Digital Commons Network^™

The Connection Between Body Modification And Personality, Taylor Ann Shoemaker

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has been inconsistent in its findings regarding the associations between body modifications (e.g., piercings, tattoos, augmentation, scarification, split tongue) and the Big Five personality traits (i.e., openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). All traits have been found to be significantly correlated with body modification in at least one study, but their significance differed from study to study. The purpose of the current study was to examine the associations between body modification and each domain of personality concurrently to add to the literature surrounding differences between modified and unmodified individuals. To participate in this study, participants were asked …

Perceptions Of Covid-19, Information Seeking Behavior, And Political Orientation, Bailey Dodd, Sean Rife

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 was declared an international pandemic in March 2020 and infected millions of people globally in less than six months. Research suggests that a large amount of both accurate and misinformation exists on the pandemic, and it would be expected that an individual’s political orientation would influence their perception of the virus and the information that they endorse. Based on past research, it would be expected that both liberals and conservatives would be equally concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic and endorse similar measures. However, Republicans downplayed the pandemic and were more likely to consider it a hoax, while Democrats exaggerated …

School Violence And Its Impact On Student Academic Achievement, Kewanis Kennedy

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the occurrence of school violence and its impact on academic success and attendance. This study will encompass K-12 academic institutions in the state of Kentucky during the 2018-2019 academic school year, with an in-depth analysis of data submitted to the Kentucky Department of Education by the 171 participating school districts. The participating schools shared data in the form of disciplinary actions, attendance, graduation rates, academic achievement, and other relevant demographics. The collected data was analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference among attendance rate, graduation rate, math ACT benchmark scores, and English ACT benchmark …

Georgia Agricultural Education Teachers’ Perceived Barriers Of Delivering Instruction Through Internet-Based Distance Learning, Cecily Gunter

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

In the late fall of 2019 and early spring 2020 educators across the world were abruptly faced with the issue of teaching curriculum through distance learning platforms. This challenge was even greater for agricultural education teachers to accomplish due to the goal of providing students opportunities for leadership development, personal growth, and career success through hands-on learning opportunities. The researcher conducted a study to examine the perceived barriers of internet –based distance learning by agricultural education teachers in Georgia and to explore the relationship between their perceived barriers and the perception of their level of computer and internet access, their …

Assessing Teacher Candidates’ Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities Of Teamwork, Eric Batts

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Educators serve on various school-related teams such as curriculum committees, professional learning communities (PLCs), co-teaching, and individualized education plan (IEP) teams. This quantitative study was designed to assess teacher candidates’ teamwork knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). The results were used to evaluate an educator preparation provider’s (EPP) effectiveness in preparing teacher candidates with teamwork skills needed in today’s schools. Teamwork-KSA, the instrument used in this study, measures an individual’s KSAs in specific teamwork characteristics. The study attempted to answer if there were differences between teacher candidates’ progression through an EPP and Teamwork-KSA results. Teacher candidates’ GPA, practicum experience, and teamwork …

Training And Support Systems And Their Impact On First-Year Teachers In Kentucky, Ashley E. Dunn

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study surveyed elementary school teachers across the state of Kentucky in regards to these four main concepts: (a) identifying the challenges and needs of FYT, (b) identify and explore the trainings provided to FYT, (c) identify and explore the supports provided to FYT, and (d) identifying what is needed to effectively support FYT. The driving question of the study asked: what are the training and support experiences of first-year K-5 teachers and how can these experiences be improved for future educators? Based on this question, the following hypothesis was created: having been provided comprehensive induction programs, FYT will …

Cultivation Theory: Media Effects Toward Consumer Evaluations Of The Criminal Courts, Lindsey Dale Elliott

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

A substantial body of literature connects media effects to consumer perceptions of the criminal justice system. Research on the topic of cultivation theory has highlighted that an increased fear of crime within the general populace, due to an exaggeration of violence and criminal activity in the mass media, has spurred increased support for punitive policing, harsher sentencing, and positive feelings toward capital punishment. However, no research exists to explicate the cultivation of consumer perceptions toward the criminal courts. This study examines the impact of media consumption through television, the internet, and social media on consumer evaluations of the criminal courts. …

Generational Giving In Public Higher Education, Christine Bernot

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Competition for donors and dollars between higher education and the non-profit sector has never been greater, with Americans giving nearly $450 billion in philanthropic support to charitable organizations in 2019 (IUPUI, 2020). Alumni of higher education institutions are a natural constituency group with a history of giving back to support student needs and programs.

New research in fundraising for higher education analyzing generational giving behaviors of alumni graduate donors could help universities better understand their giving results and support the innovation of new fundraising strategies and best practices. This quantitative research study used historical giving data to examine the …

Black And Hispanic Student Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of The Career Academy Model, Holly Bernard

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Education reform has been at the forefront of policymakers’ plans since 1817 with the founding of the Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for Deaf and Dumb Persons. Over the following 200 years, various social and economic shifts have increased policymakers' focus on the purpose of education and how institutions can develop contributing members to society. Globalization demands countries to have a well-educated workforce, and in the United States today, education reform has focused on expanding educational opportunities that lead to positive economic growth for individuals and nations as a whole through innovative practices. In short, access to quality education and experience …

Personal Technology Use, Social Media, And Daily Affect In Emerging Adults, William Crabtree

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Personal social and communication technology has been widely adopted by the world in the 21^st century. With this widespread worldwide adoption, significant controversy exists debating the effects these social technologies have. Specifically, there is a strong debate in the scientific literature over the psychological effects of social technologies, smartphones, and social media usage. Some arguments are made that modern technology can help improve psychological well-being, whilst others claim it has destroyed a generation of adolescents and merging adults. The present thesis aims to address this debate by exploring the current research from a variety of methodologies about social technology …

Effects Of Agricultural Education And Career And Technology On Georgia Milestone Tests Scores In Biology, Geometry, And Algebra, Ellison Crews

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Student’s achievement is directly linked to teacher evaluation as well as school and district CCRPI scores. The researcher conducted Independent two sample t-tests comparing student’s achievement on Georgia Milestone test in geometry, algebra, and biology at the district and state level for students enrolled in agricultural education courses, Non-agricultural education CTAE courses and non-CTAE courses. On the state level, student’s scores were grouped into the four-achievement level of Beginning, Developing, Proficient, and Distinguished. No individual scores were available so an average mean score was representative of each students score in the four categories. This study included Independent two sample …

An Evaluation Of College Preparedness On Natural Selection Principles Following The Completion Of An Entry-Level Biology Course, Amy Bell

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Evolution education in secondary education has long been a topic of research. The level of knowledge and acceptance of students upon entering college has been studied using various methods; however, no study had provided the perception of preparedness from the student perspective nor had analyzed the individual Natural Selection principles. This study analyzed college freshmen (n=162) in an entry-level BIO 101 course. Participants were given the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection Instrument (CINSI) and perception survey questions upon completion of the course. The CINSI data was then analyzed for each of the four Natural Selection principles as well as …

Strange Fruit: The Forgotten Lynchings Of Northwest Tennessee And Southwestern Kentucky, 1869-1931, Melinda Meador

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

In the 50 years between 1869 and 1918, 50 African Americans were lynched in a sparsely populated three-county area, far removed from the Cotton Belt and outside the ambit of the Tobacco Black Patch, along the state line in northwest Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. The characteristics of lynchings identified in previous studies have little relevance to the lynchings carried out in this three-county area where the African American population seldom exceeded twenty percent of the overall population. Unlike the Deep South, the practice appears not to have been driven by socio-economic and political factors but primarily by a lust for …

Retention And The Sophomore Slump: Understanding Whether Campus Residency Predicts Retention Of Sophomore College Students, Raglena Salmans

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Retention in higher education is an ongoing challenge in America. Traditional research claims a multitude of reasons for freshman college students to stop out, drop out, or transfer colleges. The term sophomore slump was created many years ago as an all-encompassing phrase for the large amount of students who do not return to campus for their sophomore year or end up leaving during the sophomore year. Institutions of higher education are on a continuous journey to retain students and to understand what the cause of students leaving their university is. Campus housing has morphed through the years to provide programming …

Examining The Relationship Between Inclusivity And Well-Being In The Gender, Sexual, And Romantic Minority Community, Sarah E. Weekes

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Research has established that higher levels of inclusivity promote increased levels of well-being in GSRM populations (Yoder & Mattheis, 2016); however, there is a lack of research exploring a moderating effect of psychological flexibility on this relationship. Previous research has also demonstrated that psychological flexibility is related to increased quality of life (Walloch & Hill, 2016); however, the relationship between psychological flexibility and inclusivity remains largely unexplored in GSRM populations. The purpose of this study was to explore how inclusivity, psychological distress, and psychological flexibility correlate with well-being among a sample of 198 individuals who identify as GSRM. This study …

Glial Granules And Germline Proteins In The Drosophila Brain, Samuel J. Tindell

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

My overarching goal was to elucidate the role of Tudor (Tud) protein in the Drosophila brain. Tud is an evolutionarily conserved molecular scaffold, containing 11 Tud domains which bind to symmetrically dimethylated arginine (sDMA) residues in a variety of proteins. Tud is an essential component of embryonic ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs) called germ granules that contain RNAs and proteins crucial to the differentiation and maintenance of germ cells, the specialized class of stem cells that ultimately give rise to the next generation of organism. In the absence of Tud, there is a complete abolishment of germ cells highlighting its important role …

Understanding Volunteer Motivations To Serve, Dominique P. Wood

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

An organization’s volunteer development program can serve as a useful tool in the P-20 framework to address transitional gaps preventing smooth and consistent movement of individuals from traditional education to career attainment. Utilizing Maslow’s Theory of Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this qualitative study revealed volunteer motivation effectively resolved needs that work toward Self-Actualization. Satisfied needs, addressed by the volunteer experience, places the organization as a relevant partner in the P-20 framework to resolve career attainment goals. The volunteer makes the gift of time, skills, experience, and knowledge based on personal preferences to the organization’s work. Partnerships are achieved …

Risk Factors For Poor Outcomes Among Patients With Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (Xdr-Tb): A Scoping Review., Karan Varshney, Beverly Anaele, Matthew Molaei, Rosemary Frasso, Vittorio Maio

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in cases of drug-resistant TB, and strains of TB resistant to all forms of treatment have begun to emerge; the highest level of resistance is classified as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). There is an urgent need to prevent poor outcomes (death/default/failed treatment) of XDR-TB, and knowing the risk factors can inform such efforts. The objective of this scoping review was to therefore identify risk factors for poor outcomes among XDR-TB patients. We searched three scientific databases, PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest, and identified 25 articles that examined relevant risk factors. Across the included …

Big Data Sentiment Analysis Of Twitter Data, Ahmed Hussein Ali, Harish Kumar Kumar Kumar

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

The examination local area has utilized man-made brainpower, and specifically machine learning, in various ways to change various unique and, surprisingly, heterogeneous data sources into excellent realities and information, offering driving capacities to exact example finding. In any case, utilizing machine learning strategies on enormous and convoluted datasets is computationally costly and utilizes a great deal of coherent and actual assets, including central processor, memory, and data record space.In the current study collected the review of different researchers from 2010 to 2022. As how much data produced consistently arrives at quintillions of bytes, it is turning out to be more …

Big Data Analysis, Rana Talib Rasheed, Mostafa Abdulgafoor Mohammed Mostafa Abdulgafoor Mohammed, Nicolae Tapus Nicolae Tapus

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

“Big Data” can be considered as an expression which has spread suddenly. It could be depicted as a pioneering mechanism for saving, distributing, managing, visualizing and analyzing large data along with very high velocity and approaches for managing incompetent quantity of data. Here, the state-of-the-art and background of big data are reviewed. Every review-related technology and general background of big data are firstly reviewed, for example IoT, cloud computing, Hadoop and data centers. Then, we concentrate on every value chain phase belongs to big data such as data acquisition, data generation, data analysis and data storage. For the four phases, …

Distributed Reduced Convolution Neural Networks, Mohammad Alajanbi, Donato Malerba Donato Malerba, He Liu He Liu

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

A Convolution Neural Network (CNN) is a popular tool in the domains of pattern recognition and machine learning. The performance of KCNN (kernel-based convolutional neural networks) is better than that of regular CNN. Although the KCNN can solve challenging nonlinear problems, doing so when dealing with a large-size kernel matrix is time-consuming and memory-intensive. The computational load and memory usage could be drastically decreased by adopting a reduced kernel strategy. But as the total amount of training data grows at an exponential pace, it becomes hard for a single worker to efficiently store the kernel matrix. Because of this, there …

Artificial Neural Networks Advantages And Disadvantages, Maad M. Mijwel

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are the modelling of the human brain with the simplest definition, and the building blocks are neurons. There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain. Each neuron has a connection point between 1,000 and 100,000. In the human brain, information is stored in such a way as to be distributed, and we can extract more than one piece of this information from our memory in parallel when necessary. We are not mistaken when we say that a human brain is made up of thousands of very, very powerful parallel processors. In multi-layer artificial neural …

Evaluation Of Corn Herbicide Programs With And Without Atrazine, Jason K. Norsworthy, Jacob Thomas Richburg, L. Tom Barber, Trenton Roberts, Edward Gbur

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Atrazine is a foundational herbicide in corn (Zea mays L.) because of its broad-spectrum weed control and utility for pre-emergence or postemergence applications. Extensive atrazine use has led to traces in groundwater, surface water, and aquifers. This research explored corn herbicide regimes with little or no atrazine. Pre-emergence herbicide treatments [S-metolachlor (0.955 lb acre^–1); saflufenacil (0.054 oz acre^–1) plus dimethenamid-P (0.473 lb acre^–1)] and postemergence herbicide mixtures [bicyclopyrone (0.040 lb acre^–1) plus mesotrione (0.161 lb acre^–1) plus S-metolachlor (1.429 lb acre^–1); thiencarbazone-methyl (0.013 lb …

Characterizing Expansiveness And Iron Reducibility Of Red-Clay Soils For The Purpose Of On-Site Wastewater System Placement In Arkansas, Bailey Darnell, Kristofor R. Brye, Larry T. West, Lisa S. Wood, David M. Miller

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The lack of iron-reducing capability in some red soils poses an issue for determining the suitability for on-site wastewater treatment systems (OSWWTS). The Arkansas Department of Health allows for placement of OSWWTS in certain red-clay soils that have the potential for iron reduction and do not show expansiveness upon wetting, but only in the Ozark Highlands (Major Land Resource Area [MLRA] 116A), which is referred to as the red-soil exception. The objectives of this study were (a) to confirm the nonexpansiveness and iron reducibility of select soils in the Ozark Highlands that meet the criteria for the red-soil exception, and …

Clinicopathologic Implications Of Complement Genetic Variants In Kidney Transplantation, Zhen Ren, Stephen J Perkins, Latisha Love-Gregory, John P Atkinson, Anuja Java

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Genetic testing has uncovered rare variants in complement proteins associated with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) and C3 glomerulopathy (C3G). Approximately 50% are classified as variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Clinical risk assessment of patients carrying a VUS remains challenging primarily due to a lack of functional information, especially in the context of multiple confounding factors in the setting of kidney transplantation. Our objective was to evaluate the clinicopathologic significance of genetic variants in TMA and C3G in a kidney transplant cohort. We used whole exome next-generation sequencing to analyze complement genes in 76 patients, comprising 60 patients with a TMA and …

Health Disparities And Treatment Approaches In Portopulmonary Hypertension And Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: An Analysis Of The Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry, Hilary M Dubrock, Murali Chakinala, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Compared to idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH), patients with portopulmonary hypertension (POPH) have worse survival. Health disparities may contribute to these differences but have not been studied. We sought to compare socioeconomic factors in patients with POPH and IPAH and to determine whether socioeconomic status and/or POPH diagnosis were associated with treatment and health-care utilization. We performed a cross-sectional study of adults enrolled in the Pulmonary Hypertension Association Registry. Patients with IPAH (n = 344) and POPH (n = 57) were compared. Compared with IPAH, patients with POPH were less likely to be college graduates (19.6% vs. 34.9%, p = …

Does Circulating Progesterone Mediate The Associations Of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms In Progesterone Receptor (Pgr)-Related Genes With Mammographic Breast Density In Premenopausal Women?, Favour A Akinjiyan, Yunan Han, Jingqin Luo, Adetunji T Toriola

2020-Current year OA Pubs

UNLABELLED: Progesterone is a proliferative hormone in the breast but the associations of genetic variations in progesterone-regulated pathways with mammographic breast density (MD) in premenopausal women and whether these associations are mediated through circulating progesterone are not clearly defined. We, therefore, investigated these associations in 364 premenopausal women with a median age of 44 years. We sequenced 179 progesterone receptor (PGR)-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We measured volumetric percent density (VPD) and non-dense volume (NDV) using Volpara. Linear regression models were fit on circulating progesterone or VPD/NDV separately. We performed mediation analysis to evaluate whether the effect of a SNP …

Loss Of Angiotensin Ii Type 2 Receptor Improves Blood Pressure In Elastin Insufficiency, Michelle Lin, Robyn A Roth, Beth A Kozel, Robert P Mecham, Carmen M Halabi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

There is ample evidence supporting a role for angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT

Effective Connectivity Extracts Clinically Relevant Prognostic Information From Resting State Activity In Stroke, Mohit H Adhikari, Joseph Griffis, Joshua S Siegel, Michel Thiebaut De Schotten, Gustavo Deco, Andrea Instabato, Matthieu Gilson, Maurizio Corbetta

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Recent resting-state functional MRI studies in stroke patients have identified two robust biomarkers of acute brain dysfunction: a reduction of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity between homotopic regions of the same network, and an abnormal increase of ipsi-lesional functional connectivity between task-negative and task-positive resting-state networks. Whole-brain computational modelling studies, at the individual subject level, using undirected effective connectivity derived from empirically measured functional connectivity, have shown a reduction of measures of integration and segregation in stroke as compared to healthy brains. Here we employ a novel method, first, to infer whole-brain directional effective connectivity from zero-lagged and lagged covariance matrices, then, …

Smaller Spared Subcortical Nuclei Are Associated With Worse Post-Stroke Sensorimotor Outcomes In 28 Cohorts Worldwide, Sook-Lei Liew, Catherine E Lang, Anup K Bhattacharya, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Up to two-thirds of stroke survivors experience persistent sensorimotor impairments. Recovery relies on the integrity of spared brain areas to compensate for damaged tissue. Deep grey matter structures play a critical role in the control and regulation of sensorimotor circuits. The goal of this work is to identify associations between volumes of spared subcortical nuclei and sensorimotor behaviour at different timepoints after stroke. We pooled high-resolution T