Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Motivations And Health Outcomes Of College-Aged Triathletes During Covid-19: A Mixed-Methods Study, Patrick Wilson, Eddie Hill, Justin Haegele, Xihe Zhu

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

A triathlon is a multi-sport event that consists of three simultaneous events: swimming, biking, and running. This sport has experienced significant growth in the past few decades, with colleges and universities now participating. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the motivations and perceived health benefits of college triathletes during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Means-Ends of Recreation Scale and the Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale (N = 29), as well as semi-structured interviews (N = 4). Results indicate no difference in motives or health outcomes between male and female survey respondents. The thematic analysis of open-ended interview questions highlighted lived …

An Insidious Interstice: Understanding Cognition And Language Behaviour Through The Eyes Of Juvenile Justice Professionals, Anne M. Perrotti, Allison T. Chappell, Tancy Vandecar-Burdin

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

Introduction

Despite evidence suggesting language and cognition deficits are prevalent for justice involved youth, little research explores how juvenile justice personnel experience language and cognition behaviours in the youth they serve.

Aims

This qualitative study explored how juvenile justice personnel understand language and cognition skills and deficits in justice involved youth.

Methods

Twenty-two U.S. juvenile justice professionals participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Questions focused on individual understanding of receptive language, expressive language, social communication, and cognition (i.e., problem-solving, predicting consequences and impulsiveness) in juveniles served. Using a phenomenological lens, transcripts were coded identifying themes and sub-themes of participant responses.

Results …

Integrating Self-Determination Theory And Continuous Glucose Monitoring: Promoting Youth Development Among Campers With Type 1 Diabetes, Eddie Hill, Bethany Arrington, Taylor Harvey, Alexis Barmoh, Rowan Williams, Laura Hill

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this cohort study was to evaluate participants’ general self-management and experiences of autonomy while attending diabetes camp using quantitative and qualitative data collection. Through a partnership, an outdoor diabetes camp was designed to assist youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in their management. The REACH Teen program conducted a week-long summer camp for youth with T1D. The study was designed through Outcome-Focused Programming grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to meet campers’ needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Campers participated in outdoor activities and diabetes education designed to increase healthy behaviors. Twenty-three campers completed a 24-item pre- and …

The Effects Of Physical Activity Timing And Adherence To Physical Activity Guidelines On Sleep In Children With Adhd, Xiao Liang, Mengping Zhao, Li Su, Justin A. Haegele, Richard H. Xu, Jingjing Li, Andy Choi-Yeung Tse, Shirley X. Li

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

Regular physical activity (PA) has been shown to benefit sleep. However, the effects of PA timing and adherence to the WHO's recommended 60-min moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) guideline on sleep are unclear, especially for children with ADHD who often experience sleep problems. This study examined whether timing of MVPA influenced objectively measured sleep, including sleep latency (SL), sleep efficiency (SE), total sleep time (TST), and wake after sleep onset (WASO), among children with ADHD. This cross-sectional study involved 253 children with ADHD (Mage = 8.60 ± 1.31 years, 81% boys). MVPA timing was categorized as more than 8 h before …

We-Making Through Technology: Social Cohesion And Virtual Adaptation In Community Arts Organizations For Artists With Idd During Covid-19 Pandemic, Yumi Shirai, Michelle Boulanger Thompson, Tamara Shetron

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

COVID-19 public health restrictions disrupted in-person arts participation, increasing risks of social isolation and reduced community access. Prior research shows that many people engaged in home-based arts and cultural activities during lockdown, supporting emotional regulation, a sense of belonging, and social connection; however, little is known about how these shifts affected community arts organizations that serve artists with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD), a population disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and longstanding inequities. We examined how community-based arts organizations adapted programming for artists with IDD during the COVID-19 pandemic, including barriers and unanticipated outcomes relevant to equitable access and participation …

A Narrative Review Of Bertolotti's Syndrome: Etiology, Classification, Diagnosis, And Treatment, Matyas Abel Tsegaye, Andrea Muffly

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Bertolotti's syndrome is a congenital condition characterized by chronic low back pain stemming from a lumbosacral transitional vertebra (LSTV). Because the condition is frequently overlooked, patients often face years of delayed diagnosis before the true source of their pain is identified. Furthermore, current information regarding the biological origins and clinical management of the condition remain scattered. To address this knowledge gap, this narrative review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Bertolotti’s syndrome by consolidating these disparate sources and suggesting new connections. We synthesize the latest understanding of this condition, ranging from its genetic origins to modern clinical management. We …

Acceptability, Usability, And Clinical Integration Of A Clinic-Based Digital Game For Hpv Education: Qualitative Perspectives From Adolescents, Parents, And Healthcare Providers, Elizabeth Reifsnider, Satya Subedi, Nouran Ghonaim, Megan Whaley, Angela Chia-Chen Chen

Ellmer School of Nursing Faculty Publications

Background/Objectives: HPV vaccination is safe, effective, and recommended at ages 11–12, yet uptake remains suboptimal. Serious video games may offer an innovative strategy to deliver brief, engaging education during clinic visits. This qualitative paper, embedded within a mixed-methods study, examined adolescents’, parents’, and healthcare providers’ (HCPs’) perceptions of the acceptability, usability, and perceived clinical applicability of HPV Detective, a tablet-based digital game designed to provide HPV-related education to parent–child dyads during pediatric clinic wait times. Methods: Eight adolescent–parent dyads (N = 16) and three HCPs from university-affiliated pediatric clinics participated in 30–60-min semi-structured Zoom interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and …

Grant-O-Thon: A Designathon-Informed Grant Writing Program To Enhance Research Grant Writing Skills In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Yusha Tao, Gifty Marley, Lauren Fidelak, Bin Yu, Yusuf Babatunde, Anita N. Walker, Anthony A. Attama, Andrea L. Conroy, Esther K. Afolabi, Dimitrios N. Vatakis, Iheanyi Omezuruike Okonko, Shyngle K. Balogun, Hongyun Fu, Xin Peng, Ijeoma M. Ifeorah, Patience Kukundakwe, Alexandra Cossio, Ifeoma M. Obionu, Ángela Patricia Beltrán López, Matthew Idowu Olatubi, Ucheoma C. Nwaozuru, Yuanyi Chen, Huachun Zou, Eneyi E. Kpokiri, Daniil Wu, Oliver Ezechi, Juliet Iwelunmor, Meredith Labarda, Jason J. Ong, Weiming Tang, Joseph D. Tucker

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Problem

Early career researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face substantial barriers when writing research grants and have limited writing support. A designathon approach was applied to organize a grant writing workshop (grant-o-thon) tailored for early-career LMIC researchers. This study describes the planning, implementation, and participant-reported outcomes of the grant-o-thon as a participatory training approach.

Approach

Grant-o-thons were organized in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Consistent with the designathon model, the grant-o-thon was structured in three stages: preparation using co-creation with end-users, intensive collaborative teamwork supported by mentor feedback and weekly writing deliverables, and structured follow-up. Each grant-o-thon consisted of …

Gender Differences In The Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences And Drug Use: Findings From A Community-Based Survey In China, Hongyun Fu, Elizabeth Monk-Turner, Xiushi Yang

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Background

While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are widely recognized risk factors for behavioral health problems, including drug use, prior research has largely been conducted in Western countries, focused primarily on males, and relied on convenience samples without comparison groups of nonusers. Limited work has examined the impact of ACEs on drug use in non-Western contexts. This study examines gender differences in the relationship between ACEs and drug use in China, using data from a population-based probability sample survey.

Methods:

Cross-sectional data were collected in 2019 from one city in Yunnan Province in Southwest China and one city in Guangdong Province …

The Interplay Between Loneliness, Cortisol, And Nk Cell Function: The Role Of Cortisol In Nk Cell Dysfunction, Abhinav Saurabh, Yvonne Baumer, Laurel G. Mendelsohn, Elizabeth M. Aquino Peterson, Dana Sadler, Shirley J. Lopez De Leon, Ayushi Dave, Andrew S. Baez, Lola R. Ortiz-Whittingham, Mario A. Pita, Manuel A. Cintron, Hannatu A. Tarfa, Sandy T. Reynolds, Shelby R. Hicks, Sonal Sharda, J. Eleanor Seo, Maria Lopez-Ocasio, Pradeep K. Dagur, Skyler A. Kuhn, Neelam R. Redekar, James F. Troendle, Ayanna L. Wells, Marie Marah, Katherine J. Tolentino, Michael J. Corley, Alika K. Maunakea, Lynnette K. Nieman, Marcus R. Andrews, Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

Chronic psychosocial stressors contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related risk factors, particularly in under-resourced communities. Psychosocial stressors activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to sustained cortisol action on immune cells. Natural killer (NK) cells are altered in distribution and function in cardio-metabolic diseases; however, pathways linking cortisol as a marker of chronic stress to NK cell dysfunction remain understudied. We recruited 186 African American women from the Step It Up Community-Engaged, Digital Health Physical Activity Intervention study and collected cortisol, NK cell measures, and psychosocial stress measures using validated questionnaires, including chronic stress and loneliness. Plasma cortisol levels were …

The Effects Of Abused Drugs On Ferroptosis Pathways: Potential Therapeutic Targets For Substance Use Disorders, Tamara Bouchard, Brooke Russell, Liam Liyang Guo, Tina Nguyen, Yan Cheng, Yan Y. Sanders, Ming-Lei Guo

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

Substance use disorders (SUDs) remain major public health concerns worldwide, particularly in developed countries. SUDs are characterized by persistent neuroinflammation and synaptic dysfunction in the brain. Despite decades of extensive investigation, the detailed mechanisms underlying SUDs remain elusive. Ferroptosis is a highly regulated cell death process deeply affected by iron metabolism, lipid peroxidation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and antioxidant systems. It has been implicated in multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and ischemic stroke. Recently, emerging evidence has highlighted the role of ferroptosis in drug-induced pathological changes. Various types of abused …

Technological Interventions For Reducing Climate Change Impacts On Health: An Overview Of Future Possibilities, Sujatha Alla, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Bawa Singh

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Globally, over five million deaths annually are attributed to extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, such as heatwaves, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and floods, which create health crises and economic losses. The 2015 Paris Declaration emphasized climate technology mechanisms, including research and development, to enhance resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biotechnological advancements have mitigated about 20% of economic losses since the 1960s, highlighting technology’s potential to address climate-induced health risks.

Seeing The Invisible Load: Xr+ Multimodal Sensing For Cognitive Ergonomics In Industrial Training, Jessica M. Johnson, Andwele Grant

Virginia Digital Maritime Center (VDMC) Faculty Publications

Extended reality (XR) technologies are increasingly positioned as disruptive Industry 5.0 tools for human-centric industrial training and intelligent human–system integration. Coupled with multimodal sensing (eye tracking, EEG, HRV, GSR, and other physiological signals), XR environments promise to make otherwise invisible cognitive demands observable, especially for novice trainees entering complex industrial settings. Yet the evidence base is fragmented: (1) there is no quantitative synthesis of the cognitive ergonomics benefits of XR plus sensing; (2) little is known about which XR–sensor configurations yield the strongest effects; (3) prior reviews rarely focus on industrial and manufacturing tasks; (4) multimodal signals are used predominantly …

Make It Maritime: A Simulation-Based Engineering Design Challenge Using Multimodal Technologies, Jessica M. Johnson, Jennifer Renne, Jason Dudley

Virginia Digital Maritime Center (VDMC) Faculty Publications

This paper presents The Incredible Bulk, a multimodal, simulation-based engineering challenge that introduces Grades 4–12 to maritime careers and digital transformation. Students assume the roles of different maritime careers to assemble aircraft carrier bulkhead systems using: VR for spatial orientation and task preview; a 3D model as visual work instruction; paper blueprints for part identification and dimensioning; 3D-printed components for hands-on assembly; and an AR app for quality assurance/inspection. Grounded in constructionism and cognitive apprenticeship, the plan–build–inspect loop externalizes thinking and situates coached, authentic practice that advances engineering design, systems thinking, and technological literacy.

Educators' Uses Of Social Capital In K-12 Book Challenges, Danielle E. Sachdeva, Sue C. Kimmel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In this case study, we apply understandings of social capital informed by Pierre Bourdieu and Nan Lin to analyze how seven educators used their capital to navigate book censorship incidents in K-12 public schools. Our findings indicate that participants often used social capital to meet expressive goals, such as seeking support from others, and less often to meet instrumental goals like advocating for policies and legislation in support of students’ intellectual freedom. These findings have implications for practitioners, school administrators, and university faculty, especially now as an unprecedented number of books is being challenged in public institutions throughout the U.S.

Instructional Designers' Reflections On Generative Ai Use For Scenario-Based And Performance-Centered Learning: A Collective Autoethnography, Nour El Houda Maache, Dan V. Dao, Jiyoon Jung, Jayanth Nadheri, Nari Kim, Chikezie Ozuzu, Xinyue Ren

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study examines how instructional designer-instructors (IDIs) use and evaluate generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) when designing scenario-based and performance-centered authentic learning in higher education. Using a collective autoethnography (CAE) approach, the study draws on semi-structured interviews and reflective narratives from five IDIs with varied professional experience. Findings indicate that GenAI enhanced design capacity by accelerating scenario development, translating complex content, and supporting scenario-based and performance-based task construction. At the same time, participants reported limitations related to contextual misalignment, output unreliability, and the cognitive demands of prompt refinement. Across cases, effective integration depended on sustained human oversight, disciplinary judgment, and ethical …

Chatgpt In Secondary English Language Learning: Educators' And Students' Literacy, Perceptions, And Experiences, Victoria Brenes, Sierra Outerbridge, Xinyue Ren

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has shown the potential of transforming teaching and learning practices in various educational settings, such as in English language learning (ELL). As English language learners (ELLs) often experience many challenges and barriers in schools in the United States, it is urgent to leverage the educational affordances of GenAI in fostering the effectiveness of ELL. Given the limited research investigating GenAI adoption, especially ChatGPT literacy within K-12 ELL, this convergent mixed methods research aims to investigate students' and teachers’ perceptions of using ChatGPT and their ChatGPT literacy in secondary ELL contexts. We will …

Peacock Competency Model For Online Library Instruction, Rebeca Peacock

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Academic librarians are an integral part of academia offering niche expertise that benefits faculty and students alike. But they often lack specific guidance on developing competencies for the online teaching that is increasingly expected of them. This article addresses the lack of field specific guidance for academic librarians' online teaching by proposing a competency model grounded in expert practice. The study used semi-structured interviews with 18 academic librarians to address this gap asking: what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed for academic librarians to be successful in providing effective online library instruction?

Participatory Approaches To Understanding Collaborative, Child-Initiated Play: Children's Agency, Social Negotiation, And Identity Construction On The Playground, Angela Eckhoff

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Children's play in schools is often tightly controlled, shaped by adult beliefs and concerns about safety and appropriateness. Play in school settings can reflect expected school norms and follow rules set by adults, but free play also allows for rough, risky, mischievous, and subversive actions. This research, guided by an affordance framework, examines spontaneous, child-initiated outdoor free play to understand how children navigate and reinterpret the boundaries of play. Using critical naturalistic inquiry and participatory methods, the study data includes children's videography that captures dynamic interactions and shifts in agency among peers, go along interviews that track boundary negotiations in …

Lgbtq People's Experiences With Crime, Victimization, And The Criminal Legal System, Vanessa R. Panfil

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The ebb and flow of social control efforts aimed at LGBTQ people necessitate a thorough investigation into their experiences. This review of the literature is organized around four key themes that characterize LGBTQ people's experiences with crime, criminalization, victimization, and the criminal legal system—including police, courts, and carceral facilities. LGBTQ people experience excessive rates of arrest and incarceration and have higher rates of victimization, which illustrate disproportionality. Their experiences differ from those of their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts and are conditioned by age, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, illustrating intersectionality. The two primary, interrelated mechanisms driving LGBTQ criminalization and …

[Review Of The Book The Prescription-To-Prison Pipeline: The Medicalization And Criminalization Of Pain, By M. Smirnova], Hayley Jackey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Smirnova’s The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline offers a critical examination of the impacts of prescription drugs as well as the over-policing and policies created to push individuals into the carceral system rather than providing other options for assistance. Smirnova further captures the social inequalities of race and class of those encased in this pipeline. Within this understanding of the detriment that the system, medical providers, and society place on those who use substances, Smirnova’s use of interviews allows for a clear understanding of how these systems work in conjunction to uphold the pipeline.

Effects Of Differential Stress And Mental Health On Substance Use Among College Students, Avdi S. Avdija, Arif Akgul

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Substance use among college students is often seen as a coping mechanism for some students who are prone to extreme stress, depression, or anxiety. Multiple forms of stress become the leading factors that push students toward substance use. This study tests the effects of college stressors, depression, and anxiety on substance use among college students. The results are based on the data that were collected using a 101-item questionnaire administered to 302 college students at a public university in the Midwest U.S.A. Using Logistic Regression as the primary data analysis technique, the findings of this study show that social stressors …

Understanding Homicide Dynamics: The Role Of Victim-Offender Relationships And The Event Circumstances Across Demographic Groups, Avdi S. Avdija, Christian W. Gallagher, Devere D. Woods Jr., Arif Akgul

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This study investigates how the victim-offender relationship relates to the circumstances under which homicides occur, with the main focus on variations within gender, race, and age categories. To achieve these research objectives, we analyzed over forty years of data from the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports (1976-2017), reported by the U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies. The findings that emerged in this study show that offenders are more likely to kill victims of the same gender when taking into account the victim-offender relationships. Furthermore, this study shows that black offenders are more likely to kill acquaintances and intimate partners whereas white offender demonstrated …

Impact Of Social Determinants Of Health On Perioperative And Interstage Outcomes In Congenital Heart Surgery A Systematic Review, Sara Sakowitz, Jennifer S. Nelson, Justin Robinson, Camilla S. Rossi, David M. Shahian, David T. Cooke, Jeffrey P. Jacobs, Shelby Aughtman, Megan Schultz, Meena Nathan, Claude Beaty, Michal Shafer, Deborah Kozik, Glenn J. Pelletier

Department Surgery Faculty Publications

Importance: Social determinants of health (SDoH)- conditions in which patients live, grow, and age, - are increasingly recognized to influence the health of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD).

Objective: To explore the impact of SDoH on short-term mortality and morbidity, interstage outcomes, and resource utilization, among patients following congenital heart surgery.

Evidence Review: A systematic review was completed according to PRISMA guidelines. Relevant studies evaluating the association of SDoH with surgical outcomes of pediatric and adult CHD patients were identified from five databases queried including PubMed, SCOPUS, CINAHL, PYSCINFO, and Cochrane between January 1999 and February 2024. Inclusion criteria …

Multimodal Machine Learning For Alzheimer's Disease Classification Using Adni Biomarker Fusion, Hesameddin Mostaghimi, Hamid R. Okhravi, Bahar Niknejad, Daniel A. Cohen, Michel A. Audette, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Despite ongoing advances, accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains challenging due to its multifactorial nature, comorbidities, and clinical heterogeneity. Accordingly, approaches that combine multimodal data may improve AD classification by integrating complementary information. To investigate this, we evaluated classification performance using a preprocessed ADNI-3 dataset comprising a shared set of clinical/cognitive features along with four imaging modality-based cohorts: trimodal (MRI + amyloid PET + tau PET), MRI + amyloid PET, MRI + tau PET, and MRI-only. We trained a range of supervised machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) classifiers using stratified five-fold cross-validation and evaluated performance using accuracy, …

Organized Sports-Based Interventions And Motor Outcomes In Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review, Kailash Ram, Maeren Hill, Caitlyn Stewart, Kaitlin P. Hardy Md, Sonia Khurana

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Aim

To evaluate the effectiveness of organized sports-based interventions on motor outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Method

Four databases were searched from inception to November 2025 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomized controlled trials (NRCTs) reporting motor outcomes of organized sports-based interventions in children with ASD. Risk of bias was evaluated using ROB-2 (Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, Version Two) for RCTs and ROBINS-I (Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies - of Interventions) for NRCTs.

Results

Eleven studies (six RCTs, five NRCTs) were included and categorized as martial arts (n = 5), aquatic training (n = …

The Psychiatric Burden Of Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Trinetx Analysis Of Sex-Specific Disparities In Mental Health And Medication Use, Emily Sheetz, Julia Feord, Collette Sholi, Parker Adams, Tamas Gal, Susan G. Kornstein, Arturo Saavedra

Department of Medicine Faculty Publications

Background:

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition associated with physical and psychological burden. Prior research has shown increased rates of depression and anxiety among individuals with HS; however, sex-based disparities in the prevalence of these mental health conditions in patients with HS remain underexplored.

Objective:

To evaluate sex-based differences in the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and the prescribing of antidepressants and anxiolytics among patients with HS.

Methods:

Using the TriNetX database, we identified patients over the age of 18 who had a recorded diagnosis of HS. Propensity score matching based on …

Criterion Validity Of The Functional Status And Pain Assessment Scale Versus Pain And Length Of Stay In Hospitalized Adults With Scd, Wally R. Smith, Daniel M. Sop, Yue May Zhang, Margaret S. Guy, Rehan Qayyum

Department of Medicine Faculty Publications

Objectives

In prior research we demonstrated face, construct, discriminant, and preliminary convergent validity of the newly developed, 10-item Functional Status Pain Assessment (FSPA) scale (0-50) in adult SCD patients hospitalized with VOC. We aimed in this study to further demonstrate criterion validity of the FSPA.

Methods

This was a prospective observational study of 561 daily functional and pain assessments from 91 hospitalized adults with SCD from January 2018 to June of 2019. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Partial Least Squares (PLS) models determined the relationship between LOS, pain intensity, and FSPA. A Generalized Linear Model (GLM) to quantified the impact of …

Startle Habituation And Vagally Mediated Heart Rate Variability Influence The Use Of Emotion Regulation Strategies, Xiao Yang, Fang Fang, Angela Ximena Babb

Psychology Faculty Publications

Emotion regulation refers to the processes through which people modulate their emotional experiences and expressions, and difficulties in these processes underpin many forms of psychopathology. According to the process model, emotion regulation encompasses five classes of strategies, commonly grouped into antecedent-focused strategies (e.g., cognitive reappraisal) and response-focused strategies (e.g., expressive suppression). These strategies involve both explicit and implicit processes, which can be objectively assessed using physiological indices. The present study examined the effects of startle habituation and vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) on the use of cognitive appraisal and suppression. Forty-nine college-aged participants were recruited, and their resting heart …

When Slides Replace Thinking: How Powerpoint Culture Undermines Conceptual Learning In Engineering Education, Shahin Nayyeri Amiri, Hamid Eisazadeh

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Engineering education has gradually shifted from deep conceptual teaching to a culture dominated by presentation slides. In many universities today, core courses such as Statics, Dynamics, and Mechanics of Materials are taught through PowerPoint files rather than through reasoning, derivation, and problem solving. While slide-based instruction may appear efficient, it encourages passive learning and has severely weakened students’ ability to think independently and make sound engineering judgments. Traditionally, these fundamental courses were taught by seasoned instructors who had mastered the subjects and took genuine pride in explaining complex ideas with clarity and passion. They guided students through the logic behind …