Untenured Faculty Research Initiative (UFRI)
2020-2021 UFRI Awards
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Comparison of Blood Spatter and Artifacts Created by Different Species of Necrophagous Flies (Diptera) on a Crime Scene. Implications on Criminal Investigations and Forensic Science Education The goal of this project is the analysis of artifacts produced by defecation and regurgitation of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Blow flies are necrophagous insects with the ability to detect and find a dead body seconds after death; for this reason, they are vastly used in forensic entomology and in criminal investigations. Once on a crime scene, adult blow flies feed on biological fluids which they then regurgitate or eliminate as liquid waste through defecation on surfaces near the body. The waste products are not easily recognizable as such and are often mistaken for blood stains. We intend to analyze insect artifacts produced by males and female of 4 (four) different blow fly species and to compare them with the most commonly observed types of blood stains. The results of this project will provide a new tool to investigators which will be important for the analysis and interpretation of a crime scene. Moreover, it will give the students involved in the project the possibility to be exposed to different branches of forensic science; they will also be able to present their results to national and international conferences and meetings and to publish them in major forensic science journals. Finally, the data obtained through this project will also facilitate the request for external funding to expand our research activities. This will ultimately improve the visibility of Kean University in the science community. |
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Toward a Concrete Revolution: Architecture, Planning, and Cultural Policy during Cuba’s “Grey Period,” 1968-1982 "Much historiography around socialist architecture in Cuba renders the revolutionary period as a hiccup in the overall trajectory of Cuban culture. According to this narrative, Cuban architecture in the 1960s lost its soul by the 1970s when Cuba underwent a cultural “Grey Period” after adopting Soviet ideology, planning, and building methods. Such political and economic dimensions often cast a deep shadow over the aesthetic quality of socialist Cuban architecture. Citing impenetrable bureaucracy, a lack of design expertise and construction knowledge, and the Khrushchevian reduction of architects to ‘technicians’, many scholars have written off Cuba’s socialist architecture as having little to no aesthetic value. While this may hold true under a classical view of aesthetics as product (i.e. as beauty), a contemporary view of aesthetics as process—particularly Jacque Ranciere’s “Distribution of the Sensible” and Nicolas Bourriaud’s “Relational Aesthetics”—may open up powerful and often overlooked dimensions of Cuba’s revolutionary architecture positioned in between utopian imaginaries and bureaucratic realities. Through a contemporary aesthetic lens, my research will trace architecture’s role in building a revolutionary society in Cuba during the long 1970s, examining key planning, housing, and education projects along the way. Examining architecture and its relation to ideological politics, I will structure and animate a broader series of questions: How does architecture make its appearance in Revolutionary Cuba? How does it participate in building a political, social, and cultural revolution? And, for that matter, how does it participate in constructing what ‘Che’ called the socialist “New Man”? Implicit in these questions is the notion that before becoming building, architecture is first produced aesthetically as a discourse; it is enabled by the systems of exchange that structure what can be perceived and said about it. Seen this way, architecture in Revolutionary Cuba cannot be understood apart from the mediatic, indeed bureaucratic, apparatuses that position it squarely within Castro’s politico-ideological project. In preparation for a book proposal, I plan to use the time and resources afforded by this UFRI Award to conduct archival research into Arquitectura Cuba, Cuba’s most prominent architectural journal. Sifting through various archives at Columbia, Yale, CUNY Graduate Center, and Princeton Universities, I would critically examine AC issues published between 1968 and 1982 alongside other historico-cultural documents, photographs, films, and “little magazines” in order to open up powerful and often overlooked dimensions of Cuba’s revolutionary architecture. This research would not only make a critical contribution to an existing body of work on 20th century Cuban architecture, but would ultimately make its way back to our Kean students through the architectural history and theory courses I teach, enriching and diversifying the Western architectural canon with sources from Latin America and beyond. " |
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Effects of Parent-Child Relationship Training in a Community Setting Working parents often say, “I wish I had more time to play with my child. I have no time to talk to my child.” This program will provide parents with weekly play sessions with their child using skills that increase positive communication and enhance their relationship. The program is based on filial therapy that teaches parents to use child-centered play and communication techniques. There is a strong body of research over 50 years on the positive effectiveness of filial therapy to improve children’s behavior, communication, attachment, and internal emotional regulation, as well as parent- child attachment and relationships. Student interns in the MA in Counseling Program have been introduced to play therapy and filial therapy in CED 5945 Child and Adolescent Counseling and several have received additional training in filial therapy to facilitate weekly groups where parents learn play skills with their children. This parent training also promotes support, collaboration, and friendships among parents. This project will begin the Counselor Education Department’s and the Ph.D. in Counseling’s advocacy initiative to promote psychoeducational, recreational, and therapeutic programs and events for parents and children within the Kean family and local community and also provide activities that support families in the area in the new Ph.D. in Counseling Community Wellness and Counseling Center. Thus, the project serves the University’s Strategic Plan to “build the Kean University local extended community of students, parents, alumni, and surrounding residents” and provides a center for “value-added activities that educate, inform, enliven, and entertain.” This project will become a self-sustaining program for parents and children in the Kean community, as well as the area communities and schools. |
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Suicidality in Children 10 and Younger: An Exploration of Barriers to Effective Assessment and Intervention "Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for all age groups in the United States, and the second leading cause of death for those 10-24 years old (CDC, 2019). The rate of suicide among young people 10-24 increased 56% between 2007 and 2017. While much less discussed in popular culture, less researched by clinicians and educators, and less statistically prevalent in terms of confirmed death rates, suicide (and related behaviors and thoughts) can and does affect even very young children, including those under 10. In a grounded theory research study, this researcher previously found that children as young as 3 (with allusions to those even younger) experience the full spectrum of suicidality, which includes ideation, behavior, attempts, and completed suicide (Shirley, 2020). |
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Interventions to Promote Patient Activation and Engagement in Self-Management Practices of Chronic Conditions among Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations: A Systematic Review "Statement of problem and its significance: Patients who have CC account for 50% of healthcare spending, |
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Secure Virtualization with Collocated Virtual Machines in Cloud "Cloud Computing has been envisioned as the next generation architecture of IT Enterprise. It offers great potential to improve productivity and reduce costs. In contrast to traditional solutions, where the IT services are under proper physical, logical and personnel controls, Cloud Computing moves the application software and databases to the large data centers, where the management of the data and services are provided through a CSP (Cloud Service Provider, e.g. - Amazon, Microsoft Office 365 etc.). Cloud Computing is revolutionizing how information technology resources and services are used and managed. But are these CSPs trustworthy enough? This unique attribute, however, poses many new security challenges which have not been well understood yet. Among all these security challenges, Secure Virtualization is a major concern for Cloud technology now these days. A large number of cyber threats, attacks, eavesdropping and data stealing were committed on customers’ virtual machines running in Cloud. Hence our proposed research study focuses on secure virtualization in Cloud Computing. We believe this unique study will not only serve the purpose of Cloud Computing security but also encourage the students for research in cyber security. |
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Online Consumers’ Perception of Cause-Related Marketing: Altruism or Exploitation? Companies and marketers have long pursed cause-related marketing to differentiate themselves from competitors, to enhance corporate image, to draw millennial consumers and to boost sales in the ecommerce sector. Evidence suggests that cause-related marketing strongly influences consumers’ perceptions of companies and their consumption behaviors. Consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that support social causes that price and quality were unchanged (Szykman, 2004). As the number of cause-related marketing campaigns grows, however, there have been some doubts associated with their effects. It also appears that consumers’ skepticism of overcommercialized causerelated marketing has increased. Still, it remains unclear exactly when and how consumers perceive corporations’ CRM as self-serving in a way that results in negative attitudes towards the company and the brand. This research aims to redress the gap by identifying the psychological mechanism underlying the relationship between consumers’ perception of cause-related marketing, and their behavior. This study investigates the attitude and consumption behavior of millennial consumers, as influenced by consumption type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and consumer commitment (company vs. consumer) of cause-related marketing drawn from attribution theory and theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985; Weiner, 1992). This research provides theoretical evidence and introduces a new perspective for the implementation of cause-related marketing in e-commerce, and calls for more attention to its potential negative aspects. As businesses actively adopt cause-related marketing, this research can provide useful guide points for marketing practitioners to better understand consumers. The result of this study will help the Kean community to better understand our own students, and their psychological mechanism. The result will be discussed in my Internet marketing classes, helping students to be more engaged as they learn of their peers’ consumption behavior. In addition, a student researcher will participate in the development of websites for this study, thus providing her an opportunity to deepen her understanding of internet marketing and to develop valuable professional skills. |
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The Divorce Premium for Female Leaders: Does Divorce Increase the Compensation of Female CEOs? This study will examine the impact of divorce on the compensation of female CEOs. I propose that marriage acts as a micro social constraint on women that limits their career success. Unlike macro social constraints that are increasingly overcome by women, micro social constraint continues to affect the females at the topmost strategic leadership positions. This micro social constraint emanates from the loved ones, is perpetuated by women’s desire to maintain a healthy worklife balance and induces role blurring that impedes their leadership role in the face of their care-giving role as a wife and a mother. Accordingly, marital dissolution in the form of divorce will liberate female leaders from the constraint and helps prioritize their career. Yet having younger children and getting remarried will suppress the effect of divorce on compensation as they will be less free to pursue their aspirations, and familial constraints will be likely to reemerge upon a subsequent marriage. I will use these arguments to examine the challenges experienced by women at the highest executive positions in the US. The sample for this research will consist of the CEOs of S&P 1500 firms. By using a matched sample of 100 female and 100 male CEOs, this study aims to test whether divorced female CEOs earned a premium when they get divorced and whether that premium increases the longer, they remained divorced. This study will further investigate the moderating role of children and remarriage in the relationship between divorce and female CEO compensation. In contrast, the effect of divorce will be different in the context of male CEOs. Male CEOs will not experience a divorce premium, and children will not have an effect that will reinvigorate the micro social constraints thus making male CEOs immune to the constraining implications of marriage on their strategic leadership career. |
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Women's Representation in Local Governments: Evidences from Financial Disclosure Statements in New Jersey Although women's representation in government has increased over time, the lack of data on women’s employment in local governments continues to constrain an accurate assessment of its status. To fill the gap in available data, I will use the Financial Disclosure Statements containing a comprehensive list of high-level officers, elected or appointed, in local governments and special entities including specialized authorities, boards, and commissions. I will identify the gender of officers to examine women’s representation in county governments by utilizing Gender R-package. The purpose of this study is to describe women's representation and explore the potential determinants of women’s representation in local governments in New Jersey. It will contribute to the literature on women's representation in local governments by providing an empirical case with descriptive statistics as well as probing into determinants of women's representation in local governments. |
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Analysis of germ granule composition in connection to reproductive health The development and maintenance of the germline, the set of highly specialized cells responsible for passing on genetic material to the following generation, requires the packaging of a specific set of mRNAs into highly conserved ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules called germ granules. Throughout the animal kingdom, germ granules play essential roles in germline proliferation, differentiation, and maintenance through posttranscriptional gene regulation. However, the connection between quantitative changes in germ granule mRNA content and reproductive health remains unknown. The goal of this proposal is to determine how quantitative changes in germ granule mRNA content influence reproductive health using Drosophila germ granules as a model system. In Drosophila, mRNAs accumulate in germ granules by forming homotypic clusters, distinct RNPs containing multiple copies of a specific mRNA type. The importance of homotypic clustering is highlighted by germline deformities that are observed in experiments where the homotypic clusters of nanos (nos), a highly conserved germ granule mRNA, are reduced. Homotypic clusters are generated through a stochastic seeding and self-recruitment process that relies primarily on the cis-regulatory sequences found in the 3′UTR of germ granule mRNAs called “clustering elements.” We reason that clustering elements may be susceptible to mutations, resulting in aberrant quantities of mRNAs within germ granules, leading to poor reproductive health. Preliminary results demonstrate that different species of Drosophila display a remarkable variation in fecundity (egg laying) as well as sequence diversity in the nos clustering element. Our central hypothesis is that this sequence diversity is responsible for altering the nos content in germ granules, yielding differences in germline development and fecundity (Fig. 1). The following two aims are designed to test our hypotheses by exploring the relationship between fecundity, homotypic clustering, and clustering elements. Aim 1 explores the relationship between germ granule mRNA content and fecundity by using single molecular in situ hybridization and quantitative image analyses to characterize two germ granule mRNAs, nos and polar granule component (pgc), in five different species of Drosophila. Preliminary results identified sequence diversity in the nos clustering element, and Aim 2 seeks to determine if clustering element diversity serves as a sufficient mechanism to manipulate reproductive health. Together, our results will provide a comprehensive and statistical overview detailing how the quantity of mRNAs that accumulate into germ granules impacts reproductive health. Given the highly conserved nature of germ granules and germ granule mRNAs, completion of this study may reveal new mechanisms underlying diseases such as infertility and sterility while broadening the field’s current knowledge surrounding reproductive health. This project will also have a broader impact on undergraduate students at Kean University. Students that will be working on the above aims will learn desirable skills in the biotechnology industry such as 1) smFISH, 2) microscopy, 3) Computational analysis and 4) Applied biostatistics. Students will learn how to integrate computational skills with biological experiments, which is a highly sought after trait for graduate programs and industry jobs. We expect that the completion of the two aims will lead to multiple student publications in high impact journals, which will greatly enhance the professional growth of Kean’s students. |
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Computational Support for Promoting Novelty and Diversity in Idea Generation "Using information systems to support creative work is an established academic domain called creativity support systems. While different methods have been established in providing stimuli to promote novelty in ideation, there is a lack of generic methods that promote both idea novelty and idea diversity. I propose to combine Wikipedia-based association and GloVe to develop a generic method for searching concepts that are novel and diverse for an ideation topic. Experiments are planned to test the method against using random stimuli to support ideation. The proposed method will be useful for facilitating ideation in various knowledge domains. |