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Educating Older Adults on Home Modifications Through Virtual Reality Experience to Promote Aging-in-place
No full textWorldwide, aging has become a challenging issue since older adults are living longer, and most households are not designed to assist their upcoming demands and needs. Additionally, with the high cost of living in nursing care facilities or other places designed specifically for this population, older adults prefer to age-in-place, relying on family and friends for as long as possible, and remain in their forever homes which also bring financial benefits, such as avoiding relocation expenses and lower housing costs.
This study employed qualitative research methods were used to gather data from open-ended interviews and Virtual Reality (VR) experience to explore home modifications that promote age-in-place. The research was divided in four phases; the first was the data analysis of photovoice data conducted in 2023-2024, in which children of older adults identified potential fall hazards in their parents’ home (Fonseca Pereira et al., 2024). The second was the creation of two 3D models based on the data gathered on first phase (one of the models have the potential hazards identified on phase one, while the other showcases home modifications designed to prevent the falls described in phase one and to promote age-in-place). In the third phase, older adults visualized the two models on VR. In the fourth phase, they answered open ended questions about the experience, and the effectiveness of understanding home modifications through this visualization mode.
A total of 13 participants from the Midwest of the United States voluntarily participated in this study. Results illustrated that six themes of potential hazards were identified, including Furniture, Flooring, Clutter, Accessibility, Reach height, and Social life & Privacy. And five main home modification patterns were identified as well – Accessibility, FF&E, Unclutter, Grab bars, and Privacy, to address their home environments as they age, giving older adults more sense of control over their living spaces and their lives. Participants valued interior spaces that fostered a sense of safety and emphasized the importance of support for getting in and off furniture, openness and clear circulation, and comfortable furniture that promotes socialization and well-being. The significance of this study lies in its potential to improve the interior living environment for older adults who want to age-in-place safely, by providing practical interior design solutions that can potentially prevent falls and other hazards in older adult\u27s home environments
How Latine College Students Experience, Maneuver, and Navigate Within the Colonizing Notion of Smartness
Get PDFThis study explores how Latine college students, particularly those who are the first in their family to attend college, navigate and maneuver within the dominating colonizing notion of smartness in academia. Rooted in an Anglo-centric educational framework, the American education system often marginalizes Latine students by devaluing their cultural and linguistic knowledge while upholding Eurocentric standards of intelligence. Using a qualitative critical research approach, this study employs testimonios to examine the lived experiences of Latine college graduates in Illinois. Findings reveal that Latine students frequently encounter systemic barriers that challenge their academic identity, including racialized perceptions of intelligence, institutionalized deficit perspectives, and pressure to conform to white-centered academic norms. The study applies Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) to analyze these experiences, shedding light on the ways Latine students resist, redefine, and assert their own intellectual identities. This research contributes to the growing discourse on educational equity by advocating for a reimagined asset-based approach to academia’s notion of smartness that validates and uplifts Latine students\u27 ways of knowing
Among the Flowers of Brass: Writing Through Hardship, A Creative Dissertation
No full textThis dissertation theorizes that creative writing can act as a medium through which authors and readers can share the burden of trauma and as a result can create healing through “enlightened witnessing.” This dissertation includes a critical preface that further defines the term “enlightened witness,” and that describes the process by which a reader or writer might engage with trauma stories in order to create space for emotional healing and testimony. Following is a chapter examining the importance and process of teaching trauma in a creative classroom with the intent of determining whether enlightened witnessing can be nurtured for undergraduates within a creative workshop space. The dissertation concludes with the creative work, a short novel called Among the Flowers of Brass, which attempts to use fiction as a method to grant readers access to a traumatized young girls’ emotional space as she experiences emotional, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse in real-time. The hope is that allowing readers insight into this character’s experience will create empathetic engagement that results in a shared indignation at her suffering and therefore helps to share the weight of her abuse and the abuse survived by real people like her
Reframing Equity Gaps: A Descriptive Analysis of Reported Spending for Underrepresented Minorities at Illinois Community Colleges
Get PDFThis quantitative descriptive analysis investigates reported institutional spending and associated equity gaps for underrepresented minority (URM) students in Illinois community colleges from FY2017-FY2021. Guided by Critical Sensemaking (CSM) theory, the study examines correlations between targeted expenditures and enrollment and completion outcomes for Black and Latinx undergraduate students. Utilizing data from Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) Underrepresented Groups (URG) reports, this research identifies patterns in institutional financial commitments toward equity initiatives, analyzing their relationship to enrollment and completion disparities. Key findings reveal substantial variability in institutional spending directed toward underrepresented minorities, despite statewide mandates and strategic goals focused on reducing equity gaps. Additionally, this analysis identifies limited correlation between reported URM-focused spending and improvements in enrollment and completion outcomes, suggesting a disconnect between financial investments and measurable student success. The findings underscore the necessity of structured accountability frameworks that connect resource allocation explicitly to equity outcomes, along with increased practitioner access to data and resources supporting equity-driven decision-making. Through use of an interpretative CSM framework, this study highlights how governance culture influences institutional responses to equity initiatives. Recommendations emphasize adopting more transparent, data-informed accountability frameworks to ensure equity investments effectively address enrollment and completion disparities for underrepresented minority students in Illinois community colleges
Intersectionality and the Canon of Romanticism
Get PDFThis dissertation discusses the origins of the canon and the place it has in British Romanticism studies both past and present. This research begins unpacking what has already been done in this sector of study and takes it steps further by the use of Crenshaw’s “intersectionality” theory. The “Introduction” unpacks past scholarly work and its role in the present studies and how we must move beyond the past. “Chapter I” serves as a historical breakdown of the canon’s role and impact in both literary studies and Romanticism studies in specific. “Chapter II” provides an in depth analysis of two major anthologies in British literature and their current and past usage in the classroom. “Chapter III” moves beyond the canonical identities and proves that there are many sectors of Romantic studies that must be discussed in order to achieve an inclusive and equitable Romanticism. “Chapter IV” unpacks my Romanticism course taught using a noncanonical approach and various pedagogical methods used to ensure progression in pedagogy. The “Conclusion” provides a full circle view of how intersectionality provides a portal of accessibility in Romanticism studies and provides resources to promote equitable and inclusive pedagogy
Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter, Vol 33, No. 2
Get PDFSinclair Lewis Conference in Sauk Centre to Celebrate Arrowsmith
Impressions of Sinclair Lewis: Interview with Andrea B. Nardi, Italian Translator of Main Street, by Anthony Di Renzo
Mr. Babbitt Goes to Washington
\u27You meet such interesting people on the road\u27: Humor in Sinclair Lewis\u27s Early Travel Writing, by Sally E. Parry
\u27Adventures in Autobumming\u27 and Hell on Wheels, by Sally E. Parry
Meet the 2025 Lewis Conference Keynote Speaker: Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, by Shaun F. Richardshttps://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/slsn/1099/thumbnail.jp
Organizational Development at Milner Library: A Journey of Transformation 2024-2025
Get PDFThis presentation was delivered at Milner Library on June 11, 2025 by Chloe Vicente, Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, and Sue Franzen, Associate Dean of Public Services and Organizational Development.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/mlp/1050/thumbnail.jp
Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing: Outreach
No full textDigitization can help bring your archival materials to life by making them accessible and easy to use in a variety of projects and settings. There are many reasons to start digitizing your institution’s holdings, and likely just as many stakeholders who want an institution\u27s archival materials digitized. If you do not have a digitization department, this work can seem daunting—even if you do have a digitization department, you might have good reasons to supplement their output. This webinar covered getting started on digitization projects in the archives when you do not have many resources.
Sessions included information on equipment recommendations, digitization workflows, metadata, and platforms and tools for managing, accessing, and working with digitized or born digital materials. During the webinar, presenters discussed advocating for resources, project planning, and documentation, along with demonstrations.
This session included information about: Creating exhibits using Omeka, Digital Commons, and other tools. Teaching with digital collections including working with faculty, thematic digital collections, and digital publications
The Performance of Neurologically Intact Sequential Shona-English Bilingual Speakers on the Bilingual Aphasia Test
Get PDFBackground Currently, no standardized culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools may be used to provide speech and language assessment for Shona-English bilingual speakers.
Aims This study examined the performance of Shona-English sequential bilingual speakers on the full versions of the Shona and English Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT).
Methods and Procedures The adapted BAT-Sh and BAT-E were administered to 20 neurologically intact sequential bilingual individuals 30 to 40 years of age. Each participant was administered 32 tasks to facilitate a complete assessment of language skills at all levels of processing and for all modalities.
Results The Shona-English sequential bilingual speakers performed at, or very close to, the ceiling for 24 of the 27 analyzed subtests and were highly comparable between the two assessments. The relationship between BAT-Sh and BAT-E scores was linear, indicating that as Shona scores increased, English scores increased similarly. Mental arithmetic, antonyms, grammaticality judgment, and series were difficult subtests for some participants.
Conclusions Overall, performance on the BAT-E was stronger than on the BAT-Sh for a sample of sequential bilinguals and the test duration was significantly shorter for the BAT-E, which may be a marker for language usage patterns of the Shona-English sequential bilingual speakers
High Throughput, Solid Sample Analysis With Cone-Based Mass Spectrometric Ionization Sources
No full textThe widespread presence of environmental and consumer-product contaminants (e.g. trace metals, opium alkaloids) has underscored the need for rapid, reliable, and high-throughput analytical techniques that are capable of handling complex solid samples. While traditional mass spectrometric (MS) methods tend to have high sensitivity and accuracy, they often require labor-intensive and time-consuming sample preparation steps that limit throughput and field applicability. This thesis investigates the use of 3D-Printed Cone Spray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (3D-PCSI-MS) as an ambient ionization technique for the direct screening of contaminants from solid matrices, eliminating the need for traditional sample preparation and allowing for real-time analysis.
In this work, two primary applications were explored: the screening of heavy metals and metalloids in soil and the detection of opium alkaloids on commercially available poppy seeds. In the first study, ‘reactive’ 3D-PCSI was utilized, which employed the principles of chelation chemistry by using a ligand to react with the metal species in soil. The chelation reagents L2 (C14H14N4S), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) were each tested for performance comparison against L1 (C14H14N4SO), which was the primary chelation reagent in the previous work. Out of the three alternative reagents, L2 exhibited the strongest performance, forming stable, detectable complexes with a wide range of metals, including lead, cadmium, mercury, and lithium. Experimental limits of detection (LODs) reached sub-ppb levels for several metals, demonstrating competitive sensitivity. A user-blinded error rate study further confirmed the method’s robustness and reliability, yielding a 98.4% accuracy with minimal false positives or negatives. This highlights 3D-PCSI-MS as a promising platform for rapid environmental monitoring and field-deployable contaminant screening.
The second study applied 3D-PCSI-MS for the direct screening of opium alkaloids such as morphine, noscapine, papaverine, codeine, and thebaine from unwashed poppy seeds. The results of this study showed successful detection and quantification of target alkaloids at various concentrations. An error rate assessment confirmed the method’s relatively high sensitivity and specificity, which demonstrates its potential as a tool for detecting contamination in consumer food products such as poppy seeds. Importantly, the approach avoids the need for extensive sample preparation, which is often a barrier in traditional LC-MS or GC-MS methodologies.
Together, these two applications demonstrate the value of 3D-PCSI-MS as a powerful tool for high-throughput, solid sample analysis. By combining rapid ambient ionization with high sensitivity detection capabilities, this technique offers an alternative to traditional MS methods, particularly in fields where results may be time-sensitive, such as forensic science, environmental health and safety, and food safety. The findings also support the broader implementation of error rate assessment in method validation, which would help to improve the credibility of analytical results across disciplines. Future work may expand the utility of 3D-PCSI-MS to additional types of analytes, as well as explore further automation of the method via an autosampler which would assist in improving reproducibility and generally streamlining the 3D-PCSI-MS process