Scholarly Works, School of Public and International Affairs

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“Alexa, I’m home!” intimate surveillance, care, and control in AI-enabled homes and bodies
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Springer, 2026-04)
As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly mediates everyday life, its expansion into intimate spaces produces new configurations of surveillance that blur the boundaries between care, necessity, and control. While smart home and digital health technologies are widely promoted as tools of safety and well-being, they embed pervasive forms of surveillance that remain underexamined. This paper analyzes how AI-enabled infrastructures govern intimate life through data extraction, algorithmic inference, and corporate control. Drawing on the combined theoretical lenses of surveillance capitalism and biopolitics, it conceptualizes smart homes and digital health systems as sites of marketized biopower, where corporate actors increasingly manage domestic routines and bodily processes. Using a structured critical-comparative analysis of two analytically complementary cases, the Ring Doorbell and the Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM), the study traces how similar data logics operate across distinct domains of intimacy: domestic and bodily. The analysis demonstrates that, despite differences in function, regulation, and perceived necessity, both technologies centralize control under corporate infrastructures. In both cases, care operates as a governance strategy that legitimizes surveillance, normalizes dependency, and reframes autonomy as responsible participation in proprietary systems. The paper concludes by identifying ethical vulnerabilities and calling for AI governance frameworks attentive to intimacy, dependency, and predictive control, rather than privacy protections alone.
Transit time modeling framework for predicting freshwater salinization in urban catchments
Bhide, Shantanu V.; Grant, Stanley B.; McGuire, Kevin J.; Prestegaard, Karen; Kaushal, Sujay S.; Sekellick, Andrew J.; Rippy, Megan A.; Schenk, Todd; Curtis, Shannon; Gomez-Velez, Jesus D.; Hotchkiss, Erin R.; Vikesland, Peter J.; Saksena, Siddharth (Elsevier, 2026-03)
The salinity of inland freshwaters is rising globally, particularly in urban watersheds where winter road deicers are widely applied. Attributing stream salinity dynamics to specific sources and transport pathways remains challenging due to episodic salt inputs, engineered drainage, and strong coupling between hydrology and subsurface storage. We present a modeling framework that couples climate-driven deicer build-up and wash-off with transient transit time distribution theory to simulate salt transport through drainage, interflow, and groundwater pathways. Applied to an urban watershed in Northern Virginia (USA), the model reproduces ten years of high-frequency stream salinity measurements across daily-to-decadal timescales. The calibrated model implies an average deicer application of 206 tonnes Cl yr−1, or roughly one 20 kg bag of rock salt person−1 yr−1 when normalized by the 20,000 people living in the watershed. In winter months, higher infiltration routes a large fraction of snowmelt and deicers into shallow subsurface pathways, enhancing vadose-zone and interflow contributions to stream salinity. Limited subsurface storage capacity and seasonal hydrologic turnover flush excess chloride from the vadose zone and groundwater during subsequent summer storms. By linking climate-driven deicer inputs, hydrologic connectivity, and stream water age, the framework provides a transferable basis for diagnosing and managing freshwater salinization in urban watersheds.
Enhancing Bikeshare Systems with E-Bikes in Semi-Hilly Cities: Insights from Washington, D.C.
Bahkshi, Vahid; Dixit, Kuldeep; Vajari, Mohammad; Qin, Xiao; Ermagun, Alireza; Hankey, Steven C.; Buehler, Ralph (Elsevier, 2025-11-18)
This study investigates spatial and temporal usage patterns of e-bikes and regular bikes within the Capital Bikeshare system in Washington, D.C. Based on over 6 million bikeshare trips, the analysis highlights distinct usage patterns shaped by the city’s semi-hilly terrain and bikeshare station placement. Comparing e-bikes and regular bikes, two main distinctions emerge: (i) e-bikes are predominantly used for longer distances and in areas with greater elevation (2.27 km vs. 1.73 km; 1.38% vs. 1.12% average slopes), and (ii) e-bikes enable broader dispersion across the city by connecting more distant bikeshare stations and supporting extended mobility. This disparity underscores the adaptability of e-bikes to more challenging urban terrains and longer trip distances. The findings are useful for urban planners and practitioners aiming to optimize bikeshare systems and suggest that incorporating e-bikes can address mobility challenges related to topography and trip distance.
Public transport and the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative analysis of trends and policies in Great Britain, Germany, the USA, Canada, and Australia
Buehler, Ralph; Pucher, John; White, Peter; Currie, Graham (Pergamon-Elsevier, 2025-09)
This paper compares changes in urban public transport (PT) demand and supply before, during, and after COVID-19 in Great Britain, Germany, the USA, Canada, and Australia. We also examine a range of PT system measures and government policies implemented during and since the pandemic to improve safety, adjust service levels, and encourage ridership. Ridership fell sharply in 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 rates were highest. As a percentage of 2019 levels, the lowest annual ridership for each country was 31% for Great Britain, 42% for Canada, 46% for the USA, 48% for Australia, and 64% in Germany. The latest full year of available data (2024) indicates that Germany (94%), Great Britain (90%), and Australia (90%) recovered the highest percentages of 2019 ridership levels, compared to 83% in Canada and 77% in the USA. Bus ridership declined less than rail ridership and recovered more fully, especially in the USA, Canada, and Australia. Our analysis of PT in five large cities finds that recovery rates were generally higher on weekends than on weekdays, both for bus and rail. The most important government policy for PT has been a massive increase in funding, especially from central governments, to offset the large operating budget deficits resulting from lost passenger revenue. That funding enabled PT systems to maintain or reduce fares while avoiding large reductions in supply. Dependable government support will be necessary in the coming years to make PT financially sustainable and to enable long-term planning for infrastructure modernization and improved service.
Transit times link pollution sources to drinking water quality in a "One Water" system
Bhide, Shantanu V.; Grant, Stanley B.; Benettin, Paulo; Rippy, Megan A.; Monofy, Ahmed; Furst, Kirin E.; Shelton, Sydney; Kaushal, Sujay S.; Misra, Shalini; Vikesland, Peter J.; Hotchkiss, Erin R.; Spiesman, Anne; Prelewicz, Greg; Schenk, Todd; Post, Harold; Alvi, Dongemei; Steglitz, Brian; Husic, Admin (Pergamon-Elsevier, 2025-09-27)
Innovative approaches are needed to manage chronic and emerging water quality challenges in communities that rely on treated wastewater and urban stormwater as sources of raw water for drinking water treatment, or “One Water” systems. When amended to account explicitly for upstream versus distributed inflow to the reservoir, we show that unsteady transit time theory links pollution sources to water quality in the Occoquan Reservoir (Virginia, USA), one of the largest and oldest One Water systems in the United States. Using 11 years of hydrologic and water quality data, the model identified distinct sources and transformation rates for reactive (nitrate) and relatively non-reactive (sodium, chloride) solutes. High predictive skill was achieved with a strikingly small number of parameters: two for sodium and chloride (one for the upstream storage selection function, one for solute input from distributed sources; Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) = 0.65 and 0.76) and two additional for nitrate (capturing seasonal denitrification linked to summer stratification and hypolimnetic processes; NSE = 0.55). The simplicity of unsteady transit time theory supports rigorous parameter estimation (Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo) and model structure evaluation (Bayesian Information Criterion). It also opens the door to real-time interactive simulations with stakeholders, supporting collaborative solutions to cascading water quality challenges.
Critical environmental communication framework
Bhatti, Shumaila; Ramasubramanian, Srividya; Feldpausch-Parker, Andrea; Takahashi, Bruno; Kristiansen, Silje (Taylor & Francis, 2025-10-21)
This study develops a Critical Environmental Communication (CEC) framework to assess the landscape of Environmental Communication research and to what extent and in which ways critical and justice-oriented perspectives are included. The CEC framework consists of four interconnected themes: (a) Marginalized Ecocultural Identities, (b) Context and Scale, (c) Power and Agency, and (d) Justice, Equity, Diversity, Access, and Inclusion (JEDAI). Using this framework in a bibliometric analysis examining 1,297 Environmental Communication publications, we assess the occurrence of these themes in the scholarship. Our analysis found that Marginalized Ecocultural Identities, and Context and Scale were most frequently occurring, while Power and Agency, and JEDAI occurred less frequently. These findings suggest research directions to create a more inclusive research agenda for Environmental Communication scholarship.
Congressional Oversight Overlooked or Just Over? The House Appropriations Committee Surveys & Investigations Staff and the Arc of Congressional Competence
Dull, Matthew M. (Wiley, 2026)
This article follows the arc of congressional competence through the development and decline of the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) Surveys & Investigations (S&I) staff, an enduring oversight unit whose investigations were unobserved by design. S&I was quietly reorganized out of existence in December 2024. Why? Using committee reports, archival documents, and interviews this article shows how Chairman Clarence Cannon's 1943 design for S&I shaped its distinctive nonpartisan, under-the-radar oversight; filling a once-powerful niche made untenable in recent decades by partisan conflict. Time-series analysis of S&I study titles from 1975 to 2024 shows that the interplay of subcommittee chair-ranking disagreement and divided government constrained bipartisan S&I oversight. The conclusion situates S&I's history in research on congressional oversight, grounding abstract models, tracing institutional change, and revealing unexpected consequences.
Developing a conceptual framework of urban DNA using evolutionary theories
Manthapuri, Sadhana; Hall, Ralph P. (Springer Nature, 2026-02-02)
As cities evolve in increasingly complex ways, urban planners and researchers are focusing on creating long term and stable visions that are location-specific, sustainable, and inclusive. This visioning process often results in a fundamental question: Is there an underlying urban DNA, a foundational structure that shapes how urban areas grow, adapt, and transform? The idea of urban DNA, first articulated in the early 2000s, has gained renewed prominence since 2020, particularly in post-pandemic recovery strategies that emphasize local identity and place branding. Unlike the concept of urban identity and urban traits, which reflect external dynamics observable in a city and its performance, the concept of urban DNA focuses on the internal structures and mechanisms that shape urban identity, providing sustainable solutions over temporary remedies. Although numerous scholars have introduced conceptual frameworks for urban DNA, and many policy documents highlight cities’ interpretations of their distinctive urban DNA, these applications often lack a strong theoretical grounding. This limitation underscores the need for a more rigorous theoretical foundation that can both substantiate the concept of urban DNA and explain the sequence of urban evolutionary events, framing it as a structured process rather than a set of randomized events. This research develops the concept of urban DNA by identifying the core elements that constitute the genetic building blocks of cities and shape their emergence and evolution. Five interrelated elements, urban uniqueness, temporal variation, spatial variation, growth, and stability, form the basis of this framework. To ground these elements theoretically, 17 urban evolutionary theories were systematically assessed through a relevance matrix, comparing their conceptual alignment, explanatory power, and practical applicability to the urban DNA construct. The analysis highlights urban niche theory and French regulatory theory as particularly relevant for explaining urban DNA. Based on these insights, a grounded theoretical framework is proposed that offers urban planners and policymakers an operational tool to identify and leverage the urban DNA of their respective cities.
Agrivoltaics Policy Frameworks in the United States: Selected Policies and Programs Through 2024
Akbari, Pardis; Hall, Ralph P.; Ignosh, John (Virginia Tech, 2026-01-30)
Agrivoltaics, also known as dual-use solar or agrisolar, is an integrated land-use approach that combines agricultural production and photovoltaic electricity generation on the same site, allowing crops to be cultivated, livestock to be grazed, or pollinator habitats to be maintained while producing renewable energy from solar panels (Department of Energy, 2022; Macknick et al., 2022). Agrivoltaics presents a potential sustainable solution to land-use competition between food and energy production (Jain, 2024). By integrating solar power generation with agriculture, agrivoltaics systems optimize land use and can increase overall land productivity by 35–73% compared to traditional single-use approaches (Dupraz et al., 2011). The systems can also improve water-use efficiency beneath photovoltaic (PV) panels, reducing evaporation and conserving soil moisture (Adeh et al., 2018). Additionally, agrivoltaics can lower solar panel temperatures by 1-2°C, improving energy efficiency and extending a system’s lifespan (Patel et al., 2019). The partial shading from panels can benefit crops sensitive to heat and sunlight stresses, potentially creating a more favorable microclimate for growth in some production systems and locations (Kussul, 2020; Marucci et al., 2018). Beyond environmental benefits, agrivoltaics may enhance the economic resilience of farms by providing an additional revenue stream from energy generation (Dinesh & Pearce, 2016). The Virginia Department of Energy commissioned this review to better understand evolving agrivoltaics practices, policies, and programs across the United States at both the federal and state levels. Its purpose is to identify emerging trends and provide an overview of current and recent efforts supporting the integration of agriculture and solar energy development. This review focuses primarily on agrivoltaics initiatives through 2024. The United States federal government has introduced several policies and programs that indirectly support the growth of agrivoltaics as part of the country’s broader clean energy transition. Key legislative actions, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, have provided significant funding to the Department of Energy (DOE) to expand clean energy infrastructure and strengthen domestic energy resilience. Although these laws do not specifically focus on agrivoltaics, they helped to create a more favorable environment for its development. Federal incentives such as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) have also encouraged the use of renewable energy within agricultural settings. In addition, research and development efforts by the Department of Energy (DOE) through its Solar Energy Technologies Office, including the FARMS and InSPIRE programs, and by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), have helped improve the understanding of how agrivoltaics systems perform and how they can support both energy generation and agricultural production. Across the states, there is growing momentum to promote agrivoltaics through new policies and incentives. Massachusetts continues to lead the way with its SMART program and Agricultural Solar Tariff Generation Unit (ASTGU) incentive, which provide payments and clear design guidelines to ensure that farmland remains in active agricultural use while supporting solar energy production. Other states have developed similar initiatives. For example, New Jersey’s Dual-Use Pilot Program offers incentives for projects that combine solar power with ongoing farming operations, while Colorado supports agrivoltaics through property tax exemptions, research funding, and pilot grant programs. In Virginia, the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) Permit-by-Rule framework now includes reduced project mitigation requirements when practices such as managed grazing and crop cultivation are incorporated when solar projects impact prime farmland. Collectively, these efforts show a growing commitment to balance farmland protection with renewable energy expansion. A closer look at these initiatives reveals several common elements are emerging that shape the direction of agrivoltaics policy in the United States. Most initiatives rely on financial incentives to make agrivoltaics projects economically viable, recognizing that dual-use systems often require higher upfront costs for design and construction. In addition, many programs include pilot and demonstration projects as a central strategy, providing opportunities to test system designs, crop performance, and management practices under real-world agricultural conditions before broader implementation. To support the effective expansion of agrivoltaics in Virginia, a harmonized policy framework and a consistent definition of the practice are necessary. Coordination among incentives, performance standards, and data-sharing mechanisms can enhance agricultural productivity and renewable energy generation goals. When properly integrated, agrivoltaics can be an effective approach toward energy production, food security, and land stewardship goals. This alignment could turn land-use conflicts into opportunities for sustainable development and resilient clean energy growth. This report summarizes various agrivoltaics initiatives across the United States. Because energy and land-use planning policies are frequently updated, the details of these initiatives are often in flux. However, this summary aims to capture the full range of efforts, even if some programs are inactive. By doing so, the compilation helps inform future work in Virginia by sharing national experiences and providing resources for further review of each approach. References: Adeh, E. H., Selker, J. S., & Higgins, C. W. (2018). Remarkable agrivoltaic influence on soil moisture, micrometeorology and water-use efficiency. PLoS ONE, 13(11), e0203256. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203256 Dinesh, H., & Pearce, J. M. (2016). The potential of agrivoltaic systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 54, 299–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.024 Dupraz, C., Marrou, H., Talbot, G., Dufour, L., Nogier, A., & Ferard, Y. (2011). Combining solar photovoltaic panels and food crops for optimising land use: Towards new agrivoltaic schemes. Renewable Energy, 36(10), 2725–2732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2011.03.005 Jain, S. (2024). Agrivoltaics: The synergy between solar panels and agricultural production. Darpan International Research Analysis, 12(3), 137–148. https://doi.org/10.36676/dira.v12.i3.61 Kussul, E., Baydyk, T., Garcia, N., Velasco Herrera, G., & Curtidor López, A. V. (2020). Combinations of solar concentrators with agricultural plants. Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering B, 9(5), 168–181. https://doi.org/10.17265/2162-5263/2020.05.002 Macknick, J., Hartmann, H., Barron-Gafford, G., Beatty, B., Burton, R., Choi, C. S., Davis, M., Davis, R., Figueroa, J., Garrett, A., Hain, L., Herbert, S., Janski, J., Kinzer, A., Knapp, A., Lehan, M., Losey, J., Marley, J., MacDonald, J., McCall, J., Nebert, L., Ravi, S., Schmidt, J., Staie, B., & Walston, L. (2022). The 5 Cs of agrivoltaic success factors in the United States: Lessons from the InSPIRE research study (NREL/ TP-6A20-83566). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/83566.pdf (Archived at https://perma.cc/A7HS-SC8R) Marucci, A., Zambon, I., Colantoni, A., & Monarca, D. (2018). A combination of agricultural and energy purposes: Evaluation of a prototype of photovoltaic greenhouse tunnel. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82, 1178–1186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.09.029 Patel, B., Gami, B., Baria, V., Patel, A., & Patel, P. (2019). Cogeneration of solar electricity and agriculture produce by photovoltaic and photosynthesis—Dual model by Abellon, India. Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 141(3), 031014. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4041899 U.S. Department of Energy. (2022, December 8). Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) funding program. https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/foundational-agrivoltaic-research-megawattscale-farms-funding-program (Archived at https://perma.cc/8SFL-4NVM)
Credible Surrogates: Outsourcing US Foreign Policy Appeals
Levinson, Chad (2026)
US presidents often deploy surrogates to promote foreign intervention. What makes surrogate appeals credible? Prior research suggests that the way proponents frame arguments, and characteristics of the advocates themselves, affect public support for policy proposals. This paper shows that think-tank affiliates and human rights advocates make effective surrogates, and that their chosen descriptive frames along with their own credentials affect their credibility over questions of foreign intervention. In a pair of randomized survey experiments, subjects responded more favorably to fictional surrogates than to factual politicians. Invented affiliates from made-up organizations elicited more positive assessments of arguments and greater support for intervention than real-life presidential candidates did. Security frames improved assessments and increased support for intervention, but source credentials and organizational affiliations had little influence on their own. Congruence between sources and frames had a narrow but notable effect, improving evaluations of source credibility.
UAVs in Agriculture: A Review of Challenges, Limitations, Stakeholder Perspectives, and Data Privacy
Rathore, Jitender; Walsh, Olga S.; Gardezi, Maaz; Mehla, Mukesh Kumar; Vardhan, Kirti (Wiley, 2026)
The agriculture sector continuously attracts a wide range of technologies, making it one of the oldest yet most rapidly evolving Industries. While technological integration has brought significant advancements in agriculture. Among these, remote sensing has emerged as a powerful tool due to its ability to monitor and manage crops over large areas across different spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions. However, its adoption is often hindered by issues related to cost, complexity, and contextual adaptability. Many tools still face limitations and unique challenges when applied in agricultural contexts. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), a prominent example of modern remote sensing technologies, have enabled the collection of very-high-resolution data at the field level, offering new insights into crop health, yield forecasting, and precision management. Despite their potential, UAVs face several operational challenges, including limited flight time, weather dependency, regulatory constraints, data storage limitations, and the need for skilled personnel for both operation and analysis. This review article critically examines the current challenges associated with UAV-based remote sensing in agriculture, drawing upon recent peer-reviewed literature. It provides a consolidated understanding of the technological, operational, and institutional barriers.
Professional Credentialing in Higher Ed: The Case of the Certified Nonprofit Professional Credential to Enhance Student Readiness for the Nonprofit Sector
Davis, Stephanie D.; Lee, Chance; Bown, Carolina (Sagamore-Venture Publishing, 2026)
This article examines the value of integrating professional credentialing programs with traditional academic degree pathways using the Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) credential as a case example. The authors explore how the CNP credential complements undergraduate and graduate programs by enhancing students’ professional readiness and specific competencies for the nonprofit sector. Findings from a survey of campus directors, the primary liaison between the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and the college or university, provide insight into their perspectives on the importance of professional credentialing. In addition, drawing on case studies from three universities that have implemented the CNP in varied contexts and timeframes, the article analyzes institutional motivations, student outcomes, and effective strategies for credential implementation.
Ion Clusters Reveal the Sources, Impacts, and Drivers of Freshwater Salinization
Marin, Diver E.; Grant, Stanley B.; Bhide, Shantanu V.; Rippy, Megan A.; Gomez-Velez, Jesus D.; Brent, Robert N.; Kaushal, Sujay S.; Post, Harold; Shelton, Sydney; Misra, Shalini; Hotchkiss, Erin R.; Monofy, Ahmed; Alvi, Dongmei; Schmitz, Bradley; Curtis, Shannon; Davis, Christina C.; Vikesland, Peter J.; Husic, Admin (American Chemical Society, 2025-06-16)
Population growth, land use change, climate change, and natural resource extraction are driving the salinization of freshwater resources worldwide. Reversing these trends will require data-centric approaches that identify salt sources, environmental drivers, and ecosystem responses. In this study, we applied principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering to identify ion covariance patterns, or “ion clusters,” in Broad Run, an urban stream in the Mid-Atlantic United States. These clusters correspond to distinct hydrologic regimes and reveal specific salinization risks: (1) phosphorus pollution mobilized during summer storms (Cluster 1); (2) elevated concentrations of sulfate and bicarbonate during baseflow (Cluster 2), likely reflecting groundwater discharge; and (3) elevated specific conductance and sodium, chloride, and potassium ion concentrations during snowmelt and rain-on-snow events (Cluster 3), driven by deicer and anti-icer wash-off. These ion fingerprints offer a transferable framework for diagnosing salt sources, assessing ecological risk, and identifying management targets. Our findings underscore the need for next-generation stormwater infrastructure and smart growth policies to protect aquatic life in rapidly urbanizing watersheds.
Biopolitics at the Nexus of Chronic and Infectious Diseases
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Springer, 2025-02-06)
Non-communicable (chronic) and communicable (infectious) diseases constitute the leading causes of death worldwide. They appear to impact populations in developed and developing nations differently with changing trends in the landscape of human conditions. Greater understanding of changing disease burdens should influence the planning of health programs, the implementation of related interventions, and policymaking efforts on a national and global scale. However, the knowledge of disease burdens does not reflect how states and global health organisations prioritise their efforts in addressing them. This work aims to address the discrepancy in public health priority setting by improving our understanding of how the two disease categories impact the human condition. It reviews two case studies, COVID-19 and type 2 diabetes, as representative cases of an infectious and a chronic disease, respectively, to answer the following question. How does biopolitics, as the governance of human bodies, at the nexus of infectious and chronic disease, impact national and global public health priorities? This work contextualises and reframes the relationship towards disease categories by focusing on three primary themes: risk, current public health interventions, and funding priorities for each case study analysed. It argues that the politics over life at the nexus of chronic and infectious diseases, best conceived as future-oriented economic optimisation, directs the efforts of prioritisation in healthcare based on risk and responsibility-based relationship between multiple stakeholders.
Global Implications of Diabetes Biomedicalization
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Springer, 2025-10-08)
Diabetes remains one of the leading causes of death globally, with its prevalence and associated costs rising despite advances in pharmaceuticals and biomedical technologies. This paper offers a critical, conceptual analysis of how biomedical technologies are reshaping diabetes care by expanding treatment and risk categories associate with type 1 diabetes and prediabetes. Drawing from science and technology studies and critical public health perspectives, the paper uses two illustrative examples, Tzield, an FDA-approved pharmaceutical designed to delay the onset of symptomatic type 1 diabetes, and Continuous Blood Glucose Monitors (CGMs), increasingly used by individuals without a diabetes diagnosis, to examine how biomedical interventions target populations deemed “at risk.” The paper analyzes these technologies as examples of a broader trend: the biomedicalization of risk and the expansion of pharmaceutical and device markets into pre-diagnostic states. It introduces the concept of the “diabetes paradox” to underscore how the exploitation of risk perception in diabetes care may inadvertently undermine the intended benefits of new treatments. It demonstrates that shifting perceptions of risk not only create new burdens and afflictions but also broaden the definition of “at-risk” populations. Furthermore, the paper discusses the global implications of biomedicalization that focus on future risk mitigation rather than addressing current global health challenges.
Changing Trends in U.S. Digital Health Security
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Tech for Humanity Lab, 2025-04-11)
Healthcare in Wartime Ukraine
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Tech for Humanity Lab, 2026-01-05)
This internet publication shares reflections from my recent trip to Ukraine (2025), where I conducted interviews and gathered data in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and several surrounding communities. I spoke with health care providers and patients to understand their perspectives on the state of Ukraine’s health care system, the impact of ongoing reforms, and the challenges of accessing essential resources during wartime. This research was approved by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board (IRB #25-028) and the Ukrainian Institute of Public Health Policy (IRB #2025-2). While peer-reviewed publications are forthcoming, what follows offers an early glimpse into these findings.
The U.S. Health System Vulnerabilities
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Springer, 2025-12-04)
The increasing integration of health information technology (health IT) into the U.S. healthcare system has brought both opportunities for improvement and new vulnerabilities. The 2024–2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan emphasizes equitable data access, quality representative data, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve health outcomes. Yet, the growing complexity of digital infrastructures has amplified risks related to privacy and the security of protected health information (PHI). This study examines U.S. health system vulnerabilities by analyzing reported PHI breaches and situating them within evolving federal health IT priorities.
Cash crops or cover crops? The reasons and barriers for adopting cover crops in the Southern Great Plains of Texas and Oklahoma
Jamar, Patrick; Fuller, Emily R.; Leggette, Holli R.; Lu, Peng; Wald, Dara M.; Berthold, Troy Allen; deVilleneuve, Stephanie (Frontiers, 2025-10-15)
Water conservation practices such as cover crop adoption have been promoted as effective strategies to improve water quality and soil health. However, cover crop adoption rates have remained low in Texas. A better understanding of the barriers to farmer cover crop adoption can highlight new pathways, encouraging conservation practice adoption across regions of the U.S. Our study examined reasons and barriers to cover crop adoption, including farmers’ demographics and farm characteristics. Using guidance from social cognitive theory and the theory of social normative behavior, we also examined how personal, cognitive, and environmental factors shaped farmers’ behaviors. The data collection process took place starting May 5, 2022, and ending December 30, 2022. A random sample of 3,000 participants was selected from the 88 counties in the Southern Great Plains of Texas and Oklahoma, using the 2021 USDA farm payment payees’ online files. Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey to describe characteristics of farmer populations (e.g., farmers, ranchers, land managers). Results indicated adaptors were largely 51–70 years old (58.3%), female (55.6%), and white (94.4%), with a majority being highly educated [i.e., having a graduate (22.2%) or bachelor’s (36.1%) degree]. Moreover, adoption reasons increased as farmers attained smaller income amounts from agricultural products. Of farmers who adopted cover crops, 38.9% did not use irrigation while 22.2% irrigated between 81 and 100% of their farmed land. Most adopters (61.8%) farmed annual crops. Adopters and non-adopters were significantly different in their environmental and economic barrier perceptions for cover crop adoption. We conclude by discussing situational and economic factors driving these findings and providing opportunities for future research.
Identifying deep leverage points to destabilize ‘lock-in’ and empower farmers in the Midwestern agrifood system
Wald, Dara M.; Coberley, Denise D.; Morris, Chris; Arbuckle, J. G.; Fuller, Emily R. (Springer, 2025-12-01)
Agricultural systems in the Upper Midwest region of the US are highly productive by some measures. Yet at the same time, these systems do not adequately sustain farmers, rural communities, or land and water resources. This challenge has contributed to calls for transformations to enhance sustainability and reduce the vulnerability of conventional agrifood systems. A socio-technical transformation of this size and complexity will require a collective effort among a network of actors. In other contexts, collaborative processes to encourage collective action among diverse network actors have been stymied by lock-in mechanisms (e.g., institutional, material, and cognitive). Here we examine network actors’ perceptions of the current barriers and problems facing the agrifood system of the Upper Midwest and opportunities for change and solutions for creative destabilization to overcome lock-in. Using interviews with network actors and the Constant Comparative Method, we identified salient barriers, including shared concern over limited resources to facilitate change and differences in actors’ vision for change. Yet many participants appeared to agree on solutions to destabilize prevailing industry resistance to change, including shifting power to farmers, providing resources for farmers to leverage their discursive legitimacy, and challenging cognitive sources of lock-in.

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