Digital Commons Network^™

At-Home Childcare Providers’ Perceptions Of Gardening With Children, Erin Lauckner

Theses and Dissertations

Children do not consume recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, which has been correlated with negative health consequences. Gardening with children has been shown to positively impact children’s consumption of these foods. While research investigating gardening with children exists, much of this has been conducted with teachers and children in schools, and limited research has been conducted with childcare providers and preschool-aged children. Little research has been conducted about this topic with in-home childcare providers and the children under their care. This pilot study utilized a cross-sectional mixed methods research design through an online survey instrument. A convenience sample of …

The Value Of Existential Worlds: Creation And Validation Of A Measure To Explore The Four Existential Worlds, Matthew Robert Rozzi

Theses and Dissertations

The field of counseling psychology is increasingly focused on understanding clients in holistic and non-pathologizing ways. Existential theory provides the four-worlds model for exploring human existence in line with this modern psychological zeitgeist. In this model, humans are understood to exist simultaneously in four “worlds” or “dimensions”: physical (umwelt), social (mitwelt), psychological (eigenwelt), and spiritual/philosophical (uberwelt). This measure construction project is the first known study to examine the personal importance (value) of existing in each world. The Value of Existential Worlds (VEW) was created and psychometrically examined. From the initial 63-items, a shorter (20-item) version was created which demonstrated a …

Exploration Of Model-Resolution Dependence Of Forecasted Wind Hazards For Small Unmanned Aircraft System Operations, Lucas Andrew Reilly

Theses and Dissertations

Use of the small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) for commercial applications is growing. Once approval is granted to conduct flights Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS), utilization of the sUAS will accelerate. Hazards associated with sUAS flight, including weather hazards, must be understood when flying BVLOS. One of the leading weather hazards is wind. In this study, nested Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations with horizontal grid spacings of 12 km, 4 km, 1.33 km, and 0.444 km were conducted to evaluate the impact changing resolution has on wind fields and, thus, on the forecasting of sUAS wind hazards. …

Examining College Students’ Emotions And Alcohol Usage On A College Campus: Student Chemical Assessment And Review Program (Scarp), Thomas William Solem

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use and abuse is an important issue amongst college students, and the totality of impacts are still misunderstood. Identification of high-risk alcohol abuse problems leads universities to intervene; however, the emotional, personal, and academic impacts of such mandated intervention programs is unclear. Helping universities understand students’ alcohol abuse challenges can aid appropriate interventions, as well as improve student well-being and academic success.

The purpose of this study is to examine the Student Chemical Assessment Review Program (SCARP), specifically to explore its impacts on student variables (university motivation, readiness/importance of confidence to change, self-esteem, guilt, shame, depression, anxiety, and resiliency) …

Investigation Of The Neurological Manifestations Of Lyme Disease And The Impact Of Borrelia Burgdorferi On The Epigenetic Landscape Of Astrocytes, Derick Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Lyme disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States – with 30,000 cases being reported to the CDC annually, though it is estimated that 300,000 individuals are infected each year in the U.S [1–4]. Due to the medical treatment of the disease, this equates to an estimated $712 million - $1.3 billion in medical costs each year [5]. Conclusively, due to the continued geographical spread and increasing incidence rate, Lyme disease is becoming a greater public health threat throughout the world.

The symptoms of Lyme disease can range from …

Instructional Coaching: Self-Efficacy, Resilience, And Joy, Aimee Marie Volk

Theses and Dissertations

At the time of this study, research on instructional coaching suggests positive outcomes for teacher retention and student achievement. However, merely providing an instructional coach to support a teacher is not sufficient. Effective coaching programs are built around foundational, structural, and instructional coaching program standards as well as employ coaches who are capable and effective in a multitude of content, instructional, and behavioral situations. Research illustrates that coaches vary significantly in effectiveness. Therefore, coaching outcomes may produce inconsistent results among various coaching programs and even between individual schools within the same school district. In other words, not all coaches or …

Faculty Perspectives: Understanding And Responding To Stress Management Needs In The Occupational Therapy Doctorate, Alyson Rae Wilhelmi Downs

Theses and Dissertations

Occupational therapy programs are currently pursuing the transition to an entry-level occupational therapy doctorate (OTD). Due to the novel change with this population, minimal research exists on how faculty are understanding and constructing a process to manage stress, promote wellbeing, and foster self-efficacy for themselves and the benefit of students during this time of transition. The concepts of habituation and social cognitive theory frame inquiry and understanding of the research problem for the development of a constructivist grounded theory study. A total of nine faculty and staff members at a Midwest OT program in the midst of programmatic change to …

The Relationship Between Saudi Citizen Perceptions Of Vision 2030 And Saudi Government Social Media Use To Promote Vision 2030, Essa Saleh Alkathiri

Theses and Dissertations

Public relations (PR) tools have enabled more communication between governments and citizens in the whole world. However, a single communication channel could be widespread among many governments. These PR tools help governments to share national goals, projects, and programs with their citizens. Grunig and Hunt (1984) highlighted that the value of two-way communication channels is better suited to develop an understanding between public organizations (i.e. governments) and citizens to establish both internal and external mutual public-organization or citizen-government understanding. However, the practical implementation of two-way communication channels for the government-citizen relationships and dialog remains is unclear. As a result, the …

Mass Shootings As The New Normal: An Evaluation Of Wikipedia Data And Flashbulb Memories As A Measurement Of Public Perception, Richard Belz

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: As mass shootings have become more frequent in recent years, one question that arises is whether the public’s attention and memory of these mass shootings may be becoming less salient over time. To evaluate changes in the saliency and public interest in these tragedies, this two-part study 1) utilized open access data from Wikipedia and 2) measured the presence of flashbulb memories (FBM) for these events.

Methods: For Part I, changes in byte size and edits in 19 mass shooting Wikipedia articles were examined over 12 months to determine public interest in these events. In Part II, 500 participants …

Deepmag+ : Sniffing Mobile Apps In Magnetic Field Through Deep Learning, Rui Ning, Cong Wang, Chunsheng Xin, Jiang Li, Hongyi Wu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper reports a new side-channel attack to smartphones using the unrestricted magnetic sensor data. We demonstrate that attackers can effectively infer the Apps being used on a smartphone with an accuracy of over 80%, through training a deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). Various signal processing strategies have been studied for feature extractions, including a tempogram based scheme. Moreover, by further exploiting the unrestricted motion sensor to cluster magnetometer data, the sniffing accuracy can increase to as high as 98%. To mitigate such attacks, we propose a noise injection scheme that can effectively reduce the App sniffing accuracy to only …

A New Method Of Detecting And Interrupting High Impedance Faults By Specifying The Z-Source Breaker In Dc Power Networks, Sagar Bhatta, Ruiyun Fu, Yucheng Zhang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

High impedance faults (HIFs) that cause a relatively smaller current magnitude compared to the traditional low impedance faults are not easily detectable but can cause an extreme threat to electric apparatus and system operation. This paper introduces a new method of detecting and interrupting HIFs in DC power networks by specifying Z-source circuit breakers (ZCBs). The ZCB is a protective device for high power DC branches, with the capabilities of protecting bidirectional power flow and automatic/controllable turnoff function. In this new method, the operational mode of ZCB (i.e., either the detection mode or interruption mode) can be specified. Beyond previous …

Priority Based Routing And Link Scheduling For Cognitive Radio Networks, Peng Jiang, Mitchell Zhou, Song Wen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

To address the challenges caused by the time-varying rate requirement for multimedia communication sessions, we propose a Priority Based Routing and link Scheduling (PBRS) scheme for multi-hop cognitive radio networks. The objective is to minimize disruption to communication sessions due to channel switching as well as to minimize network resource consumption for multimedia applications based on a prioritized routing and resource allocation scheme. PBRS includes a priority based optimization formulation and an efficient algorithm to solve the problem. The main idea is to allocate the available resource to different types of services with their Quality of Experience (QoE) expectation as …

The Impact Of Cultural Values In Advertising On Saudi Consumers’ Loyalty, Abdullah Mohammed Bajaber

Theses and Dissertations

Advertising has been one of the most effective elements of marketing communication used to persuade audiences to behave in a certain way. Many studies have examined factors that affect ads positively. Increasing loyalty was classified as the primary goal of companies. Thus, advertisements were commonly used to achieve this goal. On the other hand, even though many studies discussed advertising elements that might generate negative impacts, the possible results of these ads were not sufficiently addressed. Through the theory of planned behavior, this study aimed to explore the role of the cultural value as an element impacting loyalty negatively by …

English Language Learner Teachers’ Perceptions Of Digital Games On Student Learning, Khalifa Alshaya

Theses and Dissertations

This body of work contains three articles that examine the intersectionality between English Language Learner (ELL) teachers and digital games. The purpose of the study is to qualitatively explore the perception of ELL teachers’ use of digital games as educational tools and whether they realize the potential to promote language learning for ELLs. This study aims to understand the lived experiences of ELL teachers to identify their viewpoint of language learning through gaming. The work focuses particularly on the teacher in an effort to contribute empirical work that supports the need for a more holistic approach to digital games in …

Removal Of Blocking Artifacts From Jpeg-Compressed Images Using Neural Network, Md Nurul Amin

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to develop a neural network that will produce considerable improvement in the quality of JPEG compressed images, irrespective of compression level present in the images. In order to develop a computationally efficient algorithm for reducing blocky and Gibbs oscillation artifacts from JPEG compressed images, we integrated artificial intelligence to remove blocky and Gibbs oscillation artifacts. In this approach, alpha blend filter [7] was used to post process JPEG compressed images to reduce noise and artifacts without losing image details. Here alpha blending was controlled by a limit factor that considers the amount of compression …

Self-Efficacy Of Nacep Accredited Concurrent-Enrollment Program Instructors In Rural Community Colleges, Cecil B. Holland

Theses and Dissertations

Across the United States, high schools and community colleges are collaborating to offer students non-traditional educational programs that allow them to gain college credit including those accredited by the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP). Those teaching these classes must have high self-efficacy and enjoy their work if they are going to make a positive impact on the students they are educating. The theoretical framework for this research is based on Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory. The methodology for this qualitative research study utilized an integrated approach. Data collection consisted of one-on-one interviews with instructors who teach NACEP courses, administrators who …

Parental Practices And Home Environmental Influences On Children’S Physical Activity In A Controlled Lab Setting: An Observational Study, Tia Klein

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a rise of obesity in children, adolescents, and adults over the past decades. This rise in obesity has led to many health concerns such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, some cancers and depression. Physical activity [PA] has been shown to decrease these risks and aid in positive growth and development for children and adolescents. The primary aim of this study was to examine the relationship between parental and child PA in a controlled lab experiment. The secondary aim was to examine parental practices (physical and social home environment) and their influences on children’s PA in a controlled …

Pilot Perception Of Automation Use: A Generational Assessment, Ryan Leadens

Theses and Dissertations

As flight deck technology has become more advanced, the pilot–machine interaction has become a larger point of emphasis in pilot training programs. Increasing demand for air travel in future decades will create greater need for highly accurate and reliable navigation systems. These systems reduce a pilots’ exposure to “stick and rudder” skills while increasing the knowledge and situational awareness required to operate safely.

It is imperative that pilots are properly trained on these systems prior to conducting line operations. In order to create an efficient and effective training program, it is important to understand how pilots perceive their role on …

Mapping Land Use And Land Cover Change And Its Impact On Landscape Structure And Amphibian Functional Connectivity In The Prairie Pothole Region, Taylor Holm

Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring land use and land cover (LULC) change and its effect on habitat availability and connectivity is crucial for species conservation and management. This is most efficiently accomplished at a sufficiently broad scale using remote sensing technology. Current approaches benefit from freely available data sources such as National Land Cover Database (NLCD), derived from 30 m Landsat imagery. However, temporal frequency and spatial resolution of NLCD may be insufficient for some applications. Specifically, 30 m resolution data may not detect small or narrow landscape features that may be important habitat for small animals such as amphibians. Other available data sources, …

A New Approach To Measure Unique Spectral Response Characteristics For Irregularly Shaped Photovoltaic Arrays, Anthony Rafael Peters

Theses and Dissertations

Current photovoltaic (PV) panel test methods do not provide efficient and repeatable standardization, which can result in inconsistent results. Test requirements for individual PV cells are promulgated by standard test conditions (STC), but do not directly translate to new array or panel designs, particularly for panels that are irregularly shaped and used for different applications. Optimal angles that yield the most power delivery from the PV device when integrated into a panel are achieved by manipulating the panel’s orientation via single or dual axis tracking (e.g., maximum power point tracking). In applications where PV is intended to be integrated into …

Cellphones, Sexting And Crime: An Examination Of College Student Practices, Melissa Spelchen

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory dissertation research involves assessing the prevalence of sexting (sending, receiving and/or forwarding of sexually explicit images with your smart phone) that is taking place among young adults on a Midwest college campus. Other key findings include: a profile of those who sext whether in a conformist or non-conformist manner, and those who do not sext, profiles of and the toll on self-reported victims of the behavior, sexting motivations, and the possible connection to prevalent smart phone ownership. In addition, North Dakota is one of a few states that has a law prohibiting some forms of sexting; therefore, this …

How Athletic Trainers Use Goal Setting With Injured Athletes, Jenna Wing

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to identify if current Certified Athletic Trainers (ATCs) understand the importance of consistent use of sport psychology, specifically goal setting, in the athletic training room with injured athletes. Participants (n = 77) were current ATCs who have been certified by the Board of Certification (BOC), who had proper licensure in their designated districts, and were members of the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA). A questionnaire was created to assess the frequency with which they used goal setting, how important and effective they feel goal setting is, and how prepared they feel to use …

Effects Of Intrapartum Nitrous Oxide Use On Comfort And Satisfaction With The Birth Experience, Tami Such

Theses and Dissertations

Background/Purpose: Increased availability of intrapartum nitrous oxide in the United States given recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of associated delivery devices has provided women an alternative intrapartum pain management strategy currently underutilized in the United States despite long standing history of effectiveness in other countries (Richardson et al., 2017b). However, the effect of pain on the experience of birth and present emphasis on patient-centered care and shared decision-making, potential improvement of women’s satisfaction with the birth experience when nitrous oxide is used was an understudied concept in extant literature. Also, given the possibility of pain and comfort as …

Methodology For Quantifying Resiliency Of Transportation Systems, Hannah Rose Russell

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The National Science Foundation’s definition of resiliency is “the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, or more successfully adapt to actual or potential adverse events” (National Science Foundation, 2016). While this definition is informative and useful, it lacks a quantitative reference. There is a need for a method of quantifying resilience to better plan and prepare for system wide disruptions. The research effort described herein provides a quantifiable measures of system resiliency, consistent with NSF’s definition. Fundamentally, a system disruption can be partitioned into five distinctive states: the stable pre-event state, the absorption state, the disrupted state, …

Organizational Management Of Distance Learning: An Analysis Of Teacher Feedback Throughout Hampton Roads Public High Schools During The Covid-19 Pandemic Response, Cody P. Trudeau

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

Public schools throughout the United States experienced closures and transitions to online curriculum in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of the policies and strategies implemented to manage teaching faculty were hastily designed and employed out of necessity. This study sought to examine organizational management policies and strategies throughout public high schools in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia through teaching faculty perspectives. This cross-sectional study examined descriptive and correlational statistics of survey responses to determine and evaluate how schools managed communication, responsibilities and delegation, and training for distance learning in order to provide policy …

Standardized Reporting Systems For Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography And Calcium Scoring: A Real-World Validation Of Cad-Rads And Cac-Drs In Patients With Stable Chest Pain, Ricardo Cury

All Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Relationship Between Smartphone Addiction And Well-Being: The Mediation Of Mindfulness And Moderation Of Hedonic Apps, Murad Moqbel

Information Systems Faculty Publications

The advent of handheld devices such as smartphones has changed the way we connect, navigate, and entertain and has been recognized as a revolution in information and communication technologies (ICT). Despite the plethora of benefits of this new technology, concerns have been raised about the unintended adverse consequences to well-being in the form of addictive use. Past research has linked smartphone addiction to negative consequences, but it remains unclear how, why, and when (i.e., under what conditions) smartphone addiction, in turn, is related to well-being. This study attempts to fill this void by addressing these questions through the lens of …

Soil Sample Timing, Nitrogen Fertilization, And Incubation Length Influence Anaerobic Potentially Mineralizable Nitrogen, Jason Clark, Kristen S. Veum, Fabián G. Fernández, Newell R. Kitchen, James J. Camberato, Paul Carter, Richard Ferguson, David W. Franzen, Daniel E. Kaiser, Carrie A. M. Laboski, Emerson Nafziger, Carl J. Rosen, John E. Sawyer, John F. Shanahan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Understanding the variables that affect the anaerobic potentially mineralizable N (PMNan) test should lead to a standard procedure of sample collection and incubation length, improving PMNan as a tool in corn (Zea mays L.) N management. We evaluated the effect of soil sample timing (preplant and V5 corn development stage [V5]), N fertilization (0 and 180 kg ha−1) and incubation length (7, 14, and 28 d) on PMNan (0–30 cm) across a range of soil properties and weather conditions. Soil sample timing, N fertilization, and incubation length affected PMNan differently based on soil and weather conditions. Preplant vs. V5 PMNan …

Strategic Switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum) Production Within Row Cropping Systems: Regional-Scale Assessment Of Soil Erosion Loss And Water Runoff Impacts, Enheng Wang, R. M. Cruse, Bharat Sharma-Acharya, Daryl E. Herzmann, Brian K. Gelder, David E. James, Dennis C. Flanagan, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Robert B. Mitchell, David Laird

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A strong need exists for tools to assess the efficacy of conservation practices across large regions supporting informed policy decisions that may lead to better soil and water conservation while optimizing agricultural production options. Perennial warm-season grasses (WSGs) such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), can be grown on marginally productive and/or environmentally sensitive lands to meet growing bioenergy demands while reducing water runoff and soil erosion compared to current row crop systems. Quantifying the soil and water conservation effects of WSG when strategically placed on the landscape would help support decisions favoring both economic and environmental benefits. We used the Daily …

Transformative Education In Agroecology: Student, Teacher, And Client Involvement In Co-Learning, Charles A. Francis, Anna Marie Nicolaysen, Geir Lieblein, Tor Arvid Breland

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Educational methods have evolved rapidly in agroecology, which is a complex and holistic field without a long history or the formal tradition of any single academic discipline. Definitions of agroecology have evolved from its initial conception as a marriage of agriculture with ecology, to an aggregation of different paths including science, practices, and movements, and recently as a broad appreciation of the ecology of food systems. In contrast with traditional courses that begin with a history of the discipline and review the contributions of early leaders, we have embraced phenomenology to firmly establish roots in students’ learning through their experiences …