Digital Commons Network^™

Using Learning Styles Of Software Professionals To Improve Their Inspection Performance: An Empirical Study, Abhinav Singh

Computer Science

In the IT industry, good requirements specification plays a vital role in software projects success. Researches revealed that early detection of faults in a requirements document saves significant amount of rework. To achieve that, project managers employ inspectors to review and find faults in software requirement specification (SRS) document. Previous researches investigated that factors like educational background and work experience could impact the effectiveness of individual inspectors, with limited success. This research hypothesizes that Learning Style (LS) of individuals can be utilized to improve the performance of individual inspectors and inspection teams. The LS refers to the ways an individual …

Parallelization Of Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Using Hadoop Mapreduce, Priyanka Singh Ghosh

Computer Science

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has received attention in many research fields and real-world applications for solving optimization problems in the areas of intelligent transportation systems, wireless sensor networks, finance, and engineering. Factor that affects the performance of PSO is its ability of the exploration in a multi-dimensional search space, which can increase the execution time quite significantly. The parallel implementation of PSO is a way to address this. In this paper, we implement and compare the parallel implementation of PSO using two different parallelization techniques using MapReduce programming, 1) all nodes in the cluster work on the same population, and …

Effect Of Prompting Techniques And Learning Styles On Requirements Elicitation, Bonnie Lynn Jan

Computer Science

Research efforts on improving requirements elicitation are focused on developing and validating better techniques for eliciting a comprehensive set of requirements. However, there isn't enough empirical evidence available to requirements analysts on selecting elicitation techniques that are the most appropriate for all technical and non-technical stakeholders of a project. This thesis focuses on the use of prompting techniques, which employ techniques found to have greater effectiveness and have been improved for overcoming cognitive limitations. Motivated by previous research, an empirical investigation was conducted on the effectiveness of syntactic vs. task characteristics prompting techniques and the impact Learning Styles (a cognitive …

Analyses Of People’S Perceptions Toward Risks In Genetically Modified Organisms, Pranav Dass

Computer Science

This research aims to analyze people’s perceptions about the potential risks associated with the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products. We formulated research questions and hypotheses based on parameters, including age, gender, state of residence, and more to analyze these perceptions. We conducted an online nationwide survey across the United States and recruited participants from the general population to understand their perceptions about risks for GMOs and GM foods. We formulated a set of questions regarding the effects of GMOs on food products (including both the pre- and post-study questions) and investigated the changes in people’s perceptions …

Living Together In Student Accommodation: Performances, Boundaries And Homemaking, Mark Holton

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Recent discussions of the geographies of students have drawn attention to the trajectories of UK students electing to leave home for university. While such debates recognise these important mobilities, little has been discussed as to how students interact within their term‐time accommodation. Through a qualitative study of the living arrangements of UK students, this paper will demonstrate that much can be drawn from focusing on the micro‐geographies of non‐local students within their term‐time homes. Student accommodation is more than simply somewhere to live. Student homes are intensely dynamic places, perhaps more so than family homes as they contain multiple, disconnected …

Experience With Phlebotomy For People With Hepatitis C: A Systematic Review, F Fry, V Shawyer, R Endacott

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

Optimising Self-Care Support For People With Heart Failure And Their Caregivers: Development Of The Rehabilitation Enablement In Chronic Heart Failure (Reach-Hf) Intervention Using Intervention Mapping, Cj Greaves, J Wingham, C Deighan, P Doherty, J Elliott, W Armitage, M Clark, J Austin, C Abraham, J Frost, S Singh, K Jolly, K Paul, L Taylor, S Buckingham, R Davis, H Dalal, Rs Taylor

School of Nursing and Midwifery

No abstract provided.

Learning From Our Past: Catching Dreams, Rebekah Gurule

Architecture Theses

Youth Centers around America are dedicated to improve the health, safety and communication of the overall youth population. Throughout the United States of America, there are several organizations that focus on the youth. Youth Centers provide deliberate and intentional programs, academic, social and emotional support, family engagement, community resources, and safe and innovative spaces. Many communities lack this great asset. This thesis research provides cultural youth solutions for the local environment in Belcourt, North Dakota; Cultural Youth Learning Center. The Youth Center will purpose as an educational center, as well as a resource for the community. If a local youth …

Disengagement From Ideologically-Based And Violent Organizations: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Steven Windisch, Peter Simi, Gina Sott Ligon, Hillary Mcneel

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Research on disengagement from violent extremism is an emerging field of inquiry. As compared to the related field of radicalization, there have been fewer studies of disengagement. Further, little effort has been made to conduct a large scale, systematic review of what is currently known about disengagement from violent extremism. This type of meta-literature assessment can play an important role in terms of informing strategies and programs designed to facilitate exit. To help fill this gap, our project systematically examines the disengagement literature to determine the range and frequency of various exit factors identified in previous studies. We also rely …

Aspects Of Job Satisfaction In Female Millennial Generation Retail Employees, Victoria Wrae Frank

Apparel Design and Hospitality Management

Since young adult female employees represent a sizeable portion of the retail workplace, particularly in clothing, shoes and jewelry, this study focused on aspects of job satisfaction of female Millennial generation (born between 1980 and 2000) retail stores employees. In-depth qualitative interviews regarding the workers’ major values, concerns, and motivations were conducted during the Spring of 2016 in a Midwestern city in the United States of America. Participants indicated that camaraderie among coworkers and the team, and flexible scheduling practices were the most important values relating to job satisfaction. Work-life balance and maintaining a 40-hour work week or steady scheduled …

Pipes, Pools And Filters: How Collaboration Networks Affect Innovative Performance, Harpeet Singh, David Kryscynski, Xinxin Li, Ram Gopal

Faculty Publications

Innovation requires inventors to have both "new knowledge" and the ability to combine and configure knowledge (i.e. "combinatory knowledge") and such knowledge may flow through networks. We argue that both combinatory knowledge and new knowledge are accessed through collaboration networks, but that inventors' abilities to access such knowledge depends on its location in the network. Combinatory knowledge transfers from direct contacts, but not easily from indirect contacts. In contrast, new knowledge transfers from both direct and indirect contacts, but is far more likely to be new and useful when it comes from indirect contacts. Exploring knowledge flows in 69,476 patents …

The Effect Of Common Wrist Orthoses On The Stiffness Of Wrist Rotations, Daniel B. Seegmiller, Dennis L. Eggett, Steven K. Charles

Faculty Publications

Wrist orthoses (also known as splints, braces, or supports) are commonly used to support or restrict the motion of a weak or injured wrist. These orthoses generally function by stiffening the wrist joint. Therefore, choosing the proper orthosis (or improving orthoses) requires that we understand their stiffness properties. In this study, we present a method for measuring the stiffness of wrist orthoses, and we apply this method to 12 of the most common wrist orthoses. We found similarities and differences between these orthoses, indicating that different orthoses have different effects on the wrist joint and, presumably, on wrist behavior. In …

Listener Perceptions Of Simulated Fluent Speech In Nonfluent Aphasia, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Richard A. Faldowski

Faculty Publications

Background: People with aphasia (PWA) are frequently perceived less favorably by listeners than their peers. These perceptions include incorrect assumptions that can prevent successful social interactions. While communication partner training has been shown to improve social outcomes related to the listener (see e.g., Kagan, Black, Duchan, Simmons-Mackie, & Square, 2001), changing the verbal output of PWA may also yield more favorable listener perceptions about the speech, speaker, and their own affective response. We investigated the effects of artificially altered fluency (i.e., simulated fluency) on listeners’ subjective impressions.

Aims: The purpose of the study was to (1) confirm that listeners perceive …

Gauging The Perceptions Of High School Students In Different Demographics On Environmental Education Topics, Kory Bonnell

Natural Resources Management

Environmental education is a topic that has been promoted by advocates and researchers for more than three decades; however, a majority of public schools still fail to cover the fundamental basics of environmental education in their curriculum. This project seeks to understand how high school aged students (10th grade) understand three environmental concepts including: 1) recycling; 2) food production; and 3) concept of the natural environment, amongst the demographics of: 1) rural; 2) urban cluster; and 3) large metropolitan/inner city. Questionnaires were designed using the Likert Scale questions in order to quantify differing perceptions between rural, urban cluster, and large …

Evolving Into Studio, Andrew S. Gibbons Iii

Faculty Publications

Instructional design is practiced in a real-world setting; it should be learned in a setting like the one where it is practiced. As the practices themselves change, it becomes more natural for this to happen. This study of one design instructor’s experience over nearly 50 years demonstrates a path of evolution out of teaching design in a standard classroom, in which practice is secondary to didactics, into a studio setting, where didactics tend to occur after the student has experienced a need.

Does Social Support Influence Bulimic Behaviors Through Its Impact On Cognitive Appraisal, Mun Yee Kwan

Psychology

Social support is one of many interpersonal functions that is impaired among individuals with bulimia nervosa. The buffering hypothesis of social support posits that social support shields the deleterious impact of stress on bulimic behaviors. However, the specific mechanism by which social support protects against the negative impact of stress on bulimic symptoms remains to be clarified. To investigate this mechanism, two studies examined the potential role of cognitive appraisal as a mediator in the relationship between social support and bulimic behaviors among undergraduate students. Study 1 was a longitudinal, naturalistic study in which participants completed online surveys at two …

Bridging Attention Across Space And Time: Do Positive Emotion Generated Shifts In Spatial Attention Lead To Changes In Attention Across Time?, Brandon Tyler Saxton

Psychology

Previous research has demonstrated that positive emotion influences various aspects of attention including spatial attention and attention across time. Research has commonly focused on how emotion influences one aspect of attention at a time. Recently a study was done that showed how one’s natural global or local spatial attention bias predicts subsequent performance of attention across time. This study proposed to use a similar mechanism to investigate how positive emotion might influence the link between spatial attention and attention across time. It was hypothesized that individuals who are experiencing positive emotion during a spatial attention task will have a more …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Alcohol Use And Capability For Suicide, Darren Carter

Psychology

The relationship between alcohol use and suicide has been well documented in past research. However, there have been few studies interested in examining potential mediators to explain the alcohol-suicide link. The current study used the interpersonal theory of suicide to examine a potential mechanism of the alcohol use and capability for suicide relationship. 195 college individuals participated in the current study. Results confirmed an indirect effect of painful and provocative events on alcohol use and pain tolerance and an indirect effect of painful and provocative events on alcohol use and heat-induced pain sensitivity. Furthermore, painful and provocative events mediated the …

Cft Faculty: Self-Assessment Of Lgb-Affirming Stances And Programs, Jared Daniel Kellerman

Human Development and Family Science

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that Couple and Family Therapy (CFT) faculty were using to identify the extent to which their program was LGB-affirmative. The sample for this study included 71 faculty members from CFT training programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). The online data collection for this study included one open-ended question and one Likert scale item. The thematic analysis revealed seven categories: (1) Coursework and Training, (2) Training Programs’ LGB Population, (3) Belief Systems, (4) Importance of Faculty, (5) Practical Implementation of Explicit LGB-affirmative Values, …

Experience Needed: Recruitment Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Clients In Coamfte-Accredited Training Programs, William Osgood Pearson

Human Development and Family Science

This study explored the efforts that faculty at accredited Couple and Family Therapy (CFT) training programs made to recruit lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients, and to what extent these reflected the LGB-affirmative therapy training literature. The sample for this study included 63 faculty members from accredited CFT programs. The data for this study originated from a larger survey and included one Likert scaled item and one open-ended item focused on LGB client recruitment. The thematic analysis revealed five categories: (1) Fostering an LGBAffirmative Clinic Identity, (2) Marketing Efforts, (3) Networking and Collaborating, (4) Creating LGB-specific Training Opportunities and Programs, …

Effects Of The Early Risers Program On Children's Social Skills And Parents' Emotion And Cognition, Zhen Yang

Human Development and Family Science

The Early Risers Skills for Success Program provides comprehensive skills training to children with adjustment problems and offers parent training to their parents. The present study expects parenting training contributes to increases in parenting confidence and involvement and decreases in relational frustration of parents in the program compared with the control. We also want to know whether improving children’s social competence mediates the program’s effects on parents’ positive feeling and cognition. 114 early elementary school students and their parents received the intervention and training and 76 children and parents were in the control. Five waves of data were collected over …

Resource Directory For Mid-Life And Older Women In The Fargo – Moorhead – West Fargo – Dilworth Metro, Susan Anne Feist

Human Development and Family Science

The purpose of this project is to identify and compile information on public/private resources, services, and supports that will assist a vulnerable population of women, aged 50 years and older, living in the Fargo/Moorhead metropolitan area. The goal of the project is to compile information into a user-friendly resource directory, which supports these women by addressing the difficulties threatening their security and ability to live healthy and productive lives. Dissemination of the resource directory will begin with availability in the Institutional Repository, under collections on the North Dakota State University library home page. Eventually, a website/blog will be created so …

Thesis Book: V, Jarrett Mork

Architecture Theses

Vertical Farming in Portland

Resisting Rape Myths In Young Adult Fiction: An Analysis Of Young Adult Novels Speak And Crank, Kaylee Blanche Jangula Mootz

English

Introducing young people to fiction that depicts rape is important in that reading this type of fiction can be a more effective strategy for reducing rape-myth acceptance in young people than lecture-based prevention programs. To be fully effective, literature used for lowering rapemyth acceptance must fully resist rape myths. This paper analyzes Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and CRANK by Ellen Hopkins to find the ways in which each novel resists and conforms to rape myths, to determine whether these texts would be suitable for reducing rapemyth acceptance, and to identify ways in which future texts that aim to reduce …

The Effects Of Noise On Speech Movements In Young, Middle- Aged, And Older Adults. Speech, Language And Hearing, Christopher Dromey, Sarah Scott

Faculty Publications

People often talk in noisy environments, which can influence the effectiveness of communication. This study examined the impact of several types of noise on speech production by measuring lip movements during a sentence repetition task. Sixty participants in three age groups ranging from 20 to 70 repeated a sentence under five noise conditions (silence, one person reading aloud, two readers, six readers, and pink noise).A head-mounted strain gauge system tracked vertical lip movements. With the presentation of noise during a speaking task, the intensity increased due to the Lombard effect in all of the noise conditions. The utterance duration for …

Absence Of “Joseph Smith” In The Book Of Mormon: Lack Of The Name Letter Effect In Nephite, Lamanite, And Jaredite Names, Bruce L. Brown, Sharon Black, Brad Wilcox, Wendy Baker Smemoe

Faculty Publications

Although some authors of fiction attempt to hide their real names by publishing their work under pseudonyms, the letters and sounds they consciously or subconsciously select for the names of their characters often reveal the author’s true identity. Since 1985, research has explored the name letter effect—the preference people show for the letters and sounds (especially initial sounds) in their own names. This tendency is evident in the highly personal and introspective literature produced in the United States during Joseph Smith’s lifetime by authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allan Poe. The purpose of this study was …

Folate And Inflammatory Markers Moderate The Association Between Helicobacter Pylori Exposure And Cognitive Function In Us Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Andrew N. Berrett, Shawn D. Gale, Lance D. Erickson, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

Background: Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) infection is associated with cogni-tive deficits in humans, an association potentially mediated or moderated byfolate concentration or inflammation.Materials and

Methods: We used the National Health and Nutrition Exami-nation Survey (NHANES) datasets to examine whether folate concentrationor inflammation mediates or moderates the relationship betweenH. pyloriand cognitive function. Models were performed using linear, Poisson, andzero-inflated Poisson regression, and we performed separate analyses forgroups aged 20–59 and 60–90 years with sample sizes ranging from 700 to1700.Results:We did not find evidence of mediation in either age group. In the20- to 59-year group, interactions betweenH. pyloriand ferritin (pvaluesranging from .004 to …

No Association Between Current Depression And Latent Toxoplasmosis In Adults, Bruce L. Brown, Shawn D. Gale, Andrew N. Berrett, Lance D. Erickson, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

Changes in behaviour and cognition have been associated with latent infection from the apicomplexan protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) in both animal and human studies. Further, neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia have also been associated with latent toxoplasmosis. Previously, we found no association between T. gondii immunoglobulin G antibody (IgG) seropositivity and depression in human adults between the ages of 20 and 39 years (n = 1 846) in a sample representative of the United States collected by the Centers for Disease Control as part of a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from three datasets collected …

Nature Versus Technology: Which Is More Appealing To Youth Ages 11-14?, Micky Lyn Zurcher

Sociology and Anthropology

Recent studies show playtime for youth has shifted from playing outdoors to being connected to a screen-based device. This study examines the amount of time youth ages 11-14 are spending in nature versus the amount of time they are spending connected to a screen-based device. The Drift Prairie group (N=16) spent a day in the great outdoors interacting with their peers and nature. The Comparison group (N=19) was randomly selected from a local 4-H organization. Both the Drift Prairie group and the Comparison group were surveyed using a questionnaire. The Drift Prairie group response was 62.6% active in nature whereas …

An Evaluation Of A Smartphone–Assisted Behavioral Weight Control Intervention For Adolescents: Pilot Study, Chad D. Jensen, Kristina M. Duncombe, Mark A. Lott, Sanita L. Hunsaker, Kara Mcrae Duraccio, Susan J. Woolford

Faculty Publications

Background: The efficacy of adolescent weight control treatments is modest, and effective treatments are costly and are not widely available. Smartphones may be an effective method for delivering critical components of behavioral weight control treatment including behavioral self-monitoring.

Objective: To examine the efficacy and acceptability of a smartphone assisted adolescent behavioral weight control intervention.

Methods: A total of 16 overweight or obese adolescents (mean age=14.29 years, standard deviation=1.12) received 12 weeks of combined treatment that consisted of weekly in-person group behavioral weight control treatment sessions plus smartphone self-monitoring and daily text messaging. Subsequently they received 12 weeks of electronic-only intervention, …