Digital Commons Network^™

Quality Improvement Of Polycarbonate Medical Device By Moldex3d And Taguchi Doe, Upoma Saha, Wael Mokhtar

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Incorporating a new design combined with a thermoplastic material without having a prior process database may cause numerous defects in the molded part. Along with the initial setup cost, the scrape due to defects can add additional costs to the production. To address such issues, the numerical analysis tool Moldex3D was used to conduct simulations, and Taguchi Design of Experiment (DOE) was performed to optimize the process parameters. For this study, a classic medical device like the safety goggle model has been chosen as a subject. An amorphous material, polycarbonate, was used because of its transparent and significant thermal properties. …

Erk1/2 Inhibition Alleviates Diabetic Cardiomyopathy By Suppressing Fatty Acid Metabolism, Erin Mclean, Caroline De Roo, Annabel Maag, Megan Coble, Jefferson Cano, Ruijie Liu

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Background: Diabetes mellitus is associated with morphological and functional impairment of the heart primarily due to lipid toxicity caused by increased fatty acid metabolism. Extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) have been implicated in the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver and skeletal muscles. However, their role in the heart in diabetes remains unclear. In this study, we tested our hypothesis that pharmacological inhibition of ERK1/2 alleviates cardiac remodeling in diabetic mice through a reduction in fatty acid metabolism.   Methods: ERK1/2 phosphorylation in diabetes was determined both in vitro and in vivo. H9C2 cells were subjected …

Faculty Involvement In Decision-Making Within Florida's State University System: Understanding Perception, Role, And Participation In Shared Governance, Elaine R. Mitchum

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shared governance is the collaborative responsibility of faculty, administrators, and governing boards to guide institutional decision-making in colleges and universities. Faculty participation is essential in high-stakes decisions, as their disciplinary expertise and practical experience help ensure that policies align with academic values and long-term institutional goals. This qualitative case study examines faculty perceptions, roles, and participation in shared governance across the twelve institutions within the State University System (SUS) of Florida. Guided by four research questions, the study explored: (1) how faculty describe shared governance; (2) how perceptions of their role vary; (3) how recent events within the Florida SUS …

Information Research At 30: Its Role As A Diamond Open Access Journal Supporting Scholarly Communication In Library And Information Science, Jungwon Yoon, James E. Andrews, Eunkyung Chung

School of Information Faculty Publications

Introduction. This paper examines the contributions of Information Research as a diamond open access (OA) journal within the library and information science field.

Method. The dataset was extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection.

Results. The journal’s commitment to geographical diversity, its sustained journal impact and its role as a scholar-led publisher were revealed.

Conclusion(s). The journal demonstrates the potential of diamond open access publishing while maintaining high impact and visibility.

The Influence Of Mental Skills And Social Support During The Injury Rehabilitation Process, Paige Kisley

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Social-Emotional Learning For Elementary Students Through Explicit Instruction, Miah Phalen

Honors Program Theses

Teaching social-emotional learning skills has been found to yield various behavioral and academic benefits for students, yet there has been limited research into effective instructional practices for teaching these skills. This qualitative study examined the extent to which specific explicit instruction elements are present in kindergarten lessons from three evidence-based SEL curricula: Kindness in the Classroom, Leader in Me, and Second Step. Each of these lessons was rated on a 0-2 scale regarding the presence of clearly established learning goals, lesson opening, modeling, guided practice, independent practice, opportunities for feedback, lesson closure, and skill sequencing. Results of this study indicated …

The Effects Of Short-Term, High Dosage Creatine Supplementation On Cognitive Measures Following Mental Fatigue In Healthy Young Adults, Olivia Van Meter

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Hydration Status And Microbial Quality Of Tap Water Between Urban And Rural Settings In The Ashanti Region Of Ghana, Marina A. Tandoh, Priscilla Owusu, Claire-Rush N.A. Nkrumah, Veronica Tawiah Annaful, Chris Y. Asare, Samuel Selormi Attu

Food Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Maintaining proper hydration is crucial for human health, physiological functions, and cognitive performance. This study sought to determine the hydration status and the microbial safety of tap water in an urban setting (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Campus) and a rural community (Adjamesu) in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The water safety perception and hydration status of 171 study participants aged 10-61 years were assessed. Six taps were randomly selected at each site in triplicates, resulting in 36 water samples. The microbial quality of the water was assessed by testing for heterotrophic bacteria, coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella. …

Using Guided Notes To Provide Scaffolded Design As A Tool For Cognitive Efficiency And Conceptual Clarity, Ryan Schuffert

Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository

These supplemental learning materials streamline the learning process through a design that facilitates scaffolded learning by organizing focus on mastering macro-level concepts as a prerequisite to individualized details in content-dense courses.

Guided notes lead the learner on a path of discovering the depth of content while the layout encourages the development of discernment among multiple pathologies that share disease/disorder categorization.

This tool has helped students master the skill of chunked learning and has allowed them to implement this strategy, using these worksheets as a template, into multiple disciplines outside of pathophysiology.

Math Escape Room: A Virtual/Blended Problem‑Solving Adventure, Youssef Ibrahim

Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository

A narrative‑driven digital escape room turns secondary‑level mathematics review into a collaborative quest: students unlock successive “rooms” by solving algebraic, geometric, and data‑analysis challenges in Google Forms and Genially. Timers, conditional branching, and embedded hints sustain flow, while instructor analytics reveal misconceptions in real time.

Sexual Education, Sexual Self-Concept, And Behavior Of Adolescents: A Retrospective Study, Rachel Albanese

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Adolescence is a period within the lifespan of a human where sexuality is a key component of development; therefore, it is appropriate that adolescents are provided sexual education during this time. There continues to be a debate regarding sexual education; while some studies consider specific ways to provide sexual education, they do not compare the effect of differing sexual education (i.e., how and who provided sexual education) or lack of sexual education on risky sexual behavior and sexual selfconcept during adolescence. This study retrospectively examined the impact of sexual education on risky sexual behavior and sexual self-concept. It also explored …

Exploring The Relationship Among Postpartum Depression, Cognitive Distortions, And Relationship Satisfaction, Kylie A. Hastings

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Postpartum depression is the most prevalent psychological disorder experienced following childbirth, impairs daily functioning, negatively impacts child growth and development, and is linked to maladaptive parent-child interactions. Previous research also suggests a link among distorted thinking, depression symptoms, and interpersonal tension. The current study explores the interplay among postpartum depression symptoms, cognitive distortions, and relationship satisfaction among postpartum individuals. Researchers examined how specific thinking errors, including catastrophizing, mindreading, and labeling, are associated with depression symptoms and relational experiences in the postpartum period. Using a quantitative survey design, data were collected from 90 participants using validated instruments: the …

Fixing Mfw: Fairness And Vision In Controller Self-Dealing, Zohar Goshen, Assaf Hamdani, Dorothy S. Lund

Faculty Scholarship

The legal regime governing controlling shareholders relies on the ability of Delaware courts to police conflicted transactions under the stringent "entire fairness" standard of review. This review involves both implicit valuation – evaluating the transaction process, and explicit valuation – assessing the fairness of the transaction's financial terms. This Article reveals a critical flaw in this regime: courts cannot reliably engage in valuation when the transaction involves an entrepreneur's idiosyncratic vision for the company. As a result, there is a gaping hole in Delaware's framework for policing the fairness of controller transactions.

Delaware courts have developed guardrails to avoid judicial …

Power Training Impact On Running Ability After Traumatic Brain Injury: A Case Study, Sandra M. Tremblay Pt, Ms, Cws, Mscs

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Combined Role Of Sexual Selection And Socioeconomic Environment In Explaining Everyday Risk-Taking Behavior In Human Males, Hannah Goodman, Cyril C. Grueter, David A. Coall

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Sexual selection theory predicts that males, especially in their prime reproductive years, are more risk-prone than females. Risk-taking is a means to convey mate quality or “good genes” to members of the opposite sex or competitive ability to members of the same sex. Therefore, risk-taking should be more common in the presence of potential mates (intersexual selection or female choice) or in the presence of male competitors (intrasexual selection or male–male competition). Risk-taking can also be situated within a life history/ecological perspective, according to which environmental unpredictability promotes more present-oriented and risky behavioral strategies. Therefore, people living in areas of …

Teacher Collaboration Improves Content Deliveryand Increases Student Achievement, Maia Elkana, Rosalyn Langrohling-Amanor

Institute for School Partnership: Research & Publications

This brief addresses how teacher collaboration can improve instructional practices andincrease student achievement, as well as the specific elements of collaboration thatare important to achieve these goals. While research-based, well-designed materials are importantto support student learning, how teachers implement thosematerials matters for student achievement. Research hasshown that teacher collaboration can improve curriculumimplementation, instruction, and student achievement, butnot all forms of collaboration are equally impactful.

Integrating Science And English Language Instruction, Rosalyn Langrohling-Amanor, Maia Elkana

Institute for School Partnership: Research & Publications

This brief addresses the research showing how integrating science, language, andliteracy instruction supports student achievement in both English language arts (ELA) and Science. Pressure from high-stakes testing has led many schools todecrease time spent teaching science in order to spendmore time focused on ELA and math.1,2 This is especiallytrue at the elementary level, where science instructionmay receive less focus.2 Research suggests that more timeon basic academic skills and less time on contentinstruction is not the most effective way to realize gains instudent achievement.3,4 In fact, integrating science andliteracy instruction has been shown to increase studentachievement in both science and ELA.

Evaluation Of The Sources Of Sexual Knowledge And Information Among Men In Kenya, Darlene Mwende Ndasi, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante, Anh Vo Van Ha, Madalena Grobbelaar, Victor Fannam Nunfam

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Sources of sexual knowledge and information among men have impact on quality of their sexual literacy and decision making. Sexual knowledge impacts on sexual attitudes, which underpin sexual behaviours and in turn impacts the sexual health outcomes of men. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was used to assess the sources of sexual knowledge and information among 484 Kenyan adult men aged 18–54. Data analysis was performed with STATA-16. Results showed that 79% of men learned about sex from school-based sex education, 75% and 72% from peers and mass media respectively while healthcare professionals (35%) and parents (28%) had the lowest influence …

A Global Study Of Climate Uncertainty And Carbon Assurance, Le Luo, Junru Zhang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Measurement, verification, and reporting of carbon emissions is essential for climate management. However, research on carbon assurance is limited. To address this gap, we investigate the association between climate uncertainty and voluntary carbon assurance. We conceptualize and operationalize four dimensions of micro-level climate uncertainty: innovation, management and performance, supply chain, and managerial perception uncertainty. We find that all four proxies of climate uncertainty are positively associated with the adoption of voluntary carbon assurance and the positive associations are moderated by a country-level environmental, social, and governance reporting mandate and the industry. Finally, we document that voluntary carbon assurance impacts the …

Responding To Children’S Voices: The New Frontier In Education Policy Reform, Amelia Ruscoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

More than thirty years on from the United Nations Convention of the Child honouring a child’s right to be heard (Article 12) has unlocked a new frontier in ethical research. In education, children have demonstrated competence to contribute with insight to recent policy development in Australia. This paper provides further evidence of the critical role children stand to play in education reform. A post-structural perspective is adopted and underpinned with Foucauldian theory of discursive power in the context of school-based affordances. Visual and dialogic qualitative methods are used to compare the impact of powerful discourses upon children’s affordances in the …

Impact Of Rurality On Health Care Utilization Among Australian Residents From 2009 To 2021, Engida Yisma, Martin Jones, Lee San Pauh, Sandra Walsh, Sara Jones, Esther May, Marianne Gillam

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: In Australia, there is limited research regarding the effect of rurality on health care utilization using longitudinal data.

Methods: We analyzed data from four annual waves (2009, 2013, 2017, and 2021) of the longitudinal Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examine changes in the health care utilization over time among urban and rural residents. Poisson regression models estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for rural versus urban residents, accounting for a range of health-related and sociodemographic characteristics. Health care utilization was measured using four key indicators: visits to family doctor …

Innovation Through Conceptual Research: Tips For Stoking Curiosity, Jun Wen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Conceptual research represents a critical step in the theory-building process and contributes innovative ideas that inspire empirical studies. This feature article highlights the importance of such research in academia with examples drawn from the tourism literature. It also critically discusses issues related to publishing conceptual research in premier journals. By using a five-dimension framework of curiosity (i.e., deprivation sensitivity, joyous exploration, social curiosity, stress tolerance, and thrill seeking), scholars can assess researchers’ conceptual topics and readers’ responses when contemplating “what's new” to gauge a paper's publication potential. Several tips are offered to guide like-minded scholars in conducting sound conceptual research: …

Managing The Impact Of Workplace Trauma For Australian First Responders: Harmonizing Policy And Practice, Aglae Hernandez Grande, Fleur Sharafizad, Ben Farr-Wharton, Yvonne Brunetto, Matthew Richman

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Police, fire, ambulance, and emergency services workers face an increased exposure to traumatic events while at work, negatively affecting their mental health, and with broader financial, legal, and moral implications for the public sector organizations that employ them. To better support these workers, and to mitigate the potential financial burden resulting from workers’ compensation claims, many first responder organizations are implementing wellbeing initiatives. This article examines the efficacy of an initiative for a sample of 530 frontline and administrative first responders, working in one state jurisdiction in Australia. The results indicate that wellbeing programmes moderate the impact of trauma on …

Professional Experience In Initial Teacher Education: Integrating Standards, Supervisors And Mentor Teachers, Madlen Griffiths, Mandie Shean

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Professional experience is the training ground for preservice teachers, where they apply what they have learned at university, in the reality of the classroom setting. Our article investigates the contribution of university supervisors to preservice teacher learning, from the perspective of both groups. This qualitative study gathered data from interviews with 28 preservice teachers and supervisors. Findings highlighted the complexity of the task assigned to supervisors, and the distinctive role that they play in the preservice teachers’ learning. This study offers a model of supervision drawn from the voices of these two key stakeholders that is underpinned by theory and …

Seagrasses Are Most Vulnerable To Marine Heatwaves In Tropical Zones: Local-Scale And Broad Climatic Zone Variation In Thermal Tolerances, Nicole Said, Chanelle Webster, Simone Strydom, Natasha Dunham, Matthew P. Adams, Kathryn Mcmahon

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Under a changing climate, it is imperative that we understand how species may respond to temperature impacts, which can differ among populations of the same species due to local drivers. Thermal tolerance data, which can be used to assess an organism's upper thermal limits, is valuable to identify species and/or populations' susceptibility to thermal stress. This study assessed the variation in thermal tolerance of six seagrass species at both broad latitudinal (c. 500–1000 km) and local scales (c. 25 km). Photosynthesis–temperature curves (15–45°C) were conducted, by measuring oxygen in closed incubation chambers, and thermal optima (Topt) was extracted. We found …

Comparing Social Media Platforms For Recruiting Special Education Teachers In A High-Need Area, Eric Landers, Caitlin Criss, Kathryn L. Haughney, Cynthia C. Massey, Stephanie Devine, Karin Fisher

Georgia Educational Researcher

New pathways are needed to recruit high-quality special education graduates to meet the urgent teacher shortage. As a result, the researchers were awarded a grant from the CEEDAR Technical Assistance Center at the University of Florida to conduct a pilot study on special education teacher recruitment. The pilot study examined the correlation of geofencing social media targeting with applications received for a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in the Southeastern U.S. Three groups were targeted (a) likely to have a bachelor’s degree, (b) likely to be associated with a targeted postal code, or (c) teacher candidates with a …

Examining Our Practice: Engaging In A Faculty Learning Community To Enhance An Online Graduate Program, Regina Rahimi, Lina B. Soares, Hui Jin

Georgia Educational Researcher

This research report details a faculty learning community (FLC) developed by three faculty teaching in a graduate program in a mid-size southern university. The purpose of the research was to engage in the study of best practices for online graduate courses by engaging in collaborative discussions on common texts related to improving the teaching and learning experience. Specifically, the faculty engaged in common readings on “small teaching practices” and reflected on the knowledge gleaned and how it related to current online teaching practices (Darby & Lang, 2019; Lang, 2016). The study further explored how an FLC helped higher education instructors …

Dialogic Drawing: A Pedagogical Tool To Promote And Monitor Learner Engagement, Amelia Ruscoe, Leanne Lavina

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This project presented a unique opportunity to apply an evidence‑based method, Dialogic Drawing, to the longstanding challenge of understanding and monitoring the learner engagement of young children as they begin their school journey. Early childhood is a critical period in which children are not only adjusting to the routines and expectations of school but are also forming their identities as learners. Yet monitoring engagement during this phase is complex. Young children’s developing language and literacy skills prompt educators to think holistically about how children might come to understand and share in their thoughts and feelings about school and learning. While …

Can The Ability To Infer Relevance Account For Dimensional Psychoticism? An Exploration Of A Representative Community Sample, Adam Schwarz, Frank D. Baughman, Evan Dauer, Ruby Koyllor Alarcon Gleeson, Jennifer Haywood, Bo Huei Huang, Karen H. Heslop, Barbara A. Mullan, Susan L. Rossell, Nicolas H. Hart, Darren Haywood

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: Psychoticism is a common feature of psychological disorders. Deficits in perceptual inference have been associated with the development of psychotic symptoms. Traditional testing of perceptual inference has had low ecological validity, limiting the ability to infer functional relationships. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between the capacity to infer relevance in dynamic environments and dimensional psychoticism, as well as to investigate the association between inferring relevance and dimensional psychoticism. Method: Four hundred participants, representative of the general population of the USA, completed an online questionnaire consisting of the Brief Symptom Inventory, as well as demographic …

Facilitators, Barriers, And Strategies For Supporting Shared Decision-Making With People With Intellectual Disability: A West Australian Primary Healthcare Professional Perspective, Kathryn Teale, Abigail Lewis, Rachel Skoss

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Shared decision-making between patients and primary healthcare professionals positively impacts health outcomes. However, people with intellectual disability face additional barriers and require supported shared decision-making (SSDM) to participate. Little is known about how healthcare professionals use SSDM with this population. This paper explores the facilitators and barriers experienced, and strategies/resources employed by healthcare professionals working with people with intellectual disability. Method: Ten purposively sampled primary healthcare professionals participated in semi-structured interviews. This descriptive qualitative study used content analysis. Findings were compared with a proposed model of factors influencing triadic (the person with intellectual disability, their caregiver and the healthcare …