So much great scholarship this month from our SSU faculty! We're delighted to showcase the most recent publications and scholarly works coming out of the university.
Martinez, Andres G. “Political Partisanship, Trait Empathy, and Social Justice Concerns in a Representative Sample of Californians.” Discover Psychology., vol. 5, no. 1, 2025.
Abstract: The current study provides an analysis of a representative sample of Californians (N = 875) to obtain insight into the nature of emotional empathy across the political divide. Although Democrats, Republicans, and Independents differed in average trait emotional empathy levels, the magnitudes of these differences were not large. Analysis showed that although all political categories showed some degree of empathy, the target of this empathy varied by political party. Specifically, Democrats’ and Independents’ empathic tendencies were linked to social justice concerns. In contrast, Republicans’ empathic tendencies were disconnected from this domain. These findings provide evidence that—in California and perhaps beyond—political affiliation predicts who is seen as worthy of empathy. Discussion explores the implications of these findings for political polarization and cooperation across partisan categories.
Ma, Alyson C., et al. “Admissions Policies and Colleges’ Retention Rates.” Education Economics., 2025, pp. 1–19.
Abstract: Our study examines the relation between college admission criteria and college–student retention in the United States. We report two key findings related to admissions requirements using a dataset for the 2021–2022 academic year. First, there is little evidence that test–optional admissions policies had a significant effect on retention rates for this cohort. Second, Required/Recommended Letters of Recommendation and Secondary School Record are consistently associated with 1.3–3.3% higher retention rates. When combined with the appropriate institutional supports these results may assist HEIs maintain or increase retention rates in this new admission landscape.
Marsh, Erik J., et al. “Dating the Ebb and Flow of Tiwanaku and Post-Collapse Material Culture across the Andes.” Quaternary International., vol. 727, 2025.
Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive Bayesian refinement of the chronology of Tiwanaku material culture. To place this material pattern in space, we present a presence-only map of most sites with Tiwanaku redware ceramics, snuff trays, and textiles. We compile radiocarbon dates and assess their material associations before building Bayesian models. We present bespoke calibration curve mixtures for each major region, based on air mixtures from climate models. The models suggest that redwares burst onto the scene in the AD 600s in the Lake Titicaca Basin (Peru and Bolivia) and around the same time, snuff trays with the same iconography appeared in burials at San Pedro de Atacama (Chile). Other parts of the Andes first saw this material culture later, and only in the AD 900s was it clearly present in all regions. Around ∼AD 1040, Tiwanaku redwares were no longer used at Tiwanaku or in Moquegua. Residents of the Western Valleys immediately innovated new post-collapse styles derived from Tiwanaku redwares, appearing and fading away at different times in different valleys. A small community near Lake Titicaca maintained old traditions for generations, including the use of raised fields and Tiwanaku burials. We assess temporal alignments and disjunctures in order to highlight variability of Tiwanaku material culture, long assumed to be fairly homogeneous over space and time. This opens the door to more nuanced, generation-scale questions about the interaction networks that assembled and disassembled Tiwanaku.
Naser, Sokiyna, et al. “At-Home Breath Data Collection for Signatures of Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Clinical Study.” Biosensors., vol. 15, no. 3, 2025.
Abstract: This study investigates the potential of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath as non-invasive biomarkers for monitoring blood glucose levels in individuals with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A pilot clinical study was conducted to explore the correlation between VOCs and blood glucose levels in six T2DM patients. Participants used a custom-developed sensor device to collect breath data at home, alongside finger-stick blood glucose readings. Breath data were transmitted to a cloud database, while blood glucose readings were recorded on paper charts. The sensor data from the device and the blood glucose readings from the charts were consolidated to create the study dataset. Support vector machine and random forest models were employed to analyze the dataset, which achieved accuracies of 85% and 82%, respectively. The results demonstrate the feasibility of at-home breath sensor data collection for clinical studies and suggest its potential as a viable alternative to traditional invasive glucose monitoring methods. Future studies will expand the dataset to include more participants and additional clinical variables to enhance model performance and predictive power. This research highlights the promise of non-invasive breath analysis for glucose monitoring, which could improve patient compliance and diabetes management.
Janousek, Christopher N., et al. “Blue Carbon Stocks Along the Pacific Coast of North America Are Mainly Driven by Local Rather Than Regional Factors.” Global Biogeochemical Cycles, vol. 39, no. 3, 2025.
Abstract: Coastal wetlands, including seagrass meadows, emergent marshes, mangroves, and temperate tidal swamps, can efficiently sequester and store large quantities of sediment organic carbon (SOC). However, SOC stocks may vary by ecosystem type and along environmental or climate gradients at different scales. Quantifying such variability is needed to improve blue carbon accounting, conservation effectiveness, and restoration planning. We analyzed SOC stocks in 1,284 sediment cores along >6,500 km of the Pacific coast of North America that included large environmental gradients and multiple ecosystem types. Tidal wetlands with woody vegetation (mangroves and swamps) had the highest mean stocks to 1 m depth (357 and 355 Mg ha−1, respectively), 45% higher than marshes (245 Mg ha−1), and more than 500% higher than seagrass (68 Mg ha−1). Unvegetated tideflats, though not often considered a blue carbon ecosystem, had noteworthy stocks (148 Mg ha−1). Stocks increased with tidal elevation and with fine (<63 μm) sediment content in several ecosystems. Stocks also varied by dominant plant species within individual ecosystem types. At larger scales, marsh stocks were lowest in the Sonoran Desert region of Mexico, and swamp stocks differed among climate zones; otherwise stocks showed little correlation with ecoregion or latitude. More variability in SOC occurred among ecosystem types, and at smaller spatial scales (such as individual estuaries), than across regional climate gradients. These patterns can inform coastal conservation and restoration priorities across scales where preserving stored carbon and enhancing sequestration helps avert greenhouse gas emissions and maintains other vital ecosystem services.
Fraleigh, DC, et al. “Intra-Annual Consistent Diet of Lanternfish and Krill in Adult Female Southern Elephant Seals Mirounga Leonina from the South Georgia Population.” Marine Ecology Progress Series., vol. 753, 2025, pp. 175–89.
Abstract: Southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina are top predators in the Southern Ocean and significant consumers of mesopelagic mid-trophic level prey while spending most of the year foraging out at sea. Yet, there is still considerable uncertainty regarding variability in the dietary composition between individuals and over time. We ran a suite of mixing models using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios from the vibrissae of 54 adult female southern elephant seals from the South Georgia population (2005–2009) and potential fish, squid, and krill prey. Our goals were to (1) estimate the dietary composition of this population as a whole, (2) compare the dietary composition of individuals between previously identified foraging strategies, and (3) quantify the degree of dietary consistency at the individual level throughout a long foraging migration. Models indicate that myctophid fish were the dominant prey item consumed (mean 45% of diet), followed by Antarctic krill and Antarctic jonasfish. However, there was considerable variability within and among groups of seals regarding specific prey items consumed and the degree of individual dietary specialization, possibly as a means of reducing intraspecific competition. Finally, our models provide evidence of most seals displaying dietary consistency throughout a foraging migration. These findings have important management implications for the South Georgia population in an uncertain future and highlight the need for more effective krill management along the western Antarctic Peninsula.
Freborg, Kaija, and LaTonia Clark Chalmers. “Seeing the Field: Applying Watson’s Unitary Caring Science to Discern Racism.” International Journal for Human Caring., vol. 28, no. 4, 2024, pp. 228–38.
Abstract: Raising unitary consciousness is fundamental in critical social praxis as the nursing profession grapples with its past and present relationships with racism. Watson’s Unitary Caring Science guides nurses to embody a practice that uplifts compassionate care and champions human dignity and belonging. However, contradiction resounds and persists; racial discrimination cannot exist simultaneously with unitary caring moments. An examination of how White comfort and White supremacy influence the Caritas–Veritas Field and a consideration of how nursing’s perceived caring ideology could act as a barrier to racial justice praxis are provided. By answering Watson’s call to see the field, move beyond the ego-self, and build positionality-informed consciousness to disrupt racism within caring moments, nurses can be better aligned with the ethical and moral standards of the profession.
Jenkins, Ryan, et al. "Recent Insights in Responsible AI Development and Deployment in National Defense: A Review of Literature, 2022–2024.” Journal of Military Ethics., 2025, pp. 1–23.
Abstract: This “literature refresh” identifies the most relevant new research in AI and robotic systems ethics from January 1, 2022 to January 31, 2024. Our selection methodology consisted of traditional research methods as well as novel human-AI teaming techniques, leveraging the expert human judgment of the authors, enhanced with a collection of AI and computational tools. We have identified stable trends in the critiques of the use of AI in the defense and security domain that cluster around worries about machine bias as well as the propensity of the technology to exacerbate human cognitive biases. Training data ambiguities, irregularities or untrustworthy data, and outright hacking of training sets are notable problems reported by the papers in our research set. This limits the trustworthiness of some systems which is heightened by the “black box” nature of many of these technologies which makes accountability and testing difficult. Given the speed and immense scale of operations that AI systems are involved in, there is a pronounced drift away from the reliance on “human in the loop” and “human on the loop” as the gold standard. We are now at the stage where a new ethical paradigm is needed.
Kim, Chong-Uk, and Gieyoung Lim. “The Economic Impact of Napa Valley on Other California Grape Districts.” Applied Economics., 2025, pp. 1–17.
Abstract: This paper investigates the economic impacts on other grape-growing regions in California relative to Napa Valley. To test empirically, we examine the influence of the production levels and prices of each grape variety in Napa, prioritized by their prevalence in Napa, on the production and price of the same varieties in other regions. Our empirical results suggest that first, price changes of Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa affect prices across all other major regions. Second, changes in Sonoma’s Pinot Noir prices are found to influence fluctuations in Napa’s prices. Last, the lesser impact of production changes on other regions compared to price dynamics may be attributed to environmental factors.
