Digital Commons Network^™

Machismo And Consequential Aphrodisiac Consumption In Oaxaca, Mexico, Brianna M. Harguth

Honors Thesis

Aphrodisiacs have been used in many cultures around the world, including, but not limited to those of Greece, Egypt, Rome, and pre-Columbian societies. Aphrodisiacs are substances consumed to increase sex drive, sexual desire, and sexual performance. In Oaxaca, Mexico males are the primary people who consume aphrodisiacs, particularly Olive ridley sea turtles eggs, which are on the brink of extinction. One of the main reasons males consume these so-called aphrodisiacs is to combat erectile dysfunction, which impedes sexual performance. Many of the men who consume the Olive ridley sea turtle eggs possess traits associated with machismo, a form of masculinity …

The Influencers: Facebook's Libra, Public Blockchains, And The Ethical Considerations Of Centralization, Michele Benedetto Neitz

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

The theoretical promise of blockchain technology is truly extraordinary: a peer-to-peer distributed immutable ledger that could revolutionize economies, societies, and even our daily lives. But what if blockchain technology is not as decentralized as people think? What are the ramifications if, in reality, a blockchain’s core decisions are actually influenced by small groups of people or corporations?

This short article seeks to answer that question, by demonstrating that decentralized public blockchains are only as immutable as the decentralization of their governance. Moreover, the announcement of Libra, Facebook’s new permissioned blockchain, shows a growing trend of centralized control around decentralized technologies. …

From Amazon's Domination Of E-Commerce To Its Foray Into Patent Litigation: Will Amazon Succeed As "The District Of Amazon Federal Court"?, Kaity Y. Emerson

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

Modern-day consumers often expect instant gratification. Instead of shopping via printed catalogues and retail stores, consumers flock to the convenience of online shopping platforms, like Amazon. On these platforms, consumers have instant access to items they need, anytime, and anywhere. The popularity of these platforms to both consumers and sellers of items has also ushered in a wave of counterfeit products to these platforms. Technology giant Amazon has a pervasive counterfeit problem that has been harming the legitimacy of its retail operation for some time. Amazon had previously employed a hands-off approach to counterfeits and left sellers to resolve disputes …

Structure And Bioactivity Of A Rationally Designed Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Antagonist Targeting The Alpha-3 Beta-2 Subtype, Leanna Marquart

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The work presented in this thesis contributes to ongoing development of an efficient workflow for identification of lead compounds, based on the molecular scaffold of α-conotoxin MII, for drug therapies targeting nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are pentameric, ligand-gated ion channels with distribution throughout the central nervous system and are implicated in a variety of neurological diseases including schizophrenia, nicotine addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. However, ligand effect on nAChR function is not well understood. Consequently, drug therapies for neurological diseases either do not exist, or have short-lasting efficacy and/or severe side effects. Barriers to the comprehension …

Perceived Impact Of Virtual Scenario-Based Branching Simulations Among Radiology Program Students, Kimberly Lynn Onstott

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The influx of medical technology and medical knowledge creates challenges for healthcare providers in maintaining up to date knowledge and skills for their practice. Healthcare educators are further challenged in that the goal is to encourage learners to become competent healthcare providers who are knowledgeable and skilled, self-directed, and who will think critically and ethically when faced with challenging situations. Advancing imaging technologies and new complex procedures in radiology increase the risk of harm for patients and providers as advanced imaging is often learned outside of a primary degree in radiology with real patients through on the job training. Online …

The Spatial Distribution Of Elevated Uranium In The Treasure Valley Aquifer System, Southwest Idaho, Lloyd A. Womeldorph

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Treasure Valley Aquifer System (TVAS) in southwestern Idaho contains well-documented uranium concentrations over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level of 30 µg/L. With a population in the Treasure Valley projected to reach 1.6 million by 2065, in-depth horizontal and vertical spatial knowledge of the contaminant is needed. This study evaluates the horizontal and vertical spatial nature of uranium in the TVAS and interprets those observations to provide both a conceptual model of uranium behavior, and recommendations for water resource management. A large water quality dataset was compiled, and supplemented by data collected during a field sampling campaign, …

Informing Field Management Decisions To Enhance Alfalfa Seed Production Using Remote Sensing, Thomas V. Van Der Weide

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The development rate of alfalfa seed crop depends on both environmental conditions and management decisions. Crop management decisions, such as determining when to release pollinators to optimize pollination, can be informed by the identification of plant development stages from remote sensing data. I first identify what electromagnetic wavelengths are sensitive to alfalfa plant development stages using hyperspectral data. A Random Forest regression is used to determine the best Vegetation Index (VI) to monitor how much of the plant is covered in flower. The results indicate that Blue, Green, and Near-Infrared are the important electromagnetic wavelengths for the VI. Imagery collected …

Mindfulness Intervention To Support School Engagement With At-Risk Students At An Urban Charter High School, Sarah Groark

Dissertations

Every year, more than 500,000 students drop out of school, often after years of growing disinterest and disengagement. As a result, models of school engagement are commonly used as a framework to guide interventions. Unfortunately, some students may experience high levels of dysregulation and poor executive functioning which interfere with their ability to engage in school. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a school-based mindfulness intervention would support school engagement behaviors with adolescents at an urban charter school. It was hypothesized that mindfulness would support students’ executive functioning in the areas of attention, cognitive flexibility, and emotion …

Increasing Undergraduate Student Engagement In Academics: An Ecological Momentary Intervention, Kerry Douglas Duck

Dissertations

As students enter the university environment, they are presented with various commitments that may or may not impede academic performance. With the issues of student attrition and retention, there is a need to provide further tools for students to use to monitor their performance. As students’ progress to higher level coursework, expectations and time commitments increase, and self-regulation of learning becomes even more important. Researchers may be able to deliver information to help students with self-regulation of learning by leveraging new affordances in technology in students’ daily lives. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the feasibility and associated …

Monocyte Phenotype And Whole Blood Immune Response In Physically Active Chronic Cannabis Users And Non-Users, Jonathon K. Lisano

Dissertations

Some physically active individuals are now advocating for the use of cannabis with exercise for its potential to optimize the immune response. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the chronic use of cannabis products is linked to alterations in immune characteristics, such as monocyte phenotype and function in physically active individuals. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess resting concentrations of c-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), monocyte phenotype and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated production of Interleukin-6 (IL-6) following pre-treated with synthetic cannabinoid 2 (CB2) receptor agonist and antagonist in physically active individuals using cannabis products at least …

A Comparison Between A Modified And A Traditional Expressive Writing Intervention And Their Effect On Alexithymia And Emotional Expressivity, John Tzanos

Dissertations

The current study examined the effect of a modified expressive writing intervention compared to a traditional intervention and their effect on alexithymia and emotional expressivity while controlling for attachment style and social desirability among 150 undergraduate and graduate college students. The survey was administered online using a Qualtrics online survey tool. Participants were randomly divided into six groups: (a) low alexithymia/traditional intervention, (b) moderate alexithymia/traditional invention, (c) high alexithymia/traditional intervention, (d) low alexithymia/modified intervention, (e) moderate alexithymia/ modified intervention, and (f) high alexithymia/ modified intervention. The three groupings of levels of alexithymia—low (61) alexithymia—were based on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 …

Ai Goes To School—Implications For School District Liability, Harold J. Krent, John Etchingham, Alec Kraus, Katharine Pancewicz

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Urgent Need For Legal Scholarship On Firearm Policy, Dru Stevenson

Buffalo Law Review

Restrictions on federal funding for research pertaining to firearm policy have stymied academic inquiry by social science and public health researchers for over two decades. As a result, most researchers agree that our public discourse about this urgent issue is woefully under-informed, or even ill-informed, on both sides of the debate. Legal academia, which does not operate under the same grant-writing regime as most other disciplines, can and should help fill this gap in researching and theorizing the unresolved questions related to firearm policy. In fact, theoretical development and clarification from the legal academy is often a necessary antecedent for …

India's Great Slowdown: What Happened? What's The Way Out?, Arvind Subramanian, Josh Felman

Documents

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/publications/faculty-working-papers/india-great-slowdown

A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Factors Associated With Detection Of Oncogenic Human Papillomavirus In Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected And Uninfected Kenyan Women, Aaron Ermel, P. Tonui, M. Titus, Y. Tong, N. Wong, J. Ong’Echa, Kapten Muthoka, Stephen Kiptoo, A. Moormann, Elkanah Omenge

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Background: Cervical cancer is caused by oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPV) and is one of the most common malignancies in women living in sub-Saharan Africa. Women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a higher incidence of cervical cancer, but the full impact on HPV detection is not well understood, and associations of biological and behavioral factors with oncogenic HPV detection have not been fully examined. Therefore, a study was initiated to investigate factors that are associated with oncogenic HPV detection in Kenyan women.

Methods: Women without cervical dysplasia were enrolled in a longitudinal study. Data from enrollment are presented …

Neural Network Classification Of Brainwave Alpha Signalsin Cognitive Activities, Ahmad Azhari, Adhi Susanto, Andri Pranolo, Yingchi Mao

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

The signal produced by human brain waves is one unique feature. Signals carry information and are represented in electrical signals generated from the brain in a typical waveform. Human brain wave activity will always be active even when sleeping. Brain waves will produce different characteristics in different individuals. Physical and behavioral characteristics can be identified from patterns of brain wave activity. This study aims to distinguish signals from each individual based on the characteristics of alpha signals from brain waves produced. Brain wave signals are generated by giving several mental perception tasks measured using an Electroencephalogram (EEG). To get different …

Computational Model For Pedestrian Movement And Infectious Diseases Spread During Air Travel: A Molecular Dynamics-Like Numerical Approach, Pierrot Derjany

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

There is direct evidence of the transmission of fatal infectious pathogens in large human gatherings. Air transportation is no exception. The mixing of susceptible and infectious individuals in this high-density man-made environment involves pedestrian movement which is generally not taken into account in modeling studies of disease dynamics. This thesis addresses this problem through a multiscale model that combines pedestrian dynamics with stochastic infection spread models. This generic model is applicable to several directly transmitted diseases. Through this multiscale framework, the effectiveness of certain layout and strategies in suppressing the disease spread in highly crowded locations such as airplanes, airports …

College Students With Physical Disabilities: An Exploratory Investigation Within Counselor Education, Adam Tolbert Wall

Dissertations

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2017a), there are over 19 million students who are currently enrolled in institutions of higher education. For the past 40 years, the number of students with disabilities attending colleges and universities has grown exponentially (NCES, 2017b). There is an abundance of research regarding many aspects of the experience of college students with a physical disability across social science, medical, and education literature; however, research targeted specifically at general counseling practitioners, counselor educators, and college counselors is relatively limited.

The purpose of this investigation was to study the inner lives of a …

Mapping Urban Performance Culture: A Common Ground For Architecture And Theater, Ting Chin, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

Our co-taught course focuses on theater history, with an emphasis on performance architecture. Assignments are designed to illuminate the ways in which architectural design and technology inform performance practices and audience reception. The pivotal assignment for exploring interdisciplinarity is a three-week module on mapping historical theaters in New York City. Open-source Global Information Systems (GIS) software serves as a common mechanism for students to situate theatrical productions in the context of the built urban environment, deepening their understanding of the social, economic, and artistic forces that contributed to performance culture. Mapping is a shared pedagogy for analyzing and presenting research …

Evaluation Of Detached Strawberry Leaves For Anthracnose Disease Severity Using Image Analysis And Visual Ratings, Melinda A. Miller-Butler, Barbara J. Smith, Kenneth J. Curry, Eugene K. Blythe

Faculty Publications

Inoculation of detached strawberry leaves with Colletotrichum species may provide an accurate, rapid, nondestructive method of identifying anthracnose-resistant germplasm. The purpose of this study was to statistically compare two methods (visual and image analysis) of evaluating disease severity of strawberry germplasm screened for anthracnose resistance. Detached leaves of 77 susceptible and resistant strawberry clones were inoculated with one Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. and two C. fragariae A. N. Brooks isolates. Anthracnose disease symptoms on each leaf were assessed quantitatively via computer-based image analysis to determine percentage lesion area and qualitatively by two independent raters using a visual disease …

Globalization And The Diffusion Of Military Capabilities, Eddie Stokes

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

I analyze the effects of economic and informational globalization on the diffusion of military capabilities in the 20th and 21st centuries. To test these relationships, I use the KOF Swiss Economic Institute’s data on economic and informational globalization and the Correlates of War data on National Material Capabilities for all states of the international system from 1970 to 2011. Using an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression of all states with standard errors clustered at the state-level, I find that economic globalization negatively correlates with increases in military capabilities; while informational globalization positively correlates with increases in military capabilities. These findings …

Hvac System Energy Audit For Leverett Elementary School, Connor Smalling

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Leverett Elementary School is located in Fayetteville, AR. The school needs significant upgrades to its infrastructure. The Fayetteville Public School District has voted to pursue an Energy Services Performance Contract (ESPC) in order to finance the desired upgrades to Leverett Elementary, among other schools in the district.

The scope of this thesis was to perform an energy audit on the existing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. By using an energy modeling software, eQuest, the building and the existing base system were modeled to determine utility consumption. Three different HVAC system alternatives were analyzed against the base system by …

Defining Worthy Victims: State-Level Legislative Decisions To Prevent The Criminalization Of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children In The United States, Kathleen A. Price

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) includes children (anyone under 18) who are sexually exploited for commercial purposes in its definition of human trafficking victims. However, most states currently arrest and/or prosecute sex trafficked children for prostitution. From 2008 to 2017, six states neither arrested nor prosecuted sexually exploited children for prostitution; eight retained the right to arrest, but not prosecute minors for prostitution; and 36 states both arrested and prosecuted this population for prostitution. All 50 states passed their first human trafficking laws between 2003 and 2013. Washington passed the first in 2003 and Wyoming was …

Secure Two-Party Protocol For Privacy-Preserving Classification Via Differential Privacy, Manish Kumar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Privacy-preserving distributed data mining is the study of mining on distributed data—owned by multiple data owners—in a non-secure environment, where the mining protocol does not reveal any sensitive information to the data owners, the individual privacy is preserved, and the output mining model is practically useful. In this thesis, we propose a secure two-party protocol for building a privacy-preserving decision tree classifier over distributed data using differential privacy. We utilize secure multiparty computation to ensure that the protocol is privacy-preserving. Our algorithm also utilizes parallel and sequential compositions, and applies distributed exponential mechanism to ensure that the output is differentially-private. …

The Convergence Of Negotiated Imaginative Play, Literacy Learning And Kindergarten Common Core English Language Arts Standards, Grace Salinas-Casper

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of strict academic requirements is replacing play as a previously widely accepted developmentally appropriate practice in kindergarten classrooms around the United States, resulting in an imbalance in cultivating the whole child. Research focused on the importance of play in children’s cognitive, linguistic, physical, moral, creative, emotional and artistic development exists. Couched in Vygotsky’s social development theory and the Reggio Emilia principle this ethnographic case study investigates how kindergarteners demonstrate literacy learning, practice and mastery of Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CC.ELA) through imaginative play in a negotiated environment. Research outcomes suggested that negotiated play appears to provide …

Development Of A Prototype Shirt For Post Double Mastectomy Women Without Breast Reconstruction, Hannah Lane

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer is a common cancer among women in the United States, with thousands of fatalities and hundreds of thousands of diagnoses every year. A common course of treatment for breast cancer is the surgical removal of all or some of the breast tissue; this is known as mastectomy. Mastectomy is invasive in nature and results in noticeable physical changes to the body and psychological effects in regard to self-image. However, it is becoming more common for breast cancer survivors to embrace their now flat chests following mastectomy, instead of opting for reconstructive surgery. This has become a lifestyle choice …

Full Issue, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Similarities And Differences Between Two Vital Roles In Medicine: Physicians And Physician Assistants, Veronika Dubov

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Research has been done analyzing nurse practitioners (NP) versus physician assistants (PA) and medical doctors (MDs) versus doctor of osteopathic medicine (DOs), but there is a lack of research on PAs versus MD/DOs. This thesis aims to outline the similarities and differences between the physician profession and the physician assistant profession. Interviews were conducted with physicians and physician assistants from the Nebraska Medicine Emergency Department to get insight from professionals currently in the field and to gain multiple perspectives. Along with interviews, research was conducted utilizing scholarly articles and other online reliable resources. These findings are significant for any undergraduate …

Mandela Splash Pad Pre-Construction Plan, Levi Sandbulte

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In the construction industry, it is the responsibility of the general contractor to take the architect’s ideas and turn it into a real building. Many times this requires ample communication and several drafts. This efficient execution of this process is vital to the completion of a successful project. In this project, I practice this communication process. The challenge presented by the owner is to build an affordable splash pad, and without impacting the construction schedule of the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) that is being built on the same property at the same time. This proposal gives the owner a …

Economic And Strategic Analysis Of America's Wastewater, Jorden Hansen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Whether it be tap water from a home or bottled water from a grocery store, clean water is generally accessible in the United States. Unfortunately, this convenience deters people from learning about the complex processes that make this luxury possible.

Awareness of the natural water cycle is widespread, as the simplest version is taught in grade school. It illustrates the flow of water as it changes state (liquid, to solid, to gas) in the environment. Not so commonly known is the urban water cycle which manifests residential daily use with the revolution of water. The urban water cycle is a …