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Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• From apartheid to academia, Georgia Southern graduate student beats odds to earn degree

Assistance In Mine Action: Resolution Adopted By The General Assembly On 13 December 2019, Un

Global CWD Repository

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 72/75 of 7 December 2017 and all its previous resolutions on assistance in mine clearance and on assistance in mine action, all adopted without a vote,

Recalling also all relevant treaties and conventions1 and their review processes,

Noting the twentieth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,2 and the establishment of both the United Nations Mine Action Service and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Mine Action,

Noting with appreciation the extent to which the International …

Rural Multilingual Family Engagement, Maria Coady

The Rural Educator

Rural teachers and educators are increasingly called upon to build partnerships with families who use languages other than English in the home (US DOE, 2016). This is equally true for rural schools, where the number of multilingual families is small, and the language and cultural backgrounds of students differs from those of school. This article reviews the research on parental involvement and three common models of parental involvement. In this article, I propose a revised conceptual model for teachers and educators for rural multilingual family engagement. This article calls for increasingly refined research that addresses the sociohistorical backgrounds of families …

Superintendents’ Perceptions Regarding The Supervision And Evaluation Of Principals In A Rural State, David Hvidston, Courtney Ann Mckim

The Rural Educator

The goals for this mixed methods study were to examine superintendents’ perceptions regarding their own supervision and evaluation of principals in a rural state. Five research questions guided the mixed methods inquiry. An online survey tool was used to gather perceptions from superintendents regarding their own evaluation and supervision of principals. Participants solicited included all 48 superintendents from a rural Mountain West state. Out of the participants solicited 23 superintendents agreed to participate (48% response rate). Results from this study provided implications for those who train superintendents and those who supervise and evaluate principals. Keywords: superintendents, principal supervision, principal evaluation, …

The Nurse’S Role In Prognosis-Related Communication In Pediatric Oncology Nursing Practice, Amy Rose Newman, Lauri Linder, Kristin Haglund

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

The experiences of pediatric oncology nurses with prognosis-related communication (PRC) remain largely unknown. The purpose of this article is to report results of focus groups wherein 15 pediatric oncology nurses from three Midwestern pediatric cancer programs provided descriptions of PRC and how they experience PRC within their daily practice. Data from focus groups were analyzed via an interpretive descriptive approach, which resulted in three themes: (1) nurses’ operational definition of PRC, (2) nurses’ roles in PRC, and (3) nurses’ preparation for engagement in PRC. From discussions within the focus groups, nurses recognized that PRC occurs across a continuum. Nurses distinguished …

Bridging The Gap: The Collaboration Of Mental Health Services And The Juvenile Justice System, Gregory Medley

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Abstract

This paper explore the mental health needs of juveniles in the juvenile justice system. The need for mental health services in detention centers has been identified consistently throughout the United States. It is clearly noted in research that meeting the needs of youth in local community detentions centers are inadequate. With 65% to 70% of youth in contact with juvenile justice system having a diagnosable mental health disorder; over 60% of youth with a mental health disorder also having a substance abuse disorder (Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Collaborative for Change, 2015). As a result, I have created a …

How Does Access To Healthcare Affect Life Expectancy?, Yara Mahmoud

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Access to health care is a pressing issue in the United States, whether it be the cost of care or not having enough of it. To emphasize the importance of this topic, this paper assesses the impact of access to health services on life expectancy. A comparison is made between the universal health systems in France and Spain and the mixed system in the United States. Even though the United States spends the most on health care in the world, its statistics fall below those of other developed countries. After addressing other risk factors, it was found that individuals under …

Assessment Of Structural Competency In Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Descriptive Study, Elle J. Del Gallo

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Cultural competence has been investigated extensively in nursing education to better prepare nurses to care for individuals of diverse backgrounds. While developing cultural competence is important to address individual care needs, it may not address the social and structural factors that influence health. Structural competency describes the ability to assess not only cultural factors that affect health disparities, but also structural inequalities and stigmas that can alter a patient’s presenting symptoms and risk for certain diseases.

Quantification Of Neuronal Specific Responses To Depletion Of The Nascent Polypeptide-Associated Complex In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Harrison Hall

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Cells experiencing misfolded protein stress can become debilitated and die, consistent with this stress being linked to numerous diseases. When misfolded proteins accumulate in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the unfolded protein response (UPR) initiates mechanisms that resolve this stress or trigger apoptosis, dependent on the severity and/or duration of the stress. The nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC) is a heterodimeric chaperone that mediates proper protein folding and localization during translation; depletion of the NAC promotes misfolded protein stress in the ER, resulting in the initiation of the UPR in affected cells. The relationship between the NAC and the UPR is not …

A Geographical Analysis Of Gentrification And The Changing Foodscape In Seattle 2010-2017, Alice Tiffany, Michele Romolini

Honors Thesis

Anguelovski defines food privilege as “the exclusive access to desirable ‘natural’ and fresh food thanks to one’s economic, cultural, and political power” (Anguelovski 2015a). Previous studies have demonstrated that access to fresh, healthy, affordable food is correlated with socioeconomic status (LA Food Policy Council 2017; Walker et al. 2010; Alkon & Agyeman 2011; Raja et al. 2008). However, as is being increasingly noted, the introduction of environmental amenities, such as farmers markets and community gardens, can have unintended consequences and trigger environmental gentrification (Kern 2015; Pearsall 2010; Eckerd 2011; Curran & Hamilton 2012; Wolch et al. 2014; Alkon & Cadji …

Overall Equipment Effectiveness For Additive Manufacturing, Brian Reid

Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing is becoming a leading technology in the production of consumer parts. In order to compete with traditional methods which have had years to improve, additive systems must achieve a level of performance efficiency greater than it maintains today. While great effort is being expended to improve the printing time and add more systems level thinking to the problem, it is currently lacking a robust improvement methodology. To achieve the desired improvement, a technique from traditional manufacturing based on overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is proposed. Overall additive manufacturing effectiveness (OAME) provides a methodology for enhancing this important emerging technology.

Personal Tragedies Can't Keep Josh Biris From Graduation Day, Ge Aviation Operations Management Leadership Program, University Of Dayton

News Releases

"It could be worse," University of Dayton senior Josh Biris said during the first week of December, near the anniversaries of his parents' deaths. "I could have given up after their passing, but that's not what my parents wanted for me. They wanted me to finish college. They wanted me to succeed and become something. I did it for them." Come this Saturday, Biris will have "done it for them" with a mechanical engineering degree with honors and a job in GE Aviation's Operations Management Leadership Program. In future Decembers, the calendar will feature the anniversary of his graduation.

Modeling Micromechanics Of Solidluid Interactions In Granular Media, Daniel Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Micromechanics of solidluid interactions can play a key role controlling macro-scale engineering behavior of granular media. The main objective of this study is to numerically investigate the micromechanics involved in solidluid mixtures to develop a better understanding of the macroscopic behavior of granular media for different applications. This is accomplished by developing a numerical model coupling the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and employing it to study three distinct yet interrelated applications throughout the course of this research. In the first application, the DEM model is used to provide a clear relationship between energy dissipated …

Finite Element Analysis Of The Mechanisms Of Impact Mitigation Inherent To The North American Bison (Bison Bison) Skull, Andrea Karen Persons

Theses and Dissertations

North American bison (Bovidae: Bison bison) incur blunt impacts to the interparietal and frontal bones when they engage in head-to-head fights. To investigate the impact mitigation of these bones, a finite element analysis of the skull under loading conditions was performed. Based on anatomical and histological studies, the interparietal and frontal bones are both comprised of a combination of haversian and plexiform bone, and are both underlain by bony septa. Additionally, the interparietal bone is thicker than the frontal. Data regarding the mechanical properties of bison bone are scarce, but the results of a phylogenetic analysis infer that the material …

Flexural Bending Test Of Topology Optimization Additively Manufactured Parts, Mohammed Afify

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this work is to model, manufacture, and test an optimized Messerschmitt-BölkowBlohm beam using additive manufacturing. The implemented method is the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization of a minimum compliance design. The Taubin smoothing technique was used to attenuate geometric noise and minimize the formation of overhanging angles and residual stresses due to the thermal activity of the selective laser melting process. The optimized model required examination and repair of local errors such as surface gaps, non-manifold vertices, and intersecting facets. A comparison between experimental and numerical results of the linear elastic regimes showed that the additively manufactured …

Information Retrieval From Spaceborne Gnss Reflectometry Observations Using Physics- And Learning-Based Techniques, Orhan Eroglu

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a learning-based, physics-aware soil moisture (SM) retrieval algorithm for NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission. The proposed methodology has been built upon the literature review, analyses, and findings from a number of published studies throughout the dissertation research. Namely, a Sig- nals of Opportunity Coherent Bistatic scattering model (SCoBi) has been first developed at MSU and then its simulator has been open-sourced. Simulated GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) analyses have been conducted by using SCoBi. Significant findings have been noted such that (1) Although the dominance of either the coherent reflections or incoher- ent scattering over land is …

Tcb Minimizing Model Of Computation (Tmmc), Naila Bushra

Theses and Dissertations

The integrity of information systems is predicated on the integrity of processes that manipulate data. Processes are conventionally executed using the conventional von Neumann (VN) architecture. The VN computation model is plagued by a large trusted computing base (TCB), due to the need to include memory and input/output devices inside the TCB. This situation is becoming increasingly unjustifiable due to the steady addition of complex features such as platform virtualization, hyper-threading, etc. In this research work, we propose a new model of computation - TCB minimizing model of computation (TMMC) - which explicitly seeks to minimize the TCB, viz., hardware …

The Effects Of Impure Water Sources On The Early-Age Properties Of Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cements, Wendy Long

Theses and Dissertations

One of the benefits of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cements is that these materials gain strength rapidly, where strength development is often measured in hours instead of days. This property makes these materials desirable for use in temporary, non-reinforced repairs of roadways, airfields, and navigable locks. The rapid repair of these infrastructure elements is critical to transporting supplies into regions devastated by disaster. In these austere environments, potable water may not be available in sufficient quantities to make vital repairs, and the use of impure water in the production of CSA cement-based concrete would be advantageous. However, the hydration products formed …

Understanding State-Of-The-Art Material Classification Through Deep Visualization, Jordan Donovan

Theses and Dissertations

Neural networks (NNs) excel at solving several complex, non-linear problems in the area of supervised learning. A prominent application of these networks is image classification. Numerous improvements over the last few decades have improved the capability of these image classifiers. However, neural networks are still a black-box for solving image classification and other sophisticated tasks. A number of experiments conducted look into exactly how neural networks solve these complex problems. This paper dismantles the neural network solution, incorporating convolution layers, of a specific material classifier. Several techniques are utilized to investigate the solution to this problem. These techniques look at …

Engineering Pathological Microenvironments For Cardiovascular Disease Studies, Ojaswee Adhikari

Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity is a growing issue in the United States. Iron deficiency is the most common form of nutritional deficiency in patients with endothelial dysfunction and vascular-related diseases. This preliminary study lays the groundwork for the “Nutrient deficiency-on-a-chip” model. Endothelial cells are cultured on mechanically tunable, enzymatically cross-linked gelatin and treated with deferoxamine, an iron chelator, or angiotensin II were used to simulate a nutrient deficient and diseased environment, respectively. As oxidative stress and disturbed barrier function are the most prevailing mechanism of angiotensin II and iron deficiency induced endothelial dysfunction, to test our model we investigated the changes in …

Modeling Thermodynamic And Transport Properties Of Soft And Porous Materials, Md Masrul Huda

Theses and Dissertations

Molecular simulations are computer experiments that allow us to investigate thermodynamic and transport properties of complex chemical systems. Here, we have investigated self-assembly of organogelators and analysed the diffusion characteristics of small molecules in the nanopores of zeolites. Molecular gels are attractive soft-materials with viscoelastic properties with applications in drug delivery, tissue engineering, sensing, etc. Small organic amphiphilic gelators act as a building block of complex 3-dimensional network in molecular gels. Due to time and length scale differences, the understanding and characterization of early stage aggregation of gelators is difficult using experimental techniques. Classical and quantum mechanical approaches have been …

Numerical Modeling Of Compacted Fills Under Landing Mats Subjected To Aircraft Loads, Jeremiah Matthew Stache

Theses and Dissertations

Rutting failures are prominent in expedient airfields constructed with AM2 landing mats over soft existing subgrades. There are many issues that must be addressed when approaching this multiaceted problem. The load transfer mechanism occurring at interlocking mat joints and the mat-soil interface bonding condition affect near surface subgrade response. The repeated loading coupled with lateral aircraft wander causes significant principal stress rotation in the subgrade. This kneading action then causes variations in the excess pore-water pressure and a subsequent softening of the soil. The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical factors that lead to subgrade rutting failures …

Effects Of Music On Mood During Basketball Play In Junior High School Physical Education, David C. Barney, Francie T. Pleban, Jemal Gishe

Faculty Publications

The incorporation of music in the physical education environment, during physical activity have been shown to be beneficial for participants. Lane (1999) created a conceptual framework focusing on asynchronous music, identifying four factors important to a given piece of music: 1) rhythm response, 2) musicality, 3) cultural impact, and 4) association. The study purpose was to investigate two conditions, with/without the incorporation of music, in the physical education environment on student moods in 948 junior high school students (501 males & 447 females) measured utilizing the Profile of Mood States (POMS) Short Form. Significant differences were observed in the mean …

Twenty-Five Student-Athletes Receive Stoles Prior To Graduation Ceremony, Georgia Southern University

Athletics: News & Publications

• Twenty-Five Student-Athletes Receive Stoles Prior to Graduation Ceremony

Commencement Ceremonies, University Of North Florida

Commencement Printed Materials

Program for the Fall Commencement ceremonies.

Improving Discharge Medication Education On A Sepsis Unit: A Quality Improvement Project, Maria Noguez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ineffective discharge education plays a role in increased readmission rates, adverse drug events, and worsened patient outcomes post-hospitalization. When combined, the resulting financial burden on America’s healthcare system is exorbitant, as is the physical and mental toll on unsuspecting patients. To close the current gaps in discharge teaching, this project is incorporating the teach-back method and utilizing updated medication handouts.

Starting on the sepsis unit of a large, local medical center – the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) interns employed assessment tools to identify areas for improvement. The data revealed rushed, incomprehensive discharge medication education and reflected in low HCAHPS scores …

Redefining Trauma: Utilizing Restorative Justice To Repair Care Systems, Emebet Aklilu

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project examined the ways in which restorative justice programming can improve trauma informed care among the African American population in Oakland, CA. With 23% of African American men and women living at or below the poverty line in the United States, this project assesses gaps in current trauma informed care practices as evident in the literature. Following a rigorous document review the author coded and organized key programming components following six factors detailed by Rowher, Schoones, and Young (2014). Further examination of these program components was conducted using Bloom’s taxonomy levels to assess program outcomes associated with specific modules …

Standardization Of Postoperative Care Guidelines For Pediatric Cleft Palate Patients, Tatyana Grib, Macy Therese G. Andrada, Julie C. Barragan, Amanda K. Dailor, Samantha T. Gerber, Mercedes S. Greenberg

Master's Projects and Capstones

At a large, community-based pediatric hospital in Southern California, a quality improvement project commenced with a goal to improve patient outcomes by decreasing length of stay and pain levels, while increasing toleration of feeds. Implementing a standardized guideline would ensure safe practice across the continuum and allow providers to use a systematic tool for postoperative care, including nursing care interventions and medications. The Root-Cause- Analysis tool was used to assess the microsystem and determine the contributing factors to the identified problem. A SWOT analysis was then performed, followed by a plan to collect data from all pediatric cleft palate procedures …

End Matter, Vol. 79 No. 4

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Novel Host-Bacterial Symbioses Revealed: Characterization Of Wolbachia In Arthropods Of Western North America, Joanne P. Odden, Wyatt Eng, Kelsey Lee, Helen Donelick, Mallory Hiefield, Jamie Steach, Lauren Chan

Western North American Naturalist

Arthropod-bacterial symbioses are prevalent and play significant roles in ecosystems and the economy, and in some cases, habitat invasion. Wolbachia bacteria form symbiotic associations with a wide range of arthropod hosts and can affect both host reproduction and resistance to viral infections. The extent to which Wolbachia infects different arthropod species is fundamental not only to host biology, but also to the health of humans, ecosystems, and agriculture. Much of what we know about the effects of Wolbachia comes from a few key taxa, such as the model organism Drosophila melanogaster and the mosquito vector of human disease, Aedes aegypti …