worldwide in 2020. Early detection and appropriate treatments can increase survival rates. Breast UltraSound (BUS) imaging has been commonly used in the early diagnosis of breast cancer because it is portable, widely available, low-cost, and highly sensitive. Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems are proposed to help radiologists to interpret BUS images, make more accurate diagnoses and reduce their workload. We plan to develop two high-performance deep learning-based CAD systems and write a literature review article in the SpF program. Specifically, our goals include 1) developing a novel weakly supervised BUS image segmentation network, 2) developing a novel multi-task network that classifies and segments breast tumors simultaneously, and 3) writing a literature review of non-fully supervised learning approaches for BUS image segmentation. Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have been widely used in BUS image segmentation and classification due to their superior performance. However, the research is limited by the difficulty of acquiring enough labeled training samples, particularly pixel-level labels for supervised learning of BUS image segmentation, because of the high labor cost of radiologists and the protection of patients’ privacy. Non-fully supervised training strategies are proposed to address this problem.

Investigation of water quality and algae-bacteria interactions in Keyport Harbor, New Jersey
Shuting Liu, Department of Environmental & Sustainability Sciences, CSMT

The project plans to combine field observations and in-lab culture studies to assess water quality and algae-bacteria interaction in the Keyport Harbor coastal water ecosystems. Physiochemical parameters such as temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen will be monitored to assess its correlation with algae bloom and connections between algae growth, DOM release from algae and its support on bacteria over different time periods. The in-lab experiments will help tease out factors shaping algae-bacteria interactions present in the field study. This project will establish a comprehensive diagram of inter-connections between water chemistry and algae-bacteria association in New Jersey coastal waters from both chemical and microbiological perspectives. This project will also generate education and outreach materials benefiting schools and communities.

Utilizing the US Motus network to determine migratory routes and success of passerines breeding and stopping over in the New Jersey Skylands and Meadowlands regions
Cailin O'Connor Fitzpatrick, Department of Environmental & Sustainability Sciences, CSMT

The proposed project will fill in current gaps of knowledge in the following areas of avian ecology: (1) breeding ecology and success of native New Jersey birds, (2) migratory routes and timing of neotropical migrants native to New Jersey, and (3) the suitability of pristine deep woods versus historically contaminated salt marsh sites as breeding and stopover habitat for species of conservation concern in New Jersey. The study proposes to track local movements and migration of passerines in real time using the North American Motus network. The project’s goals are to (1) run concurrent bird banding operations during breeding season and fall migration at the Kean Skylands campus and in the New Jersey Meadowlands to determine breeding and migratory success of species that utilize these locations, (2) affix nanotags to species of conservation concern present at both sites to track their migratory timing and routes using the North American Motus network, and (3) train two Kean University students in all aspects of bird banding operations, from properly identifying and safely handling local birds to analyzing data and presenting research to the greater scientific community.

Molecular identification of arthropods of forensic interest using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION system
Maria Denise Gemmellaro, Biological Sciences, CSMT

This project would represent the introduction of real time sequencing in our forensic science courses and research at Kean; three students will be trained during this project and, at the same time, valuable data will be produced. This study aims to implementing on site sequencing to the molecular techniques used to the identification of forensically relevant insects; this is a novel approach for the field which could improve forensic entomology research and investigations. Moreover, the entomological identification will contribute to our knowledge of the successional patterns of insect colonization recorded on decomposing remains; successional studies are the base for many forensic entomology applications and are commonly used as reference data for death and for ecological investigations.