Digital Commons Network^™

Chemical Free Edible Flowers, Elise Abbott

Scholars Week

Nature is equipped with all the right systems and services in order to be self sustaining. But in the global flower industry, growers are battling insect infestations like never before because of stricter import laws by the United States Department of Agriculture. In order to ensure the processing of their flowers, growers douse them in pesticides making them inedible and harmful to those who work with them. As edible flowers are making their way into the market on cakes and desserts, fresh salads, specialty spreads and much more it's imperative that they are grown in a sustainable and safe manner. …

Comparison Of Peat-Based Planting Media To Sustainably Produced Planting Medias: Watering And Other Considerations, Mary Grace Jackson

Scholars Week

Researchers are actively addressing the questions that haunts all agriculturalists: Will we be able to feed the projected population of 9.8 billion people in 2050? Newly developed soil mixes might be the key to solving this daunting question. Research is proving that this sustainable media is a way to add nutrients back into our existing soil.

Leap Of Faith: Megachurches And The Struggle To Create A Brand Experience That Sells, Carly Middleton

Scholars Week

As churches across the Commonwealth experience a decline in attendance, membership and giving, religious organizations are failing to connect with their audience and their organizational goals on social media. This exploratory content analysis evaluated the social media branding practices of Kentucky’s 20 megachurches and proposed areas of improvement.

A megachurch is defined as a Protestant Christian congregation with an average of 2,000 weekly attendees, including adults and children across all worship locations. Kentucky megachurches were selected for study as the state is ranked No. 25 in the nation for number of megachurches, making the state saliently situated to be a …

Advance Directives In Primary Care, Andrew T. Vincent

Scholars Week

Advanced Directives are one of the most important documents in the health care system. An advanced directive is a “living will” that describes medical ambitions for the patient’s end-of-life care. The idea of end of life can be stressful for patients, families and health care professionals, and advance directives guide these participants into making end-of-life decisions organized. A dilemma occurring in health care includes patients arriving to emergency departments and critical care areas without an advance directives. A policy was introduced to initiate AD conversation prophylactic to extreme injury or impending death.

The Efficacy Of Mechanical Compression Devices In Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Emma A. French

Scholars Week

This project examines the ability of mechanical compression devices, such as the popular LUCAS device, to produce the desired outcomes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) when compared to manual chest compression performed by a CPR certified individual. For the purpose of this project, desired outcomes include correct compression rate and depth according to American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines, return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in the patient, long term survival of patients who achieve ROSC, and prevention of serious physical damage related to chest compressions. Data from multiple research studies comparing outcomes of mechanical compression devices and manual chest compression was reviewed …

Exalted And Debased: Psychological/Sexual Conflict As Bildungsroman In Half Of A Yellow Sun, Anne Lance

Scholars Week

While many still view the Bildungsroman, novels of formation or coming of age stories, as the purview of stuffy formation novels like Dickens’ Great Expectations or Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, there is significant scholarship that suggests a recent revolution in the genre that centers women, people of color, and males in post-colonial or war-torn spaces.

My paper examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2006 novel Half of a Yellow Sun as an example of a Bildungsroman through the focalization of one of the main characters, Ugwu, as he endures two psychologically conflicting sexual experiences, one …

Why And When Witnessing Uncivil Behavior Leads Observers To Punish Frontline Employees And Leave The Firm, Ismail Karabas, Jeff Joireman, Shinhye Kim

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

The present studies examined observer responses to failed recoveries following a service failure in a restaurant setting. Study 1 demonstrated that, relative to a neutral response, a negative server response increased desire for revenge and negative firm attitudes, which reduce tipping and return intentions, but revealed no benefits of a positive server response. Study 2 highlighted the full buffering effect of management apology on firm-related outcomes (attitudes, return intentions) which did not extend to employee-related outcomes (desire for revenge, tipping). Study 2 also supported a structural model in which negative server responses generate perceived deontic injustice, which predicts desire for …

The Desegregation Of The Sturgis All-White High School - September 1956, Austin Valentine, Austin Valentine

Student Scholarship & Creative Works

On September 5^th of 1956, nine African American students tried to attend classes at the all-white Sturgis Kentucky High School. The event sparked mixed opinion among the townsfolk, many of whom showed up to protest the student’s enrollment. As a result a number of Kentucky State Police along with members of the Kentucky National Guard were dispatched to calm the crowd and to allow those students the right, granted by the United States Supreme Court, to obtain a quality education free from oppression and racial segregation.

2019-04-05, Board Of Regents, Murray State University

Board of Regents Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Identification Of Poverty Areas Through Satellite Imagery In Buraydah City In Al Qassim Region Of Saudi Arabia, Amal A. Alfawzan

Scholars Week

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Fertilizer On Snow Pea Plant Height, Alexis B. Burnett

Scholars Week

Management practices in gardens are often critical to the height of the plants grown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the differences in snow pea, Pisum sativum, height when grown with Organilock fertilizer compared to without fertilizer in Murray, Kentucky. The snow peas were grown in two separate 3 foot by 4 foot plots, one with the Organilock product and the other without fertilizer. The snow peas were planted at a 1 inch depth and 2 inches apart along a cattle panel in the middle of each plot. Plot A, no Organilock fertilizer, was planted exactly two weeks …

Soil Responses To Various Farming Systems In Western Kentucky, Samantha Peterson

Scholars Week

The interactions among the farming systems and the soil, water, biota, and atmosphere control the effects of cultivation on soil properties. Land conversion from forest or pasture ecosystems into crop fields altered soil properties due to the loss of soil organic matter (SOM) and the increase of soil compaction. However in Kentucky, the magnitude of the changes varied among the soil properties. Therefore, the objective of this research was to investigate the changes of selected soil properties include SOM, soil pH, and compaction under different crop fields such as corn-soybean-tobacco rotation (Field #1), continuous corn field (Field #2), hemp field …

Evaluating Opinions Of Kentucky’S Agri-Science Educators On Climate Change, Emily Cook

Scholars Week

Climate Change is the significant long term changes in the weather and temperatures on a large scale and is seen globally. Scientists have been studying the effects of Climate Change on the planet for decades; foreseeing problems of the future. Global Warming has been escalating over the past hundred years with the amount of Carbon Dioxide gases rising into to atmosphere at an alarming rate. Agri-Science Educators across Kentucky are teaching the topics of Climate Change and Global Warming and this research intends to find the truth and variances in their knowledge. Twenty educators from across the state of Kentucky …

Hour-Level Resolution On Consumption Pattern Of Substance Abuse, Jarrett Mauk, Rhiannon Huffines, Brittney Nelson, Tara Croft, Bikram Subedi

Scholars Week

Conventional survey-based approaches of determining the consumption statistics of drugs in communities are suffered from non-response biases, and typically underestimate the actual consumption. Time and cost-intensive conventional approaches, therefore, can’t be utilized to determine high-resolution temporal variability in drug consumption. In this study, the temporal trend of consumption of 10 illicit and 26 prescribed neuropsychiatric drugs was determined at hour-level resolution utilizing wastewater-based epidemiology. The hourly composite raw wastewater (every 10 minutes) samples were collected for three consecutive days in a typical week (total of 72 samples), analyzed for target drug residues using UPLC-MS/MS, and back-calculated the consumption rate of …

Uncertainties Treatment For Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Estimation Of The Consumption Of Illicit And Prescribed Neuropsychiatric Drugs In Two Urban Communities In Kentucky Using Ammonium Normalized Population And Monte Carlo Simulation, Rhinannon Huffines, Tara Croft, Manoj Pathak, Bikram Subedi

Scholars Week

The conventional estimation of the prevalence of substance use in a community based on self-reported surveys typically underestimates the actual consumption. Drug’s residues in raw wastewater collected from the centralized wastewater treatment plants were utilized – Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) – to determine the consumption rate of illicit and prescribed neuropsychiatric residues in two urban communities in eastern Kentucky and two rural communities in western Kentucky. The ammonical nitrogen content in raw wastewater samples was used to minimize the uncertainty associated with the population dynamicity. Uncertainties associated with the several WBE parameters to back-calculate the consumption rate of drugs such as …

Characteristics Of Soils Under Common Management Practices On Farms In Western Kentucky, River Dowell

Scholars Week

Characteristics of Soils under Common Management Practices

on Farms in Western Kentucky

River O. Dowell and Iin P. Handayani, Murray State University, Kentucky

ABSTRACT

Properly understanding the importance of soil properties and how they continuously change is a key to achieving sustainability in agriculture. This study was conducted to observe the changes of soil properties regarding common tillage systems in Kentucky. Undisturbed and disturbed soil samples were collected from Butler County, KY at depths of 0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15 cm from four sites representing the different management practices of conventional tillage, no-till, pasture, and woodlands. The samples were analyzed for …

Chlorophyll A And Primary Production Dynamics In Kentucky Lake: 2009-2018, Morgan Franklin

Scholars Week

Chlorophyll α (chl α) can be used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, while primary productivity (PP), the rate at which carbon is fixed into phytoplankton cells, is an indicator of how quickly carbon is turned over within the phytoplankton community. The purpose of this research was to examine the spatial distribution of chl α seasonally in Kentucky Lake and to examine the relationship between chl α and PP in two embayments of contrasting land use. The two sites analyzed are Ledbetter and Panther embayments. Data analysis showed that the chl α and PP were highly correlated; r=0.45 in Ledbetter …

Evaluating Soil Surface Properties In Two Contrasting Tillage Systems, Riley Mabe, Kaeden Mollett, Marcus Robertson

Scholars Week

Soil properties are affected by tillage practices. Tillage practices that provides an adequate growing environment for crops and maintains good soil structure is crucial. The objective of this study was to compare selected soil properties collected from no-till (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) systems in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Three undisturbed and three disturbed soil samples were taken from the topsoil at the depth of 0 to 7.5 cm. The samples were analyzed for bulk density (BD), water holding capacity (WHC), field capacity (FC), soil pH, soil organic matter (SOM), and compaction. Bulk density, WHC, and FC of the soil …

Delineation Of Ohio River Flood Zones In Ballard County Using Remote Sensing, Nathan Rister

Scholars Week

The purpose of this study was to use remote sensing to map flood zones in Ballard County as it correlates to the Ohio River flood gauges. This will help Wildlife managers to know which areas are most likely to be flooded by simply looking at river gauges and prevent them to having to check which areas are flooded in person. By using this technique wildlife managers will be able to save time and resources as well as better manage wildlife areas along the Ohio River.

Sustainability Of Organic Soil Amendments On Soil Fertility And Earthworms, Mackenzie Hoffman

Scholars Week

One of the growing concerns of farmers is soil fertility which is defined as the ability of soil to grow and support plant life by minerals and nutrients needed for the plants. Healthy soil leads to better yields which lead to more food produced. Traditionally, soil fertility has been maintained with the use of chemical fertilizers. This research looked at an alternative method of increasing soil fertility: the addition of a soil amendment. Chemical fertilizers can lead to an oversupply of nitrogen which can make the plants more susceptible to diseases and pests and can also reduce the colonization of …

Multilingual Nahuatl Children’S Literature: Giving Nahuatl A Voice In The Literary World, Tyler Covington

Scholars Week

No abstract provided.

The Piping Plover Problem: A Review Of Management Issues For A Threatened Shorebird, Andrew Lydeard, Gerry Harris

Scholars Week

Andrew Lydeard and Gerry Harris

The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) was federally listed in 1986. Since listing, Piping Plovers have been a focus of conservation and management efforts, particularly on their breeding grounds in the Northern Great Plains, Great Lakes, and northern Atlantic Coast. Despite management efforts that have resulted in range-wide population growth of the Piping Plover, growth in individual populations is often slow and reasons for this are poorly understood. A bias towards understanding drivers of declines on breeding sites compared to wintering and migratory stopover sites may be an underlying cause of this lack of …

Effects Of Sowing Methods On Plant Survival, Michaela Hathaway

Scholars Week

No abstract provided.

A Modern-Day Review Of The Fort Pillow Massacre - Act Of War Or Genocide, Austin Valentine, Austin Valentine

Student Scholarship & Creative Works

On April 13^th, 1864 Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Union held Fort Pillow in western Tennessee. The event would later be known as the Fort Pillow Massacre where a number of African American soldiers were killed while trying to surrender to Confederate forces.

Forrest was one who had not been a graduate of a military academy, nor had any military experience. He had simply been a Memphis slave trader turned Confederate sympathizer who enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army on June 14^th of 1861. However, he eventually financed and organized his own cavalry …

A Blended Approach To English Instruction, Kristie Ennis

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Searching for ways to effectively use technology in English classrooms as a doctoral student, classroom teacher, and ELA consultant led the author to a transformational co-teaching experience that not only made effective use of tech tools and redefined the “school” experience but also increased student ownership of learning in new ways and decreased teacher workload. This article shares how this planning can work.

Professional Practices Portfolio, Emily Glowicki

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My interest in multiplicity and repetition has influenced the investigation of movement and form in much of my work in sculpture. This idea of taking one simple form and growing it into a colony of many has interested me for many years, showing itself in much of my sculptural ceramic vessels and multimedia installation. This focus on multiplicity has inspired an investigation of light and shadow in relation to the various media I have worked in: paper, wood, found object, etc. and the environments these objects interact with.

Along with sculptural installation and ceramics, I have developed an interest in …

See Or Be Seen: Kait Steward, Kaitlyn Steward

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Vulnerability and uneasiness are the undercurrents of my work. Focusing in on the concepts of privacy, safety, and spatial awareness, I explore domestic settings with and without the figure.

My pieces question what it is to be alone, or if alone-ness is possible in the world I live in. As someone who deals with a great deal of anxiety but is also introverted, I find great comfort in solitude. However, the places I find solitude in force me into a position of loneliness, often causing my own detriment, and sending me into a spiral of questions of privacy and personal …

Invasive Flora, Sadie Burnash

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Flowers are a beautiful, ever changing part of nature. Historically, flowers have been symbols for beauty, love, and fertility. However, I choose to paint poisonous flowers to represent the fatal beauty of the things we are drawn to even when they are not good for us. Within my work, poisonous flowers symbolize negative thoughts and emotions I have about self-harm and being trapped.

Little moments in my life bring about anxious feelings. To both represent and to combat these feelings, I create images of domestic space relatable to the viewer, but fraught with tense energy from proliferating flowers and intense …

19_Nalley, Michael_Portfolio, Michael Nalley

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Michael Nalley

Through thought we can explore the meanings in life and the My prints focus on the suffering and escapism through the absurd hero’s journey, taking the thoughts and feelings of existential introspection and giving it physical form though screen print. They focus on snapshots of a life lived without pre-derived meaning in search of purpose through a narrative set that paints a life of filled with opulence and escapism from a dark and uncaring world. I look at the flawed nature of faith and how one deals with a world once witnessed to the absurde, how we as …

“What’S On The Test?”: The Impact Of Giving Students A Concept-List Study Guide, Patrick Cushen, Jana Michelle Hackathorn, Maria D. Vázquez Brown, Sean Rife, Amanda Watson Joyce, Eric D. Smith, Dr. Michael Bordieri, Phd, Paul W. Anderson, Marie E. Kalsson, Jordan Daniels

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Students frequently request concept-list study guides prior to exams, but the benefits of instructors providing such resources are unclear. Research on memory and comprehension has suggested that some challenges in learning are associated with benefits to performance. In the context of an introductory psychology course, a study was conducted to investigate the impact of providing a concept-list study guide on exam performance, as opposed to having students create a study guide. Additionally, student preferences for various types of study guides were examined. Results indicated that although students greatly prefer that the instructors provide a study guide (as opposed to making …