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Conference Program 2020, Sotl Commons Conference

SoTL Commons Conference

Conference Program

Who Deserves To Be In Stem? How Threat And Confirmation Of The Gender Hierarchy Impact Helping Behavior Towards Prospective Stem Majors, Samantha A. Gnall

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Current events that either threaten or confirm the current gender hierarchy may impact people differently. This can depend upon one’s group membership and their attitudes towards a fair and just society. When people are asked to help others while facing uncertainty of the hierarchy, they may choose to help or lash out in an effort to re-establish the hierarchy or dismantle the hierarchy. STEM faculty were presented with information that either did not threaten the gender hierarchy (i.e., maintaining gender inequality) or that threatened the current gender hierarchy (i.e., reaching gender equality). Participants were then given an opportunity to offer …

Syllabus Language, Teaching Style, And Instructor Self-Perception: Toward Congruence, Christopher Richmann, Courtney Kurinec, Matthew Millsap

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

As with all language, the words of a syllabus carry emotional associations. Previous literature has not objective-ly measured the emotional associations of syllabus language or explored the relationship between instructors’ teaching style and the emotional associations of syllabus language. Using the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) framework, this article reports baseline measurements for syllabus language, investigates the relationship be-tween Grasha’s teaching styles and instructors’ self-perceived emotional associations with teaching, and compares instructors’ self-perceptions with the emotional associations of their syllabus language. Moderate correlations between teaching PAD scores and Grasha’s teaching style inventory suggest the emotion that may connect with concrete teaching attitudes and …

Comparing Mastery-Based Testing With Traditional Testing In Calculus Ii, Amanda Harsy, Alyssa Hoofnagle

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The authors present the results of quantitative data and student feedback from a two-year study of the effects of a new assessment model called “mastery-based testing.” In mastery-based testing, students are given problems in which they can only receive full credit for the problem after they demonstrate mastery of the objective being assessed. This method strives to increase complete understanding of concepts through a growth-mindset approach to learning in addition to helping alleviate math anxiety. In this study, we compare the impact of mastery-based testing with traditional testing in six Calculus II classes. The data sources for the project included …

Predicting Student Sustainability Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors: Effects Of Demography, Environmental Science Education, And Sustainability Intervention Programs At Georgia Southern University, Bailey Chandler

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This mixed-methods research approach assesses trends in sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in the student population at Georgia Southern University (GS). Students completed a baseline survey in order to determine their knowledge and attitudes about sustainability and what sustainable behaviors they perform. A total of 1,328 useable responses to the baseline survey were gathered. Effects of race, academic class, gender, and prior completion of an environmental science course were tested, as well as the effect of campus (Statesboro and Armstrong). Previously taking an environmental science course and race/ethnicity were the two strongest indicators of knowledge score. Males scored higher than …

Assessing Public Health Workforce Informatics Competencies: A Study Of Three Health Departments In Metro Atlanta, Olatanwa Adewale

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Background: There is a need for the public health workforce to be current and versatile in technology usage. Public health leveraging technology usage in service delivery has the potential to improve efficiency and bring it to the forefront in the provision of healthcare services. The purpose of this study was to assess public health workforce informatics competencies in select Atlanta health districts and determine the correlates of public health informatics proficiency.

Methods: A 10-item instrument adapted from the recommendations of a Working Group document by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 2015 Informatics Capacity and …

Physiological Response Of Elasmobrachs During Propofol Immersion, Matthew Levendosky

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Sensory experiments require anesthesia so the animal is immobilized, however fish anesthetics have shown to depress sensory responses. Newer anesthetics may offer similar anesthetic relief, but differ in means of action so sensory responses may be unaffected. Propofol has been used intravenously on small elasmobranchs but may provide prolonged effects if used as an immersion anesthetic. Objectives of this study were 1. Determine appropriate concentration of anesthetic to minimize induction and recovery for animals anesthetized at a surgical plane of anesthesia and 2. Measure physiological response of the pupil to light stimuli during anesthetic immersion. To address these objectives, I …

Scaling And Ecological Relationships In The Visual Ecology Of Sharks, Brianna Hall

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Adaptations of visual systems, such as acuity, sensitivity, and eye size can be used to infer the relative importance of vision to an organism. The high metabolic cost of visual system development and maintenance suggests that large relative eye size (as it relates to body length) may have a significant ecological or evolutionary role. Elasmobranchs are morphologically diverse and inhabit a wide range of marine and freshwater niches. As energetic and ecological demands shift over time, several species occupy different predatory niches across their lifetime, yielding a large array of visual habitats. Additionally, eye size changes with body length allometrically, …

Surfacant Contamination Alters Freshwater Phytoplankton Community Composition, William H. Hodge

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Pollution from cleaning and personal care products enter freshwater systems and have the potential to alter phytoplankton abundance and diversity. Alkyl polyglucoside (APG), a widely used foaming agent in detergents, decreases phytoplankton abundance, but whether sensitivity to APG is affected by taxonomic identity and/or the presence of competitors is unclear. Establishing taxon-specific responses to APG is important, because taxa differ in nutritional quality and palatability for zooplankton grazers.

Chapter one describes comparisons between how individual phytoplankton communities respond to the same range of APG concentrations to test hypotheses that: 1) chemical concentration determines how individual taxa respond to APG; 2) …

Are Eco-Friendly Cars More Favorable? An Exploratory Study Of Attitude Toward Eco-Friendliness Among Multiethnic Consumers In The U.S., Meng Tian, Sindy Chapa, Michael Walsh, Nicholas Kjaerholt, Ailin Xia

AMTP Proceedings 2020

Between technological developments in the car industry and increasing interest in eco friendly products among consumers, eco-friendly cars are gradually entering consumers' sights. This study examines the factors that influence consumers’ attitudes toward the adoption of eco-friendly cars. This study conducted an online survey with a sample (N = 3,191) collected through a national panel (Dynata). The results demonstrate that consumers’ concern about environmental sustainability and attitude towards environmentally friendly products impact consumers’ attitudes toward eco-friendly cars. It was also found that consumer’s level of collectivism positively influence their attitude toward environmentally friendly products. Further, the results showed consumers’ attitudes …

Smoking And Covid-19, Willie P. Rajvong, Yelena Tarasenko

Eagles Talking About the Public’s Health

No abstract provided.

Plasticity And The Impact Of Increasing Temperature On A Tropical Ectotherm, Adam A. Rosso

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Organisms may respond to climate change through behavior, genetic adaptation, and/or phenotypic plasticity. Tropical ectotherms are thought to be especially vulnerable to climate change because most have a narrow range of thermal tolerance while living close to their upper thermal tolerance limits. Additionally, many tropical species live in closed-canopy forests, which provide homogenous thermal landscapes that prevent behavioral compensation for stressfully warm temperatures. Finally, tropical ectotherms are thought to have decreased capacity for phenotypic plasticity because they have evolved in thermally stable environments. We tested gene expression patterns and phenotypic plasticity in the Panamanian slender anole by a) measuring changes …

Instructor Activity Recognition Using Smartwatch And Smartphone Sensors, Zayed Uddin Chowdhury

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

During a classroom session, an instructor performs several activities, such as writing on the board, speaking to the students, gestures to explain a concept. A record of the time spent in each of these activities could be valuable information for the instructors to virtually observe their own style of instruction. It can help in identifying activities that engage the students more, thereby enhancing teaching effectiveness and efficiency. In this work, we present a preliminary study on profiling multiple activities of an instructor in the classroom using smartwatch and smartphone sensor data. We use 2 benchmark datasets to test out the …

Standardized Knowledge And Behavior Of Food-Protection Staff To Help Reduce The Potential For Incidences Of Foodborne Illness, Joshua A. Dufresne

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Background: Environmental public health has always been at the forefront of issues that affect the health and wellbeing of the general public when it comes to food safety. However, with the workforce moving from one of technological laggards toward faster progress toward new and improved systems in performing food service, the question becomes: What are the needs of the environmental health and food safety workforce, and how does one get there? Logically, another question follows: are our current training programs helping to make a difference in the number of foodborne-illness risk-factor violations being issued?

Purpose: This study was to …

Reduced Dataset Neural Network Model For Manuscript Character Recognition, Mohammad Anwarul Islam

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The automatic character recognition task has been of practical interest for a long time. Nowadays, there are well-established technologies and software to perform character recognition accurately from scanned documents. Although handwritten character recognition from the manuscript image is challenging, the advancement of modern machine learning techniques makes it astonishingly manageable. The problem of accurately recognizing handwritten character remains of high practical interest since a large number of manuscripts are currently not digitized, and hence inaccessible to the public. We create our repository of the datasets by cropping each letter image manually from the manuscript images. The availability of datasets is …

Perceptions Of Physical Activity Engagement Among African American Emerging Adults At Georgia Southern University - Statesboro Campus, Addison Mickens

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Physical Activity (PA) is critical to the health and well-being of African American emerging adults, ages 18-25. Research suggests that African American (AA) college students engage in less PA than other racial/ethnic groups. Few studies have examined the relationship between the collegiate built environment (CBE) impact on PA in this population. The Social Ecological Model (SEM) and the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) were used to show how the environment facilitates influence on the behavior through physical and social factors affecting the behavior of engaging in PA. Methods: The purpose of this cross-sectional, concurrent multi-method study was to determine barriers …

2020 Fall Commencement, Georgia Southern University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

The Combined Effects Of Chemicals Used In Textile Processing On Plankton Communities., Diana Wilson

Honors College Theses

Industrial discharge, such as textile effluent, is a major source of chemical mixtures to surface waters. The effects of these mixtures on interacting aquatic organisms can be difficult to predict. We hypothesized that individual chemical effects on phytoplankton and a zooplankton grazer are altered by the presence of other chemicals in mixtures. Microcosms containing a phytoplankton food source (Chlorella sp.) and a zooplankton grazer (Daphnia magna) were exposed to THPC, ammonium, and hydrogen peroxide in a fully crossed design in a greenhouse for one week. Phytoplankton abundance was quantified and zooplankton response was measured as mortality and …

Comparing Water Quality For Aquaponics Systems With Different Solids Removal Methods And Biofilter Media, And Effluent Output To Grow Beds, John W. Cutt, Heather M. Joesting, Brigette A. Brinton

Honors College Theses

Aquaponics is a closed-loop, sustainable method of food production that combines fish and plant production. This method of agriculture has the potential to bring fresh, local food to food-insecure areas, but challenges remain due to high operating costs. In order to develop a strong aquaponics industry, the creation of the most efficient system designs will be critical in optimizing production. This study’s purpose was to compare water quality between two aquaponics system designs that differ in filtration and solid removal methods. System 1 used a sock filter for solid removal and Kaldnes media for biofiltration while System 2 used a …

Imagined Communities: The Individual And The Nation In Aw's Map Of The Invisible World And Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Yu Chia Chang

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the relationship between the individual and the nation in Tash Aw’s Map of the Invisible Worldand Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. Incorporated Benedict Anderson’s theory of “imagined communities” into the reading of both of the novels, this thesis discusses the limitation of nationalism and the imagination of individuals, aiming to show that it is the diversity of a nation that turns the stagnant imagined communities into fluid imagining communities.

Dare We Speak Of It: The Teaching Of Evolution In Private Schools Of An Urban Middle Georgia Setting, Eric J. Thompson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, experience, and thinking of teachers at three private schools in Middle Georgia to determine how different private schools approach the teaching of evolution. For this project three private schools were included representing a secular, non-religiously affiliated private school, a Catholic affiliated private school, and an independent, Christian private school. The research was designed to answer one research question and three sub-questions. The primary research question was: How do private schools of the Middle Georgia area teach the theory of evolution? The three sub-questions were (2) Does the type of …

Nitroxide Human Serum Albumin Incorporated Nanoflowers With Dual Enzyme-Like Activities, Can Cai

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this work, nitroxide 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperdine 1-oxyl (Tempo), human serum albumin (HSA), CuSO₄ and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were used to synthesis the hybrid nanoflowers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used for characterization of the nanoflowers.The SEM spectra illustrated the morphologies of the hybrid nanoflowers. The FTIR spectra corroborated the presence of PNA in the hybrid nanoflowers, while the EPR spectra confirmed the intermolecular interaction of nitroxides bound to the human serum albumin incorporated into the nanoflowers. The catalase mimetic activity and corresponding kinetic parameters of nanoflowers were determined using the …

The Effects Of Boring Sponge Infestation On Condition, Growth, And Sex Change In Crepidula Fornicata, Nicole L. Kleinas

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Atlantic slipper limpet, Crepidula fornicata, is a sequential hermaphrodite whose size at sex-change is plastic with respect to social and population cues. As an organism allocates energy between growth, reproduction and maintenance, an increased cost of one process may affect another. In this paper, I evaluate whether the presence of an epibiotic sponge (Cliona celata) affects the growth, condition and sex-change of C. fornicata individuals. Population surveys demonstrate a variable effect of Cliona presence on C. fornicata condition. The results of a twelve-week in situ experiment demonstrated a decrease in growth when C. celata was present. …

Optimizing Anti-Icing Operation For Winter Roadway Treatment Using A Decision-Making Tool, Jyoti B. Das

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Managing winter roadway treatment can be a challenge where winter is not severe, but snowfall is experienced a few times a year. Winter weather makes the road dangerous and challenging to travel. Most US states have approached and implemented different winter road maintenance practices to make transportation of goods, services, and people uninterrupted. However, the state of Georgia has always struggled to deal with winter weather. Recently, there has been some progress. The Georgia Department of Transportation prepared a winter road treatment plan in 2019, and they are still working on improving it. Increasing emphasis on pre-treating the road rather …

Analysis On Sharp And Smooth Interface, Elizabeth V. Hawkins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In biology, minimizing a free energy functional gives an equilibrium shape that is the most stable in nature. The formulation of these functionals can vary in many ways, in particular they can have either a smooth or sharp interface. Minimizing a functional can be done through variational calculus or can be proved to exist using various analysis techniques. The functionals investigated here have a smooth and sharp interface and are analyzed using analysis and variational calculus respectively. From the former we find the condition for extremum and its second variation. The second variation is commonly used to analyze stability of …

The Impact Of A Division I Volleyball Season On Jumping Performance, Joshua R. Pascal

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Previous research has been conducted on different performance metrics in collegiate athletes in various sports, including volleyball. These metrics include strength, speed, power output, and jump height. However, little research has examined changes in seasonal jumping performance in volleyball athletes on a weekly basis. Purpose: To examine how Division I Volleyball jumping performance is affected by a competitive season. Methods: 11 female volleyball athletes from one NCAA Division I institution wore VERT sensors during practices for the entire 15-week competitive season. The athletes also completed countermovement Jump Mat testing on the first practice of the week, with the exception of …

A Numerical And Experimental Study On Effect Of Composition Of Ar-N2 Shielding Gas On The Weld Bead Profile And Its Prediction For Hot Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, Niraj Pudasaini

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Wire arc additive manufacturing is a process of making three-dimensional metal parts in a layer-by-layer approach using a feed wire and electric arc as a heat source. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is becoming more popular due to its ability to create complex 3D parts, less build time, high deposition rate, and significant cost savings. Out of the many parameters used in WAAM, one of the important parameters is shielding gas which plays a significant role in material quality, properties, and defects. In this study, a controlled amount of Argon (Ar) and Nitrogen (N₂) shielding gases are used …

Reflector Magazine, Georgia Southern University, Student Media

Reflector Magazine

• Kings to you: An inside look at a local band created by GS students
• Roadhouse: How a Texas native found a voice in Georgia's live music scene
• DJ Nino: An inside look at one of Statesboro's most well-known performers
• Club spotlight
• Southern limelight
• Underground exposure
• From fabric to fashion: The story of three GS fashion designers
• Student homelessness at Georgia Southern
• Not just nerves: Anxiety on campus
• Sweet dreams are made of this: Here's how to get a better night's rest
• Party safety
• Wiping out waste: Georgia Southern's fight for sustainability
• Semester in review
• Quiz: Which local Statesboro coffee shop …

Points Of Pride, Georgia Southern University

Points of Pride (2013-2023)

• Rankings
• Academics
• Athletics
• Facilities
• Outreach
• Research

Rearrangement Operations On Unrooted Phylogenetic Networks, Remie Janssen, Jonathan Klawitter

Theory & Applications of Graphs

Rearrangement operations transform a phylogenetic tree into another one and hence induce a metric on the space of phylogenetic trees. Popular operations for unrooted phylogenetic trees are NNI (nearest neighbour interchange), SPR (subtree prune and regraft), and TBR (tree bisection and reconnection). Recently, these operations have been extended to unrooted phylogenetic networks, which are generalisations of phylogenetic trees that can model reticulated evolutionary relationships. Here, we study global and local properties of spaces of phylogenetic networks under these three operations. In particular, we prove connectedness and asymptotic bounds on the diameters of spaces of different classes of phylogenetic networks, including …