Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Influencing Academic Self-Efficacy Among Nursing Students During Covid-19: A Path Analysis, Shinhi Han, Koun Eum, Hee Sun Kang, Kathleen Karsten

Publications and Research

Introduction: The shift to online learning owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is posing an additional challenge to academic success, particularly for students who speak English as a Second Language (ESL). This study aimed to examine the factors that contribute to academic self-efficacy among ESL nursing students.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study using path analysis with 113 undergraduate ESL nursing students in New York City. Data were collected online using self-report measures of the study variables: academic self-efficacy, perfectionistic concerns, acculturative stress, and e-learning stress. A hypothetical path model was tested using AMOS 26.0.

Results: …

Understanding The Behavior Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Using Data Analytics, Mohammad Reza Davahli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In December 2019, China announced the breakout of a new virus identified as coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), which soon grew exponentially and became a global pandemic. Despite strict actions to mitigate the spread of the virus in various countries, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant loss of human life in 2020 and 2021. To better understand the pandemic, this doctoral research incorporated data analytics to evaluate the behavior and impacts of the virus. The doctoral research contributed to the scientific body of the knowledge in different ways including (1) presenting a systematic literature review of current research and topics about …

A Framework For The Design And Characterization Of Advanced Gaskets, Sannmit Shinde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Most industrial manufacturing or processing plants use bolted connections between pipes that transfer media from one location to another. Gaskets are often used to seal these systems as they offer elevated levels of leak mitigation; however, despite their nearly universal usage, the current understanding of gasket mechanics at the meso-scale is still limited. Contemporary gaskets feature viscoelastic materials, fillers, textures, and are fabricated at various thicknesses. They are used in a wide range of thermal, mechanical, chemical, and temporal conditions. The current work characterizes polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) gaskets made with several different filler materials and having vastly different geometries. The chemically …

New York Public Mapping Project, Marissa Zanfardino

Redistricting Resources

Over the past few months, the New York Census and Redistricting Institute has conducted the New York Public Mapping Project to coincide with the 2021 state redistricting cycle. Student teams from New York’s higher education institutions have been invited to participate in drafting maps for New York’s congressional, state senate, and state assembly districts and submit them to the State. Teams were able to use free online software and data, along with specialized training, to draw model maps that can be submitted to the state. This Project served as a key civic engagement effort for New York college and law …

Tightening The Legal ‘Net’: The Constitution’S Supremacy Clause Straddle Of The Power Divide, Steven Ferrey

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

This article analyzes Constitutional Supremacy Clause tensions in preempting state law that addresses climate change and the rapid warming of the Planet. Net metering laws, enacted in 80% of U.S. states, are a primary legal mechanism to control and mitigate climate warming. This article analyzes three recent federal court decisions creating a preemptive Supremacy Clause stand-off between federal and state law and presents a detailed state-by-state analysis of which those 80% of states’ laws could be preempted by legal challenge.

If state net metering laws affected only ordinary technologies, this issue would not be front and center with global warming. …

Analyzing Gene Expression Profiles Of A Virus And Its Host During Infection, Elizabeth Reisher

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In recent years, RNA sequencing has become an important part of gene expression analysis. RNA sequencing applications are used to study many aspects of RNA structure, expression, and translation. With developing technologies, RNA sequencing is used to learn more about the biology of RNA, helping to understand more about what RNA does under different conditions, such as when the RNA’s host is under attack from a virus. New RNA sequencing technologies allow researchers to learn more about what happens to the host when there is an attack from an outside source, such as a virus. RNA sequencing also tells the …

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter, December 2021, University Of Northern Iowa. Iowa Waste Reduction Center.

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter

Contents:

--- End of 2021 Director Address
--- Calendar
--- Welcome, Megan!
--- Saying Goodbye! : David Hindman - Elle Olthoff - Brandon Stenger
--- IGCB Awards New Gold-Level Breweries
--- 2022-2023 Recordkeeping Compliance Calendars for Dry Cleaners
--- 2022-2023 Compliance Calendar/Logbook for Bulk Gasoline Plants
--- Industry News

Representation, Resistance, And Recovery: Cultural Trauma In Young Adult Literature, Perla Rodriguez

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

God And Kant’S Suicide Maxim, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

Kant’s argument against suicide is widely dismissed by scholars and often avoided by teachers because it is deemed inconsistent with Kant’s moral philosophy. This paper attempts to show a way to make sense of Kant’s injunction against suicide that is consistent with his moral system. One of the strategies adopted in order to accomplish my goal is a de-secularization of Kant’s ethics. I argue that all actions of self-killing (or suicide) are morally impermissible because they are inconsistent with God’s established nature and order. It is argued that the existence of God as the locus of moral value and duty …

The Aged Care Crisis In Australia’S Covid-19 Success Story: A Commentary, Cymbeline Buhler, Nidhi Wali, Charles Ball, Supriya Gurung, Spyros Schismenos

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The world took a beating from COVID-19, with no nation spared. Australia’s response to the pandemic has been recognized as particularly successful, with the comparatively small total of COVID-19 related fatalities. However, these achievements in controlling the virus and keeping the economy buoyant are contrasted by significant failures, particularly the Federal and state governments’ inability to contain the outbreak within the aged care sector. This commentary forms an understanding of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia’s aged care sector, drawing from articles published in the ‘The Australian’ newspaper. We focus on priorities, responses and management at different levels, observing subsequent impacts, …

Multi-Dimensional Disaster Response For Older Adults, Donna Jensen

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

During disasters older adults are particularly at risk to be negatively affected. This paper will examine the increased vulnerabilities of older adults facing disasters, specifically through the lens of the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, California which killed 85 people, burned over 150,000 acres, and destroyed close to 19,000 structures in the rural communities it impacted. It has been designated the “deadliest and most destructive” fire in recorded California history. While research demonstrates that older adults tend to be more resilient in disasters, they also have some vulnerabilities that make them more susceptible to death. I discuss common issues …

Toxicity And Effects Of Tire Crumb Rubber In The Aquatic Environment, Stephanie Laplaca

All Dissertations

Plastic materials have provided innovative solutions to society’s evolving needs and challenges. Due to their durability and resistance to degradation, plastics remain in the environment for long periods of time and can therefore be transported to many environmental compartments such as water, sediment, and biota. Microplastics (MPs) have been defined as synthetic plastic particles that have at least one dimension less than 5 mm and are insoluble in water. Microrubber (MR), a recently acknowledged sub-group of MPs, has been documented in environmental samples more recently, frequently comprising a large portion of total MPs of various samples. In South Carolina specifically, …

Devfold: A Toolbox For Designing Age-Specific Fnirs Channel Placement, Xiaoxue (Jessie) Fu Ph.D., John E. Richards

Faculty Publications

Significance: Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a noninvasive technique that uses scalp-placed sensors to measure cerebral hemoglobin concentration. Commercial NIRS instruments do not allow for whole-head coverage and do not intrinsically indicate which brain areas generate the NIRS signal. Hence, the challenge is to design source–detector channel arrangement that maximizes sensitivity to a given brain region of interest (ROI). Existing methods for optimizing channel placement design have been developed using adult head models. Thus, they have limited utility for developmental research.

Aim: We aim to build an application from an existing toolbox (fOLD) that guides NIRS channel configuration based on age …

Elliptical Symmetry Tests In R, Slad̄Ana Babić, Christophe Ley, Marko Palangetić

The R Journal

The assumption of elliptical symmetry has an important role in many theoretical developments and applications. Hence, it is of primary importance to be able to test whether that assumption actually holds true or not. Various tests have been proposed in the literature for this problem. To the best of our knowledge, none of them has been implemented in R. This article describes the R package ellipticalsymmetry which implements several well-known tests for elliptical symmetry together with some recent tests. We demonstrate the testing procedures with a real data example.

News From The Forwards Taskforce, Heather Turner

The R Journal

Forwards is an R Foundation taskforce working to widen the participation of underrepresented groups in the R project and in related activities, such as the useR! conference. This report rounds up activities of the taskforce during the second half of 2022.

Visual Diagnostics For Constrained Optimisation With Application To Guided Tours, H Sherry Zhang, Dianne Cook, Ursula Laa, Nicolas Langrené, Patricia Menéndez

The R Journal

A guided tour helps to visualise high-dimensional data by showing low-dimensional projections along a projection pursuit optimisation path. Projection pursuit is a generalisation of principal component analysis in the sense that different indexes are used to define the interestingness of the projected data. While much work has been done in developing new indexes in the literature, less has been done on understanding the optimisation. Index functions can be noisy, might have multiple local maxima as well as an optimal maximum, and are constrained to generate orthonormal projection frames, which complicates the optimization. In addition, projection pursuit is primarily used for …

Exploring High-Power Distance Among Other Variables In Information Security Policy Compliance, Erasmus Ekpo Etim

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Information security threat is one of the significant challenges organizations must deal with, and one component of that challenge is information security policy compliance. Data breaches sometimes happen because employees do not adhere to information security policies. The purpose of the exploratory study was to determine if power distance had a role in information security policy compliance; power distance is the understanding that power distribution is unequal. The research required survey data collected from a high-power distance index country, Nigeria. The Nigerian working class was the population sample; a model was developed based on compliance, descriptive norms, moral beliefs, normative …

Hurricanes And Housing: Highlighting The Ongoing Impact Of Hurricane Michael And The Post-Disaster Housing Problem, Mary Beth Barr

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hurricanes impact individuals and communities on many levels - emotional, physical, mental, financial - to name a few. Every time a hurricane occurs, lives are drastically altered forever. One of the ways that hurricanes impact individuals and communities most powerfully is through the effect that they have on housing. Unleashing uncontrollable damage to infrastructure and the built environment, hurricanes exacerbate housing problems that exist and create new ones where they did not exist before. Hurricane Michael, which catastrophically impacted the Florida Panhandle in 2018, is a case study in which the impact that hurricanes have on housing is prevalent.

By …

Khruangbin On Tour, Meghan Eileen Connolly

Graphic Communication

My senior project, Khruangbin On Tour, creates the opportunity to ideate and promote Khruangbin’s, a three-person band, tour through branding and merchandise. The goal is to create visuals, such as a poster or t-shirt design, to complement their songs and the band as a whole through the use of color palettes, typography, objects and illustrations. The music’s feeling and aesthetic should be reflected in the visual aspects as it represents the artist overall and speaks to the audience.

Wilde House Paper Brand Update, Claire Butler

Graphic Communication

For this project, I will be working with the team at Wilde House Paper to expand current brand assets and create an updated guide and collection of brand collateral. The goal of my project is to help the team at Wilde House Paper have a straightforward structure for their content and have these updated and organized design pieces at their fingertips. I am creating a comprehensive brand guide, organizing and updating a drive of assets, and expanding our collection of social media and email templates as my deliverables.

Virtual And Blended Instruction And School Lunch Eligibility On Student Achievement During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Leann Ferrell Helms

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effects of virtual and blended instruction and school lunch eligibility on student achievement during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic measured by the 2021 ACT Aspire Interim Assessment scores. Scores chosen were from seventh- and ninth-grade students in five schools giving the ACT Aspire Interim Assessment prior to Winter Break. The scores were used to provide academic performance data for the dependent variables used in each hypothesis. Bronfenbrenner developed the ecological systems theory in 1979 to identify environmental factors affecting a person’s characteristics over a lifetime. COVID-19 affected education and instructional delivery during …

When A Ban Is Not A Ban: Institutional Work And The Russian Doping Scandal, Mathew Dowling, Spencer Harris, Marvin Washington

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are fewer cases of such blatant acts to defy and subsequent heroic efforts to rearrange institutional norms than the Russian doping scandal. In adopting a neo-institutional perspective, the authors theorize the scandal as a case of attempted but failed institutional disruption. More specifically, the authors draw upon the institutional change literature and the institutional work perspective to explain the key events surrounding actors’ response to the scandal. The analysis utilized Gioia’s methodological approach to examine secondary empirical data. Findings reveal how stakeholders circumvented traditional governance structures in an attempt to disrupt institutional arrangements, but despite this, much of the …

Express Dispute Assessment: A Much-Welcomed Form Of Expert Neutral Evaluation (Ene) At The Stockholm Chamber Of Commerce, Ylli Dautaj, William F. Fox

Journal of International Business and Law

No abstract provided.

Holding Everyone Accountable: The Need For The Creation Of An International Securities Class Action Venue In The Age Of Globalized Economies, Emily Fallon

Journal of International Business and Law

No abstract provided.

Microbicide Overview, International Partnership For Microbicides

International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM)

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Catholic Classroom Communities During Remote Teaching, John L. Beltramo, Krizia Layam, Julia Lucas, John Schmitt

Journal of Catholic Education

In this COVID-era study, Catholic school teachers report the challenges that they experienced in supporting classroom communities during remote instruction, as well as the strategies that they enacted to address such challenges and make robust relationships with and among remote students. While teachers engaged in remote teaching, they were also studying in a Catholic Master of Arts in Teaching program, where they participated in weekly Freirian culture circles – structured dialogues designed to help teachers identify problems of equity and collectively devise appropriate responses. The teachers found that classroom community was hindered by a lack of in-person affordances, socioemotional stressors …

Art Education As Mutual Aid: Community And Social Justice Based Initiatives, Janelle O'Malley

Student Projects

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, education has drastically changed. The months of pandemic coupled with rising political upheaval left issues with schooling at the bottom of the list. Yet, the repercussions of the pandemic have forever changed the face of our educational system. Especially hard hit during this time was subjects deemed unimportant such as music and art. These classes, which already have faced their fair amount of cutbacks, were once again left on the chopping block. Even though the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015 ensured that art would be treated as a core subject, it …

Application Of Marginal Analysis Using A Decision Tree To Produce An Architectural Magazine, Andre Purge

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Decision tree analysis is typically used to provide quantitative cost benefit analysis of uncertainty associated with options to achieve project objectives. A project to apply marginal analysis using a decision tree to produce an architectural magazine was undertaken to test the value of using this approach for what-if analysis applied to critical risk, quality, schedule, and cost management decisions in that application. Project research included survey to understand stakeholder preferences for content, quality, and distribution of an architectural magazine. Additionally, literature reviews, project observations and interviews with subject matter experts provided insights into the use of decision tree analysis for …

How Community Engagement And The Power Nine Impact Health, Lindsey Shelton, Lindsey V. Shelton

Honors College Theses

The Blue Zones are five different places around the world where people are proven to live healthier and longer lives. In these places, they all share 9 unique habits that are attributed to helping achieve these healthier lives called the Power Nine. In Calloway County, a barrier survey was conducted by five different Murray State departments to see what stopped the residents from achieving their healthiest lives. Community engagement was found to be an important aspect of the Power Nine and was analyzed to see how it can impact one's health.

Understanding Students’ Global Interdependence In Science Instruction, Walter S. Smith

Journal of Global Education and Research

Multiple American educational organizations such as the National Education Association, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the Council of Chief State School Officers have advocated for globalizing the K-12 curriculum. The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) in a position statement on international education and the Next Generation Science Standards have produced goals and standards for internationalizing the science curriculum by addressing topics such as climate change, environment, and disease that cross borders. In contrast to those pronouncements on the curriculum, this article views global science education through an instructional lens that focuses on a students’ global interdependence in science …