Digital Commons Network^™

Examining Low-Income Caregivers' Knowledge And Comprehension Of The Dental Caries Process, Melissa Sullivan, Denise C. Mckinney, Deanne Shuman, Qi Zhang

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose Dental caries among young children remains a public health concern in the United States (US). Children of caregivers with low oral health literacy (OHL) tend to have greater unmet dental needs and poorer oral health status. The purpose of this study was to examine the understanding of pediatric dental terms associated with the dental caries process among low-income caregivers.

Methods This study included 14 caregivers with children enrolled in a Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) in the Southeastern US. Through structured phone interviews, the validated Oral Health Literacy Inventory for Parents (OH-LIP) was used …

A Qualitative Analysis Of College Students' Interest In Mhealth Solutions, Leslie Hoglund, Craig M. Becker, Cara Tonn

Health Behavior, Policy & Management Faculty Publications

This study explores college students' perceptions of an AI-driven mHealth application designed to promote well-being. With rising mental health challenges in academic settings, students increasingly seek digital tools that provide holistic support for physical, mental, and financial health. Through focus groups, this qualitative study examines students' preferences for personalized health tracking, educational content, and flexible reminders within a private, supportive community. Key findings emphasize students' desire for a balanced, all-in-one app that integrates health and wellness tools without overwhelming them with notifications. Students also highlighted the importance of social media integration for outreach, though concerns were raised about potential stress …

In Search Of The Rational Voter In The 2020 Presidential Election: Understanding The Impact Of Voter Costs And Benefits On Turnout, Norou Diawara, Tiffany Henley, Samuel L. Brown, Md Iqbal Hossain

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

The ability to vote is one of the most valuable rights and privileges afforded by the Constitution of the United States to its citizens. For many, voting is not just a civic duty; it is also a choice. Voting is crucial to our democracy, and any changes to it may affect the efficiency of the democratic process. The bigger question is whether voters behave rationally by engaging in a cost-benefit calculus in deciding whether or not to vote. Using data science, this paper will examine the probability of voting and investigate its impact via cost and benefit among other variables …

The Motives For Mergers And Acquisitions And Their Implications For Research And Practice, Kris Irwin, Craig Armstrong, Paul Drnevich, Mario Schijven

Management Faculty Publications

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have long intrigued scholars given their size, complexity, and frequent failure. Despite an extensive body of research on M&A, a key limitation in M&A research is the lack of focus on the motives underpinning acquisitions, which may explain frequent mixed and inconclusive results. Much of the existing literature struggles to fully capture the complex and multifaceted nature of these motives, limiting the ability to draw consistent conclusions. In this paper, we review academic and practical perspectives on M&A motives, highlighting both discrepancies and methodological challenges. Our key contributions include a comparison of theoretical and practical insights, …

Representative National Survey On Drug Use During The Covid-19 Stay-At-Home Order In The Usa, Soo-Hoon Lee, Bernadette Cullen, Alidon Athey, Calliope Holingue, Michelle R. Kaufman, Paul Nestadt, Jack Samuels, Tracy Vannorsdall, Phillip Phan

Management Faculty Publications

Objectives This study explores the drug use behaviour in the US general population in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the relationship between sociopsychological factors, mobility restrictions from March to June 2020 and mental health conditions.

Design A retrospective anonymous online survey representing a cross-section of the US population in 2020.

Setting A qualified panel of 500 000 Qualtrics participants stratified by gender, race, age and geographical region to represent the US population.

Participants 3340 participants voluntarily consented to respond.

Measures Outcome measure for illicit and non-medical use of prescription drugs based on the National …

Alert During What? Beyond The "Big O" To A Culturally-Cognizant, Process View Of Entrepreneurial Alertness, Robert J. Pidduck, Daniel R. Clark

Management Faculty Publications

Entrepreneurial alertness is a psychological aptitude generally associated with aspects of nascent venturing, centered on individuals' environmental observations, the association of resources, and idea evaluation. A decade following the Tang et al. (2012) consensus construct and scale, critiques remain questioning its utility and unique value to the major conversations in entrepreneurship. Proponents put great emphasis on entrepreneurial alertness's proven association with opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial actions. Yet, critics suggest it might be an unnecessary step offering little more than a positive association with opportunity recognition in a highly generalized and static way. The purpose of this paper is to address …

A Different Risk-Return Relationship, Aydin Selim Oksoy, Matthew R. Farrell, Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

We challenge the widely accepted premise that the valuation of an early-stage firm is simply the capital invested (USD) divided by the equity received (%). Instead, we argue that this calculation determines the break-even point for the investor; for example, investing USD 1.0 in exchange for a 10% equity sets a firm-level free cash flow target of USD 10.0, resulting in a 0% return for the investor. The design of our study is that of a descriptive analysis of the phenomenon, based on three assumptions: that angel investing is a two-issue negotiation, that negotiation positions are communicated sequentially from capital …

Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation: Scale Development And Validation, Daniel R. Clark, Jeffrey G. Covin, Robert J. Pidduck

Management Faculty Publications

Recent research introduced and laid the foundation for a new individual-level entrepreneurial orientation conceptualization (Ind.EO) within the entrepreneurial orientation family of constructs. Building directly from this work, this article theoretically defines a measurement model for the construct and develops and validates a scale. We define and measure disposition-based behavior constructs for autonomy, competitiveness, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking, thus providing psychometrically validated tools that support research in the burgeoning Ind.EO domain. Scale items are generated deductively from our definitions, and then tested through four data collections with academics, the lay population, entrepreneurs, and business managers. Strong validation data across these multiple …

Anime And Luxury Fashion: Studio Ghibli And Loewe's Unorthodox Brand Merchandizing, Theodore Gournelos, David Marutschke

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

While they might seem counterintuitive to traditional concepts of “luxury,” collaborations between luxury and anime brands are a growing pattern reflecting the growth of both industries for key demographics. This paper argues that luxury brands use these collaborations to establish brand relevance and cultural connection while also positioning themselves advantageously against other brands in an increasingly social and online environment. Through a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of Instagram posts and user comments from Studio Ghibli and the Spanish luxury brand Loewe regarding their three product collaborations, we argue that there is a significant amount of room for differentiation in …

Problem-Centered Post-Secondary Computer Science Education: A Study Of The Private Artificial Intelligence Curriculum, Golnoush Haddadian, Prajwal Panzade, Daniel Takabi, Min Kyu Kim

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

In response to the demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts, this study introduced a curriculum development initiative. The aim was to design and implement a Private AI curriculum to understand the computer science (CS) students’ evaluations of the curricular activities and their levels of interest and motivation. Twenty-five students, a mix of undergraduates and graduates, were recruited and a scaled-down version of the curriculum was implemented. A parallel mixed-methods approach was employed. The results reinforced the significance of problem-centered curricula in CS context. Students rated the curricular activities highly and demonstrated strong motivation; however, graduates expressed more favorable view of …

Human Perception Of Ai Capabilities At Classifying Perturbed Roadway Signs, Katherine R. Garcia, Jing Chen, Yanru Xiao, Scott Mishler, Cong Wang, Bin Hu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is crucial to numerous functions required for driving automation systems, including the computer vision techniques used to detect the roadway environment and make real-time decisions. However, the images used as inputs to the AI system may be maliciously perturbed, or manipulated, causing the AI system to make an incorrect classification. In this study, we examined humans’ perception of the AI’s computer vision capability of classifying various road sign images, including the original images, images with two different types of malicious attacks, and images that are scrambled randomly at the pixel level. Our results showed that participants rated …

A Real-Time Approach To Capture Ambient And Focal Attention In Visual Search, Gavindya Jayawardena, Yasith Jayawardana, Yasasi Abeysinghe, Bhanuka Mahanama, Sampath Jayarathna, Jacek Gwizdka

Computer Science Faculty Publications

During visual search, individuals’ attention shifts between ambient and focal states in response to task demands and stimuli. The ambient/focal coefficient K is a statistically validated measure of these states, computed offline from fixation duration and saccade amplitude data. While current methods compute K offline, real-time computation could enable applications such as monitoring user attention, creating attention-adaptive user interfaces, and optimizing graphics rendering. However, real-time computation of K requires stable estimates for the parameters of fixation duration and saccade amplitude distributions. Since these distributions are heavy-tailed, the real-time estimates exhibit high variance and slow convergence. To overcome this, we propose …

Multi-Modal Mri Based Segmentation Of Brain Metastases Using Adaptive Self-Attention, Evan Savaria

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Brain metastases (BMs) are the most common adult central nervous system malignancy, affecting 20–40% of cancer patients. Accurate segmentation of metastatic lesions in multi-modal MRI is essential for treatment planning and prognosis however, manual delineation is time consuming and prone to variability. Traditional deep learning models such as U-Net, have improved segmentation accuracy but capture limited long-range dependencies and struggle with variations in metastasis size, shape, and distribution. This study introduces the Adaptive Integrated Multi-modal Segmentation (AIMS) model, an adaptive self-attention framework within a hybrid U-Net and Transformer architecture to enhance BM segmentation by leveraging multi-modal MRI integration. The proposed …

Quickque: Enabling Quick Access To Information In User Reviews For Screen Reader Users, Mohan Sunkara, Akshay Kolgar Nayak, Sandeep Kalari, Yash Prakash, Sampath Jayarathna, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Efficiently perusing online customer reviews is presently challenging for blind users, who rely on a screen reader that supports predominantly one-dimensional narration of content via keyboard shortcuts. To address this, with restaurant reviews as seminal case study, we developed QuickCue, a browser extension prototype that enables screen reader users to quickly obtain the positives and negatives regarding different aspects of a restaurant (e.g., food quality, hygiene, ambiance), without having to sift through numerous reviews containing redundant information. At its core, QuickCue utilizes a large language model to perform aspect and sentiment-based joint classification of reviews to group them based on …

Adapting Online Customer Reviews For Blind Users: A Case Study Of Restaurant Reviews, Mohan Sunkara, Akshay Kolgar Nayak, Sandeep Kalari, Yash Prakash, Sampath Jayarathna, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Online reviews have become an integral aspect of consumer decision-making on e-commerce websites, especially in the restaurant industry. Unlike sighted users who can visually skim through the reviews, perusing reviews remains challenging for blind users, who rely on screen reader assistive technology that supports predominantly one-dimensional narration of content via keyboard shortcuts. In an interview study, we uncovered numerous pain points of blind screen reader users with online restaurant reviews, notably, the listening fatigue and frustration after going through only the first few reviews. To address these issues, we developed QuickCue assistive tool that performs aspect-focused sentiment-driven summarization to reorganize …

Characterizing Language Use In Online Accessibility Discussion Forums, Nithiya Venkatraman, Anand Ravi Aiyer, Yash Prakash, Sampath Jayarathna, Hae-Na Lee, Vikas Ashok

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Discussion forums are one of the favored platforms for knowledge sharing. Given their popularity, copious research exists on understanding the linguistic and behavioral characteristics of forum conversations, so as to inform the design of many downstream applications including discourse visualization, sentiment analysis, and question answering. However, prior investigations have mainly focused on general forums designed primarily for sighted users, and as such the applicability of their findings to dedicated accessibility discussion forums frequented by blind screen reader users remains unanswered. To bridge this knowledge gap and facilitate the development of better-informed assistive technologies for blind people, we investigated language use …

Contextual Memory Recall: A Novel Metric For Class Incremental Learning, Balasubramanian S, Sai Subramaniam M., Sai Sriram Talasu, Yedu Krishna P., Pranav Phanindra Sai M., Darshan Gera, Ravi Mukkamala

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We propose a novel metric for class incremental learning (CIL) called Contextual Memory Recall (CMR), which evaluates how well a CIL model recalls previously learned classes when given relevant past cues. Inspired by human memory, CMR offers newer insights into continual aspects of a CIL model that were not addressed by previously proposed metrics for CIL. Specifically, the standard metric, average incremental accuracy (AIA), overlooks the quality of evolving feature representations, whereas our proposed CMR accounts for it. As a result, methods using feature distillation perform well under AIA but poorly under CMR, while those without feature distillation excel under …

Analyzing Visual Attention In Virtual Crime Scene Investigations Using Eye-Tracking And Vr: Insights For Cognitive Modeling, Wen-Chao Yang, Chih-Hung Shih, Jiajun Jiang, Sergio Pallas Enguita, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Understanding human perceptual strategies in high-stakes environments, such as crime scene investigations, is essential for developing cognitive models that reflect expert decision-making. This study presents an immersive experimental framework that utilizes virtual reality (VR) and eye-tracking technologies to capture and analyze visual attention during simulated forensic tasks. A 360° panoramic crime scene, constructed using the Nikon KeyMission 360 camera, was integrated into a VR system with HTC Vive and Tobii Pro eye-tracking components. A total of 46 undergraduate students aged 19 to 24–23, from the National University of Singapore in Singapore and 23 from the Central Police University in Taiwan—participated …

"Shocking The System" In The 21st Century: Conservative Policy Entrepreneurs And The Plan For Authoritarianism In The U.S., Athena M. King

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The first few days of the second Trump presidency saw a flurry of executive orders targeting immigrants, the transgender community, blacks, and federal government employees. The resulting “shocks” to the system are unprecedented, causing many to question the continuation of American democracy. These actions are a few of many policy preferences developed by conservatives and captured in “Project 2025”, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and with the overall intent of restructuring the federal government to suit authoritarian aims. Using a theoretical framework regarding policy entrepreneurs (PEs), I argue that conservative PEs (CPEs), under the aegis of the Republican Party and …

Securitization Of African Migrants In Europe And North America, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The securitization of African migrants in Europe and North America refers to the framing of immigrants as an existential security threat rather than a socioeconomic or humanitarian concerns. This discourse driven by political rhetoric, media narratives, and policy measures, often depict African migrants as risks to national security, cultural identity, and economic stability. Governments in host countries employ stringent border controls, detention and deportation policies often justified by counterterrorism and crime prevention frameworks. However, critics argue that securitization exacerbates xenophobia, violates human rights, and fails to address root causes of migration, such as conflict, poverty, and climate change. This paper …

Nuclear Disarmament And The Erosion Of Deterrence Effectiveness Case Study: Ukraine, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The invasion of Ukraine demonstrates an interesting security paradox between nuclear disarmament norms, territorial integrity and deterrence in a self-help unpredictable international environment. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons under the Budapest Memorandum in order to receive security guarantees resulting in brutal betrayal by nuclear armed Russia. The research investigates how Russia maintains an effective nuclear deterrence capability against other nuclear powers in the region through threats despite challenges on the battlefield. Through the combination of military resistance, strategic partnerships and robust combat methods, Ukraine has established an unmatched ability to deter a nuclear-armed enemy - Russia. This research ponders …

Manifesting A Shift In The "Overton Window": The Threat Of Project 2025 On The Lgbtq+ Community In Higher Education, Athena M. King, Sara Sanatkar

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Since the first Trump administration, historically marginalized groups in the United States have been subjected to greater instances of bigotry and discrimination due to conservative influence on sociopolitical institutions. These actions suggest a shift in the "Overton Window," whereby policy preferences previously deemed "unacceptable" are given consideration in the mainstream, especially by conservative policy actors. "Project 2025" is a comprehensive plan to restructure the federal government according to conservative dictates in the second Trump administration. This article is an examination of how higher education may be impacted by this plan, especially as it relates to LGBTQ+ faculty, administration, staff, and …

An Overview Of Video Game Biometrics Collection And Considerations For Cyberbiosecurity, Lucas Potter, Christen Westberry, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Over the past fifty years, the global cost of consumer electronics has significantly decreased, leading to greater accessibility to both biosensing systems and interactive entertainment platforms. This increased access has naturally resulted in higher usage of medical and entertainment electronics. However, the intersection of these technologies, combined with invasive data harvesting practices, has raised concerns about the potential misuse of biological signals to manipulate individuals' behavior both within and beyond the video game environment. Currently, biometric data in video games are employed in various ways, such as using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as a performance metric and integrating eye tracking …

A Customized Large Single-Piece Bifrontal Implant For Post-Craniectomy Defect Reconstruction: A Case Study, Omid Ghaderzadeh, Ehsan Amirbeyk, Seyed Roholah Ghodsi, Zahra Namazi, Lobat Tayebi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Large bifrontal defects pose unique reconstruction challenges due to their complex curvature and mechanical requirements. This case demonstrated how computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) enabled precise single-piece polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) implant fabrication, thereby overcoming traditional limitations. Case presentation: A 25-year-old male who had undergone bifrontal decompressive craniectomy suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. The autologous bone flap had been temporarily stored in a subcutaneous fat area of the abdomen for 3 months to preserve its viability. A secondary cranioplasty was then performed using titanium miniplates and self-tapping screws for final fixation. After 2 years, the patient developed empyema and a brain …

Enhancing Risk And Crisis Communication With Computational Methods: A Systematic Literature Review, Madison H. Munro, Ross J. Gore, Christopher J. Lynch, Yvette D. Hastings, Ann Marie Reinhold

VMASC Publications

Recent developments in risk and crisis communication (RCC) research combine social science theory and data science tools to construct effective risk messages efficiently. However, current systematic literature reviews (SLRs) on RCC primarily focus on computationally assessing message efficacy as opposed to message efficiency. We conduct an SLR to highlight any current computational methods that improve message construction efficacy and efficiency. We found that most RCC research focuses on using theoretical frameworks and computational methods to analyze or classify message elements that improve efficacy. For improving message efficiency, computational and manual methods are only used in message classification. Specifying the computational …

From Cyclones To Cybersecurity: A Call For Convergence In Risk And Crisis Communications Research, Ann Marie Reinhold, Ross J. Gore, Barry Ezell, Clemente I. Izurieta, Elizabeth A. Shanahan

VMASC Publications

Effective risk and crisis communication can improve health and safety and reduce harmful effects of hazards and disasters. A robust body of literature investigates mechanisms for improving risk and crisis communication. While effective risk and crisis communication strategies are equally desired across different hazard types (e.g., natural hazards, cyber security), the extent to which risk and crisis communication experts utilize the “lessons learned” from scientific domains outside their own is suspect. Therefore, we hypothesized that risk and crisis communication research is siloed according to academic disciplines at the detriment to the advancement of the field of risk communications research writ …

Eeg Spectral Analysis Of Nighttime Sleep And Daytime Mslts And Neurocognitive Evaluations In Subjects With Co-Morbid Insomnia And Osa, Yuan Shi, Yuru Nie, Fengyi Hao, Xujun Feng, Ye Zhang, Larry D. Sanford, Rong Ren, Xiangdong Tang

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Chronic insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea commonly co-occur. Few studies have explored the neurophysiological and neurocognitive characteristics of COMISA, which could help guide improving treatment diagnostic tools and determining novel therapeutic targets. This study aims to explore the neurophysiological and neurocognitive characteristics of COMISA using electroencephalographic (EEG) spectral analysis and subjective and objective neurocognitive measurements.

Methods

Participants were from our community recruited OSA-insomnia-COMISA cohort with 206 included for our current analysis including 74 chronic insomniacs (CIs), 55 OSA patients and 77 COMISA patients. Standard polysomnography (PSG) and multiple sleep latency tests (MSLTs) were recorded and used to obtain relative …

Hiv Protein Tat Dysregulates Multiple Pathways In Human Ipscs- Derived Microglia, Liam Liyang Guo, Robert Jiang, Yan Cheng, Brooke Russell, Yan Y. Sanders, Ming-Lei Guo

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

In the era of combined antiretroviral therapy, around 50% of chronic HIV (+) individuals show varying degrees of memory and cognitive deficiency (NeuroHIV), a phenomenon of accelerated brain aging. HIV protein transactivator of transcription (TAT) has been well-accepted as a risk factor contributing to NeuroHIV through dysregulating microglia (Mg) functions. Previous studies have demonstrated that HIV-TAT can affect lipid metabolism, immune responses, autophagy, and senescence in rodent Mg. However, due to the significant species differences between rodent and human Mg (hMg), it is essential to take caution when interpreting the results obtained from rodent models into human conditions. For the …

Cardiac Timing Effects On Response Speed Are Modulated By Blood Pressure But Not Heart Rate Variability In Healthy Young Adults, Xiao Yang, Catalina Roldan, Michael Gazzanigo, Yasmine Nabulsi, Fang Fang

Research and Infrastructure Service Enterprise (RISE) Faculty Publications

Cardiac timing effects reflect the dynamic interplay between interoceptive and exteroceptive processes. Human information processing tends to be facilitated during cardiac diastole and inhibited during systole, reflecting autonomic regulation and the neuromodulation by baroreceptor afferents. Thus, blood pressure (BP) and vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) are potential modulators of those effects. Additionally, cognitive control appears to play a critical role in the processes. However, whether cardiac timing effects are influenced by those factors remains unclear. The present study aimed to clarify these relationships. Fifty-one healthy young adults completed three experimental sessions to assess BP, short-term HRV, and cardiac timing effects. …

Predicting Mental Health Disparities Using Machine Learning For African Americans In Southeastern Virginia, Ismail El Moudden, Michael C. Bittner, Matvey V. Karpov, Isaac O. Osunmakinde, Akosua Acheamponmaa, Breshell J. Nevels, Mamadou T. Mbaye, Tonya L. Fields, Karthiga Jordan, Messaoud Bahoura

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

This study examined mental health disparities among African Americans using AI and machine learning for outcome prediction. Analyzing data from African American adults (18–85) in Southeastern Virginia (2016–2020), we found Mood Affective Disorders were most prevalent (41.66%), followed by Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders. Females predominantly experienced mood disorders, with patient ages typically ranging from late thirties to mid-forties. Medicare coverage was notably high among schizophrenia patients, while emergency admissions and comorbidities significantly impacted total healthcare charges. Machine learning models, including gradient boosting, random forest, neural networks, logistic regression, and Naive Bayes, were validated through 100 repeated 5-fold cross-validations. …