Northwestern College - Iowa

To be prepared for future infectious disease epidemics, this paper considers a data-driven approach for determining optimal vaccination strategies for multi-community settings with heterogeneous populations under uncertain social mixing, disease transmission, and vaccine efficacy. Specifically, we derive an integrated chance constraints stochastic programming (ICC-SP) disease spread model for optimal vaccination strategies to prevent epidemics by keeping the uncertain post-vaccination reproduction number below one at a specified level of risk. A vaccination strategy specifies the proportion of individuals in a given household-type and age-group to vaccinate and the intervention level needed to bound the expected excess of the reproduction number above one by an acceptable level of reliability (or risk). The ICC-SP model is data-driven and uses readily available data on census demographics, age-related disease susceptibility and infectivity, virus variants, and vaccine efficacy defined in three ways: vaccination in terms of effectiveness against infection, symptomatic cases, and hospitalization. This data-driven approach incorporates the decision-maker's level of risk to enable public health policy what-if analyses for future epidemics. A case study using the ICC-SP approach based on COVID-19 data was conducted, and the results of the study provide several insights. The study shows, for example, that to control disease outbreaks vaccination strategies must be combined with a specific intervention level. The proportion of the population to vaccinate to prevent epidemics depends on the criterion of vaccine efficacy used and decreases with increasing intervention level. The study also shows that optimal vaccination strategies prioritize the vaccination of specific households and age groups with high combined levels of relative susceptibility and infectivity.

Drawing on C. S. Lewis’s “at-and-along” concept and the two-kingdoms doctrine, this study explores how Christians understand and live out their vocations in secular workplaces. A qualitative phenomenological analysis of Christian professionals revealed a tendency to view vocation subjectively rather than objectively but with limited eternal thinking. These findings highlight a need for clearer theological understanding of the sacred dimension of vocation in daily work.

Our neuromuscular system exhibits plasticity throughout the lifespan and adopts adaptive strategies as compensatory responses following injury or neurological disorder. However, examining these changes is challenging when relying solely on superficial qualitative assessments and, more importantly, in the absence of a guiding theoretical framework. Over the past decade or two, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain these adaptive mechanisms, including dynamic interaction theory and the concepts of motor redundancy Singh et al. (2018b) and motor abundance Latash (2010Latash ( , 2012)), which relate to modifications in kinematic and kinetic degrees of freedom. When integrated with appropriate experimental designs and analytical methods, these theoretical perspectives can provide deeper insights into adaptive and developmental changes in human movement. Our previous studies have incorporated such theoretical, experimental, and analytical approaches to examine adaptive strategies Singh et al. (2018aSingh et al. ( ,b, 2020Singh et al. ( , 2023)).Nevertheless, a substantial gap remains in the literature regarding the characterization of adaptive and developmental neuromuscular changes during human motion. Therefore, this Research Topic assembles six original research articles and one brief research report (*) that highlight recent trends and findings on neuromuscular plasticity during pathological and developmental movement. Below is the summary of submissions made to our research topic, categorized based on injury, neurological disorder, and lifespan changes in neuromuscular control.abilities several years after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Participants were classified into three groups: (1) copers (COPs), (2) non-copers (NP), and (3) healthy controls (HC). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity across these groups. The study revealed a shift in brain activity from somatosensory cortical areas toward subcortical regions, including the cerebellum and basal ganglia, where regional homogeneity was higher in the COPs group. This enhanced subcortical synchronization suggests an efficient return to sport among COPs.Four studies in this collection address the complex adaptations seen in common neurological disorders, exploring conditions from stroke and cerebral palsy (CP) to Parkinson's disease. Komaris et al. (2025) performed muscle synergy analysis on stroke patients to determine the basis of motor impairment; they found that the muscle synergies' dimensions and composition are preserved, whereas the temporal activation 31 coefficient varies, suggesting flexible recruitment of fixed motor patterns. Researchers in this study 32 suggested that targeted intervention of these altered temporal activations could aid in stroke rehabilitation. Older adults displayed longer double-support and shorter swing phases than younger adults, along with higher muscle activation, indicating age-related differences in neural control.

We present the mass–metallicity relation (MZR) for a parent sample of 604 galaxies at z = 5.34 − 6.94 with [O III ] doublets detected that was obtained from the deep JWST/NIRCam wide field slitless spectroscopic (WFSS) observations in 26 quasar fields. The sample incorporates the full observations of 25 quasar fields from the JWST Cycle 1 GO program ASPIRE and the quasar SDSS J0100+2802 from the JWST EIGER program. We identified 204 galaxies residing in overdense structures using the friends-of-friends (FoF) algorithm. We estimated the electron temperature of 2.0 +0.3 −0.4 × 10 4 K from the H γ and [O III ] 4363 lines in the stacked spectrum, indicating a metal-poor sample with a median gas phase metallicity of 12 + log(O/H) = 7.65 +0.26 −0.15 . With the most up-to-date strong line calibration based on NIRSpec observations, we find that the MZR shows a metal enhancement of ∼0.2 dex at the high mass end in overdense environments. However, compared to the local fundamental metallicity relation (FMR), our galaxy sample at z > 5 shows a metal deficiency of ∼0.2 dex relative to FMR predictions. We explain the observed trend of FMR with a simple analytical model, and we favor dilution from intense gas accretion over outflow to explain the metallicity properties at z > 5. The high-redshift galaxies are likely in a rapid gas accretion phase when their metal and gas contents are in a non-equilibrium state. According to model predictions, the protocluster members are closer to the gas equilibrium state than field galaxies and thus have a higher metallicity and are closer to the local FMR. Our results suggest that the accelerated star formation during protocluster assembly likely plays a key role in shaping the observed MZR and FMR, indicating a potentially earlier onset of metal enrichment in overdense environments at z ≈ 5 − 7.

Abstract Despite the well-established links between coparenting and child behavior problems, little is known about the longitudinal development of dyadic mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting relationships within the larger family context. Informed by family systems theory, this study sought to examine how maternal and paternal coparenting systems were simultaneously manifested over time from infancy (Year 1) to preadolescence (Year 9), and how various antecedents at age 1 were associated with the patterns of dyadic longitudinal coparenting change. Further, we tested whether distinct coparenting patterns were related to later adolescent behavior problems (Year 15) even after accounting for early behavior problems, child gender, and demographic risk factors. This study leveraged the data of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study ( N = 3923 families), which oversampled unmarried, low-income, and ethnically and racially diverse families. Growth mixture models identified four trajectory change patterns of mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting (latent classes): (a) both high stable support (69.7%); (b) father less-supportive (15.4%); (c) both decreasing support (8.1%); and (d) father unsupportive (6.8%) coparenting classes. Further analyses revealed that adolescents in the both high stable support coparenting class showed significantly fewer internalizing and externalizing behavior problems at age 15, compared to other classes. Findings highlight dyadic coparenting processes in family systems, which may help inform development of targeted programs to promote adaptive coparenting in mothers and fathers among ethnically, racially, and economically diverse families.

School leadership is significant in creating safe and inclusive digital learning environments in the changing demands of the digital age. This study aimed to explore how school heads promote digital citizenship through ethical leadership, inclusive practices, and strategic alignment with global educational goals. Using qualitative content analysis, the study employed Bowen’s document analysis framework to examine peer-reviewed literature from 2020 to 2025, supported by AI-assisted tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini AI for thematic coding and synthesis. The purposive sampling of scholarly articles enabled a focused exploration of leadership practices that support digital inclusion and safety. The findings revealed that school heads foster digital citizenship by modeling ethical technology use, supporting teacher professional development, and ensuring equitable access to ICT. Transformational and distributed models of leadership, strategic planning, and support of AI ethics were central to promoting inclusive digital cultures. These practices strongly aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4, particularly in promoting equity, lifelong learning, and global citizenship. The study contributes to the theoretical and practical insight about digital leadership and provides policy, leadership development, and inclusive education reform.