Digital Commons Network^™

Ransomware: What Is Ransomware, And How To Prevent It, Brandon Chambers

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

This research paper answers the question, “What is Ransomware, and How to prevent it?”. This paper will discuss what ransomware is, its history about ransomware, how ransomware attacks Windows systems, how to prevent ransomware, how to handle ransomware once it is already on the network, ideas for training professionals to avoid ransomware, and how anti-virus helps defend against ransomware. Many different articles, case studies, and professional blogs will be used to complete the research on this topic.

Improving Patient Outcomes Through An Evidence-Based Practice Nursing Boot Camp (Program Evaluation), Kevin Brandini

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

Oncology Infusion Nurses' Personal Protective Equipment Use While Handling Hazardous Drugs, Deborah Yoon

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Infusion Nurses’ Personal Protective Equipment Use While Handling Chemotherapy Drugs Purpose: To describe perceived barriers, perceived risks, interpersonal influence (modeling and norms), perceived conflict of interest, and organizational influences and select demographics related to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) use for out-patient, oncology infusion nurses. Background: The proper use of PPE should be common practice among nurses who administer chemotherapy. However, despite training and education, many studies have demonstrated that infusion nurses’ PPE adherence is as low as 50%. Improper PPE use can increase exposure to chemotherapy and has potential adverse health effects including fertility issues and risks of cancer. Few …

Professional Learning For Educators To Gain Knowledge On Incorporating Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices To Support All Students, Morgan Pueschel

Masters Projects

Teachers and other school personnel need to take time to meet the basic needs of students and build relationships with them. Schools need to teach, model, and allow students to practice social and emotional skills which will in turn, provide students with the ability to learn and increase academic performance (Brackett & Rivers, 2014). The purpose of this project is to create a teacher professional learning opportunity for all school staff that work directly with students to teach them about trauma, the prevalence, how it impacts students, and trauma-informed teaching practices such as the use of social and emotional learning …

Characterizing Movement Patterns Of Nomadic Pastoralists And Their Exposure To Rift Valley Fever In Kenya, G. Mosomtai, J. L. Kasiiti, R. M. Murithi, P. Sandström, T. Landmann, O. W. Lwande, O. A. Hassan, C. Ahlm, R. Sang, M. Evander, Z. Szantoi, G. Ottavianelli

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The role of animal movement in spreading infectious diseases is highly recognized by various legislations and institutions such as the World Organisation for Animal Health and the International Animal Health Code. The increased interactions at the nexus of human-animal-ecosystem interface have seen an unprecedented introduction and reintroduction of new zoonotic diseases with high socio-economic impacts such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic disease that affects both humans and animals and is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes or through contact with the body fluids of infected animals. This study seeks to characterize movement patterns of pastoralist and …

Agent-Based Modeling To Assess Optimal Conditions For Reducing Pathogenic Air Transmission, Lyndsy Stacy

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that is spread through aerosol transmission, meaning the viral particles can stay suspended in the air when in an aerosol. To study how viral particles disperse through aerosol we used the bacteriophage Phi6 as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2. We released an aerosolized bacteriophage into the air using a nebulizer and placed plates containing a host organism at different distances and durations of exposure that the phage would kill when encountering. This allowed us to calculate rates of transmission, which were then used to create an agent-based model in Netlogo. This model can then be used to …

Sexual Experiences And Gpa Among First Time College Freshmen, Marcus Lafrenz

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

The college experience presents newfound freedom to explore risky behaviors, such as drinking, drug use, or unprotected sexual activity. Previous research reveals that risky sexual behaviors can lead to multiple sex partners, STIs, and unwanted pregnancies. Few studies examine how college students’ sexual experiences relate to their academic performance. This study tested if sexual activity and the number of sexual partners were associated with GPA. 111 first-year students reported whether they had ever had vaginal intercourse and their number of sexual partners in the last six months. Regression models revealed that freshmen who reported ever having sex had a lower …

“Un Paso A La Vez”: Fostering Mental Health Equity In San Antonio, Jazette Tellez, Ximena Carrillo, Yulissa Carillo, Juana Ramirez

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

Many individuals face persistent inequalities in income, housing, employment, education, and health care access. Recent research demonstrates that such inequities indeed affect one's mental health and well-being. Our research focuses on depression among the Hispanic population of Bexar County. According to data from Policy Map, approximately 60-70 percent of Bexar County’s population identifies as Hispanic. Only 18.4 percent of the general population in the county reports medically diagnosed depression. We suspect that dramatically higher rates of undiagnosed depression exist among Hispanics. Hispanic individuals tend to face underdiagnosis due to factors such as lower socioeconomic status, stigma and stereotypes, racial disparities …

Student Research Symposium Schedule 2023, Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

Student Research Symposium Schedule 2023, including abstracts and faculty advisor information.

Examining The Association Between Awareness And Acceptance Of Impermanence And Humility, Caitlin Weldon, Briella A. Nava, Ho Phi Huynh

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

People who appreciate their smallness compared to the vastness of the world can detach themselves from their egos and become humble. We argue that humility is not only about the relative size of the ego, but also about the relative
time in which the ego exists. The current study examined the relationship between awareness and acceptance of the fleeting nature of time (impermanence) and humility. We collected data from 257 adults residing in the United States
through an online study. Participants completed a measure of impermanence and measures of humility. Bivariate correlations suggested that there were significant positive correlations between …

Predictors Of Stress In Minority Students: The Relative Importance Of Optimism Vs Resilience, Rashelle Sanchez, Ho Phi Huynh

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

Many college students experience stress; optimism and resilience may help students cope with it. Optimism is a person’s positive outlook on their circumstances and their future, whereas resilience is a persons ability to adapt and
overcome challenges throughout their life. In this study, we compared the two to see which one would be a better predictor of stress. First year students (N =355) at a public regional university completed an online study that measure their perceive stress, optimism, and resilience. Bivariate correlations showed that resilience and optimism were both negatively correlated with all four sub-scales of students stress. Linear regression …

Intellectual Limitations And Doctor’S Orders: Examining The Relationship Between Intellectual Humility And Adherence To Medical Advice, Briella A. Nava, Caitlin Weldon, Ho Phi Huynh

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

Nonadherence to medical advice poses a threat to patients, providers, and the health care system. Intellectual humility reflects one’s ability to recognize their intellectual limitations through the components of independence of intellect
and ego, openness to revising one’s viewpoint, respect for other’s viewpoints, and lack of intellectual overconfidence. Possessing more intellectual humility may help improve the way people interact with medical information, thereby increasing their understanding of medical conditions and necessary treatment. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between intellectual humility and adherence by having participants (N = 196) complete the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale and the General Medication Adherence Scale. …

Health & Humility By Proxy: Examining Medical Companions’ Perspective On Physician Humility, Brianna Williamson

Student Research Symposium 2023 (Archived)

Humility has been assessed from numerous angles in psychology. Previous research has examined physician humility and its relevance to quality of care and doctor-patient relationships. In the past, humility—as defined by the patient perspective—has been shown to increase patient trust, overall health outcome, and other positive factors. In the current study, we will explore humility from the perspective of medical companions (someone who accompanies the
patient to their doctor's visit). Using an online study, 304 participants were asked to rate physician humility and list exemplary behaviors seen at their most recent visit. Patients usually have established rapport with their medical …

Wastewater Surveillance Of Sars-Cov-2 Genomic Populations On A Country-Wide Scale Through Targeted Sequencing, Florencia Cancela, Natalia Ramos, Davida S. Smyth, Et Al.

All Faculty Scholarship (Archived)

SARS-CoV-2 surveillance of viral populations in wastewater samples is recognized as a useful tool for monitoring epidemic waves and boosting health preparedness. Next generation sequencing of viral RNA isolated from wastewater is a convenient and cost-effective strategy to understand the molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 and provide insights on the population dynamics of viral variants at the community level. However, in low- and middle-income countries, isolated groups have performed wastewater monitoring and data has not been extensively shared in the scientific community. Here we report the results of monitoring the co-circulation and abundance of variants of concern (VOCs) of SARS-CoV-2 in …

Enhancing Neural Text Detector Robustness With Μattacking And Rr-Training, Gongbo Liang, Jesus Guerrero, Fengbo Zheng, Izzat Alsmadi

Computer Science Faculty Publications (Archived)

With advanced neural network techniques, language models can generate content that looks genuinely created by humans. Such advanced progress benefits society in numerous ways. However, it may also bring us threats that we have not seen before. A neural text detector is a classification model that separates machine-generated text from human-written ones. Unfortunately, a pretrained neural text detector may be vulnerable to adversarial attack, aiming to fool the detector into making wrong classification decisions. Through this work, we propose µAttacking, a mutation-based general framework that can be used to evaluate the robustness of neural text detectors systematically. Our experiments demonstrate …

Heavy Metal Content In Eggs From Wild And Managed-Care Humboldt Penguins, Mya Daniels-Abdulahad

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The Humboldt penguin, Spheniscus humboldti, has been recognized as a Vulnerable species (IUCN) for nearly two decades, with annual population declines of more than 10% largely attributed to pervasive anthropogenic activity occurring throughout the species’ range of Peru and Chile. Due to recent mining expansions near the species’ largest Peruvian rookery, located at the Punta San Juan (PSJ) reserve, the exposure of breeding individuals to elevated concentrations of trace elements (e.g., heavy metals) in the marine environment is a preeminent concern. While heavy metal toxicity is dependent on metal species, dose, route of exposure, and the physiologic parameters of …

Evaluating The Feasibility Of Implementing A Prescription Drug Misuse Prevention Intervention In The Community: A Mixed Methods Study, Tamara Al Rawwad, Vaishnavi Tata, Matthew A. Wanat, Danielle Campbell, Douglas Thornton

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Background

This study is part of a state-wide effort to promote the safe disposal of prescription medications and mitigate prescription drug misuse. The objective of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a two-component prevention intervention through Community Prevention Organizations (CPOs) in Texas. The first component involved the distribution of in-home disposal products (IHDP) and the second focused on providing education of the risks of prescription drug misuse.

Methods

This study followed a mixed methods sequential explanatory study design. In the quantitative phase, the extent to which CPOs carried out the intervention was determined by the distribution rate – …

Improving Ed Throughput: Role Of Dashboard Rn, Haydee Fernandez, Marisel Perigo, Stephanie Ulloa, Diane Rivero

All Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Association Of Student-Teacher Relationships And Mathematics Teaching Styles With Star Renaissance Mathematics Scores In A Group Of Middle School Students At A Midwestern School., Sydney Lund

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This study aimed to explore the relationship between middle school students’ perceived student-teacher relationships, students’ perceived mathematics teachers’ teaching styles, and middle school students’ Fall benchmark Star Renaissance mathematics assessment scores at a Midwest public school. The positivist paradigm served as a lens to formulate this cross-sectional correlational study. A Qualtrics questionnaire was developed and contained the Student Version of The Teacher-Student Relationship Inventory (S-TSRI), an adapted version of The Teaching Styles Inventory, and a selection of demographic variables (e.g., grade level, gender, family structure). The Star Renaissance mathematics assessment Fall 2022 benchmark was introduced to the database after …

Divergent Metabolic Changes In Rhizomes Of Lowland And Upland Switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum) From Early Season Through Dormancy Onset, Nathan A. Palmer, Gautam Sarath, Michael J. Bowman, Aaron J. Saathoff, Serge J. Edmé, Robert B. Mitchell, Christian M. Tobias, Soundararajan Madhavan, Erin D. Scully, Scott E. Sattler

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

High-biomass-yielding southerly adapted switchgrasses (Panicum virgatum L.) frequently suffer from unpredictable winter hardiness at more northerly sites arising from damage to rhizomes that prevent effective spring regrowth. Previously, changes occurring over the growing season in rhizomes sampled from a cold-adapted tetraploid upland cultivar, Summer, demonstrated a role for abscisic acid (ABA), starch accumulation, and transcriptional reprogramming as drivers of dormancy onset and potential keys to rhizome health during winter dormancy. Here, rhizome metabolism of a high-yielding southerly adapted tetraploid switchgrass cultivar, Kanlow—which is a significant source of genetics for yield improvement—was studied over a growing season at a northern …

Uab Students Provide Free Vision Services To Medically Underserved At Uab Student-Run Clinic, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of A Question Formulation Rubric With Second-Year Medical Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Jonathan D. Eldredge, Melissa A. Schiff, Jens Langsjoen

Publications

OBJECTIVE: The FAC (Focus, Amplify, Compose) rubric for assessing medical students' question formulation skills normally accompanies our Evidence Based Practice (EBP) training. The combined training and assessment rubric have improved student scores significantly. How much does the rubric itself contribute to improved student scores? This study sought to measure student improvement using the rubric either with or without a linked 25-minute training session.

METHODS: Randomized Controlled Trial. The authors tested the hypothesis that a 25-minute training session combined with use of a rubric would lead to higher scores than a brief explanation of this rubric alone. All 72 participating second-year …

Main, Mediated, And Moderated Effects Of Participating In An After-School Social And Emotional Learning Program On Young Children's Development Of Social-Emotional Skills, Amy L. Cordier

Dissertations and Theses

Young children's social and emotional skills (SE skills) are highly predictive of the ease with which they transition to kindergarten as well as their success in the K-12 school system and in life after graduation. Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often enter kindergarten with less well-developed SE skills and lag their peers throughout their school careers. Studies of social-emotional learning (SEL) programs indicate that these programs are successful in teaching SE skills, both in school and in after-school programs. However, less is known about the mechanisms of changes through which SEL programs improve children's SE skills and for …

Dottie Mikell Rainey

African American Funeral Programs

Dottie_Mikell_Rainey.pdf - Funeral program for Dottie Mikell Rainey

Loss Of Fgf9 In Mice Leads To Pancreatic Hypoplasia And Asplenia, Sophie Patzek, Zhe Liu, Sean De La O, Sean Chang, Lauren E Byrnes, Xiuqin Zhang, David M Ornitz, Julie B Sneddon

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Pancreatic development requires spatially and temporally controlled expression of growth factors derived from mesenchyme. Here, we report that in mice the secreted factor Fgf9 is expressed principally by mesenchyme and then mesothelium during early development, then subsequently by both mesothelium and rare epithelial cells by E12.5 and onwards. Global knockout of the

Plasma Proteomics Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection And Severity Reveals Impact On Alzheimer's And Coronary Disease Pathways, Lihua Wang, Daniel Western, Jigyasha Timsina, Charlie Repaci, Joanne Norton, Pat Kohlfeld, John Budde, Omar H Butt, Alan R Templeton, Jane O'Halloran, Rachel Presti, Charles W Goss, Philip A Mudd, Beau M Ances, Yun Ju Sung, Carlos Cruchaga, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Identification of proteins dysregulated by COVID-19 infection is critically important for better understanding of its pathophysiology, building prognostic models, and identifying new targets. Plasma proteomic profiling of 4,301 proteins was performed in two independent datasets and tested for the association for three COVID-19 outcomes (infection, ventilation, and death). We identified 1,449 proteins consistently associated in both datasets with any of these three outcomes. We subsequently created highly accurate models that distinctively predict infection, ventilation, and death. These proteins were enriched in specific biological processes including cytokine signaling, Alzheimer's disease, and coronary artery disease. Mendelian randomization and gene network analyses identified …

Refining Expert Recommendations For Implementing Change (Eric) Strategy Surveys Using Cognitive Interviews With Frontline Providers, Vera Yakovchenko, Matthew J Chinman, Carolyn Lamorte, Byron J Powell, Thomas J Waltz, Monica Merante, Sandra Gibson, Brittney Neely, Timothy R Morgan, Shari S Rogal

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) compilation includes 73 defined implementation strategies clustered into nine content areas. This taxonomy has been used to track implementation strategies over time using surveys. This study aimed to improve the ERIC survey using cognitive interviews with non-implementation scientist clinicians.

METHODS: Starting in 2015, we developed and fielded annual ERIC surveys to evaluate liver care in the Veterans Health Administration (VA). We invited providers who had completed at least three surveys to participate in cognitive interviews (October 2020 to October 2021). Before the interviews, participants reviewed the complete 73-item ERIC survey and marked …

Toward Understanding The Effects Of Socially Aware Robot Behavior, Oliver Roesler, Elahe Bagheri, Amir Aly

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

A key factor for the acceptance of robots as regular partners in humancentered environments is the appropriateness and predictability of their behaviors, which depend partially on the robot behavior’s conformity to social norms. Previous experimental studies have shown that robots that follow social norms and the corresponding interactions are perceived more positively by humans than robots or interactions that do not adhere to social norms. However, the conducted studies only focused on the effects of social norm compliance in specific scenarios. Therefore, this paper aims to guide further research studies by compiling how researchers in relevant research fields think the …

The Effectiveness Of Naturalistic Sign Language Training For Nonspeaking Individuals On The Autism Spectrum, Elizabeth Michael

Honors Projects

This study examined the impacts of sign language training on the communication of two adult brothers with level 3 autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A single-subject, multiple-baseline design was used. Sign language targets were selected based on a parent survey and the participants’ predicted motivation towards the target items. The baseline and intervention were conducted naturalistically in the home. Results indicated that the individual, environment, target signs, reinforcement, and motivation are all factors that play into sign language acquisition for nonspeaking individuals with ASD.

Dance And The Self: An Analysis On The Psychological Impacts Of Dance, Morgan Etzinger

Honors Projects

Professional dancers spend numerous hours immersed into dance culture every single day, learning new technique, practicing choreography, and exercising to stay fit. This study explores how dance affects the self-confidence and self-esteem of dance students. Utilizing surveys, the self-confidence and self-esteem of dance students at BGSU is compared to non-performing arts students. The study of psychology allows for proper analysis on the differences between the two groups, why a difference might occur, and how self-confidence and self-esteem is affected. After gathering data on emotions, perfectionism, comparison, group versus individual performances, personal thoughts, and body image, it was found that dancers …