Digital Commons Network^™

Does The Use Of Mental Health Screenings And Targeted Stress Interventions Improve Mental Health Outcomes In Outpatient Clinic Staff?, Mary Benson

Doctoral Projects

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) has been used as a classic stress assessment instrument to evaluate perceived stress across many settings. As stress is the primary phenomenon in this review due to varying stressors, including infectious diseases among healthcare workers, the PSS is the most appropriate scale for evaluating the degree to which a health worker feels stressed. In addition, the PSS is valuable as it encompasses ten items that researchers use to explore how respondents react to stress due to unpredictable events. Thus, this DNP project is based on the postulation that screening with the PSS and applying stress …

An Evidenced-Based Project: Decreasing Fasting Glucose Levels Within Mississippi African Americans Through Accountability Groups, Whitley Linson

Doctoral Projects

African Americans have the highest population with prediabetes diagnoses (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2020). In order to effectively address the lack of assistance needed to break health disparities related to prediabetes, it is crucial to understand why those barriers exist. Experts project that more than 470 million people will have prediabetes by 2030 (Tabak et al., 2012). Educating African Americans who have been previously diagnosed with prediabetes is vital in decreasing the stigma that surrounds communities in rural Central Mississippi. By maintaining accountability groups, fasting blood glucose can decrease and participants can increase their knowledge by understanding how to …

An Astrological Look Into H.P. Lovecraft’S “The Call Of Cthulhu:”A Celestial Telescope For Literary Analysis, Arianna C. Mayorga

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

University students often acquire a knowledge of a slew of literary criticisms for deeper exploration of compositions. Few, if any, literary criticisms can be applied with room for speculative scientific philosophical ways of thought. This brings the creative nature of analysis to a screeching halt– for what is more creative than a speculative-science? In this thesis I will give an introduction to key astrological ideologies. This paper will also work through how those ideologies could be applied analytically, academically, and professionally to literature. My aim will be to use one of H.P. Lovecraft’s main mystically- connotative works, “The Call of …

Keep Calm And Carry On: The Relationships Between Cognitive Flexibility, Social Support & Anxiety In Students Transitioning To College, Max Buck, Rebecca Thornley, Mara Smuin

Fall Student Research Symposium 2022

The current study sought to understand the correlations between cognitive flexibility, social support, and anxiety. A hypothesized model, developed using the Social Skills Deficiency Vulnerability Framework, was tested and verified using bivariate analysis. The findings of this research indicate that increased cognitive flexibility is correlated with decreased symptoms of anxiety and increased perceived social support. Additionally, increased social support is found to correlate with decreased symptoms of anxiety. Keywords: cognitive flexibility, social support, anxiety

December 8, 2022, James Madison University

The Breeze, 2020-

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The Student Movement Volume 107 Issue 11: Have A Merry Christmas! Xoxo, The Student Movement, Solana Campbell, Caryn Cruz, Grace No, Gloria Oh, Nathaniel Reid, Skylor Stark, Ysabelle Fernando, Ceiry Flores, Hannah Cruse, Alexander J. Hess, Alexander Navarro, Rachel Ingram-Clay, Elizabeth Getahun, Kayla-Hope Bruno, Wambui Karanja, Lexie Dunham, Reagan Mccain, Melissa Moore, Elizabeth Dovich

The Student Movement v. 107 (2022-2023)

HUMANS

Coping with Finals, Solana Campbell

Meet Jea Erazo, AUSA Public Relations Officer. Interviewed by: Caryn Cruz

Remembering Sharon Dudgeon, Grace No

Women in STEM: Olivia Joyce, Interviewed by: Gloria Oh

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Football Sunday, Nathaniel Reid, Skylor Stark

Student Picks: Christmas Classics, Ysabelle Fernando

NEWS

AFIA x MLS Christmas Party, Ceiry Flores

Boycotts and Bans at the Qatar World Cup, Hannah Cruse

In Loving Memory of Seth Williams, Gloria Oh

IDEAS

How Do We Address Queer Violence?, Alexander J. Hess

Is Reality Really Real When You Aren't Really Looking?, Alexander Navarro

Reflecting on Christmas Traditions, Rachel Ingram-Clay

The …

Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine: Implications For The Central Region, Arman Mahmoudian, Tad Schnaufer Ii

GNSI Conference Reports

6th Great Power Competition Conference

December 8, 2022

University of South Florida

Estimation Of Cotton Canopy Parameters Based On Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) Oblique Photography, Jinyong Wu, Sheng Wen, Yubin Lan, Xuanchun Yin, Jiantao Zhang, Yufeng Ge

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: The technology of cotton defoliation is essential for mechanical cotton harvesting. Agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spraying has the advantages of low cost, high efficiency and no mechanical damage to cotton and has been favored and widely used by cotton planters in China. However, there are also some problems of low cotton defoliation rates and high impurity rates caused by unclear spraying amounts of cotton defoliants. The chemical rate recommendation and application should be based upon crop canopy volume rather than on land area. Plant height and leaf area index (LAI) is directly connected to plant canopy structure. …

Deep-Brain Shape Features Differentially Relate To Social Outcomes In Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, Braydon Lee

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a global issue with major health consequences. The integrity of brain structures and their social functional correlates are at risk in children with TBI. In this study, magnetic resonance images of the thalamus, caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus were examined in a pediatric TBI group from the Social Outcomes of Brain Injury in Kids (SOBIK). Shape deformations of these structures were compared to an orthopedically injured (OI) control. Additionally, the correlation between shape deformation and theory of mind (ToM) measures were mapped and compared. This study found inward deformations in the ventral thalamic nuclei …

Strategies In Toefl Reading Comprehension For Chinese Students, Xiwen Li

Master's Projects and Capstones

With China’s development, an increasing number of students choose to further their studies abroad. However, many Chinese students do not know how to prepare for the TOEFL test by themselves.Thus, there are three sections in my literature review, which are the introduction of TOEFL, TOEFL Reading Comprehension Strategies for Native Chinese Speakers, and TOEFL test preparation for Chinese students.After that, this project includes original materials so that beginning level students can get a preliminary understanding of the TOEFL reading comprehension tests. The material is deliberately based on Chinese culture, which makes it relevant and easier for beginners to understand. This …

Bud Baker, Professor (Retired) Department Of Management And International Business, Raj Soin College Of Business, Bud Baker, Kathy Morris

Wright State University Retirees Association Oral History Project

In this December 8, 2022 oral history interview conducted by Kathy Morris, Bud Baker reflects on his career as a retired professor in the Department of Management and International Business at Wright State University following twenty years in the United States Air Force. He discusses his transition to academia, his commitment to teaching, and the growth and challenges of Wright State’s business programs over three decades.

December 8, 2022, Caa

Minutes

No abstract provided.

Montana Kaimin, December 8, 2022, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Nearly All 2022 Maine Voters Say It Was Easy To Vote, Most Confident Vote Was Accurately Counted 12/8/2022, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Two-thirds of Maine residents who voted in the 2022 general election are very confident their vote was accurately counted, though only one-third of Republicans feel this way. Almost all voters say it was very easy to vote. Maine voters most often mention the economy, inflation, or the cost of living and stopping MAGA, Trump, or far-right candidates as their most important reason for voting.

Nearly All 2022 Vermont Voters Say It Was Easy To Vote; Gop Voters Skeptical Votes Were Accurately Counted 12/8/2022, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Seven in ten Vermont voters in the 2022 election are very confident their vote was accurately counted but only one-third of Republican voters feel this way. Almost all voters say it is very easy to vote. When asked their most important reason for voting, Vermont voters most frequently cite abortion or women's rights or electing their own party's candidates or defeating the candidates of the other party.

"Post Citizens United: Comparative Analysis Of Three State Legislatures And The Relationship Between Money In Politics And Political Polarization", Zeta M. Green

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the last decades, campaign finance has been the center of much political debate. The 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which prohibited any limit to corporate campaign expenditures under the First Amendment, changed the political landscape by allowing more money in politics and elections than ever before. Along with money in politics, political polarization is on the rise across the United States. When recognizing an increase in both of these variables in politics today, it is difficult to deny the possibility of a connection between the two. By examining the patterns that exist in …

The Weekly Challenger, December 8, 2022, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The December 8, 2022, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

The Effects Of Poor Maternal Nutrition In Ewes On The Growth And Development Of Offspring, Zoey Weisman

Honors Scholar Theses

Maternal nutrition is the diet that a mother intakes from before pregnancy through the end of lactation (Martin, 2018). Pregnant ruminants that are raised in pastures are frequently subject to undernutrition due to changes in the quantity and quality of available forage, which results in detrimental effects on the development of muscle and adipose tissues of offspring that can persist into adulthood (Hoffman, 2014). The quality of animal feed varies due to weather changes and climate fluctuations. Sheep usually gestate during the winter, as they are short-day breeders, and during this time, the forage consumed is limited and usually of …

A Miniature And Low-Power Potentiostat For Integration With Wearable Sensors, Franci Franulovic

Electrical Engineering Theses

The potentiostat is an analytical device and an important part of an electrochemical instrument commonly used in electrochemical experiments to investigate chemical reaction mechanisms and other chemical phenomena. The ability to detect chemical phenomena can be useful for early disease detection. Nowadays conventional potentiostats are designed as benchtop instruments for use in laboratory environments. In contrast, a wearable potentiostat is designed to interface with wearable biochemical sensors for disease diagnostics. This thesis reports a wearable potentiostat that is designed for interfacing with a sensor array (eight to ten working electrodes). The system is battery-powered using lithium-ion batteries. The data is …

Biological Remediation Of Fragipan, Corey Hale

Honors College Theses

The fragipan layer in the soil is a naturally occurring subsurface layer that restricts water percolation as well as inhibits root growth. A fragipan layer can be found almost ubiquitously across Southwestern Kentucky. This limits how agriculturalists manage soils in this area. It has been recently discovered by the University of Kentucky that Annual Ryegrass roots produce 3,4 dihydroxyphenylpropionic acid (DHPPA) that reacts with this hardpan to weaken the layer. Certain bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Lactobacilli, and Bifidobacteria can also synthesize DHPPA through a breakdown process of chlorogenic acid. This reaction typically happens in the human digestive tract. …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of The Grizzly Success Program At Georgia Gwinnett College: A Quantitative Study, Michael Phillip Poll

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that summer bridge programs are a successful strategy for helping at-risk students succeed in college by offering additional tutoring, mentoring, and advising (Slade et al., 2015). Bridge programs are effective for increasing student success (Bir & Myrick, 2015). However, summer bridge programs may challenge at-risk first-generation students due to limited access and additional fees (Mullen, 2010). The additional costs associated with summer programs combined with the summertime commitment needed for summer bridge programs may present a barrier to enrollment and prove difficult for at-risk students to overcome. Grizzly Success is a program that provides additional academic support, social …

Development And Deployment Of A Dynamic Soaring Capable Uav Using Reinforcement Learning, Jacob Adamski

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Dynamic soaring (DS) is a bio-inspired flight maneuver in which energy can be gained by flying through regions of vertical wind gradient such as the wind shear layer. With reinforcement learning (RL), a fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be trained to perform DS maneuvers optimally for a variety of wind shear conditions. To accomplish this task, a 6-degreesof- freedom (6DoF) flight simulation environment in MATLAB and Simulink has been developed which is based upon an off-the-shelf unmanned aerobatic glider. A combination of high-fidelity Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in ANSYS Fluent and low-fidelity vortex lattice (VLM) …

Book Review Of Common Good Constitutionalism, Wendy E. Parmet

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Improving Spatial Resolution Of Time Reversal Focusing Using Arrays Of Acoustic Resonators, Adam David Kingsley

Theses and Dissertations

Using a near-field array of acoustic resonators, it is possible to modify a focused pressure field and enforce a spatial frequency corresponding to the resonator array spacing. This higher spatial frequency makes it possible to focus and image with a resolution that is better than if the focusing were in free space. This near-field effect is caused by the phase shifting properties of resonators and, specifically, the delayed phase found in waves with a temporal frequency lower than that of the resonators in the array. Using time reversal, arrays of resonators are explored and the subwavelength focusing is used to …

Dnp Final Report: Developing Competence And Improving Patient Safety With Documentation Training In The Simulated Environment, Laura Zebreski

DNP Final Reports

With the advent of electronic health records, nursing documentation has declined in quality. Poor documentation exposes patients to safety risks. Nursing documentation is subject to legal standards set by the Texas State Board of Nursing. A DNP scholarly project was designed to create a learning and safety intervention to train student nurses to provide correct documentation before entering clinical settings. The goal of this project was to prepare nursing students to provide quality documentation that fulfills the legal standard to attempt to correct the current deficiencies seen in practice and promote patient safety. For this project, the students took a …

A Meta-Analysis Of Antecedent Exercise On Children’S Classroom Behaviors, Chelsea Johnson

Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study was to systematically review the literature investigating the effects of antecedent aerobic exercise on students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria, which included single case design studies and group studies, participant age, and an exercise intervention. Tau U was used as the procedure to calculate an effect size for A-B contrasts for single case design studies and effect size ranged from small to moderate for multiple variables such as disruptive behavior and academically engaged behavior. Hedges g was used to calculate an omnibus effect size for all single case design …

Investigating The Contribution Of Marine Viruses To Optical Backscatter In The <0.2 Μm Fraction Of Seawater, Kacey Mae Lange

Master's Theses

Marine viruses are the smallest and most abundant biological entities in the ocean. Marine viruses play a significant role in carbon and nutrient cycles through the liberation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) through the lysis of their numerically dominant hosts (i.e. bacteria and phytoplankton). Despite their importance, little is known about how viruses contribute to seawaters inherent optical properties (IOP) of seawater, specifically backscatter. All particles produce backscatter, with their contribution dependent on particle size, concentration, and composition. Living particles contribute 10-20% of the total backscatter with the remaining 80% of unclassified backscatter, “missing backscatter”, contributed by submicron particles ( …

“Surfaces And Appearances”: Character, Physiognomy, And Communication In Charles Dickens’S And Wilkie Collins’S A Message From The Sea, Rachel Gouff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the way physiognomy works within Charles Dickens’s and Wilkie Collins’s novella, A Message from the Sea. The novella develops and promotes a version of physiognomy with limits, illustrating these limits through the experiences of its characters and through the symbolism of various objects such as tombstones, ghosts, and—most notably—the message in the bottle. Physiognomy, used repeatedly by various characters throughout the text, is nearly always able to correctly predict people’s general moral character. However, using physiognomy alone leaves a character’s history, motivations, and deep emotions as indecipherable as the parts of the bottle’s message where the ink …

Autonomous Gyroscopic 2-Wheel Differential Robot, Haruka Kido, James Vrtis, Luke Anderson, Tarek Elderini

Electrical Engineering Student Publications

This paper demonstrates the implementation of an autonomous gyroscopic 2-wheel differential robot, including a forward and inverse kinematics simulation in MatLAB, a test hardware robot and programmed demonstration of a simple move forward and spin left motion, and a final configuration of a complete square path based on programming kinematics, gyroscopic speed responses, and remote-control functionality.

The Role Of Mate Seeking Motives, Status Acquisition Motives, And Dark Personality In Predicting Responses To An Aggression-Provoking Situation, Savannah Merold

Dissertations

Aggressive behavior is associated with many adverse consequences, prompting extensive research on the potential adaptive functions of aggression. For example, there is evidence that aggression may be beneficial for attaining status and attracting a potential mate (e.g., Buss & Dedden, 1990; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Griskevicius et al., 2009). Additionally, several personality traits have been identified as robust predictors of aggressive behavior (e.g., psychopathic, Machiavellian, narcissistic, and sadistic traits; Chester et al., 2019; Neumann & Hare, 2008; Paulhus & Jones, 2017; Twenge & Campbell, 2003). These two research traditions (i.e., evolutionary and personality) have remained separate, with few studies combining …